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Extra ‘s’ in ‘Sussan’ came from ‘punk phase’, not numerology, Ley says
Josh Butler
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has shot down a long-running fun fact about herself, saying she added the extra “s” in her first name during her “punk phase” as a teenager – and that it wasn’t related to numerology, as she had once told a journalist.
Ley was on 3AW radio in Melbourne for a long interview about the Liberal party and its rebuild (more on that in a second) but the host, at the end, asked a lighthearted question about the double “s” in the middle of her name. Ley, in a 2015 profile with the Australian newspaper, was quoted as saying:
I read about this numerology theory that if you add the numbers that match the letters in your name you can change your personality. I worked out that if you added an ‘s’ I would have an incredibly exciting, interesting life and nothing would ever be boring. It’s that simple. And once I’d added the ‘s’ it was really hard to take it away.
On 3AW on Friday morning, she claimed it was a “flippant remark” and numerology was “actually not the reason”.
It was something I did during my rebel teenage years and, you know, I went through a punk phase in those years and added the extra ‘s’. People have been fascinated by the numerology angle but it’s actually not correct.
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Tasmania jumping castle operator not guilty of breaching workplace safety laws
The operator of a jumping castle at the centre of a tragedy that killed six children has been cleared of breaching workplace safety laws, AAP reports.
The children were enjoying end-of-year celebrations at a Tasmanian school’s oval when a wind gust lifted the castle into the air. Three other children were seriously injured in the accident.
Rosemary Gamble, owner of Taz-Zorb which set up the equipment, pleaded not guilty to failing to comply with a workplace health and safety duty. Magistrate Robert Webster handed down his decision earlier today:
I found the charge is not proven. It is dismissed. Ms Gamble you are free to go.
Josh Butler
Ley says Liberal party needs to work on housing policy
Ley admitted that housing was a key issue the opposition had to work on, especially to win the votes of younger Australians. She also nominated childcare, aged care and policies around students as issues that would be priorities.
They [young people] are worried about work. Of course, they’re worried about studying but they’re worried about housing too, and if we can’t find a pathway, or articulate a pathway into housing for young people, then they’re not going to support our political party.
We had some policies at the last election. We’ll review those. I’m always very frustrated by what state governments are not doing when it comes to supporting young people in housing. But I’m not saying that it’s only in their court. There are things the federal government can do as well.
Asked about energy, and the Coalition’s nuclear plan, Ley said her team would “take the time to develop an energy policy” and review what they took to the last election.
We’ve said that we will, as a first step in terms of policy around nuclear, remove the moratorium on building nuclear power in this country and then there’s obviously a suite of options following that.
If you look at countries around the world that are bringing their emissions down, they are going nuclear. And we will consider that, of course, and it may well look different from what we took to the last election.
Josh Butler
More from Sussan Ley’s 3AW interview: ‘We must listen, we must change’
Elsewhere in that 3AW interview, Sussan Ley said there was “disappointment” from female voters at the Liberal party’s offering at the May election and promised the opposition would “modernise”.
She also flagged the potential for major changes to the Coalition’s energy policy offering at the next election, saying it “may well look different” from the nuclear-heavy program under Peter Dutton.
The Liberal leader told the radio station:
We must listen, we must change, we must develop a fresh approach and we must take the time to get this right.
That listening is very important in what we do next. We will modernise. We will rebuild. We’ve got to have a party that respects modern Australia, reflects modern Australia and represents modern Australia. And we’ve got to meet modern Australia communities, the people who listen to your program, where they are.
Bishop’s family ‘devastated’ after arrests
Police say Pheobe Bishop’s family are “devastated, as expected” after the arrests. Mansfield said:
Whilst we always hope to find Phoebe alive, our investigations have progressed that clearly showed us that’s not going to be a viable outcome.
You can read more about the case here:
Police detail allegations of murder after disappearance of teenager Pheobe Bishop
Queensland police have detailed the findings that led to murder charges against two housemates of missing teenager Pheobe Bishop. James Wood, 34, and Tanika Bromley, 33, will appear in court today after being charged with the 17-year-old’s murder yesterday. The pair also face two counts each of interfering with a corpse.
Bishop was reported missing three weeks ago after she never appeared for a flight to Western Australia.
DI Craig Mansfield said during a media conference this morning:
Our investigation will detail facts that we believe Pheobe was murdered and then her body was moved.
Mansfield said police will allege that three people arrived near the airport on 15 May but no one exited the vehicle. He said authorities could not speculate on the motivation behind the alleged murder but said “we do have information that will suggest some form of motivation”.
Extra ‘s’ in ‘Sussan’ came from ‘punk phase’, not numerology, Ley says
Josh Butler
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has shot down a long-running fun fact about herself, saying she added the extra “s” in her first name during her “punk phase” as a teenager – and that it wasn’t related to numerology, as she had once told a journalist.
