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RBA minutes reveal why it lifted interest rates a 13th time
Peter Hannam
The Reserve Bank said it lifted its key interest rate this month to reduce the risk of a “larger monetary policy response” in coming months given the persistence of inflation and the stronger than expected performance of the economy.
The RBA, in its minutes released today, also noted that its forecasts for inflation to decline to within its 2%-3% target range by the end of 2025 were based on one or possibly two more interest rate increases.
The minutes explain in more detail the reasons why the RBA opted to lift its key interest rate a 13th time in the current cycle at its 7 November meeting. The 25 basis-point increase brought the rate to 4.35%, or the highest level since late 2011.
The eight-member board considered leaving the cash rate unchanged for a fifth consecutive month noting there were uncertainties including how the “escalation of tensions in the Middle East” was “likely to dampen consumer confidence and global demand.
The case to hike again, though, was deemed stronger in part because the RBA itself had made it clear in the previous month’s minutes and in subsequent speeches it was not prepared to accept inflation remaining too high for too long.
The minutes showed:
Members noted that the risk of not achieving the board’s inflation target by the end of 2025 had increased and that it was appropriate that monetary policy should be adjusted to mitigate this.
They agreed there was a risk of inflation expectations increasing [if the pause had been extended] particularly given the Board’s repeated statements that it has a low tolerance for inflation returning to target after 2025.
Key events
Kelly Burke
Barry Humphries’ hidden talent of painting goes on display
Barry Humphries holds a unique place in Australian entertainment history: a satirist, comedian and actor whose sardonic yet affectionate pillory of his home country saw him feted in the UK and the US.
Seven months after his death, another side of Humphries is now on show in Adelaide, a city the Melbourne-born entertainer held special affection for.
Twenty landscapes and portraits by the entertainer are on show for the first time at the Adelaide Festival centre’s gallery, the private property of South Australian landscape artist David Dridan, one of Humphries’ longest and closest friends.
Read more here:
Greens want ‘rent freeze now’ as data reveals essential workers can’t afford to rent anywhere
The Greens are continuing their calls for a rent freeze after new data revealed essential workers can’t afford rent in any part of the country.
As our inequality reporter Cait Kelly brought us earlier on the blog, a new heat map from Anglicare Australia shows just 2.4% of rentals were affordable for an ambulance worker, 1.5% for a nurse, 1.1% for an aged care worker and 0.9% for a hospitality worker.
Greens leader Adam Bandt wrote on X/Twitter:
These essential workers kept our communities afloat during the pandemic, but this Government has completely abandoned them.
We should be protecting renters across the country. Rent freeze now.
Ambulance workers can afford 2.4% of rentals, while nurses can afford just 1.5%.
These essential workers kept our communities afloat during the pandemic, but this Government has completely abandoned them.
We should be protecting renters across the country. Rent freeze now.
— Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) November 21, 2023
Australians will receive new Covid vaccines targeting Omicron variants
Some news from earlier this morning: the latest Covid-19 vaccines targeting common variants of the virus will be made available to Australians from next month.
Federal health minister Mark Butler said the government has approved the monovalent vaccine, which target Omicron variants, following advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI).
While we are no longer in the emergency phase of this pandemic, COVID-19 is still present, and people should continue to follow the advice of the experts from ATAGI, including getting vaccines as required.
Authorities say only about a quarter of vulnerable Australians have had their 2023 booster shots amid a surge in cases.
Butler said the new XBB 1.5 vaccines have been found to provide modest improved protection against the strains currently circulating in the community.
People who have already had their 2023 vaccination(s) don’t need to get jabbed again and remain well protected against severe disease.
– from AAP
Daisy Dumas
Organisers predict largest peaceful protest for climate action in Australia at Newcastle port this weekend
Newcastle port will be the scene of what organisers claim to be the largest peaceful civil disobedience protest for climate action in Australia’s history over the weekend.
Rising Tide protesters are expected to blockade the largest coal port in the world, which is on Awabakal and Worimi land, for 30 hours from 10am on Saturday. They will demand an end to new coal projects and the introduction of a new fossil fuel tax on export profits.
