Fair Work Commission OKs a 4.75% hike to the National Minimum Wage

The minimum wage to rise to over $1000 per week on July 1, after the Fair Work Commission agrees the biggest rise since 20203

Today's changes to interest rates

Here are the changes the main banks have made to retail interest rates on Tuesday, June 2, 2026

Breakfast briefing: Hot mess & strategic failure

Hormuz unresolved; global factories expand on stockpiling; Korean exports impress; Australian inflation dips; Wall Street in tech IPO frenzy; UST 10yr at 4.47%; gold falls and oil rises; AU$1 = 71.7 USc

Bolting ahead

The main banks' muscle-up to the Macquarie challenge starts to show results for most of them. The rise of Bank Australia moves it out of the shadows too

'Grossly negligent' Westpac cops $26 mln penalty

After paying $1.7 mln in remediation to customers who did not get proper responses for their financial hardship claims, judge adds $26 mln civil penalty for the failures

What fiscal can learn from monetary

Westpac's Luci Ellis explores how policy makers can or should deal with bracket creep. Are periodic 'tax cuts' the right way? Or should tax rates be indexed?

The jobless rate rises, unexpectedly

The 2026 job market is tougher on women than men. There were fewer jobs for women in April, slightly more for men

The world economy after the Trump-Xi summit

Shang-Jin Wei explains how last week's meeting between the Chinese and US presidents could improve the global outlook

The world after the Iran war

Shlomo Ben-Ami envisions a less stable, more fragmented future, with China benefiting from declining faith in the US

2026–27 Australian Federal Budget

The 2026-27 Federal Budget delivers a fiscal impulse that is still slightly expansionary, and some significant tax changes and productivity reforms

When your mortgage rate will go up

All the big five banks have said they will pass on the RBA's rate hike in full to borrowers with variable home loans. But there are differences from when that will apply

Tackling high inflation with a third straight rate hike

For a third consecutive time, the Australian central bank has added another 25 bps cash rate target hike to 4.35%, reversing all of of its cuts since February 2025

Up, up and away

Term deposit rates have raced past the 5 percent benchmark and even the largest bank is now offering north of that. Check our rate tables frequently to stay up with this fluid situation

CPI inflation rose 4.6% in the year to March 2026

Inflation jumps +4.6% in March, driven by petrol (8.9%), housing (6.5%), and food (3.1%)

Job security as big a factor as rising interest rates for borrowers 'at risk'

Risk of mortgage stress up 1.9% points in March after the Reserve Bank raised interest rates for second straight month: Roy Morgan

Should you be worried about Mythos?

Toby Walsh explains why the world’s banks are so worried about Anthropic’s latest AI model

Want to save between $100 to $400 each month on your home loan?

In a rising market, there is an effective way to avoid your mortgage becoming more expensive. Fixing now, even if the current rate is higher than what you are paying now, will insulate you from further almost-certain future rises