Key posts
- RBA poised for historic fourth consecutive rate rise
- Former Liberal minister backs Indigenous Voice
- Australia’s winter wave appears to have peaked: epidemiologists
- Defamation verdict between Clive Palmer, WA premier to be delivered today
- This morning’s headlines at a glance
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RBA poised for historic fourth consecutive rate rise
The Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to break from history and inflict a fourth successive monthly increase in interest rates on the nation’s home buyers despite signs its aggressive tightening of monetary policy may be slowing the jobs market.
As new price data shows a further lift in inflation through July, economists are predicting the RBA board will use today’s monthly meeting to lift the cash rate by another half a percentage point to a six-year high of 1.85 per cent.
The RBA’s interest rate hikes will add hundreds of dollars a month to household mortgages.Credit:iStock
It would be the first time the bank has lifted interest rates at four consecutive meetings since the introduction of the RBA’s 2 to 3 per cent inflation target in 1990.
If the bank goes through with the rate rise, it would take the increase in the repayments on an $800,000 mortgage to $770 a month since May.
Read the full story here.
Former Liberal minister backs Indigenous Voice
Former Liberal minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt has thrown his support behind a constitutionally recognised Voice to parliament and the Labor government’s campaign for a referendum.
Wyatt, who had backed a referendum in his early years as minister, says he was forced to be “pragmatic” about legislating a Voice instead as the Morrison government’s opposition to a referendum hardened over time.
The first Indigenous minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, says he wants to see a Voice enshrined in the constitution.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Asked why he had shifted his position since the May federal election, when he lost his seat of Hasluck in Western Australia, Wyatt said “it’s not a change of position from me at all, you have to be pragmatic as a minister on how to progress legislation when people have diverse views”.
He told this masthead “I want to see an enshrined Voice”, adding “if we don’t give Aboriginal people a Voice, nothing will change”.
More on this issue here.
Australia’s winter wave appears to have peaked: epidemiologists
COVID-19 case numbers are falling around the country after the deadliest month of the pandemic to date, sparking optimism among epidemiologists that Australia might have passed the peak of its winter surge.
Victoria’s seven-day rolling average of new cases peaked last Tuesday at 11,783 and has fallen every day since. Using the same metric, cases in NSW have been falling since Thursday. Nationally, they have been falling since July 24.
COVID-19 cases have been declining nationally for the past week.Credit:Getty
The apparent decline in cases follows a fall in influenza cases, which continue to subside from their May peak, suggesting the worst of both waves may have passed for the Australian winter.
Some 1821 people died of COVID-19 in the last month. That is 16 per cent of the pandemic’s entire death toll and Australia’s deadliest month since the pandemic began.
More on this topic here.
Defamation verdict between Clive Palmer, WA premier to be delivered today
West Australian Premier Mark McGowan and billionaire mining magnate Clive Palmer will today find out who defamed who during a high-profile spat that raged during the thick of the coronavirus pandemic.
Federal Court Justice Michael Lee will hand down his verdict at the Melbourne Federal Court at 1.30pm AEST – two years since the legal action began and three months since both parties made their closing submissions.
The defamation action was brought on by Clive Palmer in 2020.Credit:Jo Gay
Palmer launched the defamation action following a war of words between the two men from April to September 2020, which Palmer said “hurt his feelings” and damaged his reputation.
McGowan counter-sued, saying Palmer defamed him in advertising and media interviews.
The men clashed publicly, often about Palmer’s attempts to enter WA while its COVID hard border was in place, and legislation the McGowan government passed to prevent Palmer bringing a $30 billion damages claim against the state over a stalled iron ore project.
Read the full story here.
This morning’s headlines at a glance
Good morning and thanks for your company.
It’s Tuesday, August 2. I’m Broede Carmody and I’ll be anchoring our live coverage for the first half of the day.
Here’s what you need to know before we get started.
- A former Liberal minister has backed changing the constitution to include an Indigenous Voice to parliament. Former Indigenous Australians minister Ken Wyatt has explained to James Massola and Lisa Visentin why he has changed his position since the May election.
- Liam Mannix writes that epidemiologists are confident that Australia’s coronavirus winter wave has peaked. There is also an apparent decline in influenza cases.
- The Federal Court is due to hand down its verdict in the defamation case between mining magnate Clive Palmer and West Australian Premier Mark McGowan this morning. Hamish Hastie reports that the verdict is due to be handed down at 1.30pm AEST (that’s 11.30am for our WA readers).
- In NSW, members of Dominic Perrottet’s cabinet are refusing to back the state’s embattled trade minister. Stuart Ayres is expected to front breakfast radio later this morning. In the meantime, Lucy Cormack and Alexandra Smith have the latest detail here.
- In Victoria, Annika Smethurst and Paul Sakkal write that Opposition Leader Matthew Guy’s chief of staff asked a wealthy Liberal Party donor to make more than $100,000 in payments to his private marketing business.
- And in business news, Nick Toscano and Mike Foley report that Australia’s three largest east-coast gas exporters have held an emergency meeting to discuss boosting domestic energy supplies. It comes after Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King yesterday threatened unprecedented export controls if industry fails to act. And the Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to announce another interest rate rise at 2.30pm AEST.
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