Australia news live: RBA governor to face questions about rates cut; disease deaths linked to Queensland floods | Australia news
Key events
Former treasury secretary Ken Henry has been speaking on radio this morning after a speech at Per Capita’s community tax summit yesterday where he said recent governments have carried out “wilful acts of bastardry” and created intergenerational inequality and environmental destruction that will leave younger voters worse off.
As part of his speech he recommended indexing tax thresholds to inflation. Freezing tax thresholds increases people’s taxable income as wages go up with inflation. This results in additional revenue to the government, in a phenomenon called “fiscal drag”.
Henry told ABC RN this morning that:
I really never thought I would make such a recommendation, and for many years, didn’t need to.
I remember back in the 1980s, the second half of the 1980s, every time a new CPI number came out, then-treasurer Paul Keating had to convince a skeptical media that taxpayers were still paying less tax than had the tax scales being indexed for inflation. That is, that he was not relying upon fiscal drag to fix the budget so that every CPI release this had to be demonstrated. You know, the media was keeping treasurer Keating honest.
The media doesn’t behave in that way today. And in fact, if they were to do so, they would discover that every Australian government since has relied upon fiscal drag to do much of the heavy lifting.
This is punishing young workers, and so I think it’s got to the point where we have to force governments to act responsibly. And one way to force governments to act responsibly is to index the tax scales, to remove fiscal drag, so that this is no longer a lazy form of revenue raising for lazy government.
My colleague Cait Kelly has more on Henry’s speech yesterday here:
‘There’s a principle here, which is weekends matter’
Employment minister Murray Watt has been doing the media rounds this morning on the back of his intervention in the penalty rates case, as my colleague Dan Jervis-Bardy noted below.
Speaking to ABC News Breakfast a little earlier, Watt said the government felt compelled to intervene as “some of the biggest retailers in the country like Coles and Woolies, try to slash the penalty rates of some of the lowest-paid workers in the country”:
I have noticed that the retailers have tried to portray this as being about managers in their stores. We need to remember that we’re talking about people who are earning as little as $54,000 a year. Beyond that, there’s a principle here, which is weekends matter.
Watt said while it wasn’t unusual for employers and workers to sometimes negotiate trade-offs of conditions in exchange for higher pay through the enterprise bargaining process, this appeal from the retailers was an attempt to undercut the minimum standards for all workers:
What we’re talking about here is an attempt by big business to change the minimum safety net, the award provisions, the safety floor that is supposed to provide minimum rates and conditions for workers.
And what we’re saying is that if employers want to have those sort of changes, they should negotiate with their employees as a whole rather than try to take them away from minimum conditions.
Reserve Bank to face parliamentary questioning today
The Reserve Bank governor will shed new light on her board’s decision to cut interest rates for the first time in more than four years when she faces a parliamentary grilling today.
Michele Bullock said inflation had slowed more than expected, convincing the board it was appropriate to slightly ease monetary policy after its meeting on Tuesday.
But her caution to the market to lower its expectations for more cuts may raise the eyebrows of parliamentarians, some of whom have been calling on the bank to slash rates for months.
Conversely, some economists argued the board was too premature in cutting rates, such as University of NSW professor Richard Holden, who argued underlying inflation was still too high.
RBA deputy governor Andrew Hauser – who will appear before the committee alongside Bullock, the bank’s chief economist Sarah Hunter and assistant governor Brad Jones – said the decision to cut was not a “slam dunk”, as the market had expected.
Labor MP Jerome Laxale will continue to press the RBA on its progress in removing unnecessary surcharging from card payments.
ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb told a parliamentary hearing last week the consumer watchdog had no power to stop service providers from overcharging on debit card transactions by blending fees with credit cards.
While a small business may pay about 0.3% or 0.4% to provide debit card services, they were being slugged up to 2.9% by some providers.
Laxale told AAP:
It’s a hot topic and I think people are hungry for reform. Debit is the new cash and should be treated the same.
He will also question the central bank over its stance on cryptocurrency after Bullock said last year she didn’t understand what role it could play in Australia’s economy.
– AAP
Andrew Messenger
Queensland nurses protest against pay offer
Queensland’s nurses will march on the headquarters of the state government today in protest at what they call an inadequate pay offer by the state government.
The Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union is the first to negotiate a pay agreement with the new Liberal National party government, the first conservative government in a decade. Their enterprise bargaining agreement expires in March.
Union members will march on 1 William Street, the executive building for the state government. They plan to hand deliver a letter to the premier, David Crisafulli, and the health minister, Tim Nicholls.
