Political leaders have a duty to show the same courage as emergency workers in battling global warming, the prime minister says, as he lays out Australia’s climate action on the world stage.

Anthony Albanese will use a major speech on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to outline further global co-operation on reducing emissions.

The prime minister, who will give the opening keynote speech at the climate week event, will foreshadow extreme conditions ahead.

“In the worst of times, we often see the best of humanity … we see it in our professional and volunteer firefighters and emergency service workers,” he will say in the speech on Tuesday, Australian time.

“In times of crisis, community comes to the fore … as leaders, we must match their bravery.”

Mr Albanese will also use the speech to focus on climate action in the Pacific, which is being highlighted as part of Australia’s bid for a seat on the UN Security Council.

Communities that have experienced multiple natural disasters, such as bushfires and floods, will likely face repeated trauma without stronger measures to combat climate change, he will warn.

“Knowing the next flood or fire isn’t a matter of if, but when … we can’t rely on the fortitude of our people alone, as tough as they are,” the prime minister will say.

Artificial intelligence is also set to be in the spotlight at the UN during the General Assembly.

A major joint statement, which includes Australia as a signatory, will be released, calling for stronger controls for the technology.

The prime minister will also meet with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa on the sidelines of the UN.

Child safety online, fuel security and defence measures are expected to be discussed by the three leaders.

The prime minister will also speak at a UN event on international law.

It follows Mr Albanese formally launching Australia’s bid to be on the UN Security Council for a two-year term in 2029 and 2030.

A vote for the spot won’t be held until mid 2028, but lobbying efforts will intensify during the prime minister’s visit to New York.

Mr Albanese said Australia’s role on the council would benefit ordinary citizens.

“Engagement with the world matters. It matters because it makes a difference to the cost of living, to inflation, to Australians’ way of life,” he told reporters in New York.

“That is why we can’t afford to not be engaged with the world.”

Australia has served on the security council five times since the UN was established following World War II.

The most recent stint was in 2013 and 2014, when Australia led a response to Russian-backed forces’ downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

Mr Albanese said that example showed what a spot on the council could achieve.

“I think there is a role for middle powers to engage and Australia has done that, as we’ve engaged with the war in Ukraine in the coalition of the willing,” he said.

Two countries are elected to the Security Council from the Western Europe and Others Group, which includes Australia.

So far, only Australia and Finland have put their hands up for a spot on the council.

Healthier, wealthier and more equal, or smaller, poorer and more indebted?

Australia’s path for the next 40 years has been charted in the latest Intergenerational Report, and the direction the nation takes will have a lot to do with artificial intelligence.

Unveiling the triennial assessment of the nation’s economy on Monday, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Australia faced unprecedented challenges, but would do so from a position of relative strength.

One of those challenges was the AI revolution, “the biggest economic transformation of our lifetime”, Dr Chalmers said.

AI threatened to worsen misinformation, strain resources and cause social and economic disruption, but it also underpinned a projected improvement to the economy and the federal budget through increased productivity.

In real terms, Australia’s economy in 2066 will be more than twice as large and the average Australian will enjoy 55 per cent higher income.

The federal deficit is projected to blow out from one per cent of GDP to 1.8 per cent, although gross debt is expected to ease from 33.1 per cent of GDP to 27.4 per cent.

However, the projections were underpinned by a rosy assumption that productivity growth would bounce back from the 0.3 per cent average over the past decade to 1.2 per cent within five years.

That’s more optimistic than the Reserve Bank’s medium-term assumption of 0.7 per cent and has been questioned by several economists, such as HSBC’s Paul Bloxham and veteran budget watcher Chris Richardson.

Under a less optimistic 0.8 per cent assumption, real income per person – a rough measure of living standards – would be $20,000 lower than the baseline forecast of $149,500.

The gross debt to GDP ratio would blow out to 55.9 per cent, compared to the baseline projection of 27.4 per cent.

