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New Zealand PM to address media shortly
New Zealand’s prime minister Chris Hipkins is set to address media at 10:15am New Zealand time about the shooting in Aukland this morning.
Continue reading...US expert tells long-delayed hearing into death of former Richmond player that NFL has achieved ‘dramatic’ reduction in head impacts
The AFL should consider following the lead of American football in “severely limiting full contact practices” to “dramatically reduce the risk” of players developing neurodegenerative disease, a US expert has told the first hearing of the inquest into the death of the late AFL player, Shane Tuck.
Tuck played 173 games for Richmond Football Club between 2004 and 2013, and later had a brief boxing career, from 2015 to 2017. He killed himself at the age of 38 in July 2020. After his death, he was found by the Australian Sports Brain Bank to have suffered from severe chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the debilitating degenerative brain disease caused by repeated head trauma and increasingly linked to long-term exposure to contact sports. It can only be definitively diagnosed after death.
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Patricia Karvelas challenges Littleproud’s Covid reasoning behind the Murray-Darling Basin delays on ABC RN this morning.
“This isn’t a new problem … Your government was in power when a 2019 Productivity Commission report warned that there had been limited progress returning the water to the environment,” she says. “Why didn’t you change course?”
This is a very technical piece of legislation … The 450 is additional to the 2,750 gigalitres of water in the plan, the Productivity Commission looked at the 450 gigalitres, there’s only been 2 gigalitres recovered on the 450 …
Because the neutrality test on social and economic impact on rural communities have not been passed to get more water back out of it – that’s a test the Labor government put in place, that we adhere to that the states agreed to.
He [is] going down a path that’s divided the country and meant that the attention has been taken away from managing people’s cost-of-living crisis, and focused on trying to win a referendum in which he has overreached in conflating a voice with constitutional recognition.
Continue reading...Sporting teams, friends and family used weekend to mourn the victims as fundraising effort tops $600,000
Nine passengers remain in hospital almost a week after the horror bus crash in the Hunter Valley as the fundraising effort to support victims and their families tops $600,000.
Sporting teams, friends and family used the weekend to mourn and pay tribute to the victims up and down eastern Australia.
Continue reading...Pickett granted bail after being held in custody in Perth overnight charged with 12 offences including stealing and criminal damage
Richmond player Marlion Pickett, who made his AFL debut in the Tigers’ 2019 premiership triumph, has been granted bail after being held in custody in Perth overnight charged over a series of alleged burglaries.
Police remanded Pickett on Sunday – a day after he played in the Tigers’ 15-point win over Fremantle at Optus Stadium – alleging he was involved in a number of commercial burglaries that happened between December and January.
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Birmingham says cost of Coalition’s jobseeker plan is ‘being worked through’
Asked whether the Coalition would support a lift to the jobseeker payment, Birmingham tells David Speers that Peter Dutton has “proposed an important alternative that would help Australians who are willing to and looking to engage in the workforce”.
We’ve outlined an alternative at this stage, David. We are not at an election and not about to firm government in the next two years.
That clarity should be there before the prime minister entertains a formal state visit to Beijing.
We should expect them to be lifted complete, as we should the tariffs on our wine industry.
Continue reading...The senator told the premier Tasmanians have had a ‘bloody gutful’ over the stadium and ‘you can stick it up your bum’
Thousands of Tasmanians have voiced their opposition to a $715m stadium critical to the state’s entry to the AFL, a day after the project brought the Rockliff government to its knees.
Australia’s only state Liberal government was thrust into minority status on Friday after two MPs quit, citing concerns over state debt and government transparency around the planned build on the edge of the Hobart CBD.
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Continue reading...Major Australian sporting organisations expected to play a significant role in the yes campaign, with AFL and Cricket Australia yet to announce a stance
The National Rugby League is the latest major sporting code to back the Indigenous voice to parliament, joining a growing list of elite athletic organisations campaigning for a yes vote in this year’s referendum.
As the major football codes hold their Indigenous rounds in coming weeks, a long-mooted campaign of support from sporting groups is expected to intensify toward a referendum likely to be held in October – shortly after the AFL and NRL grand finals.
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Continue reading...Anita Frawley tells parliamentary inquiry the AFL was ‘fantastic’ in caring for her family but needs to do more for other players
The AFL is not doing enough to manage concussion and the long-term effects of brain trauma, Anita Frawley, the widow of AFL player and coach Danny Frawley, has told a parliamentary inquiry.
Giving evidence at a hearing of the federal senate committee inquiry into concussions and repeated head trauma in contact sports, Frawley described the circumstances of her husband’s suicide in 2019, and the posthumous finding that he had suffered from stage two chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the debilitating neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated head trauma which is increasingly linked to long-term exposure to contact sports.
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Continue reading...The AFL has not provided a timeline or details on how it will care for injured former players despite pledging urgent action, the association claimed in a submission
The AFL Players’ Association claims it has been kept in the dark for more than six months about the league’s plans to review the clinical care of - and financial assistance for – past players who suffered long-term effects from concussion and other career-ending injuries on the field.
