Slick housing designs costing less than an ice cream are being deployed to get more homes built, but detractors have dubbed the promotion a “thirst trap”.

The “pattern book” of low-rise designs including terraces, townhouses and manor houses could be ticked off for construction in 10 days.

The designs, whipped up by internationally renowned architects as part of a NSW government competition, will be available for $1 for the first six months.

They then rise to $1000, still well below the going rate.

The government estimates the designs would typically cost upwards of $20,000 if commissioned from an architect.

Premier Chris Minns has repeatedly blamed a sluggish planning system for poor progress on nationally agreed housing targets.

NSW has produced six houses per 1000 people each year compared with Victoria’s eight and Queensland’s 10, he said.

“Ask anybody for the last 20 years in NSW how frustrating it has been to get approval for a family home, they’ll all say the same thing, it is impossible,” Mr Minns told reporters on Wednesday.

“We are falling behind when it comes to new development completions, alongside the fact that we are one of the most expensive cities on earth.”

The NSW scheme will have wider availability and lower up-front fees than a Victorian strategy which was limited to a single council area, Mr Minns said.

But acting Opposition Leader Damien Tudehope said the pattern book plans were governed by “glossy brochures”.

“(It’s) almost like a thirst trap,” he told reporters.

“We have scantily clad people as part of the brochure.”

Mr Tudehope questioned the claimed 10-day approval but said councils should tick off all types of housing faster.

The state remains behind its target to build 377,000 new homes by July 2029 under a national housing agreement.

The premier acknowledged in an address to the McKell Institute on Wednesday getting 75,000 homes off the ground each year remains a tall order.

But he didn’t mind the challenge.

“It puts pressure on the government, and therefore pressure on local councils and pressure on developers and the Reserve Bank and everything to really start thinking,” Mr Minns said.

The design plans coincide with the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing an increase in construction starts in the first three months of 2025.

More than 47,000 new home builds commenced in that time, a 17 per cent increase on the same period in 2024.

University of NSW architecture professor Philip Oldfield lauded the “high quality architectural designs” as a step towards expediting approvals.

But he warns governments need to be more ambitious and holistic to overcome “structural and endemic” issues stemming from tax policies and complex regulations.

“Everyone’s looking for a silver bullet rather than actually planning for the future,” he told AAP.

“The cost to build a home and the cost of the land is quite high … so it’s short-sighted to expect the private development model to solve all our problems.”

The NSW government has allocated billions in recent budgets to build and refurbish social housing as well as helping private developers meet pre-sales targets and secure finance to build apartment buildings.

Building designers backed the release of the pattern book but called for more formal involvement in future iterations, saying architects design fewer than five per cent of residences in NSW.

“(Building designers) deliver the vast bulk of housing in NSW … their input is essential,” Building Designers Association of Australia chief executive Chris Knierim said.

UK inflation rose to a near 18-month high in June as food prices surged for the third month running, according to official figures.

Consumer price index inflation rose to 3.6 per cent in June, up from 3.4 per cent in May and the highest since January 2024, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday.

The increase was unexpected, with most economists forecasting inflation to remain unchanged at 3.4 per cent.

Annual food price inflation hit the highest level since February 2024, while transport costs also pushed up the cost of living.

ONS acting chief economist Richard Heys said: “Inflation ticked up in June driven mainly by motor fuel prices which fell only slightly, compared with a much larger decrease at this time last year.

“Food price inflation has increased for the third consecutive month to its highest annual rate since February of last year.

“However, it remains well below the peak seen in early 2023.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said there was “more to do” to help bring inflation down.

“I know working people are still struggling with the cost of living,” she said.

“There is more to do and I’m determined we deliver on our Plan for Change to put more money into people’s pockets.”

Australia needs to bring back a carbon tax and should never have dumped the measure, an economic heavyweight says.

Ex-Treasury secretary Ken Henry, now a leading environmental advocate, derided the Abbott-led coalition government’s decision to repeal the carbon price, which came into effect under Labor prime minister Julia Gillard in 2012.

When AAP asked if the current Labor government should reconsider the measure amid calls for tax reform and greater action to address climate change, the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation chair said the scheme should never have been quashed.

