What we learned, Tuesday 5 May
Thanks for joining us today. Here’s a reminder of the day’s top stories:
The Reserve Bank has increased its official interest rate to 4.35%, as prices rise at their fastest pace since 2023.
The Reserve Bank of Australian governor, Michele Bullock, says “Australians are poorer” because of the energy crisis linked to the Middle East conflict.
The federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says the RBA’s decision to raise the cash rate will “make it tougher” for Australians already paying a “hefty price” for the war in the Middle East.
The antisemitism royal commission has continued, with the inquiry hearing from a witness about children “saying heil Hitler and putting up their arm in a salute”.
Victoria has recorded a surplus for the first time since the pandemic but the state’s financial recovery remains uncertain with debt forecast to near $200bn in coming years amid global uncertainty.
NSW police have confirmed the deaths of three people including two Marine Rescue volunteers, as the search operation after a boating incident in waters off Ballina overnight is suspended.
Four Australians are stuck on a luxury cruise ship stranded off the coast of Cape Verde after a suspected outbreak of a rare respiratory virus killed three people, left three others seriously ill and forced nearly 150 people from across the world to isolate onboard.
The search for a missing Australian hiker in the Canadian wilderness has been suspended with no further search activity planned after authorities spent six days scouring the region from air and ground to no avail.
Days out from Farrer byelection, Pauline Hanson has suggested she may step down from the Senate and run for the House of Representatives at the next election.
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Northern Great Barrier Reef had a summer of coral bleaching and cyclone damage, says agency
The Great Barrier Reef’s northern area between Cairns and Cooktown suffered a region-wide coral bleaching event this summer as well as impacts from two tropical cyclones.
In a “summer snapshot“ report released this afternoon by the Great Barrier Reef Management Authority, the agency said 28 of 79 reefs surveyed in the northern region had recorded “prevalent bleaching” that was “likely a cumulative effect of heat stress and freshwater impacts from flood plumes, particularly on inshore and mid-shelf reefs”.
Physical damage from Severe Tropical Cyclone Narelle, which crossed Queensland’s far north coast in March as a category four system, had been observed as far south as Cairns more than 400km to the south.
Cyclone Narelle and Cyclone Koji, a weak category one system that crossed north of Bowen in January, had also sent flood plumes into the reefs lagoons. Fresh water and nutrients can both be damaging for coral reefs.
The agency said it was still assessing the impacts from the summer.
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Electric truck fleet to deliver appliances across Sydney and Melbourne
A fleet of 30 electric trucks will be delivering appliances across Sydney and Melbourne after a $3.5m government grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena).
Fleet electrification company Zenobē announced a deal with appliance business Winnings to supply the trucks and the charging infrastructure using the Arena money.
Winnings, which said it was aiming to “move from port to door with zero emissions”, will deploy 10 4.5-tonne trucks in Sydney and 20 8.5-tonne trucks in Melbourne. Arena chief executive Darren Miller said:
What sets this project apart is the focus on real world operations – heavy payloads, managed from active depots, running on real delivery routes in New South Wales and Victoria. That’s where electric trucks need to prove themselves if they’re going to scale.
Zenobē is delivering the trucks under a model known as Electric Vehicle as a Service, where vehicle financing and maintenance are provided as a package.
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Ecaj co-CEO tells antisemitism inquiry pro-Palestine protests after 7 October were ‘shocking’
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (Ecaj) co-chief executive Peter Wertheim spoke to the antisemitism royal commission today about the impact of the Holocaust on his family.
He said there was only “low-level” antisemitism when he was young and that it used to just come from the far right. Now, though, it also comes from the far left and from Islamist movements, he said, and added that after 7 October, reports of antisemitism more than tripled.
The pro-Palestine protests in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel were “shocking”, he said.
He said Jewish people felt an “emotional reaction, the triggering of historical and family memories” when they heard antisemitic chants and when there were attacks such as those in the “summer of terror”.
Antisemitic incidents led people in the Jewish community to wonder whether it was “still safe” to live in Australia, he said.
Wertheim said creatives in a WhatsApp group chat that was publicly released had been feeling pressure to “publicly recant their Jewish identity” and so sought comfort in the group. He said people in the group, even if they were passive members, had been “doxed”, and sent hate messages and threats.
He said there was “a lot of sympathy for Palestinians as a people” in the Jewish community. He said:
I don’t want anyone to think that we’re impervious to human suffering wherever it occurs.
But let’s just take a step backwards and understand that this was an attack that had been initiated by Hamas, which happens to be the most powerful organisation still in the Palestinian community.
They are a very powerful element of Palestinian society, if not the most powerful element.
Wertheim also said the “wrong call” was made by police in allowing a neo-Nazi gathering outside NSW parliament to go ahead.
Accusations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is an attempt to “re-stigmatise Jews collectively”, he said, adding that Ecaj had received threats, hate mail and a “torrent of abuse” on social media and that even their lawyers needed security during a court case involving a Muslim cleric.
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Jefferson Lewis excused from first court appearance after being charged with murder of Kumanjayi Little Baby
The man accused of murdering five-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby near a town camp on the outskirts of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory last week has been excused from his first court appearance.
Jefferson Lewis, 47, was expected to appear in the Alice Springs Local Court via video link on Tuesday morning, charged with murder and two other charges that cannot be published for legal reasons.
Instead, he was excused from appearing at the request of his lawyer, Mitchell Donaldson from Legal Aid NT.
Donaldson did not apply for bail for his client.
Lewis was arrested on Thursday night last week, after a five-day manhunt following the alleged murder of Warlpiri girl Kumanjayi Little Baby, whose body was found 5km from the Old Timers town camp where she was taken.
Kumanjayi Little Baby, the name used after her death at her family’s request in line with cultural protocols, went missing on Saturday 25 April from a bed at the town camp, 5km south of Alice Springs.
After her disappearance, hundreds of volunteers searched for five days through kilometres of buffel grass near the town camp, before her body was found just before noon on Thursday.
Lewis was charged over the weekend with her murder.
The case will return to court on 30 July.
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Labor frontbencher rejects accusations government spending was inflationary
Federal Labor frontbencher Julian Hill has rejected accusations the government the country’s inflationary pressures are homegrown:
Speaking to the ABC, Hill said:
Multiple statements that the Reserve Banks put out make no mention of government spending, but the treasurer has been clear. The government’s been clear that inflation was too high before the war started.
Hill says Australia’s economy is not immune from energy shocks caused by the conflict in the Middle East.
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Deputy opposition leader says Labor’s spending partly responsible for inflation
Jane Hume, deputy leader of the federal opposition, say the federal government’s spending is one reason inflation is “too high”.
