Weekly Update: 29 September 2023

“The reality of climate change presents itself in conditions which are more extreme, more unpredictable and more frequent. And the clear consensus is that Australia is facing a fire season every bit as dangerous as that which inflicted the Black Summer of three years ago.” 

– Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the National Disaster Preparedness Summit

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Parliamentary Update:

• Treasurer Jim Chalmers released the Employment White Paper on jobs and opportunities. The document presents 31 future reform directions and highlights the work the Government is doing expanding Digital ID into a national whole of economy system, to enhance productivity.  
• Attorney General Mark Dreyfus announced the government’s commitment to privacy protections in its response to the landmark review of the Privacy Act. 
• Treasurer Jim Chalmers discussed the monthly inflation figures, noting that the “monthly figures are notoriously volatile,” and that while the “modest uptick in the monthly inflation gauge [was]…not an especially surprising outcome,” the government knows that “Australians generally are under extreme pressure. People right around our country are under the pump and that’s why the Albanese government’s number one priority is rolling out billions of dollars in cost-of-living assistance in a way that takes some of the edge off this inflation, rather than adding to it.” 
• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addressed the National Disaster Preparedness Summit, acknowledging the anticipated fire season this summer.  
• Treasurer Jim Chalmers addressed the National Drought Forum in Rockhampton, referring to the cost of climate change, stating: “If further action isn’t taken, Australian crop yields could be 4% lower by 2063, costing us about $1.8 billion in GDP in today’s dollars.” 
   
• Daniel Andrews resigned as Premier of Victoria after nine years in the role. Jacinta Allan was successfully elected unopposed by her colleagues on Wednesday as the 49th Premier of Victoria and is the second woman to hold the position in the state.  

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Policy Update:

The ABA: 

• attended the National Disaster Preparedness Summit in Canberra. Delegates included more than 250 representatives from across industry and government, including banking, insurance, emergency, community and not for profit sectors. The event focussed on cross-sector collaboration on resiliency, preparedness response and recovery following a natural disaster 

• attended the Minter Ellison and Insurance Council Australia roundtable examining the rapidly evolving cyber risk landscape 
• attended the Department of Finance’s Digital ID Legislation Roundtable and met with the minister’s office to share our initial insights 
• attended the Bank of International Settlements industry outreach workshop on the revised Basel Core Principles. ABA encouraged further nuance in proportionate prudential regulation 
• facilitated member meetings with APRA on new reporting standards for interest rate risk in the banking book  
• met with ASIC/APRA regarding FAR implementation. 

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Regulatory Update:

• The Reserve Bank of Australia outlined the conclusions of its recent public consultation on options for ‘further enhancing the competitiveness, efficiency and safety of Australia’s debit card market’. Read more. 
• APRA is seeking feedback on ways to improve the effectiveness of hybrid capital bonds. Read more.  
• Fintech company pays penalties for crypto product representations. Read more 
• ASIC obtains over $700,000 in penalties for financial reporting failures. Read more 

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Economic Update:

• Household deposits fell by $6 billion in the June quarter, the first quarterly decrease since June 2007 (figure 1). The household savings ratio is also at its lowest point since 2008 

• Monthly experimental CPI is out and shows inflation is up from 4.9% in July to 5.2% in August. However, CPI excluding volatile items (fruit and vegetables, automotive fuel, and holiday travel and accommodation) decreased from 5.6% to 5.3% 
• Retail trade rose 0.2% on a month-on-month basis and 1.5% on an annual basis. This was a decrease from last month’s annual increase of 2.1% 
• Job vacancies continued to decline in August coming in at 390,400, a decrease of 8.9% from the previous quarter.  

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Upcoming Submissions:

Published submissions

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Selected Media:

• SMH – CBA says scam losses slashed by a third  
• The Australian – Volatile inflation muddies the picture for RBA.  
• AFR – The ‘new’ RBA will be evolutionary, not revolutionary  
• AFR – Brace for lower dividends if bank hybrid rules change  

Anna BlighWeekly Update