Weekly Update: 19th April

Highlights this week:

• Announcement: More Australians will now have access to support from financial counsellors with the launch of the Financial Counselling Industry Fund.  
• Key data: Unemployment increased to 3.8 per cent in March 2024 from 3.7 per cent in February 2024, an increase of 20,600 unemployed people in Australia. 

Quote of the week:
“…in the near term, I think it is still important that we go for that surplus, we’re not there yet. The degree of difficulty has come up a bit in recent weeks and months but that’s still our objective.” e need sharper elbows when it comes to marking out our national interest and we need to be willing to break with old orthodoxies and pull new levers to advance the national interest. We have to think differently about what Government can – and must – do to work alongside the private sector to grow the economy. To boost productivity, improve competition and secure our future prosperity.” 

– Treasurer Jim Chalmers speaking on an interview with Sarah Ferguson, 7.30, ABC

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Parliamentary Update:

• Treasurer Jim Chalmers travelled to join the G20 Finance Ministers’ and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting and the IMF – World Bank 2024 Spring Meetings in Washington DC. 
• The Treasurer welcomed Australia being named as having the second strongest budget balance as a share of GDP among G20 countries last year, up from equal 14th position in 2021, according to the IMF Fiscal Monitor. 
• In an interview with Bloomberg, the Treasurer commented on the upcoming Budget: “The degree of difficulty on that second surplus has come up a little bit,” Chalmers said.  
• Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones noted the commencement of the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort, saying: “This scheme will give victims an avenue for redress when things go wrong.” 
• Assistant Minister Andrew Leigh authored an opinion piece in the AFR on the Albanese Government’s merger reforms.  
• The Senate Rural Affairs Committee held a public hearing on Bribie Island on bank closures. This is expected to be the final public hearing from this inquiry before it issues a report in the coming weeks. 

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Policy Update:

The ABA: 

• met with the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman.  
• met with the Regional Investment Corporation.  
• met with Tasmanian Land Titles office and PEXA to discuss the ongoing implementation of e-conveyancing in Tasmania. 
• ABA attended two events hosted by Women in Payments, including a forum exploring AI and scams
• ABA met with the National Anti-Scams Centre and AFCX on anti-scams initiatives
• ABA attended a virtual roundtable about scams and fraud initiatives in the APAC region, hosted by FNA

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Regulatory Update:

• ASIC insolvency data shows increase in companies failing. Read more 
• RBA released their quarterly Bulletin update. Read more 
• APRA – APRA updates ARS 701.0 for Economic and Financial Statistics collection. Read more 

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Economic Update:

• Unemployment increased to 3.8 per cent in March 2024 from 3.7 per cent in February 2024, an increase of 20,600 unemployed people in Australia. 
• At the same time, participation in the labour force increased to 6.6 per cent from 6.5 per cent.  
• Overall, there are an additional 336,900 people who are now employed compared to March 2024, and an additional 57,300 unemployed people during the same time period, illustrating the increasing size of the labour force over the past year resulting from increasing migration intake. 

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Communications and Media:

• The ABA posted on LinkedIn calling for a mandatory scams code to apply to social media platforms, posting data from the National Anti-Scam Centre showing overall scam losses in the 2023 December quarter were down by 43% compared to the previous year outlining the good work the banking industry has been doing. Read the post here  
• ABA CEO Anna Bligh attended the CEW (Chief Executive Women) Leaders Program hosted at the Allens Linkaters offices in Sydney

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Coming up next week:

Parliament/ regulators:  

• 22/4 Senate, Environment and Communications References Committee (Greenwashing) 
• 22/4 Senate public hearing into Net Zero bills

In the media: 

• 22/4 the ABA to launch a new financial hardship campaign  

Data announcements:  

• 24/4 CPI – March Quarter 
• 24/4 Detailed Labour Force 

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Upcoming Submissions:

Published submissions

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Selected Media:

• AFR – Borrowers agitating for better mortgage deals are saving $2000 a year 
• The Australian – Borrowing costs to climb in 2024 even without rate hikes, Reserve Bank says 
• ABC – Credit ratings and ‘well-intended’ banking reforms mean older Australians can be easily denied credit cards 
• Sky News – New warnings of fake invoice scams after nearly 800,000 business records exposed online in alarming data breach    
• The Australian – Industry funded financial counselling support a step closer 

Weekly Update