With our families, friends & holidaymakers out on local rivers & coastal waters this summer perhaps a timely reminder is due concerning the danger of drowning

 

Lennox Head
IMAGE: Amy Fallon
The Guardian, 21.01.20
 

In the twelve months between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024 there were 323 drownings across Australia.

Last summer, 134 lives were lost, averaging at least one drowning per day. Older adults were particularly at risk, being 39% of all deaths, 27% of victims were people born overseas and 10% were children aged 0-14 years. A total of 82% of drownings were male.

Many drowning incidents occurred at unpatrolled or isolated locations, including beaches, rivers, lakes and dams.

All states and territories reported an increase in drowning compared to last summer, except for South Australia and the Northern Territory. [See:https://www.royallifesaving.com.au/research-and-policy/drowning-research/summer-drowning-toll]

ABC News, 22 December 2024:

More people have drowned across Australia in the first three weeks of summer this year than during the same period in 2023, with the current death rate 120 per cent higher than the five-year average, according to Royal Life Saving Australia data.

Australia's leading drowning prevention body has reported 18 drowning deaths since December 1, including six in New South Wales and five in Queensland.

In the first three weeks of December last year, 14 people died drowning in waterways across the country. The five-year average number of deaths since 2019 for the same period is 15 fatalities.....

Justin Scarr, the Royal Life Saving Australia CEO, told ABC News that the end-of-year holiday period and consecutive days of good weather across the country have contributed to the higher fatal drowning numbers....

"The weather has been great and many people are flocking to a range of waterways, including beaches and lakes," he said.

"We're urging people to plan. Preparation is key.

"When you arrive at a holiday location, it is the first couple of days where you are unfamiliar with the location, you don't know where the patrolled areas with lifeguards are, you don't know the time for the lifeguards and potentially you don't know necessarily the swimming ability of the people you are holidaying with.

"We urge them to make smart choices about where they are going picnicking, know the local conditions and if people can't swim, don't go near the water at all."....

Royal Life Saving Australia water safety guidelines at

https://www.royallifesaving.com.au/about/campaigns-and-programs/Water-Safety

The Australian femicide count reaches an appalling number in 2024 - averaging one woman violently killed every four days

 

This year 2024 marked 50 years since the creation of Australia's first women's refuge Elsie in Glebe, Sydney, for those fleeing domestic violence and 50 years since the establishment of the Sydney Rape Crisis Collective in Redfern, Sydney.

It is 29 years since a female counsellor was gaoled for protecting the privacy of her rape victim client by refusing a subpoena by the accused rapist for the counselling notes petaining to his victim.

It is 10 years since Destroy the Joint started the online Counting Dead Women recording the monthly toll of women who died violently at the hands of partners, family members, acquaintances or strangers.

It is also 9 years since this campaign commenced....

Death toll based on media reports as of 18 December 2024

The RED HEART Campaign’s Memorial to Women and Children Lost to Violence is an ongoing journalism-based story-driven project tracking every known Australian woman and child killed as a result of murder, manslaughter or neglect from White Settlement to now. Simply tap a heart to read each victim’s story. To add a loved one, change an entry or request more information, email admin@theREDHEARTcampaign.org

NOTE: The Red Heart campaign includes in its count Australian women who died violently while outside the country.

HOUSING 2024 STATE OF PLAY: All renters deserve to live in a safe, healthy and energy efficient home. But do they?

 

In November 2024 the Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC) in partnership with Anika Legal and Consumer Action Law Centre (CALC) released a 23-page report entitled "Too Hot, Too Cold, Too Costly: Victorian Renters Pay the Price for Energy-Inefficient Homes".

Although this report is principally based on small group research conducted in one Australia state, the housing circumstances it describes are common to many towns and villages across the country, both in metropolitan and regional areas.

It should be noted that although the report appears to address private rental situations, it is not unknown for renters in government subsidised social housing to experience health & safety issues relating to a lack of energy efficiency built into dwellings they rent and/or experience delays in receiving needed repairs to the rental property.

