A revealing aspect of sitting in the Budget Lockup for six hours, surrounded by dozens of journalists and reporters working diligently on their stories, was listening to what they were interested in. Lots of chat on income tax and surpluses, and searching through hundreds of pages for snippets of news nobody else had noticed.
One journalist was eager to find the revised rates for Newstart (Australia's unemployment payment), convinced a change would be announced. Even the Business Council of Australia was supporting a rise after a freeze at around $40 a day since 1994 (or up to $49 with rent assistance and energy supplements). Ex-PM John Howard said it was time for an increase, and Deloitte agreed and produced this chart.
Average wages, the age pension and Newstart per week since 2000
Source: Department of Social Service; Deloitte Access Economics
While Cuffelinks rightly covers issues such as the $1.6 million transfer balance cap and loss of franking credits, these are good problems to have compared with living on $40 a day. The Prime Minister said there should be incentives to find work, but as Deloitte said:
"Yes, it would be nice if unemployment were temporary. But for many it isn't, and there are a range of reasons for this which have very little to do with welfare payments encouraging people to stay out of work ... increasing Newstart will cost the taxpayer but it is absolutely a choice we should make to allow unemployed people to live in a circumstance which actually allows them to be job ready as opportunities arise."
Staying on top of constant change
It is futile to expect investing rules not to change, requiring adjustment in financial plans according to new circumstances. Michael Hutton identifies four ways SMSF trustees might respond to Labor's proposed imputation changes. Gemma Dale gives a great reminder on tax deductible super by acting soon. Many people are missing this opportunity and it's not necessary to salary sacrifice to benefit. A few readers have asked for end-of-financial-year (EOFY) tips, and Bruce Brammall shares seven of his favourites.
Two opinion pieces, one from Paul Resnick on the need for financial advice 'suitability', while Patricia Pascuzzo draws out the retirement income implications in the Budget.
The biggest allocation decision for many Australian investors involves the banks, and Hugh Dive updates his regular scorecard based on the recent reporting season. On infrastructure, Nick Langley describes an unexpected consequence of Donald Trump's tariff impositions. At a Bloomberg Invest conference this week, Brett Himbury, the CEO of IFM Investors, said he had visited the US seven times in 2017 and already three times in 2018, so great does he see the infrastructure opportunities there.
A Cuffelinks reader sent in a detailed comment on my view that a majority of board members should have relevant industry experience, and we reproduce the emails.
This week's White Paper from UBS Asset Management on the future of real estate has some great examples of how the world is changing. The latest ETF update from BetaShares shows how the sector has renewed its growth after a rare dip last month.
Finally, an apology for some recent technical problems caused by a rapid increase in traffic to our website. Last month, we had over 50,000 users for the first time, and we are changing servers to cope with the load while improving download speed.
Graham Hand, Managing Editor
Edition 254 | 18 May 2018 | Editorial | Newsletter