Speaker 1: Already and this this is the daily This is the
Speaker 1: Daily ODS.
Speaker 2: Oh now it makes sense.
Speaker 1: Good morning and welcome to the Daily ODS. It's Wednesday,
Speaker 1: the second of July. I'm Sam Kazlowski.
Speaker 2: I'm Emma Gillespie.
Speaker 1: Yesterday marked the start of a new financial year in
Speaker 1: Australia and it came with a raft of changes that
Speaker 1: affects millions of Australians, from wage increases to new laws.
Speaker 1: There's quite a bit to unpack, and today we're going
Speaker 1: to break down the key changes that came into effect
Speaker 1: on the first of July and take you through how
Speaker 1: they might impact your life.
Speaker 2: Sam, we're talking about a whole heap of measures that
Speaker 2: kicked in yesterday, from crime to housing to finance. But
Speaker 2: I did want to start with the financial changes, the
Speaker 2: big headlines in that category, because these are probably the
Speaker 2: ones that will hit people's hip hop it's most directly
Speaker 2: or the fastest. The first big one to talk about
Speaker 2: here is the superannuation guarantee. Now, I know a lot
Speaker 2: of people fall asleep as soon as they hear the
Speaker 2: word super, but stick with me because it's good news.
Speaker 2: The super guarantee has increased from eleven point five percent
Speaker 2: to twelve percent. Now, what that means is that your
Speaker 2: employer at now has to put an additional zero point
Speaker 2: five percent of your salary into your super fund. So
Speaker 2: the amount of money that's going into your super fund
Speaker 2: every fortnight or month that is going up.
Speaker 1: And Billy and I did a podcast directly on this
Speaker 1: change and taking a look at super as a whole.
Speaker 1: I'll throw the link to that in the show notes.
Speaker 1: But just to be clear, that doesn't affect then your
Speaker 1: take home pay, right.
Speaker 2: That's correct, So SUPER is paid on top of your salary,
Speaker 2: So this change doesn't really mean anything changes in your life.
Speaker 2: If you're an employee, there will be more money going
Speaker 2: into your retirement fund though, but it won't affect what
Speaker 2: you see in your bank account each week or whenever
Speaker 2: you get paid. The only exception here, though, is if
Speaker 2: you have an employment contract that specifically states your salary
Speaker 2: is inclusive of SUPER. But that is pretty uncommon. It's
Speaker 2: more and more uncommon in a twenty twenty five context.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the money that is coming into your
Speaker 1: bank account directly. Though. There's some changes in the minimum wage.
Speaker 2: Yes, so minimum wage has gone up, and this affects
Speaker 2: more people than you might think. So, we'll get to
Speaker 2: that in a sect. But the minimum wage is increased
Speaker 2: by three point five percent. It's now twenty four dollars
Speaker 2: and ninety five cents an hour. So if you're on
Speaker 2: minimum wage, that's roughly an extra thirty bucks in your
Speaker 2: pocket each week. But the impact of this actually goes
Speaker 2: beyond just minimum wage workers. It impacts people on award wages.
Speaker 2: So award wages are industry specific pay rates for sectors
Speaker 2: like hospitality administration. They will also be affected.
Speaker 1: So there are yeah, how many people are we talking
Speaker 1: about that?
Speaker 2: There are three million people thereabouts who are covered buy awards,
Speaker 2: and so that means that there will be an increase
Speaker 2: that flows through to their pacelips because of the minimum
Speaker 2: wage changes.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about changes to small business. We have just
Speaker 1: come through a federal election, which means that there was
Speaker 1: lots of talk about how to support small businesses, especially
Speaker 1: after the pandemic. What's shifted here, Yeah.
