To find that the ANZ, Bendigo and Adelaide, Commonwealth and Westpac banks are not above squeezing the poor is not really news - but to find that one particular squeeze employed by these banks seemingly targeted Aboriginal customers living in regional & remote areas is shocking

 

Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC). media release:

Bigbanks to refund millions in fees to low-income customers followingASIC report

Published 15 July 2024

Bank customers on low incomes, including First Nations customers, will be refunded over $28 million dollars after a first-of-its-kind ASIC review revealed four Australian banks systemically charged high fees to those customers who could least afford it.

ASIC's Report 785 Better banking for Indigenous Consumers (REP 785) found that the ANZ, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, CBA and Westpac kept at least two million Australians on low incomes, including many relying on Centrelink payments to make ends meet, in high-fee accounts.

ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland said the banks had caused financial distress through avoidable fees and complicated bank processes, often creating barriers for regional and remote consumers.

‘Banks knew that many of these customers on low-incomes were in inappropriate high-fee accounts, and it has taken ASIC’s intervention to force them to act,’ Commissioner Kirkland said.

‘Before our review, most banks only provided their customers with difficult 'opt-in' processes for switching to low-fee banking options, including forcing some consumers to travel hundreds of kilometres to their nearest bank branch.’

ASIC’s review was focussed on improving financial outcomes for First Nations consumers by addressing avoidable bank fees. The findings have resulted in broader outcomes for people on low incomes nationwide.

Following ASIC's review, the banks have migrated more than 200,000 customers into low-fee accounts, saving these customers an estimated $10.7 million in future yearly savings.

As a result of ASIC’s review banks will return over $28 million in fees to these customers over the next 12 to 18 months, including $24.6 million to be refunded to customers receiving ABSTUDY payments and those in areas with significant First Nations populations. [my yellow highlighting]

Commissioner Kirkland welcomed the steps the banks had taken but said more needed to be done to ensure the issue didn't happen again.

‘This is the second report from ASIC in the last two months that highlights where banks have failed to put customers’ needs at the heart of their operations,’ Commissioner Kirkland said.

‘It highlights the impact the banking system can have on Australians. Fair banking services for all Australians, including those on low-incomes or located in regional or remote areas, are critical for our financial system.

‘Banks need to ensure they have systems and processes in place so customers on low incomes can easily transition to low-fee accounts, regardless of their location.

‘We expect all banks – not just those we reviewed for this report – to consider these findings, improve the accessibility and distribution of low-fee accounts and commit adequate resourcing to specialist First Nations services,’ he said.

Download

Report 785 Better banking for Indigenous Consumers (REP 785)

Infographic: ASIC’s Better banking for Indigenous consumers project (PDF 1.2 MB)

Better banking for Indigenous consumers report: Case studies (PDF 747 KB)

Background

ASIC’s review focussed on banks with a presence in regional and remote locations. In July 2023, ASIC wrote to the banks calling on them to improve their processes and target market determinations (TMDs) and refund past fees incurred by low-income customers in high-fee bank accounts.

ASIC analysed each banks’ TMDs and data on fees charged to customers on low incomes. ASIC considered how banks met the design and distribution obligations and asked each bank to address fee harm for people on low-incomes in high-fee transaction accounts.

REP 785 is an outcome of ASIC’s Indigenous Outreach Program, which works with a range of organisations, including the financial services industry, to influence system change and drive positive financial outcomes for First Nations peoples. The outcomes align with ASIC's Indigenous Financial Services Framework and ASIC's Reconciliation Action Plan. This is the first intervention project of its kind to compel widespread meaningful benefits for low-income consumers, including First Nations customers since the release of ASIC’s Indigenous Financial Services Framework.

ASIC advises all consumers to talk to their bank to understand what fees they are paying. For further information they could speak to a free and confidential financial counsellor at the National Debt Helpline or through Mob Strong debt helpline.

Byron Shire Council being less than transparent over a proposal to cut more than 30 shire residents off from a reliable town water supply as a cost cutting measure

 

Echo, 10 July 2024, Residents face being cut from Mullum’s water, excerpt:

More than 30 affected residents say their properties are at the bottom of Wilsons Creek and some areas of Mullumbimby Creek, and they were only told they will likely be cut off from town water after questioning Council staff about the Mullumbimby Water Supply Strategy.

Spokesperson for the Wilsons Water Rights Action Group (WWR) Mel Macpherson said she was shocked to find out from a neighbour about Council’s plans to remove their connection to town water without any direct written or verbal communication.

‘One would think the appropriate action for Byron Shire Council would be to talk to us individually, and let us know that their preferred water strategy means cutting us off – for the 30 residents this has drastic ramifications, we have a right to know.

‘I honestly feel the communication from Byron Council has not been acceptable at all. This decision directly affects our health, businesses, infrastructure and property values. Relying on us to scan social media or listen to the radio to find out we are getting cut off has left me baffled.

‘I only found out because my neighbour who has lived here for 90 years told me, and knew the history of the weir and local infrastructure, and noticed this in the water strategy plans......

Echo, Letters to the Editor, Losing town water access,13 July 2024:

I grew up and live in Mullumbimby, and I know locals have a strong opinion about the Byron Shire Council. I had always given them the benefit of the doubt – as it’s not an easy job. But last week I changed my mind.

Our neighbour, Ray Musgrave, alerted us and other neighbours we’d be losing town water access on our properties. At first, I thought this was simply the Mullum rumour mill, but I called around at Council and found out it was true. Without any doorknocks, phone calls, or letters, we found out dozens of residents at the bottom of Wilsons Creek, including us, would lose town water access if Mullum is connected to Rous water.

While this decision has not been officially made by Council – yet – we all know it is the likely decision. I work in media and communications, sometimes as a consultant for state and federal government, and I’ll admit that tactics are sometimes a little underhanded, but, when it comes to infrastructure and impacting households like this, there would always be doorknocks to every home at a minimum in the communications plan. So, I’m simply shocked at these sneaky tactics by our local council.

Luckily, we have all been neighbours for decades or generations here and were able to quickly agree to work together to try and save our town water. Wish us luck!

Casey Fung, Wilsons Creek

According to the Byron Shire Council website as of 15 July 2024:

Regional water supply

All urban areas in Byron Shire are supplied water from Rocky Creek Dam, which is managed by Rous County Council.

Mullumbimby is supplied from Council's Lavertys Gap Weir.

Rous County Council supplies drinking water to seven reservoirs in the Byron Shire Council from the Nightcap Water Treatment Plant.

Under the Water Supply Agreement, we are responsible for maintaining water quality in the reservoirs and reticulation system......

The Mullumbimby Water Treatment Plant provides treated, filtered, and disinfected drinking water to Mullumbimby.

The drinking water supply is sourced from Wilsons Creek via the Lavertys Gap Weir.

Water flows to the plant by gravity through a heritage-listed race, via a mountain tunnel.

Council documents indicate approximately 13 properties along Wilsons Creek Road are connected to the trunk main from the water treatment plant.

The preferred option of council staff coincides with advice contained in a Hydrosphere Consulting Pty Ltd report (updated May 2024) which clearly stated in 12.4 Option 4 - Full Connection to RCC Regional Supply:

The customers along the Wilsons Creek Road trunk main would not be serviced with this arrangement.

In an alternative scenario within Option 4 Hydro Consulting suggested an Option 4B - emergency connection to regional supply:

As an alternative, the existing RCC emergency supply pipeline could be extended to service the remaining areas of Mullumbimby as an emergency supply only. BSC would then retain Lavertys Gap Weir and WTP as the normal supply regime with future augmentation with another raw water supply source. The customers along the Wilsons Creek Road trunk main would still be serviced by the weir supply and WTP if there was sufficient water in the weir storage. [my yellow highlighting]

However, Byron Shire Council on its public exhibition webpage did not immediately draw attention to the fact that some properties may lose a reliable long-term connection to town water. 

In the first instance it presented the case thus, with the fate of Wilsons Creek Road concealed in webpage links:

Mullumbimby’s water supply scenarios

The consultant’s report short-listed four water supply scenarios, summarised below.

Each scenario has associated benefits and costs.

Council’s engineering staff recommend Scenario 3 – permanent connection to the Rous County Council water supply.

For each scenario, some factors remain the same, including:

• continued use of the weir and Water Treatment Plant (WTP) in the short term

• short-term WTP upgrades to ensure consistent, safe water supply

• extension of the Rous County Council emergency bulk water supply connection to all of Mullumbimby.

Indeed within its boasting about the benefits of what it calls "Scenario 3" it is clear that the potential loss of a long-term reliable town water supply for 30 shire residents & ratepayers is a short-term cost cutting measure.

Scenario 3 – Full connection to Rous County Council

Rous County Council is the regional water supply authority for the Byron Shire, with the exception of Mullumbimby.

Rous also supplies:

• Ballina Shire

• Lismore Shire

• Richmond Valley Shire.

Permanent connection to the Rous regional water supply would mean that water is no longer sourced from Lavertys Gap weir and the Mullumbimby water treatment plant (WTP).

As a result, there would be no need to build a new WTP at Mullumbimby.

Permanent, full connection to the regional water supply is the option recommended by the consultants and Byron Shire Council staff based on the environmental, economic and social assessment.

Benefits of full connection

Connecting to the regional supply has significant benefits over local supply scenarios. [my yellow highlighting]

Full connection offers:

• minimal environmental impact

• lower energy consumption

• reduced infrastructure modifications.

There are significant capital cost savings in avoiding the need to replace the WTP and upgrade the weir supply in addition to constructing new infrastructure. However, the ongoing costs of a regional supply are higher than local scenarios. [my yellow highlighting]

Permanent connection to the regional supply means Mullumbimby’s long-term water security is determined by Rous County Council's bulk supply system, as is the case for the rest of Byron Shire.

Byron Shire Council is scheduled to decide on its water supply strategy at its August monthly meeting.

12,000-year-old GunaiKurnai ritual passed down 500 generations may be world’s oldest archeologically documented ritual

 

IMAGE: The Conversation, 6 January 2021

To the best of my understanding, Cloggs Cave formed in the Middle Devonian & sited 72.3m above sea level, is on the country of and under the cultural care of the Krauatungalung clan of the GunaiKurnai nation.

Nature Human Behaviour, 01 July 2024:

Archaeological evidence of an ethnographically documented ritual dated to the last ice age

Bruno David, et al

In societies without writing, ethnographically known rituals have rarely been tracked back archaeologically more than a few hundred years. At the invitation of GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Elders, we undertook archaeological excavations at Cloggs Cave in the foothills of the Australian Alps. In GunaiKurnai Country, caves were not used as residential places during the early colonial period (mid-nineteenth century CE), but as secluded retreats for the performance of rituals by Aboriginal medicine men and women known as ‘mulla-mullung’, as documented by ethnographers. Here we report the discovery of buried 11,000- and 12,000-year-old miniature fireplaces with protruding trimmed wooden artefacts made of Casuarina wood smeared with animal or human fat, matching the configuration and contents of GunaiKurnai ritual installations described in nineteenth-century ethnography. These findings represent 500 generations of cultural transmission of an ethnographically documented ritual practice that dates back to the end of the last ice age and that contains Australia’s oldest known wooden artefacts.

Determining the longevity of oral traditions and ‘intangible heritage’ has important implications for understanding information exchange through social networks down the generations. This can be achieved by tracking the origins and transmission of ethnographically known cultural practices through their associated material culture. However, understanding the issue of transmission has been fraught with difficulties. People often re-interpret and re-inscribe what they observe with new knowledge, altering the original information along the way (the hermeneutic process). Additionally, exposed material evidence can be seen for generations after a site’s construction, leaving it open to copying and re-interpretation under changing cultural contexts. One way out of this dilemma is to discover archaeological materials that could not have later been seen and copied, but that rather needed to have been passed on through intentional information exchange, such as through formal or familial education and training. In this Article, we report two examples of one such set of cultural materials from GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Country in southeastern Australia. Each consists of a wooden stick made from a Casuarina sp. tree stem. Each stick had been trimmed by cutting or scraping off smaller twigs flush with the stem. Each trimmed stick was smeared with fatty tissue. It was then placed in a low-temperature miniature fire, which burnt for a very short duration of time. The two installations were made deep in a secluded cave that was never used for everyday occupational activities. In each case, the miniature fireplace and its trimmed wooden artefact was rapidly buried by accumulating sediments at the Pleistocene–Holocene transition and remained in situ until they were archaeologically excavated in 2020 CE, preserving the installation’s structural integrity in the process. Such wooden artefacts and their fireplace installations were previously only known from local nineteenth-century ethnography, but have now been archaeologically found dating back to the end of the last ice age, as reported here.

The examples we document here are testimony to the endurance of cultural practices and oral traditions unaffected by complications of visibility and copying. According to nineteenth-century GunaiKurnai ethnography, the ritual practices involving the construction of such installations took place in secluded locations. Additionally, their key wooden components normally decayed within a few years or decades, preventing them from being regularly seen by the broader population and copied over extended periods. Furthermore, the archaeological wooden objects were juxtaposed to or smeared with fatty tissue from animals or humans when they were used, matching ethnographic practice. This association of the artefacts with fat would have remained invisible to the naked eye and is thus not amenable to copying. The suite of factors contributing to the survival of both the installations and their wooden artefacts provides unparalleled insight into the resilience of GunaiKurnai narrative traditions and the passing down of knowledge. These artefacts, along with ethnographic evidence, demonstrate the transmission of ideas and practice over a timespan of 12,000 years.

The excavation methods used in this study are reported in Methods. All stages of the research comply with all relevant ethical regulations including the Australian Archaeological Association and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Codes of Ethics. This research was requested and led by, and undertaken with the participation of, the GunaiKurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation, representing the Aboriginal Traditional Owners of the study site. At the corporation’s request, the ethical protocols for this partnership research were formally written into a memorandum of understanding checked for ethical compliance and co-signed by the GunaiKurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation and Monash University on 23 October 2018.....

Cloggs Cave contains a number of archaeological features characteristic of GunaiKurnai ritual installations and practices. The following ritual features date to various times that together span some 23,000 years, indicating that the cave has been used for a range of ritual activities over this period of time: (1) a stone arrangement occurs at the back of a shallow recess towards the rear of the cave (the alcove). (2) Up to 80 cm above the floor of this recess, on the alcove’s low ceiling within human reach, many of the stalactites were artificially broken. Uranium–thorium ages for the bases of ‘soda straws’ (stalactitic filament regrowths) growing on the broken stalactite stumps indicate they started growing between 120 ± 30 and 23,230 ± 300 years ago, signalling that the stalactites had been broken within the period of confirmed Aboriginal presence in the cave, which began by ~25,000 cal BP (calibrated radiocarbon years before 1950 CE). (3) On the floor adjacent to the stone arrangement is a large patch of powdered (crushed) calcite. (4) A portable grindstone with traces of crushed calcite crystals, dated to between 1,535 and 2,084 cal BP, was excavated 8 m away near square P35 (refs. 13,14). (5) One hundred fifty-eight broken soda straws and crystal quartz artefacts were found in the excavations in squares P34–P35 and R31 (ref. 15). Nineteenth-century GunaiKurnai ethnography, along with current GunaiKurnai knowledge holders, identify these objects as bulk (pebbles) and groggin and kiin (crystals). Each of these object types was documented to hold ritual power and to have been used to perform magic and medicine. (6) A fully buried standing stone, around 2,000 years old, was excavated in square P35 (refs. 13,17). (7) Despite the presence of tens of thousands of bones from small vertebrates (from natural deaths, mainly from owl roosts), there are no vertebrate animal food remains in the excavations. (8) Local ethnography and current GunaiKurnai knowledge document that caves such as Cloggs Cave were never used for general occupation in GunaiKurnai Country; the lack of archaeological food remains in such caves is consistent with the ethnography. Rather, the caves were the retreats of mulla-mullung, powerful medicine men and women who practiced magic and rituals in secluded places.....

