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Australia news live: fuel prices rise ahead of interest rate decision; whale carcass prompts shark warnings at Perth beach
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Fuel prices rise ahead of interest rate decision
Jonathan Barrett
Petrol prices increased by more than 10 cents a litre last week to reach a national average of 237.5c/L, as global oil supply disruptions intensify.
The price of diesel, which is being squeezed by a shortage of refining capacity and high demand from commercial users, rose more than 13c to 286.7c/L, according to the Australian Institute of Petroleum.
Economists have linked the recent price rises in crude oil, which affects petrol prices, to the enduring conflict between the US and Israel against Iran, and recent Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries.
Elevated fuel prices are a major household expense and inflation trigger given they drive up costs across goods and services in the economy, pushing central banks, including in Australia, to consider rate hikes to keep a lid on inflation.
The Reserve Bank is expected to lift the cash rate from 4.25% to 4.6% after its meeting tomorrow in what would be the fourth rate increase this year.
AMP’s chief economist Shane Oliver has warned petrol prices could surpass $2.70/L.
Key events
- 10m agoNathan Cleary out of surgery
- 2h agoFuel prices rise ahead of interest rate decision
- 3h agoRescue crews still searching for Melbourne man missing after hike on popular Peruvian trail
- 3h agoWhale carcass prompts shark warning at Perth beach
- 4h agoChalmers says ‘near-universal’ expectation rate rises will occur worldwide
- 4h agoChalmers says final budget outcome for 2025-26 shows deficit ‘$6bn better than expected’
- 6h agoMike Baird to step down as chair of Cricket Australia
- 8h agoBogong moths descend along NSW coast during annual migration
- 8h agoGallagher says final budget outcome will show $6bn improvement
- 9h agoInterest rate hike looms as inflation stubbornly high
- 9h agoChalmers and Gallagher to present final budget outcome
Australia accused of being ‘in denial’ after failure of criminal case against King Charles
An Indigenous elder attempting to charge King Charles III with genocide says Australia is in denial over its crimes and their ongoing impacts, AAP reports.
Uncle Robbie Thorpe has been pursuing legal action against the king since 2023 over the alleged genocide committed against Aboriginal people.
On Monday, an application to appeal a decision preventing the case from proceeding was denied.
Despite the loss, the Krauatungalung elder and uncle of Senator Lidia Thorpe said the effort has been worth it.
He vowed to take the fight to an international jurisdiction. He told AAP:
Australia is just totally in denial. If it wasn’t for the acts of terror and the policies of genocide, Australia wouldn’t exist. That’s my reality, and a lot of other people’s.
Thorpe filed a charge sheet with the magistrates court of Victoria in 2023, naming himself as the informant and the king as the accused.
The offences alleged were continuing acts of genocide committed since 28 September 2022 against First Peoples, contrary to common law, federal law concerning genocide and First Peoples’ sovereign laws.
But the filing was knocked back by a senior registrar of the magistrates court on the grounds that it did not reference any “proper source of law”.
A judicial review by the supreme court upheld the registrar’s decision.
The court of appeal dismissed an application by Thorpe to appeal the decision on the basis it had no real prospect of success.
The appeal court said:
While acknowledging the significance of the questions raised by Uncle Robbie, the primary judge stated (correctly and self-evidently) that the only jurisdiction she could exercise was the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Victoria. The primary judge concluded that the senior registrar of the Magistrates’ Court acted lawfully ... as the charges alleged in the charge-sheet did not disclose an offence known to the law of Victoria.
Nathan Cleary out of surgery
Panthers star Nathan Cleary is out of surgery and told fans on social media he’ll “be back” after he suffered an ankle fracture in a hip-drop tackle during Sunday’s match.
Penrith lost to Newcastle 22-14 on Sunday, sending the Knights through to their first grand final in 25 years. Newcastle hooker Phoenix Crossland was sent off for a tackle that left Cleary with a compound fracture and dislocation of the ankle late in the first half.