Deloitte Access Economics partner Stephen Smith said the report reinforced the fact Australia has relied too much on increasing the population and too little on improving productivity to drive economic growth.

“The difference between those two assumptions is an economy that is smaller, poorer and more indebted,” he said.

“AI is an opportunity but can’t just be taken for granted.”

Analysis by shadow treasurer Tim Wilson showed Commonwealth debt would hit more than 100 per cent of GDP if productivity continued to grow at 0.3 per cent – the average over the past decade.

“It is unclear how the highest tax burden ever, particularly on investment, will achieve the miracle productivity turnaround this report is relying on,” Mr Wilson said.

The ageing population, turbulent global politics and an uncertain productivity outlook will also place increasing pressure on young workers.

By 2066, the average life expectancy will rise to 89.5 years for women and 86.1 years for men, up about four years from current levels, placing Australians among the world’s longest-lived populations.

But declining fertility means the share of over-65s to working-age Australians will rise from about 28 per cent to 39 per cent.

Deaths were projected to outnumber births by the 2060s – the first such forecast since former treasurer Peter Costello launched the Intergenerational Report in 2002.

As a result, income tax is projected to rise from 12.3 per cent of GDP to 14.1 per cent.

“Over time, working-age Australians will support a growing number of older Australians who are living longer and driving demand for health and aged care services,” the report said.

But Dr Chalmers said growing superannuation balances would provide more financial security for retirees and reduce the strain on the federal budget.

Age pension payments are expected to fall from 2.3 per cent of GDP to 1.8 per cent by 2066.

“No previous (report) has contended with global challenges this great, with politics this fraught or a future less certain,” the treasurer said in a speech in Canberra.

Australian shares are off to another shaky start to the week, trading flat in the first session as investors mull a looming interest rate hike and tough economic conditions.

The S&P/ASX200 rose 0.7 points, or 0.01 per cent, to 8,731.9, as the broader All Ordinaries slipped 3.6 points, or 0.04 per cent, to 8,919.1

The ultimately balanced session pointed to a defensive rotation away from interest rate-sensitive sectors as traders mulled sticky inflation and a higher-for-longer interest rate outlook, Global X ETFs strategy analyst Joseph Marassa said.

The Australian dollar is buying 71.23 US cents, down slightly from 71.27 US cents on Friday at 5pm.

An Australian company that manufactures radioactive drugs that help treat and diagnose diseases will acquire a German isotope maker in a transaction worth up to $3.3 billion.

ASX-listed Telix Pharmaceuticals will pay at least $US1.65 billion ($2.3 billion) in scrip upfront for ITM Isotope Technologies Munich, a private radioisotope manufacturer with a global distribution network that spans more than 65 countries.

“Today’s news is a transformative step for Telix and ITM,” Telix managing director and chief executive Dr Christian Behrenbruch told analysts on a conference call on Monday.

“This transaction brings together the two best-in-class companies that have really shaped the radiopharmaceutical industry over the past two decades, each with deep expertise, differentiated capabilities and a shared commitment to innovation for the benefit of patients.”

Telix described the transaction as a merger but its shareholders will own about 76.3 per cent of the combined group, with ITM shareholders owning 23.7 per cent.

Telix’s flagship products are two radiopharmaceutical agents that aid in the diagnosis of prostate cancer by making tumours light up during PET scans.

The US Food and Drug Administration last week approved Telix’s Pixclara, another imaging agent that highlights gliomas, the most common form of malignant brain cancer.

The acquisition positions Telix as a vertically integrated radiopharmaceutical company with a greater control of its isotope supply, Dr Behrenbruch said.

The radioisotope market is forecast to grow by 30 per cent annually through 2035, and ITM has very large stockpiles of three key isotopes, lutetium-177, actinium-225 and terbium-161, used in cancer therapies.

ITM suffered a $US12 million half-year loss on revenue of $US156 million, and delivered US$273 million in revenue in 2026.

