Dwindling aid is forcing the Asia-Pacific region’s youngest nation to maintain its unhealthy addiction to fossil fuels, an Australian clean energy summit has been told.

President Jose Ramos-Horta says East Timor’s electricity grid is almost exclusively powered by expensive diesel, and it’s hampering investment, but his country has no other choice.

“For the time being, and for many years to come, we need fossil fuel development to power the diversification of our economy into green energy and a green economy,” he told the Global Citizen Now conference in Perth on Monday.

“The cost of our energy in Timor-Leste is a killer of investors.”

President Horta said official development assistance, which could help East Timor transition its economy more quickly, has “almost ceased to exist”.

Some traditional Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) donor countries had shifted their aid to the war in Ukraine, he said.

“They shifted aid to shelter refugees, to support refugees, and the millions who flock to Europe,” he said.

“So (official development assistance) has never suffered so much.

“We need fossil fuels; we need to develop our oil, gas, offshore and onshore, to survive.”

The Nobel Prize winner said there had also been “draconian” cuts to humanitarian aid budgets, pointing to the World Food Programme and UNICEF.

“So this makes it even more difficult for any of us to quickly transition to cleaner energy,” he said.

“But we know that the only way to go for the survival of our humanity is if we still can stop it.”

It comes as the Green Climate Fund says it is accelerating access to finance in the Pacific region.

It announced a project with up to $1 billion in grants and investment funding for Pacific nations, which will be presented to its board for approval next week.

“It will cover 21 projects, and it will basically serve 3.7 million people, so it’s one out of four in the 14 Pacific Islands,” director of external relations Marie-Ange Saraka-Yao told AAP.

The fund will work with regional and local partners to help Pacific nations build renewable energy, water and climate-resilient infrastructure projects.

“It will pretty much change the environment there,” Ms Saraka-Yao said.

One of Australia’s biggest property developers is moving forward with its plan to build data centres, with a pipeline of seven sites that it stresses are far from residential neighbourhoods.

Stockland already has one data centre operating in the Sydney high-tech industrial suburb of Macquarie Park and in March formed a joint venture with global data centre provider EdgeConneX.

Departing chairman Tom Pockett told the Stockland’s annual general meeting on Monday that the strategy was in an “embryonic form” but had been very well thought out.

The company is currently working on planning approvals and securing power for the sites before making major investments in the partnership, chief executive Tarun Gupta told the meeting.

Stockland has already secured 450 megawatts of power for three sites: an expansion of its Macquarie Park data centre and at two current logistics warehouses in Melbourne’s industrial suburbs of Cherry Lane and Brooklyn.

The four other data centre sites in Stockland’s pipeline are less developed.

One is also in Macquarie Park, two are in the western Sydney suburbs of Wetherill Park and Kemps Creek and one is proposed for Melbourne Business Park.

“They’re all located in logistics sites, so that helps the fact that there’s no communities around them,” Mr Pockett said.

The sites are already zoned for data centre uses and Stockland is now working through community and statutory consultation, Mr Gupta said.

“The sites we picked are the ones where we think the right balance of providing what is a critical infrastructure for the country, but also balancing community requirements,” he said.

The noise from the heavy-duty cooling equipment used to prevent data centre server racks from overheating has prompted a backlash in some areas.

Another data centre developer, ASX-listed NextDC, warned on Monday that its flagship M3 Melbourne data centre faced a delay in securing power and it was still working on assessing the implications.

Electrical distributor Jemena in September paused a rollout of the mammoth five-storey concrete poles needed to power the site, amid protests from residents in the Melbourne suburb of Yarraville.

Firmus Technologies, which withdrew plans for an ASX listing earlier this month, is also facing community opposition in Tasmania over its plans for data centres there.

Mr Gupta said that Stockland had a 70-year track record of engaging with communities, such as when it creates new big master-planned communities.

“That same approach is what we bring into our data centre consultation,” he said.

EdgeConneX operates 80 data centres in 20 different countries, and has a pipeline of close to nine gigawatts in development.

