What we learned: Monday, 17 February
With that, we will wrap the blog for the day. We’ll be back first thing tomorrow, with all eyes on interest rates.
For now, here were today’s major developments:
The latest Newspoll published in The Australian newspaper shows the Coalition has a 51-49 lead over Labor in the two-party preferred stakes.
Embattled casino operator Star Entertainment Group has been offered a five-year financial lifeline worth $650m after a series of bruising battles with regulators over scandals at its venues.
Victoria is set to recruit a new police boss after the embattled chief resigned days after a majority of his workforce declared no confidence in his leadership. Shane Patton has advised he would step away from the role “effective immediately”.
More people are falling behind on their personal loan repayments, while mortgage arrears have steadied, according to Westpac’s quarterly update released today.
Chaos is continuing throughout the Sydney train network amid the rail unions’ ongoing standoff with the New South Wales government.
And the name of Australia’s next tropical cyclone has been preemptively changed from “Anthony” to “Alfred”, because the name is also held by the prime minister.
Updated
Continued from previous post.
It has been alleged pegs not compliant with national standards were used at only four of the castle’s eight anchor points despite the manufacturer’s instructions recommending eight.
The castle’s Chinese manufacturer, East Inflatables, didn’t provide instructions to Gamble upon purchase and only supplied four pegs, Dockray told the court.
She instead downloaded a two-page manual from the company’s website, he said, which resulted in an interpretation that four pegs were sufficient.
Dockray said Gamble had been “failed” by a safety system predicated on the manufacturer providing instructions.
She was left out, hung and dry, from the moment that jumping castle arrived.
East Inflatables lied to Gamble about the castle complying with Australian standards and provided false documents to workplace regulators, Dockray alleged.
