Received

A cooling labour market has added to expectations the Reserve Bank won't lift interest rates further.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday the national jobless rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 3.7 per cent in July.

Employment dropped by 14,600 people and the number of unemployed increased by 35,600 people.

The participation rate also decreased 0.1 percentage point to 66.7 per cent.

Economists said the result owed much to a seasonal swing at the end of the financial year and school holidays.

But a series of interest rate rises has also been taking the heat out of inflation and slowing the economy.

The Reserve Bank noted in its most recent board meeting minutes it believed the labour market was at a "turning point".

"The bigger picture is that the Reserve Bank will take some comfort from the fact that the labour market is starting to cool," Capital Economics' Abhijit Surya said.

"We're sticking with our non-consensus view that the RBA won't lift rates any higher."

Ben Udy, lead economist for Oxford Economics Australia, described the data as the "final nail in the coffin for any lingering expectations of a rate hike in September".

ANZ's Adam Boyton said he expected the cash rate to remain on hold "for quite some time".

The RBA has paused the cash rate at 4.1 per cent for two months in a row following 400 basis points of hikes since May 2022.

The underemployment rate remained at 6.4 per cent in July, about 2.4 percentage points lower than before the pandemic.

Across the states, unemployment was highest in Tasmania (4.7 per cent), followed by Queensland (4.5 per cent), SA (4.0 per cent), NT (3.9 per cent), ACT (3.8 per cent), Victoria (3.6 per cent), WA (3.4 per cent) and NSW (3.3 per cent).

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the uptick in the jobless rate was expected.

"Unfortunately that's what we've seen in these numbers today, but it's still pretty remarkable, given everything that is coming at us from around the world, that we've got an unemployment rate with a three in front of it."

He said the labour market was still incredibly strong.

"The RBA will weigh this up in the same way it weighs up ... some of the other issues in our economy at the moment."

Opposition employment spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said the jobless rise was concerning "especially on the back of confirmation earlier in the week that real wages are continuing to go backwards under Labor".

"Mr Albanese has taken the strong labour market left by the previous coalition government for granted and is not interested in strengthening our economy,'' Senator Cash said.

New ABS data showed the gender pay gap is at a record low.

Australian women are earning, on average, $13,120 less in their annual base salary than men each year.

The gap of 13 per cent is an 0.3 percentage point decrease on figures released in February.

Workplace Gender Equality Agency CEO Mary Wooldridge said it should be a springboard for renewed action by employers.

© AAP 2023

A Subway shop director with "unexplained wealth" has been accused of being part of a criminal syndicate that laundered more than $1 million worth of damaged coins through ATMs.

Xin Hu, 36, appeared at Burwood Local Court on Thursday when he made an unsuccessful bid for bail.

The husband and father of three was involved with four Subway shops as a director, the court heard, although magistrate Elaine Truscott said his exact role in those businesses was not clear.

Hu was also his household's sole income-earner, managing to make enough money to own a string of properties despite documents before the court showing he earned significantly less than the average wage.

"It seems quite bizarre," Ms Truscott said.

"The defendant has unexplained wealth."

Hu's proposed bail conditions would have barred him from going to the airport or obtaining a passport.

But Ms Truscott refused his bail because his status as a permanent resident and apparent access to significant wealth made him a flight risk.

Police arrested and charged Hu and 37-year-old woman Sijia Wang after damaged $1 and $2 coins were brought into Australia concealed as belt buckles in a shipment picked up by Border Force agents in June.

The coins were allegedly laundered at smart ATMs across Sydney, with the money deposited into several bank accounts and sent offshore.

The damaged coins were thought to have been taken out of circulation and were no longer considered legal tender.

After further consignments were detected, police executed search warrants at businesses in the Sydney city centre and a home in Strathfield on Wednesday.

Hu and Wang face one and two counts respectively of recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime.

Wang, who lives in Australia on a student visa, appeared to have operated numerous bank accounts where the money was deposited, the court heard.

Organised Crime Squad commander Peter Faux said the group attempted to avoid detection by using several different ATMs and depositing varying amounts of cash each day.

"The alleged actions of this group demonstrate the elaborate ways offshore syndicates are attempting to infiltrate our country and extort our financial system," he said.

"These groups all chase one thing - money.

"They want the power and control which comes with it, and do not care who they defraud to get there."

Wang appeared at Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday, when she was also refused bail.

© AAP 2023

Australians needing affordable housing will have to keep waiting for solutions as the federal government and Greens trade barbs over their approaches to the crisis.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accused the minor party of opposing a signature housing policy in order to boost social media followers and provide fodder for memes.

But Greens leader Adam Bandt shot back by suggesting the Labor government "did not have the ticker" to fix the housing emergency.

At a national cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Mr Albanese, premiers and chief ministers agreed to rental market reforms, including limiting rent increases to once a year and creating minimum rental standards.

A nationwide policy will be developed requiring landlords to provide genuine, reasonable grounds for evictions.

The prime minister also offered a multibillion-dollar incentive to build new dwellings, announcing the construction of 1.2 million homes in the next five years, an increase of 200,000 dwellings from a previous target.

States and territories will be offered $15,000 for each new home they build from $3 billion in federal funding for 200,000 new dwellings.

Mr Albanese on Thursday set a 2024 start date for a scheme to help 40,000 low-income families buy a home.

He said Greens politicians were "blockers" while Labor were "the builders".

"The Greens political party aren't interested in solving the problem at all, they just want the issue, the campaign, the social media content," he told a gathering of Labor faithful at the party's national conference in Brisbane.

"They revel in the hypocrisy of voting against affordable housing in the parliament, protesting against it in their electorate and then making memes calling for action."

The Greens have previously opposed the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund and delayed debate on the bill until October, arguing a lack of support for renters.

Mr Bandt recommitted his party to a fight for tenants, saying they had been left behind by national cabinet.

"Under the announcements from Labor, rents are going to keep going up, housing is going to get more expensive and the housing crisis will get worse," he said.

Mr Bandt said the Greens had bent over backwards to negotiate with the government and secure a better deal for more Australians.

"We are in a fight to push Labor to deliver for renters and we are not going to stop," he said.

He also criticised the decision not to stop unlimited rent rises altogether, saying an increase once a year could still crush renters.

But Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said a Greens' push to freeze and cap rents would reduce supply and further prolong the crisis.

"Don't make it worse by being a populist," he said.

"People will not build housing in a jurisdiction where potentially rents are frozen.

"They will go to another part of Australia where they are not frozen and they will build their apartments and their houses there."

Federal opposition leader Peter Dutton questioned whether the government would be able to deliver a promised housing supply increase.

"The trouble is that figures don't mean anything under this prime minister," he said.

"As we've seen in relation to other issues, he just doesn't get across the detail, he makes the announcement but there's no delivery."

Independent MP Dai Le said despite all the talk, she didn't know whether there would ever be extra houses built.

"We know the problem and we just need a solution," she said.

© AAP 2023