What we learned – Friday 1 May
And with that, we are going to put the blog to bed. Before we go, let’s recap the big headlines:
Australia’s housing market is growing at its slowest rate for almost 18 months as buyers stick to cheaper properties and abandon interest in the top end of the market. While house prices may be slowing but rents are rising at their fastest rate since October 2024, adding to inflation pressure before the Reserve Bank’s next interest rate decision on Tuesday.
Australia has agreed to work together with South Korea to strengthen energy supply chain resilience and to maintain stable, safe and reliable supply of energy resources, including diesel and LNG, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, confirmed.
Malarndirri McCarthy, the minister for Indigenous Australians, spoke on ABC RN after grief and anger ripped through Alice Springs overnight after the arrest of a man in connection with the death of five-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby.
The Coalition urged Labor to implement its post-Bondi attack gun reforms, frontbencher Jonno Duniam said, after the laws were backed by the royal commission established after the shooting.
Six Australians that were detained by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) while attempting to transport aid to Gaza as part of the Global Sumud flotilla are being transported to Crete, Israel’s foreign minister said. Twenty-two ships were intercepted on Wednesday evening off the coast of Greece, containing about 175 activists, including the Australians.
The construction industry association Master Builders Australia said the cost of materials has grown to a two-and-a-half year high. The association released a statement pointing to today’s release of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) Producer Price Indexes data, showing the cost of building materials rose by 2.5 per% over the year to the March 2026 quarter.
Thank you for spending part of your day with us.
Updated
Lidia Thorpe urges people to call out racism after Kumanjayi Little Baby’s death
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe urges people to call out racism and racist comments posted online in the wake of Kumanjayi Little Baby’s “deeply distressing” death.
Thorpe has just been interviewed on ABC Afternoon Briefing, where she said “keyboard warriors” had been posting offensive content relating to the tragedy and that:
The racism online, the videos online, our children are watching that, the racists are becoming more emboldened, and this is not a joking matter.
This is not a time where you become a perpetrator on top of an absolute tragedy.
I think if anyone is seeing that, then we all have a responsibility to call that out, because it is causing harm, not only for that family and that community, it is causing harm to this nation.
Thorpe said there should be an inquiry into the “absolute system failure” that led to Little Baby’s death, including what happened when her accused killer was previously released from prison.
She said:
The systems are failing us, and particularly in the Northern Territory, where I have heard stories this week from women where there are no safe refuges, there are no places to go, the women’s domestic violence service closes at 5pm and women have to go back to the perpetrator after that.
Thorpe called on the government to respond to the national antiracism framework, which she said had “been sitting on [the prime minister’s] shelf for over a year”.
You know, there are really tangible actions we can be doing as a nation to bring people along on a journey and to understand the harmful effects of racism.
Updated
