The Melbourne Newsroom

When it comes to precious commodities, it could be copper, not gold or oil, that stands out in the future, according to Dr Les Coleman.  

"Copper is interesting. It has been mined for the better part of ten thousand years, so we know copper very, very well, but the price keeps on going up."

"Generally if you know something very well you should be able to produce a lot of it quite cheaply and we don't seem to be able to do that, so it may be (a commodity) to look out for."

According to Dr Coleman we may be seeing the approach of 'peak copper.'

A significant shift in the ETS debate will result from this week's Federal Opposition leadership spill, says University of Melbourne's Dr Les Coleman
 
 "The major issue to come out of Abbott 's  leadership is the fact that all bets are off now. Where there was consensus before about the ETS as being a good way forward, I think it will go right back to basics now and that there will be a complete reassesment of it."

Long-term infrastructure planning should be encouraged, despite budget deficits says Dr Les Coleman.

“Every time governments talk about going into deficit, people seem to get hysterical. But it’s the only way we can afford to build infrastructure that lasts and we need to recognise the major social, economic and environmental problems our infrastructure gaps are causing," he says.

Commodity prices are set to push the Australian dollar higher in the not so distant future, according to Dr Les Coleman.  "The indicators are quite good for the global economy and it looks like there will be recovery in place next year.  That means growing demand for commodities, higher prices for commodities and in turn these prices will probably significantly support the Australian dollar, and will also  get some support in the rise in interest rates that the central bank seems keen on."

Despite better than expected profit reporting by Australia's major companies, the direction of the Australian sharemarket is still cloudy, says Dr Les Coleman.  "In the last few months the stockmarket reached a low in March but has rebounded almost 50% since then.  In fact its gone back about 40% of the way to its previous high in 2007."