The number of divorces granted by family courts in Aotearoa has fallen to the lowest annual number since 1979. Last year 6372 divorces were granted, and 7707 were approved in 2020. In 2021, the divorce rate was 6.2 divorces per…

Auckland police are searching for a stolen public sculpture.The large round artwork, reportedly worth around $40,000, was noticed to be missing from a property on Hillsborough Rd yesterday morning. Police have asked that anyone…

A long time in the making or another nail in the coffin for living costs?

The decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia to lift interest rates yesterday for the first time in 11 years created a storm of opinion over whether enough – or too much – was being done to tackle the soaring cost of living for Australians.

Following a call out to nine.com.au readers the response was equally divided, with all agreeing on one fact: life is getting too expensive and more has to be done.

READ MORE: Putin may be about to officially declare war

Mary is a single mother to an 11-month-old and has a mortgage of $620,000. She told 9News.com.au that yesterday's rate hike will deal a blow to her finances.

"This rate increase will put an enormous strain on my spending as well as trying to save money for a rainy day," Mary said.

"For the wider community, this hike may mean nothing but being the sole provider for an infant whilst having a massive mortgage and working full time to provide, any further hikes will most likely result in me having to decide whether to sell or move back in with family.

"The cost of living has increased and people are struggling with no pay rises. Our government needs to seriously get their act together."

READ MORE: Big four banks react to Aussie interest rate increase

Lyn Pryor, a self-funded retiree from Manly, welcomed the interest in rates and made the point that a hike in the cash rate does not only affect those with home loans.

"We are happy about it as it gives a tiny bit more income," she said. "We all went through paying mortgages and sometimes double mortgages … but got on with life and went without until we could afford things.

"A lot of people borrowing do not think about the future and all knew rates would rise sooner or later!"

Michael Hyne wrote in to point out that those most at risk from recent hikes will be those who inflated their home loan applications, otherwise known as "liar loans".

"What is lost in this interest rate rise is the additional pressure that those who were desperate to get into the property market and with help 'doctored' their financials to secure a home loan," he told 9News.com.au

"Banks believe they have a built-in buffer for these cohort of home loans when they don't. The test will be how many delinquent loans come to the surface over coming months."

READ MORE: Horror as elderly man taken to morgue in body bag while alive

David O'Connor from Broadbeach told 9News.com.au he was happy to see rates rise as he believed the property market was already overvalued.

"I am supporting interest rate increases. It should be about 6 per cent at least," he said.

"I want the rates to go higher because my interest income will increase and add to my savings. It will bring down house prices that have been artificially pumped up. Australian Real Estate is a Ponzi scheme."

A recent poll of more than 500 nine.com.au readers – just prior to yesterday's rate rise – showed that the cost of living remains the key battleground for the 2022 federal election.

A staggering 84 per cent of respondents said they were worried that the cost of living in Australia was becoming "too high", while 11 per cent said they weren't.

Perhaps more importantly for the nation's leaders, more than half (53 per cent) of readers said they would be more likely to vote for a political party that addressed the cost of living as a priority over other policies.

The information provided on this website is general in nature only and does not constitute personal financial advice. The information has been prepared without taking into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information on this website you should consider the appropriateness of the information having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs.

Half of all Australians are caught in a kind of self-inflicted, infuriating password black hole, according to statistics which show how flippantly Aussies manage their online life.

One in two Aussies forget their passwords so frequently they must reset them twice a week, a study from global tech giant Cisco said.

The Cisco data underlined just how many people don't appreciate the importance of passwords and the upheaval of being hacked, an Australian security expert said.

REVEALED: The murder capital of NSW, and it's not Sydney

"I think it only becomes clear after something goes wrong," Troy Hunt, whose HaveIBeenPwned site has become the go-to global platform for people to check if their usernames and passwords have been compromised, said.

"Now more than ever your digital life is your life.

"Step back and ask how much of your life is now digitised? It's crazy."

Mr Hunt said hackers can wreak massive damage on someone's finances and reputation once they crack a password, particularly an email account.

From social media to online shopping to banking and emails, most Australians will have dozens, if not hundreds, of accounts which require usernames and passwords.

Mr Hunt said it's not humanly possible to create unique, strong usernames for each and then retain that information in your brain.

READ MORE: Putin may be about to officially declare war

READ MORE: Big four banks react to Aussie interest rate increase

A password manager, which creates random, extremely hard to crack passwords, is the best online tool for people to manage this modern day dilemma, he said.

Many password managers are free, some are paid subscriptions.

Mr Hunt predicted more than 90 per cent of people probably use one password for every online account they manage.

"This is why account takeover attacks can have such serious consequences," he said.

Robert De Nicolo, Cisco's director of cybersecurity for Australia, said 81 per cent of breaches typically involve weak or stolen credentials from passwords.

He said too many Aussies were password "complacent" and had slipped into "cybersecurity fatigue".

"Every person in Australia can be a victim of an attack or a breach," he said.

Research from NordPass last year revealed the most popular password in Australia is "123456", a code hackers can crack in less than one second.

Other frequently used passwords included "password", "lizottes", "abc123" and "password1".

READ MORE: Horror as elderly man taken to morgue in body bag while alive

Tips to create a strong password

• Never use short passwords. The bigger variety of characters, the longer it will take a hacker to guess it.
• Never reuse your passwords. Even if a password is leaked, other accounts with different passwords will still be protected.
• Make your passwords complex. Use upper- and lower-case letters, symbols, special characters, and numbers to create strong passwords.
• Use long passphrases. Using dictionary words is not advisable. Instead, create a combination of six to seven random words. A combination like "left elephant shoes purple rugby vacation" is difficult to guess because of its length and randomness, but it is easier to remember.
• Use the mnemonics technique. Create memorable phrases using the mnemonics technique. For example, create a sentence like "I love to eat pizza with friends for fun!" and use it as a mnemonic to create a password "1L2epwf4F!"
• Use a password manager. Password managers help people generate and store passwords.

A COVID-19 testing facility in Sydney's west had to be closed after unexpected, venomous, guests were found on its grounds.

Employees at the site, in St Marys, spotted a number of red-bellied black snakes ranging from young to a "medium-sized" individual.

One snake was filmed slithering through a carpark before Australian Snake Catcher owner Sean Cade captured it using a wheelie bin and hook.

READ MORE: Man and woman arrested after NSW teen vanished nearly 20 years ago

Mr Cade explained the multiple sightings weren't unusual for this time of year.

"The red-bellied black snakes may have misread RAT testing," he told 9news.com.au.

"Staff had originally sighted a medium-sized snake on Friday last week, and due to improved weather conditions and the influx of babies being born over the last couple of months, they sighted a couple of baby snakes again on Monday.

"So they temporarily closed the testing facility until we attended."

READ MORE: Horror as elderly man taken to morgue in body bag while alive

READ MORE: Putin may be about to officially declare war

Mr Cade said the snake filmed was successfully caught and later released.

"There's a waterway nearby which is a favourable location for this species," he said.

"We conducted a thorough inspection of the entire site to ensure there were no other snakes."

While red-bellied black snakes are venomous, bites are rare due to the reptiles' docile nature.

Should a bite occur symptoms of envenomation include: bleeding and/or swelling at the bite site, nausea, vomiting, headache, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, sweating, local or general muscle pain and weakness, and red-brown urine.

Their venom has anticoagulant and myotoxic effects, meaning it has a toxic effect on muscle and stops blood from clotting.

A 14-year-old Missouri boy who fell to his death from a 130-metre drop-tower ride in central Florida's tourist district appeared to slip out of his seat at the halfway mark of its plunge to the ground, according to a law enforcement report released on Tuesday.

The father of a friend of Tyre Sampson who witnessed the March 24 accident told deputies that the teen appeared to fall out of his seat when plunging passengers on the Free Fall ride passed a yellow reflective tape halfway down the tower. The ride reaches speeds of 120 kilometres, according to an Orange County Sheriff's Office incident report released through a public records request.

When the teen hit the ground, he appeared to be breathing but was unresponsive, Leon Howard told deputies.

READ MORE: Putin may be about to officially declare war

Mr Howard's son, also named Leon Howard, was friends with Sampson from a travel football team and was also on the ride at the time of the accident. Mr Sampson, who was 6 feet, 2 inches tall (1.9 metres) and weighed more than 136 kilograms, had travelled to Orlando with his friend's family for vacation.

The younger Leon Howard told deputies that at the top of the ride, which is taller than the Statue of Liberty, he became nervous and closed his eyes until the ride stopped.

The incident report said nobody touched Mr Sampson on the ground until deputies arrived. According to 911 calls released on Tuesday, dispatchers asked witnesses who had called in the accident if they could perform CPR on Mr Sampson.

