For the second consecutive meeting, Australia's Reserve Bank held its cash rate at 4.35 per cent on Tuesday, choosing stillness over action in a moment defined by competing pressures. Inflation remains above target yet is moving in a more encouraging direction, while geopolitical turbulence abroad and a softening housing market at home complicate any clear path forward. Governor Michele Bullock and her board are not declaring victory, nor sounding retreat — they are watching, and waiting, as households carry the accumulated weight of a year of rising costs.