Lab tests v the real world: how does the fuel consumption of Australian SUVs compare?

The Australian Automotive Association has found some SUVs use up to 13% more fuel on the road than reported in laboratory tests. Is your vehicle underperforming?

A real-world testing program at the Australian Automobile Association (AAA) has shown that some SUVs have much better fuel consumption than others.

The program, which compares the fuel consumption and emissions of vehicles in Australian driving conditions with each vehicle’s laboratory test result, showed some SUVs used up to 13% more fuel on the road than reported in laboratory tests.

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Australia’s inflation rate eased to 4.9% in October, reducing likelihood of another rate rise as weak consumer spending reduces likelihood of another interest rate rise

Consumer price index rose last month at an annual rate of 4.9%, which is lower than economists had forecast

Australia’s inflation rate has eased sharply in October as weak consumer spending made it less likely the Reserve Bank will inflict another interest rate rise on the economy.

The consumer price index rose at an annual clip of 4.9% last month compared with a 5.6% pace in September alone, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. Economists had expected CPI to come in at 5.2%.

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Stephanie Foster appointed new home affairs secretary – as it happened

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The NSW Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) has backed the campaign for a royal commission into immigration detention – including onshore and offshore detention on Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

As mentioned earlier in the blog, the campaign will be launched in Canberra today.

Our mandatory, arbitrary immigration detention regime is unnecessarily cruel and degrading. Instead of offering refuge for those who seek the safety of our shores, we imprison people, strip them of their humanity and allow them to be demonised in our media and by our politicians. It is a system that conditions the Australian public to dehumanise others. This cruelty has persisted for decades.

Increased discussion and debate around gender equality, a tight labour market and impending legislative reform have helped drive action on workplace gender equality over the last year.

We see an increase in the proportion of women in management and at the upper pay quartiles, and we also see the proportion of women being promoted and appointed at manager level is higher than the proportion of women managers overall. As this trend continues, we can expect to see the gender pay gap continue to fall.

The management opportunities for part-time employees are negligible; the number of men taking paid primary carer parental leave has barely shifted; and the number of women in CEO roles and on boards has stagnated.

If we want real change, we need employers to take bold action. We need employers to look across the drivers of gender inequality and be imaginative in their solutions.

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Cozzie livs: light-hearted term for cost-of-living crisis named Macquarie dictionary word of the year

Skimpflation and blue-sky flood were also among the editors’ top picks, while Australians voted for generative AI

Cozzie livs has been crowned the Macquarie dictionary’s word of the year, with honourable mentions awarded to algospeak and blue-sky flood, while Australians awarded the people’s choice award to generative AI, ahead of skimpflation and rizz.

The Macquarie dictionary managing editor, Victoria Morgan, said colloquial terms for serious phenomena were over-represented in this year’s winning words – representing the stresses present on the mind of the Australian public.

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Black Friday: Australian shoppers tipped to spend more than $6bn in four-day sales period

Retailers say online sales on Friday were 10-25% up on last year, with the shopping event becoming bigger than Boxing Day

Retailers say Black Friday has gotten off to a strong start, with Australians tipped to spend a record amount as they seek savings during the cost-of-living crisis.

The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) has predicted shoppers will spend $6.36bn across the four days between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, up 3% from last year, according to their research in partnership with Roy Morgan.

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

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

Follow the day’s news live

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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Renters on jobseeker need at least 78% of income for one-bedroom apartment in capital cities, report finds

Index reveals rental affordability has plunged over year with situation particularly difficult in Sydney

Rental affordability has plunged in the past year with low-income Australians now completely priced out of living alone, a new report has revealed.

The ninth annual National Shelter-SGS Economics and Planning Rental Affordability Index has found affordability has worsened in the past year in every capital city except Hobart and Canberra.

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Record property prices in multiple Australian cities with Sydney up 7.5% in past year

Economists say limited sales volumes and rising populations have more than made up for the dampening effect of higher interest rates

Australia’s property prices have soared to record levels in several capital cities as limited sales volumes and rising populations more than made up for the dampening effect of higher interest rates, two data groups say.

The new figures show significant growth in Brisbane, Adelaide, and in Perth, where five areas have recorded annual gains of more than 15%, while prices in Sydney are 7.51% higher than a year ago.

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Australian rental vacancy rate falls to record low, data shows

Limited supply and strong demand prompts national median weekly advertised rents to rise 14.6% over the year

Tenants are continuing to struggle with rising rents and limited supply, with new data showing the total number of rental listings has fallen to a record low.

PropTrack data shows the number of new rental listings declined 5.7% in the year to September, with the fewest new listings in September for more than a decade. The total number of rental listings fell 7.1% on the year before to hit a record low.

