News on the Nova development has gone quiet in the last few months. There was a media report of a meeting with construction tenderers at the beginning of August with “a couple of months” to appoint a builder.

I prefer to look at the regulatory disclosures from World Class Global to the Singapore Exchange which was released today for the September quarter.

That equates to another four Nova unit sales for the quarter. Again there has been no comment on commencement of construction.

In the era of fake news and the identity politics tribal roll back of scientific credibility in public policy I sometimes return to an excerpt from Cranks Quarks and the Cosmos by Jeremy Bernstein in 1997.

From time to time I entertain myself with the following fantasy: The year is 1905. I am a professor of physics at the University of Bern. For many years, I have been teaching, probably from the same set of notes, respectable courses based on what is for me the familiar and comfortable physics of the nineteenth century. I teach the mechanics of Newton, the relatively modern theories of electricity and magnetism of James Clerk Maxwell, along with good solid nineteenth-century thermodynamics. I believe that atoms exist although I am troubled occasionally by the question that, around the turn of the century, Ernst Mach asked Ludwig Boltzmann: “Have you seen one?” All in all, it is a good, comfortable life. Then, with no warning at all, a series of physics papers begins arriving in the mail. They carry the return address of the Swiss National Patent Office in Bern. The covering letter identifies their author as a patent examiner-a technical expert “third class”-of whom I have never heard. He does not even have a doctoral title. Upon browsing through the papers, I discover that this doctorless unknown is claiming-using totally unfamiliar kinds of reasoning-that essentially all of the physics I have been teaching is wrong. Not just wrong in a few minor details, but fundamentally wrong. What would my reaction be? What should it have been? In short, how could I then have known that the author of these papers-the twenty-six-year-old Albert Einsteinwas not a crank?

Look it up. A horse can only be led to water …….

1. Boys trend better than girls possibly because they are simpler less evolved organisms.
2. If we stir the tea leaves with our participation rate spoon we can surely spin a narrative around the female gyrations but a prudent punter would place an each way bet on random.
3. Despite female volatility they do tend to correlate except …..
4. WTF is that gap that opens up around 2014-2016?

Notes: Derived from ABS annual average with proprietary eyeball trend methodology applied in Microsoft Paint.

The previously posted Cairns Chamber presentation from Bill Cummings includes some strong opinions on survey sample data:

Unfortunately, there is another series based on sample surveys that causes confusion – the ABS Labour Force series is published each month. Just how bad the series is, is illustrated by comparison with Census data when it came through.

Source: Cummings Economics

Did have a quick look at this previously and put together a few numbers which I haven’t gone back to check which may have been wise but anyway:

The numbers for the ABS Labour Force Survey (LFS) numbers are taken from August each year which is the month of the census. The ATO data (also from ABS) is derived from tax data for the prior financial year.

The Cummings difference for Cairns appears to be derived from the ABS recommended 12 month average for the (LFS) data. Had he used the Conus Trend the decline would have almost halved to 5,100. The original monthly data for August would have been lower too but that’s as much a fluke as anything given the notorious volatility of the regional LFS data.

The ATO data here is derived from two different series which represent categories of employment . I don’t claim to be on top of the nuances of these different series. It isn’t the number or the discontinuity that matters but the trend. I can’t think of any reason why the trend in this data should not be consistent with employment in Cairns over the period. Previous posts on this data: Personal income down to SA2; ATO income data and Cairns City.

Similarly we shouldn’t focus on the difference in number of employed between the Census and LFS: Differences between the LFS and the Census, which includes comparisons for the 2011 Census. These will be different and a quick look suggests an expectation of a similarly higher number at both Australia and Queensland level for the LFS at the 2016 Census. It’s the 2011 – 2016 period where the difference appears anomalous for Cairns SA4 between different data series.

In timely fashion this month Ricardian Ambivalence rose from a long slumber to remind us that “the survey isn’t designed to measure the number of people with jobs. It is designed to measure the unemployment rate.”

Explained in more detail back in 2012: It’s the unemployment rate …

The household survey is NOT designed to measure the number of jobs. It is designed to measure a bunch of key ratios, including the unemployment rate. Multiplication of population forecasts by the ratios yields the so-called jobs number. Population over- and under-estimates are corrected for by smoothing subsequent population estimates toward the revised estimate, and this may distort the derived levels.

The ABS Labour Force Survey problem is not that any number could be wrong but that at regional level employment data may be misleading not just over short periods related to sample volatility but over extended periods.

It looks like getting hot and unpleasant in coming days. An excellent opportunity to sit back, relax and catch up with the annual presentations a few months ago now to the Cairns Chamber lunch by Bill Cummings and Rick Carr:

Rick Carr: The Cairns Property Market

Bill Cummings: Text; Presentation.

These two have been around so long that Mayor Manning may be the only person left in Cairns who remembers when they were not around. It means they offer valuable experience and insights. It also means they carry a few barnacles which should be scraped from the hull.

The ACT government has still not decided what to do about a multi-million dollar plan to redevelop Canberra Casino, months after putting a now-abandoned deadline on the casino owners to hand over financial details.

Canberra Times

Cairns Airport has posted numbers for September. International -4%, domestic -3% on the previous September 2017.

Without an imminent turnaround that annual trend could pull down for at least a few months yet. The numbers here are Cairns passengers ex transits etc. The full annual data including transfers and transits has gone negative which will likely flow through to the BITRE comparative data in coming months.

No commentary again from the airport in this report which is odd because they were happy to comment earlier in the week to the Cairns Post on “new data” related to performance and direct flights. Never mind, something to come back to when it isn’t a Friday night.

Saturday morning update: School holiday changes may also influence the September numbers so likely not as weak as it looks. Queensland and NSW both shifted back a week compared to 2017. If so should anticipate an October bounce. That’ll learn me for posting on a Friday night.

Sydney Airport commented on this in numbers posted yesterday, and were generally flat in September, which I missed. Sydney also provide good numbers on international passengers which confirm some trends in the recent ABS stats:

Overseas Arrivals & Departures data from ABS this week. Commentary:

International arrivals still growing; QLD gets its mojo back while Tassie slows

Qld “gets its mojo back” on international visitors

Tourism is still booming, but not just from China

Again, more questions than answers. While annual short term visitor growth to Australia remains positive the growth from China has slowed significantly while the holiday category has flattened and turned slightly negative on rolling annual growth, down 1.9% on the previous year.

All categories rolling annual growth for major states with WA at the bottom omitted from the legend:

This is curious because the holiday category is the strength of Queensland. Perhaps Queensland really is shooting the lights out on international holiday visitor share. It could be that the growth shift from China to the USA is more advantageous to the Queensland holiday product. Perhaps a Commonwealth Games effect has shown up.

The most interesting aspect here is that it was the purpose of visit data that was the problem for the International Visitor Survey and was withheld from the most recent edition. Since delayed again. TRA specifically cited the quality of the arrival card data. I can find nothing at ABS which indicates any problem with this data which is derived from the same source.

The beleaguered sugar price looks to have finally made a break up from recent trends.

It appears that that the weaker prices have led to a supply response with lower production anticipated in Thailand and also Brazil triggering some short covering from traders: QSL Market Update