Wednesday 4 November - From little things big things grow

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, 4 November. In your Squiz Today…

• The RBA raises interest rates for the fifth time this year

• Americans are voting in the US midterm elections

• And a NASA telescope is falling towards Earth…🔭

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🙋🏻‍♀️ This newsletter was written by Andrew Williams, Anna Pykett, Larissa Huntington, Jonathan Liondis and Sophie Felice

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said Karl Bushby, who’s spent 28 years walking 50,000km from Chile back to his mum’s place in England’s north. He slogged through deserts, mountains, jungles, saw off a polar bear and swam with crocs. A doco is in the works, but for now, we hope he’s putting his feet up with a cuppa…

Rates rise again

The Squiz

As most experts predicted, the Reserve Bank raised the official interest rate by 25 basis points yesterday to 4.85% - the highest it’s been in 18 years. Governor Michele Bullock put the decision down to our rate of inflation, which at 4.3% is higher than the RBA would like - and not showing signs of dropping. Bullock reckons inflation will stay high for most of next year, and she isn’t ruling out more rate rises down the track - which is unwelcome news for families and small businesses already feeling the pinch.

Why does this keep happening?

The RBA raises interest rates to reduce people’s disposable income. The idea is that if people are paying more in interest or rent each month, they’ll spend less on goods and services, which will ease inflation. Bullock said the board was divided - 6 of 9 members voted to raise rates while 3 voted to keep them on hold. Around 3.3 million Aussie households have home loans, and to put it in dollar terms, this rise will add about $120 a month to repayments on an average new owner-occupied loan of $731,000. Accounting for all 5 rate rises, people with that average loan will have to find about $600 a month more to pay off their mortgages than at the start of the year.

Remind me what’s driving inflation?

Bullock said the high cost of fuel due to the war in the Middle East is being passed on by businesses, making goods and services more expensive. There’s also been a surge of investment in data centres and AI, and the cost of electricity, construction materials and medical treatments has gone up too. Coalition leader Angus Taylor says federal government spending is the thing causing our inflation problems, but Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the war is the bigger issue and argues that rates are rising in “every major advanced economy”. We’ve still got one more of these Reserve Bank decisions to go this year - on 8 December - but some economists reckon that a sixth rate rise for the year is unlikely.

Squiz the Rest

The US goes to the polls

Americans are voting in the midterms this morning to decide who controls Congress for the final 2 years of US President Donald Trump’s second term. One of the biggest issues across the campaign has been the cost of living, particularly high fuel costs, caused by the US and Israel’s war with Iran. Overnight, Trump called in for an interview on Fox News, where he said the US will stop giving Israel about US$4 billion a year after the end of 2026, but it’s not clear exactly what funding is being cut. We’d also been hearing reports that the US had launched a strike on Iran’s Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, and Trump confirmed it, calling it a “minor attack.” Polls start closing from around 10am AEDT, so we should start getting results later today, but in states where the vote’s tight, a result might not be called for days. Watch this space…

A One Nation volunteer was hospitalised…

…with serious head injuries after being allegedly attacked with a baseball bat on Sunday night. A 37yo man and a 14yo boy were arrested over the incident, which happened at the volunteer’s home in the Victorian coastal town of Torquay. The man has since been charged with assault, while the teen was cautioned. With the Victorian election a few weeks away, and in the wake of the alleged car attack on federal independent MP Helen Haines, leaders are calling for political tensions to be dialled down. According to One Nation Victorian leader Warren Pickering, the 60yo volunteer was allegedly attacked after political signs for the party on his property were “interfered with”. He said: “Political violence or intimidation of any kind against anyone is unacceptable in this country”.

