Category Archives: Australian economy

Rents rise again across Australia with Sydney seeing fastest rise in 20 years

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Median unit in harbour city now costs more than median house in every other capital, Domain says, as immigration adds to rental ‘pressure cooker’

Rents continued to climb across Australia in the June quarter, particularly in the biggest cities, with a median unit costing more to rent in Sydney than a median house in every other state capital, data from Domain showed.

A record migrant intake that will swell the nation’s population by 715,000 people over two years and a return of overseas students and temporary visa holders will add to the “rental pressure cooker”, Domain said in its quarterly report. About 127,000 additional dwellings will be needed this financial year alone.

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RBA interest rates: banks split on future rate hikes as uncertain economic outlook prompts pause

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Homeowners with a mortgage will be breathing a sigh of relief after RBA paused rate rising at Tuesday’s board meeting

Australian borrowers have had a reprieve after the Reserve Bank paused its interest rate hikes for only the second time in the past 14 meetings, giving the central bank more time to assess the state of the economy.

The RBA left its official cash rate at 4.1% on Tuesday, which is still the highest level in 11 years. Economists had been divided in their forecasts, with about half predicting the pause and the others expecting another 25 basis point increase.

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Minister suggests rate pause based on uncertain outlook – as it happened

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Foreign minister Penny Wong says the focus of Indonesia’s president Joko Widodo’s visit to Australia will be on strengthening economic ties between the two countries, on ABC RN this morning.

One of the things we’re focused on is how do we improve our economic ties. Obviously, the nation is an increasing economic power and will be over the next decade. We want to make sure we’re partners in that. So there will be a great focus on the economy and the economic relationship.

You’ll see some big changes to make sure we make business travel easier.

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RBA should pause rate rises as ‘deflationary shock’ sweeps global economy, former board member says

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Warwick McKibbin says Australia’s central bank has been slow to react as supply pressures from Covid and war in Ukraine abate

The Reserve Bank should pause lifting interest rates because a “deflationary shock” is beginning to sweep the global economy, according to the former RBA board member Warwick McKibbin.

The director of the ANU Research School of Economics said it is becoming clear supply shocks from Covid and Russia’s war against Ukraine are abating. However central banks, including Australia’s, have so far been slow to react.

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Australia’s budget surplus swells to $19bn due to surging tax revenue

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Economist Chris Richardson says figure well above earlier forecasts is a reminder of ‘how lucky the Lucky Country has been’

The federal budget is on track to smash its earlier surplus forecasts as the government rakes in much more revenue.

The underlying cash balance for the 12 months to May was $19bn, well above the $4.2bn surplus flagged for the 2022-23 financial year in the last federal budget.

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Banks stick to rate hike predictions – as it happened

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Historical societies say banning hate symbols could impact history preservation

Historical societies are also concerned about the proposal to ban Nazi and Islamic State symbols, AAP reports. They worry it will limit education and the preservation of history, and impact memorabilia value.

Modellers need to be able to purchase these items (and) symbols, let alone the basic right of Australian citizens to partake in the legitimate hobby of collecting modelling military items.

The words inscribed on the Islamic flag are sacred words and written by Muslims on a daily basis.

These words are taken directly from our scripture, the Holy Quran, and therefore cannot be subject to a ban.

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Inflation retreated in May to 5.6%, easing fears RBA will again raise interest rates

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Consumer price index fell in May from 6.5% in April showing further signs that the worst of inflation may be over

Australia’s monthly inflation rate retreated in May, easing fears the Reserve Bank will hoist its key interest rate again at next Tuesday’s board meeting.

The headline consumer price index increase last month was 5.6%, the lowest since April 2022, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. Economists had expected the measure to drop from April’s 6.8% level to 6.1%.

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PM launches byelection campaign – as it happened

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Birmingham tells RN he is ‘conflicted’ over voice to parliament

Shadow foreign minister, Simon Birmingham, avoids disclosing what he will vote in the voice referendum, dodging ABC RN’s Patricia Karvelas’ questions.

Do you support the voice?

I’ve been clear that I don’t intend to actively campaign in the referendum.

Why aren’t you taking a position? I mean, you’re making it clear that you want it to be private. If it’s private, that means you are actually sitting on the fence.

Patricia, I think you can hear from my answer there, that I am, in some ways conflicted and think this is a very difficult situation the country has been put in, that we have got a question before a proposed change.

We’re getting a situation where the government is not really directly responding to Ukraine’s requests for the Hawkei vehicles, or the Abrams tanks, nor the D mining equipment they’ve asked for.

[The Albanese government’s] contribution in terms of humanitarian assistance is simply $10m compared with the $65m that had been provided previously. So this is a concern …

Status as the leading non-Nato contributor to Ukraine has slipped away and the type of support being offered now doesn’t seem to be either meeting Ukraine’s requests, providing the modern equipment that they want or need, nor the type of scale that would seem to keep Australia commensurate support of our other parts.

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Scandal-hit PwC announces new Australian boss – as it happened

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States will ‘do their own things’ on rent caps: Collins

Speers asks for what evidence Collins is referring to. The minister points to research by Graeme Samuel, former boss of the ACCC, which she referred to in parliament this week and again reiterates the talking point:

The overwhelming evidence suggests that it doesn’t work. States and territories will do their own things in terms of this. What we are being asked to do here is have eight different jurisdictions make these decisions at the same time and we have been told very clearly from those jurisdictions that they won’t be doing this. Some states have already ruled out both freezes and caps. What we’ve been asked to do is simply not achievable and we won’t commit to something that is not achievable, David.

When you look at the evidence that has been cited by others, the evidence shows that it reduces supply significantly by up to 15%. The other thing that it shows is the quality of the stock diminishes over time, so I will look at the data and the evidence and the data and the evidence says that it doesn’t work.

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The pandemic pie peak has passed but we’re far from the demise of an Australian classic

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Consumption of meat pies has fallen back to pre-Covid levels, reflecting a return to normal patterns rather than a long-term crisis, experts say

One of Australia’s favourite foods, the meat pie, was reported to be an endangered species this past week, with headlines warning the “iconic” food was “dying out”, and reports citing falling sales. But reports of its death may be somewhat exaggerated.

While meat pie sales have dipped to their lowest levels since 2019, it could be a case of the nation recalibrating its pie-eating habits after Covid-19 lockdowns sent demand for frozen pies into overdrive.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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Greens and Coalition unite to refer bill to its own inquiry

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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Senator removed from party room – as it happened

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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.

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

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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.

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