Tackling inflation is the main game in next week’s federal budget, after the RBA this week held fire on raising interest rates but noted their concern about stronger than expected inflation data released last week.
The PM was in Western Australia this week for a last-ditch promotion of the budget, while China’s increasing aggression against military operations in the region saw an Australian navy helicopter take evasive action to prevent a disaster.
We’ll dive into the week’s big stories below, but first, here’s a quick look at what made headlines:
- New housing packages in budget seek to address industry concerns about labour shortages
- Labor releases gas strategy and commits to new gas projects, opening up backbench unrest
- Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek announces government will scrap delayed plans for ‘recycling tax’
- New inquiry to examine influence of big social media companies in Australia
- Pro-Palestine university protests escalate with police called to multiple incidents
- Queensland’s Bruce Highway upgrade wins $467m federal budget boost
Politics
No rate hike, but RBA wary of inflation
Tuesday’s much anticipated meeting of the Reserve Bank of Australia Board saw rates remain on hold at 4.35 per cent, but the Central Bank is keeping a close eye on inflation and employment trends.
RBA Governor Michele Bullock said the Board was ‘vigilant’ in the wake of stronger than expected inflation figures released last week, and that they wouldn’t hesitate to act if inflation did not moderate in the coming months.
She urged governments to carefully consider their policies’ impact on inflation, as Victoria and Western Australia handed down budgets this week, and the federal budget looms next week.
Most economists are now predicting rates will remain on hold for the rest of the year, with a handful even tipping a rate rise before the end of 2024.
With a slower than expected return to target inflation, the federal government needs to get productivity moving in order to avoid future rate hikes.
HECs Debt Relief
After increasing pressure, especially from Teal MP Monique Ryan, the Albanese Government this week announced a significant change to the Higher Education Loan Program (HELP), commonly known as HECS debts.
Ahead of next week’s budget, the government announced they will cap the HELP indexation rate and backdate these changes to last year. The change is expected to eliminate about $3 billion of student debt. Education Minister Jason Care said the change will reduce the average student debt by $1200 for people with university, apprentice and TAFE loans.
This move is seen as an attempt to win over younger voters who, coupled with the housing crisis, see their HECS debts as their most significant cost-of-living expense.
But don’t forget that someone has to pay for this. Higher education loans are essentially loans from Australian taxpayers, so at the end of the day it is taxpayers picking up the bill.
PM heads to WA to spruik Future Made in Australia
For the 20th time since his election nearly two years ago, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese headed to Western Australia where Labor is desperately trying to sandbag outer suburban seats won off the Liberals last election.
He was there to spruik the government’s signature budget policy, Future Made in Australia, while promising more help with cost of living pressures in next week’s budget.
The visit was also timed with an announcement of more than half a billion dollars over the next ten years to map deposits of critical minerals and rare earths across Australia. WA is positioning itself as a leader in the critical minerals market, and the Albanese Government is keen to pour money into the sector in a state heavily dependent on the resources industry.
The Prime Minister’s pre-budget pitch has been heavily focused on his Future Made in Australia policy, as the government shifts to a ‘growth’ mindset from the ‘cautious’ and ‘responsible’ budgets Jim Chalmers delivered in 2022 and 2023.
Albanese has also made it clear cost of living support will be front and centre of his government’s budget on Tuesday, but it will face condemnation if that assistance is deemed to be inflationary.
Queensland
Queensland Premier Steven Miles started the week with the annual Labour Day march, however it didn’t go quite plan. A pro-Palestinian protester allegedly threw eggs into the crowd very close to the Premier. Media outlets were quick to report that the Premier was “egged” but it doesn’t appear any of the eggs actually hit him. However, retiring Labor MP Stirling Hinchliffe, who was walking next to Miles, did cop some yolk splatter on his trousers.
On the same day, Miles used the Labour Day holiday to announce that Queensland public servants will soon receive 10-days paid leave to access reproductive healthcare including IVF and fertility treatments, as well as preventative screening for things like breast and prostate cancers. This Australian-first initiative is expected to benefit at least 265,000 workers and will come into effect by October.
Continuing with benefits for Queensland public servants, he also announced they will pay superannuation contributions for every week of the entire 52-week period of parental leave, paid or unpaid from July this year. This new initiative will help improve the gender pay gap and prevent women from being economically penalised for taking time out of the workforce to have children.
Rockhampton became a hive of political activity this week when politicians from both major parties and from a state and federal levels descended upon the town for Beef Week.
Beef Week is an annual celebration dedicated to all things beef. The week-long celebration exists for the advancement of the Australian beef community and includes beef sales, cattle competitions, seminars, cooking demonstrations and entertainment. As you can imagine, it’s a popular event for politicians to attend and have their photo taken with farmers and livestock. Even the Prime Minister managed to find time in his busy diary to stop by with the Queensland Premier.
LNP leader David Crisafulli was also there, accompanied by numerous RM Williams-wearing shadow ministers, and he used the opportunity to announce that an LNP government would commit $4.5 million for the festival. Not to be out-done, Miles matched this commitment.
The LNP continued their pressure on the government around youth crime and intensified their criticism of the government for the cost-of-living crisis Queensland is currently experiencing. State parliament resumes sitting on 21 May so expect to see an increase in campaigning on these issues between now and then.
Global
Australia vs China in the Yellow Sea
Tensions between Australia and China are on the rise after a military incident in the Yellow Sea.
HMAS Hobart was in the Yellow Sea enforcing United Nations sanctions against the North Korean Government when an Australian navy helicopter was forced to take emergency action.
