Shorten says senator’s suspension gives all parties time to ‘work out what’s important’ – as it happened

Patrick Gormanmight believe that motions in the Senate don’t shift foreign policy, but a motion in the house, moved byAndrew Wilkieand supported by the Albanese government, calling for an end toJulian Assange’s prosecution, was seen as a pivotal moment, both here in Australia and internationally.

6d ago03.47 BST

Paul Karp

Labor MP responds to Greens’ threat to campaign in marginal seats

The assistant minister to the prime minister,Patrick Gorman,has responded to the Greens’ threat to campaign in his and other marginal Labor seats calling on MPs to vote for a lower house motion to recognise Palestine.

Gorman told Sky News that door-knocking in his electorate and those of colleagues and “stunts in the Senate” prove the Greens are “more concerned with politics” than people at the heart of the Gaza conflict.

He said:

Motions in the Senate do not shift foreign policy. I don’t know why the Greens can’t bring themselves to say they support a two-state solution. The amendments we put up are sensible, they advocated a two-state solution as part of a just and enduring peace.

Asked if he would hold his seat, Gorman said he never takes the support of the public for granted and no politician should.

But the Greens have always talked a big game in Perth and always come up short.

Having a look at the Nato conference criticism from the Coalition (Simon BirminghamsaysAnthony Albanesenot attending the Nato leaders’ summit next week would be a “dereliction of duty” ), we have done a quick search to see if Coalition leaders always attended Nato.

At the July 2018 Nato leaders’ summit,the then prime ministerMalcolm Turnbullwas represented by the then defence ministerMarise Payne.

There was also that time the former Coalition prime ministerScott Morrison warned against “negative globalism”,echoing the former US presidentDonald Trump(who isn’t a huge fan of Nato).

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Just further to Peter’s posts on the RBA meeting – the constant conversations we are having about inflation and what the RBA might do is partly because we have monthly inflation data now. Previously, it was quarterly. Now the quarterly data includes most of the items in the CPI basket. So the month-to-month numbers don’t take in the whole picture.

Part of the reason for the inclusion of monthly results was so the RBA could have a fuller picture of what was happening. But the RBA only meets every six weeks now.

Every time we get a monthly figure we get two weeks of “will this cause the RBA to raise rates” media conversation, which then adds to the noise of what consumers are dealing with.

There is a conversation going on in the econ world about whether or not the monthly data release is healthy. Always good to keep an eye on these side conversations.

6d ago03.20 BST

Peter Hannam

What are consumers up to? RBA concedes there is a lot it doesn’t know

One other point of note from the RBA minutes, which we highlighted when the cash rate was left on hold on 18 June. That is, the governor,Michele Bullock,concededthere was a lot she didn’t know.

The minutes reinforce that view, detailing some of the challenges in interpreting the data, particularly about what consumers (the greater part of the economy) are doing and why.

Specifically, the level of consumer spending had been revised upwards over the past 18 months with spending on overseas travel contributing “much of the upside surprise”, the RBA’s board minutes stated.

One interpretation was that, on average, households were not being as cautious in their spending as previously thought.

Another was that the fall in the saving rate would leave households even more financially squeezed than previously assessed.

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So which was it… were households being less cautious or more squeezed than the RBA models assumed?

[A]ny conclusion could only be tentative, given that estimates of savings are prone to significant revision.

Further, the latest estimates portrayed a different picture than that derived from data on mortgage-holders’ offset accounts, which showed that households were making larger extra payments than prior to the pandemic.

Another “watch this space” area is how the bank will interpret the effect federal and state budgets will have on inflation.Energyrebates, for instance, would lower headline inflation this year but raise it in 2025 (assuming the rebates aren’t renewed), the RBA said.

RBA staff will provide an assessment of the impact of the budgets on the output and inflation outlook ahead of the 5-6 August board meeting. Perhaps they will also do some probing to understand better what consumers are really up to.

The last of the party room briefings – the Coalition’s – will be held in the next 10 minutes or so, and we will bring you the updates from that.

