Is Australia open for business?

[V8Ian]

It makes you wonder when freight volumes have plunged this year. Even groceries and grog tonnage is falling.

[Mick_Marsh]

Oh yes it is. They're buying all our houses.

[Ean Austral]

G'day Ean,

Is it that it's not open for business or the push to get freight trucks off our highways is starting to take its toll. Never seen so many trucks for sale, and never seen so many container ships coming into the harbour.

Cheers Ean

[Ean Austral]

Cattle properties in the north getting bought by foreign investors left right and centre.

Ludwig has a lot to answer for.

Cheers Ean

[V8Ian]

Primarily I'm referring to rail freight companies, Ian (:p). In Queensland so many rail corridors have been closed that the rail companies are subbing the freight to road transport.

[Ean Austral]

Primarily I'm referring to rail freight companies, Ian (:p). In Queensland so many rail corridors have been closed that the rail companies are subbing the freight to road transport.

Ok not sure about that, but if the railways are still run the way they used to be I'm not surprised.

Rail freight out of here is still big volumes. But with no link to the eastern states it will never grow much more.

Cheers Ean

[Hogarthde]

So.....maybe joh and Lang had the right idea last century?


Dave

[Ean Austral]

Could have been, funny cause I went to a conference about expanding the north and 1 suggestion was a rail link to follow the Barkley highway to mount Isa.

Cheers Ean

[V8Ian]

If people aren't spending on the essentials such as food and alcohol(?), the economy's in bad shape.

[Mick_Marsh]

If people aren't spending on the essentials such as food and alcohol(?), the economy's in bad shape.
The economy has been in bad shape for quite some time. It hit my industry about three or more years ago. Others earlier. Some are just noticing it now. It will hit others in the future.

[Ausfree]

Ian, two small/medium sized trucking companies have closed their doors in the Newcastle area, in the last few weeks. Amos Ridley and Son's is one and I can't think of the name of the other one but there are plenty of drivers out there looking for jobs.:( The Amos Ridley company would be at least 50 years old.

[Roverlord off road spares]

Of course Australia is open for business...... just bring lots of money and you can buy Australia from underneath us.

[DiscoMick]

Not if you want to join the rest of the world in increasing investment in renewable energy, automobiles, environmental protection, climate change, science, education, health, broadband or similar industries - we don't believe in them.

[V8Ian]

Australia's longest-serving treasurer warns the country's luck is beginning to run out as wages fall and consumer pessimism grows.

Peter Costello says while Australia is "far" from recession, the economy was undergoing big changes, leaving people with a sense of uncertainty about the future.

"(Australia's) luck's beginning to run out," he told a property forum in Sydney on Wednesday.

"For the first time since the 1990s, per capita incomes have stabilised in Australia - they are no longer growing.

"Young people under 50 who have lived through a period of uninterrupted rising incomes are beginning to experience something that's different."

Consumers were "anxious" and had "stopped spending"

Real wages were falling and disposable incomes had "peaked", Mr Costello said.

The former Liberal treasurer pointed out that the household savings ratio
was now 10 per cent, compared with the booming 1990s when people were
spending all of their wealth.

"People have closed the credit card and opened a bank account," he said.

Mr Costello said while there would be a future for manufacturing in
Australia, the industry would no longer be a "mass employer" of local workers.

In more upbeat comments, Mr Costello seemed to back Treasurer Joe Hockey's optimism for the future of the property market, who on Tuesday rejected as "lazy analysis" claims it was in a bubble and risked crashing.

Mr Costello suggested Australia's strong population growth would likely continue to support the property market.

He insisted that housing was "not expensive" in Australia, compared with overseas markets.

"Building a house is comparatively cheap," he said.

"What is expensive in Australia is land.

"So we have an increasing demand but we have quite a restrictive supply of land.

"As a result, prices are high."

He blamed that on state taxes imposed on the release and transfer of land.

Mr Costello said sooner or later world economies would normalise, with the US winding back its money printing stimulatory measures and interest rates rising again.

"It could still be a good time for property if things revert to normal ... (but) there could be a fair bit of hardship that we have to go through and readjustment," he said.

Aust luck 'beginning to run out': Costello - 9news.com.au (http://www.9news.com.au/national/2014/09/17/11/35/aust-luck-beginning-to-run-out-costello)

Doesn't sound too open to me, tough times ahead.

[DiscoMick]

People have been saving and cutting credit card debt ever since the GFC and thats a good thing. The economy has been stagnant since this government came in and produced a budget which damaged public confidence and attacked things people regard as essential, such as health, education, renewable energy, local manufacturing, research and the environment. The polls show the government rates poorly on every factor except Abbotts war tough guy behaviour. Lot of disappointed politically centrist voters out there.

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