Tag Archives: australia

High Australian dollar has wide-ranging impacts – e.g. on CSR & local production of foreign films

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Gene Tunny

The high Australian dollar has been linked to job losses at CSR, according to an AAP report (CSR blames cuts and plant closure on currency). There is no doubt the high Australian dollar is having profound impacts on a number … Continue reading →

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ABARES forecasts large increases in seafood prices over coming decades

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Gene Tunny

The traditional seafood feast at Christmas will become much more expensive in future decades as limitations on our seafood stocks mean that rising demand significantly increases prices. This forecast is contained in ABARES’s new publication Global food production and prices … Continue reading →

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Coal Seam Guar – the most important agricultural product you may never have heard of

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Gene Tunny

I’m currently in Canberra attending the ABARES 2013 Outlook Conference and I must say I’m very impressed by the organisation of the conference and the program. The highlight of the first day for me was the presentation by Tony Matchett … Continue reading →

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Did Qld’s sluggish economy force NZers and Brits back home?

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Gene Tunny

The controversy over the ABS’s odd comments on female representation in leadership positions (Women don’t have what it takes to lead, finds ABS) led me to examine its latest Social Trends report, which contains this interesting set of facts on international … Continue reading →

Posted in Migration | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

RBA confirms QRC analysis – resources sector spends mega bucks domestically

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Gene Tunny

The RBA has released an excellent though technically demanding research paper on Industry Dimensions of the Resources Boom, which has received coverage in today’s Australian (Mining spreads work to 500,000). The RBA analysis confirms the analysis conducted by Reuben Lawrence … Continue reading →

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HIA still worried about Qld housing industry

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Gene Tunny

Building approvals are a reasonably good leading indicator of economic activity across the economy because the construction industry employs nearly 10% of the workforce (see this OESR table) and it buys a lot of products from other parts of the … Continue reading →

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Billion dollar Jobs Plan assumes local businesses aren’t getting fair share of work from big projects

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Gene Tunny

The Commonwealth Government’s $1 billion Jobs Plan announced today (see media release) appears to be based on an assumption that Australian businesses aren’t getting a fair share of work out of major projects. I find this odd considering the massive … Continue reading →

Posted in Industry policy | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Government should resist subsidising Disney Nemo film – no long-term benefit to Qld

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Gene Tunny

The Queensland Government should refuse to contribute money to attract the filming of Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to the Gold Coast (see the news report Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt could film a movie in Australia). The previous … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts, Gold Coast | Tagged , , , , , | 14 Comments

Very surprising employment numbers for Qld – ABS needs to investigate volatility

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Gene Tunny

Given the low levels of job vacancies toward the end of 2012 (see this previous post), I’m very surprised to see the strong rebound in employment in January (30,200 new jobs) and the unemployment rate dropping to 5.5% from 6.1% … Continue reading →

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Still waiting for building industry recovery

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Gene Tunny

New ABS building approvals data show building approvals (seasonally adjusted) in Queensland increased by nearly 8% in December 2012, but they remain at a low level: The national data aren’t encouraging. See, for example, coverage at MacroBusiness (Building approvals fall … Continue reading →

Posted in Housing | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment