As it happened: National economy grows by 0.2 per cent; Chalmers hits back at Howard criticism

Australian GDP figures released earlier today showed the economy was growing at its slowest annual rate since the early 1990s – excluding the sharp drop at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic – but one economist has argued 0.2 per cent growth in the June quarter isn’t that bad.

Independent economist Saul Eslake, who appeared on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing program shortly after 4pm today, was blunt when asked whether the Reserve Bank’s interest rate rises were “smashing the economy” as Treasurer Jim Chalmers suggested earlier this week.

“No, they are not,” Eslake said, adding he thought Chalmers was taken slightly out of context because he also blamed global uncertainty for harming the economy.

“While these figures released today shows that the economy has slowed almost to a crawl, I think it is stretching it to say that the economy has been smashed,” Eslake said this afternoon.

“In contrast, the UK, Canada and New Zealand have had multiple quarters of negative economic growth. We haven’t.”

He noted strong population growth had saved Australia’s economy from shrinking, but said Canada and New Zealand had faster population growth yet still suffered a greater economic contraction.

“In addition the unemployment rate here has only risen by 0.6 of a percentage point from its low in mid-2022,” Eslake said. “Whereas in the US, it had risen by 0.9 of a percentage point. In the UK was by 1.4 [percentage points]. And in Canada, it has risen by 1.6 percentage points – as it has in New Zealand.”

While inflation in Australia hasn’t come down as quickly as other Western economies, Eslake said it had still fallen while the country paid “a much smaller price” in unemployment and interest rate increases than others.

“I think that is something, if I were the treasurer, I would be crowing about, rather than bemoaning,” he argued.

Sydney University vice chancellor Mark Scott has defended his handling of the divisive pro-Palestinian encampment as he revealed the institution was warned that an extremist group could be on campus more than a month before he alerted police.

Speaking at NSW estimates on Wednesday afternoon, Scott said the university received a phone call in May suggesting controversial group Hizb ut-Tahrir may have been at the encampment.

The warning was referred to campus security, but it was only after an investigation by this masthead, published in June, that he spoke to police about their possible presence.

But Scott told the hearings he was repeatedly assured by authorities they were not concerned about radicalised behaviour at the encampment.

“In the briefing that I received [after the reports]… I explicitly raised Hizb ut-Tahrir, and we sought and received assurances about being notified of any relevant information that related to extremist, violent and radicalised behaviour,” Scott said.

He said in the absence of the government declaring the group a terrorist organisation, there was no limit on how they could operate in protests or rallies across the country.

“If they were on campus, there was no mechanism for us to stop them being on campus as they are not a banned group,” Scott said.

The pro-Palestinian encampment on the university’s iconic front lawns, which began off the back of similar protests in the US, lasted for almost two months.

The university first ordered the protesters to leave days before the report on Hizb ut-Tahrir was published.

Liberal senator Linda Reynolds’ lawyer has accused Brittany Higgins of mocking the fact the attack she launched by weaponising her alleged rape had culminated in the former defence minister’s hospitalisation.

In his closing address today in a high-profile defamation trial, Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett took the WA Supreme Court through a series of text messages between Higgins and her now-husband David Sharaz in February 2021.

After several days of intense questioning over Higgins’ allegation she had been raped by a colleague in Reynolds’ ministerial office following a night out on March 23, 2019, Reynolds had a public breakdown in the Senate.

The message thread – tendered as evidence in Reynolds’ defamation claim against Higgins over several social media posts – showed Sharaz laughing at reports the then-defence minister had delayed her return to work after being hospitalised with a cardiac condition.

“Wow. She’s done. You don’t take three weeks and come back,” Higgins replied.

The court was later shown a second thread from March 28, 2021, which appeared to show Sharaz and Higgins responding to the impact the political fallout was having on Reynolds and then-prime minister Scott Morrison.

“Suck shit Linda, you awful human,” Sharaz wrote.

Read more here.

Large parts of northern Australia are being warned to prepare for worse-than-usual bushfire conditions for the coming months.

The latest seasonal bushfire outlook, released earlier today, found unseasonal rainfall in Queensland and the Northern Territory had lifted fuel loads and raised fire danger for spring as a consequence.

