Weekly Update: 31 May 2024

Highlights this week:

• Announcement: the ACCC granted authorisation with conditions for industry participants to continue collaborating on the longevity of cash distribution across Australia.

Quote of the week:
“Globally recent productivity performance has been obscured by COVID-related factors. The extent to which productivity growth will recover remains uncertain, reflecting the uncertainty around medium-term trends.”

– Stephen Kennedy, Treasury Secretary  

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Parliamentary Update:

• The Secretary to the Treasury, Dr Steven Kennedy, delivered a post-Budget briefing on the current economic and fiscal outlook highlighting some of the challenges facing the Australian economy 
• Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor issued a media release following the ABS Monthly CPI data saying that: “This is the consequence of the Albanese Labor Government’s confused economic priorities.” 
• Small Business Minister Julie Collins announced that legislation to overhaul the Payment Times Reporting Act 2020, which will target payment times, terms and practices of larger  corporations to their small business suppliers. 
• Assistant Minister Andrew Leigh announced the appointment of Mr Adam Suckling and Dr John Small as part‑time associate members of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). 
• Dr Leigh also authored an opinion piece in The Mandarin on the Australian Centre for Evaluation, and the empirical evidence route to policy design. 
• Senate Estimates for the Treasury Portfolio will take place next week:
  • Monday: Treasury, ATO, Tax Practitioners Board  
  • Tuesday: AFCA, ASIC, APRA, Housing Australia, Productivity Commission, ABS, ACCC, AOFM, ASBFEO.   
  • Wednesday: RBA 

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Policy Update:

The ABA:  

• attended a round table with Treasury on the Regulatory Grid. 
• met with the ATO to discuss ATO guidance on capital raisings that fund franked distributions. 
• attended the digital banking summit.   
• attended a liaison meeting with AP+. 
• discussed scams initiatives with AFCX and NASC. 
• met with Visa, Mastercard and Google to discuss scams. 
• represented members at an ATO targeted consultation on “Capital Raised for the purpose of funding”. 

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Regulatory Update:

• RBA:
  • Commissioner Simone Constant delivered a speech on ‘Three principles for better compliance’ at the Australasian Investor Relations Association (AIRA) Annual Conference, 30 May 2024. 
• ASIC:
  • Authorisation was granted with conditions to the Australian Banking Association (ABA), the Customer Owned Banking Association, banks, retailers and other industry participants to allow them to continue developing responses to support the distribution of cash across Australia. 
  • Issued a media release warning to ‘Watch out for scammers claiming to fix technical issues, as losses spike’. 
• ACCC:
  • Minutes were released from the Payments System Board Update: May 2024 Meeting 
  • Assistant Governor (Economic) Sarah Hunter appeared at a Fireside Chat at the Australasian Investor Relations Association (AIRA) Annual Conference.  
  • Jacqui Dwyer, Head of Information Department, delivered an address to The Economic Society of Australia. 

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Economic Update:

• Inflation was at 3.6% in the year to April 2023. This monthly indicator remains an ‘experimental’ measure that uses a more limited number of items to estimate price inflation. The next quarterly data will be available in July for the June quarter. 
• The greatest growth in annual inflation was financial and insurance services (+8.2%) with the sub-group of insurance rising 16.2% over the year and 3.7% over the month. 
• Retail spending isn’t keeping pace with inflation, with retail turnover growing 0.1% between March and April 2024 and 1.3% between April 2023 and April 2024. 
• However, we are seeing a return to less volatility across all industry groups that was characteristic of the years leading up to COVID-19 pandemic, Figure 1. 

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Communications and Media:

The ABA responded to a number of queries about the availability of cash in regional areas. We responded saying Australia has unique geographical challenges with cash distribution that many other countries don’t face and banks fund initiatives including fee-free ATM’s in remote communities and cash services at Bank@Post locations.  

In preparation for the Banking Conference, please download the ‘ZOHO Backstage App for attendees’ by clicking on your preferred Apps platform.
Download: Apple App Store    
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Coming up next week:

Coming up next week:
Parliament/Regulators:  

• House of Representatives is sitting.  
• Senate Estimates for the Treasury Portfolio will take place next week:
  • Monday: Treasury, ATO, Tax Practitioners Board  
  • Tuesday: AFCA, ASIC, APRA, Housing Australia, Productivity Commission, ABS, ACCC, AOFM, ASBFEO.   
  • Wednesday: RBA 
• RBA Fireside Chat by Andrew Hauser, Deputy Governor, at the Australia’s Economic Outlook, Sydney, 7 June

Data announcements:  

• Business Indicators, Australia, Tue 4 June 
• Retail Trade, Tue 4 June 
• Government Finance Statistics, Tue 4 June 
• Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Tue 4 June  
• National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product, Wed 5 June 
• Lending Indicators, Thu 6 June  
• International Trade in Goods, Thu 6 June 
• Labour Account Australia, Fri 7 June 
• Monthly Household Spending Indicator, Fri 7 June 

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Upcoming Submissions:

Published submissions

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Selected Media:

• AFR – Inflation ‘clearly’ still strong: RBA chief economist 
• The Australian – Banks get until October to sort out cash distribution woes 
• 9 News – Does Australia need a ‘three-mile rule’ for banks? Expert backs senate report recommendation for banking code of conduct 
• ABC – What we know about the ‘remarkably devious’ ShinyHunters hackers allegedly behind the Ticketmaster data leak 

Weekly Update