Backed by Swedish investment management giant EQT Infrastructure, EdgeConneX recently appointed former Telstra and Brookfield executive Chris Maher as its Australian chief executive.

Stockland shares finished Monday down 4.4 per cent to $4.04.

Mortgage holders can expect interest rates to stay higher for longer, whether or not the Reserve Bank raises them again on Melbourne Cup day.

The RBA has been warning that the intense competition for global capital among artificial intelligence and data centre companies is pushing up its estimate of how high interest rates need to go to keep inflation sustainably low – otherwise known as the neutral interest rate.

Christopher Kent, the central bank’s assistant governor for financial markets, said on Monday that there was reasonable evidence that neutral rates were rising both in Australia and abroad.

That could partly explain why global growth has been stronger than expected, despite the effects of the Middle East conflict and rising interest rates across the world, Dr Kent told Commonwealth Bank’s Global Markets Conference in Sydney.

What that means for borrowers is essentially that interest rates will have to remain on a higher plane than previously thought, if the RBA is determined to get inflation down.

At 4.6 per cent, the cash rate is the highest it’s been in 15 years, following a prolonged period of relatively subdued inflation and low estimates of the neutral rate.

While markets have walked back expectations for another hike in November, another rate rise by mid-2027 is still almost fully priced in.

Importantly, markets do not anticipate rates to fall below current levels by at least mid-2028.

That would imply the longest period of a cash rate above 4.5 per cent since before the global financial crisis of the late-2000s.

On the other hand, the term premium – the difference in the yield an investor gets for buying long-term over short-term debt – has climbed to a 12-year high.

That could be helping to make financial conditions tighter for any given level of cash rate, Dr Kent said.

But other structural factors appeared to be weighing on the effectiveness of interest rates.

Higher spending, both from governments and AI companies, mean interest rates are less effective at bringing down demand in the economy, said Commonwealth Bank chief economist Luke Yeaman in a research note.

That meant the RBA’s “blunt instrument” of interest rates had to hit households harder to bring down aggregate demand in the economy.

As the RBA tightens monetary policy to slow spending, there was a risk that the governments could worsen the situation by turning up the fiscal taps and spending more money to shield households from cost-of-living pressures, Mr Yeaman said.

“In our view, that would be a serious mistake,” he said.

“The RBA has been very clear that it has one main job – to get inflation back to target. It has also shown that it is committed to achieving this, even if it carries economic pain. 

“If the government puts its foot on the fiscal accelerator, the RBA will just push harder on the interest rate brakes.”

Federal government spending hit 26.9 per cent of gross domestic product in the 2025/26 financial year, which was the highest level in 40 years, excluding COVID-19.

HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham said federal and state governments needed to better co-ordinate with the central bank.

“While inflation-fighting is primarily the RBA’s objective, the central bank only has a blunt instrument (a sledgehammer) to achieve it. Fiscal policy settings can be much more targeted (a scalpel),” he said.

He urged the federal government to cut spending further in its upcoming mid-year fiscal update, expected to be released in December, following recently-announced measures to slow the growth in the NDIS.

“Other areas could be seeking to curtail ‘off budget’ spending, various subsidies or tax breaks, constraining public consumption (e.g. via labour demand and wages growth in the public sector), and rule out extending expiring programs,” Mr Bloxham said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has flagged further savings measures in the December update, but the government is already facing resistance as it tries to pass previously-announced savings measures – like a reduction in private health insurance rebates for over-65s – in parliament.

Australian shares have started the week on the front foot after shrugging off volatility in the artificial intelligence space, as a rebound in local banks continues.

The S&P/ASX200 rose 39 points on Monday, up 0.44 per cent, to 8845.7, as the broader All Ordinaries improved by 35.3 points, or 0.39 per cent, to 8975.7.

Energy stocks outperformed, the segment up more than two per cent after Middle East supply disruptions launched Brent crude as high as $US110 a barrel over the weekend.

Banks and other financial stocks continued their recovery from August’s sell-off, offering something of a safe haven after cracks emerged in the artificial intelligence narrative last week, sparking a sell-off in red-hot chip and technology stocks.

