Australia news LIVE: Labor cautiously welcomes interest rate cut; Clive Palmer launches new political party named ‘Trumpet of Patriots’​on February 19, 2025 at 1:30 am

A TikToker has found an old photo album of former prime minister Scott Morrison that was accidentally donated to an op-shop in Rockdale, in Sydney’s south.

The post shows someone turning through the pages of the album with text saying: “when you randomly find a photo album at the op shop, look inside and realise it’s Scott Morrison”.

Photos include what appears to be Morrison and wife Jenny on a bridge, swimming in a lake and Morrison lounging back on a deck chair.

In a statement to Guardian Australia, Morrison said he asked “for our privacy as a family to be respected” and for the person to return the album as it was donated as an “innocent mistake”.

More than 150 whales are beached on Tasmania’s remote west coast, a notorious hotspot for strandings.

Conservation experts and veterinarians have arrived at the hard-to-reach location near the Arthur River, the state’s environment department said on Wednesday.

Initial observations suggest 136 of the 157 stranded mammals, which appear to be false killer whales, are alive.

Further assessments are being undertaken and a response plan is being developed.

“Stranding response in this area is complex due to the inaccessibility of the site, ocean conditions and the challenges of getting specialist equipment to the remote area,” the department said.

“If it is determined there is a need for help from the general public, a request will be made through various avenues.”

Australia’s worst-ever stranding, involving 470 pilot whales, occurred in 2020 at Macquarie Harbour, south of the Arthur River on Tasmania’s west coast.

In 2022, around 230 pilot whales got into trouble in shallow water at the heads of Macquarie Harbour.

AAP

Wage growth in the final months of 2024 continues to outpace inflation, but slowed to its lowest rate in nearly three years.

Fresh data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics today showed that wages climbed 0.7 per cent in the December quarter – the lowest quarterly growth since March 2022 – and 3.2 per cent over the year.

It comes after the Reserve Bank yesterday made the first cut to the cash rate in more than four years, but dampened hopes of further rate cuts, citing the unexpectedly strong jobs market and continued vigilance around price pressures.

Wage growth continued to climb faster than inflation which came in at 0.2 per cent in the December quarter and 2.4 per cent over the year.

Private sector wage growth, at 0.7 per cent, was higher than that of the public sector at 0.6 per cent, with annual wage growth in the private sector also outpacing public sector pay rises.

Information media and telecommunications was the sector with the strongest quarterly growth in wages at 1.4 per cent, while accommodation and food services saw the lowest growth at 0.1 per cent.

By state, WA, South Australia and Victoria saw the highest wage growth in the December quarter at 0.7 per cent. Tasmania (0.5 per cent) saw the slowest rate of wage growth.

The data came in broadly in line with the Reserve Bank’s latest forecasts released yesterday.

Billionaire Clive Palmer misspoke and called his party the “Trumpet of Parrots” before correcting himself in the press conference.

Speaking about the name of his new party, The Trumpet of Patriots, Palmer acknowledged he had a bit of a stutter before accidentally saying parrot.

“The idea of an election, of a democracy, is to have a battle of ideas. You don’t have to agree with all of them, but we have to defend that in Australia, that’s a very important thing. That’s the name of the party when we joined it, it’s very appropriate for this election, because it’s the trumpet of patriots,” Palmer said.

“It’s the trum-pet, I stutter a little bit, so I say the trum-pit of patriots, that’s what it is, it’s a clear definition of what you’re voting for,” Palmer said just before he misspoke.

“They want to vote for the Greens, I can’t see that, do they want to vote for the Teals? They shouldn’t, but do they want to vote for the trumpet of parrots … patriots, of course they do, especially the trumpet part. That’s if they believe in Trump’s policies.”

Clive Palmer says he is more than happy to spend his money on candidates to run for his new party, arguing it will “help the people of Australia out of the calamity that we’re in”.

“It’s a good use of my money because at the last election we spent $100 million saying that the COVID vaccine wasn’t safe and effective,” Palmer said.

“That was a good investment, and certainly it’s a good investment to free this country from the waste and corruption that is occupying the public service and the government, from the lobbyists who are in this house every day to see members of parliament. I’ve been here, I’ve met them, I’ve heard what they’ve wanted to say and that’s not the way you should govern a country.”

Palmer concluded that he was more than happy to spend his money “defending the right of free speech”.

New laws passed last week stop Palmer from spending the tens of millions he has spent in the last few elections on often anti-Labor advertising. Those laws do not apply until the next election due in 2028, meaning the coming election due by May will be his last opportunity to spend big.

Keeping with Clive Palmer, the billionaire is launching his Trumpet of Patriots party, listing his policy priorities as recognising that there are only two genders and bringing Kevin Rudd back from Washington.

Speaking in Canberra, Palmer said he would put Australians first and “make Australia great again”.

“Our policy is to recognise that there are two genders, a male and a female. We don’t want men in women’s sports, and we don’t want males dressed as females confusing our children in our schools,” Palmer said.

