And that’s where we’ll leave you this evening. Here’s what we learned today:
Ads for online gambling should be banned across all media and at all times within three years to combat the manipulation of an “impressionable and vulnerable audience”, a parliamentary inquiry has recommended.
The gambling ad ban plan has already come under fire from the crossbench, who are urging the federal government to act sooner.
The gambling industry’s peak body, Responsible Wagering Australia, has criticised the recommended advertising ban as “shortsighted and ineffective”.
According to a bombshell statement to the parliament’s audit committee, lobbying firm Synergy 360 proposed a structure designed to allow Stuart Robert to profit from government contracts he helped win for its clients, an allegation Robert has rejected. NDIS minister Bill Shorten has said the allegations are “very serious and deserve further investigation.”
May’s CPI increase was the lowest in 13 months, at 5.6%. Some investors believe the Reserve Bank is more likely to pause next week rather than hike its official rate again, but others tip it to raise interest rates again over the next couple of months.
The Australian Energy Regulator today revealed that 1.3% of residential customers, or almost 90,000 people, were participating in hardship plans in the March quarter, a proportion that now exceeds pre-Covid levels.
The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, will hold talks with the prime minister of Solomon Islands during a two-day trip to the Pacific island country this week.
The NSW government has flagged plans to introduce amendments to anti-discrimination legislation making vilification on the grounds of religious belief, affiliation or activity unlawful. It’s been criticised by the Greens, who say it is an ad hoc measure and the whole legislation needs an overhaul.
Taylor Swift fans across Australia madly rushed to nab one of the roughly 250,000 tickets on sale for her Sydney and Melbourne shows today as the second tranche of presale tickets went live this morning.
Thanks for your company this afternoon. See you tomorrow.
Australian space lasers could help with moon mission
The first human mission to the moon in more than a half century could have an Australian connection, with researchers developing a new “super-fast laser” technology to communicate with spacecraft, AAP reports.
Scientists behind the $6.5m TeraNet project say its optical technology will be 1000 times faster than the radio waves currently used to communicate in space.
The network, due for completion in 2026, will include two fixed ground stations at the University of Western Australia in Perth and the town of Mingenew, in WA’s mid west, as well as a mobile station initially deployed at New Norcia.
One of the first commercial optical communications networks in Australia, its primary function will be to transfer data to and from satellites.
But its capacity for high-speed communication in deep space could also be utilised during Nasa’s Artemis II mission in 2024.
The first crewed mission to the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, it will take the first woman and first person of colour to the lunar surface.
I’m not entirely sure where to start with this one – Western Australia’s environment minister, Reece Whitby, has been bitten by a possum while announcing a new feral cat baiting scheme that involves poison-shooting robots.
According to The West Australian, the minister was holding the possum while explaining how the new technology would protect native animals, by detecting feral cats and shooting them with poison gel, which they then lick off.
The possum objected to being a prop in this particular announcement, biting the minister and at one point attempting to climb on to his back, before being removed by a wildlife carer.
Fears grow for Belgian tourist missing in north-west Tasmania
The search continues and fears are growing for a missing Belgian tourist after her car was found at a bushwalking track in north-west Tasmania, AAP reports.
Celine Cremer, 31, was last seen in Waratah near Cradle Mountain on 17 June and was reported missing on Monday.
A wide search was launched around the Philosopher Falls Track area after crews found her vehicle in the car park.
Inspector Anthea Maingay said the missing woman was an inexperienced hiker who was only prepared for a light day of travel:
At this stage, it’s looking like she’s just lost.
There’s nothing else to indicate there’s anyone else involved at this point in time.
Rescuers on the ground and in a police helicopter are battling poor weather, including light snowfall. They will reassess search plans later on Wednesday evening.
The walking track has been shut and anyone who was in the car park since 17 June has been asked to come forward.
Need to catch up quickly on all the day’s news? Check out today’s afternoon update from Antoun Issa – he’s crunched everything that’s happened today into digestible, bite-sized pieces!
Shorten acknowledges Stuart Robert ‘strongly denied’ Synergy 360 allegations
Bill Shorten has been speaking on ABC TV about the recent allegations regarding Stuart Robert – that a lobbying firm, Synergy 360, proposed a structure designed to allow Robert to profit from government contracts he helped win for its clients.
Shorten says:
I want to say I know that my former colleague has strongly denied any wrongdoing. That point of view deserves to be heard …
I want the truth to come out. The reason why we have an anti-corruption commission is it has powers that an ordinary department does not have, to compel evidence and whatnot and resources … We’re not going to leave matters lying and drive past the issue …
I must also stress, the [committee] will be fiercely independent.
A vital international student service is being defunded this Saturday, the same day a cap on student visa working hours is being reimposed.
The NSW International Student Intake, Assessment, Referral & Support Service (IAR) is losing its funding two years in to its establishment to provide support to visa holders during the pandemic.
Asha Ramzans, spokesperson for Sydney Community Forum and the IAR said it had provided “crucial support” for students as the only service dedicated to their welfare in the state. IAR supported around 450 students in its first year.
Ramzans said:
Defunding support services amid a cost of living crisis, when international students are struggling to pay rent or buy groceries, will have devastating consequences.
The problems facing international students, like workplace exploitation, discrimination in the housing market, lack of access to services like family violence support or healthcare, won’t just stop at the end of this financial year.
The only thing that will be stopped is our ability to provide support for international students facing these crises.
