TEEN STABBING
It’s too soon to call a Perth teenager’s stabbing attack a “terror incident” according to WA police commissioner Col Blanch, Guardian Australia reports, as it was revealed the teen was enrolled in a Countering Violent Extremism program after being radicalised online. But Blanch said it appears the teenager was acting alone, with the state’s top cop adding he isn’t concerned about a broader network. It comes as the imam of Perth’s largest mosque condemned any violence committed “in the name of our religion” as The West Australian ($) reports, adding “our religion literally means peace”. The 16-year-old was shot dead on Saturday in Willetton after police failed to subdue him with a taser, the ABC reports — he’d stabbed a 30-year-old man not known to him, who is recovering in hospital.
Meanwhile, two NSW police officers used their guns to die by suicide between 2020 and 2023, the SMH reports. It comes after former senior constable Beau Lamarre-Condon’s alleged double murder raised questions about how NSW Police monitor off-duty police guns. And of 1,700 prospective cops that were referred to the psychological unit following their test results, just 66 were knocked back — Greens MP Sue Higginson said declining “standards of entry” might be a product of low recruitment numbers. Finally, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi tried to get Papua New Guinea to sign a policing agreement with Beijing ahead of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit, The Age reports, but Australian officials “pulled out all the stops” to stop the deal, a source told the paper.
For anyone seeking help, Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and Beyond Blue is on 1300 22 4636. To speak to a First Nations crisis supporter, call 13 YARN (13 9276). In an emergency, call 000.
TECH HEADS
Meta says no-one reads news on Facebook anymore, but the company designed it that way, Guardian Australia says. We’ve never clicked fewer news stories on the platform, the paper says (excluding the week-long news ban in February 2021). And it’s thanks in part to Meta tweaking the algorithms to show less news on the feed in recent years — a chicken or the egg “feedback loop”, as one expert described it. But it’s also in part due to media outlets posting to social media less, the paper notes. Meanwhile, a new app will notify you if an identified thief tries to use your personal info, The Brisbane Times reports. The Credential Protection Register was set up after the Optus data breach in 2022, and it’s already blocked 300,000 hacking attempts, according to the government. Now it’ll become a downloadable app for a smartphone.
Meanwhile, modelling agency owner Chelsea Bonner says AI is coming for the jobs of models, photographers, hairstylists, make-up artists, and other trades, the ABC reports. She said “perfect” AI models are already being used on porn or dating websites, and further warned we’d take a major step back in diversity without rules and governance on the technology. Speaking of disappearing jobs — the Big Four accounting firms should be forced to fire partners and incorporate their consulting arms, according to a Treasury consultation paper that the AFR reports on. It would be “the biggest shake-up in the history of the Big Four” the paper says, not to mention probably world-leading. Treasury said professional bodies regulating auditors and accounts was ineffective because they can’t ask for information. It comes as Finance Minister Katy Gallagher announced Labor had spent $624 million less on consultants this financial year.
BUDGET BITS
Student teachers, nurses, midwives and social workers will get a $319.50 weekly payment during their placement from July 2025, Guardian Australia reports, the latest budget sneak peek (overall we can expect a “wafer-thin” surplus, The Australian [$]) revealed. Independent MP Monique Ryan told the paper she’d heard of “nursing students sleeping in cars while doing rural rotations”. To Queensland now and public sector employees will get 10 days of paid leave for IVF treatment, vasectomy recovery, breast or prostate cancer screening and more, The Courier-Mail reports, the first state to do so. Premier Steven Miles will also announce the state government will pay superannuation during the 52 weeks of parental leave that public servants get in a bid to equalise the super balances of men and women.
Meanwhile, NSW Premier Chris Minns is announcing $230 million for domestic violence prevention today, the Tele says, with $48 million to go to police to help them remove the perpetrator from the family home. Domestic Violence NSW will receive a $3.6 million boost, while the NSW Domestic Violence crisis hotline will get an extra $700,000. It follows the Albanese government’s $5,000 grant for people fleeing a violent partner, but women with disabilities told the ABC it should extend to people escaping a carer or family member. To another new budget measure and the Mamre Rd, Elizabeth Dr and Appin Rd upgrades are back on after a $1.9 billion pledge for Western Sydney’s roads, The Daily Telegraph reports. They were among the infrastructure projects that were cut last year and some of the 14 new projects and two existing works that will be funded.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Canberran Jaiden McCann wants to work, but the bustling crowds and the overlapping noises of the local shops are completely overwhelming for the 19-year-old, who lives with autism. His mum, Mel, figured there must be some other form of employment her kid could do, but it was hard — “there’s a lot of high-functioning people who aren’t functioning enough for the workforce”, Mel, who is a disability support worker, told The Canberra Times. So she sat down on her computer and wrote a heartfelt community posting, asking whether anyone in Canberra might need their dog walked by a sweet young man living with autism, anyone at all. She attached an online application form, hoping she’d get one or two bites.
