The State of Victoria has been living in a public service bubble. Victoria’s net debt was $22.3 billion when the State Labor government delivered its inaugural state budget in 2015. As of FY25, Victoria’s net debt has skyrocketed to $155.5 billion and is projected to rise to $194 billion by FY29. Victoria’s dire budget situation
We reported last week (here and here) how the co-founder and life member of the Australian Greens, Drew Hutton, has been expelled from the party for a series of Facebook posts and comments he made about the Greens’ pro-transgender platform. Psychologist Rachel Hannam, a former Greens member and election candidate, is facing a similar fate,
The Chinese economy remains mired in a depression. Led by the property crash, the economy is barely growing. New home sales are still terrible. Liquidity is still tight for developers. Liquidity trap! The consumer-led recovery is a joke. It appears there’s a shock underway in external demand as well. On the supply side, the economy
Australia’s superannuation concessions require reform to make them fairer and more sustainable. The Australian Treasury estimates that superannuation concessions will cost the federal budget approximately $60 billion in lost revenue in 2024–25, and this cost is expected to increase significantly. In FY25, concessions on superannuation contributions were estimated to be $30,950 million. By FY28, that
The Rebel Productivity Roundtable is doing a great job of exposing the weak-kneed Danielle Wood version. From The AFR: Tax breaks for capital gains from property and shares, trusts and superannuation are too generous and should be dialled back to fund cuts to income tax to reward working-age people and improve the federal budget, tax
Steel looks like a great business to be in as input costs fall while selling prices rise. That said, I can’t see steel prices running much further despite Chinese output cuts. Demand is too weak. MySteel data has been dodgy this year. It is not capturing the full weakness of the sector. CISA data is
Last week, the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) released a stunning analysis showing that spending by federal and state governments on initiatives such as the NDIS, aged care, and child care has reached its highest level since World War II. Total spending on the NDIS, disability support pensions, and carer payments now exceeds $90 billion
Domain released its Q2 house price report last week, which showed that the median Sydney house was valued at an extraordinary $1,722,443 at the end of June, up 2.6% over the quarter and 4.2% year-on-year. This was the fastest quarterly rise in two years and the third straight gain in median house prices. Sydney unit
Despite a dreadful durable goods order print on Friday night, Wall Street still pushed to new record highs as earnings are coming in solid as expected, helped by buybacks and the “Big Beautiful Bill” spending. Other risk markets were not so easily convinced with European shares falling back while the USD climbed to a two
DXY was up Friday but will be down today as Trump strikes a tariff deal with Europe at 15% tariff. Bloomberg. Von der Leyen and Trump also differed on some of the key terms of the deal they announced. The US president said the tariff level would apply to “automobiles and everything else,” but not