Australia news live: Jim Chalmers weighs in on One Nation WA byelection win; $2m for Indigenous racism online register

Officials from the Commonwealth Bank say home loan applications have dropped by around 15% since the May federal budget when the Albanese government announced a winding back of generous tax breaks for property investors.

Banking managers and economists from the top four banks are appearing at a Senate inquiry into generational housing inequality today.

Robert Parker , CBA’s executive general manager for retail, said there had been a “softening” of lending applications in recent months, with investor loans down about 28% since May, but didn’t have the figure for owner-occupier loans.

Westpac’s head economist, Dr Luci Ellis , said the bank – like other major banks – did not publicly report how much of its $6.9bn profit for 2024-25 was generated from interest on home loans. Ellis said the bank’s consumer division, which includes home mortgages, made $2.3bn in the year, or a third of the overall profit.

Earlier this morning, the Australian Council of Trade Unions assistant secretary, Joseph Mitchell , took aim at the big four banks, describing them as a big factor in housing affordability and ownership in Australia.

double quotation mark There’s not enough competition in the big four banks. Their profitability rates are absolutely enormous. They’re able to charge basically whatever they want for a mortgage because they, [at] the end of the day, are some of the big arbiters about whether or not you get to own a home.