Relief for borrowers as RBA cuts official cash rate to 3.6%
Patrick Commins
The Reserve Bank has cut the cash rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 3.6%, from 3.85%.
Once lenders pass on the relief to their borrowers, the third rate cut of the year will deliver somebody with a $500,000 mortgage a further $74 off their monthly interest payments, according to Canstar, bringing the total drop to $272.
The unanimous decision by the RBA’s monetary policy board was widely anticipated, and, while welcome, there will be some who believe rate relief was overdue.
Inflation is firmly back within the bank’s 2-3% target range, and the economy has suffered a weak start to the year amid ongoing cost of living pressures and the threats from Trump’s trade war.
Michele Bullock, the RBA governor, will hold a press conference at 3:30pm, where attention will turn to any hints on if – or when – there will be further cuts over coming months.
Key events
Chalmers hails ‘welcome relief’ after rate cut
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is speaking after the rate cut. He said:
This is very welcome relief for millions of Australians. It will put more money in the pockets of people who are under pressure.
This welcome decision wouldn’t be possible without the progress that Australians have made together on inflation. Getting inflation down from those very high peaks in the year that we came to office, down to well within the Reserve Bank’s target range, has given the independent Reserve Bank the confidence to cut interest rates three times this year.
Today’s very welcome decision on interest rates gives us confidence that we are on the right track, but as always, there’s more to do.
Let the cuts begin: Macquarie Bank will drop rates on variable home loans in three days
Macquarie Bank is in with news on its rates within minutes, saying it will drop its variable home loans by .25% in line with the RBA decision. Customers will see those cuts in three days, from the 15 of August.
Ben Perham, the head of personal banking at Macquarie, said the quick timeline came after a similar move during the last cut in May:
We proved that the savings could be passed on to homeowners in just three days, instead of the industry average of 12 days. We were the fastest of the major banks and homeowners loved it, so we’re doing it again.
Relief for borrowers as RBA cuts official cash rate to 3.6%
Patrick Commins
The Reserve Bank has cut the cash rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 3.6%, from 3.85%.
Once lenders pass on the relief to their borrowers, the third rate cut of the year will deliver somebody with a $500,000 mortgage a further $74 off their monthly interest payments, according to Canstar, bringing the total drop to $272.
The unanimous decision by the RBA’s monetary policy board was widely anticipated, and, while welcome, there will be some who believe rate relief was overdue.
Inflation is firmly back within the bank’s 2-3% target range, and the economy has suffered a weak start to the year amid ongoing cost of living pressures and the threats from Trump’s trade war.
Michele Bullock, the RBA governor, will hold a press conference at 3:30pm, where attention will turn to any hints on if – or when – there will be further cuts over coming months.
RBA cuts cash rate to 3.6%
The Reserve Bank has delivered a widely tipped cut to the cash rate by a quarter of a percentage point, bringing it down from 3.85% to 3.6%.
Taylor Swift announces new album
Taylor Swift’s 12.12 surprise is here: It’s a new album.
It’s called The Life of a Showgirl.
NSW byelection to replace Gareth Ward set for 13 September
Voters in Kiama, NSW will head to the polls next month for a byelection to replace former MP Gareth Ward.
The byelection will be held on 13 September, state parliament Speaker Greg Piper announced on Tuesday. It sets the scene for either the Liberal opposition or Labor government to wrest back control of the south coast seat.
Ward, 44, resigned on Friday as the parliament was preparing to vote to expel him. He held the seat for the Liberals from 2011 until his resignation.
As Guardian Australia’s Anne Davies reports, Ward was found guilty in July of sexually abusing two young men in 2013 and 2015. He is appealing against the convictions, which include three counts of indecent assault and one for sexual intercourse without consent.
He is due to be sentenced next month. Read more here:
Art Gallery of New South Wales to cut dozens of roles
The Art Gallery of New South Wales is set to cut dozens of jobs as part of a restructure effort meant to save millions in annual expenditures, according to multiple reports.
The Australian Financial Review said the number of lost jobs could amount to more than 10% of the gallery’s workforce. Those layoffs would help address a budget shortfall of $7.5m. New director Maud Page announced the restructure, called a “change management plan” on Tuesday morning, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The Public Service Association of NSW, a union representing public service workers, said it is in communication with delegates and members after the news, and would lobby the government to “halt these cuts”. It pegged the number of roles facing the axe at about 30.
The gallery did not reply to a request for comment. The cuts will be subject to a three-week consultation period that ends on 2 September.
NSW changing government hoarding colours from blue to red
The NSW government will soon change the colour of the materials it uses for bunting, hoarding, shade cloth and other purposes from blue to red, part of a “broader refresh” of branding across state agencies.
The shift was first reported in the Mandarin, which notes red is traditionally more affiliated with Labor than the Liberals, longtime fans of blue.
A spokesperson for the NSW Department of Customer Service, which manages the hoarding, said in a statement:
The update to government hoarding was part of a broader refresh of branding across agencies some time ago. The change was carried out in-house and new hoarding was rolled out progressively, meaning there was no additional cost to taxpayers.
Taylor Swift’s website counting down to 12.12am on 12 August
In a bit of a departure, pop superstar Taylor Swift just posted a mysterious countdown to her website that expires at 12.12am eastern time in the US on 12 August. That’s in just over an hour.
Swift has 11 albums and 11 eras, prompting some pretty intense speculation about what could happen when all those twelves align.
Trump says gold will not be subject to US tariffs
US president Donald Trump said earlier today gold will not be subject to his round of additional tariffs, days after confusion flared on whether recent hikes applied to certain gold bars – threatening to upend global trade of the precious metal.
