Category Archives: Australian economy

Australia news live: Bruce Lehrmann back in the witness box as defamation case kicks off third day

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Former Liberal staffer’s defamation trial against Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson continues in the federal court. Follow the day’s news live

The minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney, has said the government is yet to decide how to best consult with First Nations people after the loss of the Indigenous voice referendum.

Burney was on RN Breakfast earlier and said today’s Closing the Gap meeting, the first since the referendum, would focus on the silver linings from the loss.

What we have seen is a group of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people get involved in the political process.

We had 6 million Australians say yes. And the thing that really excited me about the outcome in places like the Tiwi Islands, where … Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people wanted this change. And those votes are really important.

Education is the most powerful cause for good in this world, that is where you learn.

If you want to protest, do it on the weekend. School is on, we expect them to be there.

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Australian banks buckle to pressure over scams and vow to block transfers to suspect accounts

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Consumer groups have long lobbied for institutions to crack down on scams by rejecting transfers if name and bank details of recipient don’t match

Australian banks have buckled under pressure and will do more to fight scams by introducing technology that will block customers from transferring money to some fraudulent accounts.

The banks had initially resisted calls – including from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the Consumer Action Law Centre (Calc) – to block transfers if the name and bank details of the recipient did not match.

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Man found dead after statewide search – as it happened

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Hostage release essential if truce to last, Paterson says

Rewinding to Liberal MP James Paterson’s appearance on RN Breakfast this morning, wheN he said more needs to be done to free the hostages Hamas is holding in Gaza.

We don’t know how many of them are still alive, and their continued release would be essential for any continuing ceasefire because otherwise Israel continues to have a legitimate military objective.

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Housing prices back at record levels, defying Australia’s interest rate rises

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The 7.5% drop from the April 2022 peak has been recovered, but some cities are faring better than others, CoreLogic analysts say

Australian home prices are back at record levels, recovering all of the 7.5% dip from their previous peak in April 2022, according to the data group CoreLogic.

As of Wednesday, Corelogic’s home value index had climbed 8.1% higher than the recent nadir reached at the end of January this year, defying five additional interest rate rises by the Reserve Bank since then.

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Australia news live: Bruce Lehrmann ‘utterly destroyed’ by Ten broadcast, court told

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Former Liberal staffer is seeking ‘substantial’ damages over The Project broadcast, lawyer says. Follow today’s news live

More than 20 people have been arrested and charged following an unauthorised pro-Palestine protest at Port Botany overnight.

According to a statement from NSW police, about 400 people gathered at the protest. Police issued a move-on direction, which they say was not complied with.

The group continued to occupy Foreshore Road, blocking vehicle movement.

That just gives a really clear line drawn that if it’s labour hire, it’s covered, if it’s service contractors, it’s not.

In terms of the conversations with the crossbench, I continue to reach out to the crossbench [and] there’s a series of meetings that continue to happen.

They’ve made a decision that they don’t want to deal with this bill until next year. I would rather we were dealing with it over the next fortnight. We certainly will be dealing with it next week in the House of Representatives.

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BoM provides El Niño update – as it happened

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Birmingham says China ‘doesn’t appear to be acknowledging the facts’

Shadow foreign minister Simon Birmingham is speaking with ABC RN and is asked about sonar pulses from a Chinese warship that left one Australian naval diver injured.

The Australian navy and Australian defence force operates always with professionalism, and I’m confident that Australia’s version of events is a credible.

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Singtel rejects Optus claims it caused network outage; gillnet fishing banned in Great Barrier Reef – as it happened

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Labor MPs furious over ‘one political party’ pitting Jewish community against another

Labor MPs are still furious over the motion Peter Dutton moved in question time on Wednesday, where he linked anti-semitism with the release of detainees, including some criminals, after the high court decision which deemed indefinite detention to be unconstitutional.

As a leader of the Jewish community and someone who represents a large Jewish community, I’ve always thought it was extremely important to act in the interests of the community.

And that means working across the political aisle. It means working with people like Allegra Spender, who represents the largest Jewish community in Australia, and of course with my friend Julian Leeser, who I will always stand with members regardless of what political persuasion they have, in order to act in the interests of the Jewish community.

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Politics live: cyber chief takes leave as defence department announces recall over ‘workplace matter’

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And here is the standard of some of the “debate” among senior parliamentarians.

Meanwhile, Australia’s sense of social cohesion is at its lowest recorded ebb.

