The Bottom Line
Updated Monday 19 October 2026
Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino conceded on Sunday that he and Treasurer Jim Chalmers were aware in July that the ATO was considering banning credit card payments for tax bills, more than two months earlier than the government had previously admitted. Mulino said accepting credit card payments on an ongoing basis would have "very serious fiscal ramifications for the budget", and the government has since funded the ATO to delay the ban until July 2027. ATO planned to ban credit card payments
The RBA cash rate sits at 4.60 per cent after four rises this year from 3.60 per cent, up a full percentage point in a run that began with the last cut in August 2025. The Guardian reports that mortgage repayments are now cheaper than rent in some suburbs, with a commercial data provider finding national median rents rose over the year to September while the median property price was flat.
ABS figures show the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate held at 4.7 per cent in September, unchanged from August but up from 4.5 per cent in July. CBA economist Lucinda Jerogin attributes the September result to a fall in employment and an easing in the participation rate, and notes the trend rate held steady.
OECD secretary-general Mathias Cormann warned, in a speech to the Centre for Independent Studies, that mainstream Australian parties should resist adopting populist policies such as migration caps and tariffs, arguing that productivity growth is the only reliable path to lower cost of living, according to The Guardian. Cormann warns
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