Good afternoon. Parliamentary conduct is back in the spotlight after the Liberal MP Karen Andrews alleged that a male colleague “used to breathe on the back of [her] neck in question time”.
Labor frontbencher Julie Collins denounced the alleged incident as “appalling”, while Liberal colleague Simon Birmingham said it was the first he had heard of the allegations.
In other news, Kim Jong-un has arrived in Russia for a rare summit with Vladimir Putin.
Top news
Labor accuses no campaign of ‘flat out lie’ | Official phone call scripts from volunteers of the Advance conservative lobby group suggested telling voters the change could “mean separate laws, separate economies and separate leaders”. The script also suggests volunteers identify themselves as representing Fair Australia – a website run by Advance – rather than explicitly stating their membership of the no campaign.
Victoria to pay for teaching degrees | Victorians studying to become secondary school teachers will have their degrees paid by the state government, in an effort to fill “crippling” staff shortages in the sector. The premier, Daniel Andrews, announced the $229m workforce package just days after principals, teachers and other school staff held a protest on the steps of state parliament.
NSW stops logging in 106 koala hubs | Logging will cease immediately while the state government consults experts about plans to establish a great koala national park. The hubs cover about 5% of the 176,000ha of forest that will be assessed for potential protection within the park.
Waiter with lung cancer sues Melbourne’s Crown casino | Dien Nguyen, 39, alleged in court documents that his job in the venue’s high-rollers room – where smoking was permitted – contributed to his condition.
AFL and NRL fans on alert for ticket scams | Football fans are being warned to look out for fraudulent websites amid record demand for finals tickets, with dozens of listings on resale platforms being removed by government officials each day in the first week of the finals.
Kim Jong-un arrives in Russia | The North Korean leader travelled to Vladivostok to discuss a possible deal to supply arms for the war in Ukraine. The US renewed warnings that any arms deal could trigger fresh sanctions. Take a peek inside the armoured train Kim took to the Russian port city, furnished with pink leather armchairs and bomb-proof floors.
Ukraine regains control of strategic oil rigs | Ukraine’s military intelligence said the country had retaken the Black Sea rigs, taking Kyiv “many steps closer to regaining Crimea”.
World Bank spent billions backing fossil fuels | Urgewald, a campaign group that tracks global fossil fuel finance, found that the World Bank supplied about $3.7bn (A$5.8bn) in trade finance in 2022 that was likely to have ended up funding oil and gas projects around the world, despite the bank’s green pledges.
US-Iran deal to free detained Americans | The Biden administration has issued a waiver to allow the transfer of $6bn (A$9.3bn) in frozen Iranian funds from South Korea as part of a deal to free five Americans detained in Iran.
Man dies hiking in Grand Canyon national park | Ranjith Varma, 55, of Manassas, Virginia, was unresponsive about halfway through a gruelling 29km hike amid temperatures of 38C.
In pictures
Is Australia’s rental crisis a basket case?
… or can we find a way out of it? asks cartoonist Fiona Katauskas.
What they said …
***
“This fight has just started … nine months ago, no one cared about renters in the media and political establishment … Now they are the national news story. And for us, this is the platform upon which we will build our fight to go and win a freeze and cap on rent increases.” – Max Chandler-Mather
The Greens vow to take rent caps to the next election.
In numbers
The true figure could be much higher, according to a landmark study of coroner’s court data.
Before bed read
Conservation groups are calling for state governments to implement measures to contain pet cats, which are estimated to kill 323m native animals in Australia each year.
“We support cat containment across the country as one of the most effective measures to protect Australian wildlife,” says Dr Brad Smith, the acting chief executive of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: GORI. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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