Speaker 2: So this is a significant one for small business owners,
Speaker 2: maybe like yourself, Sam, who have a turnover of less
Speaker 2: than ten million dollars per year. So the instant asset
Speaker 2: right off limit has dropped from twenty thousand dollars to
Speaker 2: one thousand dollars. This was always the plan. It's gone
Speaker 2: back to a previous asset right off limit. What that
Speaker 2: all means is that those businesses under the ten million
Speaker 2: turnover can no longer immediately deduct the full cost of
Speaker 2: equipment or assets. Instead, you'll need to depreciate them over
Speaker 2: time and just quickly. There is one more tax deduction
Speaker 2: change that I did want to flag, and that is
Speaker 2: that you can no longer claim an income tax todayduction
Speaker 2: for ATO interest charges. So if you owe money to
Speaker 2: the ATO, if you have an outstanding debt, maybe you
Speaker 2: lodged a tax return a few years ago, you owed money,
Speaker 2: you haven't paid that all back. They are charging you
Speaker 2: interest on this debt, and you can no longer deduct
Speaker 2: this interest from your taxable income. Now, this is all
Speaker 2: aimed essentially at encouraging people to pay their debts backfast.
Speaker 1: I was going to say that sounds like a bit
Speaker 1: of enforcement from the ATO to get people to pay
Speaker 1: it on time exactly, And that's something that they I
Speaker 1: feel like this time of year. They talk about that
Speaker 1: every year, about the importance of paying your taxes on time.
Speaker 1: And it's a pretty thankless job. Let's move now to
Speaker 1: the cost of living measures. A lot of these were
Speaker 1: in that federal election. They're now going to come into effect. Yep.
Speaker 2: So we heard a lot about cost of living, as
Speaker 2: you mentioned in the run up to the federal election.
Speaker 2: A lot of these promises people may have forgotten about,
Speaker 2: but July one means many of them are in effect.
Speaker 2: So the big one is the extension of energy bill relief.
Speaker 2: You might remember this being announced. Households will continue to
Speaker 2: receive seventy five dollars discounts on their next two energy bills,
Speaker 2: and this is also good news for around a million
Speaker 2: small businesses who are also eligible. This is an initiative
Speaker 2: that was due to expire, but the federal government extended
Speaker 2: it until the end of the year. If it sounds
Speaker 2: a bit familiar, There's another big one in effect, and
Speaker 2: it's about paid parental leave now. Pay per rental leave
Speaker 2: has actually been increasing incrementally over the last few years.
Speaker 2: It's going to happen again next year, but yesterday it
Speaker 2: increased to twenty four weeks, up from twenty two weeks. Now.
Speaker 2: Paid perntal leave is a payment based on minimum wage
Speaker 2: sure so that.
Speaker 1: Which has also gone up exactly interesting.
Speaker 2: He's paying attention. So that is now nine hundred and
Speaker 2: forty eight dollars per week, and paid parental leave like
Speaker 2: I mentioned, will increase next year to twenty six weeks.
Speaker 1: A really interesting initiative has come into the market for
Speaker 1: students where nursing with free teaching and social work students
Speaker 1: are now going to be paid for their practical placements. Right.
Speaker 2: Yes, so this is a really big one and we
Speaker 2: know a really important one to the TDA audience. We've
Speaker 2: spoken a lot about placement poverty and the range of
Speaker 2: degrees that kind of have this mandatory prac aspect to
Speaker 2: the syllabus, to the core of the degree. But the
Speaker 2: people are taking weeks and months out of the year
Speaker 2: to complete those with no payment.
Speaker 1: Particularly those who have to travel a long way exactly
Speaker 1: a work after hours. It can be a really stressful
Speaker 1: time for a really important job.
Speaker 2: And you might have to complete your PRACK in a
Speaker 2: regional or remote area. So students in nursing midware, free
Speaker 2: teaching and social work, as you mentioned, Sam, they will
Speaker 2: now receive three hundred and thirty one dollars and sixty
Speaker 2: five cents a week to address this placement poverty. Concern. Now,
Speaker 2: these placements can be really demanding, as we've touched on
Speaker 2: to give you a sense of where that three hundred
Speaker 2: and thirty one bucks per week might stretch. For teachers,
Speaker 2: they need to spend around six sixteen weeks in classrooms training.
Speaker 2: Nurses need to spend about twenty weeks in hospitals or clinics.
Speaker 2: So this is hopefully going to have a really massive impact.
