As it happened: ASX steadies as RBA holds interest rates; ‘Twisted’ ideologies prompt ASIO terror threat upgrade

Back with WA senator Linda Reynolds’ defamation trial against Brittany Higgins, and the former defence minister has today recounted the anger and hurt she felt as the first news publications, detailing the mishandling of her ex-staffer’s alleged rape, began emerging.

Reynolds told the WA Supreme Court she was overcome by emotions in February 2021 while reading an article by journalist Samantha Maiden about Higgins’ alleged rape by former colleague Bruce Lehrmann and the “political cover-up” that followed.

Lehrmann maintains his innocence.

“From beginning to end, I felt sick. She said she felt forced to decide between reporting the rape to the AFP [Australian Federal Police] and keeping her job, and that was simply not true. It just went downhill from there in terms of what she was alleging,” Reynolds told the court.

She said numerous statements in the article were, according to her, untrue and that comments she had never uttered were attributed to her, including that she told Higgins “as a woman, this is something we go through”.

Reynolds said she spent the hours that followed casting her mind back to cues she may have missed and trying to comprehend how their recollections could be so different before Higgins’ tell-all interview with The Project aired later that night.

“I was angry at Brittany, but I was also angry at myself and wondering how we had got it so wrong,” she told the court.

“I was incredibly angry and hurt, and she probably didn’t even realise this, but she couldn’t have picked a worse issue to bring me down. It is such an abhorrent thing … to say someone has mistreated a rape allegation and covered it up.”

The trial continues.

Eight animals and five plants were added to the federal threatened species list in the past month, all because of habitat loss or degradation.

The new fauna listings are three freshwater fish, three lizards, one frog and one turtle. The flora listings are one rainforest tree, two flowering shrubs, a daisy and an orchid species.

Australian Conservation Foundation nature campaigner Darcie Carruthers said one of the lizards, the Hunter Valley delma, was only named a species in 2022 and is now endangered.

“More than 90 per cent of the lizard’s known range in the NSW Hunter Valley has been damaged by open-cut mining and agriculture,” Carruthers said.

“There are at least 20 coal mines within the species’ known habitat range.”

One rainforest tree, the Coffs Harbour Fontainea, is critically endangered and found in two pockets of bushland within the boundaries of a road bypass project.

The threatened species list is updated sporadically throughout the year, often in batches. Last year 144 animals, plants and ecosystems were added to the list, which ACF says is five times more than the yearly average and twice as many as in 2009, the previous record year.

Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said Labor was determined to better protect plants and animals, including by putting native species on the threatened species list.

“Labor is investing more money in the environment than any government in Australian history, including cracking down on the feral animals and weeds killing our native species, as part of a $550 million investment,” Plibersek said.

“We’re also fixing the Liberal Party’s broken environmental laws, including establishing Australia’s first national Environment Protection Agency – a tough cop on the beat with strong powers and penalties.”

Back in state-based news, Victorian MP Natalie Hutchins has rejected calls for the state to follow NSW and force public servants back into the office, saying the current three-day minimum offers flexibility for families.

“Our current commitment is having a minimum of three days a week in our offices across the public sector, and we’ll be sticking to that,” Hutchins said on Tuesday.

“We know that this offers an opportunity for working families to get some work-life balance, and we’ve seen a continuation of very good output across our public service.”

Hutchins said she would welcome NSW public servants who wanted to move to Victoria for a more flexible arrangement, but they would still be required to live in Victoria.

Earlier, NSW Premier Chris Minns responded to the Victorian government knocking back the change, but said his government remained committed to having its public sector employees work principally from their onsite workplace.

“With all of the lockdowns in Melbourne, I would have thought a lot of people in Victoria would be desperate to get out of the house, but that’s a matter for them,” he said.

Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock has pushed back financial market expectations the bank could soon cut official interest rates.

The bank held the cash rate at 4.35 per cent, but financial markets believe it will cut rates by Christmas.

Bullock, who confirmed the board had discussed an interest rate rise at its meeting, said a rate cut was some time off.

