Three interest rate hikes this year “are tough for households”, the Reserve Bank governor, Michele Bullock, says, as she warned it could “take some time” for oil to begin flowing freely through the strait of Hormuz again despite the announcement of a ceasefire.
The RBA monetary policy board held rates steady at 4.35% today, as widely expected. But as in the statement accompanying that decision, Bullock warned that the bank could still hike again.
She said:
I want to be very clear that inflation remains too high.
Today’s decision does not rule out further tightening in monetary policy if that is what is required to bring inflation down.
Leaving rates on hold today will allow the board to assess how these previous increases are flowing through the economy.”
She told assembled journalists that “reports that an agreement has been reached to end the conflict in the Middle East are welcome”.
If the conflict does end and the strait of Hormuz is reopened, this should support the flow of commodities and lower prices.
But this could take some time, and an orderly resolution is still not assured, meaning there are still upside risks to inflation and downside risks to growth.”
Queensland government clears way for convicted paedophile Ashley Paul Griffith to be extradited to NSW
Ashley Paul Griffith, often dubbed Australia’s worst paedophile, will be able to be extradited to NSW “soon”.
Last week he lost an appeal against his life sentence for 307 sex offences against 73 Queensland victims between 2003 and 2022.
He is also alleged to have offended in NSW.
The Queensland attorney general, Deb Frecklington, said she had received correspondence from both the NSW and federal attorneys general about extraditing Griffith to face additional charges.
She said:
He will be able to be removed to New South Wales to face those charges.
Frecklington said the extradition could happen “soon”.
The matter goes through the court to be determined, so I need to be careful with that, but to say the federal Attorney General, the NSW Attorney General, and I have actioned what we can do to get him moved, but it is up to the court to make that final signoff.
RBA governor says jobs still top of mind in inflation fight
Michele Bullock, the Reserve Bank governor, says the central bank “has not lost sight of the jobs market” in its battle to bring inflation back to target.
Unemployment unexpectedly jumped to 4.5% in April and the highest since late 2021, but Bullock said she expected it to “drift” up towards 4.7%.
“We are not forecasting recession,” she clarified, reprising earlier comments that the economy would not shrink this quarter.
She added that even though the jobless rate was “higher than we were expecting”, the labour market was “still a little bit tight”.
I want to make sure people understand we still have in mind the labour market.
But Bullock was also clear about the trade-offs the RBA was trying to manage.
If lowering interest rates or easing monetary policy to stimulate the labour market results in inflation, that will just be a bad outcome all round.
RBA governor says economy will slow, not shrink
The RBA does not expect the economy to shrink in the three months to June, Michele Bullock says.
Growth slowed sharply at the start of the year, amid rising interest rates, higher inflation, and the start of the US-Israel war on Iran at the end of February.
Since then, consumer confidence has fallen off a cliff as surging fuel costs bit into household budgets, and there has been desultory talk that a recession may be on the cards.
But the RBA governor, during her press conference, said “we’re not forecasting that the economy is going to shrink in this quarter”.
We are forecasting that growth is going to slow, but growth has to slow. And the key reason for that is that we have excess demand.
And unless demand grows more slowly than the supply side of the economy for a time, we’re not going to get inflation down.
We think it will grow slowly, but that’s what’s needed to try and get inflation down.”
Three interest rate hikes this year “are tough for households”, the Reserve Bank governor, Michele Bullock, says, as she warned it could “take some time” for oil to begin flowing freely through the strait of Hormuz again despite the announcement of a ceasefire.
The RBA monetary policy board held rates steady at 4.35% today, as widely expected. But as in the statement accompanying that decision, Bullock warned that the bank could still hike again.
She said:
I want to be very clear that inflation remains too high.
Today’s decision does not rule out further tightening in monetary policy if that is what is required to bring inflation down.
Leaving rates on hold today will allow the board to assess how these previous increases are flowing through the economy.”
She told assembled journalists that “reports that an agreement has been reached to end the conflict in the Middle East are welcome”.
If the conflict does end and the strait of Hormuz is reopened, this should support the flow of commodities and lower prices.
But this could take some time, and an orderly resolution is still not assured, meaning there are still upside risks to inflation and downside risks to growth.”
Ombudsman finds prisoners unlawfully locked in cells for up to three months in NSW centre
An ombudsman investigation has found that prisoners at a correctional centre on the New South Wales south coast were unlawfully locked in their cells alone for 24 hours a day for up to three months, depriving them of contact visits and daily exercise.
The NSW ombudsman released its investigation into the management and treatment of prisoners in protective custody at South Coast correctional centre in Nowra finding their treatment was “unlawful and oppressive”.
It found that prisoners who were in protective custody for their safety were locked in their cells for 24 hours a day for periods ranging from two weeks to three months.
The investigation, which was launched after complaints were made by four prisoners to the ombudsman in April last year, uncovered that about 30 prisoners had faced this treatment.
It also found that protective custody prisoners at Parklea correctional centre, the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre and Shortland Correctional Centre had been locked in their cells without their daily entitlement to exercise between January and April 2025.
The state is legally required to give prisoners a minimum of 2 hours of access to outdoor exercise daily.
The report said:
Prolonged confinement to a cell, without access to exercise, can lead to significant physical deterioration and psychological harm, and compound the challenges inmates face when reintegrating into society upon release.
