Category Archives: Australia cost of living crisis

Housing values in some wealthy Australian suburbs have slumped more than a quarter, data reveals

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Affluent areas of capital cities ‘lead both the upswing and the downturn’, according to property data expert

Housing prices in some of Australia’s most affluent suburbs have had the biggest falls from pandemic peaks. Some high-end houses and apartments have lost more than a quarter of their value.

Nationwide data shows that many of the same wealthy areas that enjoyed exuberant price runs in the years leading up to and the initial period of the pandemic have now retraced the most.

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Australia news live: seizure of $270m worth of heroin is Queensland’s biggest; RBA interest rates decision due

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Australians will find out at 2.30pm AEST whether the Reserve Bank will pause its interest rates hikes after 10 consecutive rises. Follow the day’s news live

Australia’s new high commissioner to the UK, Stephen Smith, says becoming a republic is “inevitable” even if Australians are proud to have the British monarch as their head of state.

In his first interview since taking up the post, Smith told the Times newspaper that most British people would be “indifferent” to Australia getting rid of the monarchy and it would not damage the countries’ relationship.

There is a lot of affection and respect for the monarchy in Australia.

That affection and respect hasn’t gone away because of Australia contemplating from time to time what it should do about its constitutional arrangements.

My personal view is it’s inevitable. But how that’s progressed is entirely a matter for the Australian government of the day.

Our public-sector workers do a great job serving their fellow Victorians and we’re proud to support them. In addition to wage increases, workers will be able to obtain a sign-on bonus while productivity improvements will bring the potential for further advancement of conditions.

The policy provides fair outcomes for employees while being responsible as we deal with the types of budget challenges faced by families, businesses and governments across the world.

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Labor claims Aston win, throwing Dutton’s Liberal leadership into question – as it happened

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Labor’s Mary Doyle has two-party preferred swing of at least 6% in the count on Saturday evening. This blog is now closed

Dutton says Labor’s road funding cuts in Aston ‘a disaster’

Out of hiding and into the open, opposition leader Peter Dutton has been seen on the campaign trail in Aston today.

[Labor] haven’t explained to the people of Aston why it is that they cut road funding as the first act in government, and it’s quite remarkable.

It’s a disaster for locals and people realise that the first act of the Albanese government was to cut road funding here in Aston … They’ve never apologised for it, they never explained why.

There are a lot of Australian families who have heard Anthony Albanese promise before the last election on 97 occasions that he would reduce your power to $275. That was a promise he made before the election, he’s never mentioned it since, not once.

So cost of living pressures are real for families and the opportunity in the election today is to send a very clear message to Labor that they shouldn’t be cutting local road funding, and they shouldn’t be abandoning this community.

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Laura Tingle becomes ABC staff-elected director – as it happened

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The 7.30 political correspondent will sit on the broadcaster’s board alongside chair Ita Buttrose. This blog is now closed

Report of new gas tax for Australia

The Australian Financial Review is this morning reporting that a new gas tax looms as the government tries to raise revenue to begin budget repair.

Major companies such as Woodside Energy, Santos and Shell and their tax advisers have signed confidentiality agreements with Treasury on the PRRT consultation.

Since Treasury resumed the stalled work for Labor late last year, it has cast the net wider to probe other PRRT areas, such as deductions, in an attempt to raise revenue sooner for the government from the profits-based tax.

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Australia politics live: rate rises must stop with inflation coming down, Greens say; Brereton named anti-corruption commissioner

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Commission appointments must be signed off by the governor general. Follow live

Sorry – I am told by a couple of senators that it was “technically” 4.13am.

So expect to see a few bleary-eyed senators in the coffee lines this morning.

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Australia politics live: government and opposition strike agreement over voice referendum machinery changes

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Bipartisan approach likely as Senate addresses changes to the rules governing referendums. Follow the day’s news live

Voice negotiations

The referendum machinery legislation will set up how the voice referendum will run – the machinery surruounding the vote, if you will.

We’re negotiating in good faith in the Senate that’s being led by Jane Hume who is doing an outstanding job. What we said to the government in the beginning is what we’re saying to them now and that is that we are not prepared to trash decades of referendum precedent, and not do this in a way that Australians expect us to, in their interests, for their information.

We’re asking for a pamphlet to outline the yes and no case, and we’ve talked about that. We’re asking for equal funding of the yes or no case, not the millions of dollars that may go into a public campaign on either side of this debate, but just the administration funding.

Fifty-seven per cent of the population does not want to open new coal and gas mines and I think there’s a very clear message coming through there. Secondly, no, I have got a lot of time for Jacqui Lambie, but we had an emissions trading scheme in this country and she was part of a party that voted to repeal it so let’s let’s not get too carried away with the spin here.

