11m agoTue 8 Jul 2025 at 11:54pmQantas reveals 5.7m customers’ details were compromised by hack
Qantas has confirmed 5.7 million customers were impacted in last week’s cyber attack.
Qantas Group chief executive Vanessa Hudson says the airline is focused on understanding what details of their data have been compromised and will let them know as soon as possible.
“From today, we are reaching out to customers to notify them of the specific personal data fields that were held in the compromised system and offer advice on how they can access the necessary support services,” she said.
14m agoTue 8 Jul 2025 at 11:51pmCopper futures hit record high after Trump’s tariff announcement
Copper prices surged to a record high after Donald Trump expanded his trade war by announcing a 50% tariff on imports of the industrial metal.
US Comex copper futures jumped more than 12% (taking prices above $US5 per tonne).
The metal is critical to electric vehicles, military hardware, the power grid and many consumer goods:
16m agoTue 8 Jul 2025 at 11:49pm
Hauser: ‘Important central banks do live in the real world’
Andrew Hauser says it’s “important that central banks do live in the real world” and he emphasises how important business liaison is to the RBA’s decision making processes.
He says he has used a lot of his time since arriving at the RBA from England to go and talk with business leaders around the country to get a better sense of trends in the economy.
22m agoTue 8 Jul 2025 at 11:43pm
Market reaction to RBA’s surprise interest rate decision
In case you missed it, here’s Alan Kohler’s report from last night’s 7pm News bulletin.
Alan had a look at the market reaction to the Reserve Bank’s “shock decision” to keep interest rates on hold.
I can certainly recommend watching it!
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26m agoTue 8 Jul 2025 at 11:39pm
‘People are fed up’
Economist Rory Robertson asks Andrew Hauser why are people so worried about the economy given unemployment remains historically low and inflation has fallen back to relatively normal levels as well.
Mr Hauser says “people are fed up” and he thinks that’s because the price level remains higher than it was going into COVID.
“The price level has risen so far over the past three years … people are focused on the level of prices … the answer to that is not to deflate the price level back to where it was.”
32m agoTue 8 Jul 2025 at 11:33pm
RBA’s Andrew Hauser poses three key questions economists need to answer
If Australia is to remain one of the world’s most prosperous countries throughout the 21st century then, RBA deputy governor Andrew Hauser says, local economists need to tackle three key questions:
“First, how will the composition and geographical location of our export markets change in response to evolving trade policies and geopolitical alliances? What implications will those shifts have for domestic output, investment, labour markets and pricing? And how do we harness our natural and human resources to take advantage of those shifts?
“Second, how will global commodity demand change over time? How long will markets for ‘traditional’ minerals including coal, gas and iron ore — mainstays of the economic model in Australia today — persist? Will markets for ‘new economy’ minerals and renewable energy sources take their place, and how can Australia best position itself to take advantage of such trends?
“And, third, how will these and other structural shifts change the sorts of shocks that stabilisation policy, including monetary policy, needs to respond to? How will that influence optimal policy design? And how might we need to adjust our thinking about trade-offs, across the different policy goals and tools available?”
Plenty of work for the economists at this conference in academia, the public service and private sector to get on with.
34m agoTue 8 Jul 2025 at 11:32pmPBS ‘not on the table’ to escape concerning pharmaceuticals tariff
Australia is urgently investigating “concerning” new tariffs on pharmaceuticals announced by the United States, repeating that the nation will not be bullied into weakening its Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in order to escape a tariff.
US President Donald Trump imposed a fresh round of tariffs overnight, including a possible 200% tax on pharmaceutical imports and a 50% tax on copper imports.
Pharmaceuticals are one of Australia’s largest exports to the US, with about $2.2 billion in pharmaceutical products exported to the US last year.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers told ABC Radio National the new tariffs would inject more volatility into global trade.
For more, here’s the story by Jake Evans:
42m agoTue 8 Jul 2025 at 11:23pm
Australian economists have been among the leading advocates against tariffs
An interesting historical observation from Andrew Hauser, with relevance to current global economic issues:
“Australian thinkers again made important contributions to the evolving global consensus — perhaps most notably on the case against trade protection, through the work of Max Corden,” he says.
“Corden showed that the economic costs of tariffs were much larger than previously recognised, once general equilibrium effects were accounted for.
“His work, including the concept of ‘net effective rates of protection’, which captured the impact of tariffs on imported inputs as well as outputs, remains widely cited — and, sadly, is highly topical again today.”
A rather pointed observation from the RBA deputy governor.
46m agoTue 8 Jul 2025 at 11:19pm
‘Tectonic plates of the global economic system are once more in flux’
RBA deputy governor Andrew Hauser says Australia has a rich history in economic thought.
And he argues it’s had practical benefits, leading to two “golden ages” as Australia recovered from the Great Depression and World War II, and other of free market reforms in the 1980s and 1990s.
