O75 Public Administration

Ley attacks idea of free everything

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 17-Sep-25

Opposition leader Sussan Ley will use a Committee for Economic Development of Australia speech to call for action to curb government spending. Amongst other things, Ley will contend that the culture of dependency on the government that has emerged since the pandemic is not sustainable and must end. She will argue that providing people with everything for free merely diverts resources from those who need help the most, while she will advocate increased use of means-testing. Ley’s speech today will coincide with growing scrutiny of the Coalition regarding its stance on net zero emissions.

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LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, COMMITTEE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF AUSTRALIA

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence drops 3.4pts to 85.9; driven by rising concerns about personal finances

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 17-Sep-25

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence fell 3.4pts to 85.9 in the week to 14 September; however, it is now 1.8 points above the same week a year ago (81.9), but 1pt below the 2025 weekly average of 86.9. Analysis by State shows mixed results, with Consumer Confidence down in Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia, but unchanged in Queensland and New South Wales. Now 22% of Australians (unchanged) say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year, while 40% (also unchanged) say their families are ‘worse off’. Looking forward, 26% (down 3ppts) of respondents expect their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year, while 33% (up 6ppts) expect to be ‘worse off’. Meanwhile, just 10% (down 1ppt) of respondents expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next 12 months, while 29% (up 1ppt) expect ‘bad times’. Only 24% (down 2ppts) of Australians say now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items, while 32% (down 3ppts) say now is a ‘bad time to buy’.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ

In August Australian unemployment increased 0.8% to 11.1%, while under-employment was unchanged at 10.9%

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 17-Sep-25

In August 2025, Australian ‘real’ unemployment rose by 132,000 to 1,776,000 (up 0.8% to 11.1% of the workforce). The rise in unemployment was driven by more people looking for part-time work (up 152,000 to 1,101,000), although there were fewer people looking for full-time work (down 20,000 to 675,000). In addition to the unemployed, a further 1.74 million Australians (10.9% of the workforce, unchanged) were under-employed, i.e. working part-time but looking for more work (up 5,000 from July). In total, 3.52 million Australians (22.0% of the workforce) were either unemployed or under-employed in August. Meanwhile, employment dropped 70,000 to 14,216,000; Roy Morgan estimates the overall workforce size (which adds together the employed and unemployed) at 15,992,000 in August, up 62,000 on a month ago, and representing 69.2% of Australians aged 14+.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

PNG treaty trip-up as great game afoot in Pacific

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Original article by Ben Packham
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 17-Sep-25

The federal government’s push to forge closer ties with Pacific nations has received a second setback in as many weeks. Papua New Guinea’s cabinet has yet to endorse a defence treaty with Australia, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had hoped to sign today; he is visiting PNG to mark its 50th anniversary of independence from Australia. PNG’s Prime Minister James Marape stated on Monday that his government is "not yet" at the point of signing the treaty, which will commit the two countries to defend each other in the event of war. Former Biden administration adviser Kurt Campbell has suggested that the delay in signing the treaty could be due to Chinese influence. The Vanuatu goverment refused to sign a bilateral security agreement last week during Albanese’s visit to Port Vila.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, PAPUA NEW GUINEA. OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER

Online warning: Digital war has already started

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Original article by Michael Read
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 10 : 17-Sep-25

The head of the Australian Defence Force’s cyber and space operations, Lieutenant General Susan Coyle, addressed the Financial Review Cyber Summit yesterday. Coyle warned that Australia is already at war in the cyber domain; she added that although the nature of war has not changed, the technology to wage war is changing. Coyle noted that Australia will be vulnerable if it does not secure the cyber domain, given that the nation’s critical infrastructure and the ADF’s own military equipment are reliant on it. Alastair MacGibbon from CyberCX in turn warned that devices connected to a hostile ‘totalitarian state’ could be weaponised, including household energy storage batteries and electric vehicles.

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AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE, CYBERCX PTY LTD

Migration concerns surge post-pandemic – almost returning to pre-pandemic levels

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 17-Sep-25

New research from Roy Morgan shows that 13% of Australian electors believe that ‘managing immigration and population growth’ is an important issue; this figure has more than doubled since 2023. However, the long-term national trend since 2016 shows that the proportion who cited ‘managing immigration and population growth’ as an important issue reached a pre-pandemic high of 16% in 2019, before declining during COVID and falling to just 6% in June 2023. Since then, the perceived importance of immigration has surged as an issue and, as immigration to Australia increased, is up seven percentage points. While there has been an increase in the perceived importance of immigration as an issue across all age groups since the pandemic, concern varies substantially by age, with older people being significantly more likely to raise immigration as an issue.

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ROY MORGAN LIMITED

Apocalyptic climate risk on horizon

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Original article by Ryan Cropp
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 4 : 16-Sep-25

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the Australian Climate Service’s National Climate Risk Assessment report is a "wake-up call" for people who still question the need for action to address climate change. Amongst other things, the report has warned that climate change could potentially result in heat-related deaths rising by more than 400 per cent, while property values could fall by more than $600 billion by 2050; it also concludes that more frequent heatwaves could result in employers losing 2.7 million additional days of work by 2061. The Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s CEO Andrew McKellar says governments must strike an appropriate balance between science and economics.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIAN CLIMATE SERVICE, AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY

Wellbeing budget still relies on old data

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Original article by Lily McCaffrey
The Australian – Page: 2 : 16-Sep-25

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the timeliness of data is a vital part of the federal government’s Measuring What Matters national wellbeing framework. The government announced this framework as part of its ‘wellbeing budget’ in 2023, and Chalmers subsequently transferred responsibility for the framework’s reporting to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. However, the latest update to the framework shows that the ABS is largely using data that is at least three years old for many of the key wellbeing metrics. Chalmers says the government’s $14.8m funding boost for the ABS in 2024 will improve future Measuring What Matters data.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS

ATO interest on late debt soars as waivers denied

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Original article by Edmund Tadros
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 6 : 16-Sep-25

It has been revealed that the interest on overdue tax bills to the Australian Tax Office stood at $9.4 billion last financial year, with the ATO tightened its approach to debt collection. The interest imposed on outstanding tax debts is known as the "general interest charge", and taxpayers can ask the ATO for the charge to be cancelled by what is known as a remission request, but figures show it is refusing more of these requests than was previously the case.

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AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE

PM sticks to defence dollars before US visit

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 5 : 16-Sep-25

Australia’s spending on defence is slated to rise to 2.33 per cent of GDP by 2033, compared with just over two per cent at present. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese contends that defence spending should be measured as a total dollar amount, arguing that people are "too fixated" on the GDP figure. The federal government continues to face pressure from the Trump administration to increase defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP; however, Albanese contends that the US should take into account factors such as the in-kind military support it receives from Australia and the security partnerships that the nation has struck in the Asia-Pacific region.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET