Hi all, A quick note to offer guidance on the new website. As well as the layout changes that make it easier to access content for new readers, it comes with a dramatically improved sign-up and resubscription process, greatly enhanced speed, and a much better mobile experience (since 95% of traffic is now phone!). The
Australia’s rental crisis continues in earnest. Following March’s 0.7% in national median advertised rents, rents in Australia have risen by an extraordinary 48% since December 2019, adding more than $11,700 to the annual cost of renting the median home: The rental vacancy rate has also fallen to a historical low, at half its level in
If one chart were to summarise the Victorian government’s transformation from fiscal conservatism to sabotage, it is the following, showing the explosion in the state’s net debt: When Daniel Andrews’ Labor government took office in late 2014, Victoria carried a net debt of around $21 billion. As of 2025, Victoria’s net debt had exploded to
The Chinese property market had a better week after a terrible start to the year. The downturn has been running for nearly five years. In any market economy, we would be a long way through processing into just any glut of property, but the bad loans hobble the banking system. But not in China. Measures
Australia’s level of dwelling construction is tracking well below the National Housing Accord’s target of building 1.2 million homes over five years. The most recent dwelling completions data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed that only 219,000 homes were built over the first 15 months of the national housing accord (i.e., to the
I wrote on Tuesday about how last week’s temporary halving of the fuel excise was incredibly popular among Australian voters. A Roy Morgan SMS Poll showed that 83% of Australians aged 18+ approve of the federal government’s temporary cut to the fuel excise on petrol and diesel, while only 17% disapprove. Support was strong across
For years, business mouthpiece The AFR View was a card-carrying member of ‘Big Australia’ migration, pumping continuous propaganda on its benefits to the economy and living standards. However, amid the rise of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation and growing community concerns over the post-pandemic migration boom, The AFR View has changed its tune, now calling for
Our cowardly PM, Anthony Albanese, has committed to “taking “every action” to shield consumers from oil-drive inflation shocks stemming from the Middle East, confirming he will meet with his Singaporean counterpart this week to shore up trade in petrol, diesel and LNG as part of an annual leaders’ meeting.” Then why is he going to
The war is intensifying. US forces have bombed Iran’s main Kharg Island oil export hub as President Donald Trump warned a “whole civilisation will die tonight” if the Islamic Republic did not capitulate and end the war including reopening the economically vital Strait of Hormuz. The strike on Kharg Island came about 12 hours before Trump’s
As the war in the Middle East continues to rage and escalate, propaganda and false claims are proliferating, proving that the first casualty of war is always the truth. It doesn’t take an expert to understand that the dramatic reduction of inflows of oil, LNG, fertiliser and other vital chemicals through the Strait of Hormuz
The most recent OECD statistics, which are current to the September quarter of 2025, revealed that over the past decade, Australia has seen the weakest increase in real per capita household disposable income among major English-speaking nations: Between the March quarter of 2015 and the September quarter of 2025, Australia’s real per capita household disposable
A Roy Morgan SMS Poll shows that 83% of Australians aged 18+ ‘approve’ of the federal government’s temporary cut to the fuel excise on petrol and diesel, while 17% disapprove of it. The exact question and response are presented below: “This week, the Federal Government announced a temporary cut in the fuel excise on petrol
The ferrous jaws are back. Much of this can be explained by shipping costs. The latest MySteel measures of the steel market are weak. It is even worse for CISA output, which is still down 6%+ Yoy. In better news, mill inventory fell, though it is still well up Yoy. Port inventory of iron
Last year, the Albanese government increased its 2026 international student planning level by 25,000, to 295,000. However, it was a loose cap only, with Ministerial Direction (MD) 115 allowing institutions to exceed their caps by 15% before the Department of Home Affairs would deprioritise visa processing for new applicants linked to that institution. For example, if
Here, everybody is saying rate hikes are coming. I put it to this gathered bulb of seething spitfires: why is nobody factoring in the distinct possibility that the Iran War does not end any time soon? Even if the war ended today, Australia is highly likely to face some form of fuel rationing from May
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) annual national accounts for 2024–25, the total value of residential land rose by 7.0% over the financial year to an all-time high of $8.3 trillion. In 1989, the total value of residential land in Australia was 1.1 times GDP. By 2024–25, it had increased to 3.0 times
Charts from TME. Is it squeeze or bust? Market observers might like to think of this as an endogenous question, but it’s exogenous this time. Might as well ask if the war is about to get better or worse. Markets hoping for better. Or for worse. Bond volatility has decoupled from oil. This matters for
The Albanese government is preparing to make slowing the growth of the $50 billion NDIS a central pillar of its May budget savings, as the Middle East conflict drives up household pressures and undermines other planned revenue measures. The government is facing new fiscal strain from the Iran–Middle East conflict, which has disrupted earlier budget plans.
Apparently, there will be no gas tax forthcoming from Albo’s cowards, as they will instead prioritise their desperate hunt for fuel. A senior Labor source said both negative gearing and capital gains discount reforms were being actively considered ahead of a May budget, despite the Iran war forcing Jim Chalmers to limit his budget ambitions.
Given the collapse in consumer confidence, it is unsurprising to see supply-side real-time data beginning to fall. Today’s service PMI from S&P has begun the swoon. More. “The S&P Global Australia Services PMI data for March paint a picture of how the war in the Middle East has impacted companies, and the results are concerning.
After an Easter weekend of madness (literally), there is little hope of the Strait of Hormuz reopening to material hydrocarbon volumes for another month. We are now getting some Iraqi oil, but only for Iranian allies. Even in the best-case scenario of an Iran deal with Oman, the exit of Trump, and Israel’s acquiescence, it
Amidst the ongoing shift in Australia’s political landscape towards greater and greater levels of tribalism and what could be described, in more local terms, as “Footy team politics”, the debate surrounding the challenges facing Australians in its housing market is increasingly influenced by false narratives on social media. Tribalistic commentary, propaganda, and even flat-out lies
The latest data shows that Sydney’s and Melbourne’s housing markets are decelerating, dragging down national price growth. March’s auction clearance rates from Cotality were the lowest of the year for both Sydney and Melbourne. Only 56% of homes auctioned in Sydney in March sold, down 7 percentage points from March 2025. In Melbourne, only 57%
As the conflict in the Middle East continues and growth forecasts are downgraded by central banks and Wall Street analysts, hope springs eternal that the AI and data centre boom in the United States will still deliver a robust year for the American economy. However, much like many other trends in 2026, there is a
Only two days before Donald Trump and Bibi Netanyahu decided on a course that choked off the Straits of Hormuz, the IEEFA issued a report clearly identifying that Japan had been reselling LNG it had contracted for, in windfall profits, for a number of years. The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) first highlighted
 Padraic.Finucane · DeepT and MisterG 03 April 2026 With almost every nation on the planet getting a refresher ‘sovereign risk’ in the wake of the United States and Israel’s attack on Iran, and the Iranians ability to close the Straits of Hormuz choking off about 20% of the world’s oil and gas supply, Deep