But now the RBA board member says Australia faces a 21st-century challenge.
“The tectonic plates of the global economic system are once more in flux, as free trade is rolled back; geopolitical alliances shift; climate change accelerates; and productivity growth slows to a crawl in most developed countries,” he says.
“Simply coping with such changes will take skill. Turning them to Australia’s advantage — identifying and exploiting new trading structures and sources of growth — will require rich new thinking from Australian academia.”
And perhaps some additional bravery from the nation’s political leaders, if many of these reform ideas prove not to be widely popular outside the economics discipline.
49m agoTue 8 Jul 2025 at 11:17pmRBA deputy governor Andrew Hauser on the ‘golden ages’ of Australia’s economy
Reserve Bank deputy governor Andrew Hauser is delivering a speech in Sydney this morning to the Economics Society of Australia.
The title of his speech is: “What has Australian macroeconomic thought achieved in the past century – and where can it contribute in the next?”
As you’ve probably gathered by now, it’s a topic for a very specific audience.
Mr Hauser made some interesting remarks about the Australian economy’s “golden ages” in his speech (which is largely an economic history lesson).
First Golden Age
In his view, the first golden age was between the 1920s and 1960s (during which the Great Depression and World War II happened).
Australia was a small commodities exporter at the time, and to achieve economic growth, “the authorities relied primarily on centralised control”.
“The exchange rate was pegged to sterling; credit volumes and interest rates were typically administratively set, and wage-setting was heavily institutionalised,” Mr Hauser said.
“Tariffs were used actively, in an attempt to protect and foster domestic industry, lift employment and reduce the economy’s reliance on volatile global commodity markets.”
Second Golden Age
Mr Hauser was referring to the economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s in particular.
“The reforms overturned the paradigm of the first Golden Age.
“The exchange rate was floated. High tariffs were replaced with much freer trading arrangements. Constraints on the financial sector were released; and, in time, the central bank was made independent and asked to hit an inflation target.
“Of course, there was good luck too, as huge new export markets opened up in Asia. But taken together, these changes ushered in an extended period of prosperity for Australia.”
54m agoTue 8 Jul 2025 at 11:11pm
Hauser starts speaking
He’s up, talking about “what has Australian macroeconomic thought achieved in the past century — and what can it contribute in the next?
RBA deputy governor Andrew Hauser at the Australian Conference of Economists (ABC News: Michael Janda)
1h agoTue 8 Jul 2025 at 11:04pm
RBA deputy governor Andrew Hauser about to speak
Hi there,
I’m joining you from the Australian Conference of Economists (ACE) in Sydney, hosted by the Economics Society of Australia.
First up this morning is a session on Australian economic history with the SMH’s veteran economics columnist Ross Gittins and the RBA’s deputy governor Andrew Hauser.
We’re obviously all hoping that Mr Hauser will say something in the Q&A session about more current economic issues.
1h agoTue 8 Jul 2025 at 10:51pm
Qantas cyber attack victims say the airline is failing to protect data
Qantas customers say they feel vulnerable, angry and unsupported following last week’s major cybersecurity breach, and are now questioning whether the airline is doing enough to protect Australians’ personal data.
On Monday night, Qantas quietly updated its website to confirm the airline had been contacted by “a potential cybercriminal” less than a week after the data of up to 6 million of its customers was accessed in an online attack.
The airline said it was still working to verify the legitimacy of the contact and had engaged the Australian Federal Police to investigate.
But Qantas is yet to officially confirm the name of the group that has been able to access passenger names, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth and Frequent Flyer numbers.
The airline is also still working to determine exactly what data was stolen for each affected customer.
For more, here’s the story by Rhiana Whitson:
1h agoTue 8 Jul 2025 at 10:30pmHow long will borrowers have to wait for the next RBA rate cut?
Who would’ve thought a decision by the Reserve Bank to keep interest rates on hold would generate so much excitement?
In fact, it became an even bigger news story (compared to if the RBA had slashed rates by 0.25 percentage points) because it was the outcome very few people had expected.
In fact, just before the rates decision was announced, markets had priced in an almost 90% chance of a rate cut.
So when I attended RBA governor Michele Bullock’s press conference yesterday afternoon, I had to get to the bottom of it.
This is what I asked Ms Bullock:
“A lot of Australians with big mortgages are probably a bit disappointed about today’s decision to keep rates on hold. So how would you explain it to them? What’s the biggest thing that prevented you and your colleagues from cutting rates today?”
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And this was Ms Bullock’s response (slightly shortened for this blog):
“I understand that households with mortgages are very keen to see interest rates decline because it helps them with their cash flows.
“I’m also really conscious that we don’t want to end up having to fight inflation again. We want to make sure we’ve nailed it.
“And as I said, the biggest thing here is that it wasn’t really directionally where we think we’re heading in terms of easing. It was more about timing and just making sure we’ve only had one quarter of underlying inflation just back in 2.9%.
