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Reality TV star Kim Kardashian has evoked American history at the annual Met Gala, donning the sparkling gold gown Marilyn Monroe wore six decades ago when she serenaded President John F. Kennedy with a rendition of Happy Birthday, Mr President.

Kardashian, her blonde hair in a tight bun, walked gingerly in the close-fitting dress as boyfriend and comedian Pete Davidson held her hand on the red carpet. Davidson chose a black suit and sunglasses.

The star of The Kardashians said she lost more than seven kilograms in three weeks so she could wear the iconic dress Monroe sported in 1962.

"It was such a challenge," Kardashian said. "It was like a role. I was determined to fit this."

Known for celebrities in over-the-top outfits, the Met Gala returned to its traditional date of the first Monday in May, just eight months after 2021's pandemic-delayed event in September.

The event, a fundraiser for New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, has been dubbed the Oscars of the East Coast.

This year's A-list guests were told to dress in 'gilded glamour.'

Blake Lively, a Met Gala co-chair along with her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds, arrived in a glittering bronze-coloured Versace dress influenced by New York's Grand Central Terminal, the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building.

Attendants removed a large bow and rearranged the gown's long train to reveal a turquoise and copper look, a switch Lively said was an ode to the greenish patina bronze buildings develop over time.

Empire State of Mind singer Alicia Keys also celebrated New York, wearing a Ralph Lauren dress with 200,000 crystals arranged to look like the city's skyline.

Jared Leto, who starred in last year's movie House of Gucci, attended with Gucci designer Alessandro Michele. The pair wore identical tan suits and red bow ties. Leto described the look as "double Victorian gilded trouble".

Musician Lizzo wore a black dress with a gold-embroidered jacket and carried a gold flute that she played briefly on the red carpet, while Billie Eilish appeared in a light green Gucci gown she said was made with existing materials to be eco-friendly.

As usual, many celebrities seemed to ignore the night's theme.

Model Gigi Hadid wore a red corseted jumpsuit with a large puffy coat and singer Gwen Stefani stood out in a full-skirted neon-yellow gown.

The Met Gala marks the opening of the annual fashion exhibition at the museum's Costume Institute.

This year's exhibit, In America: An Anthology of Fashion, caps a two-part exhibition and focuses on the history of American dress.

Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she was attending for the first time in 20 years to celebrate the American spirit.

Her burgundy gown featured subtle embroidery of the names of 60 famous American women including abolitionist Harriet Tubman and Madeleine Albright, the late secretary of state.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams wore a tuxedo jacket with symbols of New York's subway system and 'end gun violence' written on the back.

He noted the economic struggles that many people experienced during the opulent Gilded Age of the late 1800s and early 1900s.

"Although we had some great inventions and some great architecture ... it was also a dark period," he said.

Gabrielle Union wore a silver Versace gown inspired by Diahann Carroll. A red rose on the front symbolised the blood spilled by people of colour who helped build America, she said.

Actor and musician Janelle Monae donned a black Ralph Lauren gown with a silver and black-striped hood she described as "the gilded age of the future."

© AP 2022

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has rejected suggestions an interest rate hike could hurt him on polling day, saying Australians understand the impact of global inflationary pressures.

The Reserve Bank of Australia could on Tuesday hike the cash interest rate for the first time in 12 years after inflation surged to a 20 year high of 5.1 per cent.

Mr Morrison, who will start the day campaigning in Melbourne, says voters will back the party they believe are better economic managers.

"They know there are (inflation) pressures that are coming from outside of Australia on interest rates," he said on Monday.

Asked if rising rates could damage the coalition's chances at the federal election on May 21, Mr Morrison accused journalists of looking through a "totally political lens".

"I don't. And Australians don't," he said.

"Australians are focused on what they are paying for and who they think is going to be best able to manage an economy and manage the finances, so they are in the best possible position to realise their aspirations."

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham has also played down the potential political damage from a possible rate hike, saying the cash rate was coming off an "abnormally low" base of 0.1 per cent.

