Category Archives: Australian economy

Albanese says Russia should withdraw from Ukraine; Australia sanctions three MH17 culprits – as it happened

Posted on by

Australian prime minister says ‘it is Russia and its involvement that keeps this war going’. This blog is now closed

Forced property sales on the rise in outer Sydney as interest rate hikes start to bite

My colleagues, Peter Hannam and Nick Evershed have this report on the rise in forced property sales as interest rate rises begin to bite.

Sydney’s outer suburbs are showing signs of rising numbers of distressed property sales with higher interest rates the likely cause, a trend that can be expected to spread to other capitals, according to property data group Domain.

Distressed listings as a share of the national market remain low, at about 2.8% across the capital cities, compared with a record 5.1% in late 2018.

Continue reading...

Forced property sales on the rise in outer Sydney as interest rate hikes start to bite

Posted on by

Domain data shows distressed listings as a share of the national market remain low but there’s been an uptick in outer suburban pockets

Sydney’s outer suburbs are showing signs of rising numbers of distressed property sales with higher interest rates the likely cause, a trend that can be expected to spread to other capitals, according to property data group Domain.

Distressed listings as a share of the national market remain low, at about 2.8% across the capital cities, compared with a record 5.1% in late 2018.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australia news live: NSW premier refutes cover-up allegations over police Tasering of 95-year-old woman

Posted on by

Follow the day’s news live

PwC should not be banned from government work but should face ‘significant sanction’, Dutton says

Following the damning interim Senate report into PwC, Dutton says he does not believe the consultancy firm should be cut from all government work, but says a penalty needs to be incurred for the breach of trust:

I think where people have breached a contract, they’ve breached trust, there’s a penalty and the price that should be paid. I don’t know whether that’s the company or whether there’s a solution that the government can provide to it but there’s there’s a significant sanction that’s that’s required – no doubt the government will be looking into that right now.

All of the pollsters at the moment, and credible commentators, believe that it’s either going to fail in October or, best case scenario for the yes case, that gets up 51-49. And in that scenario, our nation is split down the middle.

I think there’s an opportunity to unite our country here instead of divide, and that is that we should proceed with constitutional recognition.

Continue reading...

Greens and Coalition unite to refer bill to its own inquiry

Posted on by

This blog is now closed.

Albanese takes swipes at the Greens

The Midwinter Ball was held overnight. It seems to have been a fairly staid affair but I am still ferreting out info.

Consulting firm PwC engaged in a “calculated” breach of trust by using confidential information to help its clients avoid tax and engaged in a “deliberate cover-up” over many years, a Senate committee has found.

PwC should be “open and honest” by promptly publishing the names and details of its partners and staff involved, the finance and public administration committee has recommended.

Continue reading...

House prices will keep rising into next year, says Domain, as immigration boosts demand

Posted on by

Sydney to lead recovery with 6%-9% increase by next June while Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane will surpass or come close to record highs

The recovery of real estate prices will extend across Australia and well into 2024 as a swelling population overwhelms the headwinds of higher interest rates and reduced borrowing limits for some prospective buyers, according to data group Domain.

Sydney, which led the fall in home prices last year as the Reserve Bank began lifting its cash rate, will also power the rebound. By the end of June next year, the city’s houses are forecast to be 6% to 9% higher than at the end of last month, lifting the median price to a record of just over $1.6m.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Politicians dress up for Canberra’s night of nights – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed.

Lambie agrees with calls to have Iraq invasion decision referred to ICC

Jacqui Lambie says she also agrees with calls to have the leaders of the “coalition of the willing” – the leaders of the UK, the US and Australia when the decision was made to invade Iraq – also referred to the international criminal court. Beyond that, she says Australia has never really examined its role in that decision.

I absolutely agree with and when you go in to Iraq, and you say you have a reason to do that … when you work out three years later that the reason that they were using was not there at all, then we have a massive problem here and you continue to stay in a war that you probably should never have been involved in the first place because you didn’t have that information correct.

Then you have a problem. And quite frankly, politicians when they send us into war, they should be accountable as well.

If Australia – and both governments we’ve seen it from the Liberal party and now from the Labor party – if they’re not prepared to go in and look at senior command … I’m going to force them to.

Because you are not going to chuck all these diggers under the bus and not [front] up.

Continue reading...