The following excepts are drawn from the first 15 pages of the report.

How can we make it easier for people who rent to keep their home warm in winter and cool in summer? How can we make sure that the cost of energy isn’t excessive for people who rent?

All renters deserve to live in a safe, healthy and energy efficient home. Recent quantitative research has highlighted how rental homes with poor energy efficiency cause harm.

Up to 40% of households renting in Australia experience energy hardship, threatening their financial stability, health and housing security.

A national survey by Better Renting found that three in four renters in Australia are cutting back on heating and cooling to reduce energy costs. Only 22% of renters in Victoria have adequate ceiling insulation in their home, and 38% described their home as being too cold "almost all the time" in winter.

This report looks closely at the experiences of a group of renters in Victoria. Anika Legal, in partnership with Consumer Action Law Centre (CALC), provided financial counselling and legal advice to renters. This research investigated the experiences of these clients in terms of energy inefficiency in their rental properties, as well as the impacts on health and financial wellbeing resulting from inefficient energy use. The research also examined renters’ understanding of their rights, knowledge of complaints pathways, and experiences of dispute resolution.

Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC) provided an independent analysis of findings, jointly reported here, in collaboration with Anika Legal. 

Overall, the results tell a targeted story of the challenges people face enforcing their rights as renters. There is a clear link between energy efficient homes and decreasing cost of energy use. However, the incentives for a landlord to make a home energy efficient do not go far enough to adequately protect renters. As one of our renters posited, a car needs a roadworthy. Why doesn’t a house?.....

Our renters reported living in energy inefficient and faulty homes

Most of our renters told us that the energy efficiency of their homes was ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’.

They cited critical structural faults hindering the overall energy efficiency, examples included holes in the roof, gaps in floorboards, single pane windows, and draughty doors.

Additionally, several renters found major faults within their air conditioning units, electric water heaters, gas pipes and/or plumbing system. Some renters reported damage to key facilities in their home including a broken toilet valve, shower screen and fence. One renter said that their home had numerous faults and even lacked necessities including a front door lock, security gate/screen, kitchen exhaust fan and smoke alarm....

Our renters believed that the poor energy efficiency of their homes, combined with unrepaired faults, directly contributed to the increase in their energy and water bills. Our renters were concerned about their ability to clear existing debts and cover any future increase in energy and water prices.

Our renters and their households experienced significant negative impacts due to poor energy efficiency and faults in their homes

Our renters reported that poor energy efficiency resulted in a range of negative impacts on their household. Of these impacts, financial costs and health and safety concerns were the most significant.

Our renters often felt that they had to choose between turning on the heating during colder weather or enduring the cold to save money. When our renters did turn on their heating, they often felt stressed about how they would cover the additional cost to their energy bills. This resulted in these renters experiencing a lower sense of wellbeing and feeling disempowered and insecure in their current living situation. When our renters did not turn on their heating, they reported feeling concerned about the physical and mental health impacts associated with being cold all the time....

In addition, our renters were concerned about the health and safety risks posed by faults including leaky water and sewerage pipes. For instance, several of our renters were worried about the presence of mould in their homes and others identified the safety risk of puddles around water leakages. One renter even recounted an experience where their young son was hospitalised after slipping in a puddle of water that had leaked from a bathroom tap. These risks caused renters to feel anxious over the health and safety of their household.

Further, another renter reported experiencing negative impacts including stress, anxiety, relationship tension and less time to enjoy leisure activities. These impacts occurred after the renter had endured major gas leaks for several months....

Our renters are picking up the slack when landlords don’t act

Our renters often prefer to fix the problem themselves

When encountering a problem with their home, our renters tend to contact their friends, family, community workers, or often find a way to fix the problem themselves. Our renters take it upon themselves to purchase repair materials, appliances and other household products to regulate temperatures inside their homes, incurring out of pocket expenses for these improvements.

For example, several of our renters opted to purchase cheap standing heaters, fans, new blinds, and/or electric blankets. In other cases, one renter chose to seal gaps to prevent cold draughts, while another decided to patch holes in the roof....

Our renters are concerned about rent increases

Many of our renters are concerned that even basic improvements made to a property might lead to an increase in rent. One renter shared an experience where a neighbour’s rent was increased despite the landlord having already received a reimbursement for the property to be improved in line with minimum standards....

Our renters are aware of power imbalances, and this can influence their actions

Our renters recognised the power imbalance between themselves and their landlords, understanding that landlords control both rent prices and the security of their tenancy. This precarious dynamic often left renters feeling powerless and influenced the extent to which renters were willing to engage with their landlords. One renter expressed that they did not want to draw attention to themselves or remind their landlord of their presence. This sentiment was echoed by another renter who preferred to manage any repairs themselves to avoid potential retribution from their landlord.....

The full report can be read and downloaded at

https://anika-clerk.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/Too_Hot_Too_Cold_Too_Costly_-_December_2024.pdf

Academic study finds most Australian adults "do not have the ability to assess information sources and verify information online across websites and social media" & all age groups are affected.

 

ONLINE MISINFORMATION IN AUSTRALIA: ADULTS’ EXPERIENCES, ABILITIES, AND RESPONSES

3 December 2024

Authors

Sora Park, Tanya Notley, T. J. Thomson, Aimee Hourigan, Michael Dezuanni

Publisher

News and Media Research Centre, University of Western Sydney

Executive Summary [excerpt]

The flourishing of Australian society relies on well-informed citizens who benefit from ready access to reliable sources of information to support their decision making. Democratic processes and social participation that are underpinned by high-quality and trustworthy news and information lead to better outcomes for Australian society. Likewise, accessing reliable and trustworthy information enables citizens to make informed decisions about everything from voting, to making purchases, to staying safe online, to accessing health advice and services.

The rapid uptake of social media, which Australians now use more than any other type of media, presents many opportunities for accessing information, but also brings into focus the significant challenge of misinformation. The sheer volume of information online and the speed at which new information travels can be overwhelming and very difficult to navigate. As a result, bad actors seek to undermine democratic processes and target individuals by spreading false and misleading information. This has been widely recognised as a global problem.

The World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Risks report¹ finds that mis- and disinformation² pose the greatest immediate risk societies face and may “radically disrupt electoral processes over the next two years”.³ In 2021, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution affirming that “media and information literacy” can help ensure “that the fight against disinformation and misinformation promotes and does not infringe on individuals’ freedom of expression and access to information.” To achieve this, the resolution called on Member States to “develop and implement policies, action plans and strategies related to the promotion of media and information literacy” while also calling on social media platforms to “promote media and information literacy, as a way to empower all people and facilitate digital inclusion and global connectivity, and to assist in the fight against disinformation and misinformation.”⁴

However, unlike many advanced democracies,⁵ Australia does not have a national media literacy policy or strategy to ensure citizens are provided with support to help them to verify information online and to ensure they are supported to create and share trustworthy information.

In our 2024 national survey,⁶ only 42% of adult Australians said they are confident that they can check if information online is true and only 39% are confident they can check if a website can be trusted. While these attitudes are useful to capture, self-reporting about technology abilities can be inaccurate.⁷ Prior to this research very little was known about adult Australians’ actual ability or their everyday encounters with and responses to misinformation online. To address these knowledge gaps, we conducted four studies.

1. We surveyed 3,852 adults to

understand their media practices,

attitudes and confidence in their

abilities.

2. We tested the ability of 2,115

of these adults to assess the

credibility of information on

websites and social media

platforms.

3. We supported 55 of these

adults to collect data about their

experiences with (un)trustworthy

online news and information over

one week as part of a mobile

diary study.

4. We interviewed 20 of these

participants to explore how

sociocultural dynamics influence

people’s information seeking and

decision-making behaviours.

Our analysis of these four interlinked datasets finds that the vast majority of adult Australians want to be able to identify misinformation and are trying to do so. However, most adults do not have the ability to assess information sources and verify information online across websites and social media.

1 See https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-risks-report-2024/

2 In this report we use ‘misinformation’ as an overarching term that includes both dis- and misinformation.

3 See https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Risks_Report_2024.pdf

4 161 GA Res 75/267, UN Doc A/RES/75/267 (29 March 2021)

5 Examples include Finland’s National Media Education Strategy (2013, 2019); the UK’s OfCom Online media literacy strategy (2021, 2024); and Netherland’s Netwerk

Mediawijksheid Multi-Year Plan (2019–2023).

6 Notley, T., Chambers, S., Park, S. & Dezuanni, M. (2024). Adult Media Literacy in 2024: Australian Attitudes, Experiences and Needs. Western Sydney University, Queensland University of Technology and University of Canberra. https://apo.org.au/node/327239

7 Siddiq et al. 2016, Taking a future perspective by learning from the past, Educational Research Review, 19(1).

SNAPSHOT FROM INFOGRAPHIC, p.10

Full report can be read & downloaded at

https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2024-12/apo-nid328959.pdf

* my yellow highlighting used in this excerpt

White supremacists said to hail from southern Queensland took a trip across the border into the Northern Rivers region in order to display their ignorance & racism to the world

 

ABC News, 5 November 2024:

The white supremacist group said they had travelled from Queensland to the mountain. (Supplied)

Police are investigating after a group of white supremacists posted on social media that they had staged a rally at a sacred Indigenous site in northern New South Wales.

Warning: This story may be offensive to some readers.

More than a dozen members of the balaclava-wearing group posted images on social media platform X on October 31, which they suggested were taken on a weekend at Wollumbin Mountain, formerly known as Mount Warning.

The site, which includes a summit track, is regarded as sacred to the Aboriginal community and remains closed to the public.

The group carried a flag consistent with the neo-Nazi National Socialist Network and held a banner which read, "Mt Warning for the White Man".

The men erected a sign with white supremacist messaging up at Wollumbin Mountain. (Supplied)

"Members of the National Socialist Network in Queensland travelled to climb Mount Warning last weekend," the post on X, formerly known as Twitter, said.

"White Australians established and maintained the trail for nearly a century and White Australians will decide who climbs it.

"Mt Warning for the White man!"

'Vile demonstration not welcome'

NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe described the actions as "vile" and "utterly disgusting", with National Parks referring the matter to police.

"I condemn those involved," the minister said in a statement.

"It is not acceptable anywhere in NSW, whether it be a sacred Indigenous site or on our city streets.

"To these far-right extremists and neo-Nazis, who are reportedly from Queensland, you and your vile demonstration are not welcome in NSW.

"Any attempts to spread hate are taken extremely seriously. I ask anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers," she said....

On the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service website, Wollumbin is described as "highly significant to Aboriginal people, particularly the Bundjalung nation, as a place of sacred ceremonies linked to traditional law and custom".

"Wollumbin (Mount Warning) summit track and Aboriginal Place remains closed. Decisions about the future of the summit track will be made by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service in accordance with the wishes of the Aboriginal custodians," it said.

This is not the first time this year that people have deliberately chosen to give offence and inflict hurt on the Aboriginal custodians of this sacred mountain.

In August 2024, former Young Liberal and 27 year member of the Liberal Party of Australia before being elected to the NSW Legislative Assembly as a member of the Libertarian Party, John Riddick and his Libertarian mate Marc Hendrickx, in an ignorant act of defiance and self-promotion climbed Wollumbin.

IMAGE: The Daily Mail, 3 August 2024

Things are crook in Tallarook and Muswellbrook, the mood is down in Brisbane town, while everything's wrong in Woolongong and Woodenbong - in fact spirits seem to be low in many households all around Australia

 

The reason for this gloom? Well if household spending is any indicator, it is likely to be because cost-of-living pressures have been grinding people down for what seems like a long and tiresome 29 months.

The Reserve Bank cash rate target/interest rate may have stopped climbing at 4.35% and stayed there for the last 12 months but it's not showing signs of coming down anytime soon.

Households around the country are still having to tighten their belts in order to make pennies stretch as far as possible in the face of persistently high prices for goods and services.

Click on image to enlarge

Australian Bureau of Statistics, Monthly Household Spending Indicator: Experimental estimates of household spending, Reference period September 2024, Released 1/11/2024

In 2024 from 1 January to 30 September national household spending fell from 4.2% to 1.3% as most people focused on covering the essentials – food, medicines & other health costs, transport costs including petrol & car repairs, mortgage payments, rent, schools fees etc.

While household discretionary spending fell from 3.6% in January to 0.8% in September, as many chose to avoid clothing/footwear purchases and spent less on such thing as recreational activities & eating out.

Click on image to enlarge

Australian Bureau of Statistics, National household spending, March to September quarterly graph, September 2024

The national barometer for the level of tension in household spending choices is possible marked most clearly when it comes to the purchase of alcohol and tobacco.

National fall in spending on alcoholic beverages and tobacco – January to September 2024

NSW   -12.3%

Vic      -13.3%

Qld     -8.8%

SA      -11.9%

WA     -2.9%

Tas     -11.1%

NT      -5.7%

ACT    -6.7%.

Commonwealth Government "COVID-19 Response Inquiry Report" released on Tuesday, 29 October 2024.

Then Australian prime minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott John Morrison, his ministers and the 'National Cabinet' he created at the start of the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 global pandemic fared reasonably well in the Commonwealth Government "COVID-19 Response Inquiry Report" released on Tuesday, 29 October 2024.

That is, fared reasonably well in comparison to other countries. The general public and other interested parties appear to have expressed other opinions to the Inquiry and the inquiry report itself is not without pointed criticisms.

"The fear in the community, and wider impacts on children and young people, could have been mitigated through more proportionate decisions based on a balanced approach that used evidence on the risk of viral spread in school settings and the effectiveness of in-school measures. Earlier communication and greater transparency around decisions, and improved engagement with experts and advocates to feed into government decision-making, would also have minimised the long-term harm caused by the suspension of face-to-face learning.

There was a strong sense that people with disability were not a priority, despite many being at a higher risk from COVID-19 infection and pandemic-associated disruptions to their usual supports. Poor planning, inadequate communications and a lack of transparency around prioritisation decisions in the vaccine rollout exacerbated a sense of being forgotten by government......

The initial strengthening of trust in government did not continue for the duration of the pandemic response. By the second year, restrictions on personal freedoms were less accepted across Australia as outbreaks tended to be short lived and infection rates remained low. The decrease in levels of trust reflects the complexity of the relationship between trust and engagement – trust is vital to ensuring adherence to life-saving restrictions, but those same restrictions could risk increasing distrust the more effective they are and the longer they are in place.

The Inquiry heard that there were many reasons for the decrease in trust. These varied within and across jurisdictions, but common drivers included concerns about the lack of transparency in and supporting evidence for decision-making, poor communication, the stringency and duration of restrictions, the implementation of mandated measures, access to vaccines and inconsistencies in state and territory responses.

During the pandemic, the advice underpinning the imposition or extension of control measures and the evidence that the measures were working or set at the right level were rarely made public. This fed the perception that the government did not trust the public to understand or interpret the information correctly and contributed to the decrease in trust....."

["Commonwealth COVID-19 Response Inquiry Summary", 29 Oct 2024, pp. 16, 39]

Office of Prime Minister & Cabinet, 29 October 2024:

On 21 September 2023, the Prime Minister the Hon Anthony Albanese MP announced an independent inquiry into Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The inquiry reviewed the Commonwealth Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic to identify lessons learned to improve Australia’s preparedness for future pandemics.

The report includes nine guiding recommendations that are aligned with nine pillars of a successful pandemic response. The report identifies 19 immediate actions for the next 12-18 months, and a further seven medium-term actions prior to the next national health emergency.

Commonwealth Government "COVID-19 Response Inquiry Report" (full report DOCX 11.03 MB) at

https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/resource/download/covid-19-response-inquiry-report.docx

"COVID-19 Response Inquiry Summary: Lessons for the Next Crisis", released 29 October 2024 at

https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/resource/download/covid-response-inquiry-summary.pdf

Conclusion (at page 61)

Almost five years since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, for most Australians there is a collective desire to move on and forget what was an immensely difficult period. There is undoubtedly much to forget, but there is also much to be proud of as a nation.

Our hope is that this Inquiry will ensure that the immense body of work undertaken by individuals, community organisations, businesses, universities and research organisations, and government will be recognised into the future. There is also, importantly, much to learn from our collective experiences.

Our objective in undertaking this Inquiry was to document what worked and what could be done better for a future crisis, and to ensure that the lessons are learned so that we are better prepared for the next pandemic. With individuals and communities less prepared to change their behaviour we will not be able to simply rely on what worked during COVID-19, and must learn the lessons to ensure a future response is effective.

We heard from many individuals across government and in the community about the toll that the pandemic response had taken. People worked beyond normal limits, and many of the public health professionals, frontline community service and health staff, political leaders, health experts and public servants we relied on to get through the pandemic are no longer in their positions. This poses risks to our resilience to face another crisis.

Trust has also been eroded, and many of the measures taken during COVID-19 are unlikely to be accepted by the population again. That means there is a job to be done to rebuild trust, and we must plan a response based on the Australia we are today, not the Australia we were before the pandemic.

The CDC will be an important part of rebuilding that trust and strengthening resilience and preparedness, providing national coordination to gather evidence necessary to undertake risk assessments that can guide the proportionality of public health responses in future crises. However, as we continue to face more complex and concurrent crises in the years ahead, there is a need to build broader resilience in our systems.

We have focused our priority actions on building that resilience now, but it will need to be maintained over time. We cannot predict when the next global health crisis will occur – it may occur at any time – in 12 months, in a decade or beyond our lifetime – but human history tells us that it will occur, and it will once again test us in ways that are hard to imagine. Acting today will ensure in the future we are better prepared, benefiting from our learnings of what worked well and what didn’t during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ms Robyn Kruk AO, Chair

Professor Catherine Bennett

Dr Angela Jackson

"Things we need to do to get ready for the next pandemic" at

https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/resource/download/easy-read-recs-actions.pdf

A rather hurried Senate Inquiry is currently considering reforms to Australia's privacy laws which may have a chilling effect on news delivery and political debate amongst ordinary citizens

 

On 19 September 2024, the Senate referred the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 [Provisions] to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, for inquiry and report by 14 November 2024.

This parliamentary inquiry has a very short timeframe for consideration of legal reform which apparently intends to capture the content found on all digital news and social media platforms, as well as content found on websites and online chat rooms.

Officially the Bill be considered by the Inquiry:

...would enact a first tranche of reforms to the Privacy Act 1988 to implement a number of legislative proposals agreed by the government in its Response to the Privacy Act Review (September 2023). The Bill would also introduce a new statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy and targeted criminal offences to respond to doxxing. [my yellow highlighting]

The definition of "doxxing" according to the Explanatory Memorandum displayed with the draft Bill is "the release of personal data using a carriage service in a manner that would be menacing or harassing".

A clearer description is probably along these lines; "doxxing is the act of publicly providing personally identifiable information about an individual or organization, usually via the Internet and without their consent" [Wikipedia retrieved 23.10.24].

There are concerns being expressed that the Bill as it now stands may invite misconstruction or legal overreach, as well as have a chilling effect on investigative reporting, political discourse and, the implied freedom of opinion and expression that Australian citizens now enjoy under the Australian Constitution and specifically by way of four of the seven core international human rights treaties Australia is a party to.

The Committee received 68 submissions by the 11 October 2024 closing date.

One public hearing was held in Canberra on 22 October, at which representatives from 21 different different Australian government departments/agencies, independent commissions, public broadcasters, industry and consumer groups, charitable organisations, news agencies & multinational social media corporations.

