As far as rallying cries go, Michele Bullock’s “we are poorer, and there is no way out of that” leaves a lot to be desired.

It’s not going to win you any applause, particularly when you’re the governor of a central bank that has just announced a third rate hike.

But as a blunt way to describe what the US-Israel war on Iran means for everyday households, it’s hard to fault.

“Australians are poorer because of this shock to oil prices and energy prices and all the other commodity prices that are being impacted,” Bullock told journalists.

“So yes, we are all feeling poorer. That’s what this has done, this war on the other side of the world.”

The RBA’s latest forecasts confirm this: higher prices and lower growth. Pay packets that can’t keep pace with inflation. An economy that grows at an “anaemic” rate of 1.3% in 2026, or half the pace of the year before.

Not a recession, Bullock said, even in the worse of two more pessimistic scenarios considered by the central bank. But an economic malaise that Australians had dearly hoped to have escaped barely six months ago.

The good news: the RBA’s experts reckon unemployment should stay reasonably steady, in the low fours, through to the end of this year.

In other words, you will be poorer but you should keep your job. As silver linings go, it lacks some shine.

The decent thing to do, one would think, is not to pile further pressure on mortgage holders with higher interest rates.

But Bullock, who has one blunt tool, says it’s not the next six months she is focused on. That is locked in, she reckons. The fuel shock is here and will work it’s way through the economy.

There were some other glimmers of sunlight. Tuesday’s rate raise gives the RBA’s rate-setting board “space to see how the conflict plays out”.

Bullock repeated a variation of this phrase a few times during Tuesday’s press conference, and it’s reasonable to interpret this as her saying that another rate hike is not a done deal.

On the other hand, analysts at NAB thought the RBA was more worried about inflation than expected, and said they now thought the central bank would hike again when it next meets in June.

Of course, what happens in Iran will determine what happens next.

But there’s another, more immediate, thing that’s also out of Bullock’s control: next Tuesday’s budget.

If we are all getting poorer thanks to the Iranwar, the government’s instinct will be to shield us as much as possible.

Here again, the governor was more blunt than usual.

“The extent to which government make up the shortfalls for households by giving them more money makes it harder to dampen demand,” she said.

In other words, splashing taxpayer money around to help ease our pain will just make it more likely the RBA has to go harder on rates.

Again, her blunt talk is unlikely to be received well, this time by her political masters in Canberra.

For now, Jim Chalmers is talking the talk.

“We intend to play a helpful role, not a harmful role, in the fight against inflation.”

Indiana voters go to the polls today in a test of the Republican party’s staying power after the party’s state lawmakers resisted Donald Trump’s bruising campaign to pressure them into redrawing the congressional districts.

The vote has turned into a statewide referendum on political retribution.

Seven state senators who voted against Trump’s mid-decade redistricting push now face challengers endorsed by the president, who said that “every one of these people should be “primaried,” after the effort failed.

Trump-aligned dark money groups have spent upwards of $7m on TV ads in Indiana this year, according to a tally from AdImpact – the majority spent targeting Republicans who allied themselves with Democrats in the December redistricting vote.

Greg Goode, a first-term Republican representative from Terre Haute, now faces a competitive race in district 38 against city council member Brenda Wilson – who received backing from both Mike Braun, Indiana’s governor, and Trump – as well as a third candidate, Alexandra Wilson, who shares her last name but bears no relation.

Goode voted against Trump’s redistricting push after hosting a town hall event in which 71 people spoke out against the revision and none spoke in favor.

Jim Buck, a state senator from Kokomo, also faces a Trump challenge, after 18 years in office.

“We’ve never had Washington meddle into our elections like they have this time,” Buck told NPR. “Now I’ve got over $1m against me in one race.”

One ad takes aim at the 80-year-old public servant by calling him “old, pathetic, liberal”.

Republicans control seven of Indiana’s nine congressional districts, and the overall balance of power is unlikely to change in this years’ midterm vote. Trump’s redistricting scheme took aim at breaking up Indiana’s first and seventh congressional districts, representing the urban centers of Indianapolis and Gary, where Democrats have consistently held seats.

Party-spending patterns indicate that they expect to hold the seats – Democratic advertisers make up less than 1% of the $25.5m in ad spending in the Indiana’s 2026 primary contest, AdImpact data shows.

Half of Indiana’s 50 state Senate seats and all 100 state House seats are up for election in 2026.

Unlike in Indiana, lawmakers in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio all dutifully passed redistricting measures aimed to boost Republican control. Representatives in Alabama and Tennessee have already called for special sessions to discuss redistricting after last week’s landmark supreme court ruling paved the way for revisions in Louisiana.

Democrats recently redrew the voting maps in California.

In the final days before Indiana’s contentious primary vote, Trump issued a call to his TruthSocial followers, and instructed them to vote for a “true MAGA Warrior”. If they needed help finding the polls, he included a link to voting locations on his party’s campaign engine, “SwamptheVote”.