Australian news and politics: Nab drops interest rates, Antoinette Lattouf court case, US tariff reaction

This concludes our live politics and news coverage for the day. Thanks for following along.

Scroll back through to catch up on updates on the impacts of Donald Trump’s tariffs, Australia’s anti-Semitism crisis, Labor’s ‘attack ads’ on Peter Dutton, mortgage rates and more.

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Donald Trump’s tariff madness is already causing widespread disruption, and despite the cautious optimism from the Federal Government that Australia may stay out of the firing line, the precedent has been set.

Get ready for serious instability in the global economy.

Mr Trump may be holding a gun to the head of his closest neighbours and trading partners to stop immigration and drugs, but he seems hellbent on exercising power over any country he can.

A 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods — excluding oil, which gets 10 per cent — and a 25 per cent tariff on Mexico is disastrous for those two trading partners, likely to smash their economies, wiping three per cent and two per cent off GDP, respectively.

Canada has already said it will fight back, threatening 25 per cent counter-tariffs on more than 1,200 imported US products. An additional 10 per cent tariff on Chinese goods will further tighten the screws on the world’s largest manufacturer.

Europe will likely also be hit, with Mr Trump telling reporters tariffs “will definitely happen with the European Union.” In response, the EU has said it will “respond firmly” to any US tariff.

Markets are in no doubt about the danger. Early trading on the Australian Stock Exchange saw 2 per cent wiped off its value, while U.S. stock futures plunged by a similar amount. The markets are responding to a situation where everything gets more expensive.

That means dumping risks for safe havens, fretting about the resilience of the consumer in the face of higher prices, and planning for higher interest rates, which will reduce company earnings.

Read the full analysis here.

As Australian Jews endure the awful experience of being shamed, threatened and attacked in a country they had assumed was a haven, a foundational anti-Semitic argument is being debated in room 16a of the Federal Court in Sydney: the Jewish media conspiracy theory.

On Monday, a barrister representing Antoinette Lattouf, a stand-in ABC radio broadcaster, argued the passionate Palestinian advocate was fired in 2023 because of “a group of people the ABC identified as a pro-Israel lobby, who openly targeted her for her opinions”.

“She was the target of a campaign coordinated by persons, some of whom are unknown, some known,” he said. “The objective of the campaign was to convince the ABC to dismiss Ms Lattouf post-haste.”

The lawyer did not identify Lattouf’s antagonists as Jewish. That was unnecessary. It is axiomatic the Jewish state’s main supporters are.

The civil trial, which began Monday, is remarkable for the audacity of its core argument: Lattouf alleges the ABC’s most senior members, starting with media veteran and chairman Ita Buttrose, were coerced to fire the previously obscure journalist three days into a five-day contract because of Lattouf’s Arab race and political beliefs.

Neither, of course, are grounds for dismissal in any civilised nation. The implication is that a cabal of Jews, led in this case by a group called Lawyers for Israel, can control the media.

The theory has a long and ugly history.

Read the full analysis here

It’s now been confirmed that a teenage girl has suffered life-threatening injuries in the Bribie Island shark attack.

Paramedics are at the scene as we speak.

Follow the latest here.

We’re hearing breaking news that a woman has been seriously injured in a shark attack at Bribie Island.

Emergency services rushed to the scene at 4.45pm local time.

Bribie Island is north of Brisbane, not far from the Sunshine Coast.

We’ll bring you more on this developing story as it comes to hand.

The Coalition will this week call for threats against places of worship to be included in a new Bill on hate crimes after leader Peter Dutton warned someone could die amid a nationwide spike in anti-Semitic attacks.

Nicola Smith reports that shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash told The Nightly the Coalition would push to tighten the bill to specifically mention places of worship.

“The Hate Crimes Bill needs to be strengthened to include people who urge or threaten attacks against places of worship. The recent discovery of a caravan of explosives apparently intended for an attack on a synagogue highlights the need for those offences,” she said.

“We intend to move those amendments and hope the government will support them.”

Labor sources have warned the amendments, and a crossbench move to toughen wording around vilification could make the bill more divisive, risking its failure.

Read the story in full here.

It’s official - the ASX has suffered its single biggest drop since September after Donald Trump’s tariff announcement rocked the markets.

AAP reports that the tariffs are the first shot in what promises to be a trade war that could batter the global economy.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index suffered its worst loss in four months on Monday, dropping 152.9 points, or 1.79 per cent, to a two-week low of 8379.4.

The broader All Ordinaries fell 161.3 points, or 1.84 per cent, to 8628.4.

The Australian dollar meanwhile fell under 61 US cents for the first time since early in the COVID-19 pandemic, dropping as low as 60.88 US cents.

By late Monday afternoon it was back over that level but still down sharply, buying 61.22 US cents, from 62.25 US cents at Friday’s ASX close.

It might not be political but make no mistake - Beyonce winning album of the year at the Grammys is about as big a deal as you can get.

Despite being the most-awarded artist in Grammy history, Queen Bey had never taken home the top prize.

It had become the subject of increased speculation over the years, and accusations of racism were even thrown around last year.

But all that changed today.

What makes Beyonce’s win even more remarkable is that she did it with her first foray into country.

Her album Cowboy Carter also won the best country music Grammy.

Astonishingly, the elitist snobs at the Country Music Awards didn’t deem the album ‘country enough’ to even garner a single nomination.

Looks like Beyonce had the last laugh.

Full wrap here.

Two state ministers will remain in their jobs despite calls for them to be sacked over a taxpayer-funded trip for a long lunch that took an official driver on a journey of hundreds of kilometres.

No rules were broken in the use of a publicly funded car and driver by NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen, but those regulations were likely to be changed following the “bad judgment”, Premier Chris Minns said.

Ms Haylen and Labor frontbench colleague Rose Jackson were ferried by her ministerial driver from her holiday house south of Newcastle to lunch at a Hunter Valley winery on the Australia Day long weekend.

The private journey, which was allowed under current ministerial rules, took the driver on a 446km round trip from Sydney that lasted for 13 hours.

Mr Minns said he expected both ministers to learn from the error of judgment, but they would retain their roles.

​READ THE STORY HERE​

US President Donald Trump’s Oprah Winfrey-style tariff handout (“You get a tariff! You get a tariff!”) has been taken down a notch or three by one of the most respected financial publications in the world.

In an editorial column, the Wall Street Journal branded Trump’s strategy “the dumbest trade war in history”.

“Bad policy has damaging consequences, whether or not Mr Trump chooses to admit it,” the editorial board ​wrote​.

“Mr Trump can’t repeal the laws of economics any more than Joe Biden could on inflation.

“Tariffs are taxes, and when you tax something you get less of it. Who pays the tariff depends on the elasticity of supply and demand for the specific goods.

“But Mr Trump wants American workers and employers to take one for the team. Hope you don’t lose your job or business before the golden age arrives.”

Cutting words from WSJ.