Fig 1: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott (centre, yellow helmet) likes biking There are only a few Prime Ministers in this world who are pro-actively biking. Tony Abbott is one of them….
Category: Australia
Australian GDP per capita growth slowed while oil prices went up (part 2)
In part 1 of the series on the Australian budget 2014/15 we showed that company tax receipts took a dive when the global financial crisis (GFC) hit. In this 2nd part we…
Australian budget hit by GFC and high oil prices (part 1)
The Australian Federal Government’s cumulative cash balance between 2008/09 and 2013/14 was deep in the red, at $ -241 bn. If company tax had continued to grow at pre-GFC levels this deficit…
M2 daily traffic growth below Transurban’s expectations
In what might be an early warning sign, Transurban traffic data for the 1st quarter 2014 show that ADT on the M2 – after a 9 month ramp-up period following the opening…
Lucky country dodged $2 a litre bullet – for now
Alan Kohler http://www.alankohler.com.au/ showed this AUD/USD exchange rate graph on the 7 pm news on ABC TV on Friday the 13th 2013, displaying a variance between 50c and 1 dollar. And earlier…
Sydney motorists pay 22 % more tolls for motorway widening
For a modest traffic increase of 3% motorists in Sydney’s North West pay 22% more tolls after the M2 was widened from 2 lanes to 3 lanes and additional ramps were built….
Half of Sydney’s direct international flights dropped by 5 % since July 2008 (part 2)
Bizarre election stunt by an Australian politician to lobby for a 2nd Sydney airport, far from his own electorate in Queensland. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/bob-katter-backs-badgery8217s-creek-airport-in-western-sydney/story-fni0cx12-1226698573961 Bob Katter arriving by helicopter in Badgerys Creek, on 16/8/2013,…
Melbourne’s East West Link tunnel proposal has low benefit cost ratio and high oil price risk
According to the State government of Victoria’s “short form business case” a proposed road tunnel in Melbourne has only a benefit cost ratio of 1.4, a number which is classified as “low”…
Australian oil and fuel dependency on the Middle East is 37 %
Australian crude oil imports Imports from South East Asian neighbours (black line) peaked in 2007. Since then, Australian refineries did a good job to import crude from far-away places including Russia and…
Brisbane Airport Link: at the end of the road tunnel investor money flies away (part 2)
Only 2 weeks after NSW infrastructure boss Nick Greiner could not answer the question how toll-way debt in Sydney can be paid back, the answer comes from another Australian capital city: never….