Australia news live: Chris Bowen says petrol reserves won’t ease shortages straight away; RBA tipped to hike rates

Energy minister says it will take ‘some time’ for extra supply to reach regional areas. Follow today’s news live

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The Reserve Bank board is widely expected to hike rates at 2:30pm today amid a global energy shock that threatens to push inflation towards 5%.

A hike would take the RBA’s cash rate target from 3.85% to 4.1%, marking the second consecutive increase after the February move.

There will be some time for it to flow through. There’s a very complicated supply chain.

But it is going to have an impact. Some companies have said it will start to have an impact in coming days, to some degree. But there will be some time before it’s all released.