“There’s a few weeks, five weeks until the next meeting. By then we will know what the June quarter CPI [consumer price index] is and if it comes in as we think it will, a little bit at the margin, we’re a little bit worried about.
“But if it comes in as we think it will continue to decline, then that validates our easing path. So that’s what we’re waiting for.
“And that’s the reason, as I said earlier, it wasn’t so much the difference in opinion amongst the board wasn’t so much directionally. It was about timing.”
Simply put, Ms Bullock strongly hinted the RBA would cut interest rates at its next meeting in August.
The governor said she’s waiting for the June quarter CPI figures (which the ABS will publish at the end of this month), and is expecting to see inflation fall even further.
So the RBA board (by a 6-3) majority wanted to keep rates on hold for a little longer, just to play it safe (though it hasn’t been a popular move).
1h agoTue 8 Jul 2025 at 10:06pmRBA interest rate cut in August looks all but certain, but how big will it be?
The Reserve Bank disappointed mortgage borrowers and shocked market economists by keeping interest rates on hold in July.
But it’s worth remembering that just a couple of weeks ago, the general expectation was that we’d need to wait until August for the next rate cut.
That all changed when the ABS released its monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) Indicator from May on June 25, which showed headline inflation at 2.1 per cent over the past year and the RBA’s preferred, more stable trimmed mean measure at 2.4 per cent.
That’s below the mid-point of the RBA’s 2-3 per cent target band, hence why most of us who try to follow the central bank’s thinking thought it would cut sooner rather than later.
The only problem? The Reserve Bank doesn’t trust the monthly ABS numbers.
For more, here’s the latest analysis from the ABC’s business editor Michael Janda:
2h agoTue 8 Jul 2025 at 9:51pmTrump flags tariffs of 200pc on pharmaceuticals, 50pc on copper
Here’s more information on those new tariffs Donald Trump announced overnight.
Mr Trump has flagged a possible 200% tariff on pharmaceuticals — one of Australia’s biggest exports to the US — but says manufacturers will be given time to move to America to dodge the tax.
The US president also said copper was likely to be hit with a 50% tariff.
To date, pharmaceuticals and copper have both been exempt from the US’s ever-evolving tariffs regime, pending two separate investigations by the Department of Commerce.
But Mr Trump has long railed against American dependence on foreign producers of the products, given the lifesaving nature of many imported medicines and copper’s importance to the industrial sector and technological innovation.
Here’s the full story by Brad Ryan:
2h agoTue 8 Jul 2025 at 9:50pmASX to slip, Wall Street on edge as Trump announces more tariffs
Good morning, and welcome to the ABC’s finance blog! I’ll be your guide for the next few hours.
The Australian share market is on track to have a relatively quiet start, following yesterday’s surprise decision by the Reserve Bank to leave interest rates on hold.
ASX futures are pointing to a tiny fall of just 0.1% this morning.
The RBA’s decision to keep the cash rate unchanged at 3.85% blindsided households, financial markets, most economists and me (your humble scribe).
We all thought a rate cut on Tuesday was guaranteed, particularly since inflation has fallen quickly and is now firmly within the RBA’s target range!
But the highly paid economists from the major banks the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, NAB and ANZ were blindsided as well, so we’re in good company.
The Australian dollar is the main beneficiary of rates remaining higher for a bit longer, having risen 0.6% to 65.3 US cents.
Trump announces copper and pharmaceutical tariffs
Meanwhile, investors on Wall Street are on edge (and somewhat confused) over the latest trade war announcements from Donald Trump.
Earlier this week, the US President pushed the tariff deadline to August 1 (from July 9). He later said the deadline was “not 100% firm”.
But overnight, he posted on Truth Social there would be no change or extensions granted, and that August 1 was the absolute final deadline.
Not only that, Mr Trump announced a steep 50% tariff on copper imports (which will affect BHP’s and Rio Tinto’s shipments from their Escondida mine in Chile).
He also flagged a 200% tariff on pharmaceutical products brought into the United States.
Anyway, buckle in. We’ll have a lot more updates throughout the day!
2h agoTue 8 Jul 2025 at 9:50pm
Market snapshot
- ASX futures: -0.1% to 8,571 points
- ASX 200 (Tuesday close): flat at 8,591 points
- Australian dollar: +0.6% to 65.3 US cents
- Wall Street: Dow Jones (-0.4%), S&P 500 (-0.1%), Nasdaq (flat)
- Europe: FTSE (+0.5%), DAX (+0.6%), Stoxx 600 (+0.4%)
- Spot gold: -1% to $US3,300/ounce
- Oil (Brent crude): +0.6% to $US70/barrel
- Iron ore: +0.9% to $US96.10/tonne
- Bitcoin: flat at $US108,764
Prices current around 7:20am AEST