Speaking to the ABC, Hume said Australia was a more “vulnerable economy” because of decisions the government had made:
Unless you can get inflation under control, you are leaving our economy and every single citizen exposed to shocks from overseas and that’s what’s happening right now.
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RBA warns government spending must be targeted ahead of budget
A week out from the federal budget, the RBA governor has warned the government to be “careful” its spending doesn’t add to inflation.
Michele Bullock has repeatedly avoided commenting on government spending in recent years. But when asked today, she told reporters the private sector and the public sector would both need to cut their spending to avoiding locking in higher prices set by businesses.
During her press conference, Bullock suggested that extended to cost-of-living relief:
The extent to which government make up the shortfalls for households by giving them more money, it makes it harder to dampen demand …
Fiscal policy has many more things that it can do but it has to be careful, I guess, in the sense that it needs to be targeting where it’s most needed … You can’t just go out there and add to demand.
Bullock said there was a role for governments specifically to cut back on spending.
When governments are spending a lot of money and we’re running up against capacity constraints, then they do need to think about whether or not there’s ways they can help the inflation problem by looking for ways to constrain demand.
However, Bullock was quick to say the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, was on the same page, adding she was not calling for fiscal settings to take the lead on fighting inflation and state government spending also played a role.
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‘Jews get abused and that’s just the way it is,’ witness tells antisemitism inquiry
Kovi Paneth told the royal commission he was worried about the “normalisation” of antisemitism after he was abused on a train and nobody intervened:
In Australia, Jews get abused and that’s just the way it is. And that’s the part that was very, very upsetting to me, in that it’s just … normalised in society and quite acceptable.
He said his daughter was asked if she was a “dirty effing Jew” while in a bar. She tried to record the man, then his friend grabbed the phone and said “ignore him, he’s drunk, I’m sure not all Jews are dirty effing dogs”.
He said he wouldn’t let his wife or children walk alone at night now:
Since October 7, antisemitism has gotten real … it’s gotten violent.
AAO’s relative was killed in 7 October attacks on Israel, and since then she hasn’t worn anything that publicly identifies her as a Jew.
She told the inquiry she had been at the Australian Open at Rod Laver Arena, when a woman they didn’t know said to them that “the job that they did in Bondi wasn’t good enough, and that Jews are the worst, and they kill babies”. “It was very deep-seated, the hatred,” she said.
The woman would not have known she was Jewish, she said. She gave a statement to the police, who removed the woman from the tennis.
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Vic Alhadeff tells royal commission antisemitism is ‘front and centre in our ecosystem’
Returning to the antisemitisim royal commission, Dr Vic Alhadeff (you can see his impressive achievements here) posed this question to the inquiry: “Is it too late to repair the fracturing of the social fabric in this country?”
He listed a range of ways in which Jewish people have been vilified or made to feel unsafe.
Antisemitism, he said, had morphed from being “at the edges” of society to “front and centre in our ecosystem”.
He said he had met with three high school students who had posted on Twitter that it was time to “burn the Jews” and to “gas the Jews”, and had “posted a photograph of themselves with their arms in the form … of a swastika”.
He took along a photo of his grandparents, who were murdered in the Holocaust, in order to educate them.
He also confronted a priest who told a school congregation that Jews were “a jealous people”, referred a driver whose number plate had Nazi connotations to the police, and experienced road rage from a man who called him an “effing South African Jew”.
He also told the commission about going to the Sydney Writers’ festival last year and hearing an audience member asking about the “elephant in the room … the Jewish tentacles”, with no one rebutting that trope.
He also talked about his work campaigning for tougher anti-hate laws, and his disappointment in the “silence” and indifference from an interfaith group on the Bondi attack. One member, he said, held him responsible for Israel’s actions in Gaza:
This issue goes to one of the issues which is information a lot of the antisemitism which has been rocking this country … for the last two and a half years, holding Jewish Australians accountable for what is taking place on the other side of the world.
Jewish Australians feared there would be “another Bondi”, he said.
The royal commission was an opportunity to push antisemitism “back to the margin” and repair “social cohesion”, he said.
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RBA governor says ‘we still have no idea’ when Middle East war will be over
Asked by Guardian Australia’s Patrick Commins about the chance the RBA’s prediction is too optimistic, Michele Bullock said:
It may well be, certainly. When I stood here at March, I think the war was maybe a week or two old and everyone was thinking it’ll be over in a couple of weeks. It isn’t. We’re still here. We still have no idea.
The bank was alert to the chance of a bigger rise in unemployment and would “wait and see” as it considered another interest rate rise, Bullock said.
She said:
We don’t know one reason for deciding to increase interest rates, to give ourselves space now to sit and see what happens, whether the baseline turns out or it’s an adverse scenario. That was part of the thinking, I think, in terms of increase now and then give yourself space.
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Bullock stressed that low-income Australians are the ones most affected by inflation:
She said:
The people who are most impacted by inflation are the most vulnerable. The people on the lowest incomes, they’re the ones who they don’t have savings, they don’t have earnings from interest or anything like that … they’re just getting hit by inflation.
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Price rises due to global fuel price shock ‘completely out of our control’: Bullock
Bullock says prices will rise regardless of what the central bank does with interest rates.
She says Australia’s economy has been irreparably hit by the global fuel price shock, caused by the US-Israel war on Iran. She added:
These interest rate rises are not going to do anything for inflation in the next six months. That’s done and dusted. We know that prices are coming through.
Bullock said the rate rises aimed to prevent further secondary price rises and offer households and businesses certainty that inflation would slow. But she went on:
It’s not something we can offer in the next 12 months. This is a shock completely out of our control.
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Bullock says Australians are ‘poorer’ after RBA rate hike
Speaking about the impact of the Middle East conflict, Bullock says:
Australians are poorer because of this shock to oil prices and energy prices and all the other commodity prices that are being impacted. So we are poorer, and there is no way out of that. The trade-off is much worse.
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RBA governor warns more interest rate rises could come
Bullock says more interest rate rises may be needed after today’s, which was the third rise this year.
She says rate hikes to date won’t be able to stop fuel prices from driving up inflation. They’re instead aimed at cutting spending to stop broader prices from rising after the oil price spike ends.
Bullock says:
In many firms that are facing cost pressures, they’re looking to increase prices of their goods and services. If left unchecked, higher costs get embedded into price and wage setting decisions. These second round effects could lead to even higher and persistent inflation, and if so, would require even more tightening in monetary policy to get inflation under control.
However, she suggested there may not be a rush to raise rates again and the RBA had time to see how the economy handles the oil shock:
The board now judges the level of the cash rate to be a bit restrictive, which will help to address the risk that inflation will be higher and more persistent once the current prices shock passes through the economy. This gives the board space to see how the conflict plays out and the response of Australian households and businesses to the shock.
