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Key posts
- Treasurer Jim Chalmers quiet on RBA governor role
- ‘Not contemplating additional measures’ for cost-of-living relief: Chalmers
- Sunak stokes tensions over Ashes series at NATO meeting
- Fired-up Zelensky attacks NATO compromise on Ukraine membership
- This morning’s headlines at a glance
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Banks to be grilled about savings rates at Senate hearings: O’Neil
Turning to Home Affairs and Cybersecurity Minister Clare O’Neil has spoken about the banks who are set to be grilled by a Senate committee today.
Speaking on Seven’s Sunrise morning program this morning, O’Neil said she had a “long history” of holding banks to account.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil has spoken about interest rates this morning. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
It was “only fair” that the banks passed on interest rate rises on to savers, as well as mortgage holders, she told the program.
“If you’re put up mortgages, it’s only fair and reasonable thing to do and know that we are in a cost of living crisis where we got people in our country who are skipping meals, banks are earning billions of dollars in profits, they need to treat their customers fairly, and I know Labor MPs will make those points to the CEOs today in the hearings,” she said.
The opposition’s finance spokeswoman Jane Hume said it was important the rates were raised on savings account in a “timely matter”.
“There seems to be a time delay, they’re [banks] quick to put out your mortgage rates when interest rates go up but not quick to put up the savings rate.”
“We all want to see interest rates come back down and the only way to do that is to get inflation under control,” she said.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers quiet on RBA governor role
Treasurer Jim Chalmers wouldn’t comment on who was in the running for the role of governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia.
His comments come after this masthead reported there were three contenders for the role, and that Chalmers was expected to make the announcement this week.
“I’ll be taking my recommendation to my cabinet colleagues about the position of the Reserve Bank governor soon, I don’t want to pre-empt the timing of the nature of that discussion,” he said on ABC’s RN Breakfast.
Jim Chalmers says appointing an RBA governor is one of the biggest decisions the government will make.Credit: Bloomberg
The treasurer told her that he was working through the decision in a “methodical, measured, considered and consultative way”.
He also confirmed he had spoken to the opposition’s treasury spokesman Angus Taylor about the role, and confirmed they had talked about names.
“We’ve had a conversation about the various people that have been speculated on including the incumbent, Governor Lowe himself,” Chalmers said.
But he wouldn’t say whether Taylor believed Lowe should stay in the role, and added that he wouldn’t go through the list of names that had been aired.
“I’m not gonna go through a list and say … who is or isn’t on a shortlist for obvious reasons,” he said.
“There are a handful of people that have been speculated on who of course, you know, would be qualified, but again, I want to have the conversation with cabinet colleagues.”
‘Not contemplating additional measures’ for cost-of-living relief: Chalmers
Returning to Australian news, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government is not considering additional measures to help with cost-of-living despite the nearly $20 billion budget surplus.
Chalmers was asked on RN Breakfast this morning whether the government intended to introduce more measures to help struggling Australians.
Jim Chalmers says the government has a hard-headed but warm-hearted approach to economic management.Credit: Bloomberg
“You don’t have to choose between managing the economy in a responsible way and providing cost of living help for people who really need it, or who are doing it tough,” he said.
He said it was important to get the budget in a “better nick”.
“If at some future point, and we’re not contemplating additional measures right now, but at some future point if we need to, we do that from a much more solid foundation, and that’s because we’re managing the budget so responsibly,” Chalmers said this morning.
Host Patricia Karvelas asked Chalmers the government made an assessment that economic conditions were deteriorating, there would be a case for more support.
“I think it’s smart and responsible to manage the budget in a way where you are improving the bottom line if you can, and we’ve made a really substantial improvement … the budget’s in much better nick than what we inherited, and that’s a good thing.
“It hasn’t come at the expense of helping people that’s in addition to helping people we’ve got the cost of living package which we’re rolling out right now and which is really important that will help people with out of pocket health costs and rent and medicine costs,” he said in response.
He said the government was “responsive to economic conditions”.
Sunak stokes tensions over Ashes series at NATO meeting
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made light of the so-called Sandpapergate cricket scandal in a one-on-one meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Vilnius.
Tensions remain high between the two countries as the heated Ashes series continues in England.
The two leaders met briefly, known in British media as a “stop-and-chat”, on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Vilnius, and reignited the recent war of words over the Ashes.
As the duo posed for their social media teams before the meeting, Albanese said he’d brought something “less sophisticated” and held up a sign which said “2-1 Aus-England”.
Sunak then brought out a picture of tail-end batsmen Mark Wood and Chris Woakes celebrating after hitting the winning runs at Headingly.
Albanese returned fire when he pulled out a photo of Jonny Bairstow getting stumped at Lord’s.
The incident sparked outrage in the UK.
In response to the Bairstow photo, the British prime minister said: “I’m sorry I didn’t bring my sandpaper with me”.
It was a reference to a 2018 scandal in South Africa which led to a lengthy suspension of several players, including Steve Smith, who was sacked as captain.
Fired-up Zelensky attacks NATO compromise on Ukraine membership
First, the leaders of the world’s most powerful military alliance are set to declare they are prepared for Ukraine to ultimately join the grouping but will not commit to a firm timeframe, in a move which has infuriated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
NATO states have said Ukraine can join the military alliance “when allies agree and conditions are met” after President Volodymyr Zelensky criticised the “absurd” delay to accession.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivers at the NATO summit in Lithuania. Credit: Getty Images
Leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, an intergovernmental military alliance between 31 member states – 29 European and two North American – have converged on the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius for a two-day summit which will be dominated by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In a communiqué released on Tuesday evening, NATO said it recognised the need to move faster but would not be drawn on a timeframe.
Read more from Rob Harris on this issue here, who is in the Lithuanian capital for the summit.
This morning’s headlines at a glance
Good morning, and thanks for joining us this morning.
It’s Wednesday, July 12. I’m Caroline Schelle, and I’ll be anchoring our live coverage for the first half of the day.
Here’s what you need to know before we get started:
- Ben Roberts-Smith is seeking to overturn findings he murdered unarmed prisoners in Afghanistan as part of an appeal against a judgment dismissing his defamation case.
- Treasurer Jim Chalmers is widely expected to announce who will take the top spot at the Reserve Bank of Australia.
- Australian citizens, refugees and migrants have been unlawfully held in immigration detention centres for periods of days to years because of administration errors.
- Australia will know by the end of the year if it can strike a deal with the EU after failing to resolve the issue over two days of talks in Brussels.
Volodymyr Zelensky labelled it “unprecedented and absurd” that the alliance was negotiating the text without Ukraine at the table.Credit: Getty Images
- NATO leaders say they are prepared for Ukraine to ultimately join but will not commit to a firm timeframe, in a move which has infuriated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
- The parent company of Facebook and Instagram is concerned legislation designed to limit misinformation online could impact free speech in Australia.
- A retired baker and democracy activist from south-western Sydney has been released from a Vietnamese jail and reunited with his family after four years in captivity.
- And overseas, a prosecutor said tourists received no health and safety warnings before they landed on New Zealand’s most active volcano ahead of an eruption that killed 22 people in 2019.
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