It is a key supplier to Novartis, the Swiss health care giant that currently dominates the radiopharmaceutical space.

ITM supplies the lutetium-177 that powers Novartis’ blockbuster prostate cancer therapy Pluvicto, which Novartis says is on track for $US5 billion in annual sales by 2030.

But ITM’s lead drug candidate suffered a setback in August when the US Food and Drug Administration denied its application over issues with the drug’s manufacturing process, citing issues at a third-party commercial facility.

That drug candidate, ITM-11, also contains lutetium-177 and is aimed at treating patients with a rare cancer of the stomach lining and the pancreas, known as gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (GEP-NETs).

ITM is planning to resubmit the therapy for approval and Telix has agreed to pay up to another US$700 million ($982 million) if it is approved in the US and meets certain sales milestones.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2026, if Telix shareholders approve.

Bell Potter analyst John Hester said the transaction made a lot of strategic sense.

Telix, Mr Hester said, had acquired ITM for its unparalleled exposure to lutetium-177.

There was burgeoning demand for this product and literally dozens of new products in development around the globe, he said.

Australians face a hefty blow to their living standards by 2066 if the government’s heroic assumptions about productivity fail to materialise.

Economists panned the government for projecting productivity growth to bounce back from the 0.3 per cent it has averaged over the past decade to 1.2 per cent in the nation’s latest Intergenerational Report, released by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Monday.

The rosy assumption underpinned projected growth in the economy and Australians’ living standards.

The report forecasts Australia’s economy to be more than twice as large in real terms in 40 years’ time, while income per capita is expected to be 55 per cent higher.

But under a more pessimistic forecast that productivity will grow by 0.8 per cent per year – still above the Reserve Bank’s 0.7 per cent medium-term assumption – the average Australian’s income is projected to be $20,000 lower than the baseline projection of $149,500.

Treasury’s forecast was based on productivity returning to its long-term assumption of 1.2 per cent, which it downgraded from 1.5 per cent in 2022.

Productivity – the main driver of living standards over the long term – was falling across the developed world, due to structural shifts towards a more service-based economy, an ageing population and slower diffusion of technology.

But Treasury was banking on artificial intelligence, as well as the government’s recent tweaks to regulation and competition policy, to turn around Australia’s productivity malaise.

The AI revolution would be “the biggest economic transformation of our lifetime”, Dr Chalmers said.

“AI will play a pivotal role in reaching long-term productivity growth of 1.2 per cent and higher if productivity gains accelerate over time,” the treasurer said in a speech at the Australian National University.

HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham questioned Treasury’s assumption that productivity would bounce back so quickly, given it has averaged at 0.3 per cent over the past decade and most recently declined 0.2 per cent in the June quarter.

So far, there has been little evidence to justify pinning Australia’s productivity hopes on AI.

“Our take is that Australia’s economy is largely ‘supply constrained’ due to a lack of housing and cheap energy – AI seems unlikely to fix these problems,” Mr Bloxham said.

Independent economist Chris Richardson said the assumption was “bollocks”.

“The rise of AI is being used as a terrible toupee to try to hide the ever-larger bald spots evident in the Australian economy and the Australian budget,” he wrote on X.

Under the 0.8 per cent assumption, real GDP growth would be 1.2 per cent instead of 1.6 per cent, and GDP per capita would be $136,000 instead of $157,300.

Real gross national income per capita, a measure of living standards, would be $129,800 under the 0.8 per cent assumption instead of $149,500, but still higher than the current level of $96,500.

The federal budget will also be in worse shape. 

Under the low-productivity scenario, the deficit would be 4.2 per cent of GDP instead of 1.8 per cent, while gross debt would be 55.9 per cent of GDP instead of 27.4 per cent.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng have concluded talks with the US side proposing a new AI safety notification mechanism for US President Donald ‌Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to consider at their summit this week.

Bessent told reporters the two sides discussed setting up a new US-China AI dialogue, with a particular emphasis on national security concerns with a ‌notification system for common goals and common threats that would cover AI-related incidents that rise to a national security level.