One man told the dispatcher that Mr Sampson was face down, “and he's about 300 pounds." The dispatcher started asking him to have someone help him move Sampson onto his back, but then deputies arrived at the scene.

A section of the incident report was redacted. The investigation into Mr Sampson's death is ongoing, and the report and 911 calls were released Tuesday because they had been reviewed and redacted for release, the sheriff's office said in an email.

READ MORE: Big four banks react to Aussie interest rate increase

Homicide investigators participated in the probe, according to the report.

An initial report by outside engineers hired by the Florida Department of Agriculture said sensors on the ride had been adjusted manually to double the size of the opening for restraints on two seats, resulting in Sampson not being properly secured before he slipped out and fell to his death.

The Department of Agriculture report said there were many other “potential contributions” to the accident and that a full review of the ride’s design and operations was needed.

READ MORE: Horror as elderly man taken to morgue in body bag while alive

Last week, Mr Sampson's parents sued the ride’s owner, manufacturer and landlord, saying they were negligent and failed to provide a safe amusement ride. The lawsuit said the defendants failed to warn Mr Sampson about the risks of someone of his size going on the ride and that they did not provide an appropriate restraint system.

“The Sheriff’s Investigation simply confirms how tragic this accident was that took Mr Tyre’s life," Michael Haggard, an attorney for Mr Sampson's mother, Nekia Dodd, said in an email Tuesday.

“It was a totally preventable incident that should have never happened, but for the absolute negligence of all involved.”

There's been an increase in the number of sick, stranded, starving and deceased sea turtles washing up on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

University of Sunshine Coast researchers and wildlife rescuers noticed an uptick in distressed animals following the floods that impacted northern NSW and south-east Queensland at the beginning of the year.

Also placing the population under pressure is a recently discovered mystery disease that "eats" turtle shells.

READ MORE: Big four banks react to Aussie interest rate increase

The disease was first noticed in turtles around Hervey Bay waters last year.

But since the floods more animals have been found with sections of skin and scales shedding from their carapaces.

This makes parts of their shells soft and sponge-like and sometimes exposes bare bone.

USC Associate Professor of Animal Ecology Kathy Townsend said researchers are investigating what causes the disease.

READ MORE: Horror as elderly man taken to morgue in body bag while alive

It's not yet known whether it is viral, bacterial, parasitic or caused by pollutants.

"This is the first time this has been documented in sea turtles, and so far, we believe it is contained to the Wide Bay region," Dr Townsend said.

"The data being collected by our rescuers, as they respond to callouts about strandings and conduct health checks on basking turtles, is essential to helping our researchers determine what is going on, and how the turtles are being exposed to this disease."

Findings are being shared with the with Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and researchers are working closely with the University of Queensland's School of Veterinary Science.

READ MORE: Putin may be about to officially declare war

In March there were a record 99 callouts to save struggling animals and April "has been busy" as more sea turtles are washing up dead on beaches.

Dr Townsend said the marine reptiles are also struggling to find food.

"Sediment washed out from rivers and creeks during the extreme rain events is smothering seagrass beds in flood-impacted areas along the Queensland and NSW coast, reducing the quality and quantity of the turtles' primary food source," Dr Townsend said.

"Sea turtles usually spend summer fattening up before the annual winter dieback of seagrass, but the floods have compromised this, resulting in the poor health of turtles and more strandings.

"We anticipate seeing more starving and deceased turtles as winter progresses."

There are six species of sea turtles that roam Queensland waters.

These are; the green turtle, loggerhead turtle, Olive Ridley turtle, flatback turtle, hawksbill turtle and the leatherback turtle.

All species are threatened; listed as either vulnerable or endangered by Queensland's Department of Environment and Science.

A missing Alabama corrections official accused of helping a murder defendant escape from jail last week had a nonphysical "special relationship" with him that included allowing him privileges while incarcerated, a sheriff said.

The relationship between Vicky White, an assistant director of corrections for northwestern Alabama's Lauderdale County, and the now-fugitive Casey White was confirmed in part through tips from inmates at the county detention centre.

"We have confirmed through independent sources and other means that there was in fact a relationship between Casey White and Vicky White outside of her normal work hours – not physical contact, but a relationship of a different nature," Sheriff Rick Singleton said.

READ MORE: Mystery and intrigue surrounds escaped US inmate and missing officer

"We were told Casey White got special privileges and was treated differently while in the facility than the other inmates," Sheriff Singleton said.

Authorities are looking for both Vicky White and Casey White, who are not related, after the corrections officer on Friday morning left the Lauderdale County detention centre with the 38-year-old inmate while he was handcuffed and shackled in her patrol car.

A warrant has been issued for Vicky White's arrest on charges of permitting or facilitating escape in the first degree.

Vicky White said she was taking Casey White to a courthouse for a mental health evaluation and would then go get medical care because she wasn't feeling well.

Authorities later discovered no hearing or evaluation was scheduled for Casey White that day, and Vicky White never arrived at the medical facility.

Her patrol car was found abandoned on Friday morning in a shopping centre's parking lot, less than a mile from the detention centre.

The situation has left Vicky White's co-workers in shock.

READ MORE: Putin may be about to officially declare war

The day she disappeared was to be her last day at work after nearly two decades with the department, Sheriff Singleton said.

She submitted her retirement paperwork last week, sold her home about a month ago, and had thought about moving to the beach.

"All of her co-workers are devastated. We've never had any situation like this with Vicky White. She was a model employee," Sheriff Singleton said.

Previously, Sheriff Singleton had said the corrections official had "an unblemished record" and was "an exemplary employee."

"If she did this willingly, and all indications are that she did … I guess we're trying to hold on to that last straw of hope that maybe for some reason she was threatened and did this under coercion, but absolutely you'd feel betrayed," Sheriff Singleton said.

Lauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly said he worked with Vicky White almost daily for 17 years and last spoke with her the day before she disappeared.

"I would have trusted her with my life," he said.

"I am so disappointed in her. She was trusted and she exploited that trust."

Vicky White had been living with her mother for the past five weeks after selling her home, but never mentioned her retirement or Casey White, the mother, Pat Davis, told CNN affiliate WAAY.

"I never heard of him, never seen his picture, nothing. I didn't know anything about him," Ms Davis told the outlet.

Ms Davis said she is in disbelief about the situation and wants her daughter to come home.

"We don't know if she was took by force or if she was voluntarily in this. But we just want her back, that's all we want."

MORE: Arrest warrant for prison officer accused of helping inmate escape

'I'd be surprised if they're still in Alabama'

Video shows Vicky White's patrol car stopped – about eight minutes after leaving the jail – at an intersection about two blocks from the shopping centre parking lot where it would be found abandoned, Sheriff Singleton said.

That indicates the car was driven straight to the parking lot, and the driver never attempted to go to the courthouse, he said.

But the video doesn't show what happened after the car arrived at the parking lot.

Sheriff Singleton said he believes the pair left the lot in a second vehicle – perhaps transferring to a vehicle that was staged there or being picked up by someone.

The US Marshals Service said yesterday the pair was last seen on April 29 in Rogersville, Alabama, in a gold/copper 2007 Ford Edge with unknown Alabama plates.

READ MORE: Big four banks react to Aussie interest rate increase

"I'd be surprised if they're still in Alabama," the sheriff said.

He noted officials at the Mexican and Canadian borders have been notified of the search.

Vicky White would have money from the recent sale of her home, but her retirement fund paperwork had not yet been processed, Sheriff Singleton said.

The US Marshals Service is offering a reward of up to US$15,000 for information leading to the location of the missing inmate ($10,000) and officer ($5000).

The inmate and officer should be considered dangerous and may be armed with an AR-15 rifle and a shotgun, marshals said.

Escaped inmate is 'extremely dangerous'

Casey White is "an extremely dangerous person," Sheriff Singleton said.

He was serving 75 years in prison for a series of crimes in 2015, including a home invasion, carjacking and a police chase, according to the Marshals Service.

He was transferred from a state prison to Lauderdale County's detention centre on February 25 to attend court hearings on two capital murder charges he faces related to the 2015 stabbing death of 58-year-old Connie Ridgeway, the Marshals Service said.

He confessed to the crime in 2020 then pleaded not guilty, according to Lauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly.

"We're assuming he's armed because she was armed," Sheriff Singleton said of Casey White.

In 2020, while Casey White was being held in Lauderdale County's detention centre, authorities learned he planned to escape the jail and take a hostage, Sheriff Singleton said.

READ MORE: Horror as elderly man taken to morgue in body bag while alive

"We shook him down, and we did find a shank in his possession – a shank is a prison knife. And we retrieved that. We immediately had him shipped back to the Department of Corrections," Sheriff Singleton said.