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Petrol prices spiked 7% in September quarter and there’s more pain to come, Australian treasurer suggests

Costs could rise as conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East worsens, Jim Chalmers warns

Australians are feeling the impact of inflation at the petrol pump with the latest data expected to show fuel prices rose by more than 7% in the three months to the end of September.

Treasury estimates the latest consumer price index data for the September quarter, to be released on Wednesday, will reveal the soaring cost of petrol brought on by global factors including the war in Ukraine, supply constraints and the weaker Australian dollar.

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Australia politics live: Albanese accuses Ley of lack of respect for Indigenous voice campaigners in fiery question time

Albanese highlights ‘concerning’ Coalition voice rhetoric as Dutton targets PM over treaty and truth telling. Follow the day’s news live

‘We’re holding a thorough consultation process,’ Jacinta Allan says

Under the proposal, a government minister will appoint commissioners, though the Greens-chaired integrity and oversight committee will have the power to veto candidates.

A new parliamentary ethics committee

Improvements to mechanisms relating to public interest disclosures about MPs

Updates to the MP code of conduct

We’re holding a thorough consultation process to ensure we achieve the highest standards of conduct and integrity of MPs in all aspects of their work for Victorians.

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Childcare fees may need to be capped to curb erosion of subsidies, ACCC says

Watchdog’s latest report says childcare in Australia is ‘relatively less affordable for households than in most other OECD countries’

Caps on childcare fees may be required to prevent providers hiking prices in response to more generous government subsidies, the competition watchdog has warned.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s second report into childcare, released on Sunday, warns that childcare in Australia is “relatively less affordable for households than in most other OECD countries”. The ACCC said there would be “substantial benefit” in the government considering “direct price controls”.

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Australia’s wealthiest 20% worth 90 times the country’s poorest, new report reveals

Superannuation and property investment fuels growing inequality, with the richest fifth worth an average of $3.2m

Australia’s wealth gap has continued to grow over the past two decades, with superannuation and property investment driving inequality across the country, a new report from the Australian Council of Social Service and the University of New South Wales has revealed.

Over the past two decades the average wealth of the top 20% has grown at four times the rate of the lowest, the report has shown using figures from the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data in 2019.

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Australian health, wellbeing and connectedness shrinking in the cost-of-living crisis, research finds

Australian Cohesion Index shows material pressures eroding trust in government and in other people, particularly among young and financially distressed

Demographer James O’Donnell likes to talk about Australia’s Matildas moment – a span of time in the recent past when people from all walks of life rallied behind a common aspiration and shared a sense of national identity.

“That was a really unifying moment,” O’Donnell says. “Then we go straight into this divisive debate around the voice to parliament. How that is playing out in the data is something we are still grappling with.”

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Indigenous and culturally diverse Australians more likely to attend arts events, study finds

Diversity advocates say more funding and leadership opportunities are needed to match the high participation rates

Advocates representing diverse Australian artists have called for more funding after a landmark study found that Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse (Cald) Australians were more likely than other Australians to create, attend and engage with the arts.

Results from the fifth National Arts Participation survey of 9,396 Australians aged 15 and above, conducted in September and October 2022, were released on Wednesday – the first survey to take place since the Covid pandemic decimated the arts industries.

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Labor’s first NSW budget in a decade will provide ‘practical assistance’, treasurer says

A $7bn shortfall has been forecast this financial year, but Daniel Mookhey says any cuts to be made will be in areas that ‘don’t affect people’

The New South Wales, treasurer Daniel Mookhey, says Labor’s first budget for the state in more than a decade will lay the groundwork for future reform, make cuts “in areas that don’t affect people” and provide support for a “once in a generation” cost-of-living crisis.

“We are looking for every available opportunity we can to provide practical assistance to people,” he said.

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‘Disastrous’: low-income tenants priced out of newly renovated boarding houses

Professionals seeking affordable housing are displacing those at risk of homelessness as rents soar

When a boarding house in Sydney’s inner-west was razed by arson last year, taking with it the lives of three residents and leaving eight without homes, the hope was that it would be replaced with a newer, safer version of the same low-cost community housing.

But 12 months is a long time in Sydney’s rampant rental market.

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Australian households on six-figure incomes can now only afford 13% of homes

New report shows housing affordability has reached its lowest levels in decades as market continues to rebound

Rising interest rates and surging home prices have seen Australian housing affordability crash to its lowest levels in decades, according to a new report.

A household earning the median income of $105,000 can now only comfortably afford 13% of homes on the market, the lowest share since the relevant data was first collected in 1995, according to property data company PropTrack.

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