International Student Enrolments

International education is a major export for Australia and has been growing rapidly in recent years after a fall off after the global financial crisis, partly because eligibility rules were tightened up, partly because of the crisis and partly because of the rising Australian dollar. 

The Minister for Tourism and International Education, Minister Assisting the Minister for Trade and Investment, Senator the Hon Richard Colbeck remarked: 

 

The data is extensive and some care needs to be taken in not equating enrolments with numbers of students. 

I have adapted this chart to show more clearly the progress of various sectors. 

In my sector - higher education, enrolments have been growing rapidly with China and India the standouts.

The assumption is that numbers will continue to grow, especially from China and India, as the middle classes expand due to continuing economic growth and development. The impact of the economic slowdown and re-balancing of the Chinese economy may put this scenario in the optimistic category. However, there is no doubt about the continuing potential of this industry. 

Policy will need to facilitate the expansion of the sector, ensuring quality and helping to restrict scams. Over the long-term, quality will be fundamental to maintaining growth. 

Tom's Data Dump

The sources of Australian emissions

Australia's tax expenditures.

According to Treasury:

A tax expenditure arises where the actual tax treatment of an activity or class of taxpayer differs from the benchmark tax treatment. 

• Tax expenditures typically involve tax exemptions, deductions or offsets, concessional tax rates and deferrals of tax liability. 
• A positive tax expenditure reduces tax payable relative to the benchmark. A negative tax expenditure increases tax payable relative to the benchmark.

Note the potential revenue gain for cutting inequitable super tax concessions is $28.2 billion, which is quite a sum of money. Cutting GST exemptions would yield $17.3 billion, which would then lead to higher relative costs for lower income households. 

For information on tax expenditures see http://www.treasury.gov.au/PublicationsAndMedia/Publications/2015/TES-2014. 

The consumer price index remains subdued.

Jobs in solar have outpointed jobs in coal mining. Interesting to note that the boom only moderately increased employment

Commodity prices continue to fall.

Australia has more international students than Britain and Canada and significantly more than them and the United States as a percentage of total student population. Education 'exports' are Australia's fourth biggest export, but the sector employs a lot more Australians than the resources industry.

For a full list of Australian jobs see https://docs.employment.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/australian_jobs_2015_-_occupation_matrix.pdf

The Australian wine industry.

The Turnbull government talks about innovation (and then sacks 100s from the CSIRO!). This graphic shows that Australia has a way to go in collaboration between business and research institutions.

A better story can be told about immigration. Australia ranks third in the world for immigrants and native born offspring of immigrants as a percentage of population. While some may not celebrate this fact, it provides a remarkable indicator of just how successful Australia's post-war migration has been. Think of the issues that homogeneous countries like Japan will face in coming years as their populations continue to decline and the need for immigration becomes clearer. It has not always been smooth sailing, but Australia has done as well as anyone in integrating massive numbers of migrants over the years
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While car sales have gone up and the number of cars registered is 18 million, soon there will be no new Australian-made cars. 

Finally, interesting stats on selected causes of death in Australia.

The above figures are select figures over a 10 year period. The ABS data on causes of death shows that most people die from illnesses and old age.

Shark attacks

Total shark attacks since 1791 = 234 = roughly one a year since white settlement

For a full list of fatal shark attacks in Australia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_shark_attacks_in_Australia and https://taronga.org.au/animals-conservation/conservation-science/australian-shark-attack-file/latest-figures

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