The full report can be downloaded at:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-01912-w.pdf

ABC News article of 2 July 2024 can be read at:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-07-02/gunaikurnai-ritual-fireplaces-sticks-cloggs-cave-archaeology/104034756

IMAGE: ABC News, 2 July 2024

Cartoon of the Week

Read the complete First Dog On The Moon cartoon at:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2024/jul/10/protesting-stuff-is-your-democratic-right-or-is-it

Tweet of the Week

 

So what do you really think? pic.twitter.com/iFTgOP4LYw

— Hugh Riminton (@hughriminton) July 8, 2024

 

On 9July 2024 UN experts declared famine has spread throughout Gaza strip

 

A malnourished Palestinian baby is held while receiving treatment at the International Medical Corps field hospital, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the southern Gaza Strip, June 22, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

PRESS RELEASES | SPECIAL PROCEDURES

UN experts declare famine has spread throughout Gaza strip

09 July 2024

GENEVA (9 July 2024) – The recent deaths of more Palestinian children due to hunger and malnutrition leaves no doubt that famine has spread across the entire Gaza strip, a group of independent experts* said today.

“Fayez Ataya, who was barely six months old, died on 30 May 2024 and 13-year-old Abdulqader Al-Serhi died on 1 June 2024 at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah. Nine-year-old Ahmad Abu Reida died on 3 June 2024 in the tent sheltering his displaced family in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis. All three children died from malnutrition and lack of access to adequate healthcare,” the experts said.

“With the death of these children from starvation despite medical treatment in central Gaza, there is no doubt that famine has spread from northern Gaza into central and southern Gaza.”

The experts said the death of a child from malnutrition and dehydration indicates that health and social structures have been attacked and are critically weakened. “When the first child dies from malnutrition and dehydration, it becomes irrefutable that famine has taken hold,” the experts said.

“We declare that Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza. We call upon the international community to prioritise the delivery of humanitarian aid by land by any means necessary, end Israel’s siege, and establish a ceasefire.” [my yellow highlighting]

“When a 2-month-old baby and 10-year-old Yazan Al Kafarneh died of hunger on 24 February and 4 March respectively, this confirmed that famine had struck northern Gaza. The whole world should have intervened earlier to stop Israel’s genocidal starvation campaign and prevented these deaths,” the experts said. “Thirty-four Palestinians have died from malnutrition since 7 October, the majority being children. Inaction is complicity.”

The experts: Michael Fakhri, Special Rapporteur on the right to food; Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967; Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, Paula Gaviria Betancur, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons; George Katrougalos, Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order; Barbara G. Reynolds (Chair), Bina D’Costa, Dominique Day and Catherine Namakula, Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent

Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and Working Groups are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Comprising the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, Special Procedures is the general name of the Council's independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

So how are we all feeling about life right now? *a rhetorical question*

 

via X/Twitter 10.07.24

So how are we all feeling today? Short answer is — nobody knows for sure what Australia's collective mood is.

However the statisticians tell us that most of us feel out families are "worse off" than they were last year and are not expecting to see "good times" anytime soon.

Many of us are still in the dumps about the cost of living. We are not spending up big and that is reflected in business turnover.

We are doing what Aussies always do in tough times — we gamble a little bit more chasing the rainbow of a home of our own or a car that isn't falling to bits. 

Low income families are sometimes having to borrow from family or friends to meet household utility bills, despite small government subsidies for residential electricity.

While the average Internet subscriber is still spending 10 hours a week on entertainment streaming services, it seems quite a few people are now switching to advertising-supported content streaming as a way to shave a few dollars off the weekly budget.

