What we learned; Wednesday 12 July
Thank you for spending part of your day with us. Before we go - let’s recap the headlines.
Australia and the European Union failed to conclude talks on a planned free trade agreement.
Jim Chalmers appeared to prioritise the budget surplus above further measures to ease the cost-of-living crisis.
Philip Lowe revealed the Reserve Bank would reduce to eight the number of interest rates meetings each year, and that he would be “honoured” to continue as RBA governor as speculation around his future continues
Anthony Albanese condemned North Korea over its latest “egregious” missile test.
And Megan Davis said the latest Closing the Gap data shows that “more of the same” cannot continue and the Indigenous voice was needed to drive change.
We will be back tomorrow morning to do it all again. Until then - stay safe.
Updated
Cyber security agency says TikTok’s data gathering part of reason for government ban
AAP reports:
Officials from the Australian Signals Directorate on Wednesday told a parliamentary inquiry into foreign interference through social media the app could form a picture of information about those with profiles on the platform.
The government banned TikTok from government devices earlier this year, following the lead of other western nations.
Australian Signals Directorate acting director general, Abigail Bradshaw, said the information that could be gathered by TikTok included data such as phone numbers, contacts, IP addresses and SIM card numbers.
“Together, obviously, in aggregated form that creates quite a unique fingerprint in terms of the device,” she said.
“That analysis of the risks associated with the type of data which can be generated ... informed the architecture of the advisory (for the TikTok ban).”
Officials for TikTok, who appeared before the committee on Tuesday, said security for users was its priority.
Updated
