BUDGET RECORD ON CARDS; CYBER ALARM
Chalmers tips record back-to-back budget surpluses
Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers has predicted that the budget surplus for the 2023-24 year will end in the “mid-teens” billions of dollars, which he says could result in the largest back-to-back surpluses on record (after a $22.1 billion surplus in 2022-23). In a media interview, the Treasurer said the budget surpluses were putting downward pressure on inflation, but there remained an “international element” to the inflation challenge. Global freight costs had more than tripled since November and global oil prices were up about 10 per cent since July last year. Dr Chalmers said government spending was not the primary determinant of prices in the domestic economy, given the government’s net spend of $12 billion was in the context of a $2.6 trillion economy.
Official ASD warning on Chinese-backed cyber operations
Australia has joined with the intelligence networks of aligned nations in warning of the cyber activities of a state-sponsored Chinese cyber group. The Australian Signals Directorate’s (ASD) cyber security centre said the group APT40 was conducting malicious cyber operations for the People’s Republic of China Ministry of State Security. The ASD advisory said APT40 appeared to prefer exploiting vulnerable, public-facing infrastructure over techniques that required user interaction such as phishing campaigns. It said that APT40 found success in exploiting vulnerabilities by identifying end-of-life or no longer maintained devices, or networks of interest and systems that were poorly maintained or unpatched. The warning was issued in collaboration with the United States, Canada, the UK, Germany, New Zealand, Japan and Korea.
Clare spruiks shake-up of university funding model
Education Minister Jason Clare has released a consultation paper that sets out the Federal Government’s plans to introduce a new needs-based funding system for universities. Mr Clare said the proposed reforms sought to direct more support to students from disadvantaged backgrounds, students with a disability, and Indigenous Australians. He said the new system would also direct funding to students studying at regional campuses, recognising the higher costs regional universities faced to deliver courses. The consultation paper says that historically, the level of government contribution to Commonwealth-supported places has been based only on field of study or ‘cluster’. It says the current grant-based, fixed-funding equity programs are complex and no longer fit-for-purpose.
Dreyfus reforms move to ease stigma on bankruptcy
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has announced reforms to bankruptcy laws, in part to reduce the stigma for people associated with entering bankruptcy. Under the proposed changes, the threshold for involuntary bankruptcies would be doubled from $10,000 to $20,000, and indexed each year. Debtors would also have 28 days, not 21 days, to respond to a bankruptcy notice. In addition, the period in which a discharged bankruptcy was publicly recorded on the National Personal Insolvency Index would be reduced to seven years following discharge from bankruptcy.
Underemployment: 1.7 million seek more work
Around 1.7 million people in Australia are under-employed, people who would prefer to work more than their usual hours, according to latest official figures. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said that in May this year, almost 890,000 part-time workers were underemployed, of the total 14.5 million employed people. Figures show that about half of the underemployed part-time workers preferred to work full-time hours. A total 328,000 underemployed people had their hours reduced, while almost 1.5 million preferred more hours; more than 137,000 people were in both categories.
International student arrivals trending down
Monthly international student arrival numbers have fallen by almost 6,000 on the number of arrivals recorded in May 2023 arrivals for May 2023, according to latest ABS figures. In May 2024, a total 38,010 international students came to Australia; while down on the corresponding month last year, the figure still represented an 11 per cent increase on the pre-Covid level of May 2019. While higher education numbers were up by seven per cent to 24,200 for the month of May, the number of international students arriving to undertake vocational education and training dropped by 32 per cent, to 7,500.