Latest news with #AustralianEconomy
ABC News
3 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
How should government tackle the quantum conundrum?
Lots of discussion and debate about net zero commitments and obligations this week. But for this week's Insiders On Background, let's explore what the Australian economy looks like under a net-zero scenario. How will it differ from today's resources-heavy economy? Is the answer artificial intelligence and quantum computing? Former chief scientist Cathy Foley joined David Speers to talk about the emerging technologies and quantum literacy.
News.com.au
3 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
‘Recession indicator': Grim call after Aussies turn their back on Aldi ski sale
In what has been dubbed the latest recession indicator, a hugely popular shopping day has gone unsold, despite offering huge discounts on a number of products. Aldi's iconic annual ski gear sale was met with chaotic and crowded scenes, with customers lined up out the door before the supermarket chain even opened its doors. Inside, shoppers were seen urgently rifling through piles of ski jackets searching for their sizes. But in the weeks that followed, interest declined. Popular TikToker Bec Brewin highlighted that despite the buzz around Aldi's much loved sale, none of the items were actually sold out. 'Do you remember when the ski gear at Aldi used to sell out?,' she said. 'Well apparently this is the latest recession indicator because none of this has sold out and it's been there for a while.' 'I can't afford to go skiing and I certainly can't afford knee surgery after I fall over what would be the easiest run on the mountain.' Aldi has been contacted for comment. AMP economist My Bui told NewsWire the situation is consistent with the broader issues facing the Australian economy. 'This is playing out in Macroeconomic data. 'I looked at the NAB Business Sentiment Survey …. it shows conditions have still been deteriorating even when consumer confidence has been improving,' she said. Ms Bui's comments come after Australia's longest hit to living standards since the Second World War officially ended in March 2025, with households getting out of their per capita recession. But that doesn't mean households are spending, with Q1 retail sales figures released by the ABS showing retail volumes on a per capita basis fell 0.4 per cent after growth in the previous two quarters. Robert Ewing, ABS head of business statistics, said 'Retail sales volumes were flat this quarter and reflected subdued spending. This comes after sustained promotional activity boosted discretionary spending in late 2024.' Ms Bui agreed saying unlike the post covid years, businesses have less power to increase prices and have turned to promotions in order to clear stock. 'Retailers have less pricing power compared with before,' She said. 'Businesses had the power to raise prices. Right now, if you look at input costs and even when these costs increase, businesses do not feel they can raise their prices.' 'When you look at retail sales every single month there are more promotions than usual, but that is not a sign of strengthening as it is only driven by promotions, so it's actually a sign of weakness. Ms Bui said despite the overall outlook improving, it is coming off a relatively low base. The call comes just weeks after footage showed shoppers queuing up outside Aldi in Chatswood before opening to get ahead of the Snow Gear sale. The popular retailer has launched a premium range describing it as their 'coolest collection' to date, with more than 65 products under $100. 'We know our Aussie customers look forward to our annual Snow Gear Special Buys sale, and we're blown away by the overwhelming response by shoppers every year who line up before the store opens to get their hands on the range,' an Aldi spokesperson said at the time. 'The momentum we have seen over the last 20 years is reflective of the high quality and low price point Aldi's Snow Gear presents. 'Our customers continue to be excited about the release of the range each year, and we look forward to being part of their snow holiday plans with top quality gear at low prices in 2025.'
