Good afternoon,

The pension income of many self-funded retirees is almost certain to be cut back if the deeming rate is lifted in Tuesday’s budget. 

Renters facing steeper rents are pulling back spending on gyms, pubs and cafes, while their homeowner parents and grandparents are still happily shopping, according to CBA.

The corporate watchdog is investigating ANZ Bank over its role in the sale of government bonds last year.

The ASX 200 erased its losses to close flat ahead of the federal budget. The S&P/ASX 200 rose 1 point to 7,750 , with energy and technology stocks the big losers. The All Ordinaries rose 3.3 points at 8,019.4.

The Big Read

For more than two decades, plastics maker Qenos has been at the heart of the war over Australian energy and manufacturing policy. Its sad demise is the product of that irreconcilable conflict – and its own arrogance and ­mistakes.

Qenos’s collapse into administration put an early torpedo through Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s plans to cast manufacturing as the centrepiece of Labor’s re-election strategy.

It also calls into question Labor’s promise this week to keep gas at the centre of Australia’s national resources sector.

Nick Evans

Read more