Friend Rates stay put, but the RBA lays its cards on the table with a 6-3 vote reveal as Bullock spars with Bloomberg. Also inside: sharper super-tax rules, ASIC levy estimates, and the week’s headline deals. | W/C 7 July 2025
You may know how the markets are moving, but here's what the media is saying.
Friend,
Today, with the interest rate news being "no news", the RBA Governor, Michele Bullock, was taken to task by Bloomberg's Swati Pandey about the central bank's communication strategy.
That's interesting given the RBA also, for the first time today, announced the Board's votes (6:3). Citing"market rumblings" and fewer speeches from the RBA, Pandey asked Bullock if the Bank's communication was "failing". Watch it here (from 8:33), but in short, Bullock's answer was:
a) The market has no excuse for not understanding what we're doing. We communicate more, we do that more clearly, consistently, and simply than ever through quarterly monetary policy statements. b) Maybe more importantly, I'm here doing my best to talk directly to the public, explaining "what our decisions are and why we made them."
Why do we put this on your radar? In 2008, then RBA Governor Glenn Stevens was on the front page of The Daily Telegraph with a headline asking, "Is this the most useless man in Australia?" Since then, the RBA has been at pains to improve its public communication. Bullock has taken that to new levels of transparency today, with live broadcasts on decision day, disclosing the Board's votes and a commitment to explain the reasons for the Bank's decisions for ordinary decisions.
Let's see if the market and the media recognise that.
This week we also unpack:
Super tax and regulatory shifts that could alter after-tax returns
ASIC’s latest user-pays levy estimates
Private-credit capital stepping in where banks hesitate
The merger that will see fund manager Platinum disappear... sorry merge.
On our radar
Policy and regulatory developments that may shape your risk or return
The Board left the cash rate unchanged in a 6-3 split, citing slightly hotter June CPI and lingering global and labour-market risks. It can act quickly if conditions shift, but for now wants more data. In a first for transparency (first recommended in 2023 to help markets fine-tune rate expectations), today’s statement revealed how each member voted; the minutes due 22 July will detail the points of disagreement.
Treasury confirms compulsory pension draw-downs will count toward the A$3 million threshold, on top of taxing unrealised gains. Higher-balance members and SMSFs may accelerate moves into trust structures, private credit or offshore vehicles to mute the hit.
ASIC publishes draft levies for 2024-25 under its industry-funding model On 3 July, ASIC released its 2024-25 CRIS (Cost Recovery Implementation Statement). The document estimates the amount each of ASIC’s 52 regulated subsectors will pay next year to recover the regulator’s costs. Annual-return portal opens July–September 2025; ASIC finalises actual costs in November; levy notices will be issued January–March 2026, with payment due April 2026. Indicative numbers show the sliding-scale mechanics in action: a mega superfund such as AustralianSuper would face roughly A$3.9 million under the asset-based trustee formula; any listed company with a market-capitalisation above A$20 billion (think BHP or Woolworths) hits the A$717 967 cap in the corporate bucket; and a dual-hat group like Perpetual combines a responsible-entity charge with a small listed-company levy, in what would be a total nearing A$1.6 million.
Figures are calculated direct from ASIC’s 2024-25 CRIS formulas and public June-2025 balance-date numbers; the final invoice will be issued Jan–Mar 2026 once ASIC locks in actual costs.
Style: Conversational, plain-English columns that translate dense policy or market moves into actionable take-aways.
Why follow? Kirby’s coverage is a real-time barometer of adviser appetite and policy risk. His podcast, The Money Puzzle, frequently lands before the market opens, giving wealth desks and product teams a head-start on client queries.
MA Financial’s Australian Real Estate Credit Vehicle (target size A$1 billion), supported by Warburg Pincus, has provided an A$380 million senior construction loan to DD Living for the 25-storey, 101-apartment Burly Residences project at North Burleigh on the Gold Coast. The facility funds the entire senior-debt stack for the six-star, A$540 million development, which is scheduled for completion in late 2027. The deal is among the largest single-asset private-credit transactions in Queensland since 2022 and illustrates continuing interest from global sponsors in premium residential projects that sit outside major-bank lending limits.
Once a household name in Australian funds management, Platinum Asset Management has today announced it's signed a merger-implementation deed with Melbourne-based L1 Capital to form an ASX-listed manager overseeing about A$16.5 billion. L1 investors will hold 74% of the new company and Platinum investors 26%, with Platinum shareholders entitled to the first 3.5% of performance fees on L1’s long/short funds. The combined group targets A$20 million in cost savings, will trade under a new name and ticker, and faces a shareholder vote in September 2025 ahead of expected completion later in the year.
It was the storytelling and opportunity to be creative that drew Claudia into PR. She has over four years of PR experience under her belt with prior agency experience in corporate, lifestyle and consumer PR and event management. She loves working at the intersection of macro-economics, property and investing, and nothing spikes her adrenaline quite like reporting season. Off the clock, you’ll find her at Pilates, binging true-crime documentaries, or in the kitchen with her family perfecting recipes from her Italian heritage.
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