Speaker 1: So I guess if we were to zoom out and
Speaker 1: look at all of the different economic and cost of
Speaker 1: living changes, I'd say the key themes here are the
Speaker 1: gradual increases in some programs that have had a couple
Speaker 1: of years now of increases. I'm thinking they're about things
Speaker 1: like superannuation and paper rental leave. And then the big
Speaker 1: theme is obviously cost of living relief. It's about trying
Speaker 1: to figure out how to alleviate some of the stresses
Speaker 1: on Australian individuals and families. Why don't we turn now
Speaker 1: to some of the law. And you know this one
Speaker 1: is more of a state based discussion because there's various
Speaker 1: changes all over the country. Take me through some of
Speaker 1: the key state and territory changes in law.
Speaker 2: So let's start in the Act you may have seen
Speaker 2: some headlines around this one here. It's made history by
Speaker 2: becoming the first jurisdiction in Australia to raise the age
Speaker 2: of criminal responsibility to fourteen. Previously, this was twelve in
Speaker 2: the Act across most of Australia. It's still ten years old.
Speaker 2: But what this means is that no child under fourteen
Speaker 2: can be charged with or prosecuted for a crime in
Speaker 2: the Act. There is an exception for twelve and thirteen
Speaker 2: year olds accused of particularly violent crimes. Now there has
Speaker 2: been a kind of bit of momentum here. There has
Speaker 2: been interest or conversation in other states and territories. The
Speaker 2: nt became the first region to increase the age of
Speaker 2: criminal responsibility to twelve in twenty twenty two, but a
Speaker 2: newly elected government reverted that last August. Victoria also increased
Speaker 2: the age to twelve. It had some plans to progress
Speaker 2: that eventually to fourteen, but they were scrapped. So the
Speaker 2: Act really is kind of in a league of its
Speaker 2: own with this decision.
Speaker 1: Yesterday we heard some really interesting news from the federal
Speaker 1: government around the regulation of tobacco and the illegal selling
Speaker 1: of tobacco and importing into Australia. It comes as there's
Speaker 1: other major tobacco changes that come into effects this week
Speaker 1: right exactly.
Speaker 2: So, I think we've seen a really significant crackdown in
Speaker 2: terms of the tobacco black market as regulations have increased
Speaker 2: on the sale of cigarettes, E cigarettes, vapes. We've also
Speaker 2: kind of seen this black market emerge of illegal trade
Speaker 2: of tobacco. Federally, we have just heard that there'll be
Speaker 2: a new commissioner to kind of manage that and crack
Speaker 2: down further on that. But at a state level, both
Speaker 2: New South Wales and Victoria have introduced mandatory licensing schemes
Speaker 2: for tobacco sellers. This basically impacts anyone who is a
Speaker 2: tobacco retailer, so a tobacconist or a tobacco wholesaler. So
Speaker 2: anyone wanting to sell tobacco products now needs to apply
Speaker 2: for a license in Victoria or New South Wales, and
Speaker 2: penalties for selling tobacco without a license are incredibly steep.
Speaker 2: It's starting from at least eleven thousand dollars for an
Speaker 2: individual for a first time breach, and then the fines
Speaker 2: go up signalficantly from there. New South Wales has given
Speaker 2: business as a bit of a grace period. They've got
Speaker 2: until October to apply for these licenses, while sellers be
Speaker 2: that retailers or wholesalers in Victoria have until February next
Speaker 2: year to get their license.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we've talked about some of the changes that
Speaker 1: might happen to your pacelip and to your printal, even
Speaker 1: some other costs of living changes. We've talked about a
Speaker 1: couple of shifts in the law. To end off this conversation,
Speaker 1: why don't we look at housing and I think a
Speaker 1: really interesting group of people of which we are both
Speaker 1: part of to examine here is renters. Yeah, because we
Speaker 1: heard a lot of commentary in the last federal election,
Speaker 1: there was a bit of an absence of a discussion
Speaker 1: about the way that rental laws could change. Yep. But
Speaker 1: that's not necessarily the case across the country though.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so there are a couple of changes for renters
Speaker 2: in New South Wales and Queensland. I think for most renters,
Speaker 2: the overarching theme of the last couple of years has
Speaker 2: really been there is rege, and it's happening slowly, so slowly,
Speaker 2: but surely, states are chipping away at how they can
Speaker 2: protect renters better and in New South Wales this week
Speaker 2: that's come in the form of a bit of an
Speaker 2: update on a band that was rolled out last month.
