Key events
Mark Latham to defend claims of homosexual vilification against fellow MP
Mark Latham is set to defend claims of homosexual vilification against a fellow parliamentarian, Australian Associated Press reports.
The former federal Labor leader is due to give evidence at a civil tribunal in Sydney today after the NSW independent MP Alex Greenwich accused him yesterday of having an “abusive obsession” with him.
The case relates to a sexually explicit tweet the federal court has previously ruled as defamatory and subsequent media appearances made by Latham, who sits as an independent in the state parliament.
Greenwich has sued Latham for homosexual vilification and workplace harassment in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
The online sparring match between the two politicians followed violent protests outside a church in Sydney’s south-west, where Latham was giving a pre-election speech in March 2023. About 250 mostly male counter-protesters violently attacked police and 15 LGBTQI protesters.
Here’s our report on yesterday’s hearing:
RBA could wait until November for another cut, economist says
Belinda Allen, a senior economist at the Commonwealth Bank, expects the RBA to wait until November before cutting again – but that could shift depending on how the data unfolds, Australian Associated Press reports.
“The governor did not rule out back‑to‑back cuts. Inflation appears under control, so any acceleration of the cutting cycle we expect would have to be driven by a deterioration in the labour market,” she said.
Allen said the most important data readings before the next meeting would be labour force surveys released on Thursday and in September, as well as economic growth figures for the June quarter to be released on September 3.
RBA staff lowered their GDP growth forecasts as they pared back their expectations for trend productivity growth from one per cent to 0.7% per year.
We’re reporting today on how borrowers might have to wait a few weeks to get the benefit of yesterday’s cut.
Penny Wong signs joint statement with 29 countries decrying Gaza situation
Overnight the foreign minister, Penny Wong, signed Australia to a joint statement with 29 international partners decrying the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
It said, in part:
The humanitarian suffering in Gaza has reached unimaginable levels. Famine is unfolding before our eyes. Urgent action is needed now to halt and reverse starvation.
We call on the government of Israel to provide authorisation for all international NGO aid shipments and to unblock essential humanitarian actors from operating.
All crossings and routes must be used to allow a flood of aid into Gaza, including food, nutrition supplies, shelter, fuel, clean water, medicine and medical equipment. Lethal force must not be used at distribution sites, and civilians, humanitarians and medical workers must be protected.
The statement was signed by two EU representatives as well as the foreign ministers of: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Nick Visser to take over.
Mark Latham will appear at a tribunal in Sydney today to defend claims of homosexual vilification against his fellow NSW MP. It comes after Sydney MP Alex Greenwich told the tribunal yesterday that Latham had an “abusive obsession with me”.
A leading bank economist thinks that the Reserve Bank will wait until November before cutting rates again after yesterday’s decision to reduce the cash rate by another 0.25% signalled some relief for borrowers. More coming up.
And Australia has signed a joint statement on behalf of 29 international partners saying the humanitarian suffering in Gaza has reached “unimaginable” levels and urgent action is needed to halt and reverse starvation. It calls on Israel to facilitate a “flood” of aid into the territory.
