Good morning. The new treasurer, Jim Chalmers, hopes capital spending will ease cost of living pressures, while the new foreign minister, Penny Wong, tries to strengthen ties in Fiji. And Texas law authorities are facing questions about their response to the devastating school shooting.
As Australians grapple with rising prices, the new treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is banking on a surge in capital spending to boost productivity in the economy and ease a “cost of living crisis”. His comments come after news that standard power prices would go up by as much as 20% for some customers – but that’s not the only thing hurting household budgets. “Electricity prices are the pointy end of the cost of living crisis,” Chalmers said. Economic data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics found 38% of businesses planned to lift prices in the next three months, with almost all of them citing rising costs of goods and services, and just over 75% reporting rising energy costs. Meanwhile, the foreign minister, Penny Wong, has used her trip to Fiji to suggest Pacific nations think about the long term consequences of China’s proposed economic and security deal, saying Australia won’t “impose unsustainable financial burdens”.