The Australian dollar is buying 69.75 US cents, up from 69.42 US cents on Friday at 5pm.

The Greens are facing more internal turmoil as the party’s federal leader denies strong-arming a senator over misconduct allegations.

WA senator Jordon Steele-John is being investigated over several incidents in which he is alleged to have behaved inappropriately toward women.

In an open letter posted to his social media, Senator Steele-John said “nasty political games” had weaponised elements of his personal history.

The 32-year-old also accused Greens leader David Shoebridge of effectively trying to force him to take leave from the party room when the allegations, which span nearly a decade between 2017 and 2025, became public.

“It was a bad call from David,” Senator Steele-John wrote.

“To be clear, I am not on leave and did not agree to the inclusion of that line within David’s statement.”

But a spokesperson for Senator Shoebridge on Monday said he believed leave had been agreed to between the pair.

He announced the leave as a decision Senator Steele-John had made himself, along with confirming he would self-refer information to the WA Greens for investigation.

“Senator Shoebridge remains of the opinion that leave is appropriate under the circumstances and reiterates that this in no way prejudges any of the matters being referred to an inquiry commissioned by the WA Greens,” the spokesperson said.

“It was the understanding of Senator Shoebridge that leave was agreed.”

Senator Steele-John has vehemently denied any wrongdoing but said the circumstances had made it reasonable for people to assume guilt on his part.

That had occurred not just because of Senator Shoebridge’s actions, he wrote, but as a result of broader factionalism in the party.

“This is an attempt to influence forthcoming party preselections by deliberately leaking out of context or misleading information to smear potential candidates and myself,” he wrote.

Senator Shoebridge, who became leader in September, has denied any prior knowledge of allegations about his colleague.

“This process must include procedural fairness for all involved, with the key findings made public,” his spokesperson said.

The leader does not have a say over what is published, given the investigation is taking place in another jurisdiction.

Thursday’s announcement had followed seven Greens members penning a letter to the party leader demanding an investigation into his colleague’s behaviour in the presence of women.

Senator Steele-John said the letter’s authors had not outlined any allegations in detail but vowed to participate in any investigation into specific incidents.

He claimed it was no coincidence the letter had been written the day after the party had agreed on a timeline for the next preselection.

The senator, who has cerebral palsy, said a nickname “feels on wheels” was originally a slur used by opponents to mock his disability and emotions.

It had been corrupted over time to refer to alleged inappropriate conduct towards women, he said.

He denied any knowledge of an alleged instance of sexual harassment at a 2024 Greens campaign event, saying “I don’t know how I could respond, or how anyone would begin to investigate it”.

A third matter mentioned in the letter, reportedly referring to serious sexual misconduct, had arisen from an allegedly abusive former relationship, with police having investigated Senator Steele-John and laid no charges.

The WA senator also offered an explanation for a 47-page “secret dossier” that reportedly delivered a playbook for Greens media advisers to downplay concerns about Senator Steele-John that could surface in the news or social media.

The file, first written in 2016 before Senator Steele-John entered parliament, allegedly strategised how to quash media coverage and monitor party members and journalists who raised allegations, which the document had reportedly listed.

But the WA senator said the document’s real purpose was to clean up a smear campaign that had been based on “half-heard rumours” of an interpersonal conflict between himself and two women.

Changes to the Commonwealth budget amount to a “siege” on family and small businesses, says a state premier in a scathing attack on the federal treasurer.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli has rounded on Treasurer Jim Chalmers over reforms to taxing trusts, ditching credit card surcharges and a proposed ban on paying tax bills by credit card.

Proposed cuts to worker holiday visas were also in the firing line, all amounting to small businesses being “under siege”.

The attack comes as the Crisafulli government this week reaches the halfway mark in its four-year term.

In his annual State of the State address on Monday, Mr Crisafulli said small and family businesses needed help not hindrance.

“Every time there’s a different decision made out of Canberra that makes it more difficult for them, they give up the will to keep going,” he said.

The flagged changes to trusts were not fair, the premier said.

“These aren’t people who are trying to do something dodgy,” he said in Brisbane.