Australia politics live: Mehreen Faruqi says housing fund standoff ‘not about playing political games’

Posted on by

Follow latest updates live

Independent Kooyong MP Dr Monique Ryan said the crossbench was distressed by the past week in parliament:

I can speak for other members of the crossbench because we talk to each other after each question time because we found it distressing, and we wanted to stand to our feet and say that we felt it was conduct unbecoming parliament, and I think if we learn nothing from this, we have to decide as a society whether we want our parliament really to be dragging people who have gone through really difficult experiences through that sort of experience again. It wasn’t ideal. It was – I actually felt it was shameful.

I think there were serious questions that needed to be asked in the face of a minister misleading the Senate and we asked questions about who knew what, when, what was done with that information – all very legitimate questions, and this issue, when it was last in parliament was pursued ferociously by the then opposition and I think we were very careful as we could be with our tone, but to also ask legitimate questions of the government and their ministers, not just around who knew what when but also around the swiftness of the compensation payment, why some evidence in that process was explicitly excluded, and that, you know, the substantial nature of it – all legitimate questions and the right thing to do.

Continue reading...

Victorian Liberals to meet on senator’s future; Stoker says she’s ‘fine’ – as it happened

Posted on by

Urgent meeting called for this weekend after allegations raised against the senator in parliament. This blog is now closed

Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe says “at this stage” she will be voting no on the government’s bill for a referendum on the Indigenous voice to parliament.

She’s told ABC Radio her position on the voice is:

At this stage, I’ll be voting no to the bill that is before us to change the constitution, given the government have not come forward with proof on what their interpretation of sovereignty is.

I know that for months now that they continue to say that this does not affect the sovereignty of First Nations people in this country, however, they’ve never provided any evidence.

Continue reading...

Senator removed from party room – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed.

Liberal senator David Van is speaking to Sydney radio 2GB about independent senator Lidia Thorpe’s allegations in the Senate yesterday.

Thorpe withdrew the remarks to comply with the Senate’s standing orders but said she would be making a statement on the issue today.

Continue reading...

Sydney CBD sees uptick in commuters as big banks lead push to return workers to offices

Posted on by

City train stations at 70% of pre-pandemic capacity amid warnings of potential effects of bringing workers back full-time

Workers are returning to offices in inner Sydney as a handful of large companies, including big banks, tell employees to come back from their kitchen tables.

The corporate-led trend is observable in public transport usage figures that show a recent uptick in office returns. It marks a shift in working arrangements after Australians appeared to have largely settled into their new hybrid habits.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australia politics live: Morrison addresses Higgins discrepancy; PM says bus crash a ‘tragedy beyond comprehension’

Posted on by

Katy Gallagher hits back at Coalition attacks, saying she conducted herself with ‘highest levels of integrity’ over Higgins allegations. Follow live

First Nations people call on government to sign nuclear weapons prohibition

A group of people are on their way to Canberra to call on the prime minister to sign the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons and speak to MPs about their experience surviving the British nuclear testing program in Western Australia and South Australia in the 1950s.

Our mob were not informed of those tests that were about to take place on our traditional lands.

Consent was never given by Anangu for the Emu Field tests. The government did not come and ask Anangu if it was okay to test on our traditional lands.

Everyone knows the commonwealth doesn’t have the power to cap rents. There’s eight different states and territories across the country all doing different things. Some of them have ruled it out.

We have data and evidence it doesn’t work and it puts downward pressure on supply. What we need to do is add to supply. That’s what we’re doing, not just with our housing Australia future fund and our other investments. We have homes under construction today because we made that money available.

Continue reading...

$15,000 more a year: homeowners brace as interest rate hikes bring ‘mortgage cliff’ closer

Posted on by

Rate rises mean that households with an average $576,985 mortgage will have to find an extra $1250 a month

Jack Lynch and his partner moved out of Sydney to the picturesque but cheaper Blue Mountains to become homeowners in 2021, and promptly locked in a cut-rate, fixed-rate loan.

The couple, in their early 30s, are now bracing for that loan to expire, and for repayments to increase by more than $2,000 a month.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australia in ‘retail recession’ as inflation and rate hikes hit spending, says report

Posted on by

With spending expected to dip again in the June quarter, Deloitte forecasts a broader ‘consumer recesssion’ later this year

Australia is the midst of a “retail recession” as inflation and higher interest rates erode the buying power of consumers, according to a report by Deloitte Access Economics.