News.com.au
4 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Butchers warn meat prices to go up this winter
Making those warming winter comfort meals may be even harder this year, as cost-of-living continues to bite small businesses and Australians alike. General manager of Cannings Butchers Matt Oltoumis said it's likely meat prices will rise this year, with a number of factors are contributing to the rising cost. 'We're likely to see beef and lamb prices rise in 2025, mainly due to tighter supply, strong export demand and some processing bottlenecks,' he said. 'Pork and chicken should stay more stable.' Mr Oltoumis said this is due to a variety of reasons, which are constraining cost-effective supply. 'The cost of meat at your local butcher is driven by a combination of factors, everything from farm prices and export demand to rent, power bills, logistics, and wages,' he said. 'Fuel and inflation hit hard too for business owners. 'It's a complex supply chain, and as a retailer we wear a lot of that pressure while still trying to offer fair prices and keep creative with value-adding products that aren't in on our customers' usual menu.' Labor costs are hurting local butchers – but the quality delivered by skilled human input is also what keeps customers coming back despite economic conditions. 'The most expensive part of producing meat is labour. We need skilled farmhands and processors to ensure the quality of the meat we sell to our customers, as well as experienced butchers and retail staff,' Mr Oltoumis said. 'This expert human input is vital and obviously comes at a cost. Add to that the rising costs of compliance, logistics, and maintaining cold chains, and labour consistently tops the list.' However, the investment is paying off, as overall spending at butchers has grown 6 per cent, despite the average basket size dropping 41 per cent – $80 from April 2024 to $47 in April 2025, Tyro payment data shows. This comes as food prices rose 3.2 per cent over the 12 months to the March quarter, up from 3.0 per cent in the December quarter, ABS statistics show. Meat and seafood prices rose 4.3 per cent compared to 12 months ago, the largest annual increase since the December 2022 quarter. Mr Oltoumis revealed the most underrated cuts of meat for budget-conscious shoppers. 'Pork neck is hugely underrated. It's affordable, well-marbled and incredibly versatile. Perfect for slow roasts in winter, but also brilliant when minced for a rich, traditional bolognese or cut into chunks and grilled as skewers. It delivers tenderness, flavour, and value across a range of cooking styles,' he said. 'Chicken thighs, beef mince, pork shoulder (neck/scotch), and chuck roast are my go-to economical cuts. 'They're flavourful, versatile, and stretch across multiple meals – perfect for bolognese, curries, roasts or slow cooks. You get great value without compromising on quality, especially when it's all premium, free range produce. 'As the seasons change its entirely natural for us to crave 'winter comfort meals' and people start to cook a little different, they tend to want to make a meal that will feed them for a few days like a ragu for lasagne or slow cooked roast that you can use for a bunch of different other meals afterwards. 'People swing towards products that can be cooked slowly and open them up to a variety of recipes.' Tyro chief executive Jon Davey said small businesses like local butchers are showing great resilience despite economic pressures, as community and quality keeps them above water. 'Local Australian food retailers remain important for local economies,' he said. 'Small independent retailers continue to attract business through trust and personal connections, with nearly 68 per cent of customers visiting weekly.'
ABC News
4 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
Report highlights workplace productivity problem
Sabra Lane: If living standards are to improve, we have to boost Australia's productivity. The nation's independent advisor on the issue, the Productivity Commission, has just published an analysis on it showing that Australians are already working in record numbers and for increasingly long hours, which has led to a slump. There is no quick fix. Employer groups say excessive regulation is stifling business investment. Unions are blaming poor management. National work reporter Bronwyn Herbert has the story. Bronwyn Herbert: Within hours of Labor's crushing election victory, the Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers pinned productivity as a key second term policy priority. Jim Chalmers: The first term was primarily inflation without forgetting productivity. The second term will be primarily productivity without forgetting inflation. Bronwyn Herbert: A new report from the Productivity Commission analysing Australia's workforce performance shows the scale of the challenge ahead. Alex Robson is the Commission's Deputy Chair. Alex Robson: What we saw during COVID was a productivity bubble where output per hour worked, rose substantially and then fell back to the level it was at in 2016. And the lesson for policy makers is that what is needed for sustained productivity growth is policy reforms in a number of areas. Bronwyn Herbert: A key finding highlights something counterintuitive. Australian workers are on the job for more hours and this is actively contributing to the stalled productivity growth. Alex Robson: People having jobs is obviously a great thing but if you want the sustained increases in living standards, you can get more money if you work longer but that's not a recipe for prosperity over the longer term. What you need is to be able to work smarter. Innes Willox: It doesn't necessarily mean we have to work harder, it just means we have to use all the tools and skills that should be available to us. Bronwyn Herbert: Innes Willox is the Chief Executive of the Australian Industry Group. Innes Willox: In the year just gone, multi-factor productivity will grow by 0.07 which is just a risable number, it's really a rounding error. The normal rate of growth is 10 times that. And what the Productivity Commission report has really shot a light on is that Australia is becoming increasingly non-investable because of the economic conditions and circumstances that are confronting business on a daily basis. Bronwyn Herbert: The head of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Sally McManus, says quick fix productivity gains are already taking place, including casualising the workforce. Sally McManus: I am wary about how this gets used by some in business lobby groups basically to hit workers over the head and try and blame us and try and say, well see, workers of Australia, you're not productive enough. Where actually it's on them, it's on their management practices, it's certainly on their refusal to invest in technology. Bronwyn Herbert: Nick Davis from the Human Technology Institute at the University of Technology Sydney says the report highlights the need for broad investment. Nick Davis: It's not just about throwing more money and more AI or cloud services into the mix, it's about making sure workers can really use those, making sure they're well governed and the way we work is redesigned. Bronwyn Herbert: The Productivity Commission is undertaking multiple inquiries across sectors, including the care economy, technology, workforce and skills, to look for policy solutions. The findings are due later this year. Sabra Lane: Bronwyn Herbert.