When it comes to looking at economic activity and consumer confidence statisticians rarely mention homelessness or food poverty. The sad fact is that homelessness, housing insecurity and food insecurity are as entrenched as they have ever been and are exacerbated by the sustained rising prices we have experienced for the last two years.

However, Australians statisticians are generally a grounded mob making measured comment. So after reading their reports no-one is yelling from their bedroom windows that the national economic sky is falling on our heads — except Peter Dutton.

Australian Bureau of Statistics media release published 10 July 2024:

Reference period: May 2024

Business turnover in trend terms rose 0.2 per cent in May according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Robert Ewing, ABS head of business statistics, said: “The pattern we have seen in recent months continues as the business turnover 13-industry aggregate remained flat in May.

“In seasonally adjusted terms, most industries either fell or were flat which resulted in the 13-industry aggregate falling 0.6 per cent.

“Softening the fall, we saw larger rises in Arts and recreation, up 2.8 per cent, and Information media and telecommunications, up 2.6 per cent.”

The Arts and recreation growth was driven by an increase in gambling activity. Information media and telecommunications was driven by the Publishing (except internet and music publishing) subdivision as demand for generative artificial intelligence continues to grow.

While over at Roy Morgan Research om 9 July 2024:

Finding No. 5920

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence drops 2.3pts to 79.0 after End of Financial Year (EOFY) sales finish up; buying sentiment indicator has largest weekly drop so far this year

ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence dropped 2.3pts to 79.0 this week after the End of Financial Year (EOFY) Sales period finished at the end of June after the buying sentiment indicator suffered its biggest weekly decline so far this year – down a net 9% points from a week ago.

Looking longer-term, Consumer Confidence has now spent a record 75 straight weeks below the mark of 85 and is a large 5.7 points above the same week a year ago, July 3-9, 2023 (73.3), but is now 2.8 points below the 2024 weekly average of 81.8.

A look at Consumer Confidence by State shows the index was down in New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia but virtually unchanged in Queensland.

Views on personal finances compared to a year ago were slightly worse off this week while views on the Australian economy’s performance going forward were virtually unchanged.

Current financial conditions

Now under a fifth of Australians, 19% (down 1ppt), say their families are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year compared to 53% (up 3ppts) that say their families are ‘worse off’.

Future financial conditions

However, views on personal finances over the next year were virtually unchanged this week, with under a third of Australians, 31% (unchanged) expecting their family to be ‘better off’ financially this time next year while another 35% (down 1ppt) are expecting to be ‘worse off’.

Short-term economic confidence

In addition, only 8% (unchanged) expect ‘good times’ for the Australian economy over the next twelve months compared to 36% (down 1ppt), that expect ‘bad times’.

Medium-term economic confidence

Net sentiment regarding the Australian economy in the longer term was virtually unchanged this week with 12% (up 1ppt) of Australians expecting ‘good times’ for the economy over the next five years compared to just over a fifth, 21% (up 1ppt), expecting ‘bad times’.

Time to buy a major household item

• There was a big dip to net buying intentions this week after the End of Financial Year (EOFY) Sales finished up with just over a fifth, 21% (down 4ppts), of Australians saying now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items (the biggest drop for this indicator so far this year) while a majority of 51% (up 5ppts) say now is a ‘bad time to buy’ major household items (the largest increase for this indicator so far this year).

• The net result was a movement of 9ppts towards ‘bad time to buy’, the biggest net move down for this indicator for nearly 18 months since early February 2023 after the Reserve Bank raised interest rates for the first time in 2023.

ANZ Economist, Madeline Dunk, commented:

"ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence dropped to its second lowest level for the year. The decline was driven by a 9.0pt fall in the ‘time to buy a major household item’ subindex, following the conclusion of end-of-financial year sales. This was the largest weekly fall in the subindex since February 2023. There was also a 4.7pt drop in ‘current financial conditions’.

Across the housing cohorts, confidence declined most for those paying off a mortgage, perhaps due to talk about the possibility of an RBA rate hike in August. Confidence also fell for households that own their homes outright, while it was broadly stable for renters."