Labor not running candidates at three upcoming byelectionsTamsin RoseThe New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has announced that the Labor party would not be running any candidates at three upcoming byelections.Labor was not expected to run in Pittwater, nor Hornsby, but many had hoped it would contest former premier Dominic Perrottet’s seat of Epping after reducing the margin at the 2023 election.Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Minns said:
If I can be candid about it, it would be very difficult for us to win because we have to put a lot of time and effort and resources into campaigns that we would be unlikely to prevail in and a swing against [us] would be a massive distraction.
He said Labor had never held Epping and that “midterm is generally a swing against incumbent governments” so it was not worth contesting.ShareUpdated at 03.55 CESTKey eventsShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureIn New South Wales, nine protestors will face court today after stopping a coal train near Newcastle in opposition to the federal government’s approval of three new mining projects.Rising Tide, the group behind the action, said on social media the mines would “turbo charge the climate crisis with 1.5bn tonnes of emissions”.Our team of supporters is standing by at the Newcastle Court House. 9 Rising Tiders were arrested yesterday for stopping a coal train and are awaiting their hearing today. Stay tuned for updates! pic.twitter.com/edmWBCj0jP— RisingTideAustralia (@RisingTideAus) September 26, 2024

In a statement, NSW Police confirmed about 10am Wednesday, they were called to a rail corridor in Sandgate after reports of an unauthorised protest.Officers attended and arrested four men aged between 24 and 69 and five women aged between 18 and 66.
They were taken to Newcastle Police Station and were all charged with cause obstruction to railway locomotive or rolling stock, enter enclosed non-agricultural lands with a serious safety risk, and enter enclosed land not prescribed premises without a lawful excuse.
All were refused bail to appear before Newcastle Local Court today.ShareAndrew MessengerGreens housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather has signalled the party will push hard for capital gains tax reform, repeating the phrase “phase out negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount” 15 times in a single press conference in Brisbane.The government acknowledged yesterday that it had asked treasury to model negative gearing changes, signalling a potential shift.The Greens took a policy of gradually phasing out currently negatively geared houses to the 2022 election.
We’ve said to the prime minister and to Labor privately and publicly we’re ready to negotiate, and we recognise we won’t get everything that we want, but we do expect some movement on negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.
What that looks like is ultimately up to negotiations with the government, but we certainly won’t accept no changes to the two biggest tax handouts to property investors that are turbocharging house prices and denying millions of renters the chance to buy a home.
Chandler-Mather said the government had changed its tune on negotiating with the party.
At first, they said it was impossible, they were not going to move on any of the areas that the Greens wanted movement on …
Now we find out that Labor is asking treasury to model one of the solutions that the Greens have proposed, phasing out negative gearing in the capital gains tax discount. The day after that, we find out Labor MPs and Liberal MPs have also supported changes to negative gearing in the capital gains tax discount … let’s think about what might happen in the next two months, now that Labor have to come to the table.
ShareAnd here is Katy Perry holding the AFL premiership cup.Pop singer Katy Perry poses for photographs with the 2024 AFL premiership trophy during a 2024 AFL grand final entertainment media preview at the MCG. Photograph: James Ross/AAPShareUpdated at 04.36 CESTPain at the pump, Australians hit by fuel price hikesA record gap between the cheapest and most expensive petrol stations has been revealed, with motorists in Australia’s largest cities hit with higher prices.New research released by the NRMA today showed the nation’s three largest cities have been exposed to price cycles of four to seven weeks from 2018 to 2024.The largest gap in Sydney between the cheapest and most expensive petrol stations came at the end of August, hitting 59.2c a litre.Motorists heading to the bowser that day could have saved $29.60 for a tank had they been provided real-time data.Perth and Adelaide had cycles of between seven and 17 days.Of the six price cycles in Sydney this year, the average price for unleaded at the high mark was 212.2c a litre.Almost half of the city’s petrol stations charged the maximum price, also a record.At the top of the June cycle, six in 10 servos were charging 229.9c a litre.The lowest price on average during that cycle was 182.3c a litre, marking an almost 30c difference.– Australian Associated PressShareUpdated at 04.20 CESTMore mortgage holders struggling to meet repayments, RBA stability report saysPeter HannamThe Reserve Bank has just released its half-yearly Financial Stability Review, and its findings look at first glance to be similar to its report in March.Recall that earlier this week, the governor, Michele Bullock, made it clear the RBA wanted to see more proof inflation was under control before its board would cut its interest rate.A big jump in unemployment (unlikely given the relative abundance of job openings, see earlier post) or a lot of financial pain at the household or business level might also convince the central bank that it might need to cut borrowing costs.However, today’s review suggests most borrowers are coping so far.“Pressures from high inflation and restrictive monetary policy continue to be felt across the Australian community, but the share of borrowers experiencing severe financial stress remains small,” it found.Mortgage arrears are on the rise but remain below (for now) pre-Covid levels.