The resources in the first section regularly contain statistics and commentary on the following topics; Economic performance Economic Growth, Full Employment, Price Stability and External Stability. They also often contain comments on topical issues and evaluations of current Government policy.

Economic Performance.

Policy and Performance

Full Employment

Micro Economic Reform

Income Distribution.

Trade

Labour

  • Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry - Australia This site offers a lot of economic analysis and resources relevant to commodities and the rural industry.
  • Macquarie Bank Group of Companies Daily market round ups are provided free as well as some other information. Macquarie Online - market watch
  • AMP In the AMP today section current market reports can eb found as well as the Wealth and Inheritance report from AMP and NATSEM. This offers some current data on this sensitive topic.
  • CEDA: Committee for Economic Development of Australia Often carries feature articles on current economic issues. These are free for download and can be found in CEDA"s magazine called the Australian Chief Executive. Teachers with an active interest in the current economic debate will find many of the publications here stimulating.
  • Melbourne Insitute of Applied Social and Economic Research. The publication sections of the Insitute sites gives users access to a wide range of working papers on current economic issues. Teachers will find many of these stimulating reading. The Insiute also publishes updated poverty lines and these are useful resources in the classroom.
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Government Policy and Performance

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Full Employment

  • Welcome to the Brotherhood of St Laurence The Brotherhood Poverty and employment fact sheets, its newsletters and journals can all be downloaded from the pblications section of its web site. Many of these publications are excellent classroom resources that have been used for many years by economics teachers,
  • Australian Council of Social Services This site is a gateway to internet resources in Australia dealing with social issues in Australia. It offers to links Community Net which is a WAN for progressive erganisations in the country. It offers an excellent directory of internet resources coverung these issues.
  • Dusseldorf skills forum Contains research papers and much material on school to work transition and youth unemployment.
  • Department of Employment Training and Youth Check the online publication section and the following
  • DEWR Home Page This site offers access to the following publications The Australian Jobs Review, The Departments Leading Indicator of employment survey, The Departments skilled labour job vacancy survey and much more. Often available in DEWRSB:The Portfolio Media Centre
  • Centrelink The Commonwealth's employment agency. Useful for activities on the social wage, however teachers shuld look at the download on CentreLinks facts and figres. How many phone calls a month they receive and the data on social security fraud available in the piblications section.
  • Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Training ACIRRT makes many of its publications and newsletters available online. In particular teh Workplace intelligence report contains much material that is useful for teachers covering labour market issues.
  • Australian Industrial Relations Commission Offers information on Current Industrial Agreements.
  • Office of the Employment Advocate Carries information ob workplace agreements
  • Australian Council of Trade Unions This site offers a lot of comment and news articles on current labour issues. Teachers should note that the ACTU WorkSite for students offers activities about jobs, unions and the labour market for youg people.
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Micro Economic Reform

  • Ausindustry This site carries material describing the Governments various efforts to promote industrial innovation and encourage greater research and development by Australian Industry. Teachers will find some of the Business case studies of successful innovations particularly relevant to Micro Economic Reform and useful resources to allow students to develop a better understanding of these issues.
  • Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry. This site contains much useful information on the development of rural industries and programs to address issues such as desalination. In particular teachers will find the series of briefs called Science for decision makers particularly useful in this regard. These are available from the Bureau of Resource Sciences
  • Productivity Commission This site offers papers and regularly updated productivity statistics that concentrate on imporving national productivity and effeciency. There are some excellent government reports that can be downloaded from this site.
  • Business Council of Australia Carries the councils policy documents and research papers as well as a section dealing with regularatory reform.
  • Australian Business Foundation Publishes documents and articles on topical issues ranging form their perspective on the knowledge economy to debates over the effect of complexity and uncertainity on the nature of management.
  • Foundation for Australian Manufacturing | Educational Resources... Often carries papers offering a business perspective on current issues. Quarterly economic surveys are available as well media releases.
  • Australian Business Online The ABL publishes many position papers on Micro Economic Issues.
  • Department of Transport and Regional ServicesThis site offers an excellent gateway into resources relating to transport.(Rail, Air and shipping) and also contains nation wide links to local governments.
  • Bureau of Transport Economics (BTE) - Home Page This site offers a lot of transport statistics and analysis. For example air fares and passenger numbers. It is a particularly useful reference when transports reforms are being discussed in the media.
  • Department of Industry Science and Resources This site carries details of a wide range of Government Industry policies and various attempts to promote greater innovation and improved international competitiveness by Australian Industry. Details of Governments automotive and industry policies can be found at this site. A good place for teachers who are researching an industry or market to look. Government policy for petroleum, energy and shipbuilding and a wide range of other industries can be found here.
  • National Competition Council The aim of the NCC is to "To improve the well being of all Australians through growth, innovation and rising productivity, by promoting competition that is in the public interest". Press releases and publications relating to competition policy can be found here. These are useful for back ground information on current issues in competition policy. Most of the documents are targetted at porfessionals however students may find some of the speeches on the site useful for research purposes.
  • Australian Competition and Consumer Commission(ACCC) This is the Big Daddy of Australian Competition sites. Current reports of breaches of trade practices and competition policy are available. The ACCI also publishes a newsletter that frequently contains down to earth summaries of competitions policies and issues.

