The Reserve Bank of Australia has left interest rates on hold for a third consecutive month – at 3.6 per cent – citing recent evidence of more persistent inflation. Board governor Michele Bullock didn’t rule out the prospect of the next movement in the cash rate being an increase rather than a cut.
The opposition spent question time criticising the government’s handling of the cost of living issues, with Sussan Ley claiming the government “killed” another rate cut with its spending. In response to the RBA’s decision, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said: “While millions of Australians would’ve wanted to see more rate relief, this decision was widely anticipated and widely expected by markets”. The government also tried to draw attention to how inflation is now only half what it was before the 2022 election.
In ugly scenes in Sydney today, protesters clashed with police on the opening of the three-day Indo Pacific 2025 International Maritime Exposition. Police allege the protesters threw a bucket of paint at one officer and injured another, in ugly scenes where capsicum spray was deployed to hold back a group that police claimed were “out of control”.
The Albanese government will restructure Rex Airlines debt and hold some of its planes as collateral, as part of its support for Air T’s bid to take over the Australian regional airline.
Overseas, a worker has died in Rome after a medieval tower partially collapsed during renovation work.
An avalanche on a Nepalese mountain has killed five foreign climbers and two Nepali guides.
A fast-moving typhoon has barrelled across the central Philippines, leaving at least two dead.
And finally, Half Yours, the only Australian-bred horse in this year’s field, won the 2025 Melbourne Cup. Read more here.

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5.51pm on Nov 4, 2025

Complicity warning for firms supplying Israeli military

By Dominic Giannini

A former United Nations high commissioner for human rights has urged Australia to take a stronger stance to prevent genocide in Gaza.

Navi Pillay warned defence companies could face sanctions if they turned a blind eye to atrocities in Gaza by continuing to export weapons parts used by Israel’s military.

Australian companies provide parts for the F-35 fighter jet, which is used by the Israeli military, but the federal government insists it doesn’t export arms to Israel.

The components are part of a global supply chain for the jet, it says in its defence.

“I would issue a firm warning to [defence companies], be careful what you’re doing, because you may one day face charges of complicity in genocide,” Pillay told Canberra’s National Press Club today.

A United Nations commission of inquiry chaired by Pillay concluded Israel was conducting a genocide in Gaza.

Israel has denied all charges of genocide and accused the UN of having an anti-Israel bias.

Her edict was issued on the same day hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters rallied outside a naval defence forum in Sydney that included Israeli weapons manufacturers and firms supplying that nation’s military.

Protesters outside the Indo Pacific International Maritime Exposition at Darling Harbour earlier today.Kate Geraghty

AAP

5.42pm on Nov 4, 2025

On this day: An Israeli PM, seeking peace, is shot dead

By Alexander Darling

Today 30 years ago, Israel’s prime minister was shot and killed by a Jewish extremist following a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

Yitzhak Rabin’s death came after he negotiated the Oslo Accords with the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), for which he jointly won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize.

Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin delivers what turned out to be his final speech to a peace rally of more than 100,000 Israelis on November 4, 1995 in the Tel Aviv square that now bears his name. He was fatally shot only minutes later.AP

As part of these accords, Rabin agreed to transfer some of the territory that Israel captured in the Six Day War of 1967.

Israel won that war, and at the time Rabin was hailed as a hero for his role as the Israel Defence Forces’ chief of staff.

Twenty years later, in his second stint as Israel’s PM, Rabin was focused on being a peacemaker.

Rabin’s final words to the peace rally – printed on the front page of The Age – remain chilling three decades later as an uneasy ceasefire continues between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and criticism of the Netanyahu government’s actions rages on.

“Peace corresponds to an essential desire of the Jewish people,” Rabin said.

“There are enemies of peace who are trying to hit us, to torpedo the peace process. But I want to tell them without hesitation that we have found a partner in peace with the Palestinians.

“Without a partner, there is no peace.”

Israel continues to occupy some of the territory it seized in the Six Day War – including in the West Bank and Golan Heights. Though Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005, it has maintained a blockade restricting supplies to the strip since Hamas took control there in 2007.