Ley was on 3AW radio in Melbourne for a long interview about the Liberal party and its rebuild (more on that in a second) but the host, at the end, asked a lighthearted question about the double “s” in the middle of her name. Ley, in a 2015 profile with the Australian newspaper, was quoted as saying:
I read about this numerology theory that if you add the numbers that match the letters in your name you can change your personality. I worked out that if you added an ‘s’ I would have an incredibly exciting, interesting life and nothing would ever be boring. It’s that simple. And once I’d added the ‘s’ it was really hard to take it away.
On 3AW on Friday morning, she claimed it was a “flippant remark” and numerology was “actually not the reason”.
It was something I did during my rebel teenage years and, you know, I went through a punk phase in those years and added the extra ‘s’. People have been fascinated by the numerology angle but it’s actually not correct.
New Zealand MP suspended over haka says she would perform it again
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, the co-leader of New Zealand’s Māori Party who was suspended for three weeks over a protest haka, said the punishment is among the harshest taken against a member of parliament, but said she would perform the haka again. Three MPs received record suspensions this week.
Ngarewa-Packer told RN Breakfast:
We’ve felt aggrieved in the fact that for doing our haka that it has received such a harsh penalty. But also, I think, almost relieved that we’ve been able to show the world what this particular government’s behaviour is and its overreach and its discomfort. …
It’s not unprecedented. We’ve done the haka before … It’s just that this government has decided that we’re in the way of a bigger agenda.
Read more here:
Tom McIlroy
Health minister confirms government reviewing ban on US beef imports
The health minister, Mark Butler, has confirmed the Albanese government is reviewing a ban on imports of American beef into Australia.
A possible easing of biosecurity laws comes as Australia pushes Donald Trump for an exemption from punishing trade sanctions, after years of complaints from US farmers about a ban on their meat coming into the country. Australia banned imports of some US beef during the mad cow disease outbreak back in 2003.
Speaking on Channel Seven this morning, Butler said the restrictions had been under review “for some time”. He said:
This is US beef that’s raised in Canada or Mexico, not cattle that are raised in the US itself, but then brought into America, slaughtered there and then proposed for exports.
But this will be a decision taken on its merits, not for convenience, not to get a deal. We’ll be taking a decision in the national interest in this area, as your viewers would expect us to.
Liberal senator Jane Hume warned against any weakening of biosecurity laws. She said:
This isn’t about protecting an industry’s prosperity, it’s about protecting an industry’s integrity. So if you are tweaking biosecurity laws by watering them down, that’s something that I think that we would be very concerned about.
PM says Australia will not ease biosecurity rules amid discussions over US beef
Tom McIlroy
Anthony Albanese says Australia has no plans to ease biosecurity rules in negotiations with the Trump administration over planned trade tariffs.
US beef could be allowed into Australia for the first time in decades, after it was banned in the mad cow disease outbreak back in 2003.
Some beef originating in Canada or Mexico, but slaughtered in the US, could be allowed into Australia under a possible concession. Albanese is expected to meet the US President on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada later this month.
“We’ll never loosen any rules regarding our biosecurity,” Albanese told ABC Radio Melbourne. He went on:
If things can be sorted out in a way that protects our biosecurity, of course we don’t just say no … but our first priority is biosecurity.
Pushed for detail, Albanese stressed he would not weaken any of the existing protections.
Full stop. Exclamation mark. It’s simply not worth it.
Tom McIlroy
Albanese says he ‘expects respect back’ before he heads to G7 next week
Anthony Albanese is speaking on ABC radio in Melbourne this morning, before his visit to Canada next week for the G7 leaders’ meeting. Albanese is expected to meet with the US president, Donald Trump, at the summit.
He said he is looking forward to the talks, the first time the two leaders will meet face-to-face. But the meeting comes with some risk and follows rough receptions for some world leaders from Trump, including Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa. Albanese said:
I deal with people, whoever they are, in the same respectful way. I expect respect back. I’m the prime minister of Australia.
We don’t have a subservient relationship to any nation. We’re a sovereign nation that stands on our own two feet.
He said his job during the visit is to speak up for Australia’s national interest.
NSW police will launch Operation Snow Safe today with opening of ski season
NSW police and the state’s national parks service will announce the start of this year’s Operation Snow Safe later today, which will run through early October. The launch coincides with the opening of ski season tomorrow.
Officials announced a “surge” in additional officers will be deployed to the Snowy Mountain region. Police have warned in previous years they would be monitoring for alcohol-related crime in venues, dangerous and distracted driving in the area and “risky behaviour” on ski slopes.
The launch also coincides with the long weekend for the King’s birthday holiday, with double demerits in force from today through Monday at midnight.
Victoria police searching for missing $70,000 caravan
Victoria police are appealing for information after a $70,000 caravan was allegedly stolen earlier this year. Authorities say a truck equipped with a crane drove on to a property in the Melbourne suburb of Braybrook in April, hooked the caravan up and drove off.
