Drug educator Paul Dillon says it’s ‘ludicrous’ to think pill testing will stop drug deaths, but Australia does need to try something
One in 20 year 10 students have tried ecstasy, an Australian drug educator has told an inquest into NSW music festival deaths.
“It just baffles me,” Paul Dillon said in Sydney on Tuesday. “Certainly amongst young people, MDMA is the drug of the moment.”
Continue reading...Crystal-lee Wightley dies at her family’s home three days after getting sick
A Melbourne family say they are heartbroken after a 13-year-old girl died from the flu late last week, as the national death toll nears 300.
Crystal-lee Wightley had the flu for three days before she died at her family’s home.
Continue reading...Brumby 610 aircraft left William Creek airport and crashed on approach to Leigh Creek airport, police say
A pilot and his passenger from Queensland have been killed in a light plane crash in northern South Australia.
Police have confirmed stud farmer Peter Gesler, 59, and his 48-year-old female passenger died after the plane crashed in scrubland near a small airport just before 6.30pm on Saturday.
Continue reading...Progressive politics must find ways to build areas of consensus while keeping an eye on hip pocket issues
Bob Hawke, a political superstar, was a social democrat. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, an up-and-coming star today, is a democratic socialist. While the vernacular has changed, the focus remains on the “social” part of the equation rather than the “democratic” one. The social bias draws support and condemnation in equal measure.
Yet perhaps the left misses a trick when it allows the democratic aspect to be downplayed. Almost all in the broader left accept that you can’t implement a social program if you can’t build a democratic mandate for it.
Continue reading...Pyongyang’s news agency said Alek Sigley had spread propaganda against the regime
North Korea has said an Australian student who it detained for a week had spread anti-Pyongyang propaganda and engaged in spying by providing photos and other materials to news outlets with critical views about the country.
Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, said on Saturday that North Korea had deported Alek Sigley on Thursday after he pleaded for forgiveness for his activities, which the agency said infringed on the country’s sovereignty.
Continue reading...Judgement follows failure to transfer seriously ill refugee under medevac laws
A federal court judge has excoriated the Australian government, accusing it of putting its relationship with Nauru ahead of complying with court orders and federal law.
The judgement by Justice Debra Mortimer was published on Friday, after the government failed to comply with a 14 June order to transfer a refugee with “serious medical and psychiatric issues” to Australia under the medevac laws.
Continue reading...Backdown comes after university intervened to have its governing body sign off on Ramsay Centre degree despite it never being considered by its academic senate
The peak union for university academics and staff has been forced to drop legal action against the University of Wollongong over its approval of the controversial Ramsay Centre-funded western civilisation course.
The National Tertiary Education Union announced on Friday that it had withdrawn its action in the New South Wales supreme court over what it had described as the “unlawful” approval of the degree by the university late last year.
Continue reading...It remains unclear why the student, who says he will not be doing media interviews, was detained in North Korea
Alek Sigley, the 29-year-old Australian who was freed from detention in North Korea on Thursday after going missing for more than a week, has released a statement pleading for privacy and saying he wants to return to “normal life”.
Sigley has reunited with his wife Yuka Morinaga in Tokyo following his departure yesterday, he said in the statement, adding that he would not be holding a news conference or doing any media interviews.
Continue reading...Government continues to defend civil claims from former inmates by arguing restraint of minors ‘reasonable’
The Northern Territory government is still fighting civil claims from Don Dale detainees by arguing the use of spit hoods on minors was “reasonable”, despite having since banned their use and agreeing to royal commission recommendations to outlaw the practice.
The government has also argued Don Dale officers were trying to keep a young Indigenous detainee “safe” when they left him for almost an hour with his hand handcuffed above his head to a basketball court fence.
Continue reading...The income threshold for repaying university fees has dropped to just $45,881. Here’s what you need to know
On Monday, the Hecs (Higher Education Contribution Scheme) repayment threshold fell by more than 11%.
From now on, anybody earning over $45,881 a year will have to start repaying their student loans – effective immediately. It was the largest percentage drop in the threshold in more than 20 years and the second largest drop in the history of the scheme.
