Weekly Update: 16 May 2025

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Highlights this week:

• Daniel Mulino elevated to Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services.
• Unemployment rate remained steady at 4.1% with 89,000 new jobs created.

Quote of the week:
“We’ve got a number of priorities – first of all managing that uncertainty, also we’ve got a major focus on productivity, we need to make our economy more productive over time.”

– Jim Chalmers, Treasurer. Interview on Sky News, 13 May 2025.

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Media & Communications Update:

• Provided a statement to Yahoo Finance regarding Know Your Customer requirements from banks, saying “…These checks are essential to protect customers and the financial system from fraud, scams and criminal misuse.”
• Provided background information on the Scam-Safe Accord and counteracting mule accounts to The Age and The SMH. 

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Parliamentary Update:

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s second-term cabinet was officially sworn in this week following Labor’s election victory. Key changes include:
  • Dr Daniel Mulino appointed as Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, succeeding Stephen Jones.
  • Michelle Rowland elevated to Attorney-General, succeeding Mark Dreyfus.
  • Anika Wells assumes the role of Minister for Communications and retains the Sport portfolio.
• Sussan Ley won the Liberal leadership contest, defeating Angus Taylor by 29 votes to 25. Ted O’Brien was elected unopposed as Deputy Leader.
• David Littleproud will remain leader of the Nationals after surviving a challenge from Matt Canavan.
• Senator Larissa Waters has been appointed as the new leader of the Greens.

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Policy Update:

• ABA CEO represented members at the International Banking Federation (IBFed) meetings held in Zurich and Basel, where global banking leaders discussed key issues facing the sector.
• Participated in a meeting of the Oceania chapter of the Global Anti Scams Alliance.
• Together with Communications Alliance, met with the NASC to discuss options for sharing “actionable scams intelligence” under the SPF.
• Successful COG meeting held with consumer representatives. Key areas raised included banks’ approach to DFV survivors and serviceability of mortgages, disaster relief and ways to improve end of hardship arrangements with customers.
• Participated in a Treasury workshop on Modern Methods of Construction to address any barriers to finance.
• Hosted a workshop during which Sympli briefed members on their proposed ‘Practitioner-first’ interoperability model.
• Met with the NFF to discuss key issues, with a focus on current drought conditions.
• Met with COSBOA to discuss their upcoming policy priorities over the next term of government.

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Economic Update:

• Unemployment data for April came in unchanged at 4.1% in trend and seasonally adjusted terms. Employment increased by 89,000 people which was greater than the consensus of 22,500 people.
• In the year-on-year change to April 2025, employment grew by 390,000 people or 2.7% compared to the growth rate of the population over 15yrs of 2.1%. Leading the employment-to-population ratio being 64.4%, 0.1% lower than its all time high in January.

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Coming up next week:

• Data:
  • 20/05 – Monetary Policy Decision Statement
  • 21/05 – Monthly Employee Earnings Indicator

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Upcoming Submissions:

Published submissions

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Upcoming Events:

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Selected Media

• SMH – From ‘money muling’ to ‘micro-laundering’, new scams grab watchdog’s attention
• AFR – Market sticks with rate cut next week despite job surge
• ABC – Australia’s economy is a basket case again. Will Jim Chalmers take it on?
• AFR – Labor appoints one of the most qualified assistant treasurers ever

Warm regards,
The ABA Team

Weekly Update