Australia politics live: Bullock refuses to rule out further rate hikes as Chalmers says Liberal attacks over RBA decision reflect ‘a level of desperation’ | Australia news

Chalmers says Ley targeting treasury secretary over RBA rate hike ‘reflects a level of desperation’

‘Level of desperation’ in Liberals, says Chalmers

The Liberals are solely focused on the interest rates today, with the rate hike a bitter pill to swallow for most households (and a big challenge for the government)

Sussan Ley is back at the dispatch box and asks what it says that the “Prime Minister’s hand-picked Secretary of the Treasury, Jenny Wilkinson” also voted on the RBA board to lift rates.

Jim Chalmers is wholly unimpressed at Ley’s decision to bring Wilkinson into question time.

I think it reflects a level of desperation on behalf of the Leader of the Opposition that she would go after a wonderful public servant in the way she just has … I think it is entirely inappropriate – entirely inappropriate – for those opposite to try to drag in to this one of the finest public servants that this country has ever seen.

He then points out that there are now four women heading four of the major economic institutions in Australia, having just announced Sarah Court as the ASIC chair.

Updated at 23.30 EST

Key events

Show key events only

Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature

Nino Bucci

More firearms testing in Victorian high country as Freeman search continues

Police will again test firearms in an area of the Victorian high country where they are searching for fugitive Dezi Freeman.

Freeman allegedly shot dead two police officers and wounded a third in Porepunkah on 26 August.

In a statement, police confirmed detectives would conduct firearms testing within the Mount Buffalo national park search area for about an hour on Tuesday afternoon.

Similar firearms testing conducted in November helped inform police ahead of the major five-day search for Freeman that started on Monday.

A single gunshot was reported to police about two hours after Freeman fled into the bush at the rear of his property. Police believe it may have been the sound of Freeman killing himself.

The first two days of the search have been completed with no trace of Freeman being publicly reported by police. Police do not believe that he is alive, if he remains in the area, saying that the search of Mount Buffalo is for his body.

But they are also considering two other scenarios: that Freeman has fled the region and is being harboured elsewhere, or that he has fled the area unassisted.
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14.

ShareCatie McLeod

Hi, I’ll be with you on the blog for the rest of the day. The RBA governor, Michelle Bullock, is still taking questions from journalists in Sydney.

While it won’t be much comfort to mortgage holders, she’s said that while today’s cash rate hike has “come across quite negatively”, Australia is “actually in a really good position”.

And, as usual, Bullock has been reluctant to offer forward guidance on the potential for future rate hikes.

She’s said she can’t confirm whether the central bank is going to hike the cash rate – which guides interest rates set by banks – again next month.

But she says the central bank’s board is determined to bring inflation into its target range of 2-3%.

The overall measure of inflation recorded by the government – the Consumer Price Index (CPI) – rose 3.8% in the 12 months to December 2025, up from a 3.4% rise in the 12 months to November 2025.

Bullock hasn’t ruled out back-to-back rate hikes and says the board is “determined” to bring inflation back into the target band. However, she says:

This is not a science, it’s a bit of an art, really, and there’s so many things that can push you off course.

Could we do a lot of rate rises and bring inflation back down very quickly? Possibly, I don’t know. But it might have big implications for the unemployment rate and the economy.

And the bottom line – the strategy really hasn’t changed here. We are still trying to bring inflation down and keep employment as strong as we can, as close to sustainable full employment as we can.

Updated at 00.14 EST

Krishani Dhanji

Thanks for joining me on what has been a very busy day on the blog!

There’s plenty more to come, and I’ll leave you with the lovely Catie McLeod for the rest of the afternoon. See you back here bright and early tomorrow.

Tl;dr here’s what happened in question time

Well that was a LONG question time, with questions split between the Liberals and the rest of the crossbench, who received more questions (although almost all of the extra questions went to the Nationals anyway).

Despite all the hullabaloo around seating, the opposition benches are still looking very similar to the way they did before the split.

The Liberals and Nationals, were at least on a unity ticket in focusing all their questions to the government on inflation and interest rates, and tried to push Jim Chalmers and Anthony Albanese to apologise for the rate rise.

Labor were clearly trying their best to practice some zingers on the Coalition split – here were a couple of them.

Liberal MP Tim Wilson and Nationals MP Alison Penfold were both booted out of the chamber.

Independent MP Zali Steggall asked the government if it would implement a royal commission into femicide and family violence. Social services minister Tanya Plibersek said that experts and frontline workers have said another inquiry does not need to be done.

ShareCatie McLeod

RBA chief addresses media

The governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Michele Bullock, says she empathises with mortgage holders but defended today’s decision to lift the cash rate.

Bullock has been taking questions from journalists in Sydney after the central bank hiked interest rates for the first time in over two years.

The RBA monetary policy board announced on Tuesday at the end of its two-day meeting that the cash rate target would lift to 3.85%, from 3.6%.

The decision means mortgage holders will bear the brunt of dealing with an unexpected jump in inflation that occured in the second half of 2025.

Asked about the effect on mortgage holders facing higher repayments, Bullock said:

I understand they’re disappointed. I do understand that for mortgage holders, this isn’t a great outcome

Having said that, and I have just said this in the past – what’s also not great for them or for anyone else is if inflation remains elevated because every time they go to the shop, every time they go to buy their groceries, every time they go to get personal services, medical, if inflation is high, that’s going to keep going up.

I empathise with them, but I think when we were looking back at what was going on last year … the issues were all about the downside risks, particularly the world economy.

Some of these things have just not come to pass.

Bullock said consumer demand had risen in response to last year’s rate cuts more quickly than the RBA board had anticipated.

Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia Michele Bullock. Photograph: Hollie Adams/ReutersShare

Updated at 00.01 EST

After a final dixer to Anthony Albanese, question time is over for the day.

Bowen says wholesale energy prices are dropping

You might note that question time is going long, well we’re still going …

Nationals MP, Sam Birrell asks when Australians will get their $275 reduction to their energy bills that was promised by Labor back in 2022. The promise is long gone, and Labor has had to admit so (many times before).

Climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, races through his answer and says wholesale energy prices are falling:

Every single Australian saw wholesale prices fall by 44% in the last quarter of last year. We have more work to do to make sure that flows through.

O’Brien pushes Chalmers to rule out further rate rises

Ted O’Brien takes to the dispatch box next and asks the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, whether he’ll guarantee that there will be no more interest rate rises this year.

Chalmers says O’Brien should know by now that the Reserve Bank makes its own decisions.

He’s also at pains to repeat that the RBA statement does not mention government spending.

They want to pretend the government sets interest rates. Well, that is obviously dishonest, of course, but we do work as hard as we can to get on top of inflation … because we do understand that people are under pressure

Independent MP Nicolette Boele has a question

She wants to know when will the government implement the Human Rights Commission’s anti-racism framework

The framework was commissioned by the government and handed to Labor in November 2024.

Anthony Albanese doesn’t answer the actual question on whether the government will implement the framework, but says antisemitism requires “constant vigilance”.

We do need to deal with a comprehensive response not just to antisemitism, but to building social cohesion as well. I think the attack that we saw in Perth [at the Invasion Day rally] is an example of something that the authorities are dealing with.

This doesn’t answer the question. Boele stands up to make a point of order on relevance, but the PM’s time to answer is up.

Updated at 23.37 EST