Under the previous LNP government led by Campbell Newman, 1,800 nurses’ jobs were among 14,000 public service jobs slashed, sparking widespread protest by Queensland unions.
Nurses union secretary Sarah Beaman said the Crisafulli government’s wages policy, which has not been received in writing, caps pay increases at a maximum 2.5% in 2026 and 2027.
She said it includes the “possibility” of a maximum annual wage rise of 3.5% if inflation rises to that level or above:
The government’s state wages policy falls significantly short of what is necessary to uphold the LNP government’s commitment to maintain nation-leading wages and conditions for Queensland Health nurses and midwives.
We are seeking urgent clarification from the government on how they will deliver on their commitment to the QNMU.
Queensland Council of Unions general secretary Jacqueline King said the public service unions had been presented with the government’s “wage policy” in a meeting on Wednesday.
She said if the offer were final it would be inadequate:
We would consider that that’s an early offer from the government, which we will consider as unions, but there’s still a way to go.
Townsville death from flood-related disease
An elderly person had died of melioidosis in Townsville while three new cases of dengue virus have been discovered in the community, Queensland Health has confirmed.
Melioidosis has claimed four lives further north in Cairns, with the region recording a total number of 41 cases since 1 January. The disease is associated with the wet season and is spread through contact with contaminated water, soil and air, causing death in up to 20% of treated cases.
An investigation is also under way after three new dengue virus cases from two adjacent houses in South Townsville were discovered.
North Queensland is reeling from record rainfall that triggered flooding, claiming two lives and forcing hundreds to evacuate their homes, and more rain may be on the way with a cyclone potentially heading toward the north Queensland coast mid-next week.
Melioidosis cases in Cairns are believed to have doubled compared with 2024. The Townsville community is being reminded of the wet season’s health risks.
Townsville public health unit director Dr Steven Donohue said:
Melioidosis cases have increased throughout the wet season, in some cases leading to hospitalisations. Melioidosis is a very serious infectious disease which is caused by soil bacteria in northern Australia.
The disease can occur when cuts or wounds come in contact with contaminated mud or water and when people breath in muddy droplets. Symptoms include fever, cough and difficulty breathing, while skin infections or abscesses can be another sign.
February 2025 is officially the wettest month in history for some north Queensland towns, with Paluma near Townsville recording more than two metres of rain – double what Sydney receives in a year.
To combat melioidosis infection, locals have been urged to wear gloves, shoes and protective clothing when cleaning up.
– AAP
Employment minister to fight retailers on penalty rates
Dan Jervis-Bardy
The federal government is intervening to fight a push from major retailers to wind back conditions for workers.
The employment minister, Murray Watt, will file a submission to the Fair Work Commission on Friday arguing against the Australian Retailers Association’s bid to rewrite the industry award.
Among 17 proposed amendments backed by supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths, the ARA wants to allow employers to exempt senior staff from penalty rates, overtime, allowances and leave loading if they pay them more than 25% of the minimum base rate of pay.
The association has said the changes were designed to create a “more flexible, modern system” that balanced the needs of workers and bosses.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions has blasted the proposal as “corporate greed”, warning it would be used as a precedent to cut wages in other industries.
The federal government agrees, using the FWC submission to launch another attack on big business in the lead-up to the federal election.
Watt said:
If you give up your nights and weekends to keep Australia fed and clothed, you deserve your penalty rates.
We’re focused on helping Australians earn more, while the big supermarkets and retailers are trying to cut their penalty rates.
If employers want to agree with workers to trade-off award entitlements, then they can do this through enterprise bargaining, not through variations to awards.
Awards are supposed to be a safety net to protect all workers. They should not be varied to remove crucial entitlements like penalty rates for low-paid workers.
Welcome
Good morning. My name is Stephanie Convery and I’m going to be taking you through all the live news this fine Friday morning.
First up: one person in Townsville has died from melioidosis, a disease that has been linked with heavy rain, after the disease claimed four lives in Cairns this year, as north Queensland grapples with heavy rain and flooding. Three cases of dengue virus have also been found in Townsville, and areas near there have recorded more than 2 metres of rainfall this February. We’ll have more for you on that story shortly.
We’re also expecting Michele Bullock, the governor of the Reserve Bank, and other RBA big-wigs to face something of a grilling today as they are questioned in the House of Representatives. It comes after the RBA decided this week to cut interest rates for the first time in more than four years, after inflation slowed more than expected.
We’ve plenty more coming your way this morning, so grab yourself a coffee and stay tuned.
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