The jail already had a policy mandating two sworn deputies accompany inmates at all times, including during transportation to the courthouse – but "we emphasised that policy with him," Sheriff Singleton said.

Vicky White violated the policy by leaving the jail alone with Casey White, but since she was second-in-command at the facility other officers didn't push back, Sheriff Singleton said.

"Being the boss and over the transport, she just informed the booking officer that she was going to carry him to the courthouse and drop him off, which was a flagrant violation of policy. But I'm sure because it was her boss, the booking officer didn't question it," he noted.

As part of her job, Vicky White "was frequently throughout the cell blocks, has contact with all the inmates at one time or another," Sheriff Singleton said.

"But as far as a romantic relationship or something like that, we have no evidence or proof that that was the case, although it's a possibility," he added.

With CNN

Russian President Vladimir Putin could formally declare war on Ukraine as soon as May 9, a move that would enable the full mobilisation of Russia's reserve forces as invasion efforts continue to falter, Western officials believe.

May 9, known as "Victory Day" inside of Russia, commemorates the country's defeat of the Nazis in 1945.

Western officials have long believed Putin would leverage the symbolic significance and propaganda value of that day to announce either a military achievement in Ukraine, a major escalation of hostilities — or both.

READ MORE: Ukrainian fighters say Russian forces are storming Mariupol plant

Officials have begun to hone in on one scenario, which is that Mr Putin formally declares war on Ukraine on May 9.

To date, Mr Putin has insisted on referring to the brutal months-long conflict as a "special military operation", effectively banning words such as invasion and war.

"I think he will try to move from his 'special operation'," British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told LBC Radio last week.

"He's been rolling the pitch, laying the ground for being able to say 'look, this is now a war against Nazis, and what I need is more people. I need more Russian cannon fodder.'"

Throughout the conflict Putin has continuously framed his invasion of Ukraine — a country with a Jewish president — as a campaign of supposed "denazification", a description dismissed by historians and political observers alike.

READ MORE: Perth teenager may never walk again after breaking his neck in freak bike accident

Wallace added that he "would not be surprised, and I don't have any information about this, that he is probably going to declare on this May day that 'we are now at war with the world's Nazis and we need to mass mobilise the Russian people.'"

A formal declaration of war on May 9 could potentially bolster public support for the invasion. It would also, under Russian law, allow Putin to mobilise reserve forces and draft conscripts, which officials say Russia desperately needs amid a growing manpower shortage. Western and Ukrainian officials have estimated that at least 10,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the war since Russia invaded just over two months ago.

READ MORE: NSW Goverment's top advisers set to receive major pay rise while teachers strike for higher wages

Russian battlefield effort 'anaemic'

Following a series of military and logistical setbacks, Moscow has concentrated efforts on the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which has been on the frontline of the Russia-Ukraine conflict since 2014.

But the US official on Monday described the Russian war effort there as "anaemic."

"They'll move in and then declare victory, and then withdraw their troops, only to let the Ukrainians take it back," the official told reporters at a Pentagon briefing.

The official said problems that have plagued the Russian military since their initial surge have not been fixed.

"They're still suffering from poor command-and-control, low morale in many units, less-than-ideal logistics," the official said.

Russian forces were also keen to avoid risks that could lead to further casualties to their already depleted forces, the official said, describing the ground war in the area as "very cautious, very tepid".

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces were making significant progress in pushing the Russians back around Kharkiv, at the north-western tip of the Donbas region, the official said.

"An incredible effort there that, again, hasn't gotten a lot of headlines and hasn't gotten a lot of attention, but it's just another piece of the stiff Ukrainian resistance that they continue to demonstrate," the official said.

Putin's other May 9 options

With less than a week to go before the May 9 Victory Day, Moscow may look at places other than Donbas to make a statement.

Other options include annexing the breakaway territories of Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, making a major push for Odesa in the south, or declaring full control over the southern port city of Mariupol.

The US has "highly credible" intelligence reports that Russia will try to annex Luhansk and Donetsk "some time in mid-May," the US Ambassador to OSCE Michael Carpenter said on Monday.

There are also indications that Russia could be planning to declare and annex a "people's republic" in the south-eastern city of Kherson.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Monday there is "good reason to believe that the Russians will do everything they can to use" May 9 for propaganda purposes.