5.30pm on Nov 4, 2025

Major parties vote down AUKUS inquiry

By Alexander Darling

The Greens have slammed the major parties after both voted against a proposed inquiry into the AUKUS defence agreement with the US and UK.

Greens spokesperson on defence and foreign affairs David Shoebridge said the inquiry would have allowed a Senate committee “to take public submissions on all aspects of the AUKUS deal, including environmental impacts, defence impacts, costs, and independence”.

Senator David Shoebridge.Alex Ellinghausen

“The fact that the Albanese government have voted for secrecy in this multi-decade, multi-hundred-billion-dollar gamble shows contempt for transparency and the very real concerns of the Australian public,” he said.

The UK and US are both conducting reviews into AUKUS.

Meanwhile, there will be Senate inquiries into the capital gains tax (CGT) discount, which the Greens claim is inflating house prices by incentivising speculative investment in property.

A separate inquiry will examine intergenerational housing inequality in Australia, including tax settings, rental and homelessness policies, and public housing investment.

5.18pm on Nov 4, 2025

Shares drop to six-week low as RBA leaves rates on hold

By Derek Rose

The local share market has dropped to a six-week low after the Reserve Bank kept interest rates unchanged and suggested it was in no hurry to adjust them in either direction.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index on Tuesday fell for the fifth time in the past six sessions, dropping 81.1 points, or 0.91 per cent, to 8,813.7, while the broader All Ordinaries slid 84.3 points, or 0.92 per cent, to 9,098.2.

The ASX200 spiked 23 points in two minutes after the RBA left interest rates on hold on Tuesday afternoon, but ultimately gave back all of that brief burst and then some.

AAP

5.01pm on Nov 4, 2025

China urges US to avoid four ‘red lines’ after reaching trade truce

China has called on the US to avoid four sensitive issues so that a trade truce sealed between presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping can hold, highlighting the broad array of disagreements that will test ties.

Ambassador to the US Xie Feng named Taiwan, democracy and human rights, China’s political system, and development rights as Beijing’s four red lines, adding that “the most important thing is to respect each other’s core interests and major concerns.”

China’s ambassador to the US Xie Feng, seen here during his stint as vice foreign minister in 2021.Phoenix TV via AP

Xie made the remarks in a virtual speech to a US-China Business Council event, according to a statement from the Chinese embassy.

He added that the pressing priority was to follow up on the consensus reached between Xi and Trump in order to reassure both countries and the world economy.

Whether it comes to conflicts over tariffs, industry or technology, Xie warned that “all will lead to nothing but a dead end.”

Meanwhile, Xi hosted Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Beijing at the Great Hall of the People today.

There, Xi sought to expand mutual investment with Russia and affirmed Beijing’s commitment to advancing ties.

The Kremlin has highlighted the significance of Mishustin’s visit at a time when Russia is under major Western sanctions over its war in Ukraine and looking to stem a recent slowdown in trade with China.

In a joint communique published on the Russian government website, both countries agreed to “strengthen cooperation in all spheres and respond appropriately to external challenges.”

Russia also reaffirmed its adherence to the “one-China” principle and opposition to “Taiwan independence”.

Bloomberg, Reuters

4.52pm on Nov 4, 2025

‘Female leaders held to higher standard’: Liberal senator

By Nick Newling

Sticking with Maria Kovacic’s appearance on ABC News’ Afternoon Briefing today, the Liberal senator has said that women have a harder time in leadership positions and are held to a higher standard than men.

Doubts over the future of Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s future abound.

“If you look at what it is like for women in leadership globally, not just in politics, I think it is always harder for a woman to lead than it is for a man. Whether people want to agree with that or not, that is a matter for them. The reality is a lot of women are held to a higher standard,” Kovacic said.

Ley is the first woman to lead the federal parliamentary Liberal Party, and the first female opposition leader in Australian history. However, Ley has overseen record-low polling for the party, most recently achieving just 24 per cent of the primary vote in The Australian’s Newspoll yesterday.

Though a leadership spill is not anticipated this year, the two figures most likely to take up leadership should Ley be deposed — backbencher Andrew Hastie and defence spokesperson Angus Taylor – are both men.