“Why the hell did we ever drop it?” Dr Henry told the National Press Club on Wednesday.

“It still boggles the mind that we had the world’s best carbon policy and then, for purely political reasons, decided that we could afford to do without it.

“Of course we need a carbon tax, but in the meantime, we’ve got something else and we’ve got to make something else work.”

Dr Henry has also urged the federal government to overhaul Australia’s decades-old environment laws.

Labor is currently pursuing a litany of economic goals, including plans to build 1.2 million houses by 2029, boost renewable energy and develop the critical minerals industry.

But it controversially shelved the bulk of its planned overhaul of national environmental laws in the last term of parliament after pushback over so-called “nature positive” reforms.

Dr Henry said Labor should “stop dreaming” about more challenging reforms if it couldn’t even change the outdated environmental provisions.

“To put it bluntly, there is no chance of Australia meeting stated targets for net zero, renewable energy, critical minerals development, housing and transport infrastructure without very high quality national laws,” he said.

Dr Henry said economics had, for the most part, ignored the most important constraints on human choices.

“Our failure to recognise that the laws of nature affect the set of feasible choices available to us is now having a discernible impact on productivity – and things are getting worse with accelerating speed,” he said.

“We need to break the deadlock.”

Reforms to the environment laws would need to ensure federal, state and territory governments could co-operate for a shared purpose, finalise effective national standards and establish an expert, independent decision maker in the form of a national environmental protection agency.

The existing legislation has remained largely unchanged for more than two decades despite a landmark review, released in 2021, finding the act was not fit to address current or future challenges.

Nations such as Australia that risk being entangled in Donald Trump’s trade wars have been urged to band together and ignore the increasingly dour superpower.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers is preparing to sit down with leaders from the world’s biggest economies, when he will call for more collaboration at the same time as the US shifts to a heavy-handed, protectionist approach.

He will fly to Durban in South Africa for a gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors from G20 countries, days before parliament returns for the first time since Labor’s thumping election win in May.

AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said while unity statements would be made by nations attending the meeting, countries would still act independently when confronted with the US president’s tariffs.

“While an ideal response by other countries outside of the US would be to ignore America, some countries will relent,” he told AAP.

“When other countries are making deals with the US, it obviously weakens the position of the rest of the world.”

As conflict in the Middle East and Eastern Europe and the threat of tariffs continue to shake global markets, Dr Chalmers said there had never been a more important time to work together, noting the international economic environment would also shape domestic policy.

“We are navigating a world where volatility, uncertainty and unpredictability are now the norm, not the exception,” he said.

“Subdued global growth, extreme uncertainty and fragmentation demands more engagement, more collaboration and more resilience and that’s what guides our strategy.”

Mr Oliver said Australia had taken the right path by refusing to impose retaliatory tariffs and by not entering into a “bad deal” with the US.

He warned Mr Trump’s flagged tariffs on pharmaceuticals, said to be imposed at the end of the month and increase after a year, would have a “horrible impact” on the affected companies.

The US is Australia’s largest pharmaceutical export market, worth about $2.2 billion in sales.

Dr Chalmers has also stressed the importance of free and open markets and will prioritise strengthening ties and bolstering supply chains in his meetings.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also trumpeted the nation’s support for “free and fair trade” during his visit to China, including at a meeting with President Xi Jinping.

While Australia has not yet received a tariff letter from the US president, a baseline 10 per cent levy has been applied on most of its goods and a 50 per cent levy on steel and aluminium.

The federal government has floated using critical minerals as a bargaining chip to try to carve out a tariff exemption and Dr Chalmers confirmed he would discuss the resource with other countries’ leaders at the event.

He is also expected to meet counterparts from Japan, Indonesia, Canada, the UK, South Africa and Germany, many of which will have a higher tariff rate imposed on their goods from August 1.

All of this forms the backdrop to Labor’s second-term economic agenda that includes ambitious goals to boost flagging productivity.

The coalition has signalled a willingness to work with Labor on productivity, but  through cuts to red tape and regulation, Liberal senator Jane Hume said.

Parliament resumes on Tuesday.

