It is Tuesday the 15^th of July and the Albanese government has been told by Treasury that the federal budget cannot be fixed without raising taxes and cutting spending. The advice came after Labor's re-election, and warns the government's signature pledge to build 1.2 million homes over five years to address the housing crisis "will not be met". Treasurer Jim Chalmers yesterday said he wasn’t concerned about the leak and said the housing target would be met.

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News in brief

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is currently visiting China, yesterday talked up the partnerships between Aussie iron ore miners and Chinese steel makers, highlighting that Australian ore comprises about 60pc of all ore imports into China. He said both sides need to work together to help decarbonise steel making.

Bitcoin has notched another record, pushing beyond 120,000 US dollars a unit. The crypto currency has plenty of friends and it is now trading around 180,000 Aussie dollars a unit. It is up nearly 60 per cent since its low in April and 87 per cent over the last year.

The first census questions on sexual orientation and gender will be sent out to 60,000 households as part of a practice version of the 2026 nationwide survey. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the homes have been chosen to take part in a test census on August 5 to make sure the real event runs without incident.

Bidders for Abacus Storage King have upped their offer for the group by almost 15 per cent to $2.2 billion. It is enough to convince the ASX listed company to open its books to the bidders, led by a South African businessman and a Wall Street listed company.

The number of reported measles cases in the US has reached a 33-year high, with nearly 1,300 confirmed infections across the country, marking a new milestone in the outbreak of the highly contagious and vaccine preventable disease.

Fear-o-meter

Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers yesterday said the federal government will meet its target of 1.2 million new homes built over the next five years. It followed the leaking of Treasury advice to the government, saying the target will be missed.

At this point, there is Buckley’s chance of the target being hit. The target run rate is 250,000 homes a year. Last year there was less than 170,000 homes started and the Housing Industry Association forecasts less than 1 million new dwellings over the five years.

There are way too many pain points in residential construction. Land supply and the readiness, in terms of essential infrastructure, of land that is available. Local planning rules and building codes don’t always help nor does an 80,000 odd shortage of skilled workers across trades.

I hope Jim Chalmers is correct and the target is hit. We remain in the middle of a housing supply crisis. But the government needs to do more than say it’s going to reach its target. It needs to act. One year on from the National Housing Accord, the government has done little to help boost the residential construction industry.

Who's talking today?

"If we were to build the 1.2 million homes - the target that the government has set - our estimation is that we need about 83,000 trades people additional to what we have in the industry right now."

Greed-o-meter

Over the past year, Bitcoin has surged, encouraged by the election of Donald Trump and hopes of regulations more friendly to digital units. But not all cryptos have done well.

Source: Trading Economics

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