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The Guardian
a day ago
- Business
- The Guardian
The politics of falling inflation has been clear – lower is better. But we should beware its flip side: slow growth
There is much to like in the latest inflation figures, which dropped to 2.1% in the year to June – and even to 1.9%, if you believe the less reliable monthly version. We have certainly come a long way in the two-and-a-half years since inflation reached nearly 8%. The most obvious takeaway is that the Reserve Bank board will surely cut the cash rate on 12 August. Michele Bullock, the central bank's governor, had previously made it clear that the holdouts on the monetary policy board were waiting for more comfort that inflation was tracking as expected. They have that now. Notably, the central bank's preferred 'underlying' inflation rate also eased, from 2.9% to 2.7%. That measure excludes volatile movements in the price of things such as petrol, fruit and vegetables and electricity, and it is in line with where the RBA's economists thought it would be. So, really, there's no convincing argument to not cut rates (besides its impact on a rapidly reheating housing market). Sign up: AU Breaking News email Economists agree. Stephen Smith, a partner at Deloitte Access Economics, said that interest rates were acting as a break on the economy, and that this was 'hard to justify given ongoing global economic volatility and the continued sluggishness of our own domestic economy'. After making high inflation public enemy number one during Labor's first term of government, it was no wonder Jim Chalmers hailed the ABS's latest consumer price report as 'stunning' and 'absolutely outstanding'. The upcoming economic reform roundtable is occupying much of the treasurer's attention, so of course he would prefer not to be forced into fighting a rear guard action against yesterday's villain. But another is looming on the horizon. The politics and economics of falling inflation has been clear: lower is better. It is worth remembering, however, the other side to low inflation, which is slow growth. The Australian economy expanded by just 0.2% through the first three months of this year, while annual growth stalled at 1.3%. Households are wary of opening their wallets, which has dragged on consumption in 2025. Growth in government spending, which propped up activity in 2024, is waning. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion So does that make an inflation rate of just 2% unalloyed good news, or a bit of a worry? 'Clearly, our economy is not growing as quickly as we would like,' Chalmers acknowledged during a doorstop in parliament house. 'We are attentive to those cyclical issues [such as] weaker growth, getting on top of inflation,' Chalmers said. 'But we're also increasingly focused on the bigger structural issues – productivity growth in our economy, the intergenerational challenge.' As much as he would like to focus on the future, the last thing we need as a country is to get mired in the low-growth, low-inflation, low-wage world that preceded the pandemic. The economic implications of disinflation may be changing, and the political implications with it.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Albanese says banning children from social media ‘not going to be easy' as key questions unanswered
Anthony Albanese admits banning children from social media 'is not going to be simple', with questions still unanswered over how tech platforms will check the ages of all Australian users – and which platforms will be included – when the government imposes its under 16s social media ban this year. The communications minister, Anika Wells, said on Wednesday the onus will be on platforms to design simple solutions, claiming there are 'lots of ways' tech companies could check the ages of their users. The government is still waiting on results from a trial of age assurance technology, but is pressing on with plans for the ban to come into force on 10 December. 'We will not be intimidated by legal threats, when this is a genuine fight for the wellbeing of Australian kids,' Wells said on Wednesday. Sign up: AU Breaking News email The government announced on Wednesday it would backflip on an earlier stance and include YouTube in the under 16s social media ban after all. The Google-owned video platform had earlier been promised an exemption, but it will now join Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, X and TikTok on the list of platforms to be banned for those under 16. While the government named select platforms in its announcement, the rules do not specify platforms covered by the ban, but instead list factors that could see platforms excluded from the ban. Smaller services – such as Discord, Twitch, Trump's Truth Social or X rival Bluesky – may be required to comply. The rules would seemingly exclude LinkedIn, which had argued to the government during the development of the legislation it was not something that was of interest to children. From December, platforms which do not take 'reasonable steps' to stop children from holding accounts on those platforms will be liable for fines up to $49.5m. Wells said such platforms will have to deactivate existing accounts of children, ensure no new ones are established and stop any efforts to skirt those rules. But some major tech platforms have privately raised concerns about a lack of information about what they must to do to meet the 'reasonable steps' test, including what new barriers or verification methods they must add to their services. The government is expected to share more information and guidance about such steps in coming months. Wells pushed back on the concerns of the platforms, saying the government had outlined its expectations last year when the legislation passed parliament, and that the tech companies should be engaging with the eSafety commissioner on their responses. 'Social media platforms have been on notice since December last year that this was coming. They have had 12 months to work with the eSafety Commissioner to determine what that looks like for their individual platforms,' she told a press conference in Parliament House. 'The onus here is on the platforms. Come 10 December, if your kid has a Facebook login, Facebook account, it is on Facebook to deactivate that account. It's not on the parent to police that on behalf of Facebook. 