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RBA governor: ‘We must get on top of inflation now’
Michele Bullock, the governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, is speaking about today’s rate hike.
Speaking to reporters in Sydney, Bullock acknowledges Australian households are facing “difficult times” but stresses the need to reduce inflation:
Inflation in Australia was already too high before the recent conflict in the Middle East began … We must get on top of inflation now so it doesn’t get away from us.
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Antisemitism inquiry hears about social media abuse towards Jewish school students
Returning to the antisemitism royal commission, school principal Jeremy Stowe-Lindner told the inquiry that social media abuse towards students at his Melbourne Jewish school has become so bad they have had to set up a system to block slurs.
He said before 7 October there would be an antisemitic incident once every few months at Bialik College, but since then, there had been an “avalanche of experiences”.
Those experiences include antisemitic graffiti and stickers, and about 50 potentially reportable incidents such as people driving by shouting abuse, and a student being spat on. He said:
We can’t go into the CBD in Melbourne any more in school uniforms … We have had Hitler salutes and Jewish slurs.
He personally has been called a Nazi and a fascist and has had to upgrade his home security. The school has had to increase its security, paid for by parents through a security levy, and security staff now regularly scan the area around the school for antisemitic graffiti and stickers, he said.
He wanted the commission to recommend some sort of systemic funding for Jewish security, because currently it is “a tax on Jewish identity … a tax on Jewish people to keep themselves safe”.
His other suggestions include the professions adopting a controversial definition of antisemitism, and to ban the slogans “from the river to the sea” and “globalise the intifada”.
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Shadow treasurer says RBA decision shows its lack of confidence in Labor
The federal shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, says today’s rate hike shows the Reserve Bank of Australia is not confident the federal government can reduce inflation:
Australian households are paying the price because of Jim Chalmers’ active inflation agenda.
While speaking to reporters earlier, Chalmers stressed that the RBA’s statement did not point to public spending as a factor in the rate hike.
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Australians are ‘hostage’ to US decisions on Middle East conflict, Chalmers says
Asked if the US president, Donald Trump, is to blame for the rate rise, Chalmers says Australians are “hostage” to decisions made about the Middle East war:
I think that’s self-evident from an economic point of view.
The Australian economy is getting absolutely pummelled by this war in the Middle East, and Australians are paying the price for that. And we’re seeing that again today with this interest rate decision.
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Upcoming budget will help fight inflation, treasurer says
Chalmers says next week’s federal budget will help fight inflation:
We intend to play a helpful role, not a harmful role, in the fight against inflation.
We take these inflationary pressures really seriously. We know that … Australians are under substantial pressure.
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Jim Chalmers speaking in Canberra after RBA rate rise decision
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is speaking in Canberra after the Reserve Bank delivered a third straight interest rate hike.
Chalmers says the Middle East conflict has added to Australia’s inflationary pressures:
Australians are paying more, particularly for fuel … those price pressures are expected to be felt more broadly across our economy as well.
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Australians paying ‘a hefty price’ for Middle East conflict, Chalmers says after RBA rate rise
The federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said the RBA’s decision to raise the cash rate would “make it tougher” for Australians already paying a “hefty price” for the war in the Middle East.
In a statement, Chalmers said:
Today the independent Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Board increased the cash rate by 25 basis points. Australians are already paying a hefty price for the war in the Middle East and this decision will make it tougher. It will add to the pressure that families and businesses are under at a time of ongoing global instability.
The RBA’s Statement is clear that conflict in the Middle East is already adding to inflation. While this decision was widely expected and widely anticipated, that doesn’t make it any easier.
The treasurer is due to front a press conference in Canberra at 3pm.
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Just one RBA board member voted to leave interest rates on hold
One of the RBA’s board members voted to keep interest rates on hold today but the other eight overruled them to vote for a rate rise.
At its last meeting, five board members voted for an increase, defeating the other four who voted to wait and see how the war would impact inflation. The month before, the entire board voted for an increase.
Three of the board’s eight meetings since July, when votes first began to be published, have been split decisions.
The board is made up of the RBA governor, Michele Bullock, her deputy, Andrew Hauser and the Treasury secretary Jenny Wilkinson, plus six others: Marnie Baker, Renee Fry-McKibbin, Ian Harper, Carolyn Hewson, Iain Ross and Bruce Preston.
Bullock probably won’t tell us who the holdout was when she takes questions at 3:30pm. But she will tell us more about why the rest of the board overruled them to deliver a third consecutive hike.
Stay with us for updates.
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I’ll hand you over to my colleague Adeshola Ore now, who will take you through the rest of the afternoon’s news. Thanks for your company today so far.
RBA says inflation will stay high after Iran war ends
The Reserve Bank board has warned inflation will probably stay high even if the Iran war ends soon, as businesses are starting to lift their prices.
In a statement on its decision to hike the cash rate to 4.35%, the RBA board said conflict in the Middle East was not only adding to inflation through fuel and commodity prices – businesses broadly were now expected to begin jacking up prices:
There are early signs that many firms experiencing cost pressures are looking to increase prices of their goods and services. …
Higher fuel prices are adding to inflation and there are indications that this is likely to have second-round effects on prices for goods and services more broadly.
The RBA had already raised interest rates twice this year, marginally restricting the flow of finance, but the board said credit was still “readily available to both households and businesses”:
In light of these considerations, the Board assessed that inflation is likely to remain above target for some time.
It said the risks were tilted towards even higher inflation, especially if the US war on Iran is not resolved “soon”. A longer or more severe conflict could force up energy prices, leaving inflation higher for longer and slowing growth.
Updated
RBA raises interest rates for third time in 2026
The Reserve Bank has increased its official interest rate to 4.35%, as prices rise at their fastest pace since 2023.
The RBA’s board today hiked rates for a third consecutive meeting in 2026 after increases in February and March. Rates are now back where they were at the start of 2025, with each of that year’s three rate cuts now unwound.
Today’s hike was widely expected, picked by most economists surveyed by Bloomberg. But financial markets had not fully priced in an increase, with some thinking the RBA might wait and see what the federal government does with its budget next week.
We’ll bring you more detail on the decision in a moment.
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A reminder that we’re expecting the Reserve Bank of Australia to announce their decision on interest rates at 2.30pm AEST – that’s half an hour from now. We’ll bring you that as soon as it happens, so stick around.
Hiker who died after midnight bushwalk may have been affected by dehydration and delirium, inquest told
A high-vis jacket, a white blouse and a torch are poignant clues about the final hours of a woman who died after getting lost on a midnight bushwalk, AAP reports.
An inquest is examining the efficacy of the search and the circumstances of the death of Esther Wallace, whose body was found in the Mount Canobolas state conservation area on the outskirts of Orange, NSW, on 11 December 2022 after a large-scale, 12-day search.
