Cyberattacks on super funds threaten banking system, Labor warned
In a briefing prepared in May for the re-elected Albanese government, released to The Australian Financial Review under freedom of information laws, the regulator also said access to home loans was increasingly limited to the rich, and Australia's high level of household debt was a significant risk to the financial system.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News AU
4 hours ago
- Sky News AU
‘Hopeless': Former Labor MP slams Albanese government's defence neglect
Former Labor MP Michael Danby slams the Albanese government for their neglect of Australia's defence. Mr Danby told Sky News host Caleb Bond that the Labor government has been 'hopeless' on defence. 'Hopeless military leadership, they should all go.'
West Australian
4 hours ago
- West Australian
Summit season stands as Prime Minister Albanese's best chance to meet Trump
The Prime Minister is unlikely to get the chance to meet Donald Trump for at least another two months — and then it'll probably be on the sidelines of a summit rather than at the White House. Anthony Albanese could make as many as eight overseas visits before the end of the year, with five of them likely putting him in the same location as the US President. However, as he discovered at the G7 summit in Kananaskis in Canada in June, Mr Trump's changeable priorities mean there's no guarantee of securing anything. Mr Albanese said his office and the White House were working through the timing of a meeting. Previously, the attitude from government officials had been they wanted to line something up as quickly as possible to settle growing issues within the alliance, particularly around defence spending and the AUKUS pact. But on Tuesday, during a variety of interviews, Mr Albanese appeared more relaxed about the timing. 'When we have a meeting, we'll have a meeting. And when it's scheduled, that will occur,' he told Sky News. On Seven's Sunrise, he said that 'summit season' towards the end of the year offered multiple opportunities to meet. 'We have the G20, we have APEC, we have a range of meetings where the US President would be expected to attend, as well as leaders in the region, as well as of course the Quad meeting that will take place this year in India,' Mr Albanese said. 'Importantly here, I think that Australian viewers and lookers, watchers and readers, of some of the media would think that Australia is this little country that doesn't contribute anything to this relationship. We do. We're an important ally for the United States.' However, he conceded the timing of the presidential meeting remained open-ended, and said Australian and US ministers and officials were continuing talks. A date for the Quad leaders gathering — which will involve Mr Trump, Mr Albanese, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba — is tipped to be set as part of their foreign ministers' meeting overnight. Host nation India has reportedly been looking at dates in September. Mr Albanese is also expected to head to the United Nations General Assembly in late September, which would put him within a short flight of the White House. Scott Morrison timed his 2019 visit to Donald Trump with the UN gathering, enabling him to meet several other key world leaders on the same trip and address the General Assembly, which Mr Albanese is yet to do. The US and Australian leaders are also likely to both attend the APEC meeting in Korea at the end of October and the G20 in South Africa in November. Mr Trump may head to the ASEAN and East Asia Summit meetings in Malaysia earlier in October, just ahead of APEC, although it's not always a given that the US President attends in person. Also pencilled into the prime ministerial diary — alongside eight parliamentary sitting weeks — is a trip to China for the annual leadership dialogue later this month, the Pacific Island Forum in the Solomon Islands in September, and possibly the UN climate conference in Brazil in November. Australia wants to host next year's UN climate conference, but is in a stand-off with Turkey as each waits for the other to pull out of the running. There is value in the Prime Minister being able to speak with other leaders at these major summits and represent Australian interests on the global stage, United States Studies Centre international relations expert Brendon O'Connor said, even if it was just a shorter 'meet and greet'. When it came to the Trump administration, Professor O'Connor said there was just as much benefit from meeting his top advisers and cabinet members — as Mr Albanese did in Canada — and people shouldn't 'obsess about the idea of meeting' the President himself. 'There's this obviously very difficult balance with Trump at the moment, of not wanting to get Australia into unnecessary fights with Trump but, on the other hand, being out of sight, out of mind isn't entirely a bad thing with Trump,' he said. 'I think some of the media coverage of when will Albanese meet Trump, I don't think it's that useful … I don't think there's any great benefit of meeting Trump.' He pointed to the troubled Oval Office meetings with some leaders, notably Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa, saying something on the sidelines of a summit would be a more attractive proposition for Australia. 'I wouldn't be advising the Australian Prime Minister to have a long sit down chat with the US media present and Trump just free-forming about which Australian leaders he likes and doesn't like, and why Australia is a good country or not a good country, and expecting whoever's there to basically agree with him,' Professor O'Connor said. Shadow defence minister Angus Taylor accused Mr Albanese of being 'more interested and more able to get a meeting with the President of China than the President of the United States'. 'We've got to get serious about this. Whether it's on the economic side, the trade side, on the national security and defence side, we've got to get serious about it,' he said. Since his inauguration in January, Mr Trump has hosted 14 world leaders at the White House and met a further six on overseas trips. Out of the OECD and G20 countries, there are 33 leaders he is yet to meet in-person this term.
Daily Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Daily Telegraph
Advocates warn urge Labor, energy retailers to slash energy debts amid July 1 energy bill hikes
Don't miss out on the headlines from Costs. Followed categories will be added to My News. 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'. When asked about the extension to the federal government energy rebate, Ms Fisher responded: '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. South Australian public housing resident Mel Fischer, 43, is struggling to keep up with her bills, leaving her to seek warmth in bed instead of using her heating during winter. Picture: NewsWire/ Roy VanDerVegt 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. Ms Fischer was recently hit with a notice that her power bills would be increasing by $635 over the next financial year. Picture: Supplied 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.' Energy Minister Chris Bowen acknowledged energy bills were too high. Picture: NewsWire/ Martin Ollman 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. '(He) should resign because his incompetence is sadly causing untold hardship to more and more people,' Mr Tehan said. Originally published as Advocates warn urge Labor, energy retailers to slash energy debts amid July 1 energy bill hikes
