Latest news with #LuckyCountry
Yahoo
24-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why your living standards will fall by $75k
The country's living standards are tipped to fall over the next decade as ailing mining royalties and sluggish productivity smashes every Australian. Analysis by Westpac senior economist Pat Bustamante found mining delivered more than 50 per cent of the gains in Australians' living standards for the two decades until 2020. But this will come to an end as falling commodity prices and a lack of investment from the miners themselves means Australia will no longer be the 'Lucky Country.' 'Without change, Australians are in for a period of anaemic growth in living standards over the next decade,' Mr Bustamante wrote in an economic note. 'This will cost the average Australian $75,000 in income over the next decade.' While living standards is not a direct measurement of how much every Aussie pockets, it does give an indication of the income available to every country's resident by dividing total income by total people. Mr Bustamante said the contribution mining had made to Australians' living standards had been primarily driven by rising export prices with iron ore which soared in recent decades. But Westpac says the price of iron ore which is around $US103 a tonne today will slide to $US84 by 2027. 'And while we don't all 'work in the industry', we benefit indirectly from the demand for ancillary services, the investment undertaken by the industry, including in infrastructure like roads and ports, and the tax paid by the industry,' he said. 'Indeed, a large reason why the federal government and the mining states have been able to provide cost of living support, and increase the scope of public services, without becoming heavily indebted is because of the windfalls provided by the mining industry.' But Westpac warns mining investment 'stalled' in post 2008 and another commodities super cycle is unlikely to occur. Despite the warning, Mr Bustamante said Australia could offset the falling commodity prices if there is an uptick in productivity. 'Even without the 'free kick' from mineral export prices, productivity and growth in living standards can be put on a sound trajectory,' he said. 'But this requires changes in business practices, policy and culture, which will allow us to benefit from the technological advances already happening and in train.' Treasurer Jim Chalmers has identified improving productivity as a major focus for the Albanese government's second term. Mr Chalmers will host an economic reform roundtable on August 19 to 21 to look at improving productivity, enhancing economic resilience and strengthening budget sustainability. Sign in to access your portfolio
News.com.au
24-07-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Lucky Country era ending as commodity prices set to tumble
The country's living standards are tipped to fall over the next decade as ailing mining royalties and sluggish productivity smashes every Australian. Analysis by Westpac senior economist Pat Bustamante found mining delivered more than 50 per cent of the gains in Australians' living standards for the two decades until 2020. But this will come to an end as falling commodity prices and a lack of investment from the miners themselves means Australia will no longer be the 'Lucky Country.' 'Without change, Australians are in for a period of anaemic growth in living standards over the next decade,' Mr Bustamante wrote in an economic note. 'This will cost the average Australian $75,000 in income over the next decade.' While living standards is not a direct measurement of how much every Aussie pockets, it does give an indication of the income available to every country's resident by dividing total income by total people. Mr Bustamante said the contribution mining had made to Australians' living standards had been primarily driven by rising export prices with iron ore which soared in recent decades. But Westpac says the price of iron ore which is around $US103 a tonne today will slide to $US84 by 2027. 'And while we don't all 'work in the industry', we benefit indirectly from the demand for ancillary services, the investment undertaken by the industry, including in infrastructure like roads and ports, and the tax paid by the industry,' he said. 'Indeed, a large reason why the federal government and the mining states have been able to provide cost of living support, and increase the scope of public services, without becoming heavily indebted is because of the windfalls provided by the mining industry.' But Westpac warns mining investment 'stalled' in post 2008 and another commodities super cycle is unlikely to occur. Despite the warning, Mr Bustamante said Australia could offset the falling commodity prices if there is an uptick in productivity. 'Even without the 'free kick' from mineral export prices, productivity and growth in living standards can be put on a sound trajectory,' he said. 'But this requires changes in business practices, policy and culture, which will allow us to benefit from the technological advances already happening and in train.' Treasurer Jim Chalmers has identified improving productivity as a major focus for the Albanese government's second term. Mr Chalmers will host an economic reform roundtable on August 19 to 21 to look at improving productivity, enhancing economic resilience and strengthening budget sustainability.