"I don't think that Australians expected interest rates to stay at historically low 0.1 per cent levels forever," he told the Nine Network on Tuesday.

"In fact, that is no doubt why so many Australians chose to lock in fixed rates."

Mr Birmingham stressed the upward pressure on interest rates was "overwhelmingly being driven at least by international factors", rather than government policy.

"It's important that they [the RBA] apply the monetary policy settings in an independent way and in a way that acts in concert with what we've been doing in relation to fiscal policy," he said.

Financial markets have priced in a 0.15 percentage point rise in the cash rate to 0.25 per cent on Tuesday, ahead of more expected increases of 0.25 percentage points in subsequent months.

But some economists think the RBA may not act until next month.

Opposition Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers said Australians were facing a "full-blown cost of living crisis and Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg haven't got a plan beyond the election".

"Scott Morrison's failures have dealt Australians a triple whammy of skyrocketing costs of living, falling real wages, and now interest rate rises either this week or next month," he said.

"When things are going well in the economy Scott Morrison takes all the credit, but when Australians are doing it tough he takes none of the responsibility."

Labor leader Anthony Albanese will start Tuesday in Sydney.

Meanwhile, Seven Network has secured the third and final leaders' debate, which will be broadcast on May 11 and moderated by the channel's political editor Mark Riley.

Mr Morrison and Mr Albanese will square off at the second election debate on Nine Networkd on Sunday.

© AAP 2022

Labor has accused the prime minister of taking credit for good economic news and not taking responsibility for the bad.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese acknowledged if elected he would have to preside over rising rates.

But the difference was Labor planned to help ease living pressures elsewhere including with childcare and electricity costs while the Liberal-National coalition did nothing to address stagnant wages or reduce cost of living.

"It's not bad luck, it's bad policy to have low wage growth," Mr Albanese told reporters in Melbourne on Tuesday.

"Government needs to try to lend a hand where it can, (Labor is) putting forward practical measures."

The Reserve Bank is widely expected to lift the cash rate at its board meeting on Tuesday for the first time in almost 12 years.

The last time it lifted rates during an election campaign was in 2007 when John Howard's coalition government was defeated.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison argues it would be wrong to look at any rate rise through a "political lens".

He said the economic situation was different to 2007 as Australia was recovering from the pandemic, multiple natural disasters and the impacts of overseas conflict.

"Australians know the pressures that we're facing here in Australia are real and they are overwhelmingly being determined by things beyond Australia," he told reporters in Melbourne on Tuesday.

He said Labor would put upward pressure on interest rates by its over-spending of taxpayers' money.

But Mr Albanese said it was "extraordinary" for the prime minister to claim rising inflation and interest rates had nothing to do with politics.

"Everything that this guy does is political from day to day. It's never about the national interest," he said.

Shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers said no Australian would be surprised if interest rates went up from their emergency levels, as the RBA had made this clear.

"The prime minister wants to pretend that he has absolutely nothing to do with it," he told the Seven Network on Tuesday.

"If something good happens in the economy the prime minister takes credit. If something difficult happens in the economy he takes none of the responsibility, and I think Australians are tired of that."

Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar said it was "a fact, not opinion" that interest rates had been lower under the coalition.

Financial markets have priced in a 0.15 percentage point rise in the cash rate to 0.25 per cent on Tuesday, ahead of more expected increases of 0.25 percentage points in subsequent months.

But some economists think the RBA may not act until next month.

Mr Morrison rejected suggestions his campaign merely comprised a series of "silly" photo opportunities.

"What I enjoy doing is standing there with an apprentice who shows me what they're learning, and then I'd have a go at it," he told 3AW on Tuesday.

"I'm trying to understand what they're learning, and I'm really proud of what they're doing because you're getting a trade in this country, you're setting yourselves up for a strong future."

The prime minister is campaigning in the outer-Melbourne seat of Dunkley on Tuesday, while Labor leader Anthony Albanese is campaigning on the NSW central coast.

Labor has a clear lead in published opinion polls ahead of the May 21 election.

© AAP 2022