Justin Stevens apologises to ABC staff after report finds workplace racism

ABC’s news director emailed staff on Thursday following internal allegations over experiences of racism at the broadcaster

The ABC news director, Justin Stevens, has apologised to staff after a “disturbing” report found some Indigenous and culturally diverse staff have experienced racism at the national broadcaster.

“These things should never happen,” Stevens said in an email to all news staff on Thursday.

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Shortfall warnings cancelled as units come back online – as it happened

Foreign minister says Australia ‘has ground to make up’ in Pacific region; jobless rate steady at 3.9%; nation records at least 73 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

So the below comes as both the NSW and Victorian government move to introduce an extra, free year of preschool in the next decade.

Both the NSW and Victorian premiers, Dominic Perrottet and Daniel Andrews, want to introduce a new year for four- and five-year-olds.

It will mean that, in the next 10 years, every child in Victoria and NSW will experience the benefits of a full year of play-based learning before their first year of school. At the same time, it will benefit hundreds of thousands of working families.

We want to expand our existing preschools. It’s a game changer and it’s exciting and there is big money behind it, because we have to do well for our kids.

They do an amazing job, our early childhood workforce, so this is our chance to invest in them and grow and set children up for that best start of life.

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Chris Dawson asked if teammate knew anyone who could ‘get rid of’ his wife, court hears

Defence raises questions about credibility of witness who claims Dawson meant getting rid of his wife Lynette Dawson ‘for good’

On a crowded flight from the Gold Coast in 1975, Christopher Michael Dawson asked one of his fellow rugby league players whether he knew someone who could get rid of his wife, a court has heard.

Giving evidence at Dawson’s murder trial on Thursday, Robert Charles Silkman said the conversation occurred after the Newtown Jets team had been on a short holiday on the Gold Coast.

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Unclear when electricity market suspension will end as Chris Bowen backs ‘extreme’ intervention

Energy minister says the NSW grid will again come under ‘significant pressure’ on Thursday evening, asking residents to limit power use

The suspension of the national energy market could remain in place indefinitely, with the federal government unable to say when the “extreme” action will end.

Energy minister Chris Bowen ruled out extending the life of coal-fired power stations as a short-term solution to the energy crisis, saying the Labor government believed further investment in renewable generation and storage was a better option.

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Craig Kelly’s adviser Frank Zumbo used ‘power and control’ to sexually touch staff, court told

Zumbo is accused by five women of 20 charges including sexual touching and indecent assault and has pleaded not guilty to all charges

Former MP Craig Kelly’s office manager promised young female staffers career development and mentoring but instead used his “power and control” to allegedly sexually touch them.

Francesco Zumbo, 55, faced Sydney’s Downing Centre local court on Wednesday accused by five women of 20 charges including sexual touching and indecent assault between 2014 and 2020.

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First Nations group join Darwin festival protest over fossil fuel sponsorship

Open letter to festival board says Santos’ involvement threatens cultural integrity and amounts to ‘artswashing’

A delegation of First Nations people are expected to join a collective of artists and creative producers on Thursday to protest a controversial sponsorship deal between the Darwin festival and gas and oil company Santos.

The call to dump the longstanding fossil fuel sponsorship was included in an open letter sent on Tuesday to the festival’s board, chaired by former Northern Territory Airports chief executive Ian Kew, along with a petition of about 200 signatures. The protest coincides with the launch the festival’s 2022 program, running from 4 to 21 August.

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‘A clean slate’: new agriculture minister sees climate action as Labor’s chance to connect with the bush

Murray Watt hopes to break down misconceptions between the ALP and rural Australia

The Albanese government has a chance to break down the misconceptions between the Labor party and rural Australia, according to new agriculture minister, Murray Watt, who flagged the climate crisis as a key area in which to work towards common ground.

“There have been some in Labor who have viewed rural Australia with suspicion and think that we can never get people to support us. Equally I think there’s been people in rural Australia who have viewed Labor with suspicion,” Watt said.

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Albanese government urged to keep focus on human rights as it rebuilds relationships in Asia

Thawing diplomatic relations with China shouldn’t mean ‘taking a backwards step with Beijing’, Human Rights Watch says

The Albanese government should not compromise on human rights as it seeks to repair relationships with China and south-east Asian countries, a leading advocacy group has warned.

Human Rights Watch has written to the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, urging him to “impose targeted sanctions against Chinese government officials who are responsible for crimes against humanity” in Xinjiang.

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Parts of John Hughes’ novel The Dogs copied from The Great Gatsby and Anna Karenina

Australian author denies he is a plagiarist and says he has been ‘influenced by the greats’ of literature

The Australian novelist John Hughes, who last week admitted to “unintentionally” plagiarising parts of a Nobel laureate’s novel, appears to have also copied without acknowledgment parts of The Great Gatsby, Anna Karenina and other classic texts in his new book The Dogs.

The revelation of new similarities follows an investigation by Guardian Australia which resulted in Hughes’ 2021 novel being withdrawn from the longlist of the $60,000 Miles Franklin literary award.

