As the news of political and ideological division currently defining much of the discourse in the United States continues to filter in from across the Pacific, one is often left wondering to what degree Australia will face similar divisions. Following Shadow Home Affairs Minister Andrew Hastie’s pledge to quit the Shadow Cabinet unless the Coalition’s
One of Indian Albo’s greatest policy lies is that Labor diplomacy is reaping benefits across the Indo-Pacific. Then again, perhaps he is being truthful. There are benefits. It’s just that they are flowing to everybody other than Australia. Let us do an inventory on the current state of affairs, travelling from west to east. In
The Albanese government’s housing target is proving to be one of the nation’s biggest policy shams. The National Housing Accord set a target of building 1.2 million homes in the five years to 2028-29, which requires 240,000 homes to be built every year—a rate of construction never achieved before in the nation’s history. Nobody believes
Back in the day, the iron ore trade was governed by annual contract negotiations between Australian miners and a collection of Chinese steel mills under the aegis of CISA. These negotiations would set the price for contract iron ore for the next year. This fraught structure was broken down in the post-GFC environment when BHP’s
From the Market Ear: Déjà Vu All Over Again Markets are roaring, but the setup is eerily familiar. A 35% global rally, AI mania at hedge-fund extremes, and S&P concentration at record highs. History warns: every time RSI held this long, stocks fell two weeks later. The market set-up screams that there finally will be
One of the major themes of MB over the past decade has been the emergence of fake politics. On the one hand, the old, real left abandoned its vision to fight the inequities of class. In its place rose the fake left, fixated on the culture wars of race, gender and identity issues. Its driving
Australia’s housing market is on the verge of a boom. The weekend’s preliminary auction clearance rate surged to 77.9% across the combined capital cities, which was the strongest result since the last week of October in 2021. Melbourne’s preliminary clearance rate was 78.6%, which was the strongest result since the week ending 24 October 2021.
Cotality (formerly CoreLogic) estimated that rental payments were chewing up a record 33% share of household income at the end of last year. Cotality’s June quarter Rental Review estimated that weekly rents nationally have increased by $200 (43%) over the past five years, meaning that the median Australian tenant is now paying an extra $10,350
By Lucinda Jerogin, Associate Economist at CBA The unemployment rate held steady at 4.2% in August. Australia’s population rose by 0.5% in Q1 25 to 27.5 million people. The annual growth rate eased to 1.6%. Offshore, the US Fed Reserve took centre stage cutting the funds rate by 25bp as was widely expected. The BoC
This week, Cotality released data, based on around 97,000 resales, showing that 94.8% of sellers made a nominal profit across Australia in Q2 2025. The median profit on sale also hit a record high of $315,000, up from $305,000 in the previous quarter. New South Wales, which is home to the nation’s most expensive homes,