Dutton says Liberals will rebuild after Aston

• Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says the Liberal Party will rebuild after making history by losing the Victorian seat of Aston to the government in last weekend’s byelection, leaving it with only two federal seats in metropolitan Melbourne.
• The Liberal Party suffered a swing against it of 6.4 per cent in Aston, which saw Labor pick up the previously safe Liberal seat, the first time a sitting government had won a seat off the opposition in a byelection since 1920.

• Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil says the federal government will launch a series of national cyber exercises to better prepare for attacks against critical infrastructure.
• The exercises will be aimed at building “muscle memory in how to deal with a cyber-attack – and importantly cover the types of incidents we have not yet experienced on a national scale – such as a lock-up of critical infrastructure or integrity attacks on critical data”.

• The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has held the cash rate at 3.6 per cent in April, pausing after 10 consecutive increases as it takes stock of the impact on the economy.
• However, this may just be a temporary step – RBA Governor Philip Lowe has previously said the board would do what was necessary to get inflation back under control. “The board is seeking to return inflation to the 2-3 per cent range while keeping the economy on an even keel, but the path to achieving a soft landing remains a narrow one,” Dr Lowe said.

• Australia must be at the forefront of technological innovation if it is to secure its national interests, according to Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles.?
• Mr Marles said Australia currently ranks 91st on the Harvard Index of Economic Complexity — which ranks countries according to their level of technological sophistication. “We are sandwiched between Namibia and Kenya. And while that’s obviously not a true reflection of where we stand in the list of modernity in the world, it does speak to the fact that as an economy, we are highly dependent upon our primary industry,” he said.

• The federal government has released the findings of a review into the compliance system underpinning Medicare, which found the system to be “fragmented and disjointed” and in critical need of simplification.
• The government commissioned health economist Pradeep Philip to conduct the?Independent Review into Medicare Compliance and Integrity?last November in response to reports about the potential for widespread Medicare rorting and fraud.

• Electricity generation costs were more than 65 per cent lower than last year’s record highs during the first three months of 2023. However, generation constraints on the east coast have kept prices historically high.
• While production costs fell, there are still concerns about generation capacity in New South Wales and Queensland, which have both recently experienced higher generation costs after coal power stations suffered outages and the states struggle to quickly develop renewable energy sources.

The full CMAX Advisory Australian Weekly Report is available on our?website?every Friday.