'These are not set-and-forget rules, these are set-and-support rules. They are world-leading. But this is manifestly too important for us not to have a crack.' YouTube last week wrote to the government, vowing to consider legal action if it was included in the ban. The company on Wednesday claimed YouTube was a video platform 'not social media'. 'We share the government's goal of addressing and reducing online harms,' a spokesperson said. 'The government's announcement today reverses a clear, public commitment to exclude YouTube from this ban. We will consider next steps and will continue to engage with the government.' Albanese said the government wanted to be 'cooperative' but believed tech companies could implement the ban with existing information they held. 'We acknowledge that this is not going to be simple or easy … Some of this will be inevitably a work-in-progress,' he said. 'But what we know is that social media does have more information about what [a person] does than perhaps some people who are your close friends. Where you go, who you talk to, what you're interested in, you know, they do keep that information … They can use the capacity which we know that they have.' While the Coalition backed the social media ban, the shadow communications minister, Melissa McIntosh, accused the government of a 'blatant broken promise' over including YouTube after its prior exemption. 'When the government introduced the legislation in November, they specifically excluded YouTube. This was the premise on which the legislation passed the Parliament,' she said. 'The Albanese Labor government can change a Minister, but they cannot hide the fact they deliberately misled the public,' McIntosh said. Greens spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young called the push 'delusional', calling for stricter rules and a duty of care for users. 'A blanket ban is simply a blunt instrument that will not make kids safer, we know that kids are going to get around it.' Albanese will use the United Nations general assembly in September to drum up international support for Australia's world-first social media crackdown. He said Australia would hold an event at the session in New York City, to advocate for the policy.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Science
- The Guardian
‘We have a cloud, and that's the end': first Australian-made orbital rocket crashes shortly after takeoff
The spaceship hovered for less than a minute before crashing in a giant plume of smoke, but it was history-making nonetheless – the attempted launch of an orbital rocket designed and made in Australia. The Eris rocket was built by Gold Coast-based Gilmour Space and briefly blasted off from the Bowen orbital spaceport in north Queensland on Wednesday morning, after months of waiting for the right conditions. The orbit attempt was watched on from the surrounding hills by enthusiasts and streamed live by the likes of YouTuber Josh Keegan, also known as Aussienaut. Sign up: AU Breaking News email 'OK we're going, we're going, it's going!' Keegan said with breathless excitement after a second day of patient watching – but the celebrations did not last long. 'It's gone, it's gone,' Keegan said seconds later. 'Oh no, it didn't go, there wasn't sufficient thrust to actually keep it up. 'I believe that's the end of the Eris rocket. We have a cloud, and that's the end.' But while the billow of smoke may have marked the end of Eris, Gilmour and the nascent Australian space industry hope this failed orbit attempt will prove just a beginning. Gilmour Space issued a statement shortly afterwards saying Eris's 14 seconds of flight brought Australia closer to the club of six nations who regularly launch spacecraft to orbit. 'For a maiden test flight, especially after an extended 18-month wait on the pad for final approvals, this is a strong result and a major step forward for Australia's sovereign space capability,' the statement read. 'Most importantly, the team is safe and energised for Test Flight 2.' The company's CEO, Adam Gilmour, posted on social media that he was happy with the launch attempt. 'Got off the Pad, I am happy,' he wrote. 'Of course I would have liked more flight time but happy with this.' Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The 23-metre-long, 30-tonne rocket was covered in sensors from which the Queensland company will hope to glean information to assist future launch attempts. One Giant Leap Australia Foundation, which develops education programs geared toward growing a future workforce in the space industry, was among those to congratulate Gilmour Space for a 'sterling effort'. 'The only way to learn is to fail forward,' it posted on social media. 'We know more today than we did yesterday.' Gilmour Space was poised to launch on Tuesday but winds were too strong. It had also sought to launch in May but did not. The company received $5m from the Australian government for its Eris launch vehicle last week to develop its next-generation liquid rocket engine.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Moral momentum': Ed Husic says Australia should immediately join UK in preparing to recognise Palestinian state
Labor MP Ed Husic says Australia should immediately join the UK in preparing to recognise Palestinian statehood, describing a tide of 'moral momentum' that requires the Albanese government to reconsider its position on the war in Gaza. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will hold more talks with his UK counterpart, Keir Starmer, in coming days, but has stopped short of matching Starmer's promise to recognise the state of Palestine in September unless Israel abides by a ceasefire and commits to a two-state solution. Husic, an increasingly outspoken member of the Labor caucus, said recognising statehood would deprive terror group Hamas of its power over Gaza and ultimately speed up the peace process and the flow of urgently needed humanitarian aid. Sign up: AU Breaking News email 'Hamas is built largely on grievance,' Husic said in the hours after Starmer's announcement on Wednesday. 'That grievance gets removed with the establishment of a state of Palestine, nurtured with the cooperation and support of the international community, progressed through the development of democratic institutions.' The former minister has previously called for Australia to immediately follow the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in recognising statehood. He said colleagues on Labor's backbench should speak up in favour of such a move. 'There is a deep feeling within the caucus, about how right it is to recognise Palestine, and I would much rather that colleagues speak for themselves.' Australia has joined 14 other countries to describe the recognition of Palestine as 'an essential step towards the two-state solution', linking progress on statehood to the upcoming United Nations general assembly meeting in September. Foreign Minister Penny Wong joined an international statement calling for a ceasefire in the conflict, while reiterating an 'unwavering commitment to the vision of the two-state solution where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognised borders'. Canada, France, New Zealand, Norway and Spain were among a large group of signatories. It came as the death toll from Israeli attacks in the war passed 60,000 people, according to Gaza health ministry figures, almost half of them women and children. Albanese said he spoke with Starmer overnight and the pair would speak again in coming days. The government had previously signalled it would move in concert with close international partners. 'What I've said is that it's not the timeline, that's not what we're looking at. What we're looking at is the circumstances where recognition will advance the objective of the creation of two states,' Albanese said at Parliament House. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'I've said for a long time, my entire political life, I've said I support two states … that's my objective. Not making a statement, not giving a political point, but achieving peace.' Albanese this week accused Israel of a breach of international law in blocking aid into Gaza, saying 'you can't hold innocent people responsible' for the actions of Hamas, and warning that Benjamin Netanyahu's government is 'losing support' internationally. Opposition frontbencher James Paterson stopped short of blaming Israel for starvation of the population in Gaza, saying only it was very clear 'real suffering' was taking place. 'I'm not in a position to independently assess the evidence that's coming out of Gaza,' he told ABC radio on Wednesday. 'I'm not there on the ground, and I haven't got the advice to independently assess it, and so I'm being cautious about this – because Hamas is a terrorist organisation who initiated this conflict on 7 October, who still hold 50 Israelis as hostages, and have consistently shown no regard for the lives of the Palestinian people, let alone the Israeli people.' On Tuesday, opposition leader Sussan Ley avoided criticising Israel. Asked directly if people in Gaza are facing starvation, Ley repeatedly said only that it was a 'complex situation'.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Advocates criticise ‘dangerous' NT plan to reintroduce spit hoods in youth detention centres
A controversial plan to reinstate spit hoods in the Northern Territory's youth detention centres has come under fire, with critics calling it a 'dangerous tactic'. Spit hoods are set to return to NT youth detention centres for the first time in almost 10 years as part of youth justice measures debated by the territory parliament this week. The Country Liberal party government has vowed to table the youth justice legislation 'on urgency' after a 15-year-old was stabbed and seriously injured in front of shocked onlookers at the Royal Darwin Show on Saturday. Sign up: AU Breaking News email A 15-year-old has been charged, with police alleging the teenager knew the victim. NT police confirmed in October spit hoods had been made available to use on youths in police watch houses and cells, with strict protocols. The proposed youth justice law changes would extend the use of the hoods to youth detention centres, reversing a ban imposed eight years ago. The Aboriginal affairs minister, Steve Edgington, defended the move, saying they were already being used in adult settings. 'When young people come into custody that are spitting, biting their tongue and spitting blood at correctional officers, we want to ensure that our frontline staff are protected,' he told reporters on Tuesday. 'We're hoping that we will never need to use these.' The CLP promised during the NT election in 2024 to reintroduce spit hoods for youth detainees. A 2016 ABC Four Corners report into the NT's Don Dale youth detention centre prompted outrage over the use of spit hoods and led to the then prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, announcing a royal commission into juvenile justice in the territory. The NT government stopped the use of spit hoods and restraint chairs in youth detention centres in 2017, after the federal government's formal endorsement of a United Nations protocol against torture and inhumane punishments. In 2022, the use of spit hoods for under-18s in police custody was also banned by the then NT Labor government. A return of spit hoods at youth detention centres has been condemned by advocacy groups who say it breaches international law, will traumatise children and not lead to safer communities. The Justice Reform Initiative executive director, Mindy Sotiri, said the use of spit hoods was known to seriously harm children and increase the likelihood of reoffending. 'When children are mistreated in places of detention they come out of prison much more disconnected, much more traumatised,' she said. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Prison guards were being given the power to use devices that were internationally recognised as 'cruel, degrading and inhumane', the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services said. The Natsils chair, Karly Warner, said children as young as 10 would be subject to the 'dangerous tactic' when they most needed care, support and guidance. The NT children's commissioner, Shahleena Musk, said the territory was the only Australian jurisdiction reverting to using spit hoods on children. 'This is against international law and is incredibly risky,' she told the ABC. 'It has actually led to deaths in custody in other jurisdictions.' The NT opposition leader, Selena Uibo, described the youth crime overhaul as 'rushed, kneejerk laws'. She said Labor needed more information about the safety difference between spit hoods and the new guards. Other proposed legislative changes by the NT government include considering a youth's full criminal history when sentencing for adult offences and removing detention as a last resort. Youth justice officers will have greater powers to use reasonable force to 'maintain safety and prevent escapes'.
