Your afternoon Briefing

Good afternoon, readers. Peter Costello warns of rate rise pain and Richard Di Natale doubles down on climate change claims.

Good afternoon, readers. Peter Costello warns of rate rise pain and Richard Di Natale doubles down on climate change claims.

Former Federal Treasurer Peter Costello addresses UDIA national congress in Melbourne. Picture: Ned Meldrum

Costello warns of rate rise pain

Interest rate hikes will have “painful” consequences for the property market and household debt, warns former treasurer.

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Australian Greens Leader Richard Di Natale speaks during debate in the Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra, Monday, March 19, 2018. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch) NO ARCHIVING

PM on climate ‘like US on guns’

Greens Leader Richard Di Natale has doubled down after yesterday blaming government inaction on climate change for two bushfires, likening a failure to acknowledge climate change as the cause to the American National Rifle Association’s stance on gun laws.

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Stoic couple Deborah Nave (left) and Ingrid Mitchell stand among ruins as they return to see their destroyed house for the first time after Sunday's devastating fires at Tathra on the NSW South Coast. Pictrures: Ray Strange.

‘We weren’t warned of fire’

Tathra residents Ingrid and Deborah say they received no evacuation warning until they were half an hour out of town.

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(FILES) In this file photo taken on November 20, 2017 A picture taken on November 20, 2017 shows logos of US online social media and social networking service Facebook. Cambridge Analytica is a private company for strategic communication and data analysis at the heart of a scandal over the use of personal data collected on Facebook. A subsidiary of Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL), Cambridge Analytica (CA) has offices in New York, Washington and London and is directed by Alexander Nix. / AFP PHOTO / LOIC VENANCE

Users urged to #DeleteFacebook

Facebook users appear to be leaving the social media site in droves after reports of Cambridge Analytica’s data grab.

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New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at a meeting for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) during an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Danang, Vietnam, Friday, November 10, 2017. (AAP Image/POOL/Mick Tsikas) NO ARCHIVING

NZ may block new oil and gas

Jacinda Ardern’s government is considering a halt to new oil and gas exploration as the world tries to tackle climate change.