This blog is now closedLabor and Coalition welcome RBA interest rate decision as governor plays down chance of more cutsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe prime minister was also asked to weigh in on the ongoing dispute between the NSW government and rail unions – and whether the federal government plans to intervene.But Anthony Albanese shot this suggestion down, saying this was “a state dispute of a state branch of a union over pay with a state government”.I support very much the efforts of the Minns government to bring this dispute to an end, common sense has to apply here, and I think that the union needs to acknowledge that it is alienating people through these actions of not turning up to work. And there was hope on the weekend that it would be settled, [and] it should have been …We’re getting to the point where the union needs to see common sense, settle this dispute with the Minns government. [The NSW premier] Chris Minns is working very hard to get an end to this dispute. Continue reading…This blog is now closedLabor and Coalition welcome RBA interest rate decision as governor plays down chance of more cutsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe prime minister was also asked to weigh in on the ongoing dispute between the NSW government and rail unions – and whether the federal government plans to intervene.But Anthony Albanese shot this suggestion down, saying this was “a state dispute of a state branch of a union over pay with a state government”.I support very much the efforts of the Minns government to bring this dispute to an end, common sense has to apply here, and I think that the union needs to acknowledge that it is alienating people through these actions of not turning up to work. And there was hope on the weekend that it would be settled, [and] it should have been …We’re getting to the point where the union needs to see common sense, settle this dispute with the Minns government. [The NSW premier] Chris Minns is working very hard to get an end to this dispute. Continue reading…
Today’s decision “does not imply” further rate cuts are coming, Bullock says.
She says the board needs “more evidence” inflation is continuing to decline before making decisions about the future path of interest rates.
The board is very alert to upside risks that could derail the deflationary process. I know some other central banks have cut interest rates quite sharply over the past year, but we have taken a different strategy to most.
Our policy rate was not raised as much, as many countries overseas, we judged that while inflation expectations remained anchored, we could take a bit longer to bring it down to the target band, but keep unemployment lower.
Cost of living pressures are still front of mind for many Australians. The board is conscious that households with mortgages had to adjust following interest rate increases since the pandemic. And the impact of high inflation over the past couple of years has permanently increased the price of goods and services. That’s hurt everyone, but particularly those on lower incomes and the more vulnerable. The board will continue to look to the data to see if the economy and inflation continue to evolve as expected.
The prime minister is doing the radio rounds after Tuesday’s interest rate cut.
Speaking on Sydney’s 2GB, Anthony Albanese again danced around the question of whether he would call the federal election rather than hand down the budget as scheduled on March 25.
We are preparing a budget …. There will certainly be a budget this year.
Echoing his treasurers’ comments from earlier this afternoon, Albanese said the RBA had delivered the “rate relief that Australians need and deserve”.
The prime minister accepted households were suffering but insisted Australia had weathered the “global phenomenon” of high inflation better than anyone.
I understand that people are doing it tough. That is why we have acted, that is why we have brought inflation down. That hasn’t happened by accident.
Taylor is specifically asked if he believes we can keep unemployment at the level of 4.25% while holding inflation within the RBA’s target band.
What is your view? Do people have to lose their jobs?
He says the key is to “get demand in balance”.
What we have seen here is if you want to get interest rates and inflation down you need a balance of supply and demand. What is the key to that? Making sure that government isn’t unduly boosting demand.
We’ve seen households doing the work. This point was made in a statement from the RBA today that we have seen very strong public demand but very weak private demand. To translate that into commonsense language, what that means that it is households that have been tightening their belts. Government hasn’t tightened its belt and the result is Australians are paid a high price for that.
‘It is a long way back from here’: Taylor on inflation
The treasurer said the worst of inflation was behind us when addressing the media earlier. Did Taylor not agree with that assessment?
He said there was “no expectation” prices were coming down and core inflation remained above the target range.
We have seen Michele Bullock cautious and hawkish in her comments. It is a long way back from here. Prices are not coming down, they are continuing to rise. The question is at what pace.
Meanwhile, Australia is leading the world on low unemployment. Is that not an important metric?
Taylor says it is a “worthy objective” but “so too is maintaining people’s living standards and increasing their living standards”.
Pointed to the fact your living standards collapse if you don’t have a job, he replies: “Of course”.