A Swift end

A NASA telescope launched in 2004 is expected to fall out of the sky sometime today - and experts aren’t sure where it’s going to land. The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory - also known as Swift - was tailor-made to study exploding stars and black holes in outer space - but in recent years, it’s been falling back towards Earth. NASA tried a rescue mission in July, but didn’t have any luck, and the space agency also doesn’t have any control over where it lands. That’s most likely to be in the ocean, but northern Australia is in the possible landing zone. NASA reckons most of it will burn up on re-entry, and it says the chance of anyone being hurt is “unlikely” at about one in 2,100. It’s expected about 7.30pm AEDT, but it could slip to early Thursday our time. Keep your eyes on the sky…

I raced the law and the law won

British horse Point of Law is this year’s Melbourne Cup winner, taking out the famous race yesterday with a barnstorming finish in the home stretch. The 3yo colt was once owned by King Charles III, but it was sold to Australian owners a few months ago. Ironically, Point of Law won the cup after chasing down race leader Royal Supremacy in the last 100m or so, with Zahrann and Juja Kibo finishing second and third. The first 3 horses to cross the line were all trained by the same trainer, Ciaron Maher, making him the first trainer in the race’s history to achieve that feat. It’s not only the horses that make a splash on Cup Day, though - it’s also a big fashion day, so here’s a gallery for you to scroll through this morning.

The shonky-tonk blues

Consumer advocacy group CHOICE has announced the winners of its 2026 Shonky Awards this morning - and it’s putting ticketing companies, an airline and protein chips under the microscope. The Shonkys are for products or companies that CHOICE reckons aren’t up to scratch - and this year it’s called out Ticketmaster and Ticketek for their ‘dynamic pricing’ models - aka when sellers jack up the price of tickets based on how many people want them. It also had unkind words for Virgin Australia, which it said had put customers under too much time pressure to use their flight credits, and Quest Protein Chips, which it said were overpriced. You can check the full list of losers winners out here…

Apropos of Nothing

The word ‘mogging’ is the Collins English Dictionary word of the year. Like ‘maxxing’, ‘mogging’ has its origins in the online world and means to outshine or upstage someone at something. Maybe you’re news-mogging your mates right now…

The Guggenheim Museum may be feeling some regrets as a painting it sold in 1964 for today’s equivalent of $770,000 is looking to fetch upwards of $85 million at auction. The museum sold the painting to free up space - that’s some expensive real estate… 

And non-Melbourne Cup winner King Charles was caught in the rain while on a Royal Tour of the Caribbean, and made it known that he wasn’t thrilled about it. He’s captured at a military event asking his staff where his umbrella is, but you’d think a Brit would be used to the rain…

Squiz the Day

8.00am (AEDT) - Sexual Assault Services Victoria's International Freedom from Sexual Violence summit begins (until 6 November) - Melbourne 

9.00am (AEDT) - The inaugural National Songbook, recognising the songs that have helped shape Australia’s cultural identity, will be announced - Canberra 

12.30pm (AEDT) - Former Labor Minister Peter Garrett and former Chief of the Australian Defence Force Admiral Chris Barrie, both commissioners in the inquiry into AUKUS, will address the National Press Club with a speech called 'will AUKUS keep us safe - and at what cost?' - Canberra, watch on ABC iView

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog will be presented with the official results of the Israeli Knesset election and begin consultations with party leaders on who should attempt to form a coalition government

Report due from the grassroots AUKUS inquiry 

📮 Postal vote applications open for Victoria's state election 

ABS data release: selected living cost indexes, September 2026; monthly household spending indicator, September 2026

Baillie Gifford Prize announced, the UK's premier non-fiction literary award, with the winner to receive $95,000

Tonga’s National Day

Birthdays for former PM Tony Abbott (1957) and actor Matthew McConaughey (1969) 

Anniversary of:

• James Ritty patenting the first cash register, to combat stealing by bartenders in his saloon in Dayton, Ohio (1879)

• archaeologist Howard Carter discovering the tomb of Tutankhamun in Egypt (1922)

• the premiere of the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)

• the election of Republican Ronald Reagan (1980) and of Barack Obama, becoming the first African-American to be elected President of the US (2008)

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