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    Cautious households are making extra mortgage repayments and cutting back on non-essentials, with the RBA expecting consumers to largely save looming tax cuts.

    Families expected to stash extra cash from tax cuts

    Retailers hoping income tax cuts will lift sales of non-essential goods are likely to be disappointed.

    • 47 mins ago
    • Michael Read
    Former WA Premier Colin Barnett and economist Saul Eslake at the national press club in Canberra on Wednesday.

    The instigator of WA’s GST deal says it is failing

    Colin Barnett says there was no need for the prime minister to lift WA’s minimum GST “floor” from 70¢ to 75¢ in the dollar, as is set to occur from July.

    • John Kehoe

    Coalition to oppose ‘sophisticated investor’ test overhaul

    Labor is grappling with backlash from the start-up sector over calls to limit access to venture capital to investors worth more than $4.5 million.

    • Michael Read

    A concrete path to greener business

    Michele Roberts, Academic Director at UNSW’s Australian Graduate School of Management, shares key advice for businesses to take authentic steps to a greener future.

    Sponsored 

    by UNSW Australian Graduate School of Management

    Health portal ‘plagued by incomplete records and poor usability’

    Poor usability and incomplete records are frustrating uptake of the My Health Record portal, while the Productivity Commission estimates benefits of around $5.4 billion a year if it can be made to work.

    • Tom Burton

    ‘We need to be alert and vigilant’: Michele Bullock

    This is an edited and abridged transcript of a press conference held by Reserve Bank of Australia governor Michele Bullock.

    Opinion & Analysis

    The digital health black hole must be fixed

    The Productivity Commission’s report on the failure of My Health Record should concern all Australians not only as taxpayers, but as consumers in an ageing society.

    The AFR View

    Editorial

    The AFR View

    No place for antisemitic incitement on campus

    The protests that reduce the complex history of the Middle East to simplistic anti-Zionist slogans hardly align with universities’ founding institutional mission.

    The AFR View

    Editorial

    The AFR View

    RBA on the right track with rates

    Readers’ letters on the Reserve Bank keeping rates on hold; Labor’s PsiQuantum investment; HECS debt; and the Victorian budget.

    Contributor

    Consulting firm fixes are impractical and an overreach

    More importantly, they are not necessary to correct a deficiency in the regulation of delinquent behaviour, says the former ACCC chairman.

    Graeme Samuel

    Contributor

    Graeme Samuel
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    More From Today

    Called My Health Record, the system aims to centralise health records, allowing patient information to be readily available to various medical professionals across the country.

    The digital health black hole must be fixed

    The Productivity Commission’s report on the failure of My Health Record should concern all Australians not only as taxpayers, but as consumers in an ageing society.

    • The AFR View
    Sydney University students are camping out at the institution in support of pro-Palestinian protests at US colleges.

    No place for antisemitic incitement on campus

    The protests that reduce the complex history of the Middle East to simplistic anti-Zionist slogans hardly align with universities’ founding institutional mission.

    • The AFR View
    Michele Bullock and the Reserve Bank board have made the right move.

    RBA on the right track with rates

    Readers’ letters on the Reserve Bank keeping rates on hold; Labor’s PsiQuantum investment; HECS debt; and the Victorian budget.

    States should give the power to regulate partnerships of economic significance to the federal government.

    Consulting firm fixes are impractical and an overreach

    More importantly, they are not necessary to correct a deficiency in the regulation of delinquent behaviour, says the former ACCC chairman.

    • Graeme Samuel
    The spending story will be the most important part of Jim Chalmers’ budget.

    The government goes bold to poke the inflation bear

    The Albanese government, after being cautious with its spending in 2022 and 2023, has decided to take risks this year. The greatest is that it brings the RBA off the bench.

    • Chris Richardson
    Advertisement
    RBA Governor Michele Bullock is living a central banker’s nightmare.

    A rate rise was closer than you think

    RBA insiders may be making the case for higher rates, as Michele Bullock walks the line between public opinion and the bank’s credibility.

    • Warren Hogan
    The lucky treasurer: His predecessors have been extremely lucky to receive big tax revenue windfalls from the mining boom, but none have been as lucky as Jim Chalmers.

