The SMH’s Jenna Price lamented that “Australia is in desperate need of tens of thousands of tradies over the next five years” and that “job snobbery” is worsening labour shortages: Forty years ago, experts told us the shortage of tradespeople would only be temporary. In April 1999, when thousands of roofs in Sydney were destroyed
Melbourne’s housing market has experienced the lowest value growth since the beginning of the pandemic. Between March 2020 and April 2025, Melbourne dwelling values grew by 16.2%, versus 43.3% growth across the combined capital cities. As a result, Melbourne’s median dwelling value ($781,000) is the second cheapest out of the five major capital cities, just
Neoliberal economics began when a group of economists (Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises, Frank Knight) met at the Swiss resort of Mont Pèlerin to draft what they hoped would become the dominant economic model. Their model was inspired by the pro-market writings of classical economic liberals such as Adam Smith (1723-1790) and David Ricardo (1772-1823). While they said they were pushing back against the state totalitarianism of communism embodied by the increasing influence of the USSR, their neoliberalism morphed into market fundamentalism1.
Risk markets in Asia are reacting with some trepidation after the Friday night cut by ratings agency Moody on US debt, with all stocks in the red with US Treasury futures also falling. This is all about the burgeoning fiscal deficit problem in the US Congress which is trying again to vote on the Trump
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The two-candidate-preferred count in Bradfield has finished, with teal independent Nicolette Boele finally taking the lead right at the end, thanks to a very strong batch of postal votes and also a favourable batch of pre-poll ballots.
The AEC website says that there are 59 votes outstanding, but I have been informed by the AEC media team that these ballots can only be counted for the Senate, not the House, and so the House count has finished.
Got this story from Jason, who got it from Vice. I think this is what happens when you watch too many boxing roo videos on YouTube:
52-year-old Eric Slate died after he fought a kangaroo at a children’s petting zoo in Horry County, South Carolina.
According to officials, Slate died from “multiple blunt force injuries” after entering an enclosure at 5 Star Farms. Slate is the brother of the zoo’s owner, Robert Slate. Eric regularly entered the kangaroo’s enclosure so he could “roughhouse” with a kangaroo named Jack.
Gareth Aird, head of Australian economics at CBA, notes that markets have priced a 95% probability of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) cutting the official cash rate by 0.25% at Tuesday’s monetary policy meeting. “Both the Q1 25 trimmed mean CPI and the Q1 25 wage price index printed right in line with the
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Peter Cook, cross-posted from Pearls & Irritations. If ecological sustainability must be the basis for population policy, as argued by Jenny Goldie, then a vital ingredient for sustainability is water – the essence of life. If population policy requires identifying a desirable population size for Australia in the future, we must consider whether there will be enough
For a short while, anyway, Goldman. Both IMF and Elane (a Chinese shipping data company) provide vessel traffic data categorized by ship type. The IMF has developed a sophisticated algorithm to project export and import volume for major ports in China. While they generate daily series,the data is published weekly with a one-week lag. Elane
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