RBA warns further rises possible in fight against inflation
The Reserve Bank of Australia governor, Michele Bullock, has warned further interest rate rises remain possible as the bank continues to monitor inflationary pressures.
Speaking in Sydney after the RBA’s decision to leave the cash rate unchanged at 4.35%, Bullock said the board had not considered a cut at its meeting.
double quotation markThe board did not discuss an interest rate cut at this meeting. It only discussed a raise/stay.
The main game here for us is excess capacity, tight labour market, particularly in some areas like construction, the Middle East conflict, the AI boom; these are all the things that are front of mind in terms of risks to the inflation outlook.
Bullock acknowledged that “this is a difficult period for some households” but said the board was “not ruling out” further increases.
double quotation markThe board will be closely watching for evidence of upside risks to inflation materialising. High inflation hurts all Australians, especially the most vulnerable, and that’s why inflation, bringing inflation down, is our priority.
The board isn’t ruling out there may be a need for further interest rate rises if we look like we’re off a path that takes us with inflation remaining above the target for much longer in the forecasts.
We’re saying we want to get a bit more information to confirm whether or not we still seem to be on that path.
Michele Bullock speaks to media after the RBA monetary policy board meeting in Sydney. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAPShare
Updated at 02.00 EDT
Key events
Benita Kolovos
Animal Justice party MP Georgie Purcell will also likely lose her seat. She says parties that used GVTs were “simply operating under the system that was granted to us to get elected”.
She says it’s been particularly “galling” to hear allegations during the debate that the crossbench MPs elected under GVTs had done “deals” with the government. Purcell says:
double quotation markI mean, I’m standing here today at the end of the term with duck shooting, jobs racing, greyhound racing still [legal] here in Victoria. It’s because we have chosen to be collaborative and proactive members of parliament and take our jobs representing our communities really, really seriously. So some of the commentary that has come up in this debate has been pretty disappointing. To be completely honest, we are all still your colleagues. We all still have to spend time together until the end of this term.
She also criticised the government for ramming the legislation through both houses of parliament just weeks before the election. She said the Animal Justice Party had asked the government for eight years to pair the abolition of group voting ticket with other changes in the upper house, such as scrapping the eight regions and moving to a single statewide electorate. But this would require a referendum.
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Cait Kelly
Border force raids more than 100 service station in crackdown of illegal tobacco and vapes
More than 100 MetroPetroleum service stations have been raided as part of a major investigation into the distribution of illegal tobacco and vapes.
Around 250 law enforcement and regulatory officers from 15 agencies targeted the stations across Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.
In a statement, Australian Border Force said:
double quotation markOperation SHORTHAND was established following an intelligence referral into the NDG by the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, identifying alleged links between the service stations, suspected criminal activity and the alleged sale of illicit tobacco and vapes.
The operation remains active, with the NDG and partner agencies continuing to assess materials and information gathered during enforcement activities.
Further details, including official outcomes from the operation, will be announced in due course.
Metro has been contacted for comment. The owners are not accused of any wrongdoing.
ShareBenita Kolovos
Group voting tickets debate in Victoria continues
Several crossbench MPs are expected to lose their seats as a result of the changes. They include the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MP, Jeff Bourman, who said the reforms are only happening now because the major parties expect to lose seats at the November state election. Or as he put it:
double quotation markNo one really cared because it worked for them. Now, it doesn’t work for them. Now we have basically something I feel has been put up by a bunch of bedwetters that sleep with the lights on at night. I think this is really, really what’s going on. There was panic stations. Chicken Little, the sky’s falling in. Well, you reap what you sow, fellas and ladies. Come the next election, I feel that election is going to be studied for decades because of the disaster for the major parties.
Bourman said he expected One Nation would be “the largest party” in the upper house, thanks in part to this change and for MPs to “enjoy what’s left” of the chamber.
The preference whisperer Glenn Druery has also made a similar argument against GVTs, claiming One Nation could win between 13 and 16 upper house seats as a result.
Updated at 03.27 EDT
Benita Kolovos
Group voting ticket debate under way in Victoria’s upper house
As we mentioned earlier, the Victorian parliament’s upper house is now debating a bill that will scrap group voting tickets (GVTs) – a system of voting ripe for preference harvesting.
Under GVTs, voters can only choose one party above the line on the ballot paper, with their preferences then allocated by the party if it’s knocked out during counting. It has allowed backroom deals between parties to flourish, enabling some candidates to get elected with only a minuscule number of primary votes.