The 47-year-old had set out on a walk on the steep Federal Falls track with her boyfriend in the early hours of 30 November 30, wearing only a blouse, tights and sandals in below-zero temperatures.
The couple went to the track to look at the twinkling city lights after a day spent with friends. They walked for about an hour before they took a wrong turn into thick and rocky scrub, and a panicked Wallace refused to move, the inquest has been told.
After the pair argued about the best way out, the man left Wallace with his high-vis jacket and walked to safety at sunrise to call for help.
During an intense operation involving police, State Emergency Services and PolAir, the jacket was found on the fifth day of the search and Wallace’s blouse was found four days later. Her black headband and a torch were also discovered.
Emergency and retrieval physician Dr Ben Butson told the inquest the items showed Wallace was likely suffering delirium as a result of hypothermia and dehydration.
Dr Butson told the inquest in Orange on Tuesday:
Esther cast aside ... items that may have been useful for her comfort and survival…
Patients can sometimes cast away things that might be important to them or lose the ability to maintain a rational course of action.
The inquest is looking at whether authorities’ classification of Wallace as a lost hiker affected the search, when she had a history of mental ill health, drug-induced psychosis and had recently used cannabis.
The boyfriend was not implicated in Ms Wallace’s death and continually helped police, the coroner has been told.
The inquest continues.
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Ambulance officer tells royal commission of years of antisemitic abuse
At the antisemitism royal commission, Joshua Gomperts has described years of antisemitic attacks, from being egged multiple times as a teenager on his way home from synagogue to incidents at work.
He told the antisemitism royal commission that, while he was at work as an ambulance officer, a firefighter pulled a large hunting knife on him and said “I would skin you the way my family skinned yours in the camps”.
Another time, a patient had “done a heil Hitler” and said he wouldn’t let Gomperts touch him because he was a Jew.
He also described his distress about the Adass synagogue arson attack and how he once tried to move an exam that was scheduled for Yom Kippur, was told he couldn’t move it for religious reasons, but eventually sat it on a different date after threatening legal action.
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More mortgage holders struggling to repay their loans, Westpac reports
More from Westpac: the bank has reported that home loan applications are slowing and rising numbers of mortgage holders are struggling to repay their debts following multiple interest rate rises.
The share of customers behind on their mortgage has picked up very slightly from September to March, the bank reported today. The loss rate on mortgages had picked up to 0.9 basis points, and to 1.8 basis points annualised for investor loans.
Westpac’s chief executive, Anthony Miller, said more people were applying for personal loans and for hardship consideration to ease repayments. The increases were similar to those seen after interest rate rises in previous years, he said:
That’s exactly what the Reserve Bank was looking for, which is to see things slow and moderate and bring, if you will, activity to a point where we get inflation back into that target band.
The bank’s chief financial officer, Nathan Goonan, said he expected unemployment to pick up and leave a growing number of people unable to repay their loans, with first home buyers hit harder.
Goonana said applications for new home loans had also slowed severely:
Our growth in applications in April relative to the second quarter was down quite a bit. The last time it was down or comparably down like that was in 2023, where we had the last rate tightening cycle.
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Westpac CEO won’t rule out recession
Westpac’s chief executive has said Australia’s economy is facing a “more pronounced slowdown” and warned there is no certainty the country will avoid recession.
Anthony Miller, speaking after the release of the bank’s results, said Australia would likely see unemployment rise this year. The bank predicts surging inflation will force an interest rate rise today and potentially another two this year.
Miller said:
At the moment we don’t forecast a recession, but people who talk with absolute certainty today in this environment I think are misinformed because it’s an unusual environment in which we’re in … The uncertainty is the bigger issue here because the thing that I’m more worried about, I think we are more worried about, is that businesses and investment decisions are put on hold.
The bank today reported businesses had increased their use of overdraft facilities and a growing share of hotels, cafes and restaurants had increasingly fallen behind on loans since September, though other industries were less strained.
Its chief financial officer, Nathan Goonan, said big businesses had borrowed much more than expected early this year and were still seeking new loans, but small business borrowing was barely growing.
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Hanson considering a run in the lower house
Days out from Farrer byelection, Pauline Hanson has suggested she may step down from the Senate and run for the House of Representatives at the next election.
Hanson told Adelaide radio station FIVEAA on Tuesday morning that she had discussed the possibility in depth with James Ashby on Monday, and that she was surprised her chief of staff mentioned it on Sky News that day.
Ashby told the broadcaster:
Pauline Hanson might step down from the Senate too and run for the seat that she lives in. So don’t count your chickens.
Hanson told FIVEAA:
Yes, it is on the cards and I have to consider that … It’s about getting representation for the people of this country and carrying forward what I want it to do.
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Takaichi and Albanese exchange music memorabilia and fruit
Japan’s prime minister Sanae Takaichi and Anthony Albanese have exchanged rock music records and local fruit at a dinner during Takaichi’s visit to Australia this week.
In a post on X late on Monday night, Takaichi wrote that she was invited to dinner with Albanese, and that:
On this occasion, I gifted Anthony, who loves music, a Japanese-made record rack along with records of BABYMETAL and MAN WITH A MISSION, and in return, Anthony gave me a signed drumhead and record from AC/DC, the iconic Australian rock band.
Additionally, to let him taste our world-renowned Japanese ingredients, I presented him with Japanese melons (Shizuoka prefecture’s “Crown Melon”), whose import to Australia was lifted in January this year, and Anthony kindly gave me Australian grapes in return.
Our conversation extended beyond the political and economic situations of both countries to include music and food culture, making it a wonderful opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of each other and strengthen our trust.
Together with Anthony, we will forge a new 50 years for Japan-Australia relations.
No word on which Babymetal, Man with a Mission or AC/DC albums were handed over.
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Bargo construction site death under investigation
A 28-year-old woman died in an incident at a work site in Sydney’s south west on Thursday afternoon.
Emergency services were called to a construction site on Railside Avenue, Bargo, following reports that a pedestrian had been struck by a car, according to NSW police.
Local police and paramedics responded, but the woman died before she was airlifted to the hospital in critical condition. Police were notified on Sunday afternoon that the woman had passed away.
A crime scene was established and an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash began.
The 55-year-old male driver was uninjured and taken to the hospital for mandatory testing.
Work Safe NSW is investigating.
Ballina rescue base to close after three deaths during marine rescue
The commissioner of Marine Rescue NSW, Todd Andrews, has said the rescue base at Ballina will be closed for three days, after two volunteers from the community were among three people who died after a yacht got caught in dangerous conditions last night.
Speaking to media just now, Andrews assured the community the area would still be covered by rescue crews:
Ballina is still being covered right now. This base will be closed for three days, but we have neighbouring units that can respond to vessel rescues.
