The RBA has not ruled out further rate rises, saying higher interest rates are necessary to bring inflation back to target.
Speaking in Sydney, the governor, Michele Bullock, said:
Higher interest rates are needed to ensure inflation returns to target.
We raised interest rates three times earlier in the year. A lot of that effect is still to flow through. This is one more.
What we are predicting here is that this will be restrictive enough. Those interest rate increases bring things down.
Bullock said the board would raise interest rates again “if that’s what’s needed to get inflation down”, while acknowledging the impact on households and businesses.
Now, I know this decision is difficult for households with a mortgage and businesses with loans, but high inflation hurts all Australians, especially the most vulnerable.
Every household has seen how the price of everything has gone up in recent years. Pay packets don’t go as far as they used to and that’s why we need to stop this high inflation.
The governor said that, alongside inflation, the “global AI investment boom” had also played a role in driving up costs.
These costs are now beginning to flow through to the prices faced by businesses and consumers. The AI boom is also adding to demand in the Australian economy at a time when we already have capacity pressures.
Australia investigating reports of detained activist
Australian officials are making “urgent” inquiries with Vietnamese authorities to confirm the detention of a democracy campaigner.
Vietnamese Australian Tran Hiep, 50, has not been in contact with his family since 18 September, following a short trip to Cambodia to meet with human rights activists.
A spokesman for the foreign affairs department said it had made “urgent inquiries with Vietnamese authorities to confirm reports that an Australian citizen has been detained”.
We are providing consular assistance to the Australian’s family.
In a statement, the Vietnamese government said it had arrested Hiep and two others entering the country from the Cambodian border.
Greens need to grow, Faruqi and McKim say
Mehreen Faruqi and Nick McKim have issued a statement about their joint ticket for the Greens leadership. They said.
To meet the moment, the Greens need to grow.
We need to take the fight to Labor and a broken economic system that rips off young people, keeps working people drowning in bills and wreaks havoc on nature and climate.
“As the far-right gains strength, we think we are the right people to resist, and to grow our movement alongside our colleagues, members and supporters. Our politics are unapologetically bold and we want to lead with hope over hate and people over profit.
NSW senator and current Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi will run for the party leadership this week, on a joint ticket with Tasmanian senator Nick McKim.
Faruqi is the second declared candidate, after Sarah Hanson-Young said on Tuesday she would contest the leadership.
The race has been sparked by Larissa Waters’ shock resignation on Monday night due to health concerns.
A decision is expected in the next 48 hours, with Greens members set to congregate at a two-day party retreat in Sydney.
Faruqi has been in federal parliament since 2018 and holds portfolios including university education, international aid and animal welfare.
McKim, who would become deputy leader, holds the party’s treasury portfolio.
Bob Brown says Waters can ‘feel very proud’ as she steps down as Greens leader
The Greens party co-founder Bob Brown says Larissa Waters can “feel very proud” of her time as party leader after stepping down due to ill health.
Waters quit the top job after 16 months as she manages a worsening chronic kidney condition. Speaking on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Brown said:
The last couple of months have shown the highest poll ratings for the Greens in history. Up there averaging 13%, 14%, [sometimes] hitting 16%. So … the Larissa team, and Larissa herself, can feel very proud about that as she leaves and hopefully gets very better, very much better from the health problems she’s had.
Brown said he felt “very confident” about whoever the party chose as its next leader.
It’s a team that’s going places.
The Greens party room will make the decision tomorrow. I’ll leave that to them. What I can say is it now has a depth of talent for leadership. There are three or four people in there who would make excellent leaders.
They know each other’s qualities, and the public can be sure they’ll come up with the right answer.
Man arrested after two men found dead at same home two weeks apart
A man has been arrested after two men were found dead at a home in Gurranang, about 25km north of Grafton, two weeks apart.
Police were called to the house on 13 September where they found the body of a 79-year-old man inside.
On 28 September, police went to the same location as part of their investigation, and while there they found the body of another man inside a shed. The second man is believed to be aged 59.
Today, police arrested a 32-year-old man at a hospital in Grafton. He was taken to the Grafton police station and the investigation is ongoing.
