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Let’s return to the issue of surcharging.

NAB boss Andrew Irvine has labelled a 10 per cent surcharge he was hit with when buying a coffee in Sydney as “outrageous” and suggested the Reserve Bank reconsider rules around the practice.

It comes after MP Jerome Laxale yesterday held up a $5 note and card carrying a $5.08 sign to demonstrate the different prices often paid by customers when making a purchase, and as the issue of surcharging has intensified among consumers.

While the RBA is this year reviewing the payments system, including surcharging – which is illegal in countries such as the UK – Irvine said there needed to be more transparency, consistency and simplicity if the practice were to continue.

Irvine said his experience buying a coffee in Sydney this year had irked him.

“That is outrageous,” he said.

“I don’t like the lack of transparency and lack of consistency.”

NAB chief executive Andrew Irvine says longer-term fixed rate mortgages, such as the 20 to 30 year contracts available in the US, would require cooperation with superannuation firms in Australia.

Australians have tended to choose variable-rate mortgages – which move roughly in line with interest rates – but in 2021, a larger proportion took out fixed rate home loans amid record-low interest rates.

However, a majority of these fixed-term mortgages have since rolled off, with borrowers returning to variable-rate loans in the past few years as interest rates have risen.

Irvine said longer-term fixed rate mortgages required longer-term funding – unlike the deposits Australian banks are heavily reliant on to fund their loan books.

“Eighty per cent of our loan book is funded by our customer deposits,” he said.

“Structurally, Australian banks are unable to have longer-term fixed loans because of the mismatch that could arise between their loans and deposits. That’s when you have bank failures.”

By contrast, Irvine said US mortgages were not usually held by the banks directly, and were often repackaged into bonds which are then sold on to investors and backed by two government agencies.

“If Australian banks could access longer-term sources of capital, it could offer longer-term fixed mortgages,” he said.

Irvine said superannuation funds might be able to step in to offer that capital if they partnered with banks because super companies tend to hold on to their funds for decades until their customers retired.

A 17-year-old boy has taken his life inside WA’s Banksia Hill Detention Centre, the second youth to die in prison in the state in just over 12 months.

Staff discovered the teenager unresponsive in his cell overnight.

“A failure has occurred, but we will continue to ensure we do everything we can to improve the lives of the staff and those at the facility and continue our pathway of reform,” Corrective Services Commissioner Brad Royce said.

It marks the second death of a teenager in custody in WA, after a 16-year-old boy was found unresponsive in Casuarina Prison in October last year.

He died eight days later in hospital.

Australian telco TPG will cut 120 jobs, with chief executive Iñaki Berroeta blaming rising inflation and costs for the decision.

In its half-year financial results today, TPG posted an interim net profit of $29 million, down 40 per cent from $48 million the same time a year earlier.

The company operates telco brands including Vodafone, Lebara and iiNet.

“We are taking action on operating costs, removing 120 roles from the organisation this month as we look to offset the impact of sustained inflation of recent years,” Berroeta said in a statement.

It comes after rival telco Telstra in May announced it would cut up to 2800 jobs by the end of the year.

TPG employs around 5000 people and the cuts are expected to save the company around $20 million annually. Shares in TPG last traded at $4.89, up nearly 7 per cent.

NSW Roads Minister John Graham has cut the ribbon on the final crucial stage of a new $2.6 billion motorway to Sydney Airport’s domestic and international terminals, almost four years after construction started on the project.

The final stage of the Sydney Gateway will be opened to motorists about 4.30am on Sunday – Father’s Day – making it a four-minute trip from the St Peters interchange for WestConnex to the domestic or international terminals. It will save drivers up to 17 minutes by avoiding local roads and traffic lights in Mascot.

Graham said the opening of the final stage of the gateway project meant people driving from Penrith, Parramatta, Campbelltown and Liverpool would encounter no traffic lights on their trip to the airport.

“In fact, the first traffic light you might hit if you’re coming from Campbelltown or Penrith may well be in Melbourne or Brisbane as you travel out of Sydney Airport and to those cities. So it’ll make a big difference – a smoother ride into the airport,” he said.

Graham was joined at the ribbon cutting on the motorway near the IKEA outlet at Tempe this morning by Sydney Airport chief executive Scott Charlton, Transurban chief executive Michelle Jablko, senior transport officials and scores of workers involved in the project.

While travel times will be cut for those driving from the city’s west and south-west, a confidential analysis by the state’s transport officials warns of the potential of longer delays for drivers using several key roads near Botany. Read the full story here.

Back to the bank inquiry and NAB chief executive Andrew Irvine has said surcharging on card payments is probably outdated.

“I personally don’t like surcharging,” he said. “But if surcharging maintains, I hope to goodness that it’s simpler, more transparent and consistent.”

Irvine said the cost of credit card acceptance used to be “much higher” 20 years ago than it is today, and that as debit cards have become more frequently used, the surcharging system made little sense.

“I think surcharging came in a time and place that was quite different to today,” he said.

“It’s possible that surcharging was warranted over 20 years ago, but I think it behooves us to ask whether it still serves its purpose. I think [surcharging] just adds to confusion. It means I don’t know what the price of a good is that I’m buying and I don’t like it.”

Irvine said debit payments, which cost less for businesses to accept, had become more prevalent, and that with a cheaper domestic payments scheme now gaining market share, it was worth rethinking surcharges.

Our expert world team are ready to bring you all the updates from the first TV interview with Kamala Harris since she was named the presidential nominee for the Democrats.

Harris and running mate Tim Walz have sat down with CNN’s Danna Bash for the interview.

Our team is running a dedicated live blog – you can follow along here.

Back to NAB boss Andrew Irvine now, who expects interest rates to come down next year – but says it will be tough for many households for the next six to nine months.

“I do feel like we’re getting to a point where interest rates will start to come down,” he said.

“That will provide more money in the economy, more demand in the economy, which will mean that businesses will be healthier, and therefore they’ll be able to hire more, pay more and more.”

While more people are working extra hours to make ends meet, Irvine said there were many demographics who were less visible to the bank.

“It’s going to be tough, I think, for the best part of the next six to nine months,” he said, noting young people, renters and single mothers were particularly likely to be facing financial stress.

But these people were also less likely to show up on banks’ balance sheets, making the major banks’ gauges of financial stress across the economy less accurate, Irvine said.

“Banks are probably no longer the best barometer of society in terms of how society is handling this cost of living crisis because of responsible lending [requirements] and the barriers to bank lending,” he said.

“We probably don’t see the people in our lending books that are most vulnerable, I think that’s why you’re seeing a little bit of a disconnect between … arrears in our balance sheet being quite low and … what we’re hearing and seeing from our customers all around the economy today.”