1. Will the Reserve Bank break its promise?

This week the Reserve Bank is expected to dump its promise that its first interest rate hike will be 2024. It was never a firm promise but it was a strong undertaking. But last week’s big inflation number and forecasts of a strong economic growth year in 2022 has economists and the bond market telling the RBA that interest rates will have to rise. Some think the cash rate will rises in 2022 but most think 2023, and it’s expected banks could raise mortgage rates sometime next year!

2. House price fall could be big

Low interest rates and the end of lockdowns in Sydney and Melbourne continue to help home prices surge but will this last? The AFR says Westpac is tipping a 1.4% gain for house prices in October alone and AMP Capital thinks the annual price increase is a staggering 21%. And while it predicts it will slow down to a 7% rise next year, top interest rate forecaster, Chris Joye, says after rates start to rise, house prices could fall, wait for it, 20%!

3. Morrison government’s 2050 net zero roadmap criticised for dependence on technology

Australian thinktank The Grattan Institute has warned the Morrison Government that Australia’s net zero by 2050 road map in its current form will fail if it is solely reliant on investing in new technology. In its ‘Towards Net Zero’ report released Monday, Grattan Institute lead author Tony Wood argues that the Morrison government’s net zero plan failed to demonstrate how emissions reduction would be achieved outside the electricity sector.

As such, the report suggests the government “would need to pull many other policy levers to reach net zero, including vehicle emissions standards, energy efficiency obligations and rules on use of carbon credits,” The Guardian reports.

4. Emmanuel Macron accuses Scott Morrison of lying over submarine deal

French President Emmanuel Macron has escalated tensions between Paris and Canberra, accusing Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison of lying about the $90bn submarine contract, which he reneged for the AUKUS deal. According to The Guardian, when asked whether he believed Morrison had lied to him by not revealing Australia’s secret dialogue with the UK and US over the acquisition of nuclear submarines, a dialogue that ultimately became the Aukus pact, Macron said to Australian journalists at the G20 Summit in Rome “I don’t think, I know”.

5. Six months’ parental leave

At a time when all businesses are ‘wheeling and dealing’ with employees who want to work from home, since the pandemic, big companies are now offering six months’ parental leave. The Australian says big corporates are involved in a new bidding war, offering up to six months parental leave in an effort to retain staff and offer better opportunities for women. The big firms offering 26 weeks are Grant Thornton, KPMG and Ashurst. Stocklands offers 20 weeks, while Accenture, Deloitte, EY and PwC give 18 weeks. Some are even paying super during parental leave which is not compulsory but this could pressure smaller firms to follow suit.