“Ultimately, Sussan Ley has shown she has worked through lots of difficult issues since she became the leader,” Kovacic said.

“I am proud of her for that and the tenacity she has had in dealing with a lot of significant problems and probably one of the worst election defeats that we have had in living memory.”

4.40pm on Nov 4, 2025

Little appetite for Coalition split, says Ley’s shadow assistant minister

By Nick Newling

Liberal senator Maria Kovacic has said that talk about a potential split in the Coalition is heightened because of the opposition’s significant loss at the May election.

Kovacic, the shadow assistant minister to Ley, said there was little desire for the parties to separate.

Maria Kovacic (back) watches as Tim Wilson gives a press conference last week.Alex Ellinghausen

“Historically, the Liberals and Nationals as individual parties have had different policies. In saying that, the organisational wings of those parties have had different policies and the parliamentary parties come together to determine what a Coalition policy will be going forward,” Kovacic said.

“This is just a natural continuation of what has happened historically but perhaps it is at a time where we have come off a very difficult election loss. There is a lot more attention on it,” she told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.

The Coalition lost 15 seats at the last election, reducing them to just 43 representatives in the lower house, as Labor soared to a record 94 seat majority.

“Some of the best governments in our country’s history have been Coalition governments led by Liberal Prime Ministers. I don’t think anybody really wants to change that. We are at a difficult point at the moment. I don’t think anybody is denying that but it doesn’t mean we can’t work through the issues,” Kovacic said.

In May, directly following the election loss, the Nationals’ leader David Littleproud withdrew his party from the Coalition, returning it after the Liberals agreed in-principle to some of the Nationals’ policy demands.

4.31pm on Nov 4, 2025

Typhoon leaves at least two dead, traps people on roofs in central Philippines

A fast-moving typhoon barrelling across the central Philippines after slamming ashore from the Pacific has left at least two people dead, set off flash floods that trapped residents on roofs and submerged cars in two villages, and displaced tens of thousands of people, officials say.

Typhoon Kalmaegi was blowing over the city of Bacolod in central Negros Occidental province before noon, with sustained winds of up to 140 kilometres an hour and gusts of up to 195km/h after making landfall around midnight in the town of Silago in the eastern province of Southern Leyte.

An elderly villager drowned in floodwaters in Southern Leyte, where a province-wide power outage was also reported, and another villager died after being hit by a fallen tree in central Bohol province, officials said in initial reports without providing other details.

Gwendolyn Pang, secretary-general of the Philippine Red Cross, said an unspecified number of residents were trapped on their roofs by floodwaters in the coastal town of Liloan in central Cebu province.

4.21pm on Nov 4, 2025

Fears ‘free’ electricity could come with hidden costs

By Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson and Alexander Darling

Energy retailers say they’ve been blindsided by reforms promising free electricity to hundreds of thousands of Australians during peak solar power hours. But the minister disputes this.

The Solar Sharer program, announced by the federal government today, would give consumers free access to electricity for three hours each day as part of the default offer available.

Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen arrives for a press conference at Parliament House today.Alex Ellinghausen

Households in NSW, South East Queensland and South Australia will qualify to access the program from July 2026, with negotiations under way to extend it to other states in 2027.

But a group representing electricity retailers has criticised the government’s lack of consultation about the change.

“We are disappointed that the government didn’t consult us ahead of time in announcing this decision,” Australian Energy Council chief executive Louisa Kinnear said.

“This lack of consultation risks damaging industry confidence as well as creating the potential for unintended consequences.”

Bowen denied the retailers’ claims the government did not consult correctly.

“Let me run you through the facts. We announced in June we would start this consultation process about Default Market Offer reform,” he told ABC News’ Afternoon Briefing.

“There has been a consultation paper issued by my department, discussions with key players in the energy system after that advice. What we are now doing is consulting on the implementation details.”

“We talk issues through. It doesn’t mean everyone will be happy. I put consumers first. Maybe not every energy company loves this. I am careful not to publicly get into a slanging match with energy companies because a lot of them are doing their best in difficult circumstances.”

With AAP

As it happened: RBA keeps interest rates on hold; Police arrest 13 at violent Sydney defence expo protest; Speculation of Ley’s leadership continues

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