Joining them will be Grant Howard, a miner from Illawarra who works in Queensland mines and believes that coal miners should not be left out of the transition to clean fuels.
For the past 10 years, the federal government has bumbled along, arguing about climate change, while the market for coal has crashed and the impacts of climate change have been unfolding in real time, year after year. Droughts, floods and fires have raged as politicians clung to a narrative that these events were ‘naturally’ occurring, quickly sidelining Australians directly affected by them.
Thermal coal is the most significant element of our undoing. It doesn’t matter where it is mined or burnt, thermal coal dumps pollution into our common atmosphere.
The writing is on the wall. A transition is clearly happening. Coal miners should not be left out of this shift.
Rising Tide claims that Newcastle Port is responsible for 1% of global carbon emissions. The protest will prevent coal ships from leaving the port.
Severe heatwave conditions are forecast for Perth and western WA this week.
Temperatures are expected to peak around high 30C or low 40C and there is little relief overnight, the Bureau of Meteorology warns, with minimum temperatures in the mid-20s for most affected areas.
Kristina Keneally’s son convicted of fabricating evidence that wrongfully put man in jail
The son of former New South Wales premier and federal senator Kristina Keneally has been found guilty of fabricating evidence that wrongfully put a man in prison, reports AAP.
Daniel Keneally, 25, was convicted in the Downing Centre district court on Tuesday.
Keneally wrote a statement containing many falsehoods and Magistrate Rodney Brender rejected his lawyer’s claims that it was an honest mistake.
The offence related to an incident where Keneally was a few hours into a night shift at Newtown police station when Luke Brett Moore called in February 2021.
Read more:
Open letter calls for Victorian schools to not allow student walkouts for pro-Palestine rally
Victorian schools will be instructed not to turn a blind eye to students walking out of classrooms for a pro-Palestine rally in Melbourne, reports AAP.
Organisers of a school strike for Palestine are encouraging students to knock off early on Thursday and head to Flinders Street station.
An open letter to premier Jacinta Allan and her deputy, education minister Ben Carroll, which has attracted more than 6000 signatures, has called on the pair to take a forceful stance against the protest.
The letter read:
While the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression is a cornerstone of our democratic society, the involvement of school children in the rally is unacceptable and should be called out as such in clear terms.
Although the government has communicated its expectation that students attend school in preference to the rally, the messaging to date has been confusing and made more so by media reporting.
The letter’s unnamed author, who described themselves as a concerned community member, raised concerns about how the rally would affect Jewish students and accused organisers of targeting and exploiting school children.
The letter continued:
Most students in Victorian schools will not have a direct connection or a comprehensive (if any) understanding of the attacks on Israel and war in Gaza.
In response, Ms Allan reiterated Thursday was a school day and she expected students to remain in class.
Kelly Burke
Woman dies after falling down six rows of seating at Robbie Williams concert
A woman who was seriously injured during a Robbie Williams concert in Sydney last week has died.
A spokesperson from Sydney’s St Vincent’s hospital confirmed the woman in her 70s died on Monday after falling down six rows of seating at Allianz Stadium in Moore Park on Thursday evening.
She was taken to St Vincent’s in a critical condition where she was placed in an induced coma.
Read more:
Doctor arrested over blockade at Forestry Corporation
Police have dismantled a Sydney blockade staged by protesters fighting for an end to logging in native forests, reports AAP.
Medical doctor Lisa Searle was arrested after officers were called to the headquarters of the state-owned Forestry Corporation on Tuesday.
The group had gathered before dawn to block an access road leading to the site at West Pennant Hills, with Dr Searle locking herself to a metal gate.
The blockade follows a run of stop-work orders imposed on the Forestry Corporation over its alleged incompetent conduct in state forests home to endangered species, including Australia’s largest gliding possum.
Dr Searle believes many Australians don’t understand the destruction being done in native forests by a corporation owned by the NSW government.
She told AAP before her arrest:
People are not aware of how absolutely disgraceful the behaviour of the Forestry Corporation is in these areas.
Parts of Queensland will be hit with showers today but not as heavy or widespread as yesterday.
The Bureau of Meteorology said Lockyer Valley recorded the highest total rainfalls to 9am, with 115mm at Upper Sandy Creek.
