45 Results

The closure of Ford in Australia, announced today, is overdue and says little other than that a protected company lost touch with consumers. The eventual cessation of taxpayer bribes to Ford to maintain an uncompetitive production line is welcome news.

Australia is seeing the first impacts of the extended European economic crisis, via Asian manufacturing.

Demands for government intervention to protect manufacturing and to boost productivity share a common problem of laziness. Past economic lessons have been forgotten.

While mining continues to expand its workforce, professional services is now becoming a key employer in Australia.

Yesterday’s national accounts significantly change our perspective on the “productivity crisis”.

The real story of what is happening in retail is one of economic reform, but the media are determined to ignore it, write Bernard Keane and Glenn Dyer.

It’s not a hand out, Julia Gillard said today about her, well, handout — and those of the Baillieu and Weatherill governments — to US multinational General Motors to keep making cars here until 2022.

The biggest single brake on Australian productivity is the mining industry, where productivity has declined by more than a quarter in the past two years, an analysis of ABS data reveals.

Employment in manufacturing rose in the three months to February, the first rise since mid-2010. There hasn’t been as big a rise in manufacturing in trend terms since early 2008.

For all her problems, Julia Gillard understands just how important the strong dollar will be not just for business but governments, write Glenn Dyer and Bernard Keane.

There’s strong support for mandatory pre-commitment from voters, and they also back handouts for the car industry.

There is an unfolding employment disaster going on in Australia, but compared with Greece and Spain, Portugal and Ireland, we’re doing just great.

We could better debate manufacturing assistance if we knew what worked and what didn’t. But we can’t, not yet.

Today’s GDP numbers confirm that the AUstralian economy is in robust health. Without Europe, there’d have been no interest rate cuts, write Glenn Dyer and Bernard Keane.

Employers and unions are unlikely to have much of a dialogue at the jobs forum in a few weeks.

Huge industry subsidies by the taxpayer do little to preserve jobs or the industries themselves, writes Ian Hanke, of Agitate.com.au and the HR Nicholls Society.