“So, based on what I know today and what the board knows today, what we can say is that a near term reduction in the cash rate doesn’t align with the board’s current thinking,” she said.

“We’ve seen from overseas experience how bumpy inflation can be on the way down and across the economy.

“We need to see demand and supply coming back into better balance. Now, I understand that this is not what people want to hear.

“I know there are many households and small businesses that are struggling with interest rates where they are.”

Bullock also warned inflation could take longer to get back to the institution’s target.

“I want to highlight here that there is still a risk that inflation will take too long to return to target,” she said.

“But make no mistake, inflation is still too high and the board does remain concerned about the degree of excess demand in the economy.”

Bullock noted the turmoil on global financial markets, which wiped almost $100 billion from the value of companies on Australia’s share market on Monday.

She said the bank was keeping its eye on the situation.

“This is reflecting the markets adjusting to economic news in a period where there’s already considerable uncertainty about the outlook. And we’ll be keeping an eye on this as you’d expect,” she said.

RBA governor Michele Bullock has addressed the media after the central bank board kept interest rates on hold at its August meeting.

Watch the press conference below:

Gas and oil giant ExxonMobil has confirmed it has withdrawn plans to leave steel infrastructure from its offshore oil and gas facilities in the Bass Strait after they are decommissioned but insists this was done “on a technical basis”.

ExxonMobil subsidiary Esso Australia Pty Ltd operates the Gippsland Basin Joint Venture on behalf of a 50-50 joint venture with Woodside Energy.

As this masthead reported in March, Esso had applied to the federal government for permission to “abandon in situ” eight decommissioned steel platforms, which have come to the end of their lifespans at various locations around the Bass Strait in the Gippsland basin.

The company sought to remove contaminated “topside” structures above the waterline, and to 55 metres below the surface, leaving behind the steel “legs” of the structures.

Also left behind would be the pipelines linking the structures.

The federal government estimates it will cost industry at least $60 billion to decommission oil and gas rigs coming to the end of their lifespan.

Environment groups accuse Exxon of seeking to abrogate its responsibilities to fully remove the infrastructure after the rigs are decommissioned.

Wilderness Society fossil fuel campaigner Fern Cadman said Australians were “rightfully appalled at the idea of offshore oil and gas companies leaving their junk behind”.

“Esso/ExxonMobil and Woodside’s so called ‘clean-up’ plan has been to leave 15,000 cars worth of the steel in the Bass Strait. It’s been a transparent effort to cut clean up costs and one that always should have been rejected by Australia’s oil and gas regulator.”

On Tuesday, a spokesman for ExxonMobil confirmed the company had withdrawn its plans to leave infrastructure behind in the Bass Strait but said this was only temporary.

“Esso is proposing to take a responsible approach to decommissioning by removal of all above sea infrastructure and removing the steel piled jackets to a depth of 55 meters to ensure we meet the International Maritime Organisation’s requirements, while only leaving the lower sections in place to ensure diverse marine ecosystems aren’t destroyed,” the spokesman said in a statement.

“While we have temporarily withdrawn our current Environment Plan, this is on a technical basis, while we wait for the finalisation of the federal government’s Removal of oil and gas property and sea dumping of infrastructure in Commonwealth waters Guidance, which clearly states that sections of steel pile jackets can be left in place.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has described the Reserve Bank’s decision to leave official interest rates on hold as one that would be welcomed by people under cost-of-living pressures.

Speaking in Brisbane soon after the RBA left the cash rate at 4.35 per cent, the treasurer said the decision was also important given the uncertainty on global financial markets.

“Australians are doing it tough enough already. The last thing they needed today was more cost-of-living pressure,” Chalmers said.

Chalmers noted that the bank’s new economic forecasts suggest inflation will be within the RBA’s 2-3 per cent inflation target early next year.

Economic growth has also been upgraded by the bank from its May forecasts.

“Another important point from the RBA’s statement today is that it forecasts the headline inflation is expected to dip below 3 per cent in the next year due to the government’s cost-of-living measures,” the treasurer said.