Next minute, no fewer than 285 drooling, tail-wagging and bouncy dogs were eagerly awaiting a call-back — including from busy families, people with injuries and seniors, the paper says. “Some of them have family with special needs, some are older and less mobile, some people just want to support him,” a touched Mel said. Jaiden was stoked. He’d been doing odd lawn mowing jobs, but this was far more his speed — he absolutely adores animals and the incidental exercise doesn’t hurt either. Mel said it’s a brilliant idea for other school leavers with autism who are seeking work, and she hoped to find more of them considering “Jaiden can’t walk 285 dogs by himself in a week”. The only downside of the gig so far? Some complaints about sore legs, Mel said.
Hoping you find what’s right for you too, as we enter my last week as Worm editor. Your newsletter will continue on, however, under an as-yet-unannounced successor.
SAY WHAT?
I want to make it clear that we will have policies that clearly show a difference in approach. We will announce our policy in due course… you will simply have to wait and see.
Sussan Ley
We’ll be disagreeing with the budget, the deputy Liberal leader assured voters — on what, it’s not clear yet, but there’ll be disagreement alright.
CRIKEY RECAP
“But being surprised by [Winston] Peters saying something outrageous is like being mad at the sun for rising and setting; it requires the kind of industrial-grade amnesia generally not available to voters who have been observing the 79-year-old for the past 500 years, or at least since he entered Parliament in 1978.
“The person who should be watched closely over this matter is New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. Last week Luxon demoted two female ministers: Melissa Lee from the media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds from disability issues.”
“When I was a teenager, my family moved from Canberra to Melbourne, where I have lived ever since. Going through the educational system in Canberra and then changing to the Victorian system, I found my experiences in the ACT, when it came to Indigenous history and inclusion, to have been more robust.
“That said, I couldn’t tell you whether it was the ACT education system itself, or the fact that a good portion of my dad’s family lived in Canberra at the time, and that the land rights movement was in full swing in my childhood, particularly leading up to the ‘Bicentenary’.”
“Finance provides no information as to how it came to that conclusion. PwC Australia owns 49% of PwC’s Indigenous Consulting. As previously revealed, the remainder is owned by just two people, who are both First Nations.
“The structure means PwC’s Indigenous Consulting can be awarded ‘limited tender’ federal grants intended for small Indigenous enterprises. PwC’s Indigenous Consulting is based inside PwC’s Sydney headquarters. It shares a website with PwC, and its directors include PwC partners.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Al Jazeera condemns Israeli government decision to shut down local offices (Al Jazeera)
Israel-Gaza war: Three soldiers killed in Kerem Shalom rocket attack (BBC)
Rishi Sunak to face pressure to shift right after disastrous election results (The Guardian)
Political fireworks about drug decriminalisation leave Toronto request in limbo (CBC)
NZ calls in lawyers over dairy dispute with Canada (Stuff)
Trump accuses Biden of running ‘Gestapo administration’ (Reuters)
Russian army executed at least 15 surrendering Ukrainian soldiers since December, HRW report says (euronews)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Productivity isn’t working, so why not try being more ethical? — Ross Gittins (the SMH): “Economists have many strengths, but they don’t win many prizes for thinking outside the box. Productivity is the obvious way to increase our prosperity but, despite all the admonition, for years it’s been hard to achieve, both here and in the other rich economies. It’s clear there’s a lot economists don’t know about how productivity is improved. So, is there nothing else we could do to improve the way the economy works and the satisfaction it brings us? Of course there is — particularly when you remember this isn’t just about dollars and cents. Don’t you think life would be better if we could do all our earning and spending in an economy that generated less angst?
“I’m indebted to Dr Simon Longstaff of the Ethics Centre for reminding me that behaving more ethically would be a good way to get better results from the economy. Huh? How does that work? Let me tell you. Ethics is a set of beliefs about the right way for people and organisations to behave, particularly in their relations with other people. Often, the right thing for us to do in particular circumstances is obvious. It’s obvious, for example, that we should (almost) always obey the law. It’s just that obeying the law isn’t always convenient or inexpensive. And sometimes when our own interests are top of mind, it’s hard to see what’s obvious to everyone else.”
We pay a lot more for a lot less, and people know it. That’s why Sunak’s Tories were thrashed in these elections — John Harris (The Guardian): “The same imbalance, it seems to me, also explains why the Tories are now in political freefall. Beyond the kind of explanations beloved of political pundits — about Partygate, the Liz Truss disaster and the plain fact that Rishi Sunak cannot do politics — large swaths of the country are now characterised by a sort of low hum of injustice, and people feeling that they have simply been conned. Their taxes have risen, interest rates have rocketed, bills have hugely increased and inflation has soared — and, contrary to the message in that Tory leaflet, wages have failed to keep pace.
“Last week, the Financial Times published analysis of official data showing that over the past three years, UK households have drastically reduced their spending on beer, bread, meat, recreation, furniture and more. Paying more and getting less, it seems, is now the basic national condition. Something similar applies to just about every aspect of the Tory record. For almost the entirety of the party’s time in office, millions of people have felt the effects of turbulence, shocks and disasters: austerity, the convulsions of Brexit, the weirdly overlooked trauma of the pandemic and all those lockdowns, and then the cost of living crisis … From the proverbial street, all this invites an inevitable question: in return for all their suffering — and by way of justifying all the silliness at the top — what did people get in return?”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)
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Writers Sam Elkin and Yves Rees will talk about the former’s new book, Detachable Penis, at the Wheeler Centre.
