THE NEWS WRAP: Labor to pledge $114 billion to high-speed rail over the next decade

Transport Minister Anthony Albanese will today release the final report into a proposed high-speed rail project linking Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane.

The report, initiated as part of the government’s balance of power arrangement with the Greens, states the high-speed rail project will take around 20 years to complete at a cost of around $114 billion, with trains travelling at speeds of between 200km/h and 250km/h.

When completed, the train will also stop at the Gold Coast, Casino, Grafton, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Taree, Newcastle, the NSW Central Coast, the Southern Highlands, Wagga Wagga, Albury-Wodonga and Shepparton.

Coles signs deals with farmers’ co-ops to cut out milk middlemen

Coles has signed deals with major farmers’ co-operatives, including Norelco in Queensland and Devondale in Victoria, to supply the retail giant with private label milk over the next 10 years.

The deal, estimated to be worth around $10 billion, will start from July next year and replace deals with privately-owned suppliers Lion Nathan and Parmalat.

“We wanted to try and improve the farmers’ lot, ensuring they have greater levels of (supply) tenure, whilst maintaining a position of great value for the consumer,” Coles managing director Ian McLeod said.

Simon says IMF economists surprised at low global inflation

International Monetary Fund senior economist John Simon has admitted surprise at the low rates of inflation worldwide, despite trillions of dollars of stimulus being pumped into the world economy since the GFC, as he released the IMF’s World Economic Outlook.

“The basic mystery is that during the Great Recession we’ve seen very large increases of unemployment and in the past when you’ve had something like that inflation has fallen quite a lot, really there’s been very little movement in inflation and the question is why was this?” Simon said.

“It really has been probably the great surprise in the post-GFC world that, despite the fact the growth is at trend and there’s been record stimulus in the form of large fiscal deficits and near zero interest rates, I mean inflation does remain very well anchored.”

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 0.94% to 14,811.95. The Aussie dollar is up to US105.40 cents.