Build Skills Australia’s recent report claimed that there aren’t enough tradespeople to meet Labor’s target of building 1.2 million homes over five years, which is currently tracking 27% below target. According to Build Skills Australia, Australia’s housing construction rate per new resident has plummeted, even though the number of homes built over the last 20
Is there anything our government does right? Having single-handedly created a monster black market valued at $5.6 billion (ranging from $4.1 billion to $6.9 billion), Canberra now wants to take a piece of the action. Up to 1.5 million Australians are predicted to be buying cigarettes on the black market in what has been described
Tobacco excise has climbed by around 60% since 2020 and now accounts for more than two-thirds of the legal cost of a packet of cigarettes. While illegal cigarettes are easily accessible and cost between $10 and $15 for a pack of 20, a legal packet of cigarettes now costs $40 or more. Therefore, despite higher
I have been bullish on gold for a few years, but my view has recently pivoted to “sell the rips”. My reasoning for this is that the drivers of the gold rally have been materially weakened in recent weeks. First, we had the appointment of Kevin Warsh as the successor to the FOMC chair. He
Via the ABS comes Labor Force in seasonally adjusted terms for January 2026: unemployment rate remained at 4.1%. participation rate remained at 66.7%. employment increased to 14,703,800. employment to population ratio decreased to 63.9%. underemployment rate increased to 5.9%. monthly hours worked increased to 2,013 million. full-time employment increased by 50,500 to 10,155,500 people. part-time
The federal government’s latest State of the Environment (SOE) Report explicitly ranked population growth as having a “very high impact” on Australia’s biodiversity, outranking climate change. The report states that “population growth contributes to all the pressures described” and that “each person added to our population increases demand on natural resources to provide food, shelter
Because a banker said it, the AFR reckons it must be true! National Australia Bank chief executive Andrew Irvine has warned that the nation has hit “peak Australia” and will not grow unless productivity improves, as data revealed real wages have gone backwards for the first time in two years, intensifying the economic challenge facing
Soaring energy costs have contributed to Australia’s declining manufacturing sector, which is the smallest in the OECD as a share of GDP. Alex Joiner, chief economist at IFM Investors, illustrated the manufacturing sector’s energy problem in the following chart: Natural gas input costs in manufacturing have increased by 186% since 2000, while electricity prices have
In a social media post late last year, Housing Minister Clare O’Neil claimed: “Why is housing so tough right now? Because for 40 years our country hasn’t been building enough homes.” But is that actually true? Today’s Numbers It’s certainly correct that Australia is currently not building enough homes and hasn’t been for quite some
On Wednesday, I wrote an article explaining how both China and India—the world’s largest and third-largest carbon emitters (combined share of 40.1% of global emissions in 2024)—planned to aggressively expand their coal production and generation. China currently produces around 10 times more coal than Australia, and India over two times more: Both nations also import