“All children should be entitled to a normal, safe environment in our schools and public toilets. All children must be entitled to decide who they are and what their sexual orientation is when they’re adults, not have it forced … on them.”

Changing course, Palmer then criticised Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd.

“It’s time to bring Kevin Rudd back from Washington. There’s not too many ambassadors in Washington that insult of the president of the United States; Kevin Rudd ranks alone in that and Australia needs an effective representative in Washington,” he said.

“There’s over 3.7 million Australian households in this country that don’t have enough food, that can’t afford it because of the cost of living that the Labor Party has brought upon them because of the excess spending and waste in our public service. We find Australian children going to bed at nights hungry, ask the chairman of food bank.”

As Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer launches his new political party, Trumpet of Patriots, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dismissed the threat of Palmer’s latest venture.

After failing in his High Court bid to register the United Australia Party for the upcoming election, Palmer was forced to start a new outfit, forming the Trumpet of Patriots in what appears to be a nod to US President Donald Trump.

Albanese quipped that it “wasn’t value for money” to spend “over $100 million to deliver one senate seat to a bloke who sits in the corner and engages in conspiracy theories”, referring to United Australia Party’s sole representative, Victorian Senator Ralph Babet.

“People are entitled to run, but it’s a distortion of democracy when you have an individual spending $100 million on a campaign right around the country,” Albanese said at a Sydney doorstop.

“If you’re a serious political party, then you have to have serious policies. At the moment, there’s only one political party in Australia that has serious policies,” the PM said, before listing Labor’s policy platform.

Competition for mortgages and deposits, and a higher tax bill, squeezed profits at the National Australia Bank in the three months to December 31, sending shares falling more than 7 per cent in early trade.

Cash profit at NAB fell 2 per cent to $1.7 billion compared to the second half of the 2024 financial year, the bank announced in its first-quarter trading update.

The bank’s big four rivals are also lower in early trade as investors digest Tuesday’s rate cut by the RBA, with CBA falling 2.4 per cent, ANZ shedding 2.5 per cent while Westpac has lost 0.7 per cent.

NAB chief executive Andrew Irvine said the bank grew deposit balances by 2 per cent, and home lending by 1 per cent.

“We remain optimistic about the outlook and are well placed to manage our business for the long term and deliver sustainable growth and returns for shareholders,” Irvine said.

The bank said its higher funding costs for deposits and loans dragged its net interest margin – a key measure of profitability – “slightly” lower, but it was partially offset by higher interest rates.

The proportion of the bank’s loan book to non-performing exposures – loans that are unlikely to be repaid by customers – increased 4 basis points to 1.43 per cent.

Saxo Asia Pacific senior trader Junvum Kim said NAB’s declining cash earnings and its “modest” growth of 7 per cent in business lending highlighted the competitive environment.

“Yesterday’s rate cut by the [Reserve Bank of Australia] could signal shifts in NAB’s strategic direction moving forward,” Kim said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese again called for the rail unions to settle their dispute with NSW Premier Chris Minns, as the matter comes before the Fair Work Commission today.

Asked if the federal government would invoke never-before-used powers to cancel the action, Albanese said the NSW government was handling the issue.

“This is a dispute that is there between the rail union and the NSW government. They were very close to an agreement, and some thought there was an agreement reached on the weekend,” he said.

“I call upon the union to recognise that they will not have public support if they are disrupting people going about their business, going to work, engaging in rail activity that they need to get about this vast city. We want this dispute to be settled.”

Earlier this morning, Workplace Minister Murray Watt was asked if he would consider enacting the federal law that allows him as minister to terminate industrial action that is deemed to be causing significant damage to the Australian economy.

“That law does exist and it is an extraordinary one, it has never been used by any minister, either side of politics, the whole time it has been in the acts of parliament,” Watt told Seven’s Sunrise.

“What I have been focused on is trying to convince both sides to resolve this… The matter is now before the Fair Work Commission today and I think that is a good thing, they have an opportunity to help resolve this. We need this to end as quickly as possible, so people can get on with their lives.”

Read more about how the dispute has unfolded so far here.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he has every respect for Usman Khawaja after the cricketer took issue with the political response to the assault of two Muslim women in Melbourne, which received less attention than the viral video of two NSW Health nurses who threatened to kill Israeli patients.

Khawaja wrote on X that the attacks would be “swept under the rug like all attacks against the Islamic community”.

“Prime Minister and definitely not the Opposition leader will mention it. It’s amazing how 1 sided the [world] is,” Khawaja wrote.

Albanese was asked to respond to Khawaja’s statement at a Sydney press conference:

I have every respect for Usman Khawaja. He’s a good cricketer, and a great Australian as well. My view is that any attack on people on the basis of their faith or who they are is reprehensible and I certainly hope that the perpetrators get tracked down and face the full force of the law.

People should be allowed to go about their business in a peaceful and harmonious way. That’s overwhelmingly what occurs.

I take all attacks on the basis of people’s faiths seriously and they should all face the full force of the law. We’ve appointed a special envoy on Islamophobia – that’s an important step forward – and I’m someone who celebrates our diversity and who respects people regardless of their faith.”