Tag Archives: australia

GST hike appears very likely, but Commonwealth retreat less so

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Gene Tunny

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has, it seems, given the green light for raising more revenue via the GST in a speech at Tenterfield on Saturday (Sir Henry Parkes Commemorative Dinner): …the Commonwealth could stop funding programmes in areas of state … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Tax | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Reflections on Gough Whitlam

Posted on October 21, 2014 by Gene Tunny

I recall with great sentiment now, after news of the death of former PM Gough Whitlam today, that Gough gave an excellent after dinner speech at the UQ Law Ball at the Hilton Hotel in Brisbane in 1996. The former … Continue reading →

Posted in Brisbane, Transport | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

New businesses need to hang tough for first year – big gains come in second year

Posted on October 11, 2014 by Gene Tunny

New businesses experience their biggest productivity gains in their second year (see the chart below), after the hard work and investment of the first year have been realised, according to new research published by the ABS (see Firm Dynamics and … Continue reading →

Posted in Productivity | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

ABS funding cuts may have compromised macroeconomic management

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Gene Tunny

Given the huge revisions to recent labour force data published by the ABS data yesterday, it’s now clear that the ABS is suffering from the impacts of funding cuts in recent years (see this ABC news report), and this has … Continue reading →

Posted in Labour market | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

HIA appears worried RBA will move to rein in housing market

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Gene Tunny

The Housing Industry Association (HIA) released an informative (though possibly naively optimistic) note yesterday titled A Portrait of Australian Home Prices, available at the HIA website, which is basically a message to the RBA that “There’s nothing to see here.” … Continue reading →

Posted in Brisbane, Housing | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Don’t we have better things to spend $22 million on than Pirates of the Caribbean 5?

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Gene Tunny

Government Ministers and officials who should know better have once again been seduced by the glamour of Hollywood, with the Australian Government offering around $22 million to Disney to secure production of Pirates of the Caribbean 5 in Australia (see … Continue reading →

Posted in Industry policy | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

PC natural disaster funding recommendations could cost Qld over a billion

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Gene Tunny

The Productivity Commission has injected a huge dose of economic rationalism into its recent draft report on natural disaster funding, which contains a recommendation to cut future Commonwealth support from 75% to 50% of the repair bill – a recommendation … Continue reading →

Posted in Budget, Cyclones, Floods | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Economic weakness hits Qld retailers

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Gene Tunny

2014 has been a challenging year for Queensland retailers, with retail turnover not growing, and actually declining by around 1% from levels seen earlier in the year (see chart below). I suspect a large part of this is due to … Continue reading →

Posted in Macroeconomy, Mining, Retail trade, Tax | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

HIA wants debate on stamp duty, not negative gearing

Posted on September 23, 2014 by Gene Tunny

The Housing Industry Association (HIA) has released an excellent report from the consulting firm of top Australian economist Chris Murphy on The Economic Impacts of Negative Gearing of Residential Property (see the news report Don’t slash negative gearing, says HIA). … Continue reading →

Posted in Housing | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Long-term trend in average working hours – big drop over last 100 years

Posted on August 31, 2014 by Gene Tunny

A comment from a reader on my Friday post on robotics and automation got me thinking about long-term trends in average working hours. Historical data on standard male working hours (from Glenn Withers’s chapter in Vamplew’s Australians: Historical Statistics), which … Continue reading →

Posted in Labour market, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments