Good afternoon.
The Reserve Bank has hiked rates for the first time in more than two years. The central bank announced the cash rate would lift to 3.85%, from 3.6%, after an unexpected jump in inflation through the second half of 2025.
The quarter of a percentage point increase will raise the interest cost on a $600,000 home loan by $90 a month, bringing the monthly repayment to $3,782, according to Canstar.
The opposition used question time to target Jim Chalmers over the impact of Labor’s spending on the decision, which the treasurer said was “widely expected”.
Top news
Nationals who defied shadow cabinet would sit on backbench for six months under Coalition peace deal
Pauline Hanson failed to declare another flight from billionaire Gina Rinehart’s company
Boy swims four hours through rough seas to save mother and siblings off Western Australia
Bill and Hillary Clinton agree to testify in House Epstein investigation
In pictures
Kim Jong-un participates in a commemorative photo session with soldiers involved in building the Sinuiju combined greenhouse farm in this highlight from Guardian picture editors’ daily selection of the best photos from around the world.
What they said …
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“TMOC was often interpreted as a very masculine, testosterone driven band, which greatly acted as a way of being as a ‘beard’ for me in many ways.”
Josie Scott, the guitarist and vocalist in Australian heavy metal band the Mark of Cain, has come out as a trans woman in a statement to fans on the band’s social media.
Full Story
Mistrust and fear after the Invasion Day bomb scare
A homemade bomb was allegedly thrown into a crowd of more than 2,000 people at an Invasion Day rally in Perth last week. But in the hours and days afterwards many questioned how police, media and political leaders responded to the alleged attack and criticised what they said was selective outrage that dismissed the violence and racism First Nations people face. Our Indigenous affairs correspondent, Sarah Collard, spoke to Nour Haydar on the sadness and fear that lingers.
Before bed read
Four of the 50-odd books authored by Alison Lester are finalists in Guardian Australia’s best children’s picture book poll (cast your vote here). One of Australia’s first children’s laureates takes you inside her idyllic studio to discuss her creative process and the “wild and woolly” place that inspired Magic Beach.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: LOY. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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