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That’s where we’ll leave today’s blog. Thanks for joining us. Here’s a look back at today’s headlines:
The Reserve Bank has a reason to hold off inflicting more pain on mortgage holders next week after Australia recorded the smallest annual increase in inflation in more than a year. Inflation rose by 5.6 per cent in the 12 months to May, down from 6.8 per cent the month before and well below the December peak of 8.4 per cent.
There was a feeding frenzy for tickets to Taylor Swift‘s Australian concerts, with presale tickets selling out in 4 hours in Sydney and 2 hours in Melbourne. The demand for tickets broke Australian records, with fans’ struggles to secure the coveted seats going viral.
Taylor Swift performing as part of the Eras tour.Credit: Getty
The ABC is facing a fight before the workplace umpire over its controversial job cuts announcement after the media union alleged staff had not been properly consulted.
Gambling advertisements could be forbidden in Australia within three years, as the Albanese government mulls recommendations of the report following the parliamentary inquiry into online gambling harm.
A Canberra consulting firm, Synergy 360, allegedly planned to secretly funnel funds to federal Liberal MP Stuart Robert in return for his help in winning government contracts.
Embattled senator David Van billed taxpayers for accommodation in the Whitsundays region while he was onboard an all-expenses-paid voyage on a defence ship as part of an $8000 trip to Queensland that began just before his home city of Melbourne was locked down.
Overseas, Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked his military and security forces for preventing a civil war during an address to troops at the Kremlin.
The live blog will be back with Caroline Schelle bright and early tomorrow.
The local share market has soared on official data showing inflation moderating far more than expected last month, yet some economists warn the news might not be enough to prevent more rate hikes.
The S&P/ASX200 was already modestly in the green on Wednesday morning but spiked by nearly half a percentage point in the space of three minutes following the late-morning Consumer Price Index announcement.
The benchmark index finished Wednesday up 78.3 points, or 1.1 per cent, to a one-week high of 7,196.5 in its best day of gains since a 1.26 per cent rise on April 11.
The broader All Ordinaries finished up 84.1 points, or 1.15 per cent, to 7,384.1.
The Australian share market has soared on official data showing inflation moderating far more than expected last month.Credit: Fairfax
The gains came after the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported consumer prices rose 5.6 per cent for the 12 months through May, down from 6.8 per cent in April and indicating prices actually fell 0.4 per cent for the month.
The readout was at the very bottom of expectations and economists from HSBC, CBA and J.P. Morgan said it would likely lead to the RBA not hiking rates next week – but their peers from NAB, St George and ANZ disagreed.
“Don’t be head-faked,” NAB economist Taylor Nugent wrote in a note. A sharp fall in fuel and travel costs masked that inflation for services and rental housing remained stickier and would likely concern the central bank.
Mr Nugent and ANZ senior economist Adelaide Timbrell both predict the RBA to hike again in July and August, raising the cash rate to 4.6 per cent, while most market participants are expecting a pause.
The futures market late Wednesday was pricing in just a 16 per cent chance of a July 4 rate hike, from implied odds of 23 per cent on Tuesday, according to the ASX’s RBA Rate Indicator.
In currency, the Australian dollar on Wednesday dropped to a three-week low against the greenback following the CPI report, indicating traders were betting against higher rates.
Every sector of the ASX finished higher on Wednesday except utilities, which was flat.
AAP
The ABC is facing a fight before the workplace umpire over its controversial job cuts announcement after the media union alleged staff had not been properly consulted.
A private hearing has been held this afternoon after the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance lodged the dispute with the Fair Work Commission, claiming a clause in the enterprise agreement mandating proper consultation over the restructure was breached.
The ABC is facing continued criticism, and now a fight before the Fair Work commission, over its controversial job cuts.Credit: Christopher Pearce
The public broadcaster has drawn widespread criticism from politicians and high-profile journalists to shed 120 jobs, the most noteworthy being that of federal political editor Andrew Probyn.
In an email to union members on Tuesday, the MEAA said it had called on ABC management several times to carry out a “fairer process” in the redundancies.
“They have not agreed to provide you with the fair consultation you deserve to inform decisions about your work and life after the changes,” the email says.
MEAA Media Director Cassie Derrick said the targeting of long-standing journalists such as Probyn would damage the ABC’s reporting.
“The ABC has been running on empty for the past decade and we are concerned about how it can continue to deliver quality public interest journalism with even fewer staff following these cuts,” she said.
ABC news director Justin Stevens.
Earlier this month, ABC news director Justin Stevens defended the decision to get rid of Probyn’s role during an interview with ABC radio in Melbourne, arguing the broadcaster’s coverage of politics “doesn’t turn on an individual”.
“We have a great deal of experience in that bureau beyond a few individuals, and we cover federal politics outside of Canberra, too,” he said.
