The government is feeling ever more sharply the blow back from a disgruntled electorate to which it can’t afford to give relief.

A frustrated Chalmers said early this week, in a podcast with Nine, “So for people who think we should cut much harder, they should nominate, I think, those areas that should be cut more substantially. But we have been finding savings, many more savings than our predecessors, and that’s because we take the hard yards of budget sustainability seriously.”

One question, as NSW moves towards its election, is whether voters – who usually distinguish between state and federal issues – might, if the Albanese government is still in the doldrums, use the opportunity to give the feds a kick over the cost of living.

But both he and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese refused to commit to these amounting to net savings. “We’ll continue to have those discussions […] in the cabinet, in the ERC [expenditure review committee]. That’s what we do,” Albanese said.

The Essential poll showed the disquiet among voters continues to grow. More than six in ten voters (61%) said they thought the country was on the wrong track, compared with 54% in January and 46% in October 2025.

If One Nation did become the official opposition in NSW, the most populous state, that would be a serious shock to, and realignment of, the political system in this country. It would have sweeping implications federally, notably diminishing both the Liberals and Nationals. It would surely shake the leadership of Angus Taylor, who is from NSW.

While the immediate focus is on One Nation’s performance at the Victorian election in late November, next year’s NSW contest will be a more important test for the insurgent party.

A good performance in Victoria obviously would be a fillip for One Nation, but the NSW election will be the big pointer for the future.

Meanwhile, responding to calls of “what would the Coalition do?” the opposition this week listed billion worth of cuts and other savings, focused on the climate bureaucracy, “corporate welfare”, the housing bureaucracy, and changes to the tobacco excise. It said these cuts would more than fund its promise to index income tax brackets.

This week’s high inflation figures, with the headline figure at 4.3% in the year to September (up from 4% in the year to August) and the underlying rate at 3.7%, have homebuyers bracing, given the high market expectations of another interest rate rise on Tuesday. That would be the fifth hike this year.

Reserve Bank officials, who have been out and about in recent days including at Senate estimates hearings, have been walking a delicate line. They are trying to get across the message that spending needs to be contained, while keeping within their own lane, which requires they are not seen to be telling the government how it should act.

But spending is part of the problem. And for the government, it is the present actual and political pinch point.

On Thursday, Albanese was asked if he could give people “a sense of when their lives are going to get easier and not harder.”

In the latest Essential poll, released this week, when people were asked (from a list) what was most responsible for the rising cost of living, 32% said government spending while 24% opted for global events, and 19% for supermarket price gouging.

Newman, formerly a trade bureaucrat who spent many years working in Japan, is a more credible figure than Pickering.

The Minns government, although in minority, should be in a strong position to win a second term. Minns, a pragmatist from Labor’s right, and a leader with a relatable style, has distanced himself from the Albanese government, which is still bogged in the problems from its controversial budget, with a now deeply unpopular prime minister.

On present indications, the best One Nation could do in Victoria would be to prop up a Coalition minority government – although there seems a fair prospect Opposition Leader Jess Wilson could get to a majority. There’s no chance of One Nation Victorian leader Warren Pickering becoming opposition leader.

The NSW opposition is weak. On current assessments, the Liberals are considered likely to lose metropolitan seats to Labor. The Nationals could face a near wipeout, with One Nation well placed to grab regional seats.

The latest Resolve Political Monitor NSW poll, published in September, has Labor on 29%, One Nation on 25% and the Coalition on 24%.

Despite this unease, the government was still ahead on economic management, with 32% of voters selecting Labor when asked which party they would trust to “ensure the economy works in the interests of everyday Australians”. But One Nation followed, on 29%, with the Coalition, which sees the economy as its favoured ground, on just 18%.

“These challenges won’t be solved overnight,” he said. It was a grim message.

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns delivered an attention-grabbing prediction this week. “By any poll, by any measure, [One Nation leader] Mike Newman will either be the premier or the opposition leader after the 13th of March,” Minns said on Sydney radio.

Albanese won’t be on hand when the Reserve Bank delivers its decision on rates on Tuesday. He’ll be at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Antigua and Barbuda. It had been thought the PM might skip it, given how many international meetings he has to attend during summit season. But King Charles made it clear he hoped to see him there.

While it continues to reject the argument that its own spending has contributed significantly to the high inflation, it is also responding to that argument. Treasurer Jim Chalmers this week was at pains to emphasise that the mid-year budget update due in December would contain a savings package.

Of course, government spending (which also includes state spending) is not entirely responsible for the inflationary problem. Although there was an issue before the Middle East conflict, the war is a major factor in accelerating inflation. The biggest increase in Wednesday’s inflation figures was in the cost of fuel. More generally, a surge in private sector investment from the AI boom, combined with supply constraints, adds to inflation.

