Big tech ‘making money’ from harming children, Plibersek says
Tanya Plibersek, the federal minister for social services, spoke a few moments ago about the additional ways Australia needs to strengthen the regulation potential for algorithms.
She said:
People should be able to opt out of getting violent and degrading stuff online. We know that an account set up by a teenage boy takes an average of 23 minutes to be fed misogynistic content online. That is a deliberate decision of Big Tech to do that.
They are making money out of harming our children. We need to look at what additional powers we need to deal with that.
Key events
Andrew Messenger
Former Queensland police commissioner Steve Gollschewski dies
The former Queensland police commissioner Steve Gollschewski has died from cancer.
The 46-year veteran retired from the QPS in February. He was the state’s longest-serving cop.
He was appointed commissioner in 2024, before being diagnosed with cancer in 2025 and stepping down. He briefly returned to the force six months later.
Acting commissioner Brett Pointing said Gollschewski “will be remembered as an exceptional leader who used insight and innovation to strengthen the organisation and help keep the community safe”.
“Throughout his distinguished career, Steve was a remarkable strategist and contemporary leader, disciplined in his thinking, measured in his decisions and guided by deeply held personal values,” Pointing said.
The police minister, Dan Purdie, said Gollschewski wass the third-longest serving officer in the history of the service.
“My thoughts are with the loved ones of former Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski AO APM following the news of his tragic passing,” he said.
The Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, said Gollschewski had “devoted his life to the Queensland Police Service, upholding our laws and making our state a safer place”.
Big tech ‘making money’ from harming children, Plibersek says
Tanya Plibersek, the federal minister for social services, spoke a few moments ago about the additional ways Australia needs to strengthen the regulation potential for algorithms.
She said:
People should be able to opt out of getting violent and degrading stuff online. We know that an account set up by a teenage boy takes an average of 23 minutes to be fed misogynistic content online. That is a deliberate decision of Big Tech to do that.
They are making money out of harming our children. We need to look at what additional powers we need to deal with that.
Petra Stock
Victoria records state’s first H5 bird flu cases in mammals
Victoria has recorded its first cases of deadly H5 bird flu in mammals, including a confirmed case in red fox at Torquay, and a suspected positive case in a dolphin at Lorne, the state’s acting chief veterinary officer, Dr Cameron Bell, said.
Since 20 June, the state has confirmed 212 positive cases from 892 investigations.
The chief biodiversity officer, James Todd, said heading into the spring breeding season surveillance efforts would be focused on high-risk areas, including the Mornington Peninsula, Port Phillip Bay, Western Port Bay and the Gippsland lakes, places that were important breeding grounds for waterbirds and marine mammals and near poultry facilities. He said further mortality events and spread into other species was expected. He said:
We’re at the beginning of a virus, which will continue to impact on Victoria’s wildlife.
We know that people care deeply about wildlife, and the impacts that the community may be observing, in terms of dying and dead wildlife, is really confronting and distressing.
Tory Shepherd
A renowned forensic scientist on Nepal’s ‘extreme challenges’
The bodies of some of those killed in the Nepal-Tibet flood disaster may never be found, and some of those that are may never be identified, a world-renowned forensic scientist says.
Prof Richard Bassed, the head of forensic medicine at Melbourne’s Monash University, spent three months in Thailand after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and also helped to identify victims of Victoria’s catastrophic Black Saturday bushfires in 2009.
Now he has watched as authorities in Nepal and Tibet struggle to find and identify the dead amid the agonies of the living after last week’s devastating flash flood. More than 1,250 people have been confirmed dead, with more than 5,000 missing.
Read more here:
Man jailed for enslaving, assaulting vulnerable woman
A man who kept a vulnerable woman as a slave for nine months has been jailed for the “callous and cruel” offending, AAP reports.
Chee Kit “Max” Chong, 47, was sentenced on Friday to six years behind bars after being found guilty in May of intentionally possessing the 61-year-old Malaysian woman as a slave and one count of assault.
The jury was told the woman escaped from Chong’s Melbourne home in October 2022 after he kept her as a slave since January of that year and controlled her access to the outside world as she was made to clean and care for his children unpaid.
Chong also threatened and coerced the woman to provide domestic services, including massaging his feet, under threat of assault or hunger.
Victorian county court judge Peter Cahill on Friday determined Chong’s moral culpability was high. The judge said on Friday:
Your treatment of her was callous and cruel.
You exploited her vulnerabilities to use her as your property.
Chong received a non-parole period of four years but he will likely be deported to his home country of Malaysia at the end of his sentence.
