u/water-damaged

They’ve now been charged by the federal police. I’ve never seen two guys fuck their careers so rapidly.

Excerpts below:

“Two Ernst and Young graduate employees who were on secondment at Commonwealth Bank of Australia have been sacked and are facing criminal charges after they allegedly used the bank’s systems to access the personal banking details of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and at least one senior EY partner.

The prime minister’s office is aware of the incident but declined to comment.

On May 6, the Australian Federal Police charged two men with accessing restricted personal banking data belonging to a federal parliamentarian.

A 21-year-old man faces a criminal charge of unauthorised access to, or modification of restricted data, and also “using a carriage service to make available, publish or otherwise distribute information that is personal data, of one or more individuals, and engaged in that conduct in a way that reasonable persons would regard, in all the circumstances, as menacing or harassing towards those individuals,” an AFP spokeswoman said.

A 25-year-old man was also charged with one count of unauthorised access to restricted data. Both men will appear in the Newtown Local Court on Tuesday. The AFP said that as the matter was before the court, it would make no further comment.”

Dating right back to reading barefoot investor in high school, a common thought is that people who upgrade or move PPORs to a “better” suburb are “doing it for the image”, “just pleasing others”, or “keeping up with the Joneses”.

Having rented around in a few different suburbs before buying, I reckon the things that make the nicer suburbs desirable (walking distance to a bustling cafe strip, nice streets to walk, short distance to CBD/work/events) are definitely things that make my day to day life and weekends more enjoyable.

At what point do you give people leeway for spending up to get more convenience and a better lifestyle where they live? Or will they forever and always be pompous pricks in our books..

NAB's economics team has circulated a note with very interesting points about the cash rate, house prices, credit growth and inflation.

Here's what they say:

We no longer expect the RBA to hike by 25 basis points in August, and now see the cash rate peaking at the current rate of 4.35% for the cycle. 

The next move in the cash rate is likely to be down, but the timing is uncertain. To highlight shifting risks to the RBA outlook, we have brought forward our expected easing from H2 2027 to Q2 2027 – which now sees the cash rate end 2027 at 3.6%.

We are minded to view the proposed changes to taxation arrangements for housing and other asset classes as an exogenous tightening of financial conditions.

Tighter financial conditions will be reflected in both a slowing in house price growth and housing credit growth. Consequently, we have made downward revisions to our forecasts for both of these variables.

Both Q1 GDP data and the NAB business survey suggest momentum in the economy has slowed, meaning that growth has likely peaked for the cycle. Should activity data weaken more quickly than anticipated, the RBA will cut earlier than we currently forecast.

However, we are cognisant that there is still considerable uncertainty around the outlook, both with respect to activity and inflation. Indeed, it is possible that consumption outcomes are stronger than we forecast. Additionally, it is possible that the housing downturn is not as impactful on activity as we think.

On the prices side, we are still forecasting above target core inflation through to mid-2027. This outlook is not dissimilar to that of the RBA, as outlined in last month’s SoMP [Statement on Monetary Policy] and is likely to keep the RBA watchful around pass through from higher input costs to final prices.

We have been worried about a broad and rapid dissemination of inflationary pressures, but the recent slowing in momentum in the economy may short-circuit this dynamic somewhat. If so, margins will compress and weaker labour market outcomes are a risk.

In summary, we have greater conviction that the next move in rates is down, but less conviction on the timing. In contrast, the AUD front-end is still priced for hikes. If we are correct on the direction of the RBA cash rate, there is scope for decent moves in AUD and front-end rates as the market adjusts to a more dovish view.