INFLATION PAIN; ASIO WARNS ON AI SPYING

Inflation easing but insurance, rents keeping up the CPI

Annual inflation in Australia has edged down to 3.6 per cent in the March quarter, but is still well above the Reserve Bank’s target range of 2-3 per cent. Latest Consumer Price Index figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that while the prices for goods rose 3.1 per cent over 12 months, services inflation was 4.3 per cent. The quarterly CPI, however, rose by one per cent, up from 0.6 per cent in the December quarter. Insurance prices soared annually by 16.4 per cent – the strongest annual rise since 2001 – while rental prices rose 7.8 per cent annually, the highest rate since March 2009. Education prices also rose 5.2 per cent over the 12-month period, but the price of food inflation eased to 3.8 per cent, down from the 4.5 per cent annual rise recorded in December 2023. Annual inflation was 4.1 per cent for the December quarter of 2023, and has been above three per cent since September 2021, peaking at 7.8 per cent in December 2022.

Artificial Intelligence elevating foreign spy threats, says ASIO head

Artificial intelligence (AI) will allow a step change in adversary capability and is likely to make radicalisation easier and faster, according to ASIO Director-General of Security Mike Burgess. In an address to the National Press Club, the head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation said that AI would improve espionage capabilities, with nation states more motivated to harvest personal data to assist their programming. Mr Burgess said ASIO was aware of offshore extremists already asking a commercially available AI program for advice on building weapons and attack planning. AI would also facilitate foreign interference by allowing foreign intelligence services to conduct more prolific, more credible, and more effective disinformation campaigns. Mr Burgess said ASIO had been using AI for a number of years, but AI was augmenting and assisting its people, not replacing them.

National tax collection up by 10 per cent

Australians paid almost $756 billion in taxes to federal, state and local governments in 2022-23, up $72.7 billion or 10.6 per cent higher than the previous year. The Federal Government accounted for the lion’s share of taxation revenue - $618 billion – with the States and Territories collecting almost $116 billion, and local government, $21.8 billion. On a per capita basis, Australians paid $28,700 in tax during 2022-23, according to ABS figures. Northern Territory was the only jurisdiction to record a decrease in tax take (down by 3.5 per cent), while local government authorities in Queensland recorded the largest rise (8.1 per cent) in taxation collected.

$330 million to fund low-emissions move in regional industry

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has announced $330 million from the Federal Government’s Powering the Regions Fund to assist nine industrial sites in transitioning to a low-emissions regime. The funds will be directed to industries in cement, mining, alumina, iron and steel processing, chemicals manufacturing and food processing. Four of the sites are in Tasmania, two in Western Australia and one each in NSW, Queensland and South Australia. Mr Bowen said the nine projects would secure existing regional employment, while cutting 830,000 tonnes of emissions every year.

Population shifts as overseas-born passes 130-year old benchmark

More than 30 per cent of Australia’s population in 2023 was born overseas, chiefly from England, India and China, according to latest figures. At June 30 last year, 18.5 million people were Australian-born and 8.2 million (30.7 per cent) people born overseas. ABS figures reveal that Australia’s overseas-born population increased by almost half a million people in 2023. In the last 10 years, the proportion of English-born has fallen from 4.4 per cent of the total population to 3.6 per cent, while the proportion of Indian and Chinese-born has risen from 1.6 to 3.2 per cent and from 1.9 per cent to 2.5 per cent respectively. The ABS said it was the first time Australia’s proportion of foreign-born had passed 30 per cent since 1893. New Zealand, The Philippines, Vietnam, South Africa, Malaysia, Nepal and Italy round out the top 10 population-source countries.