Australian news and politics recap: Opposition Leader Peter Dutton calls for interest rate relief from RBA
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Scroll back through for a recap on everything that’s happened, from predictions on tomorrow’s RBA interest rates decision to Sydney’s train chaos and the alarming state of Australia’s housing productivity. There was also another vile anti-Semitic attack.
Plus, Labor made an announcement on negative gearing and Newspoll released statistics on whether voters believe Labor deserves a second chance or not...
Join us at thenightly.com.au for our live blog on interest rates from 7.30am tomorrow.
Enjoy your evening!
Dutton ‘hopes’ for interest rate cut
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he “hopes” tomorrow will bring an interest rate cut.
“I really hope, for the sake of Australians who have had 12 interest rate increases under Mr Albanese, that there is a 25-point cut – or if it’s more than that, that’s fantastic,” he said at the Coffee Commune in Brisbane.
“Families need relief. But it’s not just if their mortgage comes down by 0.25 of 1 per cent. it’s the fact that when you go to Coles or Woollies or the IGA that you’re paying more and more and more for food and for produce.
“And it’s not just your household that’s paying more for insurance under the Albanese Government, or for electricity or for all of the other items in your household budget.
“It’s also the shop here. They’re paying more for their cold storage, more for the lights, more for the electricity to run the coffee grinder machines that we saw before.
“More of that cost is incurred by businesses, and they’ve either gone broke or they’re having to pass that cost on to consumers, which is why the price of coffee goes up.”
We reckon he’s not the only one living in hope ahead of tomorrow.
Notorious paedophile priest ‘on his death bed’
Gerald Ridsdale, the man believed to be Australia’s worst paedophile priest, is reportedly expected to die within days.
The 90-year-old is serving a maximum of 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing at least 72 children during the 1970s and ‘80s while working as a Catholic priest at multiple schools and churches across Victoria.
Sources have told the Herald Sun, that Ridsdale is on his death bed and “no longer opening his eyes or engaging”.
Holocaust survivor’s business location targeted in anti-Semitic attack
Vile anti-Semitic graffiti, including the words “Gas the Jews” has been sprayed across an Australian family business whose founders survived the Holocaust.
Gottlieb’s Building Supplies in Melbourne’s Malvern East was founded in 1965 and was a successful stalwart of the Melbourne building industry until its recent closure in 2024.
The business was family-owned and operated by four generations, serving Melbourne for nearly 60 years.
Now, its Dandenong Road building, still adorned with signage, stands as the latest target of hateful anti-Semitic attacks in Australia.
“Gas the Jews” and a nazi swastika were sprayed on a fence of the business site.
“It is believed that the roller door of a business on Dandenong Road was offensively graffitied sometime during 15 and 16 February,” a Victoria Police spokesperson told The Nightly.
“Investigators are keen to speak to anyone who has CCTV or dashcam footage that may assist the investigation.”
Addressing not just this incident, but the continued prominence of recent attacks on the Jewish community in Australia, Victoria Police said: “There is absolutely no place at all in our society for anti-Semitic or hate-based symbols and behaviour.”
Controversial senator weighs into anti-Semitic video furore
Controversial senator Fatima Payman has weighed into the furore over the vile anti-Semitic video showing two former NSW nurses last week.
Senator Payman said that the comments were “wrong” and that no one should be denied healthcare based on their nationality.
But she also took the opportunity to take a swipe at MPs and the media for what she claimed were “double standards”.
Sydney’s train system in chaos, again, as hundreds of workers call in sick
Commuters, business owners and service providers have been left angry and bewildered as the, ‘it’s not a train strike’ train strike caused another day of anguish for thousands trying to start their working week in Sydney.
Authorities confirmed that at least 210 workers either called in sick or failed to report for their Monday shift and 335 services had been cancelled so far.
The latest industrial action once again left thousands standing on platforms with services either cancelled or delayed, and a knock-on effect expected to keep the city’s transport system to a near standstill for the entire day.
Other stations and transport hubs have been left deserted as workers stayed home to avoid another morning of disappointments and aggravation.
Alarming state of housing productivity, calls to cut red tape
Australian builders are finishing half as many homes per hour as they were 30 years ago, prompting a top economic umpire to demand red tape be shredded to fix the housing crisis.
Construction has “consistently” under-performed the rest of the economy over that period, the Productivity Commission warned in a new report to be released Monday.
