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Speaker 1: Today's biggest news from The Australian. I'm Claire Harvey with

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Speaker 1: the Front's afternoon headlines. The Reserve Bank of Australia has

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Speaker 1: put the cash rate up for the first time in

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Speaker 1: two years. Mortgage rates will now rise as one lender

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Speaker 1: after another follow suit. The cash rate determines how much

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Speaker 1: it costs banks to borrow money the money they lend

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Speaker 1: us to buy homes. A rise in the cash rate

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Speaker 1: inevitably means lenders jack up their home loan rates. It's

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Speaker 1: a unanimous decision by the Monetary Policy Board of the

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Speaker 1: Reserve Bank, and it's being interpreted by economists as a

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Speaker 1: major blow to Labour's economic agenda as it prepares for

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Speaker 1: a budget in May. The Bank said in its decision

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Speaker 1: that it had underestimated the heat in the economy and

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Speaker 1: although inflation has fallen steadily since twenty twenty two, it

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Speaker 1: is picked up materially in the second half of twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty five. The Bank said it judges that some of

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Speaker 1: the increase in inflation reflects grade at capacity pressures. That is,

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Speaker 1: higher household consumption, government spending and business investment is driving

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Speaker 1: up the prices of materials and goods that power, construction

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Speaker 1: and the materials we all consume. The Bank is also

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Speaker 1: concerned headline inflation is going to keep rising, a significant

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Speaker 1: lift on its previous forecast to four point two percent

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Speaker 1: by June before falling to three point six percent in December.

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Speaker 1: That's well outside the Bank's target range, where inflation should

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Speaker 1: be between two and three percent. You can read all

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Speaker 1: our analysis right now at the Australian dot com dot

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Speaker 1: au and come back to the front first thing in

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Speaker 1: the morning for another bombshell twist in the Brittany Higgins saga.

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Speaker 1: Former staff for Fiona Reynolds is suing the Commonwealth and

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Speaker 1: says she was frightened and intimidated by Scott Morrison's actions

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Speaker 1: after Higgins made her allegation of rape. She also says

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Speaker 1: she was frozen out by Morrison's office and left in despair.

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Speaker 1: See you back here first thing Wednesday.