The Reserve Bank to hold rates steady; four Australian Gaza flotilla activists meet with Foreign Minister Penny Wong and in the World Cup, Iran and New Zealand hold each other to a 2-all draw.
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TRANSCRIPT
- The Reserve Bank holds rates steady
- Four Australian Gaza flotilla activists meet with Foreign Minister Penny Wong
- In the World Cup, Iran and New Zealand hold each other to a 2-all draw.
The Reserve Bank has announced it will hold the cash rate steady at 4.35 per cent.
The decision will give millions of homeowners, whose repayments have risen three times this year, some breathing space.
But the Reserve Bank says the economy was slowing in the face of tighter financial conditions and warned it may hike the rate again if it was needed to control inflation.
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended the changes to the capital gains tax, saying that young people now have a better chance of owning their own homes.
Mr Albanese says secure housing is the key to a better life, and that housing is a priority for his government.
He added that the five per cent deposit incentive has allowed another 260 thousand Australians to buy their first home.
In front of the cameras, the PM has visited a young couple in the house they just bought south of Geelong in Victoria.
"So Locky and Brooklyn here are paying off their own mortgage rather than someone else's. And that gives them a great deal of pride in this home here, which is a beautiful spot, where they wanted to live. Where they grew up. Where they work. Where they're contributing to the community."
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Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian says the agreement to end the war with the US will be a source of pride for his country if all its provisions are implemented.
The US and Iran have reached an initial agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz and further extend a shaky ceasefire in the Iran war.
The memorandum of understanding could be a concrete step to end a war that has killed thousands across the Middle East and sparked a historic energy crisis.
Details of the deal were not immediately released, and Iran's President says implementation would not start until the official signing on Friday in Switzerland.
"The full implementation of this memorandum can resolve many of the country’s problems and issues and create new conditions in Iran and the Middle East region. This memorandum is not only a major achievement for the country itself, but also a great source of pride for the entire region and the resistance forces."
Even if the Strait of Hormuz fully re-opens, it will likely take months for the global energy crisis to ease.
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Four Australian Gaza flotilla activists have met Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Canberra, pressing for stronger government action over their detention by Israeli authorities.
The women were among eleven Australians detained when Israeli forces intercepted the Global Sumud flotilla as it tried to reach Gaza earlier this year.
The group wants the Australian Government to publicly condemn their treatment and pursue an independent investigation, while Israel denies the allegations.
Activist Juliet Lamont says the meeting took a different focus once they sat down with the Foreign Minister.
"We were really happy that we were given the meeting, I think that we ambitiously and maybe naively thought that some of the demands that issued to Senator Wong would have been met but it ended up being more about the trauma that we suffered, she definitively believes that we were kidnapped that we were tortured, that we were imprisoned and that some of us were raped and that has been established that she believes that."
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And in sport,
Iran has settled for a 2-2 draw against New Zealand in the US.
26-year-old Elijah Just scored both goals for New Zealand - at the seventh and 54th minute.
Speaking after the match, he describes the feeling as just incredible, and not something he could've dreamt of.
Eli Just: "I'm just so happy, one was nice and then two was just amazing, so yeah really pleased."
Journalist: "A draw in Group G, a very tight group now, isn't it?"
Eli Just: "Yeah absolutely, we know that we have tough opponents we all watched the Egypt-Belgium game, we know how strong they are so we've got a lot of work to do."
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Iranian American protesters had rallied outside Los Angeles Stadium ahead of Iran's World Cup match against New Zealand.
Demonstrators accused Tehran of using the national football team as propaganda and called for Iran to be banned from the tournament.
Marchers waved Iran's pre-revolutionary flag and called for regime change, despite FIFA banning the flag from World Cup venues.
Protesters say their anger is aimed at Iran's government, not the players.
"We don't have a problem with the players. We have a problem with the regime. "Whatever is happening in this last 48 hours of peace between the U.S. and Iran is not about us. Our voice has been eliminated. Our voice is not there."
