The day that was, Tuesday 6 September
We will wrap up the live blog for Tuesday.
Here’s what made some of the news today:
The Reserve Bank of Australia raised interest rates for the fifth consecutive month by 0.5 basis points to 2.35%, bringing the cash rate to the highest level since 2015.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has told Labor members “there will be difficult decisions” made in the upcoming October budget, being mindful of the trillion-dollar debt inherited from the former government.
Albanese also announced this sitting fortnight the government will introduce legislation to tackle cost-of-living pressures.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has said a UN report that accuses China of crimes against humanity over the mass incarceration and detention of Muslim Uyghurs made for “harrowing” reading and confirmed concerns held by Austrralia for some time.
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has denied the state’s triple zero service has lacked funding for more than seven years after a review into the system found 33 people died waiting for an ambulance between December 2020 and May 2022.
The government’s signature climate change legislation is one step closer to passing the Senate this week with the Labor government agreeing to some amendments proposed by independent senator David Pocock.
Solomon Islands PM Manasseh Sogavare has rejected an offer from Australia to help fund an upcoming election, calling it “foreign interference” despite Australia having offered support in the past.
Independent MP Kate Chaney has called for abortion laws across the country to be harmonised, noting that women in WA are “subject to some of the most restrictive laws in the country”.
The government has indicated it may axe a controversial $18m Australian Future Leaders grant announced in the dying days of the Morrison government.
Amy will be back tomorrow with all the latest as we get to hump day for this sitting week. Well, technically past hump day given parliament only sits for four days this week.
Until tomorrow.
Updated
Anthony Albanese has given a speech launching Andrew Leigh’s book Fair Game, which compares Australia’s competitiveness in sport and the economy.
Albanese said Leigh used an analogy that Australia’s performance at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, “seen as a national calamity when Australia didn’t perform”, that prompted the founding of the Australian Institute of Sport.
He said:
We need to take that approach to look at where we are now in so many areas. For example ... 70th in the world in women’s economic participation and opportunity. What’s calamity when Australia doesn’t win gold medals in an Olympic games – it’s an absolute calamity when Australia is ranked 70th in the world as a G20 nation for women’s economic participation and opportunity. That’s why we need to do something about it.
Albanese also spoke about the need to enshrine the first nations’ Voice in the constitution.
He concluded with some personal remarks, joking that Leigh had helped make Canberra a “Tory-free zone”.
Updated
