Australian politics live: fourfold surge in home battery installations after federal subsidy; O’Brien says Liberals can stand alone

now 21.35 GMT Patrick Commins RBA rate hike ‘not one and done’ The Reserve Bank’s rate hike on Tuesday does not look like a case of “one and done”, NAB economists are warning this morning, with financial markets pricing in another move higher at the May meeting. The Aussie dollar jumped back over US70 cents and regained three-year highs overnight in a further sign that investors believe the RBA has further work to do to get inflation back under control in 2026. While the RBA’s governor, Michele Bullock, said that Tuesday’s rate move was an “adjustment”, rather than the start of a new hiking cycle, markets are even factoring in a solid chance of a third hike by the end of the year. NAB’s head of markets research, Skye Masters, wrote: NAB expects the RBA to deliver another 25bps [0.25 percentage points] rate hike in the cash rate at the May meeting, and while governor Bullock did not want to signal that this was the start of a series of rate increases, NAB recognises that the risks are biased towards more than 50bps of hikes [in 2026]. Share

3m ago 21.32 GMT Natasha May Action needed to stop private health insurers offering doctors ‘take it or leave it’ contracts, peak body says The peak medical body is calling for regulation to prevent private health insurer’s “abuse” of their market power when creating contracts with doctors. In a new position statement released today, the Australian Medical Association say insurers must be prohibited from offering doctors ‘take it or leave it’ contracts, which they say limits patient choice and increases out of pocket costs. Approximately 97% of procedures performed in private hospitals are conducted by doctors working under ‘no gap’ or ‘known gap’ agreements with private health insurers. Federal AMA President Dr Danielle McMullen says: If a doctor does not sign because the insurer’s remuneration is too low or charges just $1 more than the insurer is willing to pay, the insurer will then slash the medical benefits they would pay to patients and blame it on doctors’ fees. Yet for most insurers, medical benefits haven’t been indexed and the ‘known gap’ contract limit of $500 hasn’t changed for years, meaning that doctors are being asked to sign contracts that do not reflect the current costs of providing care. This is deceptive and unfair and leads to higher out-of-pocket costs for patients. Share

13m ago 21.22 GMT Chalmers pours some cold water on capital gains tax reports As we brought you earlier this morning, there are some reports the government could be considering changes to the 50% capital gains tax discount for property investors. The tax discount is currently being looked at by a Greens-led Senate inquiry. Chalmers was stopped by reporters as he was walking into Parliament this morning … a small note here if I can take you briefly down memory lane. During sitting weeks, reporters used to hang out by the Senate and House entrances every morning trying to question pollies as they walked in. But if they really wanted to, there are other ways of being able to enter Parliament without facing