International Competitiveness

Teachers will find many of the sites listed in the previous section relevant to this theme as well.

  • Global Economic Forum This site carries comment by the Economics team from Morgan Stanley in the States. Often the economists will discuss productivity and other issues relevant to the course. It is however more useful for teachers than students.

    OECD The OECD in its regular OECD observer magazine and its statistics section as well as in OECD source carries much material of interest to teachers on this topic. Teachers will find that OECD statistical handbook is an excellent source of statistics for international comparisons on this topic as well as many others. (OECD in figures)This is usually available for download from its statistics section. Teachers will also find the OECD policy briefs, outlook statements and other publications useful reference material.(See publications)

  • World Economic Forum publishes the Global Competitiveness Report. Usually summaries of key comparisons are available for free however more detailed statistics require payment. Here you can download Global competitiveness rankings and selected country competitiveness profiles. These can be useful for examining some issues in Australia's Trade.

Income and Income Distribution.

  • Welcome to the Brotherhood of St Laurence This site especially in the publications and library sections offers fact sheets on homelessness, unemployment and poverty. The brotherhood's journal and research papers may also be downloaded from this site and offer much information that is useful for these kinds of social and distributional issues.
  • Check NATSEM National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling. Offers many publications on Income distribution, savings and wealth. Many of the centres media releases in the other publications section are useful in the classroom. Teachers may find many of the discussion and other papers interesting however these are generally to difficult for students. See the Current Income and Wealth Report available at the AMP
  • Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research Visit the publications section and choose social and economic indicators. Here you can download current information on Poverty lines in Australia. Teachers should examine the working paper section while far too challenging for students many of the papers are useful analyses of current issues and well worth reading. More resources see dedicated Section
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Foreign Affairs and Trade

  • Austrade This site is developing so quickly that it is hard to keep up with all the resources there relevant to this topic. Currently the student centre of the Austrade site provides excellent resources for teachers. The Economists corner also offers excellent material as well. Teachers who after detailed statistics on Australia's trade with other countries well heave a huge sigh of relief. Austrade is making available its composition of Australia's trade online. This allows students to access detailed breakdowns of Australia's trade with many countries. Extremely useful for research projects and analysing patterns in the composition of Australia's trade. Secondly Austrade offers a searchable database of current trade reports and country profiles useful for the same purpose.
  • TradeWatch E mail service notifying users of important trade documents on the DFAT site. These documents can also be searched.
  • Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Teachers will find the EFIC marketwatch newsletter a good overview of developments in Australia's overseas export markets and our immediate trade prospects. The EFIC newsletters also contain fascinating details of the difficulties of doing business in Iraq and other risk factors for exporters.
  • Foreign Affairs and Trade DFAT offers heaps of information on Australia's current trade relations with the world. Details of current trade negotiations, country fact sheets, statistics and Australia's trade agreements are all documented here. Excellent collection Internet resources on trade and trade agreements available form this site.
  • World Trade Organization The WTO makes its world trade statistics handbook available online. This the best source of statistics on world trade patterns available. Current details of anti dumping policies, world trade agreements and world trade policies are all available from this site.
  • Australian Industry Group Check the section on International Trade and as well at the Australian Business Online
  • United Nations This link provides a gateway to the wide range of resources offered by the UN on social and economic development including international trade.
  • United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) This site focuses on trade and development from the point of view of less developed economies. Many of papers here are too difficult for students however UNCTAD's press releases and summaries and highlights of various UNCTAD reports are an useful source of statistics and current comment on many trade issues.
  • APEC Asia Pacific Economic Forum. This site often current updates on member economies and news of current developments in this important regional trading agreement for Australia.
  • AusAid Aus Aid carries details of Australia's foreign Aid. Teachers should inspect the wide range of primary and secondary materials available for teaching globalisation, poverty and development related issues at Global Education
  • World Information.com This site offers current economic and political information on all the countries in the world. Often useful for trade based research projects.
  • ASEAN Secretariat This site carries material on the ASEAN economies that students investigating Australia's Asian trade links may find useful.
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Labour and Micro Economic Reform

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