Otago Daily Times
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
A house full of music
For her latest album, Jenny Mitchell filled a Wairarapa house with music and family, to tell the stories of everything that happens in a home, she tells Tom McKinlay. It's not always easy to know how your music is going over, Jenny Mitchell says. But just lately, there's been some welcome clarity on that score. The Gore-raised and now Melbourne resident singer-songwriter has been touring Australia's vast territories with the Lucky Country's answer to Emmylou Harris, Kasey Chambers. "And you know, 90-something-percent of the audiences have never heard of me before." But now they do, and it's translating into follow-up listening on streaming platforms. "There's a big spike on the day after the show." It's been life-changing, Mitchell says of the tour, and reinforced the wisdom of her decision to cross the Tasman. It's all also coincided with the release of her fourth album, Forest House , a collection of a dozen songs that demonstrate the breadth of Mitchell's talent. The album was recorded over about a week and a-half in a house in the Wairarapa that Mitchell found for the purpose, one that could accommodate all those involved for the duration. "It was definitely the most enjoyable experience that I've ever had making an album," she says. "The kitchen was where the drums were set up and at one point, we were doing demos, and there was a roast chicken cooking and then in one of the tracks we end up using an oven tray as percussion." And the location also dovetailed nicely with themes Mitchell was exploring on the album. "Before I booked the house, I started realising that all the songs were about things that happened behind closed doors, and sometimes good things, and sometimes heartbreaking things, but they were kind of all connected to this idea of the house. So, yeah, that's what led me to finding the house." Those themes are rolled up into early single Heart Like A House , which centres the potential for connection and community. Mitchell creates a domestic setting for her telling but recognises the values as universal. "I think those are the best kinds of songs. They're the songs I love anyway, that mean something particular to the writer but that you can find yourself in." Mitchell's vocals are prominent in the mix, as they should be — sometimes joined by her father, her sisters and longtime band member Michael Hood — employed across a range of styles, tempos and arrangements. Mitchell is quick to give credit to others for the ambitious terrain across which her collection of songs travels. Her producer, Matt Fell, she says, often brings an alternative perspective, which she leaned into, and the players in her band bring another set of influences, talents and virtuosity to colour the final mix. But it's clear it is the material that Mitchell brings to the process that allows her collaborators to add colour, either inside or outside the lines — from the heartstrings opener Little Less Lonely , through the propulsive social commentary of Wives Who Wait , the rib-tickling two-step of No Cash, No Meal , and the anthemic Heart Like A House . As always, Mitchell mixes very contemporary themes, as country has long done, while respecting the traditions, revealing bright new facets of the genre's well polished touchstones. Alongside the guitar, mandolin and banjo, there are touches of brass this time, trumpet and trombone. Mitchell's quick to claim the latter as legitimately country embellishments. "I was thinking the other day about Ring of Fire , which is maybe the most well-known country song, it has horns in it. The riff is horns, and everyone says that that's definitely, definitely country." Other notable collaborative elements on the album include with recent Country Music Honour inductee Tami Neilson, with whom she wrote No Cash, No Meal . "Stick a fork in me, because honey I'm done," Mitchell sings, just one of an overflowing pantry of culinary metaphors. "We wrote that one sitting on the floor in her house. There were many, many extended versions of that song, it was so much fun. We were just cackling about all these kinds of kitchen or food-orientated metaphors." The horns return for Where The Water's Cold , in which Mitchell swings by New Orleans and leans into some swampy deep-south rockabilly. "That's definitely a new sound," she says. "One of my main goals for this album was that if anyone played any track, that I would be really proud to say, 'yes, that's me, that's what I sound like, and that's my writing', and we actually recorded it over a year and a-half ago now, and I still now, at release month, feel really proud of it and excited about people listening to it." The sense of community captured by the album, in its recording and the themes the songs address extends out into the world outside the studio. In what has become a pillar of Mitchell's approach to making music and being in the world, there's a focused, aware philanthropy at work. There will be an opportunity to donate to the Women's Refuge at her shows, picking up on the territory explored in Wives Who Wait . The album has already begun that work, all proceeds from a recent in-store gig in Invercargill going towards Women's Refuge's Safe Night programme. "I was thinking about that whole idea of me being lucky but not everybody having that privilege. So, we are going to have that as a big part of the New Zealand tour, which I'm really excited about." The gigs Forest House is out now and Jenny Mitchell will be touring the album in August. • Errick's, Dunedin Aug 16 Presale ticket promotion at Then general ticket sales from June 18.
