From Federal Budget announcement to rising inflation rate, we bring you a collation of key updates for May 2023.
LawTech Talks: Outsourcing 101 in the new normal.
Law Image collaborated with Lawyers Weekly on the LawTech Talks podcast series to discuss managed services and outsourcing.
Host Jerome Doraisamy talked with Tim Hall, the innovation and technology lead at Law Image, and Michael Wrobel, the head of commercial and corporate services. They delved into the concept of outsourcing and managed services, explored the market and workplace factors that are pushing law firms towards outsourcing. Furthermore, they looked into whether the post-pandemic era has paced up the trend of outsourcing, and analysed the current obstacles hindering effective outsourcing of non-core tasks within a firm or team.
Federal Budget 2023: Key Takeaways
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has delivered this year’s federal budget with a $14.6 billion cost-of-living relief package.
Key announcements out of this year’s budget:
– There will be $14.6 billion of cost-of-living relief, including help with power bills, reduced health costs and the creation of more affordable housing.
– The government is allocating $11.3 billion to provide aged care workers with a temporary increase of 15 per cent in award wages.
– An extra $40 per fortnight will be delivered for JobSeeker, youth allowance and Austudy recipients.
– Bulk billing incentives will be tripled for the most common consultations with children under the age of 16, pensioners and other Commonwealth concession card holders.
– The maximum rate of Commonwealth Rent Assistance will be increased by 15 per cent.
Australia’s inflation rate rose 6.8% in April, driven by energy prices, but price pressures eased.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), consumer prices experienced a 6.8% increase in April. These prices surpassed economists’ expectations of a 6.4% growth rate and the 6.3% recorded in March. However, when excluding volatile items, the underlying inflation rate, closely monitored by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), decreased to an annual rate of 6.5% in April, down from 6.9% in March.
Michelle Marquardt, the ABS’s head of prices statistics, noted that the annual movement in April 2023 had been influenced by the reduction and subsequent reversal of the fuel excise tax, which was halved in April 2022 and wholly undone by October 2022.
Spike in scams targeting Australians selling items online.
Platforms like Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree face a huge risk of falling victim to scams. Notably, this message is in line with the National Australia Bank’s (NAB) release of new customer data. The data revealed a 66% surge in goods and services scams over the past three months. Notably, one-third of these reported incidents involve criminals attempting to exploit PayID. PayID is a no-cost service that employs a mobile phone number, email address, or ABN for money transfers.
Chris Sheehan, NAB’s Executive of Group Investigations and Fraud, highlighted cases where sellers advertising items such as old televisions or refrigerators online receive an overwhelming number of similar messages from scammers who wish to make payment through PayID.
An individual’s bank manages its PayID. Therefore, it is crucial to remember that PayID never communicates with individuals directly.
About Law Image: Law Image is a leading document management company. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Melbourne, we have offices in Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth. Law Image support law firms and government departments across Australia with end-to-end legal document management solutions.
For Marketing & Branding inquiries, contact:
Siddhi Chavan (communications@lawimage.com)
Marketing & Communications Strategist
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