The parliament session has begun.

You can read more about the Liberals and Nationals saving their alliance in NSW here:

6d ago02.52 BST

Peter Hannam

Reserve bank releases notes on latest rates decision

As flagged in our recent post about theReserve Bankminutes, the board indeed noted “it was difficult either to rule in or rule out future changes in the cash rate target”.

There’s not a lot for the inflation hawks to get too excited by in the minutes, and so the market reaction so far has been muted. (The Australian dollar continues to hover just below 66.5 US cents, and stocks are maintaining their modest 0.1% loss for the day.)

Members agreed that the collective data received since the May meeting had not been sufficient to change their assessment that inflation would return to target by 2026, despite some elevated upside risk around the forecast.

That’s a reminder the board are prepared to be patient about when inflation will finally retreat to 2.5% (the midpoint of their 2%-3% band).

[Board] members also affirmed their assessment that it was still possible to achieve the board’s strategy of returning inflation to target in a reasonable timeframe without moving away significantly from full employment, even though this ‘narrow path’ was becoming narrower.

Still, the board noted in “finalising” its statement, it was important to let everyone know information since the March meeting “had reinforced the need to be vigilant to upside risks to inflation”.

Apart from being “vigilant” about so-called upside risks, the board was particularly watching to ensure inflation expectations “were still anchored”.

Expectations, of course, can be influenced by a lot of things, such as what you see happening to your grocery or electricity bills – and what you hear from the media about inflation picking up in recent months.

On that score, the weekly inflation expectation readings from the ANZ and Roy Morgan aren’t really what the RBA wants to see sustained.

6d ago02.41 BST

Benita Kolovos

Victorian acting premier says discovery of synthetic opioid in cocaine proves need for drug checking service

Victoria’s acting premier,Ben Caroll,says the discovery of a synthetic opioid in cocaine proves the need for a drug checking service in the state.

TheDepartment of Healthon Tuesday morning issued a public alert about the threat of cocaine containingprotonitazene- a synthetic drug 100 times more potent than heroin - that is currently being sold in Melbourne.

The health department said there had been a string of recent incidents in Melbourne where people purchased the powder thinking it was cocaine, resulting in “serious harm”.

“The product appears to produce strong adverse effects such as loss of consciousness, respiratory depression, and life-threatening hypoxia (insufficient oxygen for normal functioning),” the health alert reads.

They said respiratory depression “appears more quickly with novel synthetic opioids (NSOs) “, increasing the risk of life-threatening overdose.

The warning comes a week after the Allan government announced it wouldintroduce drug checkingfrom later this year, following 46 overdose deaths due to NSOs since 2022. Speaking in Footscray on Tuesday, Caroll said the latest incident was “concerning”:

This is one of the reasons that has led us to doing what we need to do in terms of harm minimisation... as the premier announced just recently we are doing a trial of pill testing and one of the reasons is that, unfortunately, and sadly, drugs are laced with chemicals that young people don’t know they’re laced with. So that is concerning.

Watts on Liberal criticism over PM’s Nato visit: ‘typical of the opposition’

The assistant minister for foreign affairs,Tim Watts,spoke to Sky News a short while ago, where he defended the government’s decision to sendRichard Marlesto the Nato conference later this month, rather thanAnthony Albanese.

Simon Birminghamhas been out and about saying Albanese not going is a “dereliction of duty” at the same time as acknowledging that Albanese has been criticised (mostly by the Coalition) for going overseas too much. Watts:

I did see Simon Birmingham on the TV earlier. He had a lot to say. Frankly it was typical of the opposition underPeter Duttonalways wanting to have it both ways.

I was in the parliament last week when Peter Dutton, in front of the prime minister of the Solomon Islands, was criticising the Prime Minister for travelling too much. It’s really typical of this opposition under Peter Dutton, doesn’t stand for anything, wants to have it every way. It’s the kind of opportunism that we can’t afford on the international stage in serious times.