What we learned - Tuesday 24 September
That’s where we’ll wrap the blog up for today, but before we do – a quick recap:
Thousands of NSW nurses union members walked off the job at public hospitals in day-long industrial action.
The federal government committed $23m in funding for an early intervention domestic violence scheme.
Brittany Higgins lowered the asking price for the home in France that she and David Sharaz put on the market to help pay their mounting legal fees.
Tony Armstrong revealed he is leaving ABC News Breakfast for a new show screening in 2025.
Penny Wong announced a push for a new declaration on the protection of humanitarian personnel.
Wong said the number of Australians in Lebanon was ‘beyond capacity of government’ to provide assistance.
Albanese said supermarkets may face ‘more than a slap on the wrist’ over alleged conduct. He said ‘it’s not fair dinkum’.
John Pesutto testified in the Deeming defamation case.
Albanese condemned the Greens on its RBA policy, and the Coalition’s nuclear energy plan, saying both push ‘populist rhetoric’.
Wong condemned the Taliban over its ‘attempted erasure of women from public life’.
RBA left interest rate on hold for seventh meeting in a row.
The RBA governor said inflation was ‘proving to be sticky’.
She also revealed the RBA did not consider a cash rate hike for the first time since March.
A teenage boy was fatally stabbed in a Melbourne food court.
The live news blog will be back tomorrow morning.
Updated
RBA won’t read too much into low inflation figure for August
In odd timing, today’s RBA decision comes a day ahead of the ABS’s release of inflation figures for August.
Economists are expecting inflation to drop to below 3% from 3.5% in July. That’s only the headline number, though, and the RBA wants to see more about what inflation looks like after you strip volatile items – or government rebates for energy and other services.
“Headline inflation is expected to fall further temporarily, as a result of federal and state cost-of-living relief,” the bank said. “However, our current forecasts do not see inflation returning sustainably to target until 2026.”
And yes, the bank continues not to rule anything in or out. Code for keeping the (unlikely) option of another interest rate rise.
Updated
