Category Archives: Australian economy

Australia news live: economists push interest rate forecasts higher; teens arrested over violent carjacking

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Eight teenagers in police custody after allegedly dragging woman from car on the Gold Coast. Follow the day’s news live

Business groups argue ‘same job, same pay’ laws would disadvantage workers

I mentioned a little earlier that business groups have glommed together to launch a campaign against the federal government’s proposed “same job, same pay” industrial relations laws.

The so-called ‘Same Job, Same Pay’ proposals does not mean equal pay for men and women. It does not speak of fairness and justice, as its name falsely represents.

It means by law, employers will have to pay workers with little knowledge or experience exactly the same as workers with decades of knowledge and experience.

Without a real threat of losing passengers to other airlines, the Qantas and Virgin Australia airline groups have had less incentive to offer attractive airfares, develop more direct routes, operate more reliable services, and invest in systems to provide high levels of customer service.

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Australia politics live: ‘absolutely shocking’ for education department to give PwC contracts after tax leak scandal, Faruqi says; Ben Roberts-Smith verdict due today

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Department taken to task for its nine contracts with PwC, two of which were entered into in the past two months. Follow latest updates

Sally McManus responds to RBA governor’s commentary on housing market

Sally McManus spoke to ABC News Breakfast this morning and gave her thoughts on some of RBA governor Phil Lowe’s commentary around the housing market and what he thinks needs to happen.

I think we’re living in two worlds. We’ve got people living in very big houses that have multiple dwellings and they’re landlords. And what they’re doing is when the Reserve Bank governor puts up interest rates, they’re passing on that cost to renters and that’s part of the reason why we’re seeing rents increase.

And I think that that is just basically saying to everyone, look, ordinary people, move in with your parents and grandparents whilst we’re going to say nothing about those CEOs I talked about at companies that actually are the ones that could ease cost of living tomorrow on people but they’re choosing not to because in the end they want to see their bonuses.

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Queensland LNP criticised for ‘failure of leadership’ on voice – as it happened

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Why didn’t the Coalition government know about these issues?

Shouldn’t it have?

And that’s exactly I would imagine the issues that will be fleshed out by this inquiry it, because this has been a loophole if you like, but that said privacy provisions, particularly when you’re dealing with government agencies, are really important to engender trust.

Now, as I said, there are a number of processes under way. We’ve seen what happens in recent times, when there is ongoing media commentary or into matters that relate to criminal proceedings. So we should be very careful about being part of that commentary that might impact other proper processes.

Secrecy provisions are there and privacy provisions are there for very good reasons. Now, whether those privacy provisions manifested in the best outcome here is for others to say, but I don’t think we should throw the baby out of the bathwater. We want to make sure that people have trust in the ATO trust when they give information to agencies that it will be kept private.

But look, this will all be flushed out it will all be flushed out in two inquiries. One by the AFP – there’s been a reference made to them already. And the other by a Senate references inquiry and I don’t want to pre-empt exactly what that particular that references inquiry will find. My colleagues right across the chamber will be investigating this issue, I would imagine, very thoroughly along with others to do with the PwC scandal.

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Australia politics live: Lambie threatens to disrupt Senate over Afghanistan medals; question time under way

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Adam Bandt rails against Woodside’s exclusion from petroleum resource rent tax

Greens leader Adam Bandt is speaking to ABC radio RN Breakfast about the petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT) changes and in particular the fact that Woodside’s Western Australian North-West Shelf project isn’t included in it.

The tax is still broken, and they’re meant to be subjected to it. They should pay their fair share of tax. As I say, even after these changes, Australia only brings in a few $100 million extra from these big gas corporations that are making billions of dollars of profits. It’s about a 10th of what comparable countries bring in. If we made these guess corporations pay their fair share of tax. They’d be an extra $94 billion over the decade to go to things like delivering cost-of-living relief, funding a rent freeze, getting dental into Medicare.

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NSW politicians and public service executives hit with wage freeze to fund payrise for frontline workers

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Legislation will be introduced to state parliament on Tuesday freezing the salaries of MPs and executives from July

Promised pay rises for New South Wales frontline workers will be funded by a two-year freeze on the wages of state politicians and public service senior executives.

Legislation will be introduced to state parliament on Tuesday freezing the salaries of MPs and executives from July and redirecting the millions of dollars in savings to nurses, paramedics, teachers and other frontline workers.

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Australia news live: 3.8 magnitude earthquake largest to hit Melbourne in over a century

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Thousands of people contacted Geoscience Australia to report they felt shaking, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or serious damage. Follow the latest updates

Paterson says the Indigenous voice to parliament’s differentiation on the basis of characteristics people have no control over is “offensive to liberal principles.”