The electoral amendment (miscellaneous matters) bill 2026, if passed, will replace GVTs with a new above-the-line voting system that requires voters to number at least five groups in order of preference. Those preferences will then flow to candidates in the order they appear below the line for each party or group.
The Labor MP Ryan Batchelor says the reform is “long overdue” and will bring the state in line with every other similar jurisdiction:
double quotation markIt will place decisions about voter preferences in the hands of voters, and there can be nothing that is more fundamentally democratic than that. This is a reform that has been recommended by the Electoral Matters Committee, a joint committee of this parliament, on several occasions, including most recently in two reports in the last couple of years.
The Coalition will support the bill, with the Liberal MP David Davis saying Labor has been “very tardy” in bringing on the reform. He claimed that when the Liberals were last in government in 2014 they approached the then opposition leader Daniel Andrews to reform the system but he refused:
double quotation markThere was a discussion there, and we would have supported it at that point in time. But let’s also be clear: there is every reason to be supportive of this 1786434503 because there have been some terrible, undemocratic outcomes that have been engineered through the group voting ticket.
Victorian premier Ben Carroll speaks during question time. Photograph: James Ross/AAPShare
Updated at 03.24 EDT
Benita Kolovos
Following on our earlier post, the Victorian opposition leader, Jess Wilson, has criticised the government’s reforms to “close every loophole” used by high-profile accused and convicted criminals to hide their identities in court.
She says when she first became leader in late 2025, her first priority was to introduce a standalone coercive control offence:
double quotation markVictoria could have already had standalone coercive control, if Labor had supported our legislation. Instead, Labor played politics with women’s safety, only to introduce its own laws five minutes to midnight. Coercive control is an insidious form of abuse and can affect anyone, but we know women are overwhelmingly the victims of intimate partner violence. Protecting women and victim-survivors from abuse should never be political. We will always stand on the side of victim-survivors.
Here’s what we wrote at the time:
Opposition leader Jess Wilson. Photograph: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty ImagesShare
Updated at 03.19 EDT
Josh Butler
Allow voluntary assisted dying debate, crossbenchers urge Labor
Members of the crossbench are pleading with Labor to take action on allowing voluntary assisted dying consultatons via telehealth, with the advocate and former TV favourite Andrew Denton saying people in the last stages of their life should have more options.
The independent MP Kate Chaney tried to bring on a debate on the issue in the lower house today, but the Labor government waved off the attempt. The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said she would try to bring on debate about a similar bill in the Senate.
The debate is about whether to allow VAD via telehealth, which is now banned. Advocates say this means people with terminal illnesses have to appear in-person at a doctor, which presents particular problems for people in rural or remote areas. Denton, the former TV interviewer, told a press conference today about the case of a man in Melbourne with advanced motor neurone disease, whose condition made it that he soiled himself as his wife drove him to visit his doctor for a euthanasia assessment.
Labor’s national conference resolved that the government should change the law, but so far no debate has been allowed.
Chaney said it would be a “simple fix”, with all states and territories allowing VAD except the Northern Territory, which will legalise the practice this month. She said no safeguards would need to be altered to allow VAD consultations via telehealth. She was supported by fellow independent Monique Ryan, who said “every day that we fail to pass this legislation is a day that Australians continue to suffer unnecessarily, and the people who care for them are unable to provide them with the support that they need and they deserve”.
Denton called on parliament to resolve the issue as soon as possible. He said:
double quotation markA government and a parliament’s first responsibility is to protect its citizens. Right now, this government and this parliament are failing to do that.
Updated at 02.52 EDT
Benita Kolovos
Long-called-for reforms introduced to Victorian parliament
At the Victorian parliament today, much attention focused on the Labor government’s election commitment to “close every loophole” used by high-profile accused and convicted criminals to hide their identities in court. But the government also introduced a bill to parliament that includes other reforms long called for by victim-survivors of sexual violence.
The attorney general, Sonya Kilkenny, outlined several of the reforms when she first read the bill into the house a few hours ago. They include:
Criminalising coercive control as a standalone offence.
Abolishing good character as a mitigating factor in sentencing.
Making it unlawful to discriminate against someone because they have experienced or are experiencing family violence.
Expanding the jurisdiction of a criminal court to extend or vary a family violence intervention order so victims do not have to keep telling their story and reliving their trauma.