Among those submissions were 4 pages from Google, 17 pages from Meta and a 39 pages from the Law Council of Australia.

The Law Council's submission is recommended reading as it sets out its concerns and recommendations concisely and clearly.

Its submission can be found and downloaded at

https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=ab37ee62-de00-4125-8791-711143f3b13a&subId=768485

STATE OF PLAY AUSTRALIA 2024: the numbers tell us households around the country are wealthier than they were a year ago so why doesn't it feel that way for so many people?

  

According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data released 26 September 2024:

> Australian household wealth rose for the seventh consecutive quarter (up 1.5 per cent or $250 billion) in June 2024;

> Total household wealth in that quarter was $16.5 trillion which was 9.3 per cent ($1.4 trillion) higher than a year ago;

> This growth in household wealth was also supported by superannuation assets, which rose moderately by 0.3 per cent ($13.7 billion);

> Households' investment increased by $3.8b to $53.3b, driven by an increase in gross fixed capital formation in June quarter 2024 and non-financial assets owned by households increased by 2.2% ($258.5b), driven by a $216.0b rise in residential land and dwellings; 

>While on the downside household liabilities increased by 1.9% ($58.3b), with a $35.6b rise in housing loans and a $0.5b fall in short term loans.

When it came to cost of living there was some welcome news from the ABS head of “Annual inflation was 2.7 per cent in August, down from 3.5 per cent in July, and is the lowest reading since August 2021.”

ABS All groups monthly CPI indicator, annual movement (%)

ABS Grocery products, annual movement (%)

While the Cost Price Index showed a continued downward trend, petrol along with fruit & veg remained volatile and manufactured foods like tea, coffee, frozen prepared meals & health supplements remained stubbornly resistant to lowered prices. Although while the price of a bag of groceries may fluctuate, rental costs rose 6 per cent in the year to August.

Offsetting this was the ABS announcement in its media release of 25 September 2024 that:

Electricity fell 17.9 per cent in the 12 months to August, which is the largest annual fall since the electricity series started in the early 1980s.

“Commonwealth Government and State Government rebates led to a 14.6 per cent fall in electricity prices in the month of August, which followed a 6.4 per cent fall in July. Excluding the rebates, electricity prices would have risen 0.1 per cent in August and 0.9 per cent in July,” Ms Marquardt said.

ABS Electricity, Australia, monthly and annual movement (%)

Countering the residential electricity rebates has been the rollout of Term of Use Tariffs in Qld, NSW & SA by the retail energy supply industry - involving three different residential tariff rates over each 24 hour cycle for general use electricity in addition to a fixed price tariff for heating water.

ABC News, 1 October 2024

Industry lobby group, the Australian Energy Council has called for a halt to the roll out of Time Of Use and Demand Use residential power tariffs.

 After employing what has to be biggest industry-wide suite of deceptive practices to arbitrarily impose punitive price increases, it seems energy retailers are now in a deep public relations hole.

Faced with the consumer backlash as the reality of 'power bill shock' hits households, energy retailers have tried to distance themselves from the reforms, instead blaming regulators and poles-and-wires companies. In their turn the equally deceptive poles-and-wires companies are pointing the finger of blame at the energy retailers for not directly informing their customers about changes to how residential electricity costs are calculated.

What all those numbers do not say....

The Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research has updated the poverty line for Australia to the March quarter 2024. Inclusive of housing costs, the poverty line [a relative measure of poverty] is $1145.61 per week for a family comprising two adults, one of whom is working, and two dependent children. This is an increase of $4.78 from the poverty line for the previous quarter (Dec 2023).

Based on a 2024 Bank West Curtin Economics Institute assessment of child poverty in Australia it is possible that at least one in six couple with children households would meet that degree of comparative poverty, with another one in twenty living in significant poverty and one in forty in extreme poverty.

An est. 13.4% of the Australian population lived below the poverty line in 2019-2020. There is no indication that the situation has markedly improved in 2024.