“They were creating a structure that enabled them to have a bit of equity to pass on to their kids and employ people.”

The recent removal of credit card surcharges was celebrated when there was no ability for businesses to claim them back, the premier said.

“Then the double whammy is the ATO says we’ll whack you for the pleasure of paying the bill to the tax office by using credit cards so you can meet it.”

The premier said Queenslanders were still grappling with four major crises two years after the LNP was elected to fix them – youth crime, health, housing, and cost of living.

“On all of them, we are making progress after a long period of time where the numbers went in the wrong direction.”

In his speech to business leaders at a Centre for Economic Development Australia breakfast, the premier highlighted an “inbuilt injustice in Queensland”, including an unfair cut of the GST.

“Western Australia has cut out an amazing deal … but the beneficiary has been the states that haven’t been prepared to do the hard yards,” he said.

“We’re not getting the upside Victoria and New South Wales get, and we have to call it out.”

China’s economy grew 4.5 per cent for the July-September quarter from a year ago, moving closer to meeting its official annual growth target as the year nears its end. 

The better-than-expected official data released on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics in Beijing showed the economy accelerated from the 4.3 per cent year-on-year growth recorded in the April-June period, the slowest expansion in more than three years.

For the whole year, Chinese leaders have set a growth target of 4.5 per cent to five per cent, down from last year’s five per cent expansion. 

Earlier in October, the International Monetary Fund trimmed its forecast for China’s 2026 economic growth to 4.5 per cent, just meeting the lower end of Beijing’s goal.

Despite the stronger growth, China’s economy remains uneven, with booming exports contrasting with weak domestic demand.

Exports rose by 21.3 per cent year-on-year in US dollar terms during the first nine months, according to Chinese customs data.

The country exported around $US938 billion ($A1.3 trillion) more in goods than it imported during the period.

The huge trade surplus is increasingly causing tensions with major trading partners, particularly in Europe, where concerns are growing that cheap Chinese products are putting domestic manufacturers under pressure.

At home, meanwhile, consumers remain reluctant to spend, while investment remains sluggish.

The prolonged property crisis continues to weigh on the economy, with falling housing prices undermining consumer confidence and developers cutting back on investment.

Local governments are also struggling with declining revenue from land sales, further hampering economic recovery.

with dpa

Australia has been urged not to miss a “never-to-be-repeated” opportunity as opposition to a blockbuster free trade agreement with the European Union solidifies.

Canberra inked the deal with the European Union in March after eight years of negotiations.

It would lock in cheaper European food, wine, cars and clothes, and smoother access to one of the world’s largest economic blocs which the government says could be worth up to $30 billion in trade.

Europe would in turn ditch or phase out tariffs on Australian food, critical minerals and manufactured products.

But debate has erupted over whether farmers and steelmakers are any better off under the accord, and over allegations the EU has railroaded Australia with a raft of unequal terms.

The coalition now appears set to oppose the agreement, after Nationals leader Matt Canavan vowed they would block it during debates to ratify it in parliament.

But former Liberal Finance Minister Mathias Cormann on Monday urged his former colleagues to vote in favour. 

“Is there a better deal? I would put that the realistic assessment is that right now there isn’t,” he said during an event on the Gold Coast, arguing Australia should “bank the benefits” of what was on the table. 

“If we don’t do this now, we have another 10 years of essentially the same bad access that we have now, and others like New Zealand will continue to cut our lunch.”

Vegetable growers, who are set to have most levies on their products wiped under the agreement, urged politicians to seize a rare chance.

“The European FTA is one of those rare, and possibly never-to-be-repeated opportunities,” its chief executive Michael Coote said in a statement on Monday.

“Just like with the immigration debate, a populist stampede to stop this Free Trade Agreement risks severe collateral damage to Australian vegetable growers, and our national food security.”

The organisation highlighted Australian onion trade to Europe plummeted by almost half when the New Zealand-EU free trade agreement entered force in 2025.

But beef farmers have argued their cut of the deal gives them only lacklustre access to a market awash with subsidised agriculture, and steelmakers have grumbled over a lingering 50 per cent tariff on their exports to Europe.

