Anne Garnett

Essentials of Economics, 6th Australian edition is the market-leading introductory text, making economic principles relevant by demonstrating how businesses, individuals and policymakers use them to make decisions every day. It provides the expected rigour for the discipline with easy-to-understand explorations of the key concepts while being highly supported by real-world business examples and policy applications that bring these concepts to life.

The 6th edition has been revised to provide students with the most up-to-date and relevant content they need to succeed in the field of economics. In the past few years, to take just a few relevant examples, we have witnessed the introduction of generative artificial intelligence (AI) into mainstream use, the runaway success of smartphones and tablet computers, the rapid growth of the sharing economy including companies such as Uber and Airbnb, increased policy debate about how best to address climate change, and experienced the global impact of the economic contractions and recessions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent high rates of inflation. This new edition helps students understand these changing economic realities.

This project investigates recreational and commercial fisher motivations for using a fishery and the beliefs, attitudes and perceived benefits of aquaculture-based enhancement programs and other management options. It also determines the total economic value for recreational fishing for Blue Swimmer Crabs (Portunus armatus) and Black Bream (Acanthopagrus butcheri) in a range of estuaries in south-western Australia and investigates the benefits of release programs in contributing to the optimisation of biological, social and economic objectives for those fisheries. Finally, it provides training for the next generation of fisheries and social scientists and fishery economists and project members engaged in community engagement and education.

Work was focused on two iconic small-scale estuarine fisheries in south-western Australia, i.e. those for Blue Swimmer Crabs and Black Bream. A two-phase approach to elicit common recreational fisher beliefs using semi-structured interviews (phase 1) and then sample a broader pool of respondents using closed-question online surveys (phase 2). Analyses demonstrated that motivations for recreational fishing were markedly different for the two fisheries, even when operating in the same system. Aquaculture-based enhancement was universally supported by the recreational sector as a fishery management approach as they believed it would enhance stocks and catches, and, although it may cause negative impacts, they were considered unlikely. Commercial fishers were less supportive of this management intervention. Enhancement of stocks was estimated to increase the economic value of recreational fishing through increased visitation. Biological modelling highlights that stocking could provide substantial benefits to the biomass of the target stocks, particularly Black Bream, but the parameters of any future stocking the need to carefully considered to ensure maximum benefits and the mitigation of density-dependent effects on wild stocks. Advice on the numbers and size-at-release for Blue Swimmer Crabs in the Peel-Harvey and Black Bream in the Blackwood River Estuary are provided to optimise the biological, social and economic dimensions of these fisheries.

The Australian economy has experienced a high degree of structural and technological change over the past three decades. Significant changes will continue, with the decline of the manufacturing sector, the increasing use of mechanisation and technology in the mining and agricultural sectors, and with the growing role of computerisation and robotics in the workplace in general. The effects of such changes to date have included better pay and more employment opportunities for those whose skills are in demand, but it has also meant lower relative pay and fewer job opportunities for low-skilled and unskilled workers and for workers whose jobs have been replaced by technological development. Structural change leaves workers in industries that are in long-term relative decline with fewer employment opportunities which can lead to entrenched long-term unemployment. Technological change impacts on the types of jobs available within industries and the skills required. The purpose of this paper is to examine the regional dimension to labour market change and determine which areas are likely to be most at risk as the economy continues to experience changes in sectoral mix and in the types of jobs and the skills required.

In his 2013 election campaign, Tony Abbott promised his government would build a world-class “five pillar economy”, encompassing manufacturing, agriculture, services, education and mining. Two years later, as his government prepares its second federal budget, just how are these sectors faring? The prices of exported goods over the past year have stabilised or fallen, particularly for iron ore, oil and coal. Australia’s mining sector is also moving from the construction phase (which creates considerable employment) to the operation phase (which requires up to 10 times fewer workers). So it’s a good time to have a look at the mining sector in a more historic context and examine the outlook for the future. Australia’s mining sector has been hailed as a saviour to the economy, protecting it from the effects of the severe economic downturns experienced in the USA, Europe and other countries during and after the global financial crisis of 2007-08. There is no doubt that the minerals and energy boom of the 2000s was responsible for much of the growth in commodity export earnings. It also protected economic growth rates and, to some extent, jobs during this time. The mining boom was in large part due to the significant increase in demand for raw materials and energy by China and India during their very rapid economic growth over the past decade.