After the morning rush of lattes and flat-whites flying out the door, Alan Low likes to settle in with his own coffee and try to balance his cafe’s books.

The exercise could become even trickier after the Reserve Bank of Australia proposed to remove surcharges on EFTPOS, Mastercard and Visa card transactions, which could save consumers $1.2 billion a year.

But the inner-Sydney cafe owner feels small businesses have been left out of the equation.

Every cent counts with a necessary $12,000-$15,000 a year collected through surcharges on the volume of sales Mr Low’s cafe does.

“There’s nothing that is actually cheap for us,” he told AAP.

“There has to be one way that is actually to help us substitute it out

“There’s no way for us to absorb the cost anymore … and the last thing we want is to jack up the prices for customers.”

Lowering the cap on interchange fees – another RBA recommendation – could save the sector $1.2 billion.

The fee is paid by a business to a customer’s card issuer when a transaction occurs.  

But for Mr Low – who rattled off a list of exorbitant expenses ranging from electricity, wages and insurance – the expected changes could have an impact.

Small business owners face the same inflationary pressures that have hit consumers in recent years, he said.

The cafe’s margins have taken a hit as workers come into the city less frequently and residential buildings eat up spaces.

The peak hospitality body also slammed the RBA’s decision, saying it does not go far enough to help small businesses out.

“To put it bluntly, it’s a political fix – not a solution,” Australian Hotels Association chief executive Stephen Ferguson said.

“The RBA policy to ban surcharges just covers up the problem.” 

But RMIT academic Angel Zhong was more upbeat, arguing the changes would overhaul an outdated transaction system and foster competition in payment services.

“Small businesses stand to gain significantly from both the surcharge ban and interchange fee caps,” she said.

“With lower processing costs and simplified pricing, they can focus on serving customers rather than navigating complex payment fees.”

Dr Zhong warned “the transition needs careful monitoring” and it remains to be seen if and when actual savings filter down to businesses and consumers.  

Following news of the proposed changes, three-quarters of more than 3000 customers surveyed by financial comparison site Canstar said the fees should be banned.

A survey of more than 1000 people commissioned by Visa earlier in July reported 85 per cent would prefer surcharges be built into upfront prices rather than charged separately.

The payments provider said reducing interchange fees risked hampering local investment in fraud protection.

“This is a dramatic shift that would have ripple effects far beyond payments,” Visa Oceania manager Alan Machet said.

Retracing the steps of Gough Whitlam atop the Great Wall of China, Anthony Albanese brushed off Chinese concerns about unfair business practices.

The prime minister pitched himself as continuing the work of his famous Labor forebear to “build stability and security in the region” through engagement.  

Just a day earlier, Mr Albanese and Chinese Premier Li Qiang signed a series of agreements to boost business links as US President Donald Trump upends the global trade order.

Australia and China must deepen economic co-operation given increasing trade frictions elsewhere, Mr Li said after a lavish welcome in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. 

“In recent years, co-operation has encountered headwinds,” he said, adding that it was hard to find two countries with more complementary economies than Australia and China.

But despite the positive dialogue and warm welcome the prime minister has received on his six-day visit, he can’t deny the fundamental differences in the relationship. 

China has chafed at Australia’s stringent foreign investment regime on Chinese firms. 

Mr Li said China would protect the rights of foreign businesses and treat them in accordance with the law, in an oblique reference to Australian plans to tear up a Chinese-owned company’s lease of Darwin Port. 

“I trust Australia will treat Chinese enterprise fairly and properly resolve issues regarding market access and investment review,” he told a gathering of Australian and Chinese business leaders.

Mr Albanese said restrictions weren’t targeted at China specifically but were an agnostic effort to protect Australia’s national interests. 

“We have a case-by-case issue when it comes to foreign investment,” he told reporters at the Wall on Wednesday. 

“It is viewed not on the basis of any one country, but on the basis of an objective assessment of our national interest.”

One issue raised by Chinese business leaders was a concern about existing LNG contracts that could be impacted, for instance, if Australia were to unilaterally change the market through a gas reserve. 

“We don’t interfere with those sovereign issues when it comes to gas, whether it be for China, for Japan or for the Republic of Korea,” Mr Albanese said. 