Asked about whether he agrees with his leader Peter Dutton, when he talks about the voice re-racialising Australia, Patterson says:

What proponents of the yes campaign are trying to do is to treat Australians differently. …what we are doing is putting into our constitutional something which treats people differently because of a characteristic over which they have control. And I think that is offensive to liberal principles. And we are all human beings and we’re all Australian, and we should be all treated equally before the law before the Constitution as well.

It is in Australia’s national interest that Ukraine prevail. We have to do everything in our power to ensure they do.

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Australia’s rental affordability drops to worst levels in nearly a decade

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New report shows average households are spending a third of income on rent while lower income families pay more than half their earnings

Australian rental affordability has dropped to its worst levels in nearly a decade, with the average household spending a third of its income on rent, as the impacts of the Covid pandemic continue to be felt on the market.

Lower income households pay even more, with more than half of their income going towards their rent, according to new research from ANZ and CoreLogic.

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Australia should increase competition to fight ‘excessive pricing’ by supermarkets, Rod Sims says

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Former regulator head’s comments follow Guardian Australia analysis which shows Coles and Woolworths increased profit margins during cost-of-living crisis

The former competition watchdog head Rod Sims says Australia’s big supermarkets have likely used their market power to increase prices higher than necessary during a cost-of-living crisis and that the government should consider reforming merger laws to limit their dominance.

Sims, who retired as the chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) last year, said Coles and Woolworths have little to worry about when making pricing decisions because they control two-thirds of the market.

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Housing prices gain pace as auction listings increase across Australia’s capital cities

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CoreLogic researcher Tim Lawless says current spike in migration countering effect of Reserve Bank’s rate hike earlier this month

Property price gains are picking up momentum in major cities as the number of homes listed for sale starts to lift from “extraordinary low levels”, data group CoreLogic says.

Up to the middle of May, home values in Sydney had risen 1.4% on a rolling four-week average from 1.3% at the end of April. For Brisbane, prices increased 1.1%, up from 0.3%. Perth values were up 1%, Adelaide 0.6% and Melbourne’s home prices rose 0.5%.

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PM announces new sanctions – as it happened

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Biden’s cancellation not a snub, Marles insists

The media is still trying to get the Albanese government to admit it feels bruised after Joe Biden cancelled his Australian visit for the Quad leaders meeting.

You’ve got a leader of a country who is dealing with an urgent issue in terms of their domestic politics. It’s unfortunate. But it happens. It’s nothing more than that.

It says a lot about Australia’s standing in the world right now. It says a lot, I think particularly about our relationship with Japan, actually, given that they’re the hosts of this.

We wish to express our thanks to God and all who have continued to pray for us.

We express our relief that Dr Elliott is free and thank the Australian Government and all who have been involved over time to secure his release. We also continue to pray for those still held and wish them freedom and safe return to their loved ones.

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Gas lobby plans ‘national public awareness campaign’ – as it happened

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‘Good women’s policy is good economic policy’: Sussan Ley convening women’s economic security roundtable

The deputy opposition leader and shadow minister for women, Sussan Ley, is convening a women’s economic security roundtable today.

Restarting the Career Revive program for older women to retrain and re-enter the workforce.

Greater flexibility in childcare arrangements (for which there are no details, but the rhetoric is consistent with allowing women to use subsidies on alternatives such as nannies).

Paying superannuation on paid parental leave.

Helping older women who face relationship breakdown achieve financial security, including through access to superannuation.

The Liberal party can be the party of choice for women – we must be – and that is why we are going to meet them where they are in life with new ideas and real solutions that help them.

I want the women of Australia to know that the Liberal party that Peter Dutton and I lead will be back in your corner – we will support your career choices, we will look at ways to help you as you manage your work-life balance and we will help you secure your financial independence.

I don’t think anyone would question when you’ve got something like the debt ceiling being negotiated in the United States …

In terms of the relationship between the countries and the strength of the relationship, as allies, that’s all there; and I think anyone who knows what negotiations with the debt ceiling are like in the United States understands exactly why President Biden’s been in a situation to make a decision like this.

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The Australian economy lost 27,100 full-time jobs in April as unemployment rose to 3.7%

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The labour market has remained tight since Covid curbed the influx of migrants and foreign students

Australia’s economy shed 27,100 full-time jobs last month, easing concerns that the Reserve Bank may need to hike its interest rate again to curb inflation.

The country’s unemployment rate in April rose to 3.7%, seasonally adjusted, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday, up from a reported 3.5% for March. Economists had forecast it would remain at March’s 3.5% level, close to a half-century low.