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Residents in central Spain are dealing with the aftermath of a tragic collision between two high-speed trains, which has left at least 68 people dead and dozens more injured.

On a rail line between the capital Madrid and the city of Seville, a train carrying 397 passengers collided at high speed with another train that was stationary on the tracks and had 147 people on board. The resulting force caused several carriages to be derailed.

This is the most deadly rail disaster in Europe in more than a decade, but it’s also the second train accident that’s taken place in Spain this year.

In January, 46 people were killed and 292 injured in a crash that took place on the same Madrid–Seville train line. This raises questions about rail safety.

For Australia, which is developing its first higher-speed railway, the broader question is how to maintain safety, especially when equipment fails or there are other disruptions due to severe weather or maintenance.

Are trains generally safe?

Rail travel, including high-speed rail, generally has an excellent safety record. A good example is Japan’s Shinkansen bullet train network. According to the Central Japan Railway Company, there have not been any accidents causing death or injury to passengers on board since the network opened in 1964.

The European Union Agency for Railways’ 2026 report found that, from 2014 to 2023, people travelling in cars on the road faced about 40 times the fatality risk of rail passengers travelling the same distance.

Such records show what sustained safety management can achieve. Every railway must maintain its own safety through engineering, maintenance and daily operating decisions.

So what caused the recent accidents in Spain?

The two Spanish accidents appear to involve different failure mechanisms, although both remain under investigation.

The train that derailed at Adamuz in January obstructed the adjacent track, leading to a collision with an oncoming train. Preliminary evidence points to a rail fracture before the derailment. The final report isn’t expected until next year.

As for yesterday’s crash, Spain’s transport minister’s described a signalling disruption. Rail signalling refers to all the systems that control train traffic and speed. For reasons that are not yet known, one train received permission to travel on a track, while another was stopped ahead of it, leading to the collision.

An older but relevant major accident occurred in Wenzhou, China, in 2011. Lightning during a storm triggered faults in the signalling system, exposing defects in its design. The system incorrectly treated an occupied track as clear and a train struck another ahead of it, killing 40 people and injuring at least 172.

What can Australia learn?

Australia doesn’t currently have a high-speed rail system, but plans are in place to open such a rail line between Newcastle and Sydney by 2039, with a more expanded network by 2060.

When rail systems fail, they have to do so safely, rather than disastrously – it’s built into their safety management.

In practice, this means Australia’s high-speed railway will be designed and tested to remain safe even when train control equipment fails or operating conditions deteriorate – this is known as degraded operation, or a “fault state”.

This requires clear arrangements for recognising problems, restricting speed or service, or suspending operations and recovering safely. These responses must reflect what the railway can safely do under changed conditions – if there’s a severe thunderstorm, for example.

In such changed conditions, the human involvement in managing train safety may be even more vulnerable than the technology itself. Human intervention becomes more demanding when normal operations break down. Staff may need to step in, interpret incomplete information and make unfamiliar decisions – potentially in stressful conditions under time pressures.

In a fault state, the system becomes more dependent on human judgement precisely when exercising that judgement becomes harder. This needs to be anticipated in the safety design of any rail network – including Australia’s upcoming high-speed rail.

The post Is high-speed rail generally safe? What can Australia learn from Spain’s accident? appeared first on MASSIVE News.

Seoul is calling for talks as Pyongyang threatens fresh propaganda broadcasts and “countermeasures” along the border. Also on East Asia Tonight: Japan and South Korea bolster cybersecurity defences after flaws in widely used PHP programming language trigger hacking attempts. Also, an independent panel submits its final report, as the Hong Kong government prepares to take action against those responsible for the Tai Po fire that killed 168 people last November.

00:00 Headlines
01:46 Seoul stresses urgency of restoring dialogue with Pyongyang
14:33 South Korea’s central bank pauses rate hikes amid AI chip boom
17:07 Micron announces quarterly bonus scheme for employees worldwide
20:11 DeepSeek raises nearly US$15b in latest fundraising round
22:28 Why is tech giant Tencent taking it slow in the AI race?
32:46 PHP flaws affecting 70% of the world’s websites
43:32 China, Russia denounce “destructive external interference” in Eurasia
44:43 Independent committee submits final report on Wang Fuk Court blaze
50:53 Flights cancelled as Typhoon Champi nears Taiwan
52:17 China sees US$30b in losses from natural disasters in first nine months of 2026
53:04 Ancient Taoist teachings in China’s Wudang Mountains
56:55 Shark in South Korea’s Busan returns to canal after being coaxed out

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