There’s been another bloodbath in the fight to get Taylor Swift tickets, with Ticketek confirming the Melbourne presale for the Eras Tour has sold out in just over two hours.
Swift is holding two shows at the MCG on February 16 and 17, 2024.
Earlier today, it took four hours for the Sydney presale to sell out, with tickets opening at 10am and the allocation being exhausted by 2pm. The sale broke an Australian record for people attempting to buy concert tickets, with over four million eager fans joining the queue throughout.
At the peak of the queue, half an hour before the Sydney sale started at 10am, over 800,000 Swifties were anxiously waiting in the Ticketek online lounge.
Swift is scheduled to perform three shows at Sydney’s Accor Stadium on February 23, 24 and 25.
Fans in both cities will have one more chance to secure tickets in the general sale on Friday 30 June, starting at 10am for Sydney and 2pm for Melbourne.
The Reserve Bank reckons it takes at least 12 months for the impact of an interest rate rise to work its way through the economy.
It was in May last year that the RBA famously started lifting rates, finding itself behind the eight-ball when it came to dealing with the clear inflation pressures working their way through the economy.
Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe and the rest of the board meet next week to discuss interest rates.Credit: Louise Kennerley
One year on, that first quarter percentage point increase – which took the cash rate to 0.35 per cent – is now fully embedded in the economy.
This means the monthly inflation figures released by the Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday, which showed a larger-than-expected fall in price pressures through May, should give the RBA board reason for a wide-ranging discussion about the next move on interest rates when it convenes next week.
Read Shane Wright’s full analysis here.
A number of Australian universities have recorded their highest-ever positions in the annual QS World University Rankings, as three Australian universities claim a spot among the world’s top 20 for the first time.
The University of Melbourne has achieved the highest-ever global ranking of an Australian tertiary institution in the QS rankings, climbing 19 places, from 33rd to 14th position.
In NSW, rival institutions – the University of Sydney and the University of NSW – climbed more than 20 places each to achieve joint 19th place.
The rise comes after a change in the ranking formula that added factors like sustainability and employment outcomes, and de-emphasised academic reputation and the teacher-student ratio.
QS, Quacquarelli Symonds, is a global higher education analyst that has ranked the world’s universities annually for the past 20 years.
See where Australian universities ranked here:
Presale tickets to the Sydney leg of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour have sold out, Ticketek has confirmed.
Meanwhile, the Melbourne presale opened at 2pm today.
The confirmation for Sydney Swifties came after hours of anxious waiting, with some fans spending four hours in the virtual queue in the hopes of securing the hotly contested tickets.
More than 800,000 Australians joined the Sydney queue, breaking national records.
The demand in Melbourne is expected to be just as intense.
There’ll be one last chance for fans in both cities to score seats to the show in the general sale on Friday.
Thanks for reading our live coverage this morning.
If you’re just joining us, here’s what you need to know:
Government Services Minister Bill Shorten said the NACC would decide whether to investigate former Liberal MP Stuart Robert. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
My colleague Josefine Ganko will be anchoring the blog this afternoon.
About 200 kilometres of Southern Ocean coastline could be unlocked to become an offshore wind farm zone stretching from Warrnambool in Victoria to Port MacDonnell in South Australia – potentially creating 3000 ongoing jobs in the region.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen says the proposed zone would apply to 5100 square kilometres offshore, including near Portland, which is home to one of the country’s largest smelters and draws on significant amounts of electricity.
The federal government wants to open up more than 5000 square kilometres in the Southern Ocean for wind farming.
Any turbines operating within the wind farm zone would be at least 10 kilometres from shore. Public consultation on the proposed zone opens on Wednesday and will run until August 31.
Bowen said the zone was large enough to generate renewable energy to power 8.4 million homes, and to create 3000 construction jobs and 3000 ongoing jobs.
Read the full story here. 
Jenna Price’s opinion piece on how universities are wasting a fortune on consultants while student satisfaction plummets is sparking a lot of debate with our subscribers.
@Lmjs says: “Having worked for two universities, I saw this first hand. In 9 out of 10 cases the expensive work paid for from consultants was either scrapped, shelved or so utterly unfit for purpose it had to be heavily overhauled by the already overloaded university staff. So wasteful and ridiculous.”
Australian universities spent almost quarter of a billion dollars on consultants in 2022.
@Johnny writes: “Best takeaway from a consultant was that wonderful term “improving cross business-unit synergies”. When asked if that meant people cooperating across directorates he answered in the affirmative. The Department paid a fortune and that is my only memory.”
But @Rothers has a different view: “Sure, but in return, many career academics have little or no experience of the “real world” which impacts both course content and delivery.”
What do you think? Let us know your thoughts here.
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