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Bills

This Month

Student Jasmine O’Brien.

$80,000 debt is only part of cost crisis hitting students hard

Jasmine O’Brien is in the second of a five-year degree, holds down two jobs and worries about what her student debt will be when she finally graduates.

  • Julie Hare

January

Corporate heavyweights such as Qantas and Coles cop a lot of heat for reporting healthy profits.

Four charts reveal surprising views on Aussie businesses

Voters hate Coles and Woolworths? Think again. Amid a debate on the role of business in society, a new poll unearths some unexpected views on business.

  • Ronald Mizen
Health Minister Mark Butler wants private health insurers to do better on this year’s premium increases.

Butler rejects health insurers’ second bid to lift prices

Health Minister Mark Butler has rejected a second round of requests from private health insurers to increase customer premiums, saying they need to help more during the cost-of-living crisis.

  • Updated
  • Ronald Mizen

December 2024

The King’s School has taken the mantle of Australia’s most expensive school.

Private school fees to rise at almost triple the rate of inflation

Prestigious schools have been gradually contacting parents over the past few weeks announcing new fee schedules for 2025. 

  • Julie Hare

September 2024

Access to childcare for all families would increase under recommendations from the Productivity Commission.

Review urges free childcare for some at $5b-a-year cost

The Productivity Commission has rejected Labor’s goal of universal childcare, but still wants the country’s poorest families to get three days a week for free.

  • Julie Hare
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August 2024

Alexis Hurditch

Date night swapped for meal kits as consumers feel the pinch

“We have cut back on everything,” says Alexis Hurditch, who now prefers to spend Friday night eating meals kits at home rather than heading out to a restaurant.

  • Gus McCubbing
The power system remains under pressure despite trimmed forecasts for demand.

Pressure on power grid eases as EV uptake falters

The Australian Energy Market Operator also cited softer economic growth and the bigger size of rooftop solar systems for the cut in forecast demand from the grid.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith and Ben Potter

July 2024

Households face higher gas bills, which are increasing more substantially in larger cities like Sydney and Melbourne.

Gas bill rises hit households despite east coast price caps

Increases of up to 11 per cent from the biggest retailers will saddle families with steeper energy costs despite a mandated pause in electricity tariff rises.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus will announce the overhaul on Monday.

Labor reveals personal bankruptcy overhaul

The threshold for involuntary bankruptcy will rise to $20,000 and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus will also launch consultations for a mini-bankruptcy regime.

  • Ronald Mizen

June 2024

Fatima Payman

Albanese banishes rebel Labor senator

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has suspended Senator Fatima Payman indefinitely from Labor’s caucus after she defied his leadership by vowing to cross the floor again to back pro-Palestine motions.

  • Updated
  • Andrew Tillett and Ronald Mizen
The energy transition and digitisation are the big themes for the rest of this decade, although both are only as good as government policy settings.

Beware the knock-on effect of ‘sensible’ decisions like Eraring

If we want private capital to transition Australia’s power grid, we need to remember the ground rules.

  • Anthony Macdonald

May 2024

A beach house in the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

Holiday home owners to get $600 in power bill discounts

Holiday and second home owners will receive multiple $300 energy bill credits, after the government says all households would automatically receive the benefit.

  • Updated
  • John Kehoe and Elouise Fowler
Rising interest rates and power prices mean Adam and Erin Foster’s dream of buying their first home keeps “slipping through the fingers”.

$300 off every household’s power bill in cost-of-living cash splash

In addition to a tax cut from July 1, every household will receive an electricity bill discount as part of a $7.8 billion cost-of-living package.

  • Ronald Mizen and Maxim Shanahan
“It’s why there will be financial incentives, regulatory changes and other enablers,” the treasurer said.

PM, Chalmers mull go-it-alone power price discounts

The Albanese government is considering a second round of power bill discounts, on top of $1000-per-household credits promised by the Queensland government.

  • Phillip Coorey

April 2024

AFR

House deposit or HECS debt: what’s best for the kids?

Soaring student loan debts can reduce first home buyer lending capacity by up to $140,000, according to analysis by RateCity.

  • Duncan Hughes and Lucy Dean
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The bar at Shot coffee shop in London’s Mayfair.

Is this flat white really worth $500 a cup?

If you thought coffee was getting expensive in Melbourne, it’s hard to beat the eye-watering price for this Japanese-grown coffee in London’s Mayfair.

  • Blathnaid Corless

Queensland to make up Victoria’s gas shortfall this winter

The outlook for July, August and September comes after the Australian Energy Market Operator last month warned of a deterioration in Victoria’s medium-term gas supply.

  • Ronald Mizen

March 2024

The NSW wants to restructure toll fares on Sydney’s 13 toll roads

Transurban investors tell NSW to ‘honour’ toll road contracts

A review of Sydney’s 13 toll roads has recommended the government create a new system of “network tolls”, which Transurban would take to court, analysts say.

  • Jenny Wiggins
A sharp decline in the number of Australians travelling overseas and a large fall in imports of consumer goods may have stopped the economy from contracting in December.

Imports drop as households cut back on travel, cars and clothes

A sharp decline in overseas travel and a large fall in imports of consumer goods may have stopped the Australian economy from contracting in December.

  • Michael Read

February 2024

Coles takes the lead. What will Woolworths pull up next?

Woolworths’ sales growth has dropped below that of Coles, prompting analysts to suggest it might need to act to improve price perceptions.

  • Sue Mitchell

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/bills-5uz