What we learned; Tuesday 15 October
As we approach the end of another jam-packed Tuesday, here’s a look at what’s been keeping us busy:
The veteran broadcast journalist George Negus has died at the age of 82. Tributes flowed for the former 60 Minutes host, including from the PM and Ray Martin.
The BoM has left Australia on “La Niña watch” but says climate drivers may no longer deliver expected conditions.
Anthony Albanese is buying a new home for himself and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, on the NSW Central Coast. It’s not part of his retirement plan, he stressed. Still, not everyone approved.
Jobseeker is now just 20% of the average wage, data released by the Australian Council of Social Service for anti-poverty week has revealed.
Australia’s peak humanitarian body decried the “lack of consistency” on sanctions.
More than 1,000 Palestinians are applying for onshore protection in Australia.
Three people were taken to hospital after a minor chemical flash at the University of Sydney.
The Coalition refused to give its view on whether UN peacekeepers in Lebanon should be protected from Israeli attacks.
Australia’s race discrimination commissioner condemned the white supremacist rally held in Corowa, in regional NSW, at the weekend.
Finally, more than 48% of Australia’s low-income households are now experiencing food insecurity.
Thank you for joining us. We’ll be back bright and early tomorrow.
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Placing onus of online safety and privacy on individuals a cover for corporate inaction and bad behaviour: Lizzie O’Shea
Staying with the SXSW forum in Sydney, where panellists have been discussing the balance between the right to privacy and the right to remain safe while online:
The panel of four, which included the privacy commissioner Carly Kind and digital rights advocate Lizzie O’Shea, agreed that online platforms should not be allowed to hide behind the mantra of personal responsibility.
As technology develops, including generative AI, safety mechanisms should be inbuilt into the design, the eSafety commissioner said.
O’Shea said slating responsibility for both online safety and online privacy to the individual was merely a cover for continued inaction in the regulatory space and bad corporate behaviour.
“When you go to the supermarket and buy a tub of yoghurt, you’re not expected to go home and test that it doesn’t have poison in it,” she said.
You’re not expected to take responsibility for a large range of relatively important decisions you make about what you put in your body or what you’re exposed to. This is just another example. We have all sorts of ways in which we ask the government to intervene into these dynamics, to shape how the market works, to shape how individuals experience certain products, to hold companies to account when things go wrong.
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