Big four banks lift interest rates
Adeshola Ore
Australia’s big four banks have all lifted interest rates after the Reserve Bank handed down a third consecutive rate hike yesterday.
The RBA lifted the cash rate from 4.1% to 4.35%, in a widely expected decision on yesterday afternoon.
Macquarie Bank was the first Australian bank to announce it would pass on the 0.25% interest rate rise to its variable home loan customers from 22 May.
The country’s big four banks – Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), National Australia Bank (NAB), Westpac and ANZ — followed suit, announcing they would all pass on the 0.25% increase to their customers.
Key events
Sydney forum held in ‘park in the dark’
Jordyn Beazley
A pro-Palestine meeting that had their booking in a council venue cancelled after what the Sydney mayor called a “a persistent media campaign by the Murdoch press” was instead held in a “park in the dark”. Speakers spoke against criminalising saying the phrase “globalise the intifada”.
The meeting, attended by several dozen people and a large contingent of media, was held in a park in Darlington after Clover Moore announced on Monday evening she had requested the chief executive of the council withdraw the booking.
Discussing the decision, Moore said public events must not “contribute to hostility and fear”. The move was met with relief by the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies.
An organiser for the meeting, which was run by Stop the War on Palestine and was titled “why it is right to globalise the Intifada”, said the last minute cancellation meant the group had to have the meeting “in a park in the dark”.
Jewish man Ed Carroll was a speaker at the meeting. He was one of the first people to be arrested in Queensland after the state government placed a maximum two-year prison sentence on saying the phrases “globalise the intifada” or “from the river to the sea”.
He spoke from Queensland via zoom and was beamed onto a projector set up in the park. He said it’s likely he will be one of the lead plaintiffs in a planned constitutional challenge against the ban.
At one point during the meeting, a man wearing a shirt that said “FCK HMS”, stood nearby the meeting yelling at people to “go home”. He held a sign that said: “Globalise the intifada is Bondi Beach 14 December 2025!”.
Big four banks lift interest rates
Adeshola Ore
Australia’s big four banks have all lifted interest rates after the Reserve Bank handed down a third consecutive rate hike yesterday.
The RBA lifted the cash rate from 4.1% to 4.35%, in a widely expected decision on yesterday afternoon.
Macquarie Bank was the first Australian bank to announce it would pass on the 0.25% interest rate rise to its variable home loan customers from 22 May.
The country’s big four banks – Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), National Australia Bank (NAB), Westpac and ANZ — followed suit, announcing they would all pass on the 0.25% increase to their customers.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Nick Visser will be your guide.
The “globalise the intifada” forum banned from taking place in a council venue on Monday night went ahead last night in a park in Sydney where participants discussed legal challenges to the ban on using the phrase, as well as the phrase “from the river to the sea”. More details coming up.
And Australia’s big four banks have all lifted interest rates after the Reserve Bank handed down a third consecutive rate hike yesterday. More reaction to the rate hike coming up.
About the Author