“We think that, just like with any cross-border activity, that moving from opaque to more transparency between the number one and the number two AI powers in the world is very important,” Bessent said at the conclusion of the talks.

Trump and Xi first discussed potential consultations on AI development in May in Beijing, but that forum was never formalised.

The Chinese response to the US proposal was unclear.

Vice Premier He and China’s chief trade negotiator Li Chenggang left the talks on Sunday at JPMorgan Chase headquarters in New York without speaking to ‌media.

US Trade Representative Jamieson ‌Greer said US export controls on sophisticated ⁠AI chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment were not on the agenda for the AI mechanism talks.

Greer added that Sunday’s discussions had prepared the groundwork ​for a “successful summit” between Trump and Xi on Thursday and Friday in Washington.

“These are the two most powerful countries on earth, whether it’s in trade or AI, and it’s imperative that they’re able to work together. It doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges in the relationship. A lot of these are obvious,” Greer said.

The meeting covered other key topics, including plans to “operationalise” a process agreed in May for each side to identify potential tariff cuts on non-strategic goods, called the “Board of Trade”.

A major Australian gold miner is getting ready to push the go button on a new pit, which will underpin a big boost in production of the valuable yellow metal in the next four years.

Western Australia-based Ramelius Resources has released a new outlook, less than a year after its last major plan in October, as the stars continue to align for its Rebecca-Roe project near the outback town of Kalgoorlie.

The top 100 company is now forecasting a company-wide 205 per cent increase in production from 2025/26 levels to 560,000-610,000 ounces of gold by 2029/30.

“And we’re doing it without margin dilution … you’ll be getting fantastic growth,” chief executive Mark Zeptner told a briefing on Monday.

“By financial year 2030, we will be a business generating more than $1.5 billion of free cash flow a year, and we’ll do this through maintaining a leading position on cost.”

Mr Zeptner also promised more capital returns, after Ramelius handed back about 65 per cent of its cash flow to shareholders in 2025/26, even as it continues to fund “one of the strongest growth pipelines in the sector”.

However, he also cautioned that while the company’s current share buyback program has about $100 million to run by the end of this financial year, the shape of further returns is still to be determined.

Shares in the $6.8 billion producer soared by more than seven per cent in morning trading to $3.84.

RBC Capital Markets analyst James Redfern said all of the company’s forecasts were better than expected.

“Ramelius’ growth plans are fully funded and will generate significant free cash flow,” he said, noting that the group already has more than $1 billion in cash, gold and investments.

Ramelius owns two major assets, Mt Magnet in the Murchison region, where it has a processing plant, and Rebecca-Roe in the Goldfields, which is in the last stages of securing its final permits and environmental approvals.

Mt Magnet is the primary mill for three open pit and underground brownfield mines – Penny, Cue, and Dalgaranga – and is currently undergoing an expansion to increase capacity to potentially five million tonnes a year, from around two million now.

Rebecca-Roe is its major greenfields development and future growth asset, and will have a 3.25 million tonnes per annum processing plant ahead of mining its first gold in the December quarter of 2028.

That will give it runway into its 2029/30 production goals.

“The transformational high-grade growth at Mt Magnet underpins our near-term production and cash generation, that supports both shareholder returns and the expansion itself,” Mr Zeptner said.

“Rebecca-Roe adds a second leg of growth.”

For the current 2026/27 year, Ramelius is targeting gold production between 205,000 and 225,000 ounces, at an all-in sustaining cost – an industry measure of expenses – of $2,150 to $2,350 an ounce. 

For the current 2026/27 year, Ramelius is targeting gold production between 205,000 and 225,000 ounces, at an all-in sustaining cost – an industry measure of expenses – of $2,150 to $2,350 an ounce. 

Ramelius’ forecasts are based on an Australian dollar average gold price of $5,500, which is significantly higher to current prices.

