Australia news LIVE: Lidia Thorpe involved in incident outside strip club; Medibank hack victims’ face compensation hurdle – Sydney Morning Herald

High-interest rates and inflation are starting to bite into online spending, with a new measure of internet shopping revealing a $124 million drop in turnover over the past year.

As traditional measures of spending also point to the growing difficulties facing the Reserve Bank, the Airwallex measure of digital expenditure confirms the impact of tight monetary policy and falling real wages on cash-strapped consumers.

Airwallex, a global payment platform started in Melbourne, processes almost $50 billion in transactions every year, many from emerging small and medium businesses.

Read more on how online shopping took a hit here. 

Earlier, the Senate wing of Parliament House in Canberra was evacuated following reports of a burning smell.

In an update ACT Fire and Rescue Service will carry out an “atmospheric test” in parts of the Senate wing.

“This will involve them seeking access to some offices, including areas of the Press Gallery, to ensure the area has normal air quality,” according to the Department of Parliamentary Services.

The issue was caused by a drive belt failure in the air handling unit, and it resulted in smoke which triggered an alarm, but there was no fire.

There has been progress made on energy rebates and household assistance for electricity bills in the budget, the treasurer says.

Jim Chalmers today reiterated the budget would be focused on helping Australians on energy prices, both for householders and small business owners.

“We’ve made progress on the energy rebates, the household assistance for electricity bills,” he said.

“We’ve been working … for some months, with our state and territory counterparts, recognising there are different systems around the country, different pressures, different existing infrastructure when it comes to … that assistance,” he told reporters in Canberra.

He said he hoped to keep people updated about those negotiations before the budget was released next month, but they would “at the very latest” be included within the budget.

“Australians will understand depending on where they live in the country, what kind of assistance they’ll be receiving, who is eligible and how much assistance as well,” he said.

Chalmers also flagged he received advice from Treasury about the commodity price assumptions.

“I’ve said publicly before, and as I’ve said many times privately, there are good reasons to maintain a conservative and cautious approach when it comes to those commodity price assumptions,” he said.

He said he accepted the recommendations from the Treasury about the commodity price assumptions.

“My inclination is to accept the recommendations … when it comes to changing in a moderate way, in quite a restrained way, cautious, conservative way, the way that we go about making those commodity price assumptions in the budget,” he said.

Staying with Treasurer Jim Chalmers, who said the review into the Reserve Bank of Australia would be released soon.

Speaking in Canberra the treasurer said the review could be released within the next week, but at least in the next two weeks.

“That will be released with an initial review from the government about the 51 specific recommendations contained in the report,” Chalmers said.

He said he had spoken to the RBA governor Philip Lowe about the contents of the report already.

“Before long I want to have a discussion with the opposition and ideally the crossbench about the contents of that report as well,” Chalmers told reporters today.

It is the first time the institution has been reviewed in four decades, and it is expected to contain changes to the way it operates and communicates with the public.

Anger over the bank has intensified since then after the RBA – which had signalled it would hold official interest rates at 0.1 per cent until 2024 – started tightening monetary policy in May last year.

The treasurer was questioned about the recommendations from the RBA review, and said they would require legislative changes.

“There will be a legislative element to the elements that were put forward by the Reserve Bank … review panel,” he said.

He genuinely wanted changes to be bipartisan, he said.

“There are some recommendations which would require legislative change. There are some that would require the governor and the board to change the way that they go about things at the bank,” he said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers is speaking in Canberra, where he said the budget will forecast the weakest two years of global growth in the past two decades except for the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The treasurer went to the US last week for high-level talks about the global economy, including with the International Monetary Fund.

He said this morning the IMF expect an “incredibly weak” five years of global economic growth.

“Our budget in three weeks time, will forecast for [2023 and 2024], the weakest two years of global growth in the last two decades apart from the depths of the GFC [Global Financial Crisis] and of COVID,” he said.

The treasurer said the best antidote to global uncertainty was responsible economic management in Australia.

“That’s what the May budget will represent. We do have as we’ve said in this room a number of times we do have a lot coming at us, but we do have a lot going for us as well,” he said.

The treasurer pointed to low unemployment, high prices for exports and both of those were helping the budget.

The budget was about cost-of-living issues, laying the foundations for growth with a focus on energy and ensuring the economy was resilient to economic shocks.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers will hold a press conference in Canberra.

Watch back below:

In case you missed it, Liberal supporters of the Voice are mobilising to launch the party’s formal Yes campaign once a parliamentary inquiry settles on the wording of the referendum next month, hoping to double support inside the federal party room.

Current and former Liberal MPs and staffers have created a database of party members who support the Indigenous Voice to parliament, as they look to push back against Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s announcement that the party will formally oppose the Voice.

They plan to launch a “Liberals for Yes” campaign after the parliamentary inquiry into the referendum hands down its findings on May 15.

Here’s the full story on this issue.

As we flagged earlier, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in Hobart to support the launch of a campaign to support the Voice by former federal Liberal MP Pat Farmer.

Farmer, the former MP for Macarthur in NSW, will run more than 14,000 km and will finish the six-month-long run at Uluru. The ultra marathon runner will run on average 80km a day to complete the run on time.

Speaking at a press conference in Hobart this morning, the prime minister said Farmer’s “Run for the Voice” was an “absolutely perfect” way to show support for the Yes campaign.

“Through this run, [Farmer] will mobilise these local communities where he visits … I know that he’s hoping to mobilise that support throughout Tasmania, firstly, but then throughout the entire nation and finishing … fittingly, at Uluru,” he said.

The PM said the Voice would enable the government to get better outcomes for Indigenous people throughout the country.

“What the Voice is about is a bottom-up approach from local and regional voices to be heard through a national voice, having a say for Indigenous Australians,” Albanese said this morning.

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney was also in attendance for the launch.