The caravan, a Spaceland heritage model, had been used by its owner until his recent death and contained personal belongings that were important to his family.
Investigators have released CCTV footage and images in hopes of finding the caravan.
Luca Ittimani
One in 30 current workers will pay new super tax, modelling suggests
Just one in 30 Australians employed today would end up paying Labor’s proposed super tax, new modelling suggests, though experts say the true number will likely be even lower.
The government is planning to raise taxes for earnings on the part of balances above $3m from the standard 15% to 30%, which it says will affect 80,000 people, representing the top 0.5% of accounts.
The number of people who hit that $3m threshold by the time they retire will rise over time to include 500,000 people currently working, according to Financial Services Council modelling released last night.
Those 500,000 represent just 3.5% of all employed people in Australia, totalling 14.6m in April.
The FSC’s calculations don’t include people who are yet to join the workforce. Once you add them in, the Treasury expects the reform to hit 10% of Australians by the 2050s, while AMP economist Diana Mousina predicts that would rise to more than 30% of people by the 2060s.
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has said he expects a future government would lift the new tax’s threshold, which would mean a smaller share of workers would be captured by the tax. The Grattan Institute’s Brendan Coates has said the threshold would need to be lifted above $3m by 2040 to avoid contradicting an existing cap on the tax-free transfer of super balances.
If the threshold were instead set at a lower $2m but lifted annually in proportion with inflation, as proposed by the Greens, an even smaller share of the workforce would pay the tax: just 1.2% of today’s workers, or 200,000 people, the FSC said.
But the FSC said it did not believe future governments would be able to afford lifting the threshold, or indexing it to inflation. Its chief executive, Blake Briggs, said:
The FSC is concerned that the absence of indexation is a deliberate and cynical design feature of the new tax, that targets younger Australians.
Science minister says AI presents ‘enormous’ opportunity for Australia
Tim Ayres, the minister for industry, innovation and science, said the government may look at imposing new laws around artificial intelligence but described the technology as an “enormous” economic opportunity Australia could not afford to fall behind on. Ayres told RN Breakfast:
This is a really important contribution to the productivity agenda and really important contribution to our plan for economic growth. We are, of course, as you say, going to have to attend carefully to managing risks and harms, you know, potential risks, potential harms.
Ayers described AI as a “whole of nation endeavour” that would require coordination between unions, workers and their employers. He said the government was working “carefully” through any potential changes to laws surrounding AI to address any potential harms of the technology.
Court decision coming today after Tasmania jumping castle tragedy
The operator of a jumping castle at the centre of a tragedy that killed six children is expected to find out whether she is guilty of workplace safety breaches, AAP reports.
The children were enjoying end-of-year celebrations on at a school’s oval when a wind gust lifted the castle into the air. Rosemary Gamble, owner of Taz-Zorb, which set up the equipment, pleaded not guilty to failing to comply with a workplace health and safety duty.
Magistrate Robert Webster is expected to deliver his decision on Friday morning in Devonport magistrates court, following a 10-day hearing in November.
Asic says it is still going after financial wrongdoing despite call it be split up
Sarah Court, the deputy chair of the Australian Security and Investment Commission (Asic), says the agency has spent years “rebuilding its enforcement focus and capability” despite a parliamentary inquiry last year that said it should be split in two after “comprehensive” failure.
Court spoke to Radio Breakfast to respond to criticism about the sharpness of Asic’s teeth:
Asic has been rebuilding its enforcement focus and capability over many years. In fact, ever since the royal commission, we have really taken a very different approach to our enforcement work.
This is a continuing progression of increasing our enforcement activity. And right at the heart of what we’re doing is looking at financial institutions across the sectors we regulate, whether it’s banks, superannuation funds, or insurance companies, and really looking at the way that they are treating or engaging with their customers.
A parliamentary committee inquiry delivered a scathing overview of Asic’s role countering corporate misconduct last year, saying the agency had “comprehensively failed to fulfil its regulatory remit”.
You can read more about those findings here:
Good morning
Good morning, we’ve made it to Friday. Nick Visser here to guide you through today’s breaking news. Here’s what we’ll have an eye on:
The deputy chair of the Australian Security and Investment Commission says the agency has been “rebuilding” its enforcement capability and pursing banks for wrongdoing, despite a parliamentary inquiry last year that recommended the watchdog be split into two for “comprehensively” failing its role.
A court is expected to issue a ruling after the jumping castle tragedy in Tasmania in 2021. Six children died and three others were seriously injured after a wind gust lifted the structure into the air during a party.
We will continue to follow the political crisis in Tasmania after the state’s lower house passed a vote of no-confidence. The Liberal premier, Jeremy Rockliff, has requested an early election, which would be Tasmania’s fourth state election in seven years.
Stick with us.