That malaise has added to costs, worsened the shortage of houses, and pushed the “Australian dream” further out of reach through surging prices.
It means the Federal Government will need to shake up the $83 billion sector to have any hope of hitting a national target to build 1.2 million new properties by 2030.
High on the Commission’s list for reform targets was the 2000-page National Construction Code, and the report called for a pause on updates to the builder’s rule book.
The Commission wants the NCC reviewed after a wave of regulations — including energy efficiency rules — added to building costs yet failed to deliver benefits to the community,
Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood said “the sheer volume of regulation” had a deadening effect on the industry.
“If governments are serious about getting more homes built, then they need to think harder about how their decisions unnecessarily restrict housing development and slow down the rate of new home building,” she said.
A lack of innovation, slow regulators, and the dominance of small building firms also slowed productivity, the report said.
Workers have been hoovered up by infrastructure projects and tradies struggle to switch States due to restrictions on their licences
Major projects can take 10 years to move from planning to completion, the analysis found.
Building a home will take 10 months from slab to finish, up from six months in 2014.
Boosting productivity would mean more homes could be built with fewer hours worked.
“Too many Australians, particularly younger Australians, are struggling to afford a home in which to live,” Ms Wood said.
“Governments are rightly focused on changing planning rules to boost the supply of new homes, but the speed and cost of new builds also matters.
“Lifting the productivity of home building will deliver more homes, regardless of what is happening with the workforce, interest rates, or (material) costs.”
New top cop ‘won’t solve law and order problems’ in Vic
Victoria’s opposition leader, and former police officer, Brad Battin says a change of leadership won’t resolve the systemic issues plaguing law and order in the state.
He made the comments after Victoria’s embattled top cop Shane Batten suddenly stepped down on Sunday evening “effective immediately”.
“The dismissal of the chief commissioner is also not going to change many of the frustrations that our officers are experiencing when the criminals they arrest are released hours later or the resources they need to do their jobs are not forthcoming,” he said in a statement.
Labor won’t touch negative gearing, CGT this election
Housing Minister Clare O’Neil has ruled out changes to negative gearing or capital gains tax in the lead-up to the election.
After months of the Government leaving the door open to make changes, Ms O’Neil categorically ruled out touching the policies on Monday morning.
“The reason for that is because we need to focus our efforts on building more supply and I think (people) would prefer the prime minister say really clearly, if we can’t prove measures won’t interrupt supply then we’re not going to proceed with it,” she told ABC.
“A big focus (of ours is) building, supporting renters, helping homeowners.”
“For 30 or 40 years we have not been building enough homes in Australia. Almost everything the Australian government is doing is making sure that we provide more housing for Australians and then give Australians the opportunity to buy into those homes.”
Labor on the weekend placed a two-year moratorium on foreign investors buying existing homes, their latest bid to ease the housing crisis. It will impact less than one per cent of buyers.
Ms O’Neil said that decision had been made because Australians were under “real pressure”, and not just because the Coalition had already announced such a plan.
But, she acknowledged it was “not a silver bullet”.
“There is no silver bullet to Australia’s housing crisis,” she said.
“If this was an easy problem to solve, a government would have done this a long time ago.”
Majority of voters think Labor doesn’t deserve second term
Just a third of Australians believe the Albanese Government should be re-elected for a second term, as Labor braces for a Federal election within months.
A Newspoll released by The Australian shows a majority of voters — 53 per cent — believed it was time for another party to govern, as the Coalition upheld its lead on the two-party preferred vote.
Another 13 per cent of voters did not know whether Labor deserved another term.
Holding a two-point lead over Labor, the Coalition remained steady at 51 per cent to 49 per cent, raising further concerns of a hung parliament and a minority government subject to the demands of the crossbench.
While the Liberals took a slight hit on primary support to 38 per cent, Labor remained steady at a term-low of 31 per cent.
Anthony Albanese maintained his narrow lead over Peter Dutton as preferred prime minister, 45 per cent to 40 per cent, but recorded his worst ever net approval rating, of negative 21 points.
Mr Dutton’s net approval improved slightly to minus 10 per cent.
The result comes after a wave of bad polls for Labor, and mounting concerns over whether the Government can secure a re-elected majority government at the next election.
Asked the same question a fortnight ago, just 35 per cent of West Australian voters believed the Albanese Government should be re-elected.
