Official inflation figures show prices are not growing as fast as feared by the Reserve Bank, sharply reducing the chance of an interest rate rise at the bank’s August meeting.

Figures released this morning by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed annual headline inflation falling to 3.8 per cent in June. The bank had been expecting it to reach 4.8 per cent.

More importantly, the underlying measure of inflation - which seeks to take out extreme price increases and drops - was flat at 3.6 per cent. The RBA had forecast it to hit 3.8 per cent in June.

Ahead of the figures, markets had put the chance of a rate hike at just 22 per cent at the August 10 and 11 meeting.

A Q&A with NSW Premier Chris Minns has been disrupted by activists storming the stage to protest new coal mines in the state.

Minns, who gave the keynote address at the CEDA State of the State lunchtime event on Wednesday, was taking part in a question and answer session with Westpac Institutional Bank chief executive Nell Hutton when a woman dressed in black walked onto the stage.

Trying to hand the premier a report, she yelled, “No new coal mines”, before security removed her. As security ushered her out, a second male protestor disrupted the event with an identical stunt.

“Do you reckon you could give us some space, and perhaps I could speak to you later?” Minns replied.

“I’m happy to speak to any stakeholders. I think we’ve got to respect everybody in the room, as well.”

Five police officers were seen entering the Fullerton Hotel soon after.

The US said it intercepted an Iranian attack on military bases, ending a days-long pause in fighting and increasing the risk of a return to full-blown war in the Middle East.

“Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces launched multiple ballistic missiles from Iran in an attempted surprise attack on US forces based in the Middle East,” US Central Command said Tuesday evening.

“All Iranian missiles were successfully intercepted. US forces remain vigilant and at a high state of readiness.”

The regional command also said US and Saudi forces conducted military strikes on Iran-backed militants in Iraq after Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps directed 30 drone attacks against US forces in the last 72 hours.

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South Australia Police say they are treating the death of a mother and her 23-month-old daughter as a murder suicide, with her three-month-old son still missing.

Police on Monday evening said officers were called to an area west of Port Macdonnell – about 27 kilometres south of Mount Gambier – after reports a vehicle had been found empty with its engine still running.

The bodies of a 36-year-old woman and her daughter were pulled from the ocean near the border of Victoria and South Australia.

“Comprehensive physical search efforts have focused on a sizeable area of water and land, unfortunately the infant has not been found,” police said on Wednesday.

Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson said he wants to see politicians thrown in prison for funding alleged corruption on Victoria’s Big Build projects, calling for a federal royal commission into the scandal.

Speaking in Melbourne today, Wilson claimed Anthony Albanese and federal Labor had funded projects like the state’s Suburban Rail Loop while knowing of the CFMEU’s alleged connections to organised crime.

“I want to see people thrown into jail for taking public money and giving it to organised crime, and whether that’s at the union level, or at the political level, we need to make sure people are held to account because this has been one of the most outrageous examples of abuse of public trust, it has been a naked example of corruption that has played out in front of the nation,” he said.

Sydney University academic Zhaoli Dai-Keller, who has researched experiences of antisemitism in healthcare environments, is now appearing before the royal commission.

Dai-Keller raised alarm about a “structural blind spot” limiting the monitoring of antisemitism among patients in Australian healthcare, finding such discrimination is not “routinely measured in patient experience, or quality-of-care frameworks”.

“That creates a structural blind spot, limiting healthcare systems’ capacity to identify risk, monitor changes, and implement targeted interventions,” she told the commission.

Much of Dai’s work has focused on the impact of antisemitism on healthcare professionals. Some workers have become afraid to identify as Jewish in recent years, Dai told the royal commission, as they experience prejudice from their colleagues and institutions more broadly, where antisemitism is “insufficiently recognised”.

Her observations mirror remarks to the royal commission by Jack Green of the Australasian Jewish Medical Federation on Wednesday morning, who recounted “increased politicisation” in the sector over the past two and a half years.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Victoria’s new premier, Ben Carroll, offered the party a fresh start ahead of a looming high-stakes state election, welcoming Carroll’s call to launch a royal commission into alleged corruption in the construction industry.

“I’ve seen enough, even in the course of the last 24 hours or so, to give me confidence that Ben will help Victorian Labor put its best foot forward,” Chalmers said at a Brisbane press conference.

Chalmers backed a royal commission into corruption on Victoria’s Big Build projects, saying the federal government had zero tolerance for graft.

“He is pragmatic. He is decisive. He, I think, offers the government of Victoria and the people of Victoria the very best chance of a fresh start,” he said.

It’s been a wild 24 hours in the world of finance as it tries to work out where the Reserve Bank is headed on interest rates.

Just before a speech by RBA governor Michele Bullock yesterday, markets put the chance of a rate rise at the bank’s August meeting at 31 per cent.

After she finished speaking, that had fallen to 22 per cent. But that’s now plummeted to just 4 per cent after today’s better-than-expected inflation figures.

Markets are now starting to think the RBA will hold rates steady all year, with its next move – a cut – towards Christmas 2027.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has called for Opposition Leader Angus Taylor to answer questions over being named in the ICAC inquiry into alleged branch-stacking and illegal donations in the NSW Liberals.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption heard evidence on Tuesday that in 2021 the now-opposition leader committed to a $15,000 “injection” to the NSW Reformers with regular $3000 donations.

Taylor denied earlier today that any payments were made.

“It sounds like Angus Taylor has some questions to answer here,” Chalmers told reporters in Brisbane.

“I don’t want to interfere with the ICAC process that his political allies are involved in at the moment, but I think … there are a number of questions to be answered here, and he should front up and explain any involvement he’s had in this,” he said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has welcomed today’s better-than-expected inflation figures but said the economy still faced challenges.

Figures released this morning by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed annual headline inflation fell to 3.8 per cent in June while underlying inflation was flat at 3.6 per cent.

“Inflation across a number of measures is lower than what the market expected. Certainly lower than what we expected at budget time, and lower than was forecast by the Reserve Bank as well,” Chalmers said a press conference in Brisbane.

“This is the third consecutive month now where annual headline inflation has come down. It is an encouraging outcome that shows that we have made some progress on inflation since the budget, even in the face of very intense global economic uncertainty.”

The treasurer warned the June numbers did not capture the full complexity and volatility of the war in Iran, which has since escalated.

“We already had an inflation challenge in our economy before the war, but the war in the Middle East is making inflation higher than it would otherwise be,” he said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers held a press conference earlier following the release of today’s inflation figures.