Evening News 30 April 2025
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TRANSCRIPT:
- Labor optimistic and the Coalition sceptical after today’s release of the latest inflation figures;
- Chaos on a US highway after a kangaroo escapes from its enclosure;
- Rugby Australia names the new coach of the Wallabies.
Australia’s Treasurer says he’s optimistic about the economy, following the release of the latest inflation data today.
The latest consumer price index data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows underlying inflation is now at 2.9 per cent on an annual basis, the lowest trimmed mean inflation rate since the December 2021 quarter.
Jim Chalmers says the result is evidence that Labor’s approach to economic management is working.
“I’m optimistic about our economy and I’m proud of the progress that Australians have made together. I find that the progress on inflation has been especially encouraging. It’s a demonstration of the progress we’ve made together and it’s proof of the responsible way that we’ve been going about managing the economy in uncertain times.”
The Opposition has declared that today’s inflation data report shows the cost of living crisis is not yet over.
The Coalition’s Treasury spokesperson Angus Taylor says the inflation figures have come in higher than the target range forecast by the Reserve Bank.
Mr Taylor has argued that shows there are underlying issues which Labor has failed to address.
“Services inflation remains above the target range. Goods inflation is up. So the warning signs are here that inflation – as we’ve seen historically. When you’ve had a surge of it, the risk is that it comes back again. And as I say, the only person who doesn’t believe that is the Treasurer because he simply doesn’t understand economics. He’s a doctor of spin not a doctor of economics.”
Labor says it won’t pursue the Indigenous Voice to Parliament again if it wins re-election on Saturday.
Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong had told a Betoota Advocate podcast the proposal for an advisory body, resoundingly defeated in a 2023 national vote, may in future be viewed in similar way to the long campaign to same-sex marriage.
The comments have been seized upon by the Opposition, Leader Peter Dutton accusing the government of not listening to Australians.
But Senator Wong has told SBS News her remarks have been misinterpreted.
“The Voice is gone. The Prime Minister has made that clear and the Australian people have made their position clear. We respect the result of the referendum. What I would say is that doesn’t mean reconciliation and closing the gap stops, and we need to keep – together – progressing those.”
A community in Melbourne with a high Jewish population has been targeted with fake campaign material containing antisemitic messages.
The pamphlets, displaying the Liberal Party emblem combined with the Israeli flag and titled “Giving the Jews everything they want,” have been delivered to homes in Caulfield.
Text at the bottom of the pamphlets reads ” Authorised by Joel Davis, National Socialist Network” – referring to a well-recognised Neo-Nazi leader.
Environmental organisation Planet Ark has gone into voluntary administration.
The group’s board has released a statement saying the decision was made after a review of its financial position and future viability.
It says voluntary administration will allow for an independent assessment of their affairs to be made and to explore options to continue their work.
Planet Ark has run a series of campaigns and programs since it began in 1992, including National Tree Day and National Recycling Week.
Vietnam has marked the 50th anniversary of the end of the war with the United States.
Thousands have flocked to Ho Chi Minh City — once known as Saigon — to witness a military parade near the Independence Palace, where the war ended when a North Vietnamese tank smashed through its gates.
The fall of Saigon was seared into many memories by the images of US helicopters evacuating some 7000 people, many of them Vietnamese, as the tanks closed in.
63-year-old resident Ha Minh Nguyet has never forgotten that day.
“It is so emotional! So happy! Because when the country was liberated in 1975, I was a student and our whole school marched in the streets, and now, 50 years later, not only am I able to live in a peaceful time, I am also living again in that same atmosphere.”
A runaway kangaroo named Sheila has shut down a stretch of highway in the US state of Alabama before troopers and the animal’s owner wrangled the wayward marsupial.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency says the kangaroo was spotted hopping along the side of Interstate 85 in Macon County, between Montgomery and Auburn, after getting out of its enclosure.
Macon County Sheriff Andre Brunson captured the chase with a Facebook live video broadcast before Sheila was brought safely back home, understood to be with a family that runs a petting zoo but keeps the kangaroo as a pet.
Rugby Australia has confirmed Les Kiss will take over as Wallabies coach in mid-2026.
He’s inheriting the job from Joe Schmidt, who says he was due to finish up after this year’s Rugby Championship, but will stay on to avoid disruptions, and so Kiss can complete his Super Rugby Pacific contract with the Queensland Reds.
“It was something that I thought was important Rugby Australia were independent in doing that. And I’m delighted with what the outcome is.”