Requiring the court to consider the views and safety of a victim-survivor when extending a family violence intervention order.
Expanding the personal safety intervention order framework to recognise grooming as a prohibited behaviour.
Expanding relief and exemptions under Victoria’s fines system for victim-survivors to stop the financial impact of perpetrators using the system to abuse their partner.
Sonya Kilkenny arrives in parliament today. Photograph: James Ross/AAP
The Animal Justice party MP Georgie Purcell says she first urged the government to introduce the family violence protection in March. She says the reform will save lives:
double quotation markUntil now, a loophole in our anti-discrimination laws has resulted in Victorian women being legally sacked by their employer for disclosing their experiences of family violence. This change isn’t just symbolic – and it won’t just ensure protection from discrimination in workplaces. It will extend to all areas of a victim-survivor’s life – including housing, healthcare and banking. This is a meaningful reform that will save lives by helping victims safely leave abusive relationships without losing income or becoming homeless.
Updated at 02.42 EDT
Greens accuse Carroll of ‘crumbling to big business’ on work from homeBenita Kolovos
The Victorian Greens have accused the new premier, Ben Carroll, of “crumbling to big business” after he announced this morning the government would delay debate on work from home laws and push back its commencement until 1 July 2027.
The Greens say the delay will particularly hurt women, carers and disabled people who stand to benefit most from flexible work, as they will now have to wait another 10 months for rights they fought for and were promised.
The party’s state leader, Ellen Sandell, says:
double quotation markThe new premier has barely moved into his new office and he’s already crumbling to big business and their tantrums. Workers were weeks away from finally getting these hard-earned rights. Then the corporate lobby came knocking and the new Labor premier rolled over. Women, carers and disabled people might now be forced back into commuting full-time for at least another 10 months because the new premier has decided keeping big business happy matters more than making working people’s lives easier.
More here:
Victorian Greens leader Ellen Sandell. Photograph: Ellen Smith/The GuardianShare
Updated at 03.02 EDT
Tom McIlroy
‘No excuses’ on Murphy report recommendations, Anglican archbishop says
Sydney’s Anglican archbishop, Kanishka Raffel, has urged federal parliament to implement the full recommendations of the Murphy review on online gambling advertising.
Amid negotiations between Labor and the Coalition this week, Raffel said the late Labor MP Peta Murphy was right to recommend a full, phased-in ban on gambling advertising and inducements from betting companies.
double quotation markThe Murphy recommendations give a sensible and balance blueprint for gambling regulation.
They protect our children and families.
They must be implemented in full – there are no excuses for not doing so.
Anglican Churches from around Australia have been meeting in Melbourne and without dissent, we have agreed that the Murphy report should be adopted in full for “the welfare and public health of our nation’s young people and other vulnerable persons”.
Archbishop Kanishka Raffel. Photograph: Nikki Short/AAPShare
Updated at 02.10 EDT
RBA warns further rises possible in fight against inflation
The Reserve Bank of Australia governor, Michele Bullock, has warned further interest rate rises remain possible as the bank continues to monitor inflationary pressures.
Speaking in Sydney after the RBA’s decision to leave the cash rate unchanged at 4.35%, Bullock said the board had not considered a cut at its meeting.
double quotation markThe board did not discuss an interest rate cut at this meeting. It only discussed a raise/stay.
The main game here for us is excess capacity, tight labour market, particularly in some areas like construction, the Middle East conflict, the AI boom; these are all the things that are front of mind in terms of risks to the inflation outlook.
Bullock acknowledged that “this is a difficult period for some households” but said the board was “not ruling out” further increases.
double quotation markThe board will be closely watching for evidence of upside risks to inflation materialising. High inflation hurts all Australians, especially the most vulnerable, and that’s why inflation, bringing inflation down, is our priority.
The board isn’t ruling out there may be a need for further interest rate rises if we look like we’re off a path that takes us with inflation remaining above the target for much longer in the forecasts.
We’re saying we want to get a bit more information to confirm whether or not we still seem to be on that path.
Michele Bullock speaks to media after the RBA monetary policy board meeting in Sydney. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAPShare
Updated at 02.00 EDT
Krishani Dhanji
Thank you all for following along on the blog with me today, I’ll leave you with the brilliant Achol Arok.
Stay tuned for the Reserve Bank governor shortly, and I’ll see you back here bright and early tomorrow!
ShareTl;dr here’s what happened in question time
The opposition pushed Labor on the cost of living, and tried to get the prime minister to apologise over melon-gate.
On the former, the opposition targeted Labor over the so-called “widow tax” and claimed the negative gearing and capital gains tax changes had “tanked” the housing market.
On the latter, Anthony Albanese twice refused to apologise to prime minister Sanae Takaichi.
The shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, was kicked out.
Albanese completely avoided a question by the Greens on whether the government would implement a gas export tax – refusing to even say the words gas or tax in his answer.
Updated at 01.44 EDT
After a final dixer to Amanda Rishworth, the PM calls time on QT for today.
Should coal and gas companies be forced to put money aside to fund cleanups?
When will the government force coal and gas companies to put money aside to fully fund the cleanup of their projects, asks the independent MP Allegra Spender.
She says that renters have to pay a bond and a cleanup fee before moving into a home, but fossil fuel companies aren’t expected to do the same, which can leave the commonwealth footing a cleanup bill – citing a recent case where a gas producer went into administration.
The resources minister, Madeleine King, says that in the case Spender has raised, there will be no taxpayer money going to any cleanup.
double quotation markI want to make it really clear again that taxpayers will not be left to foot the bill if companies do not do the right thing in respect of this particular project. I want to make clear insolvency does not excuse title holders from decommissioning responsibilities, and the government is considering all enforcement options to hold responsible title holders and related parties accountable.
Updated at 01.14 EDT
Kevin Hogan comes with a multiple choice question
The Nationals frontbencher Kevin Hogan comes to QT with a multiple choice question today – how fun. He asks whether rents have reportedly increased by 10% since the 2026 budget because of:
double quotation markA. Record high immigration outpacing new home builds.
B. Labor’s toxic taxes on housing.
C. The 15 interest rate rises under Labor.
Or D. All of the above.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, takes the question and says the housing market has been influenced by a number of factors, and that the market was already cooling before the budget was handed down.
Chalmers basically says that the issues are not the sole fault of the budget, and that the volatility in the housing market and immigration numbers were there before May.
double quotation markWe have had for some time now upward pressure on rents, partly because of a decade of neglect, we haven’t had enough homes in our community, Mr Speaker, and we are taking the necessary steps to build more homes.
When it comes to migration, I understand that those opposite want to go about this in the most divisive way that they can, but they need to recognise that net overseas migration has come down 45% since its peak.
Angus Taylor listens to Jim Chalmers during question time. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPShare
Updated at 01.04 EDT
Albanese avoids question on gas export tax
Back to the crossbench, the Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown asks the PM if he’ll listen to the public “instead of the gas lobby and implement a minimum 25% tax on gas exports?” She also notes that at the most recent Labor national conference, ordinary party members and MPs pushed to hold a vote for a gas export tax.
Anthony Albanese doesn’t say the words gas or tax (let alone together) in his answer.
Instead he takes aim at the Greens, saying he’s somewhat surprised at getting a question from the party that hold “secret conferences”.
double quotation markWhat we do, in stark contrast, is have a conference that is broadcast live on national TV for all to see. We have the election of 400 delegates and 400 proxy delegates who represent workers, who represent local branch members, who represent regions right around Australia.
The PM in question time. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPShare
Updated at 00.57 EDT
PM probed on skyrocketing mortgages; Tim Wilson gets yeeted
Angus Taylor stays on the economy, and asks the prime minister to confirm the average new mortgage holder is paying $29,000 a year more in interest alone since Labor came into power – after 15 interest rate rises.
Anthony Albanese says he understands households are doing it tough, and then rolls through a list of cost-of-living measures the government has undertaken.
double quotation markEvery day we look at doing something about it – not just identifying grievance, but producing solutions, not protesting.
Albanese isn’t answering the actual question, so Dan Tehan gets up to make a point of order.
Milton Dick agrees with Tehan and tells Albanese to stay focused, and the PM continues:
double quotation markSomeone in this place said on the 10th November 2020, nobody wins from low interest rates … Going back, in case you think that was an accident, in 2018, we need to create the policy settings to progressively increase interest rates. Money is too cheap, and it’s time we did something about it around the policy framework. The question for this leader of the opposition: Why did he make this man the shadow treasurer?
Tim Wilson, not too happy about being quoted here, yells out to the PM in response, which gets him kicked out by Dick for the rest of QT.
Updated at 01.47 EDT