Continue reading...Now removed scene features Stinky Pete engaging in sexual misconduct with Barbie dolls
A fake blooper scene from Toy Story 2 featuring a “casting couch” scenario has been quietly deleted by Disney from the latest home releases of the animated film.
A running gag in Pixar’s films are the faux outtakes that play alongside the closing credits, depicting the animated characters making mistakes, pulling pranks on each other, fudging their lines or speaking directly to camera as if they were real actors. The outtakes regularly make fun of Hollywood and the film industry more broadly.
Continue reading...Philip Lowe urges government to invest in infrastructure after bank cut official interest rates to record low of 1%
The Reserve Bank governor, Philip Lowe, says two interest rate cuts in as many months should put the economy on a “better path” but he has again called on the government to pull its weight.
The RBA on Tuesday cut the official cash rate to a fresh record low 1% and left the door open for another before Christmas as global trade uncertainty and low wage growth continues to weigh on inflation.
Continue reading...The challenge for farmers is how to discuss global warming without scaring people out of food production
The last election may have left the impression with voters that farmers and rural people in general do not accept climate science because there was no seismic shift of seats.
Yet this week the agricultural thinktank, the Australian Farm Institute, gathered farmers and their advocacy groups to talk about the impacts of global warming on the already risky business of farming.
Continue reading...New and old faces are back in Canberra as the 46th parliament prepares to sit for the first time. All the day’s events, live
Welcome to the first (semi) official day of the 46th parliament. The MPs are back in town, and so are we, and it will no doubt be a bumpy ride.
Today is mostly formalities - finishing to set up offices, swearing in David Hurley as the new governor general, finding where to get coffee - you know, the important things.
Continue reading...McKay says she can beat Gladys Berejiklian and education will be a ‘critical issue’ under her leadership
Newly elected New South Wales Labor leader Jodi McKay says she is “more than a match” for the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, and she is not going to be pretend the two women are anything alike.
McKay’s election on Saturday was a landmark moment in NSW politics, making it the first time the premier and opposition leader have both been women.
Continue reading...Scott Morrison says world leaders at G20 summit have offered assistance to help find Sigley
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, says Australian authorities are still attempting to establish what happened to Perth student Alek Sigley, who disappeared in North Korea several days ago.
Morrison told reporters at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, on Saturday evening that he had been in contact with Sigley’s family. He said world leaders at the summit had offered their assistance in attempts to locate the young man.
Continue reading...Australian prime minister convinces world leaders to take action following the Christchurch massacre
The world’s leaders have pushed social media giants to root out terrorism and violent extremist content on the internet.
The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, earned a victory at the G20 summit by convincing all leaders of the world’s major economies to agree to take action, inspired by the live-streamed Christchurch massacre.
Continue reading...McKay defeats Chris Minns, winning 63% of the vote of of 11,000 rank-and-file members
More than three months after New South Wales Labor’s bruising state election defeat, the party has regrouped to appoint Jodi McKay its new opposition leader.
State Labor MPs cast their secret votes for the contenders Chris Minns and Jodi McKay, both from the party’s right faction, at a tense meeting on Saturday.
Continue reading...As new members take their place in parliament, they are being schooled on how to survive the corrosive culture of Canberra
When the 2019 class of new MPs came to Canberra this week, one of the people who spoke to them about their impending political life was a doctor.
Mike Freelander, a paediatrician and MP for the suburban Sydney seat of Macarthur, had a clear message to the 27 new MPs who will take their seats in parliament’s bear pit for the first time on Monday: “Don’t lose track of your family.”
Continue reading...PM says ‘substantial and difficult’ issues to be resolved in standoff after speaking with Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at the G20 in Osaka
Scott Morrison says it is “unrealistic” to expect a quick resolution of the damaging trade dispute between the United States and China on Saturday at the G20 meeting in Osaka.
After conversations with Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, Morrison told travelling reporters on Friday there was a determination to resolve the standoff but he was not “naive” about how quickly the two countries would come to terms because there were “real, substantial and difficult issues to be resolved”.
Continue reading...