Blogotariat

The Reserve Bank has left the cash rate unchanged at 4.35%, in a decision announced today.

The cash rate has now been held at 4.35% for the past four months.

In a statement released today, the RBA board says that inflation has moderated but is still high. It says the “outlook is highly uncertain”.

• Interest Rate Movements Since 1990

Watch RBA Governor Michele Bullock’s press conference (39m):

The commercial future of AI will soon be bigger than the actions of any firm, individual, research team, or open-source community. In the near term, a massive tailwind of potential use cases and nearly completed projects will determine the rate of progress in creating value for users and suppliers. Still, the source of the next frontier commercial breakthrough and the distribution of profits look undetermined and, for reasons to be explained, underdetermined.

The Defence Minister, Richard Marles, has announced an upgrade and expansion of the Australian Navy to give it an “enhanced lethality surface combatant fleet”.

Flanked by the Pat Conroy, the Minister for Defence Industry, Marles announced an additional $11 billion over the next decade. The money will be used to expand the Navy’s fleet of warships to 26 vessels, an increase of 15 craft.

Commitments to the construction of naval vessels in South Australia and Western Australia were reiterated, with ship workers being promised work for deacdes.

The Reserve Bank of Australia today made no change to the cash rate, leaving it at 4.35%.

The 4.35% rate has been in force since November 2023.

The bank’s decision is its first in a restructured process. As part of the new processes, the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Michele Bullock, held a press conference an hour after the bank’s decision was announced.

Watch Michele Bullock’s press conference (45m)

The Chinese Australian writer Yang Hengjun has been sentenced to death by a court in China.

Yang Hengjun

Yang Hengjun, a pro-democracy activist, has been detained for the past five years. His death sentence will likely be commuted to life imprisonment after two years of “good behaviour”.

This is the video of Governor-General David Hurley’s 2024 Australia Day Address.

The Address was shown on ABC television at 6.55pm on Australia Day.

The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has defended the changes the government has made to the Stage 3 tax cuts.

In an address to the National Press Club, Albanese confirmed that the tax system will remain progressive with the reintroduction of the 37% tax scale. Whereas the Stage 3 cuts excluded people on lower incomes, all taxpayers will now receive a tax cut from July 1, but those on higher incomes have had their cut reduced.

The libertarian economist and newly-elected President of Argentina, Javier Milei, has delivered a strident defence of capitalism at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Reflecting a growing view being expressed by emerging right-wing leaders around the world, Milei said: “Unfortunately, in recent decades, the main leaders of the Western world have abandoned the model of freedom for different versions of what we call collectivism. Some have been motivated by well-meaning individuals who are willing to help others, and others have been motivated by the wish to belong to a privileged caste.”