Australia news LIVE: Trump expected to set new tariffs within hours; ASIO boss says espionage costing Australians billions every year
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6.54am
Trump envoy to visit Gaza to witness starvation crisis 'first-hand'
By Michael Koziol
US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Gaza to assess what the White House called a 'dire' starvation crisis first-hand, and formulate a plan to deliver more food.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Witkoff and US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee would enter Gaza on Friday, local time, following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.
They would inspect the current food and aid distribution sites and 'secure a plan to deliver more food, and meet with local Gazans to hear first-hand about this dire situation on the ground ', she said.
Following that they would immediately brief Trump and approve a final plan for food and aid distribution to the region, Leavitt said.
6.52am
Albanese's allies work to kill off anti-AUKUS push
By Paul Sakkal and Kieran Rooney
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's allies are scrambling to put a lid on an anti-AUKUS grassroots Labor move that threatens to complicate a US probe into the submarine pact.
The party's Victorian Left faction, led by minister Andrew Giles and who back the prime minister, are lobbying behind the scenes to water down a motion submitted by the anti-US Labor Against War to Labor's state conference on Saturday that slams US President Donald Trump and demands the government 'withdraw' from AUKUS.
The push comes at a time when the Pentagon is reviewing the $360 billion nuclear deal and the US Navy is concerned the country is not building enough nuclear submarines to sell any to Australia in the 2030s without a dramatic increase in production.
6.43am
What's making news today
By Daniel Lo Surdo
Hello and welcome to the national news live blog. My name is Daniel Lo Surdo, and I'll be helming our live coverage this morning.
Here's what is making news today:
US President Donald Trump is expected to sign executive orders within hours to set new tariffs on American trading partners, threatening an increase to the baseline 10 per cent tariff levelled at Australian imports. It comes three days after Trump suggested sweeping tariffs of 15 to 20 per cent on all global trade partners unable to negotiate a deal with the US if an agreement was not struck before the August 1 deadline.
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess has revealed espionage is costing Australia an estimated $12.5 billion a year, warning that more than 35,000 Australians have exposed themselves to danger by 'recklessly' boasting their access to sensitive information online. Burgess said ASIO had disrupted 24 major espionage and foreign interference operations in the past three years, more than the previous eight years combined.
Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Gaza to assess what the White House called a 'dire' starvation crisis first-hand, and formulate a plan to deliver more food. Witkoff and US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee would enter Gaza on Friday (local time) before briefing Trump and approving a final food and aid distribution plan.
The Australian sharemarket is expected to fall after Wall Street retreated in response to the White House's demand for 17 pharmaceutical companies negotiate harder with other countries to return extra profits to Americans. Health stocks, including Eli Lilly and UnitedHealth Group, were among the biggest laggards on Wall Street.
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Sky News AU
16 minutes ago
- Sky News AU
Arab states call on Hamas to lay down arms and return hostages
Former Labor adviser Bruce Hawker discusses Arab states calling on Hamas to lay down its arms and return the Israeli hostages during a United Nations conference in New York. 'Things are happening there which have the potential to start to at least take the pressure off the horrible events which we are witnessing on a daily basis in Gaza,' Mr Hawker told Sky News Australia. 'Anthony Albanese will want to be part of the solution to those terrible problems.'
News.com.au
26 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Donald Trump's tariffs have a large role to play in Australia's interest rates cycle
When the RBA handed down its most interest rate decision last month, it shocked economists and the public by holding the cash rate at 3.85 per cent. The widely held consensus had been strongly in favour of another 0.25 per cent cut to follow the previous one in May. In the weeks since the Reserve Bank's decision, economic data has been mixed, with some elements such as the recent retail sales report providing support for the RBA's message of caution, while on the other hand, the recent substantial rise in unemployment was far more supportive of the cash rate being cut. In several important ways the RBA's uncertainty about the path forward for interest rates is arguably justified. Trump, Trade And Global Uncertainty At a global scale, the implementation of the Trump Administration's various tariffs and threats of even greater trade barriers to nation's not willing to make a swift agreement with the United States remains a source of major questions for central banks around the world. The challenge posed by tariffs to the path of interest rates was recently summed up by JPMorgan Chase (the world's most valuable bank) CEO Jamie Dimon at an event hosted by the Irish government. 'The market is pricing a 20% chance (of rising interest rates). I would price in a 40-50% chance I would put that as a cause for concern,' Dimon said. Dimon went on to cite the Trump administration's tariffs, the restructuring of global trade and the growing U.S government budget deficit as inflationary forces impacting the path forward for interest rates. While U.S interest rates can and do rise and fall independently of those of other nations, they are also the most important global benchmark. Theoretically, the U.S Federal Reserve holding a higher interest rate than the RBA can have two major knock on effects for Australia. It can force a repricing of Australian interest rates to better reflect the global benchmark. Or if the RBA chooses to allow the distance between the RBA cash rate and the U.S federal funds rate to expand, it places downward pressure on the value of the Australian dollar in a vacuum. A Mixed Bag For Australia At a domestic level, there is also a high degree of uncertainty impacting the path forward for interest rates. With government currently the driving force behind broader economic growth and employment growth in generally taxpayer funded sectors of the economy (public administration, education and, healthcare and social assistance) the main driver of the resilience of the labour market, it's challenging for the RBA to know exactly when a rate cut would be appropriate. Meanwhile, the deeply mixed nature of retail sales growth depending on the lens with which it is viewed also complicates matters. For example, looking at the latest headline retail sales showing a 1.2 per cent rise in turnover or June in a vacuum, it would be hard to justify a rate cut. But when the focus is shifted to an inflation adjusted figure that looks at retail sales per working age adult, the data for the June quarter reveals a return to recession in per capita terms. This is due to expansion of the population, the vast majority of which is occurring via migration acting as more or less the only driver of the retail economy in aggregate. History And Market Pricing Based on RBA rate cut cycles seen in the last 35 years, where the cash rate has been cut by at least one percentage point, the average rate cut cycle sees mortgage rates fall by approximately 33.3 per cent. If we remove the rate cut cycles driven by major emergencies such as the Global Financial Crisis and the early 1990s recession, the average reduction in mortgage rates falls to 27.0 per cent. If we were to see a similar reduction in interest rates today, we would see a total fall in the cash rate of approximately 1.75 percentage points. This would leave the average payable rate on a variable mortgage for an owner occupier at 4.58 per cent. In terms of the pricing of the future path of interest rates from financial markets, the next full 0.25 per cent rate cut is priced in for the RBA's August meeting, with the next expected to follow in November. Overall, market pricing has interest rates falling by a total 1.33 percentage points, with the cash rate hitting a low of 3.02 per cent during the middle of next year. The Outlook For Rates While the direction of interest rates is ultimately in the hands of the Reserve Bank, under the current circumstances government is also playing a significantly greater role in influencing the path forward than has been historically normal. With the growth in the domestic consumer economy concentrated in the 65 and over age demographic and otherwise reliant on population growth, the level of migration set by the Albanese government will be vital in determining to what degree aggregate consumer demand is weak enough to warrant further cuts in interest rates. Meanwhile, the level of employment growth stemming from government policy will also be a key consideration. If the current pullback continues without a corresponding increase from the private sector, the urgency and magnitude with which the RBA approaches the ongoing rate cut cycle may intensify significantly. Ultimately, it's entirely possible that events beyond our shores end up playing a significant role in the direction of Australian interest rates, whether that be as a result of President Trump's tariffs or the Chinese economy slowing more swiftly than expected due to the ongoing trade conflict and still simmering domestic economic issues.
The Age
an hour ago
- The Age
On Labor's pitch for working from home, Allan finds her cause
In the nearly two years since she became Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan has never been entirely in sync with the Labor machine. Where Dan Andrews was both a central cog and its chief engineer, it has taken a while for Allan and the other moving parts on Victorian Labor's election-winning assembly line to fully understand each other and how best to roll the finished product into the November 2026 state poll. At Moonee Valley Racecourse on Saturday, the venue for this year's ALP state conference, we saw the pieces coming together. The premier walked in and left the conference main hall to a standing ovation, the room having been primed by a slick campaign video marrying Allan's voice and image with the 'On your side' slogan the party will use in the lead-up to the election. When the video started playing before Allan's putative rival, Deputy Premier Ben Carroll, had finished his speech, it was further evidence that Labor gods are now smiling on a state leader who, only a few months ago, was put in deep freeze by her own party during the federal campaign. The change in Allan and Victorian Labor from the dog days of late summer, when senior party figures were reeling from the results of a Resolve poll published by this masthead showing only one-fifth of voters intended to vote for the party at the next state election, goes beyond the atmospherics on the conference floor. The centrepiece of Allan's speech was a promise to legislate the right of people to work from home two days a week in jobs where this is possible. This is very much Allan's policy, developed by her advisers and approved by a cabinet subcommittee of senior ministers she chairs, rather that going to full cabinet or caucus for debate.