The Australian government has accused a Chinese pilot of releasing multiple flares in front of an Australian navy helicopter that was operating in international waters and airspace. No one in the Australian helicopter was injured, however the action could have been disastrous.
Prime Minister Albanese said the incident was “unprofessional and unacceptable”, and he will highlight Australia’s fury to Chinese Premier Li when he visits Australia in June.
The Chinese foreign ministry has responded to these allegations, and, in turn, accused the Australian helicopter of deliberately flying “within close range” of Chinese airspace in a “provocative move”.
This development occurred a day after Defence Minister Richard Marles announced plans to increase joint military exercises with the US, Japan and the Philippines. Mr Marles said the four partners were committed to upholding freedom of navigation, the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, and the global rules-based order around the world, including in the West Philippine Sea which was the site of a recent incident.
Some journalists were quick to point out that these statements were a “direct signal” to China. There will no doubt be future developments on this important issue.
UN to vote on Palestine membership
On Friday (New York time), the United Nations will vote on whether to admit Palestine as a full member of the global body. It’s a moment which will have little practical consequence on the war in Gaza but is being touted by Palestine’s supporters as hugely symbolic.
It’s expected Australia will abstain from the vote, but Foreign Minister Penny Wong has not ruled out a ‘yes’ vote. The US vetoed a similar vote in the UN Security Council last month.
It’s a high-stakes decision for Wong and Albanese, who are facing increasing calls from the majority Left faction of the Labor Party to accelerate recognition of Palestinian statehood.
Former Labor PM Julia Gillard weighed a similar decision in 2012, which ended in a messy backbench and Cabinet revolt when Gillard announced she’d made a ‘captain’s call’ to vote in favour of Palestine’s upgraded UN membership. Ultimately, Australia abstained from that vote when Gillard realised she lacked the numbers in caucus to back the position.
But Labor Left’s dominance of the federal caucus in 2024 poses a different challenge for Albanese, who will face fierce backlash from the Coalition and Jewish communities across Australia if a ‘yes’ position is adopted while Hamas remains in power in Gaza.
TikTok sues the US Government
Last month we highlighted how the US Government had voted to ban TikTok in the US, unless their Chinese parent-company, Bytedance, sold the company to a US entity.
On national security grounds, President Biden signed the bipartisan bill which gave Bytedance 270 days to sell TikTok or have the platform banned in what is their largest market.
Well, as expected, TikTok are fighting back and this week filed a lawsuit against the US Government in an attempt to block the sell-or-ban order. TikTok argues the ban is unconstitutional and violates free speech rights under the First Amendment. They argue the ban is based on a false assumption that they could misuse user data and highlight how they have invested $2 billion to specifically safeguard US user data.
Small businesses and influencers across the US have started campaigning against the ban and are lobbying their local representatives to reverse the ban. Mini campaigns are being established to highlight the economic value of TikTok, with many saying the ban would completely destroy their livelihoods.
TikTok is the fastest growing social media platform and a very valuable business. In fact, last year Bytedance made around $120 billion in revenue. Therefore, finding a buyer with deep-enough pockets isn’t easy. Finding a buyer is even further complicated because even if there was a US buyer, China is likely to refuse the sale of the algorithm behind the app, and as avid TikTok users, we know the power of TikTok is in the algorithm.
Sport and Pop Culture
Stars step out in New York for the Met Gala
The first Monday in May is the fashion industry’s Super Bowl, otherwise known as the Met Gala, which played out in its usual extravagant form in New York this week.
Homegrown hero Chris Hemsworth was the Gala’s first Australian co-chair since Cate Blanchett in 2007 and wore a stylish but safe cream Tom Ford ensemble.
This year’s theme was ‘Garden of Time’, and there were plenty of florals on display, among a few interesting interpretations of the theme.
The event raised about $24 million for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with brands and billionaires coughing up at least $350,000 for a table. Among this year’s major sponsors was TikTok, a brilliant move from the under-siege tech company, with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew serving as an honourary chair.
Familiar scenes in Ryan Gosling’s latest epic
If you’ve spent some time around federal politics, you’ll be very familiar with the vast lobby of 1 Bligh Street, Sydney – home to the Commonwealth Parliament Offices, visiting ministers, shadow ministers and frequently the PM for major press conferences.
We recognised it instantly in the opening scenes of Ryan Gosling’s latest action flick The Fall Guy, where Gosling’s character falls through the length of the lobby in a stunt gone wrong (no spoiler alerts, it’s literally the premise of the movie).
It was just the start of the New South Wales capital’s cameos with stunning scenes capturing the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Opera House and city streets in the action-packed romantic comedy. Disney Studios in Moore Park hosted most of the filming.
We’re not in the business of writing film reviews, but if you’re a Ryan Gosling/director David Leitch fan, then it comes highly recommended.
Suns player cops five week ban for homophobic slur
Just a month after Port forward Jeremy Finlayson was banned for three weeks for using a homophobic slur, Suns player Will Powell was handed a five week ban for the same slur in last weekend’s QClash game against the Brisbane Lions.
Suns CEO Mark Evans said it was hard to reconcile the lengthy ban, given the three week ban given to Finlayson, but the AFL Integrity Unit said Powell’s offence was even more grievous given it was only a month ago that another player had been heavily sanctioned for the same breach.
Powell has apologised for his conduct and Suns captain Touk Miller said while his conduct was unacceptable, the team would ‘stand by him and support him’.