Good afternoon. Peter Dutton has made a dramatic U-turn on his offer of a second referendum to symbolically recognise Indigenous Australians in the constitution, all but abandoning the idea today.
Dutton made the suggestion in September, but today said Australians were “over” referendums after the voice poll and declined to recommit to the idea.
Top news
Lower house passes motion condemning Hamas | The House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to support a federal government motion condemning the Hamas attacks, recognising Israel’s right to defend itself, and condemning “all forms of hate speech and violent extremist activity, including antisemitism and Islamophobia”. The Greens had unsuccessfully tried to amend the motion to also condemn “war crimes perpetrated by the state of Israel, including the bombing of Palestinian civilians”.
NSW civil liberties council blasts police ‘scare tactics’ over pro-Palestine rally | Although NSW police did not follow through on a plan to exact extraordinary powers at yesterday’s pro-Palestine rally in Sydney, the NSW Council for Civil Liberties claimed this was a “scare and intimidation tactic” in the lead-up to the protest. “So-called police intelligence [around crowd safety] turned out to be completely unfounded. NSW Police and the police minister must explain how they got it so wrong,” its president, Josh Pallas, said in a statement.
Israeli occupation of Gaza would be a ‘big mistake’, Biden warns | The US president said Hamas must be eliminated entirely, but warned Israel against re-occupying the enclave. Meanwhile, the US secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, rejected a proposition put forward by Israeli officials that Palestinians in Gaza could be relocated to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, which the Norwegian Refugee Council said “would amount to the war crime of forcible transfer”. Blinken said the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt would open in coming days for aid deliveries.
Israeli strikes on Gaza have led to an ‘unprecedented human catastrophe’ | Authorities in Gaza said at least 2,670 people had so far been killed by Israeli strikes, a quarter of them children, and nearly 10,000 wounded. Another 1,000 people were missing and believed to be under rubble. Biden maintained he was “confident” Israel would act under the rules of war.
Tasmanian man killed by his own dog | Police and emergency services were called to a report of a dog attack on a 66-year-old man and 64-year-old woman at their property in Allens Rivulet in southern Tasmania at about 10.40pm on Sunday. The man suffered serious injuries to his lower legs and was pronounced dead at the scene. The woman was taken to the Royal Hobart hospital with serious injuries to her legs.
Dairy workers in Victoria plan 48-hour strike | More than 1,400 Victorian dairy workers will walk off the job to fight for better pay and conditions. The processing workers from dairy companies Saputo, Fonterra, Peters and Lactalis plan to strike for 48 hours from Wednesday.
A-League Women season opens with record attendances | Interest in the Matildas’ successful World Cup campaign has given the domestic competition an expected early boost. A record 11,471 watched Sydney FC’s 2-0 win over Western Sydney Wanderers at Allianz Stadium.
ABC loses defamation case brought by former commando Heston Russell | The broadcaster must pay Russell $390,000 but a federal court judge did not award aggravated damages, finding the former commando “embraced the public controversy”.
Ruling Polish conservative party set to lose elections | Donald Tusk, the former European Council president, has claimed victory in Poland’s parliamentary election. The exit poll put the ruling Law and Justice party, which has restricted abortion rights and demonised LGBTQ+ people, migrants and refugees, on 36.8% and Tusk’s Civic Coalition on 31.6%. However, two groups that could form a coalition with Tusk also did well, with 13% for the centre-right Third Way and 8.6% for the leftwing Lewica.
Star Wars prop sells for $5m | A long-lost, 50cm model of an X-Wing starfighter that was used in the original 1977 Star Wars film has sold in an auction for a record-breaking $3.135m (A$4.96m).
In video
How British colonialism increased diabetes in south Asians
People of south Asian origin today are between four and six times more likely to get type 2 diabetes than white people. Neelam Tailor looks into the history of famines during the British Raj and their lasting impact on south Asian genes.
What they said …
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“Australia cannot stay silent and indeed back that invasion … this is now moving beyond self-defence into an invasion.” – Adam Bandt, Greens leader
The Greens opposed the government’s motion on Israel-Palestine after its amendment failed.
In numbers
And 66% of those who rely on the free-to-air networks also voted no. By contrast, most voters who mainly rely on the Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald/the Age and ABC online for news voted yes.
Before bed read
The former ABC broadcaster Jon Faine writes that the failure of the voice referendum “has shone a spotlight on how little we know about how we are governed. The entire voice process has become an overdue civics lesson. Sadly, many failed the test. This is not a comment on ‘yes’ or ‘no’, but about how poorly law-making as an act of governance is understood.” Read the column.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: TOOL. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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