What we learned: Monday 16 October
Before we close the blog for today, let’s recap the big headlines:
Anthony Albanese has recommitted to Makarrata – coming together after conflict – but deflected questions about the way forward for reconciliation, citing Indigenous leaders’ wish for a week of silence to grieve the referendum result.
Peter Dutton has dramatically walked back his offer to symbolically recognise Indigenous Australians in the constitution, declaring Australians are “over” referendums after the voice poll.
After boarding repatriation charter flights out of Israel, 255 Australian citizens have landed in Dubai en route to Australia following a day of uncertainty amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
Former commando Heston Russell has won his defamation case against the ABC and been awarded $390,000 after a federal court judge found the public broadcaster did not prove its reporting was in the public interest.
People who watched Sky News were less likely to believe Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders face discrimination and more likely to vote no, a new study of referendum voting intention in the final week of the campaign has found.
The Islamophobia Register Australia has reported a quadrupling in reports of Islamophobic incidents since the escalations in Israel and Palestine, including direct references to the current Israel-Palestine situation.
Thanks very much for you company today. We’ll be back with you bright and early tomorrow morning.
Updated
Nationals call for support for Australian wine industry
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, has told AAP that Australia’s wine industry is in desperate need of financial support to even if China decides to drop tariffs.
Littleproud said the government needs to step in to stop foreclosures and help a struggling industry after years of blockages to the lucrative China market put the industry on a knife’s edge.
The government needs to act now to give some financial support to get them through this phase and hope that China will at least remove these tariffs.
But even if the tariffs are removed, it’s still going to take time to move product, and for these producers to be able to financially survive this is critical.
Littleproud said he has heard of wine producers in South Australia’s Riverland region about to go under “because they simply don’t have a market to sell to”.
The head of the Australian Grape and Wine group, Lee McLean, supported calls for growers to receive additional support:
It’s not something that we can solve as an industry ourselves quickly, we need some additional coordinated government support.
Updated
