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Young Australian’s Top Stories This Week (June 26)

The Top Stories This Week From A Young Australian’s Perspective.      1. Cut in real wages. What does this mean for young Australians? Last Wednesday, the Fair Work Commission announced that the minimum wage will be increased by 5.2%. However, given that the inflation rate is expected to rise to 7% by the end of this year, your ‘real’ wages will be lower than last year. Real wages are wages that are adjusted for inflation. In other words, real wages are expressed in terms of purchasing power, not the actual dollar amount. For example, imagine if you have an offer from two companies in two different cities. The first job is located in city ‘A’, and the second job is located in city ‘B’. The first job is offering you an annual wage of $60,000. The second job is offering you an annual wage of $100,000. However, everything costs twice as much in city ‘B’ than city ‘A’. So whilst your nominal wage is greater in city ‘B’, your real wage is greater in city ‘B’. So a ‘cut in real wages’ means that while you’re going to receive a bigger paycheck, you’ll be able to purchase less goods even with the extra money.        2. Expect long delays and higher prices for air travel. What does this mean for young Australians? It’s the start of the school holidays for most students around Australia. With the increased demand for air travel, major airports around Australia are struggling to keep up with demand. So if you’re travelling during these school holidays, make sure you get there nice and early just in case. Airports are recommending that you arrive at the airport about two hours before your domestic flight and three hours before your international flight. Additionally, if you’re booking tickets in the next few months, expect the price of airfares to go up. Alan Joyce, the CEO of Qantas, says travellers should expect higher ticket prices due to the higher prices in jet fuel. Additionally, Qantas will also remove 5% of its previously scheduled services in July and August in order to cope with the high fuel prices. Less services means fewer, but more crowded, flights.        Note **US Supreme Court overturns Roe vs Wade.** What does this mean for young Australians? While this won’t really affect Australians, this will affect the abortion rights for a lot of Americans. The reasoning for overturning the 1973 Roe v Wade case (and 50 years of legal precedent) was because the US constitution does not specifically mention abortion rights. However, this will not affect Australians seeking abortion in Australia. Abortion is legal in all states and territories. However, the same can’t be said for people living in the United States of America. The US Supreme court has decided that the right to abortion is up to each state to decide. For more information on abortion in Australia, visit here.

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The Top Stories This Week From A Young Australian’s Perspective

The Top Stories This Week From A Young Australian’s Perspective. (6/12)      1. The Reserve Bank of Australia raised the cash rate to 0.85%.  What does this mean for young Australians? A higher cash means a higher interest rate. And a higher interest rate is good for savers, but bad for borrowers.  Think of interest as the fee the borrower pays to the lender for borrowing their money. If you’re a borrower and the interest rate goes up, then your interest repayments (or ‘fees’) goes up. But if you’re a lender and the interest rate goes up, then you get a larger ‘fee’. So if you have a mortgage or personal loan, this means that you’ll be paying more interest to your banks. Which means less discretionary spending for you. But if you have a high-interest savings account, then the bank will pay you more for having your money in the savings account. The Reserve Bank of Australia raised the cash rate in order to lower inflation. Read how interest rates and inflation are linked here.        2. Reliable Coal-Fired Power Plants Not So Reliable. What does this mean for young Australians? On Wednesday, AGL turned off a unit at its Bayswater power station for repairs. Then on Thursday, another unit at the coal-fired facility went offline due to breakdowns.  There’s already an energy crisis in the eastern states, and this is only making the problem worse. The deteriorating breakdowns at one of the country’s biggest electricity generators is sending electricity prices soaring through the roof, and also raising the prices for coal’s main alternative: gas. This is putting a lot of pressure on households to stay warm and businesses to operate during the colder months.  It’s going to be a long, cold, and very, very expensive winter. Here are some tips to reduce your power bill this winter.         3. Price Of Lettuce Skyrocketed To $12 What does this mean for young Australians? It means that you’ll probably no longer be eating lettuce anytime soon! Seriously, $12 per head of lettuce?!?!?!? And it’s probably not the only vegetable on the rise in recent months, with capsicum, spinach, and onion all increasing in price as well. The reason for the significant increase in price is due to the lack of supply. The devastating floods in Queensland earlier this year wiped out around 80% of lettuce crops, creating the lettuce shortage we have now. The major growing region for lettuce this time of the year is in the Gatton region in Brisbane, which was affected by floods in both February and May.  If you still want salad but can’t afford to pay $12, try replacing the recipe with cabbage. After all, that’s what KFC is doing.  

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