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Wages grew by 1.3% for Australian workers in the September quarter amid tight labour market

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Wage price index increase in line with expectations as Fair Work minimum wage decision helped pay packets close gap with inflation

Australians’ wages grew in the September quarter as decisions by the Fair Work Commission and a tight labour market helped pay packets close the gap with inflation.

The country’s wage price index rose 1.3% in the quarter alone and 4% compared with the September quarter a year ago, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.

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Australia politics live: students protesting over climate crisis ‘are being the adults’, Adam Bandt says

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Shorten reiterates support for two-state solution

Patricia Karvelas then raises with Bill Shorten what was said on Q+A last night, when Nasser Mashni, the president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, argued that hopes for a two-state solution “ended years ago”.

Oh, no, our policy has been to support a two-state solution.

There was a policy which we developed many, many years ago about respecting the security of Israel and the right of Palestinians to have a say in controlling their own land. I don’t think that’s a radical policy.

I think it’s unexceptional what the foreign minister said. We’re in very close step to the United States and other western nations. We’ve called for humanitarian pause, but we completely recognise that Israel’s dealing with Hamas who don’t want to negotiate, so the idea that we want an enduring peace, as Penny said, of course, is what we want.

We all know we’re a long way off that and Hamas should be prevailed upon by world opinion to hand back the hostages to say that they’re going to stop trying to kill Israelis and destroy Israel.

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As the federal government prepares to scrap road and rail projects – find out what is being funded in your area

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The government is backing hundreds of infrastructure projects across Australia, however some may now be cancelled due to cost overruns

The Australian government has committed to hundreds of infrastructure projects around the country, mostly road and rail projects.

However, as many as 250 projects that have yet to begin construction may be scrapped or delayed as a cost-saving measure to pay for at least $33bn in cost overruns.

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Australia news live: ‘we let him down,’ WA corrective services minister admits after death of 16-year-old Cleveland Dodd

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Aboriginal teenager died in a hospital in October, a week after being found unresponsive inside a maximum security prison. Follow live

This morning Guardian Australia revealed that the Albanese government will immediately begin releasing people from indefinite detention after receiving a flurry of demands from long-term detainees to be set free due to Wednesday’s landmark high court ruling.

In question time on Thursday the government confirmed it had released the plaintiff in that case, a stateless Rohingya man known as NZYQ who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old, but claimed it needed to wait for the court’s full reasons and legal advice before making a call on others.

Yesterday the government assured the Senate they would not be releasing any other detainees before the court published its reasoning. The fact they are doing so less than 24 hours later shows how unprepared they were for this case. Sadly the Australian people cannot rely on their assurances about community safety if they are not even across fundamental legal questions like this.

It is the duty of journalists to seek out sources, including documentary evidence, in order to report to the public on the activities of the government. The United States must not pursue an unnecessary prosecution that risks criminalising common journalistic practices and thus chilling the work of the free press. We urge you to ensure that this case be brought to a close in as timely a manner as possible.

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Optus confirms ‘network event’ behind outage – as it happened

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Rowland: ‘consumers were clearly frustrated with lack of information’ over outage

Rowland says the key issue of the Optus outage was “getting some more understanding of the nature of the problem”. She tells ABC TV:

I made it clear from the outset that consumers were clearly frustrated with the lack of information. Australians are reasonable people. They understand that things need to be resolved and that may take some time, but the key issue here was getting some understanding of the nature of the problem, how long it may take and what the impacts would be.

And I think it goes to the issue of how reliant we are on our digital devices and connectivity overall, including for consuming messages and news media. And, in this case, the broadcasting platforms were there to be utilised and I did encourage Optus to do that as well.

It’s important, I believe, to have a post-incident review that is both thorough in scope but also is completed expeditiously and goes to the precise issues of what has caused this, considering the considerable amount of disruption, the distress it has caused, but also the economic impact as well. And to understand what [can] be done in future by the sector as a whole to take the lesson and mitigate that going forward.

So this is important, because Australians expect that there will be follow-up, that there will be lessons learned. But, importantly for the sector as a whole, it’s important to understand how this can be certainly avoided in future.

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Australia news live: Optus network outage ‘root cause’ unclear as services slowly return; NAB lifts variable home loan rate after RBA hike

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Victoria’s Northern Health phone lines affected by Optus outage

Northern Health in Melbourne said all phone lines into its campuses are affected by the current Optus outage.