The former Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather has called for the party’s membership to get a vote on its next parliamentary leader.
Defeated at last year’s election, the former Griffith MP is now the head of the party thinktank The Green Institute.
In an open letter, he called a members’ vote “a radical idea”. A plebiscite in 2020 saw 62% of Greens members support “one-member, one-vote” for the election of the leader, but the move fell short of a required two-thirds majority.
Chandler-Mather said:
People often ask how to recreate the political success and energy of UK Greens leader, Zack Polanksi or New York Mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
The recipe for their success doesn’t just lie in their policies, rhetoric or even organising strategy. It lies in the process by which they won their elections. In both instances they were elected by direct member elections.
If we want to win real change, then the Greens should aspire to become a genuine mass membership party with well over 500,000 members, where its support and organisation reaches into the working class communities long abandoned by the Labor party.
Direct member election of the leader won’t achieve [our aims] on its own. But I fundamentally believe it is a crucial step towards building the movement we need.
More ‘boots on the ground’ for missing hiker in Peru
Loved ones of an Australian hiker missing in Peru have vowed the traveller will return home safely, as they ramp up a private rescue mission.
Jordan Yap, 30, last made contact with friends and family the day before a planned 10-day solo trek along the challenging Cordillera Huayhuash mountain range, starting on September 14.
The Melbourne man’s best friend, Kevin Nguyen, said:
Jordan, in my opinion, is coming home.
(Jordan) is someone that is incredibly adventurous and takes life by its hands.
More than $74,000 has been donated to an online fundraiser for a private search team of specialised high-altitude mountain guides, alongside rescue efforts by local authorities.
In an update posted online, Yap’s family said they need “more boots on the ground to cover as much territory as possible”.
Markets lift bets on higher interest rates after RBA warning
Markets are expecting interest rates will stay higher for longer after the Reserve Bank board lifted rates and said it was willing to move again.
Money markets were already expecting today’s hike would be followed by another in February and potentially one more later in 2027, with no cuts in the near future.
Those predictions appear to have been bolstered by the RBA’s harsh verdict on Australia’s inflation problem. The Australian dollar is up from 70.11 US cents before the decision to 70.17 US cents.
Bond yields have nudged upwards, and the sharemarket benchmark, the S&P/ASX200, slipped from 8,697 to 8,671 points.
Investment management companies were split on what comes next, with Vanguard predicting rates would stay on hold but VanEck tipping another hike as “highly likely”.
Australia a ‘global outlier’ on rate rises: Liberal MP
Liberal frontbencher Simon Kennedy has criticised the federal government over the Reserve Bank’s rate rise decision today, calling on the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, to redo the federal budget. Kennedy said:
Paul Keating gave us the recession Australia had to have. Jim Chalmers has given us the household recession Australia did not need to have.
We have had four interest rate rises this year.
Jim Chalmers needs to immediately redo his budget, cut government spending, and explain to the 3 million Australian households with mortgages what this will do to inflation and interest rates.
Kennedy says Australia is a “global outlier” with the most interest rate rises this year of any advanced economy.
The RBA has not ruled out further rate rises, saying higher interest rates are necessary to bring inflation back to target.
Speaking in Sydney, the governor, Michele Bullock, said:
Higher interest rates are needed to ensure inflation returns to target.
We raised interest rates three times earlier in the year. A lot of that effect is still to flow through. This is one more.
What we are predicting here is that this will be restrictive enough. Those interest rate increases bring things down.
Bullock said the board would raise interest rates again “if that’s what’s needed to get inflation down”, while acknowledging the impact on households and businesses.
Now, I know this decision is difficult for households with a mortgage and businesses with loans, but high inflation hurts all Australians, especially the most vulnerable.
Every household has seen how the price of everything has gone up in recent years. Pay packets don’t go as far as they used to and that’s why we need to stop this high inflation.
The governor said that, alongside inflation, the “global AI investment boom” had also played a role in driving up costs.
These costs are now beginning to flow through to the prices faced by businesses and consumers. The AI boom is also adding to demand in the Australian economy at a time when we already have capacity pressures.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