Gold is trading around $US4,400 an ounce, equivalent to about $6,000.

Share markets have edged higher in Asia as AI’s insatiable demand ‌for data buoyed chipmakers, and oil eased as hopes Saudi Arabia could boost supplies offset news of a Houthi attack on Riyadh.

Trade was thin with Japan on its ‌Silver Week holiday through to Wednesday, leaving the dollar steady at 157.00 yen with investors wary in case the Bank of Japan took advantage of the lack of liquidity ‌to intervene in support of its currency.

The yen jumped on Friday after Japanese authorities conducted rate checks in the currency market, the Nikkei newspaper reported.

Japan’s Nikkei was shut on Monday but futures rose 0.5 per cent, while South Korea’s tech-heavy index gained 1.1 per cent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.3 per cent.

S&P 500 futures firmed 0.3 per cent, while Nasdaq futures added 0.4 per cent. In Europe, EUROSTOXX 50 futures and DAX futures both rose 0.2 per cent, while FTSE futures were flat.

Bond markets remained tense after a vicious selloff saw US two-year yields jump 36 ‌basis points in ‌the past two weeks ⁠to heights not seen since mid-2024 at 4.7604 per cent.

Hawkish guidance from the Federal Reserve last week has futures wagering on ​a 56 per cent chance it will hike rates again in October, with a move by year-end considered a done deal.

“Tightening cycles are generally front-loaded, and the Fed almost never stops after one hike,” wrote analysts at BofA in a note.

“With nominal consumer spending up 6.3 per cent on the year, well above the 5 per cent level historically associated with above-target core inflation, the Fed has little choice but to restrain demand.”

“Thus, we are retaining our call for just two more hikes, in October and December.”

Central banks in ⁠the EU, UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand are also expected to tighten again by ‌year end. The Swiss ​National Bank, Sweden’s Riksbank and Norges Bank hold policy meetings on Thursday, but all are seen holding steady for now.

Bonds have also been dogged by deficit worries ​with the risk premium ‌on French debt spiking on Friday to its widest since the euro zone debt crisis.

German debt could come under pressure later on Monday after Chancellor ​Friedrich Merz’s mainstream conservative party suffered its worst election results since 1949.

The news kept the euro flat at $1.1477, having shed almost 1 per cent last week as the dollar gained broadly.

Oil prices held above $US100 ($A140) as Iran and the United States exchanged new threats and after the Houthis attacked Saudi Arabia’s capital. 

Brent ​was ​off 0.2 per cent at $US103.68 ($A145.58) a barrel, while US crude dipped 0.3 per cent to $US100.02 ($A140.44).

There were ​reports that Saudi Arabia was aiming to quickly restart some flows through its ‌main east-to-west pipeline after it was damaged in attacks last week, though details were lacking.

“The closure of the East-West pipeline has materially altered the state of the oil market,” said Vivek Dhar, head of commodities at CBA.

“We now estimate that oil markets have five-to-10 weeks before global oil and refined product inventories deplete, compared to estimates closer to 15-to-20 weeks just a fortnight ago.”

This would increase pressure on Washington to make a deal with Iran, at least to restore some ​flows through the Strait of Hormuz and keep the Bab el-Mandeb passage open, he added.

US President Donald Trump will be attending the United Nations General Assembly ​this week, ahead of a meeting with Chinese ⁠President Xi Jinping on Thursday.

In other commodity markets, the rise in yields hampered non-interest-paying gold, which eased 0.2 per cent ​to $US4,370 ($A6,136) an ounce .

Anthony Albanese is the most unpopular he has ever been since becoming Prime Minister in 2022, a new poll shows.

The Australian’s closely watched Newspoll tally has slugged the prime minister with a -27 per cent net satisfaction rating, with only about a quarter of Australians now saying they would cast their vote for Labor – the lowest in nearly 15 years.

The week before receiving a record-breaking belting in the 2025 election, former Liberal leader Peter Dutton scored -24 per cent on the same metric.