🌧️Another day with a colourful rainfall map across southern QLD. In the 24 hours to 9am, the Lockyer Valley saw the highest totals, with 115mm at Upper Sandy Creek. Further showers expected today, but not as heavy or as widespread as yesterday. https://t.co/oYcgOL8aFt pic.twitter.com/SeGUUXTM9P
— Bureau of Meteorology, Queensland (@BOM_Qld) November 21, 2023
Hospital upgrades after grandfather dies waiting for bed
One of Queensland’s busiest hospitals will be upgraded after a grandfather died after a three-hour wait in an ambulance, AAP reports.
Ipswich hospital west of Brisbane will receive 12 extra beds at the emergency department’s short-stay unit, the states health minister says.
Shannon Fentiman said the hospital would also be boosted with 24 new beds in acute wards to help improve patient flow following Wayne Irving’s death.
Irving is believed to have suffered a fatal heart attack as he was being transferred from a stretcher to an Ipswich hospital bed after waiting three hours outside in the back of an ambulance.
Fentiman said staff recruitment had begun to cover the extra resources at Ipswich hospital:
We know our emergency departments are seeing more people than ever before.
Despite those huge numbers we are seeing ED wait times come down. The median wait time is now 15 minutes across the state.
Ipswich has had better performance in the last three months but I acknowledge there is a long way to go.
She has committed to implementing any recommendations from a clinical review of Irving’s death and the coroner.
Updates on Port Phillip Bay plane crash
To summarise what we know:
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Victorian police have located the wreckage of a military-style jet that crashed into Port Phillip Bay on Sunday.
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The wreckage was located off the shore of Mornington.
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Police are working to remove the fuselage of the plane from the water, which will then be searched.
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Pilot Stephen Gale and his passenger, cameraman James Rose, were on board one of two light Viper S-211 Marchetti planes conducting a formation flight that collided mid-air about 1.45pm on Sunday.
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Victorian police inspector Terry Rowlands earlier confirmed the two people were believed to have died in the crash.
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Their aircraft plunged about 20 metres into Port Phillip Bay, while the other plane landed safely at Essendon airport, also with two people on board.
Police to search fuselage wreckage of plane that crashed into Port Phillip Bay
As we just reported, Victorian police have located the wreckage from a plane crash in Mount Martha on Sunday afternoon.
Water police, air wing and uniform officers carried out extensive searches across Port Phillip Bay as part of a multi-agency operation, a police statement said.
After searching water, a large part of the body of the plane was located off the shore of Mornington.
Police are working to remove the fuselage of the plane from the water, at which time it will be searched.
It is believed a 56-year-old Brunswick man and a 30-year-old Surrey Hills man were on board the plane at the time of the incident.
Investigators are working to establish the exact circumstances of the incident and investigations remain ongoing.
They believe the aircrafts would have been visible from Mount Martha between 1pm and 2pm on Sunday.
Police said they are keen to speak with anyone who witnessed the incident, or with vision of the planes.
Wreckage of military-style jet that crashed into Port Phillip Bay reportedly found
AAP is reporting that the wreckage of a military-style jet that crashed into Victoria’s Port Phillip Bay has been found off the shore of Mornington.
Crews have been scouring Port Phillip Bay for any sign of TV camera operator James Rose and pilot Stephen Gale after their Jetworks Aviation flight went down about 1.45pm on Sunday.
We will bring you the latest as more details emerge.
Tasmanian council worker dies after accident involving ride-on mower
A remote community in Tasmania is in shock after the death of a council worker in an accident involving a ride-on mower, AAP reports.
Emergency services were called to a memorial park at Zeehan about 5pm on Monday after a man in his 30s was found under the machine.
The man, who worked for the West Coast Council, died at the scene. West Coast mayor Shane Pitt said:
The entire community is in shock over this terrible incident.
No one expects their loved ones not to come home from work.
We will provide every support necessary to those affected by this tragedy, including the family, friends, and employees and contractors of the council.
Zeehan, on Tasmania’s west coast, has a population of about 700 people.
WorkSafe Tasmania has been notified and reports are being prepared for the coroner.
Pitt said it would be inappropriate to comment further while the matter was being investigated.
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