ASX up, all eyes on the RBA and 6 other things to start your day
ASX: The local share market is expected to rise this morning after a mixed Friday session on US markets.
Rate call: The Reserve Bank of Australia will meet for the final time this year to decide whether or not it will hike interest rates again.
Tomorrow's meeting is expected to deliver at least one more hike. Another 0.25 per cent increase would take the rate to 3.1 per cent and cause more pain for mortgage holders.
Energy prices: The Government is hopeful the Commonwealth and states and territories can come up with a solution to ease rising energy prices when they meet this week.
Minister for Government Services Bill Shorten said all options remained on the table with the stakes being too high to not reach a decision on how to act.
Doctor, doctor! Popping to the doctor’s office may not be possible without a drastic overhaul of frontline medical services, the new head of Australia's peak body for General Practitioners has warned.
Incoming Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Nicole Higgins said she would spend her next two years advocating for dramatic change, with the organisation's 40,000 members "struggling" due to diminished funding and workforce shortages.
Top tier: The Treasurer has seized on Australia maintaining its top credit rating as a stamp of approval for the Government's economic policy.
Fitch Ratings reaffirmed the AAA status, saying Labor's first Budget showed "restraint".
It noted the Budget didn't provide any cost-of-living cash payments in a deliberate move by the Government to contain spending and avoid exacerbating inflation.
Pokies: The NSW Greens have revealed plans to phase poker machines out of pubs and clubs amid increasing calls to clean up the industry.
Under the plan, pokies would disappear from pubs across NSW within the next five years, and from clubs over the next decade.
Centrelink: Around 1 million young people, carers and students will have their welfare payments boosted by up to $20 a week at the start of next year.
The payments will be indexed by just over 6 per cent, with the increases to start on January 1.
Do better: More details are needed to support zero-carbon investment, according to a survey of big investors responsible for almost two-thirds of the assets under management in Australia and more than $30 trillion globally.
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