Australia news LIVE: Chalmers says inflation still lower than expected after rise, but another rate hike on horizon; Crew members, passengers intervene after midair pilot stabbing

Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of national news for Thursday, October 1. Here’s what is making headlines today.

Incoming Greens leader David Shoebridge says Labor is “marching further to the right” and everyday Australians are suffering as a result. He also doubled down on his claim that his party were not looking to strengthen the ALP, but to replace them.

He said the Labor Party had left a gaping void on the progressive side of politics as it tried to challenge One Nation.

“[Labor] had been marching to the right initially, marching to the right to meet whatever the Coalition put out them, and now they’re marching even to the further right to meet what One Nation has put to them,” he told ABC’s News Breakfast.

“And meanwhile, people are asking, well, hang on, what’s the federal government for? I can’t afford to pay the rent. My kids are couch-surfing. You know, mortgages are going through the roof. You’re scared about what the cost will be when you bring your trolley to the checkout at the supermarket.”

Home values in Australia have fallen by 5 per cent from their peak in March, with Sydney and Melbourne leading the downturn.

The national property slump has stretched to six months after a 1.1 per cent drop in September, Cotality’s Home Value Index shows. Values slipped in every capital city except Darwin last month.

Sydney’s property market has taken the biggest hit, with prices now 8.6 per cent below their February peak. The city’s median dwelling value is $1,198,596, Cotality’s figures show.

Price declines in Sydney are now a little deeper than the equivalent stage of the previous 2022-23 downturn “highlighting how rapidly demand has weakened across the nation’s largest housing market”.

Melbourne property values are now 7.2 per cent below their peak in November 2025 and 7.5 per cent lower than the record high for property prices registered in March 2022.

You can read the full story here.

David Shoebridge will need to take a more constructive approach to working with the government, Environment Minister Murray Watt has said, after the new Greens leader vowed yesterday the party wanted to “replace” Labor.

“I wasn’t particularly surprised to hear this from David Shoebridge as the new Greens leader … [He] is one of the leaders of the angry militant faction of the Greens Party,” Watt told Nine this morning.

He said failing to negotiate with the government had not worked for the party in the past.

“The Greens have got to make a decision about whether they want to work with the parliament, work with the government to achieve progress, or whether they want to go back to that kind of angry blocking that they engaged in last term and that saw them lose a lot of seats.”

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie says there is a “deep level of denial and contempt” in Labor’s approach to economic management after the Reserve Bank lifted interest rates to a 15-year-high this week and inflation increased through August.

McKenzie accused the Albanese government of failing to accept responsibility for its role in driving up inflation through high levels of government spending.

“Everyone watching this has seen real wages go backwards, the largest drop in living standards in the developed world, and highest interest rates of industrial countries other than Iceland. They are the real economic indicators of the level of incompetence of this Labor government,” she told Nine’s Today show this morning.

Appearing alongside the Victorian senator on a regular panel was Environment Minister Murray Watt, who noted Labor reported a lower deficit in its final budget outcome than it had inherited when it came to office.

“It’s also far lower than was predicted when we first came to office, so that’s the result of the changes that we’ve been making and the savings that we’ve made,” he said.

“The great bulk of spending that is happening in the economy at the moment is not from government; it’s actually coming from the private sector, and that is because we are continuing to reduce government spending.”

Credit and debit card surcharges will be scrapped as of today, in a move the government says will take pressure off consumers and businesses and help with the cost of living.

Consumers will now be able to use their credit and debit cards without these added surcharges. The Reserve Bank estimates the change will save them $1.6 billion a year.

But experts have warned the reforms could see many customers paying more for their credit card while getting less value and fewer rewards in return.

You can find out more about what the reforms mean for you here.

London: A commercial aircraft flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia after issuing an alert when one of the two pilots stabbed the other in an apparent attempt to crash the plane.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised crew members and passengers who prevented a disaster by entering the cockpit and stopping the attacker.

The midair crisis began when flydubai Flight FZ1073, carrying more than 170 people, suddenly lost altitude and issued an emergency alert two hours into its journey, leading the Israeli government to scramble fighter jets in response.

Netanyahu made his televised remarks on Wednesday afternoon in Israel (shortly after 11.30pm AEST) in the first official statement on the attacks by the Israeli government after hours of speculation about whether the incident was a hijacking, an altercation between pilots or a brutal attempt to kill all on board.