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
What we grow and where we grow it Australia is about to get a food price hammering with the Iran war and the closure of the Straits of Hormuz to bring real food concerns to a nation where good food is seen as a birthright, just as a Mega El Nino comes onto the
Check the ABS website, and you’ll find detailed population counts for every local government area LGA in Australia, reported “as of” June 30 for the end of the financial year. The fastest-growing LGA in the financial year 2024-25 was the Darwin Waterfront Precinct (growing an impressive 9.3% by adding just 30 people), while the biggest
International Reading: China authorises asset seizures after US blocks Iranian oil, ramps up efforts to secure supply chains – Money Control GOP advances another ICE ‘blank check’ as millions lose food stamps – Raw Story Trump tried to fire Jerome Powell, but the Fed Chair is now navigating a Shadow Chair route to protect the
Last year, Canadian analyst Ben Rabidoux tweeted the following graphic on X, questioning whether Canada should set a per-nation cap on its permanent residency intake: The graphic illustrates how India has dominated Canada’s permanent residency intake, with around 560,000 entries between 2020 and 2024. Rabidoux stated that Canada received over 400,000 permanent and temporary entrants
Regrettably, you can add the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council (NHSAC) to the long list of federal government agencies that have been politicised and compromised. Recall that the May 2025 State of the Housing System report from NHSAC forecast that Australia’s housing shortage would worsen by 79,000 homes over the five years to 2028-29:
Albo the coward hasn’t read The Art of the Deal. Countries that supply Australia with much of its fuel, such as Japan, Malaysia and South Korea, depend on Australia as a major source of their gas supply and are also major investors in Australia’s huge gas export industry, based in Western Australia and Queensland. They
Cotality’s housing results for April warned that Australia’s rental crisis continues to worsen. The national rental vacancy rate remained at 1.6% in April, well below the historical average of 2.5% to 3.3%. Advertised rents also continue to grow significantly faster than income, increasing by 5.7% in the year to April 2026. The commentary from Cotality
The Chinese PMIs were a mixed bag, but overall showed a slowing economy. On the good side, manufacturing eked out a gain. On the bad side, the services PMI decreased further, led by record lows for construction. Yes, the entire FE complex continues to lift on input cost inflation. This is despite steel demand and
As Australia’s Home Affairs minister between June 2022 and July 2024, Labor MP Clare O’Neil regularly lamented that the nation’s migration system was too temporary and held the nation back. “Today, really for the first time in our modern history, our uncapped, unplanned temporary program is the centrepiece and driver of our migration system. This
Australian property prices appear to have reached a turning point, with national values recording their first decline of the year in April, according to PropTrack. After surprising resilience in March despite global volatility linked to the Iran war, prices slipped by 0.1% nationally, signalling a broader loss of momentum across the housing market. The downturn
No news is good news for oil, apparently, with prices coming off overnight amid the Gulf stalemate. Analysts are not so calm. JPM is back. In this war-driven oil shock, inventories have become the market’s primary balancing mechanism. Unlike a typical disruption where spare production capacity can be mobilized quickly, the location of the shock
When the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project was first proposed by the Turnbull government in 2017, it was touted as a $2 billion endeavour that could produce power as early as 2021. On paper, it sounded like a great idea: pumped hydro storage capable of delivering 2 megawatts of power on command and 350,000 megawatt-hours of
Late last month, Productivity Commission (PC) chair Danielle Wood downplayed the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on Australia’s job market, claiming only around 4% of jobs are at risk of elimination: “They [Jobs and Skills Australia] found a reasonably small share of jobs, about 4% of jobs, can either be fully or mostly automated. So
Charts from TME Oil is back in focus What started as a clean technical bounce is now turning into something bigger, with spot pushing higher, vol still lagging, and cross-asset signals beginning to react. The move isn’t stretched, positioning isn’t extreme, and the usual pressure valves aren’t kicking in. For now, it’s a controlled squeeze.
Victoria issued tens of billions in long‑dated bonds during 2020–21 at very low interest rates (i.e., 1.25–1.5%). These bonds begin maturing from 2026 through 2031, forcing the state to refinance at today’s 5–6% rates. Major upcoming maturities include the following: $10.7 billion at 1.25% → matures Nov 2027 $14.4 billion at 1.5% → matures 2030
DXY is bouncing again with oil. AUD and North Asia are off. Oil up, gold down. AI metals rolled hard. Big miners have a terrifying double top. EM too. Junk rolled. The Treasury curve was squashed. Stocks got nervous. Sag7 earnings were solid versus expectations, but that’s not going to do it, given oil’s roar.
Australian power users received a reprieve earlier this year as the default market offer (DMO), which is the benchmark against which retailers price their plans, was cut by between 1% and 10% from 1 July, following lower wholesale power (generation) costs amid a relatively calm summer. The relief will be short-lived, however, with network costs, which
In the March quarter, the CPI increased by 1.4%, which was in line with market expectations. Some handy charts from Westpac unpack it for us. Headline inflation, which was 2.1% annually in mid-2025 and rose to 3.6% annually in December, is once again accelerating to 4.1% annually. Ironically, we have finally priced the Ukraine War
I reported this week that the cost of the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project is estimated to have ballooned from an initial announced cost of $2 billion in 2017 to around $42 billion. This cost estimate by Professor Bruce Mountain and former energy executive Ted Woodley includes direct construction costs of $20 billion, transmission infrastructure costs
In a deeply disturbing development, Australia’s foreign minister Penny Wong has turned to China for fuel. Chinese state-owned oil companies have begun engaging directly with Australian businesses on jet fuel sales in a breakthrough emerging from intensive diplomatic negotiations between Foreign Minister Penny Wong and her counterparts in Beijing. Speaking to reporters after meeting Foreign
The Madman is back. And so is the oil price. On deck is “limited strikes”. CENTCOM reportedly preparing for “short wave of strikes” on Iran in order to potentially break the Hormuz impasse & force Tehran back to the negotiating table. Trump rejects Iran proposal as it won’t give up nuclear program. Perhaps the Madman will drop the
When the final sunrise dawned on the last day of the second millennium, Australia was riding high, living standards were rising strongly, mortgage rates had been cut by almost two-thirds from their peak, and the median home nationally was affordable for the median-earning household. It was a time of ambition and hope, where better days
Cotality’s daily dwelling values index for 30 April shows that home values across the five major capital city markets rose by only 0.2% over the month, with sharp falls of 0.6% in Sydney and Melbourne offsetting still strong growth in Perth (2.1%), Brisbane (1.2%), and Adelaide (1.1%). Over the April quarter, home values rose by
The interest rate futures market has priced an official cash rate of 4.75% by the end of 2026. This implies that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will deliver at least two, and possibly three, more interest rate hikes this calendar year. If the RBA delivered two more rate hikes, the official cash rate would
The Wall Street Journal reports that we should prepare for a long blockade. President Trump has instructed aides to prepare for an extended blockade of Iran, U.S. officials said, targeting the regime’s coffers in a high-risk bid to compel a nuclear capitulation Tehran has long refused. In recent meetings, including a Monday discussion in the Situation
