What we learned: Tuesday, 8 July
That’s where we’ll leave the blog for this evening. I hope you have a good night. We’ll be back tomorrow morning with more news for you. Until then, here were today’s top stories:
A divided Reserve Bank of Australia held rates at 3.85%, in a surprise decision that denies further mortgage relief for millions of households. The split decision came as a shock to financial markets and a large majority of experts.
Following the decision, the RBA governor, Michele Bullock, told journalists the decision was “about timing” and the board wanted to “make sure we’ve nailed” getting inflation down before further rate cuts.
The Northern Territory police force responded to a coroner’s findings into Kumanjayi Walker’s death, which were released yesterday. Constable Zachary Rolfe also responded, saying he “does not accept many of the findings” about the night he shot and killed Walker, and accused the coroner of going “far beyond her remit”.
A Sydney court heard that Alan Jones’s lawyers have “grave concerns” about the legality of a search of the former broadcaster’s phone before he was charged with 35 historical sexual assault offences.
Aldi Australia announced it will partner with delivery service DoorDash to trial grocery deliveries as the discount chain grapples with a consumer shift towards online shopping. The service will open to Canberra residents this week ahead of a potential expansion across the country, the supermarket chain said.
And a Queensland zoo under investigation after a lioness attack reopened its doors, two days after the owner’s sister-in-law lost her arm. The woman, in her 50s, remained in hospital in a stable condition after the attack, which took place on Sunday morning at Darling Downs zoo.
Updated
Lawyer for officer who killed Walker says coroner went ‘far beyond her remit’
Constable Zachary Rolfe “does not accept many of the findings” made by a coroner into the night he shot and killed Kumanjayi Walker and has accused her of going “far beyond her remit”.
On Monday, the coroner, Elisabeth Armitage, found Rolfe was racist and while she could not say with certainty, she also could not exclude the possibility that his attitudes had contributed to the fatal shooting.
A statement, distributed on behalf of Rolfe by his lawyer, Luke Officer, on Tuesday, said he was entitled to the presumption of innocence after a not guilty verdict returned by a jury in 2022 on charges of murder and manslaughter relating to Walker’s death:
In these circumstances he does not accept any findings that are inconsistent with his rightful acquittal.
He does not accept there was any dishonesty at all associated with these events. Insofar as some may hold a view to the contrary, this was never about race.
The statement also suggested there was a “real risk that a coronial inquest will become a roving royal commission which is not the true purpose of a coronial inquest” and said:
The true purpose of a coronial inquest is to establish the cause and circumstance of death, and in this case the coroner went far beyond her remit.
Updated
