Australia news live: NSW music festival pill testing trial announced; new video emerges of Oscar Jenkins in Russian captivity

PM responds to yesterday’s rate cut

Anthony Albanese was interviewed last night on the ABC and asked about the interest rate cuts. This is what the prime minister had to say:

We now have inflation falling. It has a two in front of it, 2.4. It had a six in front of it when we were elected. Real wages are increasing. Employment is still strong. We’ve created 1.1 million jobs.

And now we have interest rates falling for the first time in five years. So it will be welcome news for people. We know that people have been doing it tough. And this will not ease all of that pressure, but it will be welcomed by those with a mortgage.

Albanese was also asked why he did not rein in some spending, which some economists say could have dropped inflation sooner. He responded:

The fact is we inherited a $78bn deficit under the Liberals, and we turned that into a $22bn surplus and then followed it up with another surplus.

We have had responsible economic management and the cost of living relief that we’ve put in place, whether it be the tax cuts for every taxpayer, the energy bill relief, cheaper medicines, cheaper childcare, free TAFE, they’ve all been designed in a way that has assisted to put that downward pressure on inflation, whilst putting more money in people’s pockets.

A music festival in Wollongong early next month will become the first in New South Wales to trial pill testing.

As we flagged just earlier, the service will be run by a government agency for the first time in Australia – at the Yours and Owls festival – led by NSW Health.

Patrons will be invited to have substances analysed to test for purity, potency and adulterants, a statement said, followed by a discussion with a qualified counsellor. NSW police will be on-site undertaking actives “that may involve drug dog and strip search operations”, a statement said.

The festival’s co-founder, Ben Tillman, said he “enthusiastically” welcomed the move from the state government.

Pill testing is something we have been fighting for, for some time now. While Yours and Owls maintains a zero-tolerance policy to illegal drugs, we are realists and see the abstinence-only approach as unhelpful.

Pill Testing is not a panacea. However, it is a proven harm minimisation strategy that has been successfully implemented in many countries overseas for the past 20 or so years.

The state minister for health, Ryan Park, said “no level of illicit drug use is safe and pill testing services do not provide a guarantee of safety”.

However, this trial has been designed to provide people with the necessary information to make more informed decisions about drug use, with the goal of reducing drug-related harm and saving lives.

Welcome

Emily Wind

Good morning and welcome back to the Australia news live blog. I’m Emily Wind, and I’ll be taking you through our rolling coverage for most of today.

A music festival in Wollongong early next month will become the first in New South Wales to trial pill testing. The service will be run by a government agency for the first time in Australia at the Yours and Owls festival, led by NSW Health.

Patrons will be invited to have substances analysed to test for purity, potency and adulterants, a statement said, followed by a discussion with a qualified counsellor. We’ll have more details on this soon.

Meanwhile, new footage has emerged overnight of Australian man Oscar Jenkins – after a separate, unverified video came to light yesterday. The video has not been verified by Guardian Australia, and is entirely in Russian.

It shows the 32-year-old seated in front of a Russian flag as a man tests his blood pressure. According to translations from the ABC, the man jokes in Russian that Jenkins’ blood pressure would be “zero” if he was dead – after reports emerged in January that he had died after his capture while serving alongside Ukraine’s armed forces.

As always, you can reach out with any questions, feedback or tips via email: [email protected]. Let’s get started.