Ann: hummgroup 3Q22 business update, page-72

You are only half right. Yes bad debts will rise and rates will too - but from historic lows. While bad debts will no doubt rise I point you to the two largest bad debt ledger buyers in Australia who both currently have announced that bad debt ledgers are very hard to come by and they are having trouble sourcing them. If they rise it is likely they will normalise to pre-Covid levels. It might also be claimed that home owners will suffer from increased housing loan rates but banks have advised that large percentages of mortgages are paid well in advance due to borrowers having continued payments at the original rate instead of taking advantage of the lowered interest rates. New owners should not have too much problem as the banks have been asked to self regulate mortgage borrowing by testing payment ability of applicants at the higher expected rate rises for some time now. Now we need to get down to unemployment problems. The unemployment rate is the lowest it has been for decades and employers generally are crying out for applicants. There are shortages in the trades areas, aged care sector, the health sector, and seasonal worker sector. I have a problem seeing bad debt problems beyond the norm in the short to medium term. HUM or LFS do not seem to be in any danger with bad debts outside of the usual numbers IMO. Quite happy to hear from any that want to contest my view.