Cleary posted a picture to his social media earlier today from a hospital bed, with his thumbs up and his leg wrapped in a bandage. He wrote:
Surgery done… Thank you so much to everyone that has reached out, the support has been unbelievable. Yesterday sucked but it’s all part of the journey [and] it’s made me even more grateful for the people I have around me. I’ll be back.
‘We need to fix the economy,’ Angus Taylor says ahead of expected rate rise
Opposition leader Angus Taylor has accused the Albanese government of losing control of the economy ahead of an expected rate rise by the Reserve Bank tomorrow.
He said:
We need to restore hope, we need to fix the economy, and we need to protect our way of life. And that’s why we need a government that is going to take less, not more.
Earlier today, treasurer Jim Chalmers announced an improvement of $6bn in the budget bottom line.
Contact tracing under way in Adelaide after measles cluster spreads
A woman has become the latest in a cluster of measles cases after she spent up to 24 hours in an emergency department while infectious, AAP reports.
It brings South Australia’s total number of cases to nine, the highest it’s been in 10 years.
SA Health was notified of the case on Sunday afternoon and confirmed it was linked to a cluster at Adelaide’s Brighton Secondary College, where three teenagers contracted the highly infectious disease.
The health agency confirmed 24 exposure sites dating back a week, warning those who had come into contact with those areas and weren’t fully immunised to be ‘‘alert for symptoms’’ over the next few weeks.
SA’s chief public health officer, Nicola Spurrier, said contact tracing was under way at the hospital to contain the spread:
The area that concerns me the most is the Queen Elizabeth hospital because you’ve got other vulnerable patients there. Unfortunately she was there in an open space for a longer period of time. I think there could potentially be additional spread.
Call for NSW to fund air-conditioning in major public housing estate
The NSW government is being urged to provide funding for reverse cycle air-conditioning in a Sydney public housing estate undergoing a major redevelopment.
Public housing advocacy group REDWatch said the developer of the Waterloo public housing estate, Stockland consortium, had not been required, in its contract with Homes NSW, to include air-conditioning in the redevelopment of Waterloo South.
RedWatch said that Waterloo South Homes NSW, the team in charge of the redevelopment, had applied to Homes NSW requesting funding for air-conditioning.
It comes after the City of Sydney voted unanimously in support of air-conditioning in Waterloo South. The motion, passed last week, said:
Summer air temperatures are becoming increasingly hotter due to global warming. Energy efficient heating and cooling is especially important in social housing because of the medical needs of residents, many of whom are at higher risk of health impacts from extreme heat.
RedWatch said tenants had also written to housing minister Rose Jackson urging the government to commit the funding.
Jordyn Beazley
Hello, I’ll now be taking you through our rolling live news coverage for the next little while.
Nick Visser
That’s all from me! Jordyn Beazley will snag the blog from here. Take care!
‘Not all good news’ amid whale conservation anniversary
Forty years on from an international moratorium on commercial whaling, the global community is meeting to consider new, unforeseen threats, AAP reports.
The International Whaling Commission’s 70th meeting began on Monday at Hobart, with delegates from some 63 member nations in attendance. The commission was founded in 1946, at a time when whale populations had been decimated by decades of unregulated industrial whaling.
While populations have in many cases rebounded – particularly since a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling – whales remain under threat globally.
“It’s not all good news,” environment minister Murray Watt told delegates.
Among the main issues to be debated at the week-long meeting is a quarter-century old push for a whale sanctuary in the southern Atlantic ocean.
The proposal, which was first raised by Brazil in 1998, would extend an existing protected area in the Southern Ocean, protecting whales from West Africa to South America.
But pro-whaling nations have refused to back the plan, with some walking out of previous meetings to scupper votes.
Albanese says government still focused on cost of living ahead of interest rate decision tomorrow
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said the government is continuing to take action on cost of living support amid tomorrow’s expected rate rise by the Reserve Bank.
Albanese just held a press conference in Tasmania, where he was asked how mortgage holders should feel before tomorrow’s announcement. He said the government had supported a tax cut earlier this year, free Tafe and multiple health initiatives meant to lower costs.
