What we learned today, Tuesday 9 December
We’ll leave our live coverage of the news there for today. These were Tuesday’s top stories:
Anika Wells has referred her travel expenses to the parliamentary watchdog for investigation.
The Reserve Bank governor said further interest rate cuts were not “on the horizon” after the RBA left its target rate on hold.
The Victorian government delivered an apology to First Nations people, with a motion passing the state lower house.
The name of the firefighter who died battling a blaze on NSW’s mid-north coast has been shared.
Politicians and media heavyweights gathered for Graham Richardson’s funeral.
Telstra’s chief executive revealed the company did not immediately notify the communications minister of a death after a triple-zero connection failure.
Domestic air fares have surged in part due to Qantas’s and Virgin’s market dominance, the consumer watchdog found.
Barnaby Joyce said One Nation’s growing popularity was part of a global rightwing swing.
Penny Wong and Richard Marles discussed Aukus when they met Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth in Washington.
An aurora australis is forecast for tonight, and the BoM has advice on how to watch.
Updated
First home buyers battling for shrinking share of market
First home buyers are typically buying homes priced under $760,000 but the share of homes within that budget has shrunk to just over one in 10, new analysis shows.
The average first home buyer’s purchase has risen in price from about $560,000 to about $760,000 in the five years from 2020 to 2025, according to KPMG analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
The share of homes within that budget is shrinking, though. While the average first-time purchase price could afford 30% of properties in 2020, it covers just 12% in 2025.
The average first home buyer could only afford 5% of homes in New South Wales in 2025 – unchanged from 2020. In South Australia, where average first-time budget could have bought 75% of homes in 2020, it only buys 25% in 2025.
Households would also now need to earn incomes of about $180,000 to service the average first-time loan, compared to $150,000 in 2020.