@RBAInfo has released its half-year financial stability review, and finds more borrowers fell behind on repayments. However, numbers ‘experiencing severe financial stress remains small’. Some of the rise in loan arrears is “catch-up” and the total remains below pre-Covid levels. pic.twitter.com/niGMXdGFRf— @[email protected] (@p_hannam) September 26, 2024One notable point is that “mortgagors tend to be more resilient to a deterioration in the labour market than other households”, the RBA said. Apparently such borrowers are less likely to lose their jobs or hours than other households – at least historically.Businesses, too, are adjusting to higher interest rates with profit margins “around the level recorded over the decade prior to the pandemic”, the RBA said. That said, hospitality and some other sectors exposed to weak consumer demand are doing it tougher than others.Of course, should interest rates remain relatively high for a long while yet, those sunny perspectives might get a bit cloudier.ShareUpdated at 04.16 CESTJob vacancies extend their retreat but remain well above pre-Covid levelsPeter HannamAs expected, job vacancies have continued to shrink, dropping 5.2% in August from three months earlier to 329,900, the ABS has just reported. It was the ninth quarter in a row of falls.Job vacancies continued to retreat, according to the @ABSStats’ latest quarterly update. The 5.2% drop in the three months to August still leaves vacancies about 45% higher than pre-Covid times. pic.twitter.com/Vh5bG3DaVp— @[email protected] (@p_hannam) September 26, 2024For all the chatter in some quarters that the public sector was on a hiring binge, vacancies in government roles fell 7.5% to 35,800.The private sector, meanwhile, had openings for 294,100 jobs, a drop of 4.9% from May.While not heading in the right direction (unless you’re a twitchy Reserve Bank board member), it’s worth noting that job vacancies remain about 45% higher, or 102,000 positions, than pre-Covid times.In August, the unemployment rate held steady at 4.2%, with the economy adding about 47,500 jobs. On today’s job vacancy numbers, that jobless rate probably isn’t about to soar.ShareUpdated at 03.47 CEST‘The worst is yet to come’: cocoa crisis causes soaring pricesCocoa commodity prices have hit their highest levels in nearly 50 years, a new report by Rabobank’s RaboResearch says.“Skyrocketing” cocoa prices are “putting strong pressure on chocolate producers around the globe, who will likely pass on the burden to consumers”.A “cocoa crisis” is triggering the price increases. There has been a 14.2% drop in global cocoa production for the 2023/24 season, causing a 462,000 metric ton shortage and the lowest cocoa stocks in 22 years.RaboResearch analyst Paul Joules said:
Since January 2023, cocoa futures have shattered the calm of their previous trading range, peaking at nearly USD 12,000 per metric ton in the first half of 2024.
This dramatic increase, fuelled by a global cocoa shortage, is primarily due to a disappointing harvest in West Africa, the source of 70 per cent of the world’s cocoa.
And “the worst is yet to come” as companies hedge prices and supply contracts up to a year in advance. The report anticipates higher chocolate prices will hit shelves over the coming months and going into 2025:
… providing a major challenge for the chocolate sector, which is already battling a longer-term, structural decline in demand.
ShareUpdated at 03.44 CESTLabor not running candidates at three upcoming byelectionsTamsin RoseThe New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has announced that the Labor party would not be running any candidates at three upcoming byelections.Labor was not expected to run in Pittwater, nor Hornsby, but many had hoped it would contest former premier Dominic Perrottet’s seat of Epping after reducing the margin at the 2023 election.Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Minns said:
If I can be candid about it, it would be very difficult for us to win because we have to put a lot of time and effort and resources into campaigns that we would be unlikely to prevail in and a swing against [us] would be a massive distraction.
He said Labor had never held Epping and that “midterm is generally a swing against incumbent governments” so it was not worth contesting.ShareUpdated at 03.55 CESTAndrew MessengerSteven Miles refuses to confirm or deny the government’s considering rent controlMeanwhile, the Queensland premier, Steven Miles, was also forced to respond to reports the government is considering an ACT-style rent control system.Canberra caps rents at 110% of inflation.Miles neither confirmed nor denied a report from Channel Nine that his government was considering a similar policy.“I’m not going to get into the business of ruling in or out what we will announce between now and the election, because then you might just move on to the next thing and the next thing and, before you know it, we wouldn’t have announcements to make between now and the election,” he said.In the press conference, Miles referred media to statements he made earlier this year that the evidence around rent control is that “it could have the perverse effect of making the system worse”.ShareUpdated at 02.33 CESTAndrew MessengerQueensland premier denies reports government will bail out Star CasinosThe Queensland premier, Steven Miles, has denied reports the government has reached a deal to bail out Star Casinos.The state government has been negotiating a tax agreement to help the troubled gambling firm in recent weeks. The Financial Review reported this morning that a $60m deal had been done.But Miles said at a press conference this morning that negotiations had broken down in the past week.“There’ll be no consideration of any kind of arrangement, while their executives insist on paying themselves performance bonuses,” Miles said.He said the state won’t become a lender for the company either.
There’s been no agreement whatsoever reached there, and we’re unlikely to reach one. Frankly, I find it astounding that they would be asking the state to defer taxes, to delay the payment of taxes, while paying themselves performance bonuses. We’re going to put the taxpayers of Queensland ahead of those executives.
It has been previously reported that the state government is considering deferring about $300m in taxes, in return for interest payments, to help the company open its new Brisbane casino at Queens’ Wharf.Star Brisbane Casino. Photograph: Darren England/AAPShareUpdated at 03.12 CESTMore women in New South Wales will have easier access to the oral contraceptive pill as a trial designed to reduce pressure on the state’s healthcare system becomes permanent.Under the changes, from Saturday women will be able to get a resupply of their pill from a certified pharmacist without needing to go back to the doctor for a new prescription – as long as they have been taking the medication for two years.Read the full story from Tamsin Rose here:ShareQantas engineers start industrial action over pay fightQantas travellers have been put on alert for flight disruptions as engineers stage a fortnight of industrial action heading into football grand finals.The action kicked off in Melbourne this morning and will spread around the nation in coming days.Read more here:ShareUpdated at 01.48 CEST