Andrews continued:
Conditions can vary significantly but, before any marine rescue response, a risk assessment is always done prior …
Pretty much with any marine rescue job we do, there’s risk involved. Our volunteers do understand that risk, which is why I believe these two people are heroes.
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Flu vaccinations urged ahead of expected peak in cases after record worst season in 2025
Infectious diseases experts are urging Australians to get vaccinated ahead of an expected peak in flu cases with the onset of colder weather.
Last year was Australia’s worst flu season on record, with the highest number of laboratory-confirmed cases (502,931) and deaths (1,744) since comprehensive national surveillance began in 2001.
Dr Masha Somi, acting deputy director general of the Australian Centre for Disease Control. said from 2020 to mid-2025, Covid-19 was the leading cause of death due to respiratory illness. But from August 2025 to January, deaths involving influenza overtook Covid.
The emergence of the “super-K” strain of influenza A resulted in unseasonably elevated rates over the Australian summer. The southern hemisphere flu vaccine for this season has been updated to provide better protection against the highly transmissible strain.
Prof Patrick Reading, director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza at the Doherty Institute, said:
Currently levels are really low, but we’re expecting to see an increase quite soon as we move into winter … Influenza vaccines are the best way to reduce the likelihood of hospitalisation.
For children under 18, a needle-free live-attenuated flu vaccine, administered as a nasal spray, has recently been rolled out across Australia.
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Jewish people blamed for actions of Israeli government, royal commission told
Tali Pinsky moved to Australia last year from Israel for work in a university. She told the antisemitism royal commission that Australians are generally “very welcoming” but there’s also criticisms of Jewish people because of Israel’s actions in the war.
Her university colleagues said in the wake of the Bondi attack that while it was terrible, it was “understandable” that there was hatred of Israel and that the attack was a “direct result” of that. She said:
We felt that the victims, because of them being Jewish, are not considered to be truly Australians in a sense. And so they weren’t ... mourned as Australians.
She said on campuses there is an “almost singular focus” on the human rights of Palestinians, unlike with other humanitarian issues in other countries:
Jewish and Israeli people are personally targeted and blamed for the actions of the Israeli government in a way that citizens of other countries involved in conflicts are not.
She also said she has reported many posts to Facebook for hate speech but that she got a “standard reply” that they wouldn’t remove the posts because they didn’t violate community standards. The same thing happened with other platforms, she said. The family now plans to move back to Israel at the end of the year because they don’t see Australia as welcoming and safe.
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PM says campaign to save fuel has been ‘listened to’ by public
Albanese claimed the recent media campaign run by the government to encourage Australians to save fuel has “been listened to” by the public:
Our campaign of ‘every little bit helps’ has been listened to by Australians and Australians are doing what they can to save fuel at this time, whether it be catching public transport, working from home, if that works for businesses as well as for the employee, car sharing – all of these measures do make a difference and you would recall… people rocking up to service stations, filling up jerry-cans in an irresponsible way and having a whole lot of petrol in their garage or on their properties in a way that, frankly, wasn’t safe either. This was reminiscent of what occurred with toilet paper during Covid, except petrol’s a lot more dangerous and so I’m very pleased that overwhelmingly those have got through.
The press conference ended shortly after that.
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Albanese promises ‘responsible budget’
Albanese is speaking at a Medicare urgent care clinic, which he says is “a massive saving compared with [people] being in the emergency department of a hospital or not getting the care that they need”.
Asked about whether the budget will address the rising cost of living, Albanese said:
What I can guarantee is that certainly, we’re very conscious about putting that downward pressure. We’ve already had $114bn of savings in our budgets. There will be more savings in the budget, that is announced next week.
This will be a responsible budget. We inherited a fiscal position which showed budget deficits every year and what we did was we turned that into two budget surpluses and then lower deficits. I can confirm we’re doing hard work looking at savings in the budget as we always do …
We understand that people are under financial pressure and that the global conflict – this war across the other side of the world in which Australia’s not a participant – is having an impact around the world, including here in Australia.
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Albanese says budget will be ‘full of Labor values’
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, claims the federal budget this month will be “full of Labor values”.
Speaking to media just now, Albanese said it will be in line with the “two themes that characterise my government”, which he says are “no one left behind and no one held back”.
He said:
On budget night, people will see that this is a budget that I will be really proud of, full of Labor values, full of a commitment to strengthen opportunity in Australia and consistent with the values that we have.
No one left behind – we want people to get access to things such as healthcare and education … No one held back. We want an Australia in which people can aspire to a better life for themselves and for the generations to come and that, of course, is one of the key motivations of why I went into politics, to make this country as strong as it could possibly be, and my government’s determined to do that.
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Antisemitism royal commission hears children forced to only tell close friends they are Jewish
A woman identified as AAP has told the antisemitism royal commission that her children told her they didn’t want to be Jewish after being exposed to antisemitism, that they only told close friends they were Jewish, and that they didn’t want to go to a Jewish community event because “they might be shot”.
She said on social media and in the schoolyard they were subjected to shocking abuse, conspiracy theories and more. “Ordinary kids” in the schoolyard of the Catholic school they go to use phrases such as “you dirty Jew”, she said:
It’s been really hard for them. We’re not fully in that community, but my kids know right from wrong. To hear it from mates or contacts at school, they can’t understand it. They can’t understand why people don’t like Jews.
Kids had joked about dressing up as Hitler, SS guards or the Bondi shooters, she said.
AAP felt that her friends had distanced themselves from her since the 7 October attack on Israel. “It has become quite an isolating place to be,” she said.
Media and social media had demonised Jews, she said, and Australians didn’t know what to do about it.
And it seems to me that we’re heading towards major trouble if people don’t want to speak up or can’t speak up.
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'They came to kill us,' royal commission hears
Dina, a Jewish woman from Sydney, has told the antisemitism royal commission about how everyday life has changed for her and her three children. She says she fears them being targeted for being Jewish and that her children have internalised a new reality:
They hear antisemitism around them all the time … they see the stickers … they see the graffiti, they know about Bondi. It’s become part of their psyche.
She says she has listened to kids saying they would be too scared to go to a Hanukah party now and that, when her family went to Bondi, her eight-year-old child started crying and said “now when I come to Bondi, I think about dying”.
She says:
The reality is, they came to kill us. We just weren’t there. And it’s living with that truth that makes it very hard to feel safe as a Jew in Australia.
The Australian Jewish community is living a very different reality to what I think the rest of the Australian community is living.
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McNulty confirmed that one deceased person had been recovered from the yacht that was in distress, a male in his mid-50s who has not been formally identified yet. McNulty said the man was not wearing a lifejacket at the time his body was recovered.
