Blogotariat

Once upon a time, the immigration intake into Australia was a mostly benign issue, with the intake as a proportion of the population largely ebbing and flowing in a relatively limited range, consistent with the underlying conditions present in the economy. There were exceptions to this, most notably the return of servicemen and women following

The post The changing rules on Australian immigration appeared first on MacroBusiness.

The two-party-preferred vote is the simplest statistic we have in Australian elections – just two numbers that always add up to 100%. While it has reduced relevance for calculating the result in some seats, it still has predictive power and also plays a role as a sort of barometer of the relative popularity of the two major parties. Despite the increase in the vote for minor parties and independents, the choice of who forms government is still binary.

The Queensland budget is putting money towards rooftop solar for renters and the Copperstring transmission line, as well as keeping old coal stations running.

Geoff Wilson, founder of Wilson Asset Management, stepped up his attack on the Albanese government’s proposed tax on unrealised superannuation capital gains, which he labelled “unfair” and “un-Australian”. The proposed policy would increase the earnings tax on superannuation balances of $3 million or more from the current 15% to 30% without indexation. It would also

The ferrous market does not look well to me. Scuttlebutt is pretty good. The benchmark July iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was 0.15% higher at $93.65 a ton. Hot metal production, a gauge of iron ore demand, inched up 0.24% week-on-week to 2.422 million tons, as of June 20, according to data from Chinese

The post When all you have is a shovel, everthing looks like iron ore appeared first on MacroBusiness.

In the 2022 state budget, the former Queensland Labor government blindsided the coal industry by unexpectedly introducing two new tiers of coal royalties. This included a top tier of 40% for coal prices above $ 300 per tonne, effectively a mild super-profits tax. The unexpected announcement was a stroke of political genius, as it caught the

The post Brilliant Queensland stares down coal lobby appeared first on MacroBusiness.

DXY appears ready to crack. I would say this will be its last leg down before Fed cuts arrive and do the opposite later this year. AUD is being powered by the big short. Apparent in CFTC. Lead boots are not much help, though. I’m a seller into the next god leg higher. Oil bottomed

The post Big short powers Australian dollar higher appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Risk markets continue to discount all negative news, like the non-existent ceasefire between Iran and Israel, and latched on to Federal Reserve Chair Powells dovish testimony in front of Congress overnight. Wall Street rallied over 1% higher while the USD was sold off again as Euro led the way while the Australian dollar found some

The post Macro Morning appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Brisbane’s median home price has surged by 85% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. According to PropTrack, Brisbane’s median dwelling value was $889,000 in May 2025, the second-highest in the nation, behind Sydney. Brisbane dwelling values were already set to rise further owing to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) monetary

The post Brisbane house prices are rigged to blow appeared first on MacroBusiness.

We talk glibly about our [Australia's] future in Asia, but we are stuck in a US and UK media cul de sac.

The Washington consensus and our legacy media frames and conditions our thinking and actions. It promotes fear of Asia, the yellow peril.

An updated post from August 23, 2021

John Menadue

Forget the fog of war. Even in war, and sometimes especially in war, some things are exceedingly clear. Regarding the so-called ‘Hamas-Israel War’, for instance, it is obvious that in reality it is not a war at all but a genocide, namely the Gaza Genocide, carried out by Israel against the Palestinians whose unbroken resistance will be the stuff of legends, and of history too.

During the Albanese government’s first term, one of the main policy focuses was on public housing. Throughout much of the second half of the government’s first term, various public housing-related policies were major bones of contention, most notably the Housing Australia Future Fund or HAFF. The HAFF provided the Albanese government with a striking headline

The post Albo’s public housing train wreck appeared first on MacroBusiness.

In 1992, I went to Russia and Kazakhstan on what was supposed to be an Australia-USSR science agreement exchange program visit (the USSR had ceased to exist at this time, so the Australian government paid for the whole trip). A Russian researcher had come to Australia to work with one of my colleagues and me in 1990. We had moved into a new house a week before I hopped on the plane to Moscow, leaving behind my partner and our two little boys aged 6 and 3. I took a couple of books to read in what I suspected would be a fair bit of down-time.