Weekly Update: 6 March 2026

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Key News:

• The ABA distributed a media release urging Australians to side-step fake ticket sales as the footy season kicks off.
• ABA CEO Simon Birmingham joined ANZ Group Executive Clare Morgan for a discussion to mark International Women’s Day.

“In the statement following its decision in February, and in the subsequent minutes of the meeting, the Board noted that inflation is too high and that some of the recent increase in inflation is likely to persist.”

–  RBA Governor Michele Bullock. Speech to the AFR Business Summit, 3 March 2026.

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Political Update:

• Parliament sat from Tuesday to Thursday.
  • The Treasurer tabled a letter in the Senate on regional banking, stating that Government are working with the banking sector on long term solutions to regional banking and that Government intends to “formally respond to the [Senate] report in due course.”
• The official date of the Farrer by-election was announced as May 9.
• Treasurer Chalmers is convening pre-budget meetings with economists today.
• Roy Morgan polling released this week showed primary support for the ALP unchanged at 30.5%, LNP at 23.5% and One Nation at 22%.

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Policy Update:

• The ABA attended a forum with Treasury to progress implementation of the Scam Prevention Framework.

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Economic Update:

• The annual rate of economic growth (GDP growth between December 2024 and December 2025) rose to 2.6 per cent, from 2.1 per cent in the previous quarter (September 2024 to September 2025).
• Household savings ratio increased to 6.9 per cent, the highest it has been since September quarter 2022.

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Regulatory Update

• The RBA published the Payments System Board Update for March 2026.
  • Merchant card payment costs and surcharging review: the conclusions paper will be published by the end of March.
  • Cash distribution: Board supported the proposed regulatory framework for cash distribution service providers.
• The RBA also published Michele Bullock’s speech to The Australian Financial Review Business Summit & Sarah Hunter’s speech to the Norges Bank Monetary Policy Mandate Conference.
• The National Anti-Scam Centre taskforce released its latest fusion cell report, detailing how a sector-wide crackdown on romance scams has helped to strengthen disruption efforts, enhance intelligence sharing and improve victim education and support.

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Coming up next week:

• Politics:
  • 10-12/3: Both houses sitting.
• Data:
  • 10/3: Building Approvals
  • 12/3: Personal Fraud

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Upcoming Submissions

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Events

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Selected Media

• AFR – Taylor vows to fix Liberals’ ‘cantankerous’ ties to big business
• ABC – RBA governor says ‘too early to say’ how Middle East war will impact Australia’s economy
• AFR – Chalmers urged to consider revenue hit to boost business investment
• SMH – Many of us pay our bank a ‘lazy tax.’ AI could change this
• AFR – Australia’s safe and stuck. Wikramanayake and Comyn have a plan

Warm regards,
The ABA Team

Weekly Update