Agency France-Presse reports Trump’s comments came after US customs authorities made public a letter saying that gold bars at two standard weights – one kilogram and 100 ounces (2.8 kilos) – should be classified as subject to duties.
“Gold will not be Tariffed!” Trump said today on his Truth Social platform, without providing further details.
Non-monetary gold is a major Australian export, and the country exported more than $11bn to the US in the first four months of this year, per the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
A White House official told AFP on Friday that the Trump administration plans to “issue an executive order in the near future clarifying misinformation about the tariffing of gold bars and other specialty products”.
More Australians ditching old copper internet connections for fibre optic upgrades
More Australians are ditching ageing copper internet connections for faster fibre optic technology in a move that has increased download speeds across the nation, NBN Co has revealed.
AAP reports more than 430,000 Australian homes and businesses upgraded their connections from older, slower technology over the past year, the broadband wholesaler disclosed in its annual results on Tuesday, which increased the firm’s revenue.
The government-owned entity’s earnings for 2024/25 jumped 8% to $4.2bn, in line with guidance, and its revenue rose 4% to $5.7bn.
The results were helped by growing demand for higher internet speeds on its network, with 2.7 million premises (32%) connected to plans offering 100 megabit-per-second downloads or more, and average spending up by $3 a month to $50.
The shift to faster download speeds and fibre connections also drove higher data usage across the nation.
Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson
Rise in dengue fever outbreaks across the Pacific driven by the climate crisis, experts say
The climate crisis is driving a sharp rise in dengue fever cases across the Pacific islands, experts say, as infections hit their highest level in a decade and several countries declare emergencies.
Pacific Island countries and territories have reported 16,502 confirmed cases and 17 deaths since the start of 2025, according to the Pacific Syndromic Surveillance System (PSSS), which collaborates with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other agencies. Infections across the region are at the highest level since 2016, the WHO said. Fiji, Samoa and Tonga are among the worst affected.
Dengue fever, a viral illness spread by Aedes mosquitoes, causes high fever, severe headache, joint and muscle pain, rash and in severe cases can be fatal. Rising temperatures, rainfall and increased humidity are creating ideal breeding conditions for Aedes mosquitoes, even in areas previously unsuitable for transmission.
“Dengue is one of the first real disease-related phenomena that we can lay at the foot of climate change,” said Dr Joel Kaufman, epidemiologist and director of the Center for Exposures, Diseases, Genomics and Environment at the University of Washington. Read more here:
Aussie beef a hot commodity as US imports hit a high
US demand for Australian beef looks set to skyrocket as drought, disease and hefty tariffs hit other top cattle-producing countries, AAP reports.
Australia exported more than 43,000 tonnes of beef to the United States in July, the highest volume since October 2024, according to a Bendigo Bank Agribusiness commodity report released on Tuesday.
The extra demand came at the same time as the federal government announced it would allow imports of US beef that had been raised in Canada or Mexico but processed in America.
Australia faced pressure from President Donald Trump to ease the restrictions on beef as it sought exemptions from wide-ranging tariffs.
As US herd numbers continued to dwindle due to drought in 2025, Americans have also been eating beef imported from Canada and Brazil. But with Brazil facing a 50% tariff, Canada slipping further into drought and a US ban on Mexican beef due to a parasite infestation, America would have to source meat from elsewhere.
Australian beef exports to the US would likely “skyrocket” as a result, according to the commodity report:
That is now three of [America’s] top five import markets affected due to tariffs, a reduced herd or disease.
This presents even greater opportunities for Aussie producers as the US looks to satisfy their own domestic demand with expected falling beef production.
Australian cattle producers had anticipated that opening the gates to US-processed beef would have a limited effect on the domestic market.
Craig Huf, a grazier and chair of the NSW Farmers Association far north coast branch, told AAP after the decision in July:
The US is already importing bucketloads of beef from Australia, so for it to come back the other way is unlikely. So, in the short term, we probably don’t expect it to impact us.
Cattle industry groups have called for an independent review into the government’s decision to lift the US beef restrictions.
Recognising a Palestinian state before a peace process against Coalition ‘principles’, Ley says
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, told 2GB this morning that the Coalition would “never have taken this step” of recognising a Palestinian state if they were in power.
Asked how she would have handled the situation and whether she would have recognised a Palestinian state if she were prime minister, Ley said:
We would never have taken this step. We would never have taken this step because this is completely against what our principles are, which is that recognition, the two-state solution comes at the end of the peace process, not before. And certainly not while we have terrorists in control in the Gaza Strip and hostages trapped in tunnels.
It’s a volatile fast-moving situation … I can only say very categorically right now, this is not a decision [that] the Coalition would have taken or gone anywhere near taking.
Sussan Ley says Albanese ‘out of his depth’ and decision on Palestine does ‘not make the world a safer place’
Opposition leader Sussan Ley sharply criticised Anthony Albanese’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN next month, claiming the prime minister had dismissed Australia’s longstanding relationship with Israel “in an appalling way”. Ley spoke to 2GB this morning, saying:
He’s out of his depth on this … because he has broken with longstanding bipartisan foreign policy. He’s not been straight on this issue. …
This decision does not make the world a safer place. This decision does not expedite the end of the conflict. It does not deliver a two-state solution. It does not improve the flow of aid. It does not support the release of hostages. It certainly doesn’t put an end to the terrorist group Hamas.
Ley went on to say she feels “a sense of sorrow with Australia’s Jewish community”.