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Regional Australia property market dips as prestige areas give up pandemic gains

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Big beneficiaries of regional migration during Covid such as Byron Bay have been hit hardest by increasing interest rates, experts say

Regional Australia’s housing market has taken another hit with prestige areas such as Byron Bay continuing to reverse pandemic gains.

Richmond-Tweed (-24.2%), the southern highlands and Shoalhaven (-16.0%) and Illawarra (-13.7%) in New South Wales recorded the largest annual declines in house values.

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Australia news live: Dutton condemns ‘scumbags’ and ‘sick individuals’ after weekend Nazi display in Melbourne

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Ahead of Reserve Bank releasing board meeting minutes, opposition leader continues to accuse budget of being inflationary. Follow the day’s news live

Dutton also brushed off the idea that he needs to be careful with his language around migration.

Now in terms of the dog whistling comments and the rest of it. They are comments made by former Labor staffers who now masquerade as journalists. So I don’t take that as authoritative sort of assessment of my view which I think is quite valid.

The best thing we can do for Australian families at the moment is reduce their mortgage payments.

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Australian banks announce new anti-fraud platform to help quickly freeze scam payments

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Move adds to ‘arsenal of anti-scam initiatives’ as consumer rights groups call for laws to see banks reimburse victims

Australian banks have announced a platform that will help them act quickly to freeze money being sent to scammers by allowing the reporting of bank-to-bank scam payments in close to real time.

On Tuesday the Australian Banking Association announced the new Fraud Reporting Exchange (FRX) platform, which will facilitate the quick reporting of fraudulent payments as they are transferred to another bank. The move will boost “the likelihood that funds can be frozen and returned to customers”, the association said in a statement.

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UK ministers urged to intervene if Australian bank takes 100% of gas business

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Macquarie has option for all of National Grid gas transmission and metering despite tainted history of owning utilities

Ministers have been urged to intervene if the Australian banking powerhouse Macquarie pushes the button on a mooted £3bn deal to take full control of a vital part of the UK’s gas grid.

A consortium made up of Macquarie Asset Management and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation completed the acquisition of 60% of the equity in National Grid’s gas transmission and meter business in January, in a deal which valued the business at £7.5bn.

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Labor leaves door open for jobseeker recipients to work more hours before losing payments

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Treasurer says government won’t rule out adopting Peter Dutton’s proposal for social security recipients to be able to earn more before being penalised

The Albanese government has kept open the option of taking up the opposition’s proposal to increase the hours jobseekers can work before losing their payments.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, declined to rule out adopting the idea, saying the government was “always looking for ways to make it easier for people to participate in work”.

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Don Farrell invites Chinese commerce minister to visit SA family vineyard after Beijing meeting

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The pair agreed to ‘step up’ dialogue to resolve outstanding trade issues and confirmed the review of China’s tariffs on Australian barley was ‘on track’

The Australian trade minister, Don Farrell, has invited the Chinese commerce minister to visit his family’s vineyard in South Australia after the pair met in Beijing on Friday night.

Speaking after the talks with Wang Wentao in Beijing, Farrell said he was “very pleased to confirm that we agreed to step up dialogue under our free trade agreement and other platforms to resolve our outstanding issues”.

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Australia news live: John Pesutto praises Liberals’ ‘reform journey’ after Moira Deeming party room expulsion

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Controversial MP Moira Deeming expelled from Victorian Liberal party room; ally Renee Heath sanctioned. Follow live

Medicare benefits increase will help all patients, Butler says

The surprise centrepiece of the budget was $5.7bn increased funding for Medicare, including incentives to improve bulk billing for children and concession cardholders.

Rebates aren’t frozen, every rebate on the MBS [Medicare Benefits Schedule] in going to increase next year – the biggest Medicare increase across the board – every single service, for every single Australian.

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Opposition will ‘use every tactic’ to block bill – as it happened

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Treasurer pushes ‘middle Australia’ benefits in budget

Jim Chalmers says the big program changes – cheaper medicines, tripling the Medicare bulk billing incentive and childcare subsidy changes (which come in July after forming part of the last budget) will help middle Australia.

And kids under 16 … there are kids right throughout middle Australia and they will benefit substantially, but also we’re making medicines cheaper.

Also … we’ve put these caps on gas and coal and that’s the big reason for the moderation in the … electricity price increases, the household energy upgrades funds, the home guarantee scheme, the Tafe and training places, the fact that we’ve got wages moving after a decade of deliberate wage suppression and stagnation.

I think the divisive commentary is coming from the opposition. I mean … Peter Dutton is a divisive figure, but he’s not a credible figure.

He takes his cues from Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison. The rest of Australia has moved on from Abbott and Morrison but he hasn’t. And we’ll see that tonight in his budget reply. He is trying to divide people against each other in this budget.

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