A rainswept crowd of 73,816 watched in delight on Tuesday at Flemington’s Melbourne Cup Day as Mark Zahra rode Gold Trip first past the post.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has lifted its inflation forecast yet again, prompting economists to predict an eighth straight interest rate rise in December and a greater chance of another hike in February – the RBA board’s first meeting of 2023.

Former prime ministers Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison have been rolled out on day one of the Victorian election campaign in a new attack ad panning Opposition leader Matthew Guy.

Text messages have overtaken our preferred way of talking to each other, with more than one in three people revealing they would rather send a text message to family and friends than call.