What we learned today, Tuesday 6 February
And with that, we are going to put the blog to bed. Before we go, let’s recap the big headlines:
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, says the Coalition won’t stand in the way of Labor’s changes to the stage-three tax cuts, all but assuring they will pass parliament this month.
The RBA governor, Michele Bullock, predicts inflation will return to its target range of 2% to 3% in 2025, and has left the interest rate unchanged for a second month in a row. But hasn’t yet ruled out further interest rises for this year.
Government funding to private schools has increased by 15% in a single year and is vastly outpacing funding to public schools, according to the Productivity Commission’s latest report on education services.
Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial was given no evidence that “blooding the rookie” could only mean procuring a murder, the war veteran’s lawyers have argued.
Penny Wong has accused the Greens of ‘weaponising’ the conflict in Gaza after Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi grilled Labor over the its pause in UNRWA funding, saying the decision comes at a time when Labor ‘couldn’t sink any lower on Palestine’.
David Littleproud has stopped short of calling for a complete moratorium on renewable energy projects, instead telling a rally against the federal government’s rollout of wind and solar farms there’s time to “pause” and “plan” as the rollout gets underway.
The New South Wales government will ban offshore gas and mineral exploration to protect the natural environment from damage as part of a bill to be introduced to parliament this week.
Queensland will invest $5.4m to enforce a ban on rent bidding as part of a housing plan announced today.
Updated
A women is in a serious but stable condition after she was attacked by a dog in south-west Sydney.
Emergency services were called to the scene shortly before 1pm today after reports of the attack in Condell Park.
Police Tasered the dog to stop the attack on the 53-year-old after a failed attempt by bystanders to intervene.
The women was treated at the scene at was later taken to Liverpool hospital.
Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.