‘Living standards have collapsed in an unprecedented way’: Angus Taylor
The shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, who is not dancing around the room with glee despite an interest rate cut today, appeared on ABC Afternoon Briefing earlier to discuss the RBA’s decision.
Asked if today was a “great day” for Australians who had a mortgage, he described it in the terms of “welcome relief”.
The fact of the matter is Australians have been suffering under elevated inflation, high interest rates for an extended period of time now … we’ve seen interest rate cuts elsewhere in the world.
Australia has been at the back of the pack in bringing core inflation down … I should say that also within what the Reserve Bank put out today was an important forecast … it is going to be a long way back. Living standards have collapsed in an unprecedented way in Australia, more than at any other time in our history, and further downgrades in living standards came out in the Reserve Bank’s forecasts.
MP Greenwich calls for clarification of tough new protest laws
Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich has called on the NSW government to confirm protests carried out against places of worship by survivors of clergy abuse will not be caught up in tough new laws.
The proposed laws – aimed at stemming antisemitism – include expanding police powers to block protests that take place near places of worship regardless of what is being protested, and creating an aggravated offence for graffiti on a place of worship.
Speaking during a debate on the draft laws, Greenwich singled out forms of protest undertaken by clergy abuse survivors as needing to be exempt from the graffiti offence. He said:
I’m concerned that the graffiti offence must not capture some forms of protest, such as tone ribbons to the fences of churches, an important public act undertaken by victims of institutionalised child sex abuse, and I ask the attorney general to clarify that such acts of protest would not be captured.
Last week, Donald McLeish – a spokesperson for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (Snap) – expressed similar concerns, but directed those concerns also at the government’s move to give police broad police to restrict protest outside places of worship.
Imagine trying to fight for justice against your abuser and on the other side is the Catholic church. This huge power imbalance needs to be supported by public pressure, and that needs protest.
An essential role of Snap is exposing predators who threaten children and adults at risk and, to expose those who shield predators. This is generally achieved through quiet and peaceful protests including ribbon tying outside places of worship. It looks like this wouldn’t be able to occur under the new NSW laws because it could be seen as intimidation or harassment which certainly is not.
NSW police finalise statement as part of alleged antisemitic video probe
NSW police are finalising a statement with Israeli influencer Max Veifer as part of the force’s investigation into an alleged antisemitic video, shared to his social media accounts.
Police said the statement was being finalised to ensure it “meets Australian legal standards to be admissible in court”:
As the influencer is in Israel and the video believed to be created in Israel, police need to manage the complexities involved in gathering and producing evidence from an overseas jurisdiction to meet Australian legal requirements for the evidence to be admissible in Australian Courts.
Detectives remain focused on resolving the investigation as swiftly as possible.
No charges have been laid over the video.
You can circle back to the Reserve Bank of Australia chief, Michelle Bullock, below. Addressing the media this afternoon, Bullock warned today’s interest rate decision didn’t imply further cuts were on the way.
PM says March budget won’t impact timing of election
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says the federal government is working on a budget but wouldn’t reveal whether it would actually be delivered amid speculation an election could be called imminently.
Speaking with ABC Brisbane on Tuesday afternoon, the prime minister was pressed on whether today’s news of a rate cut would bring forward the 2025 federal election.
Albanese said:
No, this won’t have an impact on the timing of the election. We’ve been really working hard. We’ve been working hard, and we’ve been preparing, we’ve prepared a mid-year economic forecast in December, we’ve been working on the budget, and the ERC – expenditure review committee – met for many, many hours yesterday and again this morning.
Asked again if it will happen next month, Albanese responded: “That’s the plan.”
MP Alex Greenwich welcomes review of hate speech laws
Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich has welcomed the NSW government’s announcement it will undertake a review to determine if hate speech laws should be extended to “protect all vulnerable communities”.
Greenwich said:
The horrific rise in antisemitism across Sydney has resulted in the NSW Government taking strong action to protect Jewish people from hate crimes.
It’s important our laws protect all vulnerable communities. We are sadly seeing an increase in the incitement of hate against other groups. I welcome the government’s announced six-month review into hate laws and will work with the government and stakeholders to ensure we protect all groups under threat, including the LGBTQ community, people with a disability, and religious communities.
