Blogotariat

We used to be journalists, but now we mostly just bitch about them. (Kidding. Kind of.) We also break down broken news.

This weekly podcast brings you honest and original media analysis from two insiders who've broken plenty of news and been broken by it, too. Hosted by long-suffering journalists and even longer-suffering friends, Jan Fran and Antoinette Lattouf, We Used to Be Journos is your quide to the way the media works.

Scapegoating migrants is designed to distract our attention from the truth and real issues – the abuse of corporate and media power and failure to tackle housing shortages for younger generations.

The Liberal Party looks like following the rot that set in with John Howard – Tampa and dog whistling about Asian migration. But this time the Liberal Party might be kicking an own goal because of the electoral clout of our migrant communities.

I was interviewed via email earlier this week by Harrison Christian, a senior reporter at News.com.au, asking why the US economy is performing so much better than Australia’s. In particular: US real GDP growth is 4.4%, compared with Australia’s 2.1%. US CPI inflation is 2.4% compared with Australia’s 3.8%. The US is still cutting interest

The post Without productivity growth, living standards won’t grow appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Solar is cheap and easy to build for Fortescue, and working in the Pilbara gives the company more leeway to try some things not allowed elsewhere in Australia.

The post “Tracker, panel, rinse, repeat:” How Fortescue is driving solar innovation in the Pilbara appeared first on Renew Economy.

First phase of integrated solar and battery project is synchronised and energised, on the way to becoming the world’s largest project of its kind.

The post World’s largest solar-battery hybrid project powers up in the Philippines appeared first on Renew Economy.

By Salvatore Babones, Associate Professor at Sydney University and author of the book “Australia’s Universities, Can They Reform” Universities Australia (UA) has published its pre-budget submission, and it opens with the claim that its members educate “1.5 million Australians every year”. That is incorrect. They educate roughly 1.5 million people every year—of whom only about

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) revised its forecasts on CPI inflation and wage growth in the February Statement of Monetary Policy (SoMP), as summarised below: The key takeaway was that the RBA does not anticipate that real wages will recover over the forward estimates, as illustrated below: By the June quarter of 2028, Australia’s real

The post Australian real wages crunched lower appeared first on MacroBusiness.

The minutes from the RBA’s February monetary policy meeting were released on Tuesday. The key takeaways are that the RBA is highly uncertain about the outlook for inflation and interest rates: “Members agreed that the prevailing uncertainties meant it was not possible to have a high degree of confidence in any particular path for the

The post A RBA rate hawk enters the room appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Our off-grid luxury lodge combines a whole of system approach with renewables and storage, and a backup genset triggered only by indiscrete EV charging.

The post An all-electric, off-grid luxury lodge, powered entirely by solar, wind and a battery appeared first on Renew Economy.

There’s no escaping the fact that buying a property in Australia will naturally entail high costs. This is especially true in populated regions near major cities like Sydney and Melbourne—places where demand for housing is steadily and sharply rising well beyond the $1 million barrier. The good news is that prospective homeowners don’t have to

The post Property investing in Australia: costs beyond the deposit appeared first on MacroBusiness.

The Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO) July 2023 Transmission Cost Report, which was released alongside updates to the 2022 Integrated System Plan (ISP), stated that estimated costs for some major transmission projects had increased by up to 100% compared with 2022 ISP estimates. AEMO also said that “we recognise that higher costs for network development

The RBA minutes made clear there is no hurry to move again, either way. In considering what these observations implied for upcoming decisions, members agreed that the prevailing uncertainties meant it was not possible to have a high degree of confidence in any particular path for the cash rate. They pointed to risks on both

The post RBA will be pleased by crushed consumer appeared first on MacroBusiness.