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Morning Mail: house prices back at record level, Australia’s generational shift, blast at US-Canada border
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Morning, everyone. It’s perhaps not news to people looking for a home they can afford to buy, but Australian house prices are back at record levels after recovering to last year’s peak. As we examine this trend it also links directly to a special report this morning on how the political outlook of younger Australians is changing as they experience a “new kind of adulthood” where home ownership and children come much later in life, if at all. Plus we have the second part of our Weight of the world series on climate change.
Overseas there’s breaking news of an explosion at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls on the US-Canada border. And a four-day truce is due to begin in Gaza later today.
‘Tim’s been shot’ | “My first thought was: Tim [Flannery]’s been shot,” says Lesley Hughes in the second instalment of the Weight of the world series, in which we talk to some of Australia’s first climate change scientists about the personal toll of their pioneering work. Hughes says she thought the carbon tax debate had become so toxic that when she heard a loud noise while on stage with Flannery, who was then chair of the Climate Commission, it might be an assassination attempt. Hughes emerged from that time battle weary but optimistic. “I’ve come to the conclusion that hope has to be a strategy,” she says.
‘Counterintuitive’ | Despite rate hikes and gloomy consumer sentiment, house prices across Australia have risen 8.1% since their slump in January. But Corelogic sees the pace of price increases falling off as interest rates remain high, as indicated by Reserve Bank governor Michelle Bullock last night.
Exclusive | Australia’s 100 wealthiest schools had a combined income of $4.8bn in 2021, data reveals, as calls grow for the federal government to reduce inequality in the education system.
Detention call | The Coalition and Greens want Clare O’Neil to release the government’s legal advice on indefinite detention, with the opposition claiming that the home affairs minister may have already revealed its contents publicly.
Power push | The Albanese government will radically expand funding for clean power generation and storage capacity as it tries to keep on course to meet its objective of 82% renewable energy by 2030.
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