NSW to review hate speech laws
The NSW government will undertake a review to consider whether hate speech laws should be extended to other vulnerable groups such as people targeted for their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The state’s attorney general, Michael Daley, announced the 6-month review before introducing to parliament controversial new aimed at stemming antisemitism that would criminalise intentionally inciting hatred on the grounds of race.
The government had come under fire from the Greens and Sydney MP Alex Greenwich for restricting the draft laws to race only and excluding the LGBTQI+ community.
The laws have also drawn fierce backlash from civil liberty groups who have argued the government is attempting to “arrest” its way to social cohesion and is ignoring its own review which recommended against criminalising hate speech.
Daley told parliament that the laws introduced today do not preclude the government from introducing further legislation to protect other groups. He also thanked Greenwich for his “always watchful interactions with the government”.
Daley said:
Our government acknowledges that hate speech based on other attributes… including religion, sexual orientation or gender identity, occurs and condemns it. We will continue to look at how laws in New South Wales can be improved to address hate speech based on other attributes.
We recognise that there are further issues to work through in this space, but our government must respond to the immediate and pressing issue of racially based hate speech that faces our community.
If the hate speech laws introduced today pass, those found to have made racist remarks which incite hatred could spend up to two years in jail or cop a fine of over $10,000.
City of Sydney passes motion to not engage with companies involved in illegal Israeli settlements
The City of Sydney has no business with companies involved in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, counsellors acknowledged in a motion passed last night.
In June last year, the Sydney mayor, Clover Moore, backed a Greens motion for the council to prepare a report on their investment policy regarding “companies involved in, or profiting from, any human rights violations including the illegal occupation of the settlements in Palestinian territories and the supply of weapons”.
The report, delivered last week, reviewed all of the city’s existing financial investments and contractual relationships against a UNHCR register of companies involved in “activities that raise particular human rights violations concerns” and found no contractural relationships with entities on the register.
A motion voted on last night notes this, as well as the city’s “strong policies” that “ensure our investment and procurement practices avoid supporting socially harmful activities, including abuse of human rights”. It also “unequivocally condemns the alarming rise in Antisemitic, Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian attacks”. The motion passed almost unanimously, with nine votes to one.
“Some say that Council has no place to speak on issues beyond our direct control,” Moore said.
But I say it is our job as elected representatives to support and consider and speak out about the concerns of our communities.
Greens councillor Matthew Thompson said:
This is a crucial first step in ensuring our community is not complicit in funding human rights abuses against Palestinians, and we hope it will inspire others to follow.
This brings our practices in line with our values, ensuring we won’t use Council funds to pay corporations who profit from the horrors of the illegal settlements.
Tight labour market the strongest argument against rate cuts: Bullock
Finally, Bullock is asked by Guardian Australia’s Jonathan Barrett what the strongest argument against cutting interest rates was, and how much credence she gave it.
She says it was based on uncertainty around the labour market.
We have a view that the labour market is tight and also that it has tightened recently. One of the stronger arguments, I think, on the side of not doing anything, was caution, let’s wait for more data to see what is exactly happening to the labour market.
Is it feeding through to wages pressure and inflation? … that is probably the strongest argument … we did talk about the fact that it doesn’t seem to align with what we might have expected to happen so we are continuing to challenge ourselves on that and canoeing to engage with others outside the organisation who have different views to us because I think it is worth really checking ourselves on this …
If we can have a tight labour market but it doesn’t feed through to inflation and wages, then it is a positive. That is the $1m question.
RBA decision to cut rate unanimous: Bullock
Today’s decision was a unanimous consensus, Bullock confirms.
Asked if another rate cut by July is unrealistic, she declines to answer.
We want to see more information on inflation and the labour market … We do think we are restrictive but as we said earlier, we didn’t go as high as other countries so we’re probably not as restrictive some other countries have been so we are trying to balance here, that is the narrow path.
I haven’t mentioned that term yet but there you go, the narrow path and I just think as you get further out, the forecast gets so uncertain and I think my point would probably be that the markets probably got more confidence than I do that that path is what is going to deliver us sustainably back to the middle of the band. I don’t have that confidence yet.
You can have a look at the treasurer, Jim Chalmers’ address on the rate cut here:
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