Good morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 13 June.
Top stories
Australia must look to its past successes and the best current practice around the world to reset its policy towards asylum seekers, a leading refugee lawyer says. Launching a paper at the University of NSW in Sydney today, Prof Jane McAdam of the Andrew and Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law will set out seven principles as a foundation for “a more positive, long-term approach” to how Australia treats those seeking asylum. She will argue that although Australia was renowned as a global leader in refugee protection for many decades, the Tampa crisis and 9/11 terror attacks of 2001 changed the public mood and paved the way for the current draconian regime of offshore detention centres. “The political rhetoric that has been developed over the last 25 years has served to dehumanise and demonise people who have done nothing wrong,” McAdam will say.
Landlords are evicting low-income domestic violence survivors from social housing because the abuse they suffer can be considered a “nuisance” breach under existing tenancy laws. Researchers at two universities found that in one shocking case a disabled woman was evicted despite a tribunal noting she had been assaulted by her partner two weeks before the hearing. The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute study also found that women in social housing bore the brunt of “hard expectations” to “control the misconduct of male partners and children” who were either abusive or had committed petty crimes.
The federal government will have to reassess water infrastructure for Adani’s Carmichael coalmine, after conceding in a legal challenge that was lodged with the federal court. The Australian Conservation Foundation has succeeded in its appeal against the government’s assessment of Adani’s north Galilee water scheme, with the federal government admitting it failed to properly consider public responses to the proposal and even lost some submissions. The new environment minister, Sussan Ley, will now have to reconsider the proposal and will need to reopen the project for public comment. While the decision is a win for the environment movement in its fight against the project, it will not prevent Adani from commencing preliminary construction at the mine site if it receives approval for its groundwater plans from the Queensland government on Thursday. But the ACF said the government’s concession in the case is a demonstration it has not properly scrutinised Adani’s plans. “Once again this case outcome shows the federal government failed to properly scrutinise Adani’s proposed Galilee Basin coalmine,” the ACF’s chief executive, Kelly O’Shanassy, said.
World
Riot police have used rubber bullets, batons and teargas against protesters in Hong Kong. The protesters vowed “no retreat”. Unable to drive away the crowds paralysing the downtown business district on Wednesday, authorities were forced to delay a debate over a controversial extradition bill that would tighten Beijing’s grip on the semi-autonomous territory.
UK MPs have defeated a Labour-led attempt to begin legislation to stop the UK leaving the EU without an agreement, boosting the hopes of Conservative leadership candidates, including Boris Johnson, wanting to force through a “deal or no deal” Brexit in October.
Donald Trump has lashed out at new polling results showing the president in deep trouble as he mounts his 2020 re-election bid. A day after a survey found at least six Democratic presidential candidates would defeat Trump in a head-to-head election matchup, the president revived his attacks on the media while dismissing the numbers as, in his view, “fake polling”.
A five year-old-boy, who became the first confirmed Ebola case outside the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the current outbreak, has died in Uganda. The child’s three-year-old brother and 50-year-old grandmother are also being treated, according to the Ugandan authorities.
Sara Netanyahu, wife of the Israeli prime minister, has agreed a plea bargain to settle allegations of her lavish overspending. It is claimed she overspent some US$100,000 (AU$144,000) of state money on meals at luxury restaurants, prosecutors said.
Opinion and analysis
For the first time, this year’s Women’s World Cup teams have a sports bra as part of their official kit. Sports Bras are the unsung heroes of the gym kit, writes Jess Cartner-Morley. “The first trainers, rubber-soled shoes that made it possible to play tennis or croquet without damaging a lawn, were created in the 1860s. The sports bra, an item that for many women is just as essential to playing sport, did not exist until 1977, when University of Vermont employee Lisa Lindahl and her friend Polly Palmer-Smith, a costume designer, came up with the “Jogbra”, constructed out of two jockstraps stitched together.
The quarterly job figures released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics reflect the slowing economy, writes Greg Jericho. “While the monthly figures that give us the unemployment rate are focused on the number of people employed, these quarterly figures look specifically at the number of jobs. The March quarter figures have some tiny bit of good news in that the proportion of jobs that are ‘secondary’ jobs seems to have fallen. But we should not get too excited at the thought that fewer people are having to work two jobs. The drop comes from a rather large 3.8% fall in the seasonally adjusted figure (the biggest such fall for six years).”
Sport
Australia have defeated Pakistan by 41 runs in their Cricket World Cup match. “The rehabilitation of David Warner continues apace – as does the World Cup after the deluge,” writes Vic Marks. “At a mercifully dry Taunton Warner struck his second World Cup century, which guaranteed Australia a total which was just enough to see off Pakistan, who offered an exasperating mixture of charisma and chaos.”
Nigeria’s Asisat Oshoala finished off South Korea at Women’s World Cup. A first-half own goal and a breakaway attack, brilliantly finished by Oshoala, ensured the Africa champions only their fourth win in eight World Cup finals appearances and a chance to go to the knockout stages for just a second time. Germany beat Spain 1-0 and France is playing Norway.
Thinking time: Nicky Winmar’s statue is about Australia as a nation
“When Nicky Winmar raised his jumper, I was 12 years old,” writes Des Headland, chair of the Indigenous Player Alliance ahead of a statue of Winmar being erected on the banks of the Swan River in Perth. “So powerful was the image that we are still talking about it today. Nicky and I share a heritage. We are both Noongar men. Noongars have for many years made up about a third of all playing stocks in the elite AFL. Nicky holds a special place in this continuum as he was the first Indigenous player, Noongar or otherwise, to play 200 AFL games. Pretty deadly for a boy from the Pingelly Reserve in WA, where he learned how to mark by bouncing off an old bench seat from an EK Holden.
“Another significant reason is Winmar’s statue will be the first to take pride of place at the city’s new Optus Stadium and says as much for Winmar’s skill as it does about his heritage. The reason for this is for many blackfellas the connection to country is as strong as family. It’s how we identify. For Nicky’s statue to take pride of place in the Noongar heartland and next to the ground where a game that is sacred to many Australians, both black and white, means a great deal.”
Media roundup
“A major report has found Australia’s carbon footprint is tiny – and the world’s hunger for coal is growing,” reports the Australian, under the headline Global emissions double ours. The ABC reports that Anthony Albanese has “sparked mutiny – it is not known yet how dangerous” by demanding that the “ALP’s national executive expel union ratbag John Setka”. The Australian Financial Review leads with the news that “US defence chiefs have enlisted Australian help to secure the supply of critical minerals for batteries and weapons systems, to reduce China’s dominance of the sector”.
Coming up
David William McBride, the whistleblower behind the ABC’s Afghan Files, is set to appear at the ACT supreme court on charges of leaking information to journalists.
National guidelines for the inclusion of transgender and gender diverse people in sport will be launched in Melbourne.
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