STUDENT DEBTS TRIMMED; UK NAVY ON BOARD

Labor tables legislation to cut student debt

In the first week of the new parliamentary term, the returned Albanese Labor Government has introduced its signature legislation to cut student debts by 20 per cent. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the legislation would wipe more than $16 billion in debt for more than three million Australians. For the average student debt of $27,600, around $5,500 would be wiped from outstanding Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) loans. In addition to cutting student debt, the legislation raises the minimum amount before people are required to start making repayments, from $54,435 to $67,000, and reduces minimum payments.

Australia signs major naval treaty with UK

Australia and the United Kingdom have signed a treaty to enable the development of a class of submarine under joint operation. In Geelong, Defence Minister Richard Marles and UK Defence Secretary John Healey said the bilateral treaty would last for 50 years and sit under the trilateral AUKUS framework. Mr Marles said the treaty would provide for 20,000 jobs in Australia, representing the biggest leap in Australia’s military capability since the formation of the Australian Navy in 1913. Mr Healey said the treaty would provide the most advanced, most powerful attack submarines ever possessed by Australia or the UK, would fortify the Indo-Pacific, and would strengthen NATO.

Import bans lifted on US-sourced beef

Import bans on beef sourced from the US would be lifted, the Federal Government has confirmed. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the decision was not directly related to trade discussions with the Trump Administration, and the lifting of the import ban followed a 10-year review on biosecurity grounds. The PM said the ban on American beef was lifted in 2019; the ongoing issue had been US-exported beef originally sourced from Mexico or Canada that could not be traced. In 2024, official trade figures show that Australia exported $4.4 billion in fresh, chilled or frozen beef to the US.

Farrell’s grim warning for rules-based global trade

Meanwhile, Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell says the benefits of open, rules-based global trade are under threat from the Trump Administration’s domestic manufacturing policies. In a delivered speech, Senator Farrell said Australia risked seeing a shift from a trade system based on shared prosperity and interdependence to one based solely on power and size. He said Australia would suffer from a return to the ‘law of the jungle’, as trading partners’ growth slowed. Senator Farrell said the costs to consumers and businesses of a global economic slowdown would be felt for generations, and the shockwaves of inflation would worsen. The Minister said that amid the trade shakeup, Australia would not compromise its fundamental values and interests, which included the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and biosecurity system.

Budget deficit halves in three months, says Chalmers

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the budget deficit for 2024-25 is likely to be in the “low double digits”, or about half of the updated $27.6 billion deficit forecast in the March Budget. Dr Chalmers told Federal Parliament that in the previous term, the Government had banked most of the upside revisions to revenue, while finding $100 billion in savings. The 2025-26 Federal Budget delivered just before the May 3 election campaign forecast a $42.1 billion budget deficit for 2025-26.

RBA Head reaffirms push to drive down inflation

Reserve Bank of Australia head Michele Bullock has defended the central bank’s stance on interest rates, reaffirming that the level of inflation had to remain “low and stable.” In a prepared speech, Ms Bullock said the RBA’s longstanding strategy had been to bring inflation back to target while preserving as many of the gains in the labour market as possible. She said that interest rates in Australia did not rise as high as they did in some other economies, so the bank may not need to lower them as much on the way down. Ms Bullock said Australians continued to feel cost-of-living pressures, with the average level of prices now notably higher than it was just a few years ago. The RBA governor said low and stable inflation was “good for households, good for jobs, good for communities and good for the economy.”