This includes phone lines into Northern hospital Epping, Broadmeadows hospital, Bundoora Centre, Craigieburn Centre, Kilmore district hospital, and [the] Victorian Virtual Emergency Department (VVED).

We apologise for any inconvenience.

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The Reserve Bank’s 13th interest rate rise is tightening the squeeze. But a pre-Christmas shock looks unlikely | Peter Hannam

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RBA governor Michele Bullock’s debut rate rise as governor looks unlikely to be repeated next month

Had the Reserve Bank left its cash rate unchanged on Tuesday, a few pundits would have declared “Without a Fight” had won twice within about half an hour.

Instead, a 13th interest rate rise by the Reserve Bank will certainly tighten the squeeze for the half of the mortgagors already nearing the financial stress zone.

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Australia news live: RBA tipped to hike interest rates today; last day of PM’s China visit; Melbourne Cup 2023

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A record level of stressed households are projected as economists tip Melbourne Cup Day interest rate rise. Follow the day’s news live

The government services minister, Bill Shorten, was also asked about the Reserve Bank’s upcoming decision on interest rates later today.

He acknowledged the Reserve Bank is independent of the government but said “I hope it stays static”:

[I] just know a lot of mortgage holders are doing it tough, but the bank will make its decision independently.

For the Albanese government, we know that inflation is a cost of living issue. We have put in a whole heap of measures from childcare to parental leave and energy support. People are doing it tough at the moment, I think it’s hard out there.

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Scrap stage-three tax cuts to fight inflation rather than cut infrastructure funding, Queensland says

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Deputy premier Steven Miles says it’s ‘too late’ to cancel projects and any effect on demand is likely to be years away

The Queensland deputy premier has demanded that federal Labor explain why it is cutting infrastructure spending to fight inflation rather than revisiting controversial tax cuts for high income earners.

Steven Miles has upped the pressure on the Albanese government over looming infrastructure cuts in an opinion piece in the Courier-Mail, arguing it is “too late” to cut projects to fight inflation and urging it to reconsider stage-three tax cuts instead.

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Australia news live: treasurer denies he is interfering with RBA decisions ahead of tipped interest rate rise

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RBA has left cash rate on hold for four months while warning it might need to keep pushing up interest rates if still-high inflation does not fall. Follow the day’s news updates live

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the prime minister’s official visit to China is not without challenges but is critical to a “prosperous relationship” between the two countries.

It’s the first official visit by a prime minister into China since 2016 and I think it recognises that this - a stable relationship - is in the interests of both countries. Now, we are clear-eyed about the complexities and the challenges of managing this relationship. But we give ourselves the best chance of prospering together if we engage with one another.

And we’ve already seen some of the fruits of that effort - something like 95% of the trade restrictions by dollar value have been lifted. That’s good for our businesses, our exporters, and our workers. And that’s why it’s so important that this engagement has been happening for some time and why it’s so important that this official visit is taking place this week.

I think this is a sort of rapprochement based on realism. As [Katharine Murphy] was saying earlier, from China’s point of view, they haven’t changed their long-term strategic or economic goals. And neither have we changed our strategic allegiances. But it suits both sides for lots of reasons to get the trade relationship flowing again, to get the economic relationship flowing again, and to be talking again. And that’s what this visit is going to achieve.

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Albanese arrives in China for landmark visit, says it’s in ‘our national interest’

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Albanese will meet Chinese president Xi Jinping and premier Li Qiang, on the first visit to China by an Australian prime minister since 2016

Anthony Albanese has declared Australia will “cooperate with China where we can, disagree where we must, but ... also engage in our national interest” as the prime minister arrived in the People’s Republic for a landmark three day official visit.

Albanese touched down in Shanghai on Saturday evening. After being received at the airport by senior diplomats from both countries, the prime minister went immediately to a banquet hosted by China’s premier Li Qiang to open China’s International Import Expo in downtown Shanghai.

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Fires in Queensland tropics – as it happened

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The NSW RFS has confirmed that just after 4am this morning one of its firefighting tanks rolled over 10km south of Jennings in the Tenterfield LGA.

A spokesperson said there were four firefighters on board. They were all taken from the truck, with three being taken to hospital for observation.

They’ve said they’ll be returning to bulk billing, or many of them who are considering a change would stick with bulk billing, for those more than 11 million Australians.

That’s about 60% or more of the throughput of the average general practice. So it’s a huge boost in confidence and funding to a sector that I think is probably in its most powerless status been in the 40 year history of Medicare.

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