Opponents have also raised eyebrows at a legal obligation for Australia to meet climate targets baked into the deal.

“We support free trade, and we particularly believe when it advances Australia’s national interest, the problem with the … (is) that it doesn’tt advance the interests of Australian agricultural producers,” opposition treasury spokesman Tim Wilson told ABC News on Monday.

Without the coalition or the Greens, who have so far refused to guarantee their support, Labor cannot put the agreement through the Senate as required to ratify.

Backing away from the deal now would be “economic self-harm”, Trade Minister Don Farrell said on Monday, accusing Liberal Leader Angus Taylor of letting himself get pushed around by his junior coalition partner.

Australia’s leading annuity provider is considering a $7.9 billion tentative takeover offer from the country’s biggest life insurance company.

Challenger Limited said on Monday that TAL Dai-ichi Life Australia had floated a figure of $11.80 per share for the 79.5 per cent of Challenger it didn’t already own.

The figure is a 17.7 per cent premium to Challenger’s average price over the past month, the company said.

Challenger shares had jumped 16.7 per cent to an eight-year high of $11.49 in Monday morning trading.

Sydney-headquartered TAL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dai-ichi Life Holdings, Japan’s second-largest insurance company.

TAL’s roots date to Government Life, a business created by New Zealand’s government back in 1869.

It became Tower Corp in 1987 and spun off its Australian operations in 2006, which were acquired by Dai-ichi in 2011 and rebranded as TAL.

Today the company is the biggest life insurer in Australia with over one-third of the market, having purchased Westpac’s life insurance business in 2022.

Challenger’s board is considering TAL’s indicative offer, which is subject to a number of conditions, including due diligence.

Founded in 1985, Challenger manages nearly $32 billion in assets.

It sold $4.4 billion in annuities in the September quarter, up 52 per cent from a year ago. 

“We have started the year strongly, with continued momentum across our retirement business driven by growing customer demand, new distribution channels, and execution of our growth strategy,” said managing director and chief executive Nick Hamilton in a statement.

The company expects its proposed merger of its investment management business Fidante with privately held Channel Capital to close before the end of the year.

Debate has erupted over a free-trade agreement with the European Union that is yet to be ratified by parliament.

WHAT IS THE DEAL?

* The EU-Australia Free Trade Agreement was finalised between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in March after eight years of negotiations

* It will lock in in European food, wine, cars and clothes, but some meat farmers say they’re no better off while politicians have labelled the new agreement worse than the status quo

* Australia would remove a five per cent tariff on imports of European products, which hits car makers such as BMW and Mercedes, along with goods such as fashion products, food and drinks

* Europe would drop or phase out all tariffs on Australian seafood, wine, critical minerals, wheat, honey, olive oil, onions, potatoes, carrots and manufactured products excluding steel, with more market access for beef, mutton, lamb and some rice

* The EU is Australia’s third-largest two-way trading partner and second-largest foreign investment source – the free trade agreement could be worth up to $30 billion in trade

WHAT ARE THE ISSUES?

* Primary producers immediately sounded alarm bells over what they described as lacklustre access to the trading bloc compared to generously subsidised European farmers

* The deal would let Australia sell 35,000 tonnes of beef and 30,851 tonnes of mutton and lamb to the EU, and phase in more of both over the next seven to 10 years.

* 50 per cent tariffs on Australian steel bound for Europe will remain, which has proven a sticking point for the coalition

* Nationals leader Matt Canavan vowed the coalition would block the deal during a parliamentary vote to ratify it, kickstarting days of confusion over the federal opposition’s official position

* Liberal treasury spokesman Tim Wilson on Monday clarified the coalition was tentatively opposed, but stressed it had not seen the final wording of the legislation to be sent through parliament

* Trade Minister Don Farrell said backing away from the agreement would be an act of economic self-harm and urged the Liberals not to get beaten around by their junior coalition partner

WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

* Without the coalition, Labor will need to ram the agreement through the Senate with the support of the Greens, who are yet to guarantee their backing

* If it fails, it will be the first free trade agreement Australia has ever failed to ratify