Blogotariat

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's recent Six-day visit to China was important. China is Australia's largest trading partner.From Beijing perspective it was certainly a success.As the Communist Party's propaganda sheet, the Global Times, observed  "the relationship is now flying in the stratosphere" after years of strained ties under the previous Morrison government.

MAURICE NEWMAN, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

AEMO reports record completions and wind, solar and battery pipeline, with more developers choosing hybrid options for solar to dodge negative prices and congestion.

Tasmanian election results can often be simplified to totals for each party in each electorate. But votes aren’t cast for parties, they’re cast for candidates. When candidates are elected or excluded, preferences don’t always flow to fellow members of the same party (or “leakage”). A particularly efficient distribution of votes within a party group can also allow a party to compete for an extra seat beyond what the party totals might suggest.

For today’s post I will run through the current state of play in terms of vote shares for the key candidates in each electorate, and the other blocks of votes that will come into play.

Last night saw risk markets barely move on a quiet economic calendar or geopolitical catalysts with only the USD having any reactions as continued trade concerns with the Trump regime pushing for a baseline 15-20% tariff on all EU products sending King Dollar down against everything. Wall Street eked out more record highs with minimal

The post Macro Morning appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Australia is suffering a generational housing shortage amid historically high immigration-driven population growth and sluggish housing supply. In late 2023, the National Cabinet agreed to a new Housing Accord, which would deliver 1.2 million homes over five years, commencing on 1 July 2024. Australian dwelling approvals, commencements, and completions are currently tracking around 25% (60,000)

Australians who have been critical of AUKUS have tended to focus on Australian problems with it – it’s too dear, we have neither a nuclear industry nor a nuclear workforce, etc.

But very recent events and reported remarks by US Defence official Elbridge Colby show how much of a problem it — or at least the nuclear submarine aspect of it — is for the US.

As shown by the following chart from Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro, Australia’s recent productivity growth has been among the worst in the advanced world. Australia’s labour productivity (GDP per hour worked) has experienced virtually zero growth since 2016. Reasons for the productivity decline: I attribute Australia’s poor productivity performance to four main factors. 1)

Asian share markets are quite mixed in the first trading session of the week as concerns over the Trump regimes bullying of the EU in its “negotiations” over the looming August 1st trade deal are spilling over. The USD is losing ground against all the major currency pairs as a result with Yen also gapping

The post Macro Afternoon appeared first on MacroBusiness.

State and federally-funded program to boost the energy efficiency and performance of up to 5,000 public and community housing properties has passed the half-way mark.

The state of Victoria’s financial woes is well documented. In 2023-24, the state had the nation’s largest per capita net debt and the lowest credit rating (AA). Per capita state debt was only $3,600 in Labor’s first budget in 2015. It has since climbed to $21,900 and is projected over the budget forward estimates to

The post Welcome to Victoria: the insolvency state appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Iieeeeuuuuuu… Why use an AI when you have the Aussie PM on his knees? The CCP propaganda arm, The Global Times, is cock-a-whoop. Two issues are particularly noteworthy during Albanese’s visit to China, as they have sent a message to the world that  Australia is re-balancing its international relationships to assert its core national interests,

The post Creepy Albo turns CCP propaganda pin-up boy appeared first on MacroBusiness.

Having to deal with recent monumentally stupid management decisions in the organisation where I used to work and, until a few months ago, at which I used to volunteer, made me think about some of the stupidity I encountered from management in the past. One of these happened nearly three decades ago. Because of my particular palaeontological expertise, I was asked to be involved in a project with the Northern Territory Geological Survey (NTGS). They were about to begin remapping several 1:250,000 geological map sheets in the Georgina Basin. This basin is enormous and is about 330,000 sq km in size, about the size of modern Germany.