"We've seen the Russians really double down on their propaganda efforts, probably, almost certainly, as a means to distract from their tactical and strategic failures on the battlefield in Ukraine," Mr Price said at a State Department briefing.

Price added that it "would be a great irony if Moscow used the occasion of Victory Day to declare war, which in itself would allow them to surge conscripts in a way they're not able to do now, in a way that would be tantamount to revealing to the world that their war effort is failing, that they are floundering in their military campaign and military objectives."

"I'm quite confident that we'll be hearing more from Moscow in the lead up to May 9," MrPrice added. "

I'm quite confident that you will be hearing more from the United States, from our partners, including our NATO partners, in the lead up to May 9 as well."

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has increased the nation's official cash rate for the first time in more than 11 years, and one of the nation's big four banks has already passed the rate rise onto customers.

Today the RBA increased the cash rate by 25 basis points from 0.10 per cent to 0.35 per cent, marking the first rate rise since November 2010.

The average owner-occupier with a $500,000 debt and 25 years remaining on their mortgage will see repayments rise by around $65 a month.

In making his historic decision, RBA Governor Dr Philip Lowe said he was aware of the central bank's role to play in controlling inflation.

EXPLAINED: Exactly how much today's RBA rate rise will cost you

"The Board judged that now was the right time to begin withdrawing some of the extraordinary monetary support that was put in place to help the Australian economy during the pandemic," Mr Lowe said.

"The economy has proven to be resilient and inflation has picked up more quickly, and to a higher level, than was expected. There is also evidence that wages growth is picking up.

"Given this, and the very low level of interest rates, it is appropriate to start the process of normalising monetary conditions."

First bank passes down rate

Commonwealth Bank Australia announced on Tuesday night it would be passing the rate rise onto its customers, increasing its home loan variable interest rates by 0.25 per cent per annum.

That change will come into effect on May 20.

"This is an important time to support customers as some may not have experienced an interest rate increase since they took out their loans," CBA group executive, retail banking Angus Sullivan said.

"We are here to help customers who have loans and are considering how repayments might change. Some options available to help our customers manage repayments include fixing or splitting loans or setting up an offset account."

Other major banks are yet to indicate their decision.

Economist Paul Ryan from PropTrack said that today's rise was a strong statement by the RBA that it is not influenced by politics.

"By moving today, rather than waiting for further data in June, the RBA is signalling that it will intervene to curb stronger than expected inflationary pressures, despite the ongoing federal election campaign," Mr Ryan said.

"While the RBA seeks to remain independent from politics, failing to adjust policy may have been viewed as a greater political intervention."

EXPLAINED: Australians are already struggling with the cost of living – so why does the RBA have to lift interest rates?

The last time the RBA increased interest rates during a federal election campaign was in 2007, when Opposition leader Kevin Rudd was contesting incumbent Prime Minister John Howard.

Mr Howard's Coalition government lost the election by a landslide just over two weeks later.

In a press conference Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australians had been "preparing" for eventual rate rises.

"Throughout the course of the pandemic, we have seen them double their buffers on their mortgages," Mr Morrison said.

"We have seen them strengthen their own balance sheets in preparation for what they always knew would not be the continuation of extraordinarily low rates from the RBA.

"That's not something that Australians reasonably thought would go on forever."

Mr Ryan said today's hike was the tip of the iceberg for borrowers, who are being warned to factor in a number of rate rises this year.

"While this increase in rates was small, it signals the start of a series of interest rate rises before the end of 2022. This will weigh on housing price growth, which has clearly slowed in anticipation of these higher borrowing costs," he said.

"The outlook for housing prices later in the year is one of a balance between higher mortgage rates and the higher income growth the RBA is looking to see before raising rates."

READ MORE: Millions braced for mortgage pain, first rates rise in a decade

Sarah Megginson, senior editor of money at Finder, said some borrowers may find themselves caught short when having to deal with increases on their repayments.

"This rate rise, along with a property market that is beginning to cool, means some recent buyers may be caught out now – or when their fixed rate ends," Ms Megginson said.

"If your rate has jumped or looks like it is going to, it might be time to go home loan shopping and find a better interest rate."

Does the hike in interest rates now force you to cut back on other household expenses? We want to hear from you. Get in touch with reporter Stuart Marsh at sm****@******om.au

The information provided on this website is general in nature only and does not constitute personal financial advice. The information has been prepared without taking into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information on this website you should consider the appropriateness of the information having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs.