Besides the RBA decison at 2.30pm, the other big political story of the day is that Larissa Waters is standing down as Greens leader.
She said last night that a kidney disease she has been managing has recently worsened and that she needs to stand down.
Here’s our story from political editor Tom McIlroy:
Related: Larissa Waters steps down as Greens leader due to ill health
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has defended his economic record on the eve of what is widely expected to be the fourth interest rate rise of 2026, as the Reserve Bank remains concerned about persistent inflation.
The RBA board is poised to hike the cash rate from 4.35% to 4.6% on Tuesday, which would be the fourth increase in 2026 and push typical home loan interest rates to 6.5%.
Speaking on the ABC’s 7.30 program last night, Chalmers emphasised the factors contributing to inflation, saying that Australia was performing well considering what was going on in the world, particularly in the Middle East.
We have a lot going for us and we’ve got a lot of work to do to make sure that in these difficult global circumstances Australia continues to out-perform the world.
We have a big inflation challenge in our economy. It’s made much worse by decisions taken on the other side of the world.
From an economic point of view this war in Iran has been an absolute disaster for Australian families, because they have been asked to pay a hefty price.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Nick Visser with the main action.
Jim Chalmers has defended his stewardship of the economy ahead of what is widely expected to be the fourth interest rate rise of 2026 as the Reserve Bank tries to bring down persistent inflation. More coming up.
Besides the RBA decision at 2.30pm, the other big political story of the day is that Larissa Waters is standing down as Greens leader. We’ll have reaction as it comes in this morning plus the latest on who might replace her.
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