Parts of western Victoria and eastern South Australia are also at an increased risk of an early start to the fire season, while authorities have warned Tasmania could follow suit if warm and dry conditions continue.

The forecast, released by the Australasian Fire And Emergency Services Authorities Council (AFAC), followed the hottest August on record across Australia.

An increased fire risk in southern and central Queensland has been driven by parched grasslands caused by winter frosts and dry winds.

AFAC chief executive Rob Webb said climate change had lengthened the bushfire season in a number of regions, but spring was the typical peak for northern areas.

AAP

Limiting the number of international university students coming to Australia will not solve housing supply issues, the federal government’s property affordability boss says.

Speaking at National Press Club earlier this afternoon, Chair of the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz said plans to let in 53,000 fewer foreign students from 2025 would not make houses easier to access.

The federal government in August announced it would set a cap of 270,000 international students as a bid to reduce migration and ease pressure on the housing sector.

But in her address today, Lloyd-Hurwitz said the cap would not solve the issue.

“It’s really hard for us to see how capping international student numbers could make very much of a dent at all on the housing system,” she said.

“It would seem to be fairly damaging to our second-biggest export industry and probably has very little effect on freeing up housing.”

AAP

The ASX traded sharply lower early on Wednesday afternoon after Wall Street tumbled and new Australian GDP figures showed the national economy grew by just 0.2 per cent in the three months to June.

The S&P/ASX 200 was down 164.7 points, or 2 per cent, to 7,938.5 shortly after 2pm today.

Energy stocks, miners and IT firms suffered the biggest declines, with sector losses between 2.4 and 3 per cent.

“Today’s national accounts data show the economy is still on life support, with growth over the past year slipping to its slowest pace since the early 1990s, outside of the pandemic,” said Deloitte Access Economics partner Stephen Smith.

Mining heavyweights BHP and Rio Tinto fell sharply, down 2 per cent and 2.6 per cent, as the price for Australia’s key export product iron ore declined 3.5 per cent further to $US93.45 per tonne.

Overnight, market darling Nvidia tumbled 9.5 per cent after a pair of industry analysts rekindled worries that the mania surrounding artificial intelligence had gone too far, setting off another bout of equities selling across the sharemarket

Nvidia’s sky-high valuation meant the drop during Wall Street’s Tuesday trading day was the biggest single-day loss of value ever for a US stock – wiping out $US278.9 billion ($415.5 billion). It meant Nvidia’s market capitalisation dropped by the equivalent of the entire value of energy giant Chevron in one day.

Keep updated with the latest sharemarket movements here.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler admits Australia’s health system is strained, following revelations a man died after paramedics were ramped at a hospital in Melbourne’s east.

On Wednesday morning, Victorian Ambulance Union secretary Danny Hill revealed an intensive care crew was ramped at Maroondah Hospital in Melbourne’s east in June when they heard about an urgent patient over their radios.

The paramedics tried to offload their existing “low acuity” patient and attend to the man after a crew much further away was dispatched to go to him, Hill said. However, the hospital rejected their request.

The paramedics ended up calling another ambulance crew to allow them to leave the hospital. But the man in cardiac arrest later died.

“The hospital said, ‘well, we’re busy, we can’t let you go’,” Hill told ABC Melbourne Radio’s Rafael Epstein this morning. The union boss said the patient “didn’t get that full compliment [of paramedics] that would typically be sent to a cardiac arrest.”

Health Minister Mark Butler said the situation “reminds me how strained our hospital system is across Australia”.

Government funding for a nearby urgent care clinic will make a big difference to the Maroondah Hospital, Butler said this morning.

An Ambulance Victoria spokesman said advanced life support paramedics attended to the man well within the target response time.

“The MICA crew were able to attend the case after arranging alternative care for their patient,” the spokesman said.

A spokeswoman for the Eastern Health hospital where the ramping occurred said: “At times, our emergency departments experience significant pressures due to an increased volume of higher acuity cases, which can lead to limited bed availability.”

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “the median emergency department waiting time remains steady, and all urgent patients are being seen immediately upon arrival”.