Professor Tim

DOES MANUFACTURING HAVE A FUTURE?

A characteristic feature of economic booms is that those caught up in the excitement believe they will go on forever. Australia’s recent mining boom is no exception. Following the pattern of resource-based economies, a commodity price hike increased our terms of trade without any special effort on our part – adding 15 per cent to our national income over a six year period while the rest of the world languished in recession.
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Calls for a gas reservation scheme is protectionism in disguise

Queensland is poised to become a major export hub for liquefied natural gas (LNG). Given the West Australian experience, where LNG is already exported to Asia, this will cause domestic gas prices to rise. According to the DomGas Alliance, a group of Western Australian energy users, “gas prices have risen sharply from $2.50 per gigajoule in Western Australia to $8/GJ”.
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