Speaker 2: So last month New South Wales rolled out this ban
Speaker 2: on no fault evictions and that prohibits landlords and agents
Speaker 2: from evicting someone or ending a lease without a legitimate
Speaker 2: reason to do so. That ban came in last month.
Speaker 2: Now from yesterday in the state, landlords and agents have
Speaker 2: to register the reason for any evictions, so no fault
Speaker 2: evictions a band. This builds on that they must register
Speaker 2: a reason with the Department of Fair Trading. Landlords and
Speaker 2: agents are also now compelled to provide evidence in showing
Speaker 2: the purpose of their reasons supporting their reason proving that
Speaker 2: reason for an eviction, essentially building on no fault evictions,
Speaker 2: and in a year's time will get a bit of
Speaker 2: an idea of what those reasons look like. Fea Trading
Speaker 2: says it will hand down a bit of an inventory
Speaker 2: to show us trends and patterns in renting next year. Queensland, meantime,
Speaker 2: is introducing annual income checks for public housing tenants, So
Speaker 2: if you are a renter under social housing in that state,
Speaker 2: you will now have to meet eligibility requirements and these
Speaker 2: will be annual checks income checks to check that your
Speaker 2: income is below a certain threshold. To verify that, say,
Speaker 2: social housing tenants maybe in a two bedroom need a
Speaker 2: two bedroom or should they be in a one bedroom?
Speaker 2: And if tenants don't provide information or if their income
Speaker 2: exceeds the threshold, they will be charged market rent, while
Speaker 2: the Queensland government says it will work to facilitate their
Speaker 2: transition to the private rental sector.
Speaker 1: We have smashed through quite a few changes. It gives
Speaker 1: you a sense though, of just how much shifts in
Speaker 1: a new financial year. In any given financial year, I
Speaker 1: think whether some rules or changes that you came across
Speaker 1: that didn't neatly fit into any of those categories that
Speaker 1: we've just gone through, and you think to mention.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think for Tasmanian listeners, there is a pretty
Speaker 2: timely change to election donations. So we know that Tazi
Speaker 2: voters are heading to a snap election later this month.
Speaker 2: This is a state that has become all too familiar
Speaker 2: with state elections with what's going on there politically. But
Speaker 2: new election donation rules mean all political donations to a
Speaker 2: party must be made into specific bank accounts. So if you,
Speaker 2: for example, are donating money to the Labor Party, that
Speaker 2: will all go into one consolidated bank account and those
Speaker 2: donations must be declared within seven days. So this is
Speaker 2: going to increase the transparency around political donations and comes
Speaker 2: at a pretty important time for Tasmanians.
Speaker 1: Just quickly, and did you make any pre ephus purchases
Speaker 1: this year?
Speaker 2: I resisted, I tell you, I had to stop looking
Speaker 2: at my emails though it was that it was getting hectic,
Speaker 2: the fomo, the stress, it was a lot. I did
Speaker 2: have something in a shopping cart on a website that
Speaker 2: I was going to buy. On June thirty, I went
Speaker 2: to bed, fell asleep completely, forgot about it first thing
Speaker 2: yesterday morning, woke up, opened the cart and it was
Speaker 2: like three times the price. So maybe next.
Speaker 1: Year and you super went up, so in many ways
Speaker 1: you actually made money.
Speaker 2: Twice savings on savings.
Speaker 1: Thank you here, Thank you so much and for taking
Speaker 1: us through that whirlwind of changes, and thank you for
Speaker 1: joining us on the daily Ohs this morning. We're going
Speaker 1: to be back in your ears this afternoon with your headlines.
Speaker 1: Until then, have a great day. My name is Lily
Speaker 1: Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bungelung Calcuttin woman from
Speaker 1: Gadigol country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is
Speaker 1: recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays
Speaker 1: respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait island and nations.
Speaker 1: We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries,
Speaker 1: both past and present.