Key events
After the Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate said last night that the city was withdrawing its bid for the 2026 Commonwealth Games, the British government has made it clear it will not provide money for a UK bid.
Substantial UK government support allowed Birmingham to ride to the rescue of the 2022 Games after Durban was stripped of the event in 2017. However, multiple sources have told the Guardian that there is no financial appetite – or any preliminary planning in place – to allow another British city to intervene again. “For the good of the Games, it needs to go elsewhere,” one insider said.
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RBA rate decision due at 2.30pm
Borrowers are likely to be spared another interest rate hike in the lead up to Christmas when the Reserve Bank board meets today, Australian Associated Press reports.
The RBA is widely expected to stay on hold when it meets on Tuesday after a surprisingly weak monthly inflation read.
Headline inflation grew 4.9% in October, down from 5.6% in September.
A poll taken by Reuters last week found 28 of 30 economists expect the central bank to keep the cash rate steady at 4.35%.
Australia’s big four banks were among those tipping no change.
The 13 interest rate hikes in the cycle have been pushing up monthly repayments for mortgage holders, stretching many household budgets thin.
Welcome
Martin Farrer
Good morning and welcome to our rolling news coverage. I’m Martin Farrer and these are some of the main stories you need to know about this morning before my colleague Emily Wind comes along.
Thousands of Westpac customers across the country were unable to access their accounts online or use their cards overnight after an outage struck the bank last night. The company says all is now well, but it will crank up concerns about the safety of online systems after last month’s Optus crash. The bank said last night that the problem occurred during a “routine technology update”.
The Coalition leader, Peter Dutton, mocked Chris Bowen for travelling to Dubai for the Cop28 climate summit and “incurring all those emissions” on his flight. But the jibe could backfire as it has emerged that the Coalition is sending a significant delegation to the Cop28 summit in Dubai, including frontbenchers Paul Fletcher and Bridget McKenzie. The travel is being facilitated by the Coalition for Conservation and Environmental Leadership Australia and the group includes Liberal senators Andrew Bragg, Maria Kovacic and Dean Smith, as well as New South Wales Liberals Matt Kean and Kellie Sloane and Queenslanders Sam O’Connor and Steve Minnikin.
The British government has told Commonwealth Games organisers that the United Kingdom will not step in to rescue the event again after the Gold Coast withdrew its bid for the 2026 edition. The games now faces serious jeopardy if it cannot find a host after the decision by the Victorian government to pull out earlier this year. More coming up.
Today, Brittany Higgins is due to return to the witness stand for another day of cross-examination in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation action against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson.
And the RBA meets for its last rates decision before Christmas. Does it have a present for mortgage holders?
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