In a submission to the federal parliamentary inquiry into concussion in sport, the players’ association claimed that the AFL has so far failed to provide a timeline or details on what it plans to do to look after injured former players, despite pledging to take urgent action on the matter after its review into the work of its former concussion adviser, neurologist Paul McCrory.
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Continue reading...The 7.30 political correspondent will sit on the broadcaster’s board alongside chair Ita Buttrose. This blog is now closed
Report of new gas tax for Australia
The Australian Financial Review is this morning reporting that a new gas tax looms as the government tries to raise revenue to begin budget repair.
Major companies such as Woodside Energy, Santos and Shell and their tax advisers have signed confidentiality agreements with Treasury on the PRRT consultation.
Since Treasury resumed the stalled work for Labor late last year, it has cast the net wider to probe other PRRT areas, such as deductions, in an attempt to raise revenue sooner for the government from the profits-based tax.
Continue reading...Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan believes Melbourne were given an “unfair advantage’ as the AFL scrambled to restart their round-two game after a power outage.
The Lions’ 40-point lead was slashed to 11 when Friday night’s contest resumed after a long delay, with the Demons booting five unanswered goals once the lights were turned back on.
Continue reading...Judges commended the ‘exemplary’ work of the journalists who ‘helped to trigger further inquiries and an apology’ from the league
Three Guardian Australia journalists have won the Grant Hattam Quill award for investigative journalism at the Melbourne Press Club awards for their investigation into concussion and the AFL.
Melissa Davey, Stephanie Convery and Emma Kemp picked up the award for their work on “the gaping hole in sport’s concussion policies” with judges describing it as “exemplary investigative journalism”.
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Continue reading...The CEO’s comments follow criticism from politicians, players and fans who support a ban on TV and radio adverts
The AFL chief executive, Gillon McLachlan, has admitted there are too many gambling ads associated with the sport and indicated restrictions will be tightened as the federal government considers a broader crackdown.
McLachlan’s comments come after criticism from politicians, researchers, health professionals, players, gambling addicts and fans who now overwhelmingly support a ban on sports gambling ads on television and radio to reduce community harm.
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Continue reading...A survey found the number of gambling ads was the top concern among fans, ahead of umpiring and rule changes
A deluge of gambling ads is expected to continue this AFL season despite the promotions becoming the most common fan concern and politicians blasting them as “completely and utterly out of step” with community expectations.
Multiple gambling insiders who wished to remain anonymous have told Guardian Australia the volume of ads will remain steady despite increasing criticism, as the online wagering industry becomes more competitive and companies jostle for market share.
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Continue reading...The action, lodged in the Victorian supreme court against the AFL, alleges loss, pain and suffering to more than 60 former players
Former football players are seeking up to $1bn in compensation in a landmark class action lodged in Victoria against the AFL for the serious damage concussion has allegedly caused them.
The action, lodged by Margalit Injury Lawyers in the supreme court of Victoria, is on behalf of all professional AFL players who sustained concussion-related injuries through head strikes while playing or training between 1985 and 14 March this year.
Continue reading...UK advertising authority’s ruling that crypto exchange breached standards invites scrutiny of its Australian promotions
The AFL’s crypto exchange partner, Crypto.com, has breached UK advertising standards on multiple occasions and been accused of “misleading” and “irresponsible” behaviour.
The UK Advertising Standards Authority (Asa) rulings may invite further scrutiny of Crypto.com promotions in Australia.
Continue reading...Magpies implement 14 recommendations of Do Better review with four in progress as president Jeff Browne says new systems will build inclusive club
Collingwood says it is making strides to remove the stain of racism and wants other AFL teams to learn from its lessons, two years after an external review found systemic racism within the club.
The Do Better report, the result of an independent review in 2020 by the Jumbunna Institute, outlined 18 recommendations for Collingwood to transform its processes, values and culture to become a more inclusive workplace – all of which were adopted by the club.
Continue reading...Lidia Thorpe says Labor and Coalition back hearings while ‘sports organisations need to be transparent about evidence that informs concussion policies’
A federal parliamentary committee will examine concussion and repeated head trauma in contact sports, with the Greens saying they have the support of Labor and the Coalition to establish the inquiry.
The push follows growing concern about chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the neurodegenerative disease associated with repeated head trauma and concussion that has been increasingly linked to contact and collision sports.
Continue reading...Streaming services on standby as review expected to recommend changes to the number of games broadcast on free-to-air television
More elite sports could end up on free-to-air television in Australia and streaming services such as Stan or Kayo could face increased regulation when bidding for broadcast deals, as the federal government looks to modernise rules governing which events can be shown on Foxtel pay TV.
“Every Australian deserves the chance to enjoy live and free coverage of events of national significance, regardless of where they live or what they earn,” the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, said.
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