There were no distress calls from the yacht itself, McNutly said:
We received no distress call, no EPIRB, no flares. It was the good Samaritan on the breakwall, he raised the alarm and contacted Marine Rescue directly.
Marine Rescue had been “working within their operational parameters to respond to a vessel in distress immediately”, McNulty said.
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NSW police give condolences to Marine Rescue crew
McNulty continues:
Six people went to save the life of another yachtsman at sea. Unfortunately, their actions punching through those bar conditions, that vessel capsized. As a result of that capsize, some of the Marine Rescue crew were trapped in the hull, some were ejected from the vessel and unfortunately two lives have been lost. Both residents, both male members of the crew, a 78-year-old and a 62-year-old from Marine Rescue.
I really want to focus on the condolences and our sympathies that go towards this Marine Rescue crew. These crew are volunteers from New South Wales, volunteers from the local community, and they’re out there saving the lives and responding to vessels in distress day in, day out.
It is a tragedy.
McNulty says an investigation will be conducted by NSW police into the incident.
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NSW police detail Ballina yacht tragedy
Emergency services have been giving a press conference on the yacht tragedy in Ballina last night. Supt Joe McNulty of the NSW police marine area command has been describing what happened:
What I can tell you now, last night 5.40pm, a good Samaritan was on the south break wall. He saw a vessel in distress and it appeared to be in distress because it was in close proximity to the breakwall and it didn’t appear to be anyone on board at the time. And it was about to go up on to the breakwall.
He contacted marine rescue at Ballina and marine rescue promptly responded to the distress of a vessel at sea. We launched what we call Ballina 30, a fit for purpose marine rescue craft. That vessel had six persons on board, six male crew members that made up that marine rescue crew to respond to that incident occurring off the Ballina break wall.
That vessel left Ballina breakwall into a very severe conditions, it was punching into a 2.5m swell coming from the east coast, and it heightened the wave height, creating a wave that was difficult to navigate and manoeuvre and difficult to enter from a river system at a low tide in the ocean area. It was extremely treacherous conditions at the time those marine rescue personnel went to sea. It was a very challenging rescue.
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Antisemitism royal commission told of ‘children saying heil Hitler’
Witness Natalie Levy has told the antisemitism royal commission of her shock and horror at the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, and of events in Australia since.
Levy says her mother and father moved to Australia from England and Ukraine respectively to escape antisemitism.
They met at Bondi beach.
She says she only really became aware of antisemitism in her 20s, and particularly when she joined the community security group that works to secure Jewish events and synagogues.
Now, she says, her teenage children see it all the time; her son through the increased security at his school, and her daughter in her school surrounds. Levy says:
She sees swastikas etched all around the school, children saying heil Hitler and putting up their arm in a salute. She sees things that no 15-year-old should see.
Levy says antisemitism has now been normalised in Australia. She told the commission of appalling and offensive abuse she has suffered online.
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Woman charged after police investigation into torture and neglect of child
A woman has been charged after a police investigation into allegations of torture and neglect of a child at Logan Reserve, on the outskirts of Brisbane.
On 9 February, a 10-year-old girl was admitted to the Queensland Children’s hospital suffering dehydration, critical malnutrition and significant untreated injuries, Queensland police said in a statement.
Police were notified and commenced an investigation, declaring a crime scene at the child’s Logan Reserve home.
A 40-year-old Logan Reserve woman has now been charged with three counts of fail to supply necessaries and one count of torture, and is scheduled to appear at the Beenleigh magistrates court today.
The child remains in intensive care in a stable condition, police said.
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NSW premier pays tribute to marine rescue volunteers in Ballina tragedy
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has paid tribute to marine rescue volunteers who responded to a stricken yacht in Ballina in northern NSW last night, including two who lost their lives.
Speaking at a press conference this morning, the premier said:
I know the Ballina community will be devastated by this news. I know the Marine Rescue fraternity who actually know each other from up and down the coast, because they’re often in contact with each other via CB radio, will be devastated by the loss of lives, and I want to pay tribute to their heroism, their sense of courage, their public mindedness and let them know that the people of NSW are in their corner today.
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Search for missing Australian hiker in Canadian wilderness suspended
The search for a missing Australian hiker in the Canadian wilderness has been suspended with no further search activity planned after authorities spent six days scouring the region from air and ground to no avail.
Denise Ann Williams, 62, was last heard from on 15 April, when she indicated she was travelling to Chéticamp, a town on the west coast of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Her rental vehicle, a Nissan Sentra, was found at the Parks Canada visitor centre near the Acadian Trail head.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Inverness Country said they received a call at about 9.30am, local time, on 28 April reporting a missing person believed to be hiking in Cape Breton Highlands national park.
Search efforts began on 28 April, with RCMP and Department of Natural Resources air services, police dog services, multiple ground search and rescue teams, and many other agencies assisting.
On Monday 4 May, local time, however, authorities announced they had suspended the search, and said: “No further search activity is planned at this time.”
Williams remains missing, and anyone who may have encountered her in or around the national park is asked to contact Inverness County District RCMP.
Williams was described as “5-foot-4 with greyish blonde, shoulder length hair”. She is believed to have been wearing a dark winter jacket, a powder blue beanie (toque) with “Antarctica” written on it, an orange and blue scarf, and glasses.
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Further tax relief for workers on the cards in next week’s budget: reports
There is growing speculation next week’s federal budget will include additional tax relief for Australian workers, despite Jim Chalmers downplaying the prospect on Monday.
The Australian is reporting this morning that the government plans to give workers a tax cut of between $200 and $300 in the form of an “earned income offset”, which would apply only to tax-paying Australians earning income from Labor, rather than from capital such as shares or property.
These unconfirmed reports also come amid growing chatter that the government could introduce a minimum tax rate of 30% on discretionary trusts, a popular tax minimisation vehicle that allows income splitting among the trusts beneficiaries, including children.
Chalmers on Monday did not engage with questions about further tax relief in the budget, pointing instead to existing policies: the 1 percentage point reduction in the lowest marginal income in each of the next two financial years, and the recently announced $1,000 instant tax deduction.
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Two Marine Rescue volunteers confirmed dead as Ballina search suspended
NSW police have confirmed the deaths of three people including two Marine Rescue volunteers, as the search operation after a boating incident in waters off Ballina overnight is suspended.
After emergency services responded to reports that a yacht was in difficulty off the South Ballina break wall about 6.15pm last night, the body of a man, who is yet to be formally identified but is believed to be aged in his 50s, was found on the sand nearby, police said.
A Marine Rescue NSW vessel with six crew members also responded, however their vessel capsized while crossing the Ballina bar in heavy conditions, police said.
The body of one crew member, aged 78, was recovered by the Westpac Lifesaver Helicopter while a second, aged 62, was located on the sand.