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National electricity market suspended as NSW residents told to conserve power to reduce blackout risk

Australian Energy Market Operator suspends spot market after it became ‘impossible to operate’ amid projected energy shortfalls

Australia’s main wholesale electricity market has been suspended by regulators in the latest sign that the crisis threatening the stability of energy supplies is deepening.

The Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) took the drastic step of suspending the entire national electricity market for the first time in its history on Wednesday.

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Encrypted messaging apps should be regulated to tackle extremism, Victorian inquiry hears

Experts say spread of misinformation and use of encrypted services drives far-right extremists and racism

The federal government needs to take action against encrypted messaging apps like Telegram to curb the rise of far-right extremism, a Victorian inquiry has been told.

Dr Belinda Barnet, a media lecturer at Swinburne University, told a hearing that far-right extremists had initially been sharing hateful content on mainstream sites such as Facebook and Twitter but were increasingly being deplatformed.

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‘Not a 24-hour operation’: Shane Fitzsimmons defends Resilience NSW response to floods

Inquiry hears of residents’ anger that disaster agencies treated flood response as a ‘nine-to-five job’

New South Wales disaster management agencies have defended their rescue and recovery response to the record-breaking floods that claimed 13 lives earlier this year.

An upper house committee inquiry also heard that fewer than 10% of flood victims across the state have received crucial disaster relief funds.

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Greens senator questions viability of new party convener over past comments about trans people

Newly elected Victorian convener Linda Gale co-authored a 2019 document described as ‘inconsistent with Greens values’

Greens senator Janet Rice says the position of the party’s recently elected Victorian convener is “untenable” unless she distances herself from previous comments that have been labelled transphobic.

Linda Gale, a senior industrial officer at the National Tertiary Education Union, was elected on Saturday to fill a casual vacancy of state convener of the Victorian Greens.

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NSW residents urged to conserve power – as it happened

Paul Erickson speaks at National Press Club; Bowen says energy system ‘under pressure’; AEC says it will not conduct a recount in federal seat of Gilmore; foreign affairs minister’s first trip to Solomon Islands since security deal with China; Victoria records 18 Covid deaths, NSW records 14. This blog is now closed

Quick note:

NSW is reporting 7,260 new Covid cases and 14 deaths this morning.

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Most emergency patients in NSW seen within 30 minutes during Omicron outbreak, report suggests

NSW Health secretary says emergency departments remain under significant pressure due to high Covid-19 and flu cases

During the peak of the Omicron outbreak the majority of emergency department patients in New South Wales were seen within 30 minutes, a new report from the Bureau of Health Information (BHI) has revealed.

The report, which covers the period of January to March 2022, looks at how the health system coped with the thousands of daily Covid cases during the Omicron wave.

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‘Situation is urgent’: treat housing crisis like a natural disaster, Queensland government told

Advocates call for a leaders’ meeting to coordinate support for people displaced by floods, pandemic and soaring house prices

The Queensland government should respond to the deepening housing crisis as it would a natural disaster and invest billions in new housing stock, advocates say.

It should also convene leaders from the sector to form that response and guarantee the 2032 Brisbane Olympics do not fuel homelessness and housing stress.

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Queensland casino inquiry could impact on $3.6bn project, gambling expert says

Probe ordered into Star’s suitability to hold licence amid construction of Queen’s Wharf development

One of Australia’s leading gambling researchers says the business case for Brisbane’s $3.6bn Queen’s Wharf development could possibly collapse if Star Entertainment were to be stripped of its casino licence.

The state’s attorney general, Shannon Fentiman, has ordered a probe into the casino operator’s suitability to hold a licence in Queensland after a New South Wales inquiry heard allegations Star had potentially acted criminally.

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Fastest-growing black hole of past 9bn years may have been found, Australian-led astronomers say

Scientists spot extremely luminous object powered by supermassive black hole using Coonabarabran telescope

Astronomers believe they have discovered the fastest-growing black hole of the past 9bn years.

The supermassive black hole consumes the equivalent of one Earth every second and has the mass of 3bn suns, they estimate.

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Australia news live updates: Queensland on brink of power outage as eastern states battle big chill; WA to shut state-owned coal plants

Penny Wong to visit New Zealand foreign minister; at least 31 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

Lack of reserve notice from energy regulator

It’s going to be a long day by the looks of it when it comes to “lack of reserve” notices and intervention by the Australian Energy Market Operator, such as this early one in NSW:

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Western Australia to become coal-free by 2030 with Muja power station to be shut down

Mark McGowan says state’s two remaining coal-fired power stations are becoming less viable due to rise of renewable energy

The Western Australian government will shut its last coal-fired power unit before the end of the decade and spend an extra half a billion dollars to foster new jobs for displayed workers, the state government said.

Later this year, the first of the state-owned 854-megawatt Muja power station’s units near Collie, south of Perth, will close, with the entire plant to be shut by 2029. The nearby 340MW Collie plant will exit the market by the end of 2027, the premier, Mark McGowan, said in a statement on Tuesday.

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