The major parties combined performed abysmally in the latest poll, with 54 per cent of those surveyed now supporting someone other than Labor or the coalition.

One Nation is continuing to dine out on the mass exodus with a leading 30 per cent of the primary vote share, but Australians still prefer Mr Albanese to Pauline Hanson as prime minister. 

Mr Albanese had the backing of 44 per cent of the 1244 voters canvassed, with Senator Hanson on 32 per cent and opposition leader Angus Taylor still well off the pace at 24 per cent.

Labor’s 27 per cent primary vote share is the latest dip in a year-long slide, with the Bondi terrorist attack, the removal of tax concessions in May’s federal budget and a gloomy economic outlook chipping away at the 37 per cent of Australians who supported them 12 months ago.

Labor frontbenchers acknowledged the malaise, but took the economic fight to the coalition and One Nation on Monday.

“It’s not the polling that frustrates me … the issue here is people are obviously still feeling the pressure,” Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek told Seven.

“Our whole focus is on relieving that pressure, that’s why we back higher wages … it’s not something that One Nation does, One Nation says that Australian workers are lazy and should be easier to sack.”

Science and Technology Minister Andrew Charlton insisted his party was the only one with the gumption to take the heat off frustrated Australians, pointing at the previous coalition government and conflict overseas.

“They had a decade of really low wages growth up to 2022, since then, they’ve had a rolling series of crises coming out of the pandemic, going into the war in the Middle East, prices going up,” Mr Charlton told Nine’s Today program. 

“They want to see us stepping in and making difficult decisions … they don’t want to hear complaint that they get from One Nation, they don’t want to hear spin that they get from the Liberals, they want to see significant change.”

Labor’s vote share is at its lowest since shortly before the party rolled then-prime minister Julia Gillard in 2013, with Mr Charlton waving away a question about whether Mr Albanese still had his support.

“Of course he does,” he said.

Anthony Albanese will make the case to Donald Trump for more guardrails to be placed on AI, ahead of a potential meeting with the US president on the sidelines of the United Nations.

The prime minister will be in New York for the UN General Assembly, with bilateral meetings on the cards throughout the week.

While a formal one-on-one has not been confirmed, Mr Albanese will have the chance to come face-to-face with Mr Trump at a gala reception hosted by the US president during the high-level week.

As the prime minister makes the case to world leaders for further measures to rein in AI as part of digital reforms, Mr Trump has said concerns of the rising technology have been a “hoax”.

The US president has said a slowdown in the AI race by the United States could involve the country losing ground to China.

Mr Albanese said he would put concerns about AI to Mr Trump.

“We have a view about artificial intelligence that there needs to be appropriate safeguards put in place, and I will advocate that privately, the same as I will publicly,” he told reporters in New York on Monday, Australian time.

“I have a very positive and constructive relationship with the president, and I will engage respectfully and constructively with him.”

The prime minister has been hopeful other countries could be able to work together at the UN to put in place regulations on the AI sector.

He raised those concerns with former Apple chief executive Tim Cook during a closed-door discussion at the tech company’s headquarters in California on Sunday, Australian time.

The federal government is set to introduce legislation later in the year for national AI standards.

Mr Albanese has left the door open for a model that would allow creators to opt out of their work being used to train or otherwise inform AI.

Copyright laws have been flagged as a potential hurdle for AI companies with plans to invest in operations in Australia.

The push at the UN coincides with OpenAI head Sam Altman and Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei calling for a slowdown in the technology’s development.

Mr Albanese said he would also advocate with Mr Trump for a de-escalation of the war with Iran, which has caused global oil prices to surge.

“We need to see (a de-escalation) because this is having a massive impact on the global economy, which effects Australians,” he said.

“This is having an impact on global inflation and the global economy.”

Mr Albanese and Mr Trump held a phone call in August, where the war in Iran and tariffs imposed by the US on Australia were discussed.