Four further crew members – aged 55, 75 and two aged 61 – made it to shore and were treated by NSW Ambulance paramedics for various injuries before being taken to hospital for further treatment.
It was unknown how many people were on the yacht at the time, which has since sunk.
Police said the search had suspended overnight due to weather conditions, however recommenced this morning but has since been suspended as police inquiries suggested there had been no other people on board the yacht at the time.
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Stafford byelection early voting begins
Early voting for the Stafford byelection in Queensland begins today, and the Greens have caused a minor stir by issuing “how to vote” cards that do not recommend directing preferences to Labor.
The Greens’ how-to-vote recommends voters number every box but make up their own minds about preferences.
At the 2024 election – and historically – the Greens advised voters to direct preferences to Labor. In Stafford in 2024, 80% of Greens preferences went to Labor.
While it remains unclear what impact the decision might have on the result, it has already created concern within Labor. Guardian Australia understands Labor party figures attempted to convince the Greens to change their minds last week.
Stafford is expected to be a tight contest between Labor and the LNP, and a litmus test for the Crisafulli government’s ability to break into Brisbane’s progressive inner ring of suburbs.
Stafford is a Labor heartland seat and a loss for Labor – or even a close result – would heap pressure on opposition leader Steven Miles.
It had also been a seat that Greens strategists had previously thought was winnable within a decade. At the 2022 federal election, for instance, the Greens outpolled Labor at booths within Stafford, and the electorate has a large percentage of renters, particularly at the northern end.
But the Greens’ ambitions in Queensland have taken a hit since then – failing to win most of its target seats at the 2024 election, and left with just one MP in the state parliament.
One Nation is not running in Stafford.
The Greens’ candidate, Jess Lane, said:
I’m asking people to vote 1 Greens and number every square, because that’s the best way to get to work replacing the political establishment and winning real change.
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Ballina mayor mourns deaths of three people in yacht accident
The Ballina mayor, Sharon Cadwallader, has told media that the deaths of three people last night in a yacht accident has been “a tragedy of epic proportions for us”.
As we reported earlier, it is understood that two marine rescue volunteers were among those who died after going to the aid of a yacht at the Ballina bar in northern NSW on Monday night.
Cadwallader told ABC News that volunteers “are at the heart of our community, in everything we do”.
She continued:
The Ballina bar is a difficult bar at the best of times … It’s treacherous. It’s challenging. It’s unforgiving. And it’s a timely reminder of just how treacherous that bar is. And how it needs to be treated with the utmost respect.
And our volunteers are putting their lives at risk, Marine Rescue volunteers are constantly out there on that bar. We just need to acknowledge that – that they do that every day of the week, out there rescuing people in our waterways.
A fundraising page had been set up in the aftermath of the deaths but Cadwallader questioned why the rescuers had to supply their own equipment:
I could never understand why the volunteers had to raise money for their vessel to rescue people. They’ve had morning breakfasts out at the Marine Rescue tower. They’ve written a book and proceeds from the sale have gone to provide this vessel to keep people safe.
I just cannot fathom why they just didn’t get the boat given to them – why they’ve had to raise money to save lives.
So, maybe this is a quiet reminder, too, how important our volunteers are. Their courage, their bravery. They put their lives on the line all the time. They fundraise. They’re not just rescuers – they fundraise to provide services to our community. So they’re really at the heart of our community, our volunteers and keeping our community – and our visitors – safe.
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Investment property loan growth surges at Westpac
Investors now account for almost two in five new home loans, according to Westpac’s half-year financial results released this morning, as prospective owner-occupiers struggle to get a foothold.
The data comes a week before the federal budget, when investor tax breaks are expected to be scaled back.
Westpac, which recorded a six-month net profit of $3.4bn, recorded strong growth in its mortgage portfolio over the period. It was valued at $536.2bn at the end of March, up from $510.2bn a year ago.
Investment property loans have been trending up and now account for 39% of new loans, up from 36% a year earlier.
Meanwhile, owner-occupiers are taking out just over 60% of new loans, down from almost 64% a year ago.
The bank data complements Reserve Bank figures which show that owner-occupier loan growth has slowed under the weight of growing mortgage costs while investor lending continues its record surge.
Westpac figures do show some growth in first home buyer lending, which have been supported by government initiatives including its low deposit scheme.
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Worst diphtheria outbreak in Australia for more than 35 years, chief medical officer says
Australia is in the midst of its worst diphtheria outbreak in more than 35 years, Australia’s chief medical officer has said, with 164 reported cases of the respiratory illness this year.
Diphtheria is an infectious disease that affects the respiratory tract. It’s caused by a bacteria that releases a toxin into the body. The toxin affects airways and can cause a membrane to grow across the windpipe, which makes breathing difficult and can lead to suffocation and death. It’s spread mainly through coughing and sneezing.
Prof Michael Kidd told ABC RN this morning that while occasional cases are not unusual (diphtheria is rare in Australia but can be contracted overseas and brought back) case numbers like this haven’t been seen in Australia since the data surveillance started 35 years ago, and possibly earlier.
The cases include 103 across the Northern Territory, 55 in Western Australia, particularly in the Kimberley, four cases in the far north of South Australia and, earlier in the year, a couple of cases in Queensland, Kidd said. The cases were mainly occurring in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
He continued:
Importantly, 46 of those cases so far have been respiratory diphtheria, which is very concerning. So we’re still seeking to fully understand what’s been driving this current outbreak … The strain that is circulating appears to have recently emerged and so we’re looking really closely at what’s happening there.
We do know that most cases are mild and this is due to most infected people having had immunisation to protect them from diphtheria. Vaccination offers very strong protection against the severe effects of the toxin but it doesn’t always prevent people being able to be infected and transmit to other people. So the people who we’re most worried about are people who are unvaccinated or people who haven’t had a booster in the last 10 years or so.
Kidd said health authorities in the NT and WA had been working with the leaders of those affected communities, community-controlled Aboriginal medical services and other health services:
[The] community themselves are very active in educating their members, in detecting cases, assisting people to get treated if they are infected, and also supporting getting wide-scale immunisation happening for those who haven’t been vaccinated or for those who haven’t had a booster in recent years.
Updated
Two marine rescue volunteers who went to help others are among those who have died in a tragic yacht accident on Monday night.
As we reported below, three people died as volunteers went to the aid of a yacht at the Ballina bar in northern New South Wales.
Emergency services were contacted about 6.15pm when a yacht was reported to be in trouble off the South Ballina breakwall.
“A crew from Marine Rescue NSW responded, however their vessel rolled while crossing the Ballina bar in heavy conditions,” police said.
Read more here:
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Victorian government commits to rewriting Sentencing Act
Victoria’s sentencing laws will be rewritten to be more in line with community expectations and to protect good Samaritans, the state government has announced.
