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Category: Business economics
$1/litre milk doesn’t hurt farmers at all!
Dairy farmer associations are calling on the Federal government to ban sales of $1/litre milk and, in the meantime, urging consumers to boycott $1/litre milk (sold by Coles and Woolworths under their own brands) and instead buy branded milk (see, for example, “Ban cut-price milk”). However, as I showed in an article over 5 years […]
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 […]
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 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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Economics research sometimes macabre, but valuable too!
In my most recent Company Director column (“How long should a CEO stay?, available here), I reported that economists’ research shows that, in general, CEOs should not stay in their roles for more than 8-12 years. This finding reflects the trade-off between the incremental benefits and incremental costs to shareholders of longer CEO tenures. Of […]
Should South Australians Really be “Down in the Mouth”?
The South Australian Centre for Economic Studies recently published the first of four papers in its Economic Issues series. The series reviews South Australia’s historical macroeconomic performance and attempts to highlight sustainable comparative advantages. The first paper sets the scene with a review of the state’s macroeconomic performance over the last two decades; it is available […]
Where to from here for South Australia?
The South Australian Centre for Economic Studies recently published the second paper in its Economic Issues series. This latest paper examines the prospects for growth through a more detailed examination of the state’s manufacturing sector, including the role that the state government can play in assisting the potential to be realised; it is available at: Where […]
Need for tax reform
A new report by Deloitte Access Economic, cited in today’s Advertiser (“A better mix for tax system”,
p.51), echoes the case for tax reform that Christopher Findlay and I made in our recent article in The
Australian (available at: Cut costly stamp duties, company taxes with an efficient land levy). In
that article, we proposed reforms that […]
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