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Boost infrastructure investment through key reforms – Darryl Gobbett
In a recent speech to the 2016 South Australian Infrastructure Conference in Adelaide, Darryl Gobbett made several recommendations to help improve South Australia’s economic performance, including:
Boost infrastructure investment that focuses on cost-reduction, output, exports and regional SA;
Establish a SA Productivity Commission to determine investment and other priorities; and
Fund investment priorities though a broad-based land tax, asset […]
Going for growth – Christopher Findlay
Australians are asking ‘where will economic growth come from?’ A common response is ‘structural reform’, about which we are likely to hear more and more in coming weeks as the election campaign proceeds.
What is that and does it matter? Structural reform has many dimensions but really it’s about making market works better as they allocate […]
Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission – Final Report
The Final Report of the South Australian Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel Cycle has just been released and is available here. The Final Report found that a waste disposal facility would have the potential to generate significant value for south Australia. It did not find that other nuclear activities (such as a nuclear electricity […]
How do elections affect business behaviour?
Now that a long Federal election has been called, what impact will this have on business behaviour? The answer from economic researchers around the world is: quite a lot – particularly in closely-fought contests like the one we are expecting in Australia.
As I wrote in my column in Company Director last December (available here), election […]
Australia’s beef with Chinese Investment – Christopher Findlay
The $371m bid for the Kidman cattle properties by Dakang Australia (80% Chinese owned) was knocked back in late April by the Federal Treasurer, according to the current policy to review foreign purchases of agricultural land.
Australia is a host of foreign director investment (FDI) in many sectors of the economy. Annual FDI (net) inflows recently […]
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SA ranked equal last state economy: Commsec
Commsec’s latest State of the States report (released today and available here) ranks SA equal last (with Tasmania) on economic performance. SA’s best ranking across the 8 indicators was 4th on equipment investment, but it ranked 7th on unemployment and 8th on dwelling starts and retail spending. However, the report noted that SA’s job market […]
SA must take risks – Dick Blandy
In a recent article in InDaily (available here), Dick Blandy argues that South Australia needs to throw off its conservative, timid approach to create a multi-faceted new economy if it is to bounce back and prosper in the medium term future and beyond.
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Another leading economist called for regulated asset write-downs
Leading economist Professor Ross Garnaut has called for the write-downs in the values of regulated electricity networks’ assets. In a recent speech (available here), Garnaut said:
“The falling costs of decentralised power and storage open up the possibility of reducing costs of power supply to users of power throughout the State. But only if the pricing […]
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Chi-X demonstrates why governments should not protect monopolies
Yesterday, alternative share trading venue Chi-X announced the sale of its operations in Australia, Hong Kong and Japan, reportedly for about $570 million (for The Australian‘s coverage of the sale, see here). This serves as a reminded of the benefits of market reform and competition – and of the need to not let vested interests […]
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Taxi regulation in Adelaide – Darryl Gobbett
Regular contributor Darryl Gobbett on taxi regulation:
The attitude of the SA Government to the licensing of Uber in SA should get us all thinking about what is the purpose of the regulation of taxis in the SA metropolitan area. (As an aside readers should note Section 45 (2) of the Passenger Transport Act 1994 does […]
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