As well as her interviews with politicians and experts, Politics with Michelle Grattan includes “Word from The Hill”, where she discusses the news with members of The Conversation’s politics team.
In this podcast Michelle and politics + society editor Amanda Dunn discuss the Reserve Bank’s Tuesday interest rate rise (this time 25 basis points), the 11th increase in a year.
They also canvass a likely boost to JobSeeker payments for people aged 55 and over in next week’s budget (a higher rate is already there for those 60-plus who have been out of work nine months). This will be part of the government’s promised cost-of-living relief package. The budget will deliver a hit to cigarette smokers, with a 5% rise in excise for each of three years, bringing in $3.3 billion in revenue for the government. Health Minister Mark Butler announced the increase in a Tuesday speech that also flagged a comprehensive push to crack down on the vaping scourge.