From 1 July, a cap on working hours of international students is being reintroduced, with visa holders able to work 24 hours per week.
Google alleged to have misled advertisers over viewership numbers, report claims
Google may have misled dozens of business and government advertisers about the viewership of ads running on third party websites and apps, while charging for them, a new report has claimed.
Google’s TrueView is the company’s proprietary video ad product that is displayed not only in YouTube but on third-party sites and apps across the internet. Users can skip the ad after five seconds, but an advertiser only gets charged if a user watches 30 seconds – or the length of the ad if under 30 seconds – and if the video is playing audio, and isn’t activated by a user passively scrolling past it on the page.
Advertising research organisation Adalytics reported this week that its research identified that many advertisers paying for TrueView ads running outside YouTube on other websites and apps might not be getting what they paid for.
The firm reviewed the ad campaigns of over 1,000 brands across the internet, and found many of the TrueView ads did not meet Google’s own guidelines, including some ads that were run in small video players in the corner or at the side of the screen, some which were fully muted, had no actual video content between ads, or ran with little interaction or activation from the user.
Ticketek says it repelled over half a billion bots attempting to scalp tickets
More Taylor Swift news: Ticketek has told Guardian Australia that with today’s Frontier presale event, the ticketing company repelled more than half a billion bot attempts – which come from scalpers trying to get tickets.
More than 4 million people across Sydney and Melbourne were trying to secure tickets today, the Ticketek spokesperson said.
Greens MP says proposed anti-discrimination measures ‘ad hoc’ and entire Act should be amended
Back on the proposed religious discrimination measures in NSW:
The Greens’s spokesperson for anti-discrimination and member for Newtown, Jenny Leong, has called the move an “ad hoc addition” to the state’s anti-discrimination law, saying the legislation needs to be overhauled, not tweaked.
Leong said:
Right now we are seeing a disturbing increase of anti-trans and anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric and aggression online and on the streets.
But instead of prioritising protections against discrimination and vilification for the LGBTQIA+ community and sex workers - the amendment introduced today only inserts broad religious protections in the Anti-Discrimination Act.
We should be amending the Anti-Discrimination Act to remove exemptions that allow religious organisations and small businesses to discriminate.
Under this bill, the NSW Labor government will further embolden conservative religious organisations, groups and commentators by introducing broad protections for ‘religious activity’ - which is not clearly defined.
This legislation also fails to define religious belief and does not limit discrimination to ‘natural persons’.
Independent MP Kate Chaney pleads for government to act on gambling ads
The independent MP for Curtin, Kate Chaney, who was a member of the parliamentary committee that looked into gambling harm and handed down its report today, is now urging the federal government to adopt the report’s recommendations.
In a statement earlier today, Chaney said she was most particularly concerned that they adopt the recommendation to phase out advertising from gambling apps and websites.
Chaney said:
Australia has a gambling problem. And it is getting worse. We spend more per capita on gambling than any other nation, totalling $25bn annually. That is about $1,300 each Australian adult spends on punting, every single year.
From the evidence my committee colleagues and I heard, we know this can have a dramatic impact on peoples’ lives … I’ve heard too many harrowing stories from my electorate alone …
No matter your age, Australians are being bombarded with adverts from gambling apps and websites. It must stop.
All eyes are now on the government to accept these recommendations. The major parties have accepted $1.7m from gambling companies last year alone. Will the government act now?
In a statement released this afternoon, Sportsbet said it acknowledged and supported “many recommendations to further improve consumer protections” including a ban on commissions and “the use of data-led intervention tools” but said the ban on advertising “goes beyond a proportionate response”.
Sportsbet CEO Barni Evans said:
We understand changing sentiment on advertising, and we made that very clear during the inquiry. We believe an approach that significantly reduces the number of ads rather than complete bans would respond to community concerns, while still supporting sport and media.
It is important that any changes in regulation recognise that gambling is a lawful form of entertainment enjoyed responsibly by millions of Australians.
We will continue to work constructively with the government and all parties to encourage evidence-based solutions that are effective.
Woolworths supermarkets pledges to remove children’s lollies and chocolates from its checkouts, AAP reports.
The group will strip their checkouts of children’s confectionary in a bid to help customers make healthier choices. Children-aimed products in particular – like Chupa Chups, Kinder Surprise and Caramello Koalas – will no longer be available beside tills.
Instead, the retailer will offer healthier food choices with a health star rating of 3.5 or above from the end of July.
“These are small but important steps in the right direction as we work to make healthier choices easier for our customers,” Woolworths supermarkets’ managing director, Natalie Davis, said.
Energy hardship on the rise, energy regulator says
The Australian Energy Regulator today provided more proof that price pains were hitting some households. Some 1.3% of residential customers, or almost 90,000, were participating in hardship plans in the March quarter, a proportion that now exceeds pre-Covid levels
Average hardship debt has increased by $137, or 8%, to $1,871, compared with a year earlier.
“The cost of living crisis is putting enormous pressure on people on low incomes and the situation is set to worsen with energy bills rising by up to 25% from 1 July in some parts of the country,” ACOSS’s CEO, Cassandra Goldie, said.
Our surveys show that 65% of people on income support are cutting back on heating and 60% are going without essentials like food and medication to afford their bills.
Heating might be on a few peoples’ minds today, with Sydney and Melbourne currently shivering at about 10C and Hobart 9C. For Sydney, it’s the coldest day - so far with a top of 12C - since 1 July last year, according to Ben Domensino at Weatherzone.
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