[That’s] all aimed at making a difference, because we know people are doing it tough. And will continue to, as well, take work, such as the $6bn reduction in the deficit compared with what was anticipated in our May budget.
The prime minister also said the government continues to look into the OpenAI breach.
Artificial intelligence can make an enormous difference. It can boost productivity, it can boost economic growth, it can give us health breakthroughs. But we need to make sure that human beings are in charge of this.
Fuel prices rise ahead of interest rate decision
Jonathan Barrett
Petrol prices increased by more than 10 cents a litre last week to reach a national average of 237.5c/L, as global oil supply disruptions intensify.
The price of diesel, which is being squeezed by a shortage of refining capacity and high demand from commercial users, rose more than 13c to 286.7c/L, according to the Australian Institute of Petroleum.
Economists have linked the recent price rises in crude oil, which affects petrol prices, to the enduring conflict between the US and Israel against Iran, and recent Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries.
Elevated fuel prices are a major household expense and inflation trigger given they drive up costs across goods and services in the economy, pushing central banks, including in Australia, to consider rate hikes to keep a lid on inflation.
The Reserve Bank is expected to lift the cash rate from 4.25% to 4.6% after its meeting tomorrow in what would be the fourth rate increase this year.
AMP’s chief economist Shane Oliver has warned petrol prices could surpass $2.70/L.
Rescue crews still searching for Melbourne man missing after hike on popular Peruvian trail
Rescue crews continue to search for Jordan Yap, 30, a Melbourne man who went missing during a hike on a remote trail in Peru.
A widespread search is under way by private rescue teams, but they’ve so far failed to find any trace of Yap. He last made contact with friends and family on 14 September before setting out on the planned 10-day solo trek. He was last seen near the beginning of the hike across the Cordillera Huayhuash circuit, a challenging, high-altitude adventure.
Yap is considered an experienced hiker and was meant to return from the trek last Wednesday.
The Mountain Rescue Association in Peru said on Saturday a group of 12 rescuers had been deployed, the third group to look for signs of the Australian. A reconnaissance flight has also been carried out to look in difficult-to-reach areas and abysses.
“The mission remains active and will resume when weather conditions permit the continuation of operations safely,” the group wrote overnight on Facebook.
A GoFundMe to help fund the search has raised about $60,000.
Whale carcass prompts shark warning at Perth beach
Perth’s popular City Beach is closed after a whale carcass washed up this morning amid concerns it could attract sharks.
Surf Live Saving WA reported the carcass around 7.30am this morning Perth time. Officials said sharks may be present along the WA coast throughout the year, but people should exercise additional caution at this time.
Officers from the WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development and other agencies are monitoring the situation. The Town of Cambridge is working to remove the carcass.
SharkSmart, which monitors shark activity, has issued shark advice for the City Beach area due to the carcass.
Tight New Zealand election campaign kicks off
The starter’s gun has been fired on the closest New Zealand election campaign in decades, with both major parties staging campaign launches in a tightening race.
AAP reports prime minister Chris Luxon’s ailing coalition faces a fight from Labour under Chris Hipkins to avoid being the first one-term government in half a century.
The contest is close between both the major parties and the broader right and left blocs.
On Sunday, both National and Labour held rallies in Auckland to fire up their bases for the poll push ahead. Based on those events, a month of mud-throwing awaits.
Gallagher gives update on response to OpenAI incident
Asked by Guardian Australia’s Tom McIlroy as to whether there was new information on the OpenAI incident last week, Katy Gallagher says she had a briefing from Services Australia this morning.
They have all the technical information they need but there are some further information that is still being sought, and there will be follow-up meetings with OpenAI over the course of this week. I don’t think there is anything further I can update you on, other than that website will not be reactivated. It is the Medicare statistics reporting portal.
The data that was on the Medicare portal had been moved to a public site, she says:
The email that notification, that OpenAI came to, has been redirected to essentially be monitored 24-7, not once a day, so there has been some short-term responses that Services Australia put in. I expect the forensic investigation to be finished within a matter of weeks, no longer than that. I don’t have a specific date, and that will feed into the rapid review the PM&C are leading.
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