source : the age
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of national news for Wednesday, September 2. Here’s what is making headlines today.
- Australia’s economic growth unexpectedly accelerated last quarter, adding to the case for the Reserve Bank to raise interest rates again as inflation remains stubbornly strong. The economy has now grown 2.1 per cent in the past year.
- Meanwhile, roughly 93 per cent of suburbs across Australia had a drop in home values in the past month, according to Cotality’s home value index. The government has been defending its tax change policies in light of this news.
- The number of Australians missing in Nepal and Tibet has been revised down to 38, from 43 yesterday morning, as DFAT says five additional Australians have been accounted for, including the one reported yesterday afternoon.
- The total death toll of the disaster is still rising, with more than 1000 dead and 4400 people missing.
- Sydney Swans coach Dean Cox has not ruled out their five suspended players making a return to the club before the end of the season. Isaac Heeney, Nick Blakey, Chad Warner, James Jordon and Riley Bice were banned for breaching the club’s behavioural standards, but Cox said yesterday there was uncertainty about how long they would be absent from the club.
- The US military announced its first major strikes against Iran in more than a month. US Central Command said. “The strikes follow recent attempted attacks by the IRGC against commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and against American service members deployed to the region.” Iranian state-run media reported explosions near the port city of Bandar Abbas.
Let’s return now to Jim Chalmers’ press conference in parliament house last hour, because when he began to take questions on house prices things began to get a little tense.
Journalist: “Do you stand by treasury analysis that house prices will continue to grow over th next couple of years, or do you concede that the treasury and government has underestimated the impacts of the tax changes?”
Chalmers: ”Well first of all, the treasury assumptions in the budgets are over the next couple of years, not the past couple of months, and so it would be unusual to compare outcomes or forecasts from the first couple of months with treasury assumptions over a first couple of years…“
Journalist: ”So you think we can expect eight per cent growth over the next few years?“
The murder case against the man accused of killing political commentator Charlie Kirk can proceed to trial with a charge that makes the suspect eligible for the death penalty, a Utah judge ruled Tuesday.
The judge said prosecutors have shown probable cause to support an aggravated murder charge against Tyler Robinson for the alleged shooting of Kirk at a college campus outdoor event a year ago.
Robinson, 23, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to all the charges against him.
“Today’s decision, which comes nearly a year since Charlie was taken from us, marks an important step in our family’s pursuit of justice for him,” according to a statement issued by Kirk’s family.
Laem Chabang, Thailand: The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier arrived in eastern Thailand early on Wednesday after its gruelling deployment in the Middle East.
Associated Press journalists watched the Lincoln, which is carrying about 5000 service members, approach Laem Chabang port in Chonburi province shortly after the destroyer USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. sailed past the area.
The ship had been supporting the US war against Iran. Its deployment included a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 250 days. Concerns have grown about the Lincoln’s lengthy deployment following reports of deteriorating mental health among the crew and shortages of supplies, including food and hygiene products.
The usually Asia-based USS George Washington relieved the long-deployed Lincoln in the Middle East in August.
Consent advocate Chanel Contos is at the National Press Club today, urging the government to give Australians the option of algorithm-free social media.
The Teach Us Consent chief executive said algorithms were exploiting young men’s insecurities and funnelling them misogynistic content, as teenage boys become the most likely cohort to commit child sexual abuse.
“It usually starts with something harmless, like a workout video or motivational content,” Contos said.
“Very quickly, boys and men are taken into the manosphere – communities that persistently promote the idea that emotional control, material wealth, and physical appearance and dominance is what makes a man.”
She said recommendation algorithms served fringe content to new users “to evoke strong feelings and gain their attention, whether out of harmless curiosity or as rage bait”, and Australians should be given the choice to opt in to algorithms.
The treasurer has been asked about Chanel Contos’ address at the National Press Club this afternoon, set to be given imminently, but stopped short of backing her call for an opt-in model for social media algorithms.
In her second address to the press club, the Teach Us Consent chief executive will argue social media algorithms are exposing young, impressionable users to harmful content and fuelling a rise in sexual violence in Australia.
“I think like most Australians, and I think particularly most Australian parents, I find it really disturbing the rubbish that is fed to our kids, and to our population more broadly, with these algorithms,” Chalmers said.
“It’s self-evident that social media, and particularly the way these social media algorithms work, are not doing us a lot of good,” he said. “It’s hard to mount a credible argument that what we’re seeing with social media algorithms is a force for good in our community or in our country.”
Chalmers has told journalists it is misleading to attribute “softness” in the housing market “to any one factor”.
“House prices and auction clearance rates were already softer before the budget, and that’s because – as a number of people have pointed out from outside the government – a key driver of that is interest rate movements, as well as developments in the economy more broadly,” he said.
“People are in a rush to reach conclusions about the next few years, based on the last few months.”
A new report by the Commonwealth Bank found that about 93 per cent of Australian suburbs recorded price falls in August. It marked the fifth consecutive month that prices of homes in almost all capital cities decreased, but predicted a price recovery would occur by next year.
When pressed on the CBA report, Chalmers said: “Even the Commonwealth Bank forecasts have house prices growing next year.”
Housing Minister Clare O’Neil said this morning that Australians should not be concerned about the downturn in house prices.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is addressing the media in Canberra, and has labelled economic data for the June quarter released by the ABS this morning “a robust result in really challenging international circumstances”.
Here’s how he opened his address to reporters:
The Australian economy is robust; it is resilient in the face of global uncertainty and conflict, and that’s the main takeout of these, from these national accounts.
Now, people are still under pressure, but we can see in these national accounts that incomes are growing, housing investment picked up, there’s a solid pipeline of business investment, and the private economy is driving the growth. When it comes to international benchmarks, our annual growth is as strong as the US and much stronger than every other major advanced economy.
The treasurer acknowledged the ongoing impacts of the US war with Iran on the Australian economy.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is addressing the media after national accounts from the June quarter were released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today. Follow along with our livestream.
The Australian economy grew by 0.4 per cent through the June quarter as Australian consumers spent more on electric vehicles as they deal with the fallout from the war against Iran.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics this morning reported that annual growth eased through 2025-26 to 2.1 per cent.
Household spending grew by 0.4 per cent in the quarter, accounting for half of the overall boost to growth.
But the growth in spending was largely driven by cars – electrics and hybrids. The bureau noted that there was a record sale of EVs and hybrids as people sought to avoid the surge in oil prices caused by the war.
It said other areas of discretionary spending were “subdued” due to rising cost of living pressures. This was most evident with a sharp drop in international tourism.
Essential spending also fell, particularly on electricity and gas caused by the warmer-than-normal winter.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned civilian airlines flying over Russian skies that they will no longer be safe from Ukrainian drones.
“Skies over Russia will close,” Zelensky said in a statement. “I am warning every airline using Russian airspace, every insurance company, everyone flying into key Russian airports: the sky is becoming completely unsafe.”
He added that while Ukraine is not targeting civil aviation, “there is no room for civil aircraft among drones”.
A number of Chinese and Middle Eastern airlines servicing European destinations routinely fly over Russian airspace.