We’re in a climate crisis, as the UN secretary general has made clear. The decisions that we make now will reverberate for generations to come and the big decisions that we’ve got to make, do we open new coal and gas mines or not?

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Majority of Australians on jobseeker and parenting payments live in poverty, study finds

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Report on 3 million people living below the breadline shows welfare payments are ‘totally inadequate’ and action is needed in May budget, Acoss says

The majority of people on the jobseeker and parenting payments are living in poverty while about a third of single parents are also below the breadline, according to a new study.

A report from the University of New South Wales and the Australian Council of Social Service, to be released on Wednesday, provides further insight into the demographics of 3 million people, including 761,000 children, previously identified as living in poverty in the 2019-20 financial year.

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ABC staff to walk off job next week – as it happened

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Acting prime minister and defence minister Richard Marles has spoken to ABC News Breakfast this morning after the $368bn announcement of the Aukus deal yesterday.

In response to the reaction from China accusing Australia, the US and Britain of embarking on a “path of error and danger”, Marles defends making a decision that is in Australia’s national interest:

We are seeking to acquire this capability to make our contribution to the collective security of the region and the maintenance of the global rules-based order.

And one of the issues within our region we are witnessing the largest conventional military build-up that the world has seen since the end of the second world war. And it’s not Australia who is doing that, but that shapes the world in which we live.

We’re completely confident these are in complete compliance with non proliferation.

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Most Australian states face sharp power bill rises, despite government’s intervention

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Energy regulators issue draft default market offer, which set cap for this year’s increases

Power bills for households in three states will rise as much as 23.7% from 1 July if the Australian Energy Regulator’s draft determination, announced on Wednesday, is confirmed. Prices in Victoria may rise by almost a third.

The AER chair, Clare Savage, said the increases were “significant” but they could have been as much as 40% to 50% without the federal government’s intervention in December to cap domestic gas and black coal prices.

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Share of affordable properties in Australian capital cities has more than halved, analysis shows

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The proportion of dwellings listed for under $400 a week has more than halved to an average of just 15% across the country

The share of rental properties listed for under $400 a week has more than halved to 15% across most Australian capital cities over the past year, accounting for just 7.8% of Sydney listings in February.

Research from data provider PropTrack, based on analysis of realestate.com.au found renters seeking a standalone house faced an even tighter market, with less than 5% of Sydney homes listed at under $400 a week.

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Australian renters swelter in ‘worrying indoor temperatures’ of up to 40C in summer

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Apartments surveyed found to be above safe level on average nine hours a day as tenants cut back on cooling to save on energy bills

Despite the cooler summer, renters are sweltering through temperatures as hot as 40C in their homes, new research has revealed, with advocates saying the cost-of-living crisis is forcing people to live in unhealthy conditions.

Tenant advocacy organisation Better Renting tracked the temperatures in 77 rentals across Australia between December 2022 and February this year and found that for nine hours a day they were above a safe level on average. Four jurisdictions recorded indoor temperatures above 40C.

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Australia’s annual inflation eases to 7.4% in January following record run of interest rate hikes

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Lower than expected inflation rate suggests worst of the price increases may be over

Australia’s annual inflation rate in January eased, implying the worst of the price increases may be over as the economy absorbs a record run of interest rate hikes.

The consumer price index for the month was 7.4%, compared with 8.4% for December alone, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. Economists had been predicting the January CPI would be 8.1%.

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Guardian Essential poll: most think RBA rate hikes an overreaction as shine comes off Albanese

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Majority believe government at least partially to blame for rises but don’t assume Coalition would manage them better

A majority of voters believe the Reserve Bank of Australia has overreacted in jacking up interest rates to tame inflation, and people worry economic conditions will get worse over the next 12 months, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.

The latest survey of 1,044 voters demonstrates cost-of-living pressure is starting to bite in the community after nine consecutive cash rate hikes.

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Jim Chalmers confident Australia will avoid recession despite warnings of more interest rate rises

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The treasurer also noted ‘very encouraging’ signs on power prices falling, saying Labor’s energy price relief package was working

The treasurer Jim Chalmers says there are “very encouraging” signs on power prices falling and is still confident Australia will avoid a recession despite continuing interest rate rises.

Last week in its first meeting for the year, the Reserve Bank increased the cash rate for the ninth time in a row to 3.35% and warned it was considering even more interest rate rises in coming months.

