Australia news LIVE: RBA expected to announce fourth rate rise this year; Greens leader Larissa Waters steps down due to illness; Trump denies asking Xi about potential US arms sales

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of national news this Tuesday, September 29. Here’s what is making headlines today.

And US President Donald Trump said he had not discussed selling arms to China, contradicting a suggestion made by his ambassador to Beijing. “I never heard of that,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office overnight.

The government and the Reserve Bank want to see the same outcomes for the Australian economy, Treasurer Jim Chalmers says, as he continues to reject commentary that pits him against RBA governor Michele Bullock.

Asked whether the primary focus of the government was taming inflation rather than maintaining low unemployment, Chalmers told ABC Radio National:

“We see them as two important objectives ... they’re equally important in the Reserve Bank’s mandate, dual mandate, which talks about maintaining full employment at the same time as they go for price stability, which means, you know, inflation in the target band. So, in that regard, whether it’s the government or the Reserve Bank, we want to see unemployment as low as possible, consistent with inflation at more normal levels.

“It’s a key focus of the government, and no doubt it’s a key focus of the Reserve Bank’s meeting yesterday and today.”

But he said the government would not be satisfied with an outcome that sees the unemployment rate rise, after Bullock warned it may be the only way to bring down high inflation.

“We’re not for higher unemployment. I think that’s pretty clear.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has warned against making comparisons with other economies as the RBA prepares to hand down its interest rate decision later today.

Chalmers acknowledged that while inflation was difficult to manage because of global factors such as the war in Iran, Australia was tracking well on other economic measures.

“Inflation and interest rates are going up right around the world … if you want to make comparisons with other countries, you’ve got to make the full comparison,” he told Seven’s Sunrise this morning.

“We’ve got stronger economic growth than almost every major advanced economy, stronger jobs growth than the major advanced economies. We’ve got lower debt, much lower debt than the major advanced economies. And so, when you make those comparisons, it’s important to make the whole comparison.”

Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson says a Coalition government will seek to make savings by cutting back on NDIS, aged care and childcare, as he argues spending on the schemes is out of control.

“The key thing we need to do to address the problem of inflation is to get government spending down. The problem we’ve got at the moment is the government keeps stoking inflation by spending at a state and a federal level, and as a consequence, it’s forcing the hand of the Reserve Bank, which is leading them to these increases in interest rates,” he told ABC’s News Breakfast.

Wilson said the schemes were “honey pots for people to raid”.

“The National Disability Insurance Scheme, home aged care packages, and other schemes, like we’ve got phantom children enrolled in childcare. Those schemes need to be controlled.”

He could not say how much money might be saved by taking this approach or what areas of the schemes he would seek to cut.

The government made sweeping changes to the NDIS in its May budget, which will save $37.8 billion over the next four years.

Independent senator David Pocock said government spending was a contributing factor to high inflation as he warned that energy companies were taking advantage of Australian consumers in a time of economic hardship.

“Clearly, government spending is part of this. You can’t blame it all on the war in the Middle East,” he told Nine’s Today show this morning.

“But one of the things that I get frustrated that we’re not talking enough about is: if you look at the profits that these big gas multinationals are making, if you look at the profits that Ampol has announced, you know, almost 500 per cent increase in profits at a time where Australians are paying through the nose for petrol and diesel in this country, that should be unacceptable.”

Pocock reiterated his calls for a windfall profits tax which would seek to recoup some of the profits taken by gas and energy multinationals such as Ampol and Woodside during major geopolitical or supply chain shocks.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers continues to put responsibility for a likely rate rise onto the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which he said “has been a disaster for Australian families”.

Speaking to ABC’s 7.30 program last night, the treasurer said the Australian economy was performing remarkably well considering the environment of extraordinary global instability. He said inflation remained high because of the war in Iran.

“Right now, we’ve got a big inflation challenge in our economy. It’s made much worse by decisions taken on the other side of the world. From an economic point of view, this war in Iran has been an absolute disaster for Australian families because they have been asked to pay a hefty price for it.

“So, in that context, our job is to continue to manage the budget and the economy in a responsible way, to provide help with the cost of living in an affordable way.”

Chalmers also appeared to reject a suggestion by Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock that unemployment would need to reach 5 per cent for inflation to come down.

“I think we’ve seen in the past that we can get inflation down while maintaining very low unemployment.”

US President Donald Trump says he has not discussed selling arms to China, contradicting a suggestion made by his ambassador to Beijing.

“I never heard of that,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office overnight, when asked about ambassador David Perdue’s statement.

Trump initially appeared confused and clarified if the reporter meant arms sales to Taiwan.

Perdue told Fox News on Sunday that Trump had asked Chinese President Xi Jinping if he would to like to buy some American armaments.