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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Cait Kelly

Afternoon Update: RBA attacked over rate rise; Snowy Hydro 2.0 blowout; and Nick Cave finds inner royal

Philip Lowe
Reserve Bank of Australia governor, Philip Lowe, says the rebounding housing market was a factor in the decision to raise the cash rate. Photograph: Matt Jelonek/AAP

Good afternoon. After the Reserve Bank hiked the cash rate once again, plenty of people have had something to say. The bank’s governor, Philip Lowe, says the rebounding property market was among the reasons behind the decision to lift the cash rate to an 11-year high of 3.85%.

The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, isn’t happy about it and wants the Albanese government to step in and reverse the RBA’s decision. Our regular columnist, Greg Jericho warns the RBA board is completely “lost to logic” and says we should be “thankful” the decision to change rates will be taken out of its hands.

In other headlines, the Northern Territory government has given a green light for fracking in the Beetaloo basin and two police officers have been stabbed in South Australia.

Top news

Environmental and First Nations activists protest outside an office building
Environmental and First Nations activists protest against Northern Territory fracking plans in Sydney, in 2021. Photograph: Loren Elliott/Reuters
A pond with large pipes on a hill above it
The Snowy Hydro 2.0 development is facing another cost blowout and will be delayed by up to two years. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
  • Missing Queensland man | The search for missing fisher Kevin Darmody has ended in tragedy after human remains were discovered inside a crocodile found upstream from where Darmody disappeared. Search crews had been trying to find the 65-year-old Laura man since Saturday.

  • South Australia | Two police officers have been stabbed and an alleged offender shot dead in an incident at Crystal Brook, a small community about 200km north of Adelaide. Police said an occupant at a house allegedly stabbed the two officers. The officers shot the alleged offender and he died at the scene.

  • Hydro blowout | The multibillion-dollar Snowy Hydro 2.0 development will be delayed by up to two years and face another cost blowout. There has been a series of problems with the project, including a tunnel-boring machine becoming stuck about 70 metres underground.

Michael Palin and his wife, Helen
Michael Palin and his wife, Helen, in 2009. Photograph: Alan Davidson/Shutterstock
  • Police raid | A Western Australian journalist who was taking photos of the removal of ancient rock art from the site of a fertiliser plant says she was repeatedly stopped by police and eventually had her images seized during a raid. The police action comes amid a crackdown on environmental activists in the state.

  • Michael Palin’s wife dies | The actor announced his wife, Helen, has passed away, describing her as “the bedrock of my life”. The Monty Python star said she died “peacefully”. The pair had celebrated their 57th wedding anniversary last month.

  • Tucker Carlson | A leaked video published on Tuesday showed the fired Fox News host describing an unnamed woman as “yummy”, referring to his fans as “post-menopausal” and attempting to discuss a sexual technique with British journalist Piers Morgan. Carlson was suddenly fired by Fox News last week, in the aftermath of the network’s $787.5m settlement of a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems over its broadcast of Donald Trump’s electoral fraud lies.

In pictures

Wax figures of King Charles III and family
Wax figures of King Charles III and family by Madame Tussauds were unveiled in Sydney on Wednesday. Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

Australian subjects not travelling to the United Kingdom this weekend to see the coronation of King Charles III were offered an approximation of the experience in Sydney on Wednesday. Days before the monarch’s coronation in Westminster Abbey, Madame Tussauds has unveiled the waxwork of the new king outside Sydney’s Queen Victoria building. The new figure was accompanied by wax family members William, Kate, and Harry. Read more here.

What they said …

Daniel Andrews
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, said the RBA’s latest interest rate rise is ‘smashing families’. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

“I’m not sure that 11 interest rate rises in 12 months is smashing inflation. I’m certain it’s smashing families.”

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, on the RBA’s decision to lift the cash rate. Andrews also blamed the RBA for the state’s huge pandemic debt.

In numbers

Student loans are set to increase by 7.1%
Student loans are set to increase by 7.1% Composite: The Guardian

You can check here how much your student debt will go up by – and how long it will take to pay off.

Before bed read

Nick Cave singing on stage
Australian singer songwriter Nick Cave will attend King Charles’s coronation. Photograph: Gus Stewart/Redferns

Why would Nick Cave want to attend King Charles’s coronation? Because it will probably be a very “weird” affair.

Writing in his newsletter the Red Hand Files, in reply to letters from three Australians and one Briton, he wrote: “What I am also not is so spectacularly incurious about the world and the way it works, so ideologically captured, so damn grouchy, as to refuse an invitation to what will more than likely be the most important historical event in the UK of our age. Not just the most important, but the strangest, the weirdest.”

Daily word game

Teasing your brain helps slow memory decline, apparently. It’s also fun. So have a crack at Wordiply – you have five attempts to get the longest word, including today’s starter word.

Wordiply
Wordiply. Photograph: Wordiply

You have five attempts to get the longest word, including the starter word. Today’s starter word is LOWS. Play Wordiply.

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