    Australia’s ‘dumb’ luck budget in one extraordinary chart

    Treasurers have been extremely lucky to receive big tax revenue windfalls from the China-driven mining boom, but none have been as lucky as Jim Chalmers.

    • John Kehoe

    Yesterday

    An RBA tightening bias is called for

    It’s hard not to interpret the governor’s press conference and the board’s statement as at least a mild tightening bias that will keep the cash rate where it is at least until near the end of 2024.

    • The AFR View
    RBA governor Michele Bullock fronts a press conference after the bank announced rates would stay on hold.

    Rising government spending is hurting the RBA’s inflation fight

    The Australian economy is still operating at an unsustainably strong level despite a string of weak economic growth figures, due in part to public sector spending.

    • Michael Read
    AGL chief Damien Nicks.

    CEO hails progress as AGL ups guidance again

    The energy giant backed by software billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes bumped the lower bound of its full-year guidance up by $80 million.

    • Updated
    • Ben Potter and Jemima Whyte
    RBA governor Michele Bullock.

    Why data-driven Bullock has her eye on the budget

    RBA governor Michele Bullock says it’s too early to declare victory over inflation as she avoids the markets’ frenzied guessing game on interest rates.

    • Jennifer Hewett
    The unemployment data re-enforces why RBA governor Michele Bullock sounds so cautious about the prospect of rate cuts.

    RBA is still betting on Goldilocks. Investors shouldn’t follow suit

    With the ASX 200 back near record levels, investors are betting Michele Bullock is right on a soft landing. But with uncertainty high, a more all-weather approach looks sensible.

    • Updated
    • James Thomson
    Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas delivers his budget to the Victorian Parliament on May 07, 2024.

    Labor dodges difficult debt decisions

    Treasurer Tim Pallas has not delivered the “horror budget” he prepared the ground for, nor a clear path back from the state’s crippling debt levels.

    • Patrick Durkin
    The Qantas board has more to do to recover its national stnading.

    Qantas must atone for all old baggage

    Readers’ letters on the Qantas settlement; franking credits for retirees; the Coalition push for nuclear power; and Israel’s closure of Al Jazeera.

    ‘Vigilant’ RBA puts home loan borrowers on notice

    Governor Michele Bullock has issued a fresh warning to mortgage holders, two years after the Reserve Bank of Australia began raising interest rates.

    • Updated
    • John Kehoe
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    The RBA’s latest outlook for the economy means interest rates will need to stay higher for longer.

    Petrol, strong jobs market stoking inflation: RBA

    The central bank on Tuesday upgraded its near-term forecasts for headline inflation and pushed back the likelihood of interest rate relief until mid-2025.

    • Ronald Mizen
    Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock during her post-meeting press conference in Sydney on Tuesday.

    Reserve Bank on high alert for rate rise

    The RBA is “very alert” to the cost of stubbornly high inflation lingering in the economy, signalling interest rates will need to stay higher for longer.

    • Ronald Mizen
    When the average Australian has to think twice about ordering her $6 daily coffee (which cost $3.34 10 years ago), that’s when we really need to stop and think.

    Reforms rather than rate rises

    Supply side deregulation to drive productivity is the other half of the policy armoury that should be deployed to help curb inflation and keep employment full.

    • The Parrhesian
    Victoria and likely NSW have established their own makeshift coal capacity schemes.

    Keeping coal but excluding gas is an irrational path to net zero

    Including gas-generation in the back-up electricity mechanism will help avoid taxpayer funds being used for paradoxical cross-purposes.

    • Steve Davies
    Without a global ranking system for supply chain sustainability, it’s hard to know exactly how Australia stacks up.

    On the road to greener supply chains

    Australia’s supply chains are not the most sustainable. But there are signs of change – including the electrification of transport.

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    The Australian Financial Review Magazine

    BOSS Financial Review

    SCHF director of people and culture Mariam Hares says that in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, “flexibility, culture, wellbeing and … purpose” have emerged as key priorities for employees.
    • Sponsored

    Flexibility the new quid pro quo in the workplace

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    by Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation

    Life & Leisure

    The zippy Abarth 500e Turismo in Venom Black.

    Rich List

    Laurence Escalante on one of his boats in Perth.