The prime minister next flies out to the southwestern capital of Chengdu, where he will spruik Australia’s sporting ties with China and meet some pandas. 

US President Donald Trump says the United States will impose a 19 per cent tariff on goods from Indonesia under a new agreement with the Southeast Asian country.

He said more deals were in the works as he continued to press for what he views as better terms with trading partners and a path to reducing a massive US trade deficit.

The pact with the relatively minor US trading partner is among the handful struck so far by Trump’s administration ahead of an August 1 deadline for tariffs on most US imports to rise again, and it came as the top US trading partner – the European Union – readied retaliatory measures should talks between US and its top trading partner fail.

As that deadline approaches, talks were underway with other trading partners eager to avoid yet more levies being imposed on their exports to the US beyond a baseline 10 per cent on most goods that has been in place since April.

It is a policy regime – rolled out often chaotically by Trump – that has upended decades of trends toward lower trade barriers, often roiling global financial markets and economic activity along the way.

Based on Trump tariff announcements through July 13, Yale Budget Lab estimates the US effective average tariff rates will rise to 20.6 per cent from between two per cent and three per cent before Trump’s return to the White House in January.

Trump outlined an Indonesia deal that had rough contours resembling a pact struck recently with Vietnam, with a flat tariff on exports to the US roughly double the current 10 per cent and no levies placed on US exports going there.

It also included a penalty rate for so-called transhipments of goods from China via Indonesia, and a commitment to buy some US goods.

“They are going to pay 19 per cent and we are going to pay nothing … we will have full access into Indonesia, and we have a couple of those deals that are going to be announced,” Trump said outside the Oval Office.

In addition, Trump said later on his Truth Social platform that Indonesia had agreed to buy $US15 billion ($A23 billion) of US energy products, $US4.5 billion of farm products and 50 Boeing jets although no time frame for the purchases was specified.

Indonesia’s total trade with the US – totalling just under $US40 billion in 2024 – does not rank in the top 15 but it has been growing.

US exports to Indonesia rose 3.7 per cent last year while imports from there were up 4.8 per cent, leaving the US with a goods trade deficit of nearly $US18 billion.

Susiwijono Moegiarso, a senior official with Indonesia’s Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, told Reuters in a text message: “We are preparing a joint statement between US and Indonesia that will explain the size of reciprocal tariff for Indonesia including the tariff deal, non-tariff and commercial arrangements. We will inform (the public) soon.”

Trump had threatened the country with a 32 per cent tariff rate effective August 1 in a letter sent to its president last week.

He sent similar letters to about two dozen trading partners this month, including Canada, Japan and Brazil, setting blanket tariff rates ranging from 20 per cent up to 50 per cent, as well as a 50 per cent tariff on copper.

The August 1 deadline gives the targeted countries time to negotiate agreements that could lower the threatened tariffs.

The US president also said he will “probably” announce tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs.

Trump told reporters such an announcement could come at the “end of the month.”

Trump said he would start out at a lower tariff rate and give companies a year to build domestic factories before they face higher import tax rates.

“… there are two ways you do it. You make money, or you have them move here so they don’t have to pay the tariff. Those are the two ways.

“The pharmaceutical companies are moving back to America, where they should be.”

Earlier this month the US president laid out plans to impose 200 per cent tariffs on drug imports, threatening Australia’s third-most significant export.

with AP

In the face of extreme uncertainty, collaboration will be top of mind as the treasurer prepares to meet with leaders from some of the world’s most important economies.

Days before the first parliamentary sitting week of Labor’s second term, Treasurer Jim Chalmers is set to head to Durban in South Africa for a gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors from G20 countries.

As conflict in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the threat of US tariffs continue to shake global markets, Dr Chalmers said there has never been a more important time to collaborate, noting the international economic environment would shape domestic policy.

“We are navigating a world where volatility, uncertainty and unpredictability are now the norm, not the exception,” he said.

“Subdued global growth, extreme uncertainty and fragmentation demands more engagement, more collaboration and more resilience and that’s what guides our strategy.”

He has also stressed the importance of free and open markets, and will prioritise strengthening ties and bolstering supply chains in his meetings.