Retail turnover once inflation is stripped out sank 0.6% in the March quarter, or twice the pace of the retreat in the final three months of 2022. The June quarter is also likely to post a drop in retail sales, making it three consecutive quarters of decline.

Continue reading...

Australia news live: budget and minimum wage hike not to blame for rising interest rates, Chalmers says

Posted on by

Treasurer points finger at inflation, adding ‘people are under pressure and the global economic conditions are not helping either’. Follow live

Parts of Victoria and South Australia are being warned to expect heavy rainfall today.

The heavy rain that’s already hit Western Australia is sweeping across the country, with South Australia’s Riverland and Murraylands warned to brace for heavy rainfall to last until Friday.

We want to see productivity get going. We have had the worst decade, I think, in productivity growth in the last 60 years in the previous decade so there’s a lot of work to do. We can’t turn that around in one year.

Continue reading...

Australian economy grew 0.2% in first three months of the year, the slowest since Covid lockdowns

Posted on by

Jim Chalmers says higher interest rates and cost-of-living pressures are squeezing household budgets and slowing the economy

Australia’s economy slowed in the March quarter as households dipped into savings to keep spending amid a record run of interest rate rises and imports rose faster than exports.

The country’s gross domestic product expanded at a quarterly rate of 0.2% in the first three months of the year, and by an annual rate of 2.3%. Economists had expected GDP growth of 0.3% for the quarter and 2.4% for the year.

Continue reading...

Interest rate pain felt ‘unevenly’ but that’s not a reason to avoid rises, Philip Lowe says

Posted on by

The Reserve Bank governor says rates will keep being lifted if necessary, despite 'significant financial pressure’ for some

Philip Lowe concedes interest rate pain is being felt “unevenly” across Australia but he says that is not a reason to avoid using the one tool the Reserve Bank has to tame inflation and raise rates further.

The RBA governor has also warned against the idea that all workers should be compensated for inflation, saying “we have to make sure that higher inflation doesn’t translate into higher wages for everybody”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Political point scoring over latest RBA rate rise won’t help those feeling the ‘painful squeeze’

Posted on by

How high must rates go to choke inflation? Blaming Labor’s budget, price-gouging businesses or the national wage increase isn’t an answer

The Reserve Bank is all about “seeking to keep the economy on an even keel” as it cranks up interest rates to crush inflation – but the effect of multiple rate rises is anything but even.

The central bank again surprised most economists and investors on Tuesday by hiking its cash rate another 25 basis points to 4.1%.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

RBA interest rates: Reserve Bank increases cash rate by 25 basis points in attempt to quash inflation

Posted on by

RBA decision to raise Australia’s cash rate by another 25 basis points brings the official rate to 4.1%, its highest level in 11 years

The Reserve Bank has lifted interest rates for a 12th time in just over a year, judging the risk of inflation staying too high for too long outweighed the added financial stress that will hurt households and businesses.

The decision to hike by another 25 basis points brings the cash rate to 4.1%, its highest level in 11 years. Economists and markets had slightly favoured no change for this month.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Central bank going ‘rogue’, senator claims – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed.

Burke says the loophole only applies to where the business has agreed on a minimum rate of pay:

The loopholes are really simple … which is, if an employer agrees with their workforce and registers, this should be the rate of pay.

You shouldn’t then be able to go to a labour hire company and completely undercut what you’ve just agreed to.

Yesterday was one of the one of the strangest debates I’ve ever found myself in – because business was running a passionate campaign against a policy that the government is not proposing, that the government’s not going to do. And to me, it would sound like a bad idea anyway.

Effectively the way business were arguing yesterday – there was someone on PM yesterday afternoon, claiming that somehow this would prevent hairdressers from being able to pay different rates of pay for the people in their employment. Just not true.

Continue reading...

Economists split over prospects of another rate rise ahead of RBA meeting

Posted on by

Despite 11 hikes in the cash rate since last May, some forecasters think the central bank could still raise borrowing costs again

It’s Reserve Bank roulette time for another month with borrowers and pundits bracing for the potential of another rate rise surprise.

Since May last year, the central bank has lifted interest rates on the first Tuesday of each month, with only the January holiday break and a short-lived pause in April breaking the metronomic rise in mortgage pain.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...