Hi there. It's Wednesday, April 27 and you're reading The Loop, a quick wrap-up of today's news.
Let's start here
The cost of living has risen 5.1 per cent over the past year.
The last time inflation was this high was June 2001, when prices rose 6.1 per cent largely from the effect of the recently introduced 10 per cent Goods and Services Tax, and you have to go back to December 1995 to find an equally high reading (5.1 per cent) that was not affected by the GST introduction.
The Federal Treasurer is blaming international volatility for the grim figures released today, and said Australia is "not immune from the international pressures driving up inflation".
"The war in Ukraine has seen a spike in fuel prices, gas prices and commodity prices being felt here at home," Josh Frydenberg told a press conference.
Meanwhile Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government has "absolutely no plans" outside of temporary and one-off measures to combat inflation.
"It's quite extraordinary that this government, after almost a decade in office, is entirely bereft of any ideas beyond a plan to get them through the election," he said.
What else is going on
- Nationals senator Matt Canavan has been told to "pull his head in" by colleague Michelle Landry, and slapped down by the Prime Minister, after attempting to muddy the waters over the Coalition's climate change commitments in the middle of a tight election race:
- A court in Myanmar has sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to five years in jail after finding her guilty in the first of 11 corruption cases against her. The country's former leader has been charged with at least 18 offences, which carry a combined maximum jail term of nearly 190 years if found guilty.
What Australia has been searching for online
- Alec Baldwin. New bodycam footage has been released of the actor being questioned by police after the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie Rust in New Mexico last year.
- Erin Phillips. The three-time AFLW premiership winner has announced she's leaving the Adelaide Crows to play with cross-town rivals Port Adelaide (a team her father Greg captained and won eight SANFL premierships with).
One more thing
A Tasmanian councillor has been found guilty of flashing his penis three times to a Crown prosecutor and her son on a beach in the state's north-west.
Councillor Darren Fairbrother had claimed his shorts had become snagged on a rock and exposed the G-string he says he was wearing, but the magistrate did not agree and said the councillor "wilfully and without reasonable excuse" exposed himself three times.
Cr Fairbrother will be sentenced at a later date, but the prosecution is pushing for his access to the beach to be restricted.
You're up to date
Thanks for reading.
ABC/wires
