Property by Sophie Elsworth
Premium Content Exclusive: Thousands of first home buyers have signed up to the Federal Government s scheme, eager to take advantage of low rates. The extension to the second tranche of the popular First Home Loan Deposit Scheme began in October, generating 4200 entry-level buyer registrations, new figures show. The federal government scheme allows borrowers to buy a newly-finished built property or one under construction up until June this year. Prices are capped at up to $950,000, depending on the location the property is in. Borrowers need to save just a five per cent deposit - the government contributes a further 15 per cent, allowing the buyer to avoid expensive lenders mortgage insurance.
Rising childcare fees deter more parents from returning to work
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Almost 17,000 more people are not working across Australia because they are caring for children at home due to the cost of childcare, as fees continue to rise beyond the rate of inflation.
The latest data released by the Productivity Commission shows childcare fees rose by 5.6 per cent to a national median of $523 between 2019 and 2020. The biggest increases were in the ACT, Victoria and NSW.
ACT parents paid $595 for a child to attend 50 hours of centre-based care per week in 2020, while Victorians paid $546 and NSW parents paid $535.
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Sydney news: Major concern as cyber attacks increase by 50 per cent, NSW Government accused of ignoring warnings
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The NSW Government has been accused of ignoring repeated warnings to tighten security.
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NSW Government under fire for cyber attacks
The NSW Government can t be trusted to protect the personal information of residents from cyber attacks, the Opposition says.
The number of cyber security incidents reported to Cyber Security NSW increased 50 per cent on the previous year, the Department of Customer Service s annual report said.
Labor s spokeswoman for Better Public Services, Sophie Cotsis, said the State Government continued to ignore repeated warnings that it needs to take urgent action to protect departments and services against cyber attacks .
Itâs time to salute the great crime decline
February 3, 2021 â 5.00am
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When I went to Sunday school we used to sing âcount your many blessings, name them one by oneâ. Itâs good advice, enthusiastically endorsed in recent times by the practitioners of âpositive psychologyâ. But itâs not something the media do much to help us with. So you may not have noticed that we see far fewer stories about the rising crime rate and shocking descriptions of particular crimes.
Thatâs because, after rising for about three decades, Australiaâs crime rate has fallen sharply since 2001. When the dog doesnât bark, the media rarely notice. But this is a blessing we should be more aware of. Not everything about the world is going to the dogs.
The value of new owner-occupier home loans in Australia has surged by 8.7% to $19.9bn in December. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
Home loans continue to grow at a record pace, driven by enthusiastic demand from first-time buyers even as housing prices hit new highs in the first weeks of 2021.
The risk of an overheating housing market may raise concerns for the Reserve Bank of Australia down the track.
But economists do not expect it will be making any short-term changes to monetary policy when its board meets for the first time this year on Tuesday.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the value of new owner-occupier home loan commitments surged by 8.7% to $19.9bn in December, 38.9% higher than a year earlier.