Australia has not yet received a tariff letter from the US president, but Donald Trump has imposed a baseline 10 per cent tariff on most of its goods and a 50 per cent levy on steel and aluminium.

The federal government has floated using critical minerals as a bargaining chip to try to carve out a tariff exemption and Dr Chalmers confirmed he would discuss the resource with other countries’ leaders at the event.

He is also expected to meet with his counterparts from Japan, Indonesia, Canada, the UK, South Africa and Germany, many of which will have a higher tariff rate imposed on their goods from August 1.

“The Australian economy is not immune from global uncertainty but we are well-placed and well-prepared to face the challenges ahead,” Dr Chalmers said.

All of this would form the backdrop to Labor’s second-term economic agenda, which includes ambitious goals to boost flagging productivity.

The coalition has signalled a willingness to work with Labor on productivity, but specifically through cuts to red tape and regulation, Liberal senator Jane Hume said.

Parliament will resume on Tuesday.

New homes picked from pre-approved designs could be ticked off for construction in 10 days in another bid to accelerate house building in Australia’s most expensive market.

In what the the NSW government has called its “pattern book” of low-rise designs, eight terrace, townhouse and manor house plans are available and will be heavily subsidised to encourage market activity.

It will give people that have been locked out of housing due to rising costs and a planning system that made it too difficult to build homes the chance to live in communities, the government said.

Premier Chris Minns has previously declared war on red tape and blamed a sluggish planning system for his state’s poor progress on nationally-agreed housing targets.

NSW is committed to building 377,000 new homes by July 2029 but data has consistently shown it is on track to fall well short.

Master Builders Australia data released in 2024 found the state would come closer to building 300,000 in that timeframe.

“For too long, too many people in NSW have been locked out of the housing market by rising costs and a system that made it too hard to build – we’re changing that,” the premier said.

“This Pattern Book is about giving people more choice, faster approvals, and affordable, high-quality homes – whether you’re a young person trying to get in, a family needing more space, or a downsizer looking to stay close to the community you know.”

Planning Minister Paul Scully said the pattern book took the guesswork and delay out of home building, with the pre-approved designs “cost-effective” and “high-quality”.

The designs will be available for $1000, but heavy government subsidies mean they will cost just $1 per pattern for the first six months.

The government estimated the designs would typically cost upwards of $20,000 if developed through an architect.Committee for Sydney planning policy manager Estelle Grech said the plans were proof density can be “both beautiful and attainable”.

“It isn’t an abstract rezoning. It’s practical, design-led guidance that shows how you can get more bang from your block, build beautiful homes and help solve Sydney’s housing crisis,” she said.

“While these designs may not appear everywhere overnight and are more likely to be a slow burn, they set a strong benchmark for what’s possible when it comes to low-rise development.”

A NSW Productivity and Equality Commission report released in 2024 made several recommendations to boost housing supply, including zoning well-located areas for higher density and cutting apartment design requirements.

One of the government’s signature planning policies involves the blanket rezoning of land around metro stations and existing transport hubs for higher-density housing.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has urged the European Union to suspend implementation of a global minimum corporate tax, arguing the plan is no longer viable without US participation.

Speaking after a meeting atop the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest peak, Merz said continuing with the 15 per cent minimum tax in Europe would put the continent’s economy at a disadvantage.

“The Americans have withdrawn, and this concept no longer has a future,” Merz said, adding that the German government would now take up the issue.

The 15 per cent minimum tax is part of a global corporate tax reform endorsed by around 140 countries after years of talks. The aim is to ensure big companies pay a fairer share of tax.

The tax, which is at various stages of implementation depending on the country, hits multinational companies with annual revenues over $US871 million ($A1.3 billion), regardless of where their profits are generated.

The policy’s future was thrown into doubt after President Donald Trump declared it unenforceable in the United States.

Washington has argued the global agreement infringes on its fiscal sovereignty.

A recent G7 compromise allows US companies to be exempt from the global minimum tax as long as they remain subject to a domestic US tax regime.

Canada, which holds the G7 presidency, said the deal still represents progress in the fight against profit shifting and tax avoidance.