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‘Silent epidemic’: almost two-thirds of Sydney’s gambling losses occur in city’s west

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Cost-of-living pressures, disadvantage and ‘oversaturation’ of machines in the region leading to higher levels of gambling-related harm, researchers say

Almost two-thirds of Sydney’s gambling losses come from western Sydney, with advocates concerned the cost-of-living crisis is exacerbating problem gambling in the region.

A research paper from Western Sydney University, which has called gambling-related harm a “silent epidemic”, also says three LGAs in western Sydney account for a third of Sydney’s total gambling losses.

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Australian missing in Turkey found alive but two still unaccounted for – as it happened

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Ley denies opposition is a ‘no-alition’

Karvelas:

The prime minister use the word ‘no-alition’ to describe your political strategy this week – the reconstruction fund and your opposition to that, which was revealed this week. Is this opposition going to take the Tony Abbott approach, and just oppose everything?

Not at all. We just want the government to deliver on their promises. And we’re not giving them blank checks on the national reconstruction fund, either, because it’s $15bn. They haven’t explained how it will benefit our manufacturing sector with the imperatives right now that the industry sector needs.

The IMF has warned against these off-budget vehicles as $45bn of them in the government’s plan. And it’s not a plan for the economy as it is now. It’s not a plan for rising costs of living, for rising inflation. It’s not a plan that even makes the government’s own promises. So we’re just saying just deliver on your promises, prime minister.

Julian Leeser asked a perfectly sensible question in question time yesterday, which was about which part of the Calma-Langton report would you adopt? … It was a basic question about detail. The prime minister just didn’t even answer one single part of it.

But you could be part of the process. The prime minister is saying be part of the process.

We are part of the process … but if the prime minister can’t answer a simple question that wasn’t the least bit political, it was asked in a very flat, factual manner in parliament. And if he answered that in a political way, what that tells me [is] he’s politicising the debate. But I agree, I don’t want to see this politicised.

We don’t really have any guardrails around a final outcome with detail that lands exactly where we want it to, which is in the health and welfare of Indigenous Australians. … the prime minister has tied that to the concept of the voice but he can’t explain it. So until he provides the details, I believe it’s actually the Labor party that is putting reconciliation at risk.

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Reserve Bank causing households ‘too much pain’ with rate rises, says union chief Sally McManus

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Australian union leader says the absence of labour market expertise on the RBA board had caused ‘missteps’

The head of Australia’s union movement has blasted the Reserve Bank and its governor for a lack of “understanding” that rate rises are causing “too much pain” and low income earners have exhausted savings.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary, Sally McManus, made the comments on Thursday after a ninth interest rate hike – and suggestions more increases will follow – sparked fears monetary policy could be tightened too far, risking recession.

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Capsule found after ‘needle in a haystack’ search – as it happened

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The deputy prime minister and defence minister, Richard Marles, spoke to ABC AM Radio from London following a meeting with the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak.

Marles would not be drawn into whether he discussed with Sunak the possibility of Australia acquiring British built nuclear submarines under the Aukus deal but said when the announcement is made it will be a “genuinely trilateral effort.”

Prime Minister Sunak commented on just how full the agenda is between our two countries and how much that is making – perhaps our oldest and most historic relationship – one which is deeply relevant in in the contemporary moment and certainly Aukus is central to that.

And we’re close to announcement and I’m not about to preempt that now. But I think what you’ll see is when we ultimately do announce the optimal pathway that we’ve been working on with both the United States and United Kingdom, that what it really is, is a genuinely trilateral effort to see by the UK and the US provide Australia with a nuclear powered submarine capability.

We’re confident that what we will be announcing in the coming weeks is a pathway that will be able to be delivered by all partners on time.

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Inflation-driven higher education debt increases to hit millions of Australians

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Even under the most conservative scenario, modelling suggests average Help debt will increase by at least $1700 when indexed on 1 June

Millions of Australians with Higher Education Loan Program (Help) loans could face thousands of dollars in extra debt this year as soaring inflation hits the education sector.

Independent modelling provided to Guardian Australia suggests Australians with an average Help debt of $24,770.75 will face an increase of at least $1,700 when it is next indexed on 1 June, assuming, as is likely, that living costs remain high.

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Australia’s softening inflation unlikely to spell an end to interest rate hikes

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The worst of the current inflationary cycle may be behind us, but the pain is probably not over for many households

When normally well-to-do shoppers of inner-west Sydney start trimming spending on fruit and vegetables, it’s a hint that households everywhere are feeling the pinch.

“Now people are really conserving what they are spending on,” said Yousef Lakda, owner of the Nature Spot greengrocer in Rozelle. “They walk in, they check your prices and they walk out and go and compare the prices … it wasn’t [like that] before.”

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