We are fast approaching one of the busiest and most rewarding times of the year. This week, we’ve seen a landmark law passed in New South Wales, with the NSW Government allowing regional businesses to open their doors on Boxing Day, just in time for this year’s Christmas season. The NRA strongly supported […]
It’s just seven weeks until Christmas, and no doubt you are already well and truly gearing up for what I hope will be a very prosperous time of the year. Yesterday, I released to the media the economic forecasts done by the NRA’s in-house research team, looking at the likely outcomes for the pre-Christmas sales […]
This week I hosted follow up discussions with the office of the new Treasurer Scott Morrison. We discussed a number of topics including the implementation timeline for scrapping the GST Low Value Threshold, the need for further tax reform, and the Financial Systems Inquiry. Regarding the costs of credit card facilities, the message from […]
On Monday this week the Federal Government released its response to the Financial System Inquiry. Of most interest for retailers was a commitment to prohibit merchants from levying credit card surcharges “that are greater than the cost to them of accepting payment by card”. A delegation from the NRA met with the new Treasurer, Scott […]
In a shock move, banking giant Westpac recently lifted their mortgage rates. The effect on retail sales at this stage is unknown as it is still unclear whether other big banks will follow suit. The impact on consumers will also depend on what the Reserve Bank of Australia will do in relation to interest rates. […]
Analysts were saying that the next move in interest rates would be upwards and we saw evidence of that this week – not from the Reserve Bank, but from Westpac, which announced a 0.2 per cent increase in its variable rate mortgage. It’s not the first bank to nudge its rates upwards, but it is […]