Key events
There were 30 drowning deaths in 2025-2026, the highest number in almost a decade, according to a Royal Life Saving Australia report that Australian Associated Press reports on.
Of them, 14 involved more than one death, often related to boating, driving through floodwater, or people exploring unfamiliar environments, chief executive Justin Scarr said.
The message is to know the swimming skills of all the people in your group.
It is the largest spike in deaths since 2016-2017, when 34 lives were lost.
Over the past decade there have been with 229 deaths, or an average of 23 per year.
In the most recent year, 83% of drowning victims were men, 37% were born overseas and a quarter were aged between 65 and 74.
Nearly one-third of the fatal events were related to boating, while driving through floodwater and swimming were the other leading circumstances.
Besides the RBA decison at 2.30pm, the other big political story of the day is that Larissa Waters is standing down as Greens leader.
She said last night that a kidney disease she has been managing has recently worsened and that she needs to stand down.
Here’s our story from political editor Tom McIlroy:
Catie McLeod
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has defended his economic record on the eve of what is widely expected to be the fourth interest rate rise of 2026, as the Reserve Bank remains concerned about persistent inflation.
The RBA board is poised to hike the cash rate from 4.35% to 4.6% on Tuesday, which would be the fourth increase in 2026 and push typical home loan interest rates to 6.5%.
Speaking on the ABC’s 7.30 program last night, Chalmers emphasised the factors contributing to inflation, saying that Australia was performing well considering what was going on in the world, particularly in the Middle East.
We have a lot going for us and we’ve got a lot of work to do to make sure that in these difficult global circumstances Australia continues to out-perform the world.
We have a big inflation challenge in our economy. It’s made much worse by decisions taken on the other side of the world.
From an economic point of view this war in Iran has been an absolute disaster for Australian families, because they have been asked to pay a hefty price.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Nick Visser with the main action.
Jim Chalmers has defended his stewardship of the economy ahead of what is widely expected to be the fourth interest rate rise of 2026 as the Reserve Bank tries to bring down persistent inflation. More coming up.
Besides the RBA decision at 2.30pm, the other big political story of the day is that Larissa Waters is standing down as Greens leader. We’ll have reaction as it comes in this morning plus the latest on who might replace her.
