Blogotariat

The Reserve Bank has left the cash rate unchanged at 4.35%, in a decision announced today.

The cash rate has now been held at 4.35% for the past four months.

In a statement released today, the RBA board says that inflation has moderated but is still high. It says the “outlook is highly uncertain”.

• Interest Rate Movements Since 1990

Watch RBA Governor Michele Bullock’s press conference (39m):

Large language models (LLMs) have overrun commercial markets, more like a tsunami than a normal technical wave of interest. The topic is everywhere –news stories, blogs, podcasts, startup investments, analyst reports, hackathons, and government announcements. A virtual frenzy surrounds it.

The Defence Minister, Richard Marles, has announced an upgrade and expansion of the Australian Navy to give it an “enhanced lethality surface combatant fleet”.

Flanked by the Pat Conroy, the Minister for Defence Industry, Marles announced an additional $11 billion over the next decade. The money will be used to expand the Navy’s fleet of warships to 26 vessels, an increase of 15 craft.

Commitments to the construction of naval vessels in South Australia and Western Australia were reiterated, with ship workers being promised work for deacdes.

The Chinese Australian writer Yang Hengjun has been sentenced to death by a court in China.

Yang Hengjun

Yang Hengjun, a pro-democracy activist, has been detained for the past five years. His death sentence will likely be commuted to life imprisonment after two years of “good behaviour”.

Australia Day 1973 passed almost unnoticed, according to one radio news report, but Gough Whitlam used his 53rd day as prime minister to announce a search for a new national anthem.

Listen to a news report from radio 3DB in Melbourne on January 26, 1973, including a clip from Whitlam’s speech (1m)

Whitlam’s announcement of a replacement for God Save the Queen came in his Australia Day address. He said:

The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has defended the changes the government has made to the Stage 3 tax cuts.

In an address to the National Press Club, Albanese confirmed that the tax system will remain progressive with the reintroduction of the 37% tax scale. Whereas the Stage 3 cuts excluded people on lower incomes, all taxpayers will now receive a tax cut from July 1, but those on higher incomes have had their cut reduced.