The ombudsman, Paul Miller, said the issue was “foreseeable and avoidable” after arose from policy changes. This included a change in 2020 which saw prisoners in protected custody held in isolation rather than held together with other vulnerable prisoners.
The report also found Corrective Services NSW’s conduct during the investigation was “unlawful and wrong” after it failed to provide the requested documentation within the required timeframes.
Miller said:
Had we not received any complaints, it is not clear how long the situation at South Coast Correctional Centre and the other centres would have persisted.
That’s all from me. Cait Kelly is here to guide you through the rest of the arvo. Take care!
Police in NSW and Victoria have arrested two men as investigations continue into Dezi Freeman’s movements following the Porepunkah shooting of two police officers last year.
Victoria police said in a statement:
Police have executed seven warrants this morning at properties across Victoria and New South Wales as part of the ongoing investigation by Taskforce Summit into the movements of Desmond Freeman after he fatally shot two on-duty police in Porepunkah last year.
Warrants were executed by Victoria Police at three rural properties in Buckland, Stanley and Lucyvale from just after 6.20am on Tuesday, 16 June.
At the same time, warrants were executed by NSW Police as part of Strikeforce Namberta, in coordination with Taskforce Summit investigators, at four residential properties in Greenwich Park, Tarlo, Wombeyan Caves and Umina Beach.
Searches of those properties remain underway, and police have seized a range of electronic devices from the addresses.
A 64-year-old Lucyvale man was arrested in Wodonga and will be interviewed by police.
A 47-year-old Wombeyan Caves man was also arrested in Greenwich Park on unrelated outstanding warrants.
There are no further arrests at this time, however police are speaking with a number of occupants at the various premises.
Michele Bullock from the RBA is up at 3:30. We will bring you that when she is on.
The Bureau of Meteorology has officially declared an El Niño – the phenomenon linked to hotter and drier conditions for Australia – is now locked in place in the tropical Pacific Ocean.
In an update, the bureau said El Niño was now “under way in the tropical Pacific” and that the higher than average sea surface temperatures were coinciding with changes in the atmosphere.
The east to west trade winds were weakening and pressure and cloud patterns were also consistent with El Niño, the bureau said.
Forecasts were pointing to a strong or very strong event, the bureau said, adding the strength did not “necessarily mean strong impacts on Australia’s climate”.
El Niño events are linked with extreme weather events around the world and, for Australia, tend to bring warmer and drier conditions in winter and spring to the south and east.
The US and Japan’s meteorological agencies have already declared the El Niño as being in place, but both use slightly different methods and thresholds for making the declaration.
Climate experts have warned the weather extremes linked to El Niño are being supercharged by global heating, with hotter extremes, fiercer droughts and worse flooding.
Chalmers is asked whether, if the government can’t control inflation and the RBA doesn’t cut rates, we will see more voters going to One Nation.
Chalmers:
We understand that the global uncertainty is intensifying and people have got legitimate concerns about where they fit in that story of churn and change.
And governments have got a choice whether to dismiss those legitimate concerns, whether to deny those legitimate concerns or to try and act to address them.
And we’re trying to attract trying to act to address them.
Labor reviewing fuel excise relief on weekly basis, Chalmers says
Asked about the fuel excise, Chalmers says:
Look, we’ve made it really clear that the fuel excise relief won’t go on for ever, but that we will review it week-to-week basis to make sure that we’re providing the support that we can responsibly provide.
We’ve always said that that fuel excise relief will be temporary.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is speaking in Brisbane now after the RBA’s decision. He said the global economy was still in a difficult place.
He said the government welcomes the decision from the RBA to keep rates on hold, the first decision since the latest budget was revealed. He went on:
We’re pleased with developments in the Middle East but we’re realistic about how long it will take for the global economy to normalise and what that means for us.
The end of this war can’t come soon enough. Australians have already paid a really hefty price for this conflict on the other side of the world.
Chalmers said he knows Australians are still under pressure, pointing to a slate of cost-of-living measures.
RBA says inflation still too high as it waits for rate hikes to hit
The Reserve Bank board says its unanimous decision to leave interest rates on hold today should not be taken as a sign it is done raising rates, as economic activity needs to slow even further.
In its statement accompanying the decision to leave the cash rate at 4.35%, the board said it was being proven right in its predictions and higher fuel prices have started pushing up the prices of some goods and services.
The board said it was determined to ensure that those initial price rises don’t convince more businesses and workers to start asking for higher prices and wages. It said:
To achieve this, growth in demand needs to slow to reduce capacity pressures and help bring inflation back to target … There are signs that the economy is slowing as expected. But inflation is still too high and the Board judged that it was appropriate to leave the cash rate target unchanged while it assesses the response to previous interest rate rises and the impact of the oil supply disruption.
While economists widely expected the RBA to hold as the economy slows, the board said it had expected consumer spending to slow and it was unworried by the higher unemployment rate given other measures suggest the job market is “more resilient”.
It also didn’t put much faith in Donald Trump’s latest “deal” with Iran to end his war:
Resolution of the conflict in the Middle East is at an early stage, and there are plausible scenarios where inflation is higher and activity lower than envisaged under the May baseline forecasts.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
