Weekly Update: 27 October 2023

“Forecasts have shifted out …but we think we can slow the economy enough without putting it into a recession and without an unnecessary increase in unemployment. If we can do that within the time frame, we think we can get it back, and we can keep inflationary expectations under control.” 

– RBA Governor Michelle Bullock speaking at the Senate Estimates hearing

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Feature:

Earlier this week the ABA partnered with the National Farmers Federation (NFF) to hold its biannual Agribusiness Roundtable in Canberra. The Roundtable was attended by ABA CEO Anna Bligh, NFF CEO Tony Mahar and ABA and NFF members. The ABA discussed how the sector continues to demonstrate a strong appetite for credit with lending at near record levels. Businesses have borrowed a total of $117 billion, a growth of 13% over the past year.  

ANZ presented an agribusiness economic update to attendees, which included an outlook on the agricultural sector and an analysis of cattle, dairy wheat. Participants also discussed natural disaster preparedness ahead of a potential bushfire and drought season and explored opportunities to collaborate on climate issues. The next joint roundtable will be held in 2024 with a focus on climate. 

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Parliamentary Update:

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese travelled to the United States, meeting with President Joe Biden and other senior US officials. Announcements over the trip covered critical minerals, digital infrastructure investment, and security arrangements.  
• Treasurer Jim Chalmers issued a media release and held a press conference following the release of the September quarter Consumer Price Index, saying that “annual inflation continues to moderate”.  
• Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones urged Australians to be alert to an alarming rise in employment scams.  
• Senate Estimates occurred in Canberra, with appearances from departments and agencies including the Treasury, ASIC and the RBA.  
• Following the CPI release, Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor said that “fighting inflation must become priority one, two and three”. 

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Policy Update:

The ABA: 

• attended a stakeholder meeting with the Board of Taxation on 27 October 2023, at which the ABA raised concerns around Treasury’s consultation process on tax changes as well as tax administration broadly. 
• participated in the CEO Stakeholders Forum held by the NSW Office of the Registrar General, which included updates from key industry and government stakeholders relating to strata and eConveyancing and other legislative reforms. 
• participated in a roundtable hosted by NSW Fair Trading on improving strata debt recovery practices. The roundtable was attended by representatives from the strata industry, lawyers, AFSA and financial counsellors. Some ‘quick wins’ regarding improving debt notices and processes were agreed at the roundtable, and the Government will move forward with progressing these outcomes.  
• participated in two workshops with financial counsellors on better supporting customers in prison with their banking needs. Banking inclusivity for prisoners is one of the priority areas of the ABA Consumer Outcomes Group. An ABA working group of members has been developing a whole-of-industry factsheet with tailored information on supporting customers in prison can access banking services. This week’s workshops took financial counsellors through the draft factsheet and sought their feedback on the development of this resource. 

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Regulatory Update:

ASIC launches consumer awareness campaign – ‘Don’t get burnt by hype’. Read more 

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Economic Update:

• The annual rate of change for the CPI was 5.4% for the September quarter 2023, down from 6.0% in the June quarter. This was driven by a 1.2% quarterly increase. 
• Export prices fell 3.1% in the quarter and 10.7% in the year. This was driven by a decline in rural prices, particularly crude fertilisers and minerals (.29.0%), oilseeds (-22.7%) and coal, coke & briquettes (-11.3%). 
• National accounts data for June 2022 to June 2023 showed that GDP grew 3.0%, the household savings ratio fell to 4.3%, and productivity shrunk -3.7%. 

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Communications and Media:

• The ABA will launch a financial hardship campaign on Monday, 30 October which will run for four weeks across radio, digital news and social media. Encouraging customers struggling with loan repayments to contact their bank, and to do so early, the campaign will also outline what banks can do to assist. Anna will launch the campaign on Sunrise, with several other key media interviews planned as part of the launch.
• Following the roundtable co-hosted by the ABA and the National Farmers Federation, the ABA issued a media release reaffirming the commitment of banks to Australia’s agriculture sector, here. We also shared this news on our LinkedIn channel here. 
• The ABA issued a media release celebrating the contributions of small businesses across the state. Read our media release about NSW Small Business Month here.   

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Events:

The ABA will hold its inaugural Future of Banking webinar on 30 October where guest speaker, EY’s Asia-Pacific Quantum Technology Leader, Alexey Bocharnikov will clarify the maze of quantum hacking, distinguishing myth from reality. The webinar series is accessible to members, associate members, and connections of the ABA. Register here. 

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Upcoming Submissions:

Published submissions

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Selected Media:

• SMH – ‘Cash no longer king, but it’s not dead’: Australians follow the money to digital wallets  
• SMH – Chance of rate rise for Melbourne Cup Day increases as inflation rises   
• AFR – Renters better off than in 2021: RBA’s Bullock 

Weekly Update