Here is a look at what is making news around the country today.
Today’s national news includes Australia Treasurer Jim Chalmers travelling to China this week, Australia’s inflation weakens as precious metal prices rise, Labor buckling under strain from Greens regarding housing issues, and a huge fire consumes building in Brisbane’s CBD.
Politics
Treasurer Jim Chalmers to travel to China
Australia Treasurer Jim Chalmers said he would travel to China this week for talks with Chinese counterparts, the first such visit by an Australian Treasurer in seven years, Reuters has reported. The primary purpose of the visit is to co-chair the Australia-China Strategic Economic Dialogue, which has yet to be convened for seven years, with the chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, Chalmers said. He added that he would also meet with other high-level members of China’s government. Ties between the nations had soured after Australia in 2017 accused China of meddling in its politics. An Australian call in 2020 for an inquiry into the origins of COVID-19 further infuriated China, which responded with blocks on various Australian imports. But China has since lifted almost all trade curbs after an outreach from Australia’s Labour government that won power in 2022.
https://kfgo.com/2024/09/25/australia-treasurer-to-travel-to-china-this-week/
Economy
Australia’s inflation weakens as precious metal prices rise
The monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) indicator rose 2.7% from 12 months to August 2024, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data, Mining.com.au reported. The CPI result follows the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) decision yesterday to keep the cash rate unchanged at 4.35% as expected, offering some pushback to market expectations of a rate cut this year. The ABS reports the most significant price rises at the ‘group’ level were housing (2.6%), food and non-alcoholic beverages (3.4%), and alcohol and tobacco (6.6%). Partly offsetting the annual increase was transport, down (1.1%). Electricity prices plummeted 17.9% in the 12 months to August, down from a 5.1% annual drop in July – the most significant annual fall for electricity on record.
https://mining.com.au/australias-inflation-down-precious-metals-prices-rise/
Labor buckling under the strain from Greens regarding housing issues
Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather says Labor is “cracking” under the Greens’ pressure amid reports that the federal government is looking at negative gearing reform, Sky News has reported. This comes as the federal government could explore its options before possible changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax. “Labor are cracking under the pressure that the Greens have built on Labor acting on the housing crisis,” Mr Chandler-Mather said. “There’s no way that we would have heard this announcement today that Labor is considering changes if it weren’t for the fact that the Greens were mounting pressure on Labor to take real action on the scale of the housing crisis.”
Regions
Massive fire consumes building in Brisbane’s CBD
A man has been rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries after an abandoned inner city building became engulfed in flames on Hubert Street in Woolloongabba on Wednesday, News.com.au has reported. Police declared an emergency and shut down surrounding streets near Brisbane’s CBD as more than 50 firefighters from 13 fire and rescue crews battled the huge blaze. An ambulance spokesperson said a man with life-threatening airway burns was rushed to the Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital. A police spokesperson said an exclusion zone was in place around Gibbon Street, Stanley Street, Raid Street, and Hawthorne Street.
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