TRANSCRIPT
The Reserve Bank of Australia has kept interest rates on hold, denying borrowers back-to-back mortgage relief.
In a move widely expected by economists, the R-B-A's new monetary policy board held the cash rate steady at 4.1 per cent at its meeting today.
Markets had priced in just a ten per cent chance of a cut, despite the central bank kicking off a long-awaited rate easing cycle in February.
Despite the lack of further relief for borrowers, Treasurer Jim Chalmers maintains that his government have turned Australia's economic fortunes around.
"Rates have already started coming down this year and that's a good thing. When we came to office inflation and interest rates were both rising and now inflation and interest rates are both falling. This reflects the progress we've made together as Australians on inflation. Now we know that cost-of-living is front-of-mind for many Australians and it's absolutely front-and-centre in the budget I handed down last week and it's central to the big differences between the parties as well."
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Australia will not compromise on bio-security, medicine prices or its crackdown on social media companies when negotiating on trade with the United States.
Mr Albanese was asked about a new U-S trade report which lists a series of grievances the Trump administration has with the Australian government.
It comes ahead of a new wave of tariffs due to be announced on what Donald Trump has called "liberation day" later this week.
The Prime Minister says he's still hoping for a positive outcome from negotiations with the U-S, but not at any cost.
"One is the news bargaining code, the second is pharmaceuticals and the third is bio-security. Those issues are not up for negotiation from the Australian Government. We will defend Australia's interests. The idea that we would weakened bio-security laws is like cutting off your nose to spite your face. In order to defend the exports that total less than 5 per cent of Australia's exports, you undermine our bio-security system. Not on my watch."
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Foreign Minister Penny Wong says Australia is reshaping its humanitarian priorities in the wake of the United States slashing its global aid program.
U-S President Donald Trump is currently dismantling U-S-A-I-D, the agency responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance.
Most of its grants are being terminated.
The move is already having severe repercussions for impoverished or war-stricken countries who remain reliant on international assistance for food and medicine.
In the latest federal budget, the Albanese government delivered a slight boost to the $5 billion annual foreign aid spend in line with inflation, redirecting a $120 million from global funds to programs in the Indo-Pacific region.
Ms Wong says Australia must focus on its immediate security interests.
"There was an increase in the budget in aid in accordance with indexation and its a big difference from the billions of dollars that Peter Dutton and the Coalition took out of aid while in office which left a vacuum in the Pacific for others to fill so had a direct impact on Australia's national security. We have reshaped the aid budget to reflect the reality of the U-S-AID cuts. The vast majority of Australian aid goes to the Pacific and Southeast Asia because it's in this region that Australia's security interests lie."
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Opposition leader Peter Dutton says education funding should be made conditional upon whether states can agree to remove what he calls a "woke agenda" from Australian schools.
Speaking to Sky News last night, Mr Dutton says he believes students are being indoctrinated at their schools with an agenda stemming from universities.
He also raised potential cuts to the Education Department.
And today, when asked again about the issue, he says he wants students to think for themselves.
"I want to make sure our kids, whether they are school or secondary school or young Australians at universities, are receiving the education of their parents would expect them to receive. And our position will reflect community standards in relation to what is being taught at our schools and our universities. I support young Australians being able to think freely, being able to assess what is before them, and not being indoctrinated with what is the agenda of others."
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Education Minister Jason Clare has condemned Opposition leader Peter Dutton's claims that Australian schools have been infiltrated by a "woke agenda", claiming children should be protected from the Coalition's own agenda.
Mr Clare says the school curriculum Mr Dutton's complaining about is one approved by the Coalition.
"I’m focused on making sure that our kids can read and write, not this extreme agenda of Peter Dutton. The curriculum that he's talking about is a curriculum that was signed off on by the former Liberal government three years ago today, 1st of April 2022. When Peter Dutton started saying today that he’s going to cut funding to health and education, I thought it was an April fool’s, but he said it last night as well. And that should put the fear of God into any Australian that cares about our kids."
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Poland's Secretary of State says United States President Donald Trump must act economically against Russia if he wants the war in Ukraine to end quickly.
It comes as MrTrump says he doesn't want to move forward on previously threatened tariffs on Russia as he pushes for Russian President Vladimir Putin to follow through on his part of the proposed peace deal.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, the U-S and European Union applied tariffs aimed at blocking their international oil sales.
Since then, Russia has used what's been called a "shadow fleet" of 1000 ships to evade these sanctions.
Polish Secretary of State Wɫadysɫaw Bartoszewski told S-B-S that if Mr Trump punishes countries that accept Russian oil, Russia will be under pressure to end the war soon.
"So if President Trump wants to have a quick peace agreement on reasonable terms, he has to put pressure on Putin. So we'll see. I mean secondary sanctions on countries which buy near Russian oil and gas would be lethal for Russia. Lethal. Absolutely, because all the money they make is because of selling illegal sales of oil and gas because they cannot sell it by pipelines. So we'll see. But that would be the most effective way to end the war fast."
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In cricket, opening batsman Sam Konstas has earned his first central contract with Cricket Australia.
The 19-year-old rose to fame upon the international cricket scene with a spectacular innings on test debut in December against India in Melbourne.
The central contract will put him on an annual retainer worth at least several hundred thousand dollars - and that's before any match payments.
The Chair of Selectors for the men's national team, George Bailey, says Konstas is a young player with promising upside who will continue to develop.
Two other players are on the annual central contracts for the first time - all-rounder Beau Webster, and spin bowler Matt Kuhnemann.
