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 coalition will support the Albanese government’s tax cuts, the Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton, confirmed today.
Flanked by the Shadow Treasurer, Angus Taylor, and the Shadow Finance Minister, Senator Jane Hume, Dutton said “the coalition is not going to stand in the way of people who are doing it tough”.
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”.
Greg Combet, a former minister in the Rudd-Gillard governments, has been appointed Chairman of the Future Fund.
Greg Combet, new Chairman of the Future Fund
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.
Australia Day 1973 passed almost unnoticed, according to one radio news report, but Gough Whitlam used his 53rd day as prime minister to announce a search for a new national anthem.
Listen to a news report from radio 3DB in Melbourne on January 26, 1973, including a clip from Whitlam’s speech (1m)
Whitlam’s announcement of a replacement for God Save the Queen came in his Australia Day address. He said:
The Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton, has responded to the Prime Minister’s Press Club appearance today.
The rhetoric could charitably be described as over-the-top:
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.
This is the official timetable of key dates for the Dunkley by-election on March 2, 2024.
The dates show the election is being conducted within the minimum timeframe whereby polling day must be no less than 33 days from the issue of the writ.
2024 Dunkley By-Election Timetable
Event
Date
Explanation