Politics live updates: ANZ bank pushes interest rate cut back until May 2025

Latika M Bourke has filed an exclusive story for The Nightly on a major inquiry into the way the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade handles hostage diplomacy and cases involving the imprisonment of Aussies overseas.

There’s been no shortage of these cases in recent years, with journalists such as Cheng Lei in China and Peter Greste in Egypt among some of the more high-profile cases of Australians locked up overseas for extended periods.

Laikta’s article uncovers the report into the wrongful detention of Aussies overseas and found DFAT’s systems for managing such cases inadequate.

The report calls for sweeping changes.

Read the story in full here.

The full report on the Cbus chair and former treasurer’s appearance at a Senate committee has just been filed and it looks like it was not a fun morning for Wayne Swan.

Cbus was fined $20 million by ASIC for delays in processing death and total permanent disability claims for more than 10,000 members.

He claimed he was ‘sick in the guts’ when he heard about the delays, and under intesne questioning insisted the company was not “abrogating responsiblity”.

“We accept complete responsibility, complete accountability,” Mr Swan said.

​Read Jackson Hewett’s full story here.​

The Prime Minister has rejected suggestions Labor has abandoned multicultural communities by rushing through a draconian migration package.

The controversial migration bills grant new powers to pay third countries to receive non-citizens, introduce criminal penalties for non-citizens who refuse to facilitate their own deportation and allows for new, strict curbs on phones in immigration detention centres.

The Refugee Council of Australia has said it is “deeply dismayed” that the “trio of brutal migration bills” had passed without proper consideration of “far-reaching and life-threatening consequences.”

The new laws were “some of the most extreme that we have seen in over a decade,” said RCOA Chief Executive Officer Paul Power, warning that the full impact was not yet known as there had been insufficient time to scrutinise the legislation.

Migrant advocates and human rights lawyers are concerned about the lack of transparency over which countries the government plans to deport people to and what safeguards are in place.

They have also warned of a “Trump-style travel ban” that would allow the government to block new visa applications from countries that do not accept involuntary removals from Australia.

But Mr Albanese on Friday defended the controversial bills as necessary to ensure that the migration system was “robust and not manipulated.”

He added: “We support our multicultural communities each and every day. We are a government that wants an inclusive Australia.”

The Prime Minister has said he is still hopeful of a deal on electoral funding reforms to cap political donations after negotiations with the opposition hit a “cul de sac” at the last gasp.

The electoral reform bill had to be cast by the wayside this week in the rush of bills being pushed through the final sitting of the year.

But Mr Albanese said talks would continue through the summer. “We will look for other paths and roads to success,” he said.

Crossbench MPs have called the bill a “stitch-up” that would favour the two major parties over independent MPs trying to enter parliament, while the Coalition pulled their support at the 11th hour over concerns raised by small businesses.

But the Prime Minister doubled down on the proposal on Friday as necessary to provide “greater transparency” and to prevent “a couple of hundred million dollars” being contributed by “one individual,” without naming names.

“That damages our democracy because it takes away the principle that everyone gets an equal say in our democracy,” he said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said he expects a major overhaul of the Reserve Bank to be in place by February.

Major reforms to the running of the central bank were among a raft of Treasury bills passed by parliament this week.

The new legislation will establish the creation of a dual board – one to set interest rates and another to oversee the governance of the RBA.

Speaking to reporters in Canberra, Dr Chalmers said the changes would kick three months after royal assent, “and so that means our anticipation and what we’ve been discussing with Governor Bullock is that the changes would apply after the February meeting of the Reserve Bank.”

The Treasurer said he had been in touch with RBA governor Michele Bullock and that she had done “an amazing job getting her ducks in a row to make sure we can progress this reform.”

He said the government would “consult with the opposition in good faith” to make sure the people appointed to the new governance board were “first class and first rate.”

Dr Chalmers said it had been overall “a very big week for economic reform right across the board,” referencing “tax reform, housing, super objective, Future Made in Australia, consumer protections in buy now, pay later, competition policy, getting a better deal for people at the checkout.”

Adding to Labor’s emerging economic electoral pitch, he said: “This is what progress and delivery looks like. We’ve been able to focus primarily on the cost of living and the fight against inflation, at the same time as we keep the wheels of economic reform turning.”

In yet another sign that relief for homeowners is still some way to come, ANZ has revised its forecast for when it thinks we’ll see an interest rate cut.

It now says the Reserve Bank of Australia won’t cut them until May 2025, instead of the February cut it previously predicted.

“Our forecast for six-month annualised trimmed mean inflation to fall just within the RBA’s target band by the February meeting is no longer looking like enough,” ANZ head of Australian economics Adam Boyton said.

More to come on this breaking story shortly.

Former Treasurer Wayne Swan has told a Senate committee hearing into customer experience in the retirement system that he was “sick in the guts” when he discovered that members had their death and disability payments delayed for extended periods.

”I was sick in the guts when I heard that we had this accumulated list of people whose claims had been delayed,” he said.

”I want to apologise to all of those who’ve been affected in our fund.

“We as a board first became aware of the magnitude of this problem (and) set out to rectify this problem.

“Something like 80 per cent of the unresolved cases have now been dealt with.”

On 12 November, ASIC issued a $20 million fine to Cbus for the slow processing of death and total and permanent disability claims for more than 10,000 members.

More than 6,000 members did not have their claims processed for over a year.

Shadow communications minister David Coleman has welcomed the social media ban, which passed Parliament at warp-speed with the backing of the Coalition.

Mr Coleman paid tribute to Opposition leader Peter Dutton, who back in September committed to banning under-16s from social media if the Coalition won the next Federal election.

“It has taken longer than we would have liked for the Government to act, but we are pleased that this law has now passed the Parliament,” Mr Coleman said in a statement.

“Protecting children from social media is one of the defining issues of our era. In no other generation have children been exposed to so much damaging material at such a young age. It is crucial that we act to address this disturbing fact.”

One of the many unanswered questions about the social media ban is whether the overseas-based tech giants operating the platforms will comply.

Elon Musk - the owner of X, formerly Twitter – this week used his platform to suggest the ban was a “backdoor way to control access to the internet by all Australians”.

Appearing on ABC News Breakfast, Labor minister Murray Watt was confident the threat of $50 million fines for companies that flout the new laws would deter tech billionaires such as Mr Musk.

“I mean obviously we’ve seen some comments from Mr Musk and various other parties about this, but we did include in the legislation very significant penalties of up to $50 million if the social media companies don’t play ball,” Senator Watt said.

“I think they will take that seriously, but I also think that they’ve got an interest in preserving their reputation and their social licence.”

Meta – the parent company of Facebook and Instagram – has released a statement after the social media ban for under-16s passed the Federal Parliament.

Here’s the statement in full.

“Naturally, we respect the laws decided by the Australian Parliament. However, we are concerned about the process which rushed the legislation through while failing to properly consider the evidence, what industry already does to ensure age-appropriate experiences, and the voices of young people.

“Last week, the Parliament’s own committee said the “causal link with social media appears unclear,” with respect to the mental health of young Australians, whereas this week the rushed Senate Committee report pronounced that social media caused harm. This demonstrates the lack of evidence underpinning the legislation and suggests this was a predetermined process.

“The task now turns to ensuring there is productive consultation on all rules associated with the Bill to ensure a technically feasible outcome that does not place an onerous burden on parents and teens and a commitment that rules will be consistently applied across all social apps used by teens.

“One simple option is age verification at the operating system and app store level which reduces the burden and minimises the amount of sensitive information shared.”