Before the state budget, which will be handed down on Tuesday afternoon, the attorney general, Sonya Kilkenny, has announced $3m in funding will go to the Sentencing Advisory Council to conduct an independent review into the Sentencing Act.
The council will be asked to consider current sentencing issues affecting Victorians, including outcomes for offences against people who are trying to intervene to stop violence – known as “good Samaritan” laws.
Experts and the public will be able to provide feedback throughout the review. Based on its recommendations, the government commits to rewriting the act, which it said hasn’t had a comprehensive review since 1991.
Kilkenny said:
Sentencing absolutely needs to reflect community expectations – but the act hasn’t been reviewed with that aim in mind since 1991. It’s no wonder many Victorians think sentencing doesn’t reflect our modern challenges. We’ll rewrite the act following the advice from experts, police and the public because, under Labor, community safety comes first.
This work is in addition to the government announcement last week of a Victorian Law Reform Commission review into the state’s emergency worker harm laws after an attack on a paramedic in uniform.
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Homelessness Australia says death of newborn baby in Wagga a ‘devastating tragedy’
Homelessness Australia, an advocacy body for people experiencing homelessness, has called for change after a newborn baby was found dead in a tent in a homeless encampment in Wagga yesterday.
You can read more on the background to this story here:
Homelessness Australia’s chief executive, Kate Colvin, said the organisation “expressed deep sorrow” after the death and extended its condolences to the child’s mother and family.
Colvin said:
This is a devastating tragedy and our thoughts are with the mother of this baby and everyone affected.
The uncomfortable truth is that tragedies like this don’t come out of nowhere. They are the result of a housing system that has broken to the point that there is no safe housing or adequate support available, even for a mother with a newborn baby.
It is completely unacceptable a family that has welcomed a new baby cannot immediately access a home, but rentals are unaffordable and social housing is unavailable. Even where families are in touch with homelessness services, people in desperate need miss out every day because there is not enough social housing or homelessness support.Without change, we will keep seeing tragedies like this, each one heartbreaking, avoidable and a reminder people are being failed long before crisis hits.
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Thanks so much to Martin Farrer for kicking us off this morning. I’m Stephanie Convery and I’ll be bringing you all the live news until mid-afternoon today.
Mortgage holders are set to be hundreds of dollars worse off per month than they were at the start of the year as the Reserve Bank prepares to unload a third consecutive interest rate hike on borrowers, Australian Associated Press reports.
Financial markets were pricing in the chance the Reserve Bank would lift the cash rate by 25 basis points today at more than two-thirds, after headline inflation surged to 4.6% in March.
Rising fuel prices caused by the US-Israeli war with Iran have amplified the central bank’s inflation headache.
Price growth was already well above target before the conflict broke out and sent global energy markets into chaos.
Economists at the Commonwealth Bank, NAB, ANZ, Westpac, AMP, Deutsche Bank, Challenger, JP Morgan, HSBC and Citi all predict Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock to announce a hike.
That would bring the cash rate back to the peak of 4.35% before the Reserve Bank’s short-lived cutting cycle in 2025.
For an average borrower with a $600,000 mortgage, the three consecutive hikes since February will cumulatively add more than $270 a month in interest repayments.
Read our analysis here:
Victoria’s treasurer, Jaclyn Symes, will today hand down a state budget which will deliver an operating surplus and which will forecast another next financial year.
It will show the state recorded a $700m surplus in 2025-26, largely in line with December’s pre-budget update of $710m and an improvement on the $611m forecast last May.
Read the full story here:
Three die in northern NSW boat tragedy
Three people have died in a boating tragedy off the coast of northern NSW last night.
According to police, a yacht got into trouble off the South Ballina breakwall about 6.15pm.
A crew from Marine Rescue went to their aid but their own vessel rolled while crossing the Ballina bar in heavy conditions.
As of 10pm last night, three people were confirmed to have died and another four managed to make it to shore. It was unclear how many people were on the yacht.
The four who made it to shore were treated by paramedics and none had life-threatening injuries. The yacht has now sunk.
Water police attended the scene and Marine Area Command were coordinating a search and rescue operation.
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Malarndirri McCarthy calls for ‘peace’ after Kumanjayi Little Baby’s death
Australia’s minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, has called for “peace” after Kumanjayi Little Baby’s death, saying there will be time for “conversations later on.”
Northern Territory police over the weekend charged Jefferson Lewis with murder over the death of Kumanjayi Little Baby, 5. The Warlpiri girl went missing on Saturday 25 April from her bed in a town camp near Alice Springs,
Speaking to the ABC’s 7.30 program on Monday night, McCarthy said:
What we need now is to just have some peace, to be able to bury this little girl, and there’ll be times for conversations later on.
The national commissioner for Indigenous children, Sue Hunter, on Monday, wrote in The Australian newspaper that, while grieving should be respected, sorry business “does not silence the questions this loss demands we ask”.
McCarthy said Hunter’s comments were “appropriate” and stressed that the Albanese government established the commissioner’s role due to concern for the care for “our children across the country”.
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Four Australians on cruise ship with suspected hantavirus outbreak
Four Australians are stuck on a luxury cruise ship stranded off the coast of Cape Verde after a suspected outbreak of a rare respiratory virus killed three people, left three others seriously ill and forced nearly 150 people from across the world to isolate onboard.
You can read the full story here:
In a press release overnight, the cruise line Oceanwide Expeditions revealed the nationality of those affected.
The medical situation began on 11 April when a Dutch man died on board. He was disembarked on St Helena on 24 April with his wife, who also later died.
On 27 April, a British man was evacuated to Johannesburg and is critically ill in hospital with a hantavirus infection.
On 2 May, a German passenger died on board the ship.
There are also two crew members, of British and Dutch nationality, still on board with “acute respiratory symptoms”.
The ship is sitting off the coast of Cape Verde, with local authorities not yet permitting those on board to leave.
The 149 people on board are of 23 different nationalities, with passengers predominantly American, British, Spanish and Dutch, with four people from Australia. Of the crew, 38 are from the Philippines.
Here’s an explainer of what hantavirus is:
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Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Stephanie Convery with the main action.
Mortgage holders are set to be hundreds of dollars worse off per month than they were at the start of the year as the Reserve Bank prepares to unload a third consecutive interest rate hike on borrowers. More coming up.
Victoria’s treasurer, Jaclyn Symes, will today hand down a state budget that will deliver an operating surplus and which will forecast another next financial year. We’ll follow the budget news as it lands.
And there are four Australians among the nearly 150 people stranded off the coast of Cape Verde on a luxury cruise ship where a suspected outbreak of a rare virus has killed three people. More on that, too, in a minute.