The Guardian
25-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Labor's super tweak affects only the wealthiest Australians. To argue against it is misguided
If you're wondering why reform in this country is so hard, look no further than the criticism of Labor's plan to trim tax breaks for people with more than $3m in superannuation. An estimated 80,000 very wealthy Australians will be affected by the extra 15% earnings tax on their retirement savings above $3m. That's the top 0.5% of super savers, according to Treasury estimates. And yet, major newspapers – the same ones who rail against a lack of political courage to get reform done – have launched a ferocious campaign to discredit a minor tweak that addresses a well-established problem: super tax concessions for the wealthy are too generous. The outsized attention given to what Jim Chalmers has called a 'modest' measure speaks less to the policy's flaws and more to the capacity of a small group of influential people to harness media coverage on niche issues where they stand to lose. Sure, the policy is not perfect. Reasonable people can take issue with two aspects of its design. First, that it taxes notional (unrealised) gains in super balances rather than the usual tax on actual (realised) profits. And, secondly, that the $3m threshold is not automatically increased each year (or indexed) in line with inflation or wages. With that said, here's a taste of the claims being made: The policy will force farmers to sell their land It will crush entrepreneurship in this country It will undermine the funding for green energy technology Young Australians are the real losers, as they might have to pay the extra tax by the time they retire (in the 2060s). Again, it's worth remembering this policy will trim generous tax breaks for 80,000 very wealthy Australians out of 16 million people with superannuation. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email As Jeremy Cooper, the lead author of a major report into the super system in 2010 says, there is a touch of hysteria surrounding the topic. He described these arguments as 'embarrassing'. Unfortunately, vested interest groups can be shameless. Like with other major policy challenges, we risk getting bogged down in disputing unreasonable assertions that too often degenerate into 'he said, she said' and policy paralysis. Instead, let's recall what superannuation is for and what the reforms are trying to achieve. The super system was set up to help provide Australians with a comfortable and dignified life after work. The purpose of super is not to help wealthy people minimise tax. It is not to protect business assets – farms or otherwise – from the tax office. Nor is it a tool to drive national investment in research and development. We are not offering generous tax concessions on super earnings to reach net zero. The last major report into the super system was the 2020 Callaghan review. It stated that 'superannuation savings are supported by tax concessions for the purpose of retirement income and not purely for wealth accumulation'. It adds: 'Yet most retirees leave the bulk of the wealth they had at retirement as a bequest.' That is, a lot of wealth in super is ultimately not used for a comfortable retirement. About half of super tax breaks go to the top 10% of earners, according to a 2023 Grattan Institute study. In particular, that study found that 'tax-free retirement earnings turn super into a taxpayer-funded inheritance scheme, since the boost to balances is typically saved, not spent'. As Mike Callaghan, the lead author of the 2020 report, told me: 'There is a need in terms of equity to address many of the concessions that favour high-income earners, and in particular the concessions on earnings.' Besides equity, Callaghan says, there's another reason to trim concessions at the upper end: sustainability. The Callaghan report projected that super concessions would climb as a share of the economy over the coming decades, driven by tax breaks on super earnings. At a time of intensifying structural budget pressures, finding ways to improve the efficiency of major policy settings is crucial. If we want lower income taxes, curbing excessively generous super tax breaks is among the best ways to get there. Reform comes in many forms, and it creates winners and losers. There is no perfect policy. Compromise is part of politics. That means there are always better alternatives. But there is a broadly accepted need to reform super tax concessions that overwhelmingly favour the rich and distort the purpose of the super system. We don't all have to agree. But arguing in favour of no change based on incredible claims by vested interests is misguided.
