Why our obsession with interest rates and cost of living is a problem

The Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate for the first time in two years yesterday, to 3.85 per cent. Exactly as mortgage holders have been fearing.But what if many of us are not actually in the cost-of-living crisis that we keep being told that we’re in? And that this new interest rate is comparatively good?Today, senior economics reporter Matt Wade on how obsessing over the cost of living hides the real challenges of our age.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Can the Coalition reunite, after two weeks of political infighting? And will the Liberal and National parties’ leaders, Sussan Ley and David Littleproud, even keep their jobs, given the threats to their leadership that continue to play out, as this episode goes to air?These are only two of the political tripwires that are at high risk of being stepped on, this week; a period that veteran political analyst Sean Kelly calls “absolutely insane”.Today columnist Sean Kelly on this week’s expected chaos and whether it might lead the government to finally enact bold changes, in housing and tax reform.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"No jab no play” policy means unvaccinated children can’t be enrolled in childcare or preschool in most Australian jurisdictions. But some parents have found ways to evade those laws.According to an investigation by reporter Kayla Olaya, these parents are using Facebook groups to share the contacts of doctors who will falsify their children’s immunisation records. This, as vaccine uptake in Australia has stalled below national targets.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The drama between the Liberals and the Nationals continued this week with what seems to be a total breakdown in the relationship between Liberal leader Sussan Ley and Nationals leader David Littleproud. Meanwhile, Ley's leadership remains in mortal peril, and in a plot twist, Littleproud faces his own leadership challenge next week. Chief political correspondent Paul Sakkal joins Jacqueline Maley in today's episode.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Inflation has risen again, and the markets are already tipping interest rates are likely to increase next week in response. Today, senior economics correspondent Shane Wright explains what is driving the spike in inflation and what it says about where Australia’s economy is headed.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two Americans have now been killed by federal agents on the streets of Minneapolis in less than three weeks.Their families say they were sweet, passionate people who could not sit back and watch while masked men snatched members of their community off the streets.The US government, meanwhile, calls them “domestic terrorists” who should not have intervened while agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement - known as ICE - tried to do their work.Former Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton have described the situation as “a watershed moment in US history”.Today, North America correspondent Michael Koziol is on the ground in Minneapolis.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

She was given the pseudonym XC, by a court, to protect her identity. And she’s never spoken publicly about her experience. But the court documents from her case against Ken Dyers reveal a harrowing set of allegations. At the age of 14, she says that Dyers, the leader of the performing arts and social organisation, Kenja, sexually abused her. And she alleges that nine other members of his organisation – all but one of them, women – helped him do it. Dyers was in his early 80s at the time.  Today, investigations reporter Harriet Alexander, on why Kenja – which police have called a cult – is still operating in cities across Australia. And a warning this episode may be distressing to some listeners.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More than 25 years ago, photojournalist Kate Geraghty travelled to Timor-Leste to document the struggles of the Timorese people as they wrestled back their independence from a decades-long, and often brutal, Indonesian occupation. Last year, Geraghty returned to Timor-Leste, with health editor Kate Aubusson, where they witnessed a devastating legacy of this struggle: a deep, cultural tradition of withstanding pain.Coupled with a shame about cancer, and a lack of resources, a diagnosis of cervical cancer often equals a death sentence in Timor-Leste. And this in a place only 85 minutes away by plane from Australia, which is on track to become the first country in the world to eliminate the cancer by 2035. Today, Kate Geraghty and Kate Aubusson, on the Australian and Timorese medicos, who are helping the women of Timor-Leste fight this entirely preventable cancer.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tony Wright, the associate editor of The Age, has been writing for 50 years. He is the master of what we call the political sketch.Sketches are akin to a verbal cartoon and, when done well, capture a moment in politics.Today, in a bonus episode of Inside Politics, we bring you Wright's sketch on the disintegration of the Coalition, titled: It’s a mess of Titanic proportions on the Coalition’s ship of fools.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One Nation is having a bit of a moment. Pauline Hanson’s outfit, accused by both major parties of exploiting racial anxiety over her career, has faded into irrelevance at points since she burst onto the scene in the late 1990s. But two new polls have recorded record-high primary votes for One Nation. One of them saw One Nation’s vote rise above the Coalition, which split in spectacular fashion this week, over new hate crime legislation in the wake of the Bondi massacre. The break-up of the Coalition, and the rise of One Nation, may point to a tectonic change in conservative politics. At same time, the attack at Bondi has further sapped trust in our political system as politicians have brawled in the wake of a tragedy. I’m Paul Sakkal, and you’re listening to Inside Politics, from The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.From Parliament House this week, we recorded an interview before the Coalition split, with One Nation’s newest recruit, Nationals defector and former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce.Subscribe to The Age & SMH: https://subscribe.smh.com.au/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.