New laws, changes and payments coming into effect
The new financial year is here and with it comes new laws, rules and payments that will effect Australian families and businesses.
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News.com.au
29 minutes ago
- News.com.au
ASX 200 closes flat on first day of new financial year, despite strong Wall Street lead-in
Australia's sharemarket closed flat to start the new financial year, despite a strong lead-in from Wall Street. The S & P/ASX 200 finished Tuesday's trading down just 1.20 points or 0.01 per cent to 8,541.10. The broader All Ordinaries also lost just 1.00 points or 0.01 per cent on Tuesday to 8,772.00. Australia's dollar continues to appreciate, with the local currency passing the 65.5 US cents overnight. Currently, $1 is buying 65.81 US cents. Five sectors finished in the green led by technology, consumer facing shares and utilities, while a further six traded lower. The ASX 200 started the new financial year on a positive note, adding 34 points to reach a high of 8,576 during early trading only to slide back to trading flat by the close. This was despite a strong lead-in from Wall Street overnight where the S & P rose by 0.5 per cent, while the Dow Jones industrial average added 0.6 per cent and the tech heavy Nasdaq composite reached a new high, up 0.5 per cent. Australia's tech sector was among the major winners with accounting software provider Xero up 1.2 per cent to $182.03. Life360 jumped 4.4 per cent to $33.59, Dicker Data added 1.3 per cent to $8.18. The major four banks had a mixed day of trading on Tuesday. Bourse heavyweight Commonwealth Bank Australia (CBA) lost 1.2 per cent to $182.58, while NAB added 0.9 per cent to $39.70 and Westpac eked out a 0.03 per cent gain to $33.87. ANZ added 2.5 per cent to $29.89. Both consumer staples and consumer discretionary gained throughout the days trading. Woolworths finished up 0.42 per cent to $31.24, while Coles ended the day in the green trading 0.19 per cent higher to $20.88. JB Hi Fi gained 0.21 per cent to $110.58 while Harvey Norman shares jumped 1.52 per cent to $5.35 and Breville climbed 1.97 to $30.07. Morningstar director of equity research Johannes Faul said a combination of wages growth and savings rates moving back to normal will all help lift the retail sector. 'Retail sales momentum is building thanks to rising incomes and abating headwinds. 'We believe households have mostly reset their behaviours and expect headwinds from a rising savings rate and a consumption shift to more services to be less pronounced.' 'Although the overall outlook is positive, we expect some categories to fare relatively better.' In company news Medibank Private soared 5 per cent to an intraday high of $5.31 during early trading after Morgan Stanley upgraded its rating on the business to 'overweight'. Shares closed up 2.38 per cent to $5.17. Shares in buy now pay later provider Zip also jumped 4.6 per cent $3.21, for a sixth day of gains as it eyes its year-to-date high of $3.32. HMC Capital plummeted 17.3 per cent to $4.22 after the fund manager gave an update about its energy transition portfolio and announced new leadership.
News.com.au
29 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Advocates warn urge Labor, energy retailers to slash energy debts amid July 1 energy bill hikes
A welfare advocate has warned Australians struggling with soaring energy costs are giving up food and medication, with increases to minimum wage and a $150 extension to the energy rebate doing little to soothe rising bill shock. Adelaide public housing resident Mel Fisher, 43, said she's been forced to stay in bed as a way to keep warm during bitter winter days so she can avoid using heating in her draughty, concrete, two-bedroom house. 'It's absolutely freezing. I live in public housing, so it has no insulation at all and the interior and exterior are concrete walls, so once they get cold, they stay cold,' she told NewsWire. The Elizabeth Vale woman recently received notice from her energy provider Engie that her yearly bill will increase by $634 from Wednesday. When asked about Labor's $150 six-month energy rebate, which kicks in from July 1, she grimly responds: 'Albanese's subsidy isn't fixing this'. Ms Fisher currently pays about $120 a fortnight on electricity bills, nearly 15 per cent of her fortnightly JobSeeker payment, and is struggling with an energy debt - money owing to energy providers - of $6000. Because she needs to run airconditioning during the summer to keep cool due to a health condition, she uses the winters to bring down her debt. 'I tried to change electricity companies, because this one has consistently been very high, but I still have to pay them off while paying the new electricity company ... I just can't do that,' Ms Fisher said. Antipoverty Centre co-ordinator Jay Coonan said Ms Fisher is one of more than 330,775 Australian households facing electricity bill debt, with the total amount of arrears totalling over $300m. Under the Default Market Offer set by the Australian Energy Regulator, customers on standing offer contracts are set to have their bills increase by 7.9 per cent to 9.7 per cent in NSW, while residents in southeast Queensland will see hikes of 3.7 per cent, and 3.2 per cent in South Australia. Calculated by the state Essential Services Commission, Victorians will have to weather a 1 per cent spike. Alongside Anglicare and ACOSS, Mr Coonan is one of many advocacy groups calling on energy retailers and the government to absorb electricity bill debt and give households a chance to catch up. Mr Coonan said bill stress was having a 'compounding effect' on cash-poor Australians, who were giving up medication and food to get by. 'It's compounding into a crisis and if you can't afford energy you're going to be suffering more and more and living with less and less,' he said. 'I'm talking about people who are on the JobSeeker payment, and pensioners. These are the people who are in debt, who have no ability to be able to pay their bills because energy prices are high.' Recent Anglicare research also found low-income earners were most affected by electricity bill debt, and despite the minimum wage going up by $32.06 a week from July 1, a worker on a full-time wage would have just $33 left over after paying for rent, food and transport. A single-parent on would have just $1 remaining even if they received the full Family Tax Benefit and were on the highest rate of Commonwealth Rent Assistance. Anglicare Australia Executive Director Kasy Chambers said too many households were 'falling behind and staying behind'. 'People are forced into payment plans they can't sustain. They carry energy debt from one bill to the next with no chance of catching up, even though energy retailers are making record profits,' she said. 'That's why we're calling for energy debt relief for people in hardship, and better regulation to stop the gauging of energy costs and helps people to start afresh.' While Energy Minister Chris Bowen didn't comment directly on calls to scrap the bill debt for households, he acknowledged energy was too expensive. 'It's clear energy bills for many Australians remain higher than they should be – that's why we're providing help for people doing it tough as we deliver longer term reform, including making the energy retail market fairer,' he said. He pointed to recent rule changes that restrict price increases to once every 12 months, prohibit retail fees for vulnerable customers, and remove 'unreasonably high penalties' for customers who aren't able to pay their bill one time. Coalition energy spokesman Dan Tehan said Labor 'must honour' its 2022 election commitment to reducing energy bills by $275 – a policy the party didn't rehash in the 2025 election. 'Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen said Australia was going to become an energy super power under their ideologically-driven renewable-only approach, yet the sad reality is that more and more Australians are being driven into energy poverty,' he said. His words come as the Coalition reviews its commitment to net-zero. Mr Tehan went as far as to say that Mr Bowen should quit as minister if energy bills don't come down.
AU Financial Review
an hour ago
- AU Financial Review
ANZ hires McKinsey to review risk and culture after shortfalls
ANZ has hired McKinsey to conduct a wide-ranging review of culture and risk management following shortcomings that led the banking regulator to impose higher capital requirements. The consulting firm was appointed to complete an independent examination of ANZ's non-financial risk management practices and culture, said a spokesperson for the Melbourne-based bank. Bloomberg