Chong’s wife, Angie Liaw, 32, was also accused of assisting her husband and she too faced trial. But Judge Cahill found her not guilty of the offence on 7 May, telling the jury she should be acquitted as a matter of law.
Andrew Gregory
Genetically modified pig kidney keeps man alive for record nine months
A genetically modified kidney from a pig called Wilma has kept a 66-year-old man with kidney failure alive for a record nine months and successfully acted as a “bridge” to a human transplant in a world first.
Tim Andrews was seriously ill with end-stage kidney disease caused by type 2 diabetes and had only a 9% chance of receiving a human kidney within five years, against a more than 40% risk of dying or being removed from the waiting list.
Kidney transplantation provides the best survival and quality of life for patients with end-stage kidney disease, but global demand for human organs far exceeds supply.
Surgeons in the US successfully transplanted a kidney from Wilma, a Yucatan miniature pig, into Andrews, after genetically engineering it to be compatible with his immune system.
Read more here:
Pornography normalises strangulation, Plibersek says
State and federal leaders are holding a roundtable on combating sexual violence today in Sydney.
Tanya Plibersek, the federal minister for social services, said the government was considering other ways it could help protect young people from online harms, including pornography. She said:
The scripts that they are learning from online pornography, treating women roughly, demeaning them, hurting them, strangling them, those things are becoming normalised in a way that is profoundly harmful to young people.
Plibersek listed Labor’s legislative action to date but flagged efforts to ensure the safety of young Australians needed to go beyond the online world.
We got our under-16 social media delay. We got age verification for online pornography, we have banned deepfake nudes, we have banned nudify apps, there’s a whole range of areas where we are acting. The question now is what more should we do? What comes next?
As well as talking about what we are doing in the online world, I think we have a really important opportunity today to talk about what we do in the real world to make sure that girls and boys are growing up safe, they are growing up in ways that prioritise consent and respect as they develop their first romantic relationships.
Prue Car, the deputy premier of NSW, said consent education is embedded in the state’s curriculum. She added:
Teachers and schools are the very forefront of this challenge as they are with every other challenge that faces society. But the answer is not going to be adding more to the curriculum. It’s about working together as a whole of society.
H5 bird flu reaches Sydney
Lisa Cox
Sydney has its first confirmed case of H5 bird flu after a greater crested tern found on the northern beaches tested positive for the virus.
The New South Wales agriculture minister, Tara Moriarty, said it was time for back yard chicken and bird owners to prepare for potential impacts from the spread of the virus:
Now is the time for everyone who has back yard chickens or pet birds in aviaries to take precautionary steps to ensure there are no interactions between their chooks and pets with wild birds.
Moriarty also urged other pet owners to take precautions:
The government also recommends people be careful with their dogs when walking on beaches or parks and ensure they don’t eat carcasses or chase wild birds. There is low risk of exposure but it’s important to minimise any risk for your pets.
Federal government data published Thursday states the tern was found at Warriewood on 28 August.
Greater crested terns have been heavily affected by the deadly strain since it arrived on the Australian mainland in June. Most cases detected in NSW so far have been in greater crested terns on the state’s south coast.
The state government said a greater crested tern at Port Kembla and a Hutton’s shearwater at Corindi, north of Coffs Harbour, had also tested positive for the virus.
Anyone who sees sick or dead wild birds, domestic birds, marine mammals or other wildlife in NSW should report it online or via the emergency animal disease hotline on 1800 675 888.
Canavan stands by remarks about ‘feminisation’ of school curriculums
The Nationals leader, Matt Canavan, is standing by his comments that a “feminisation” of school curriculums has led to the rise of the “manosphere”.
The Australian Education Union called those remarks a “fundamentally incorrect portrayal” of Australia’s education system. In response to that criticism, Canavan said recently:
Many, it’s not all, it’s not all, but many young boys are being attracted to these toxic voices. I don’t think it’s because there’s some conspiracy that Facebook is pushing this stuff.
They are being attracted to it because we’re not treating boys with respect in the classroom.
Graham Readfearn
BoM forecasts strongest El Niño on record
The growing El Niño weather phenomenon to Australia’s east is already breaking heat records, with forecasts showing it will likely easily surpass previous events, according to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology.
Separate research suggests climate change has greatly shortened the odds of the event hitting record extremes.
In an update this week, the Bureau of Meteorology said the El Niño was now forecast to peak in late spring or summer and “reach levels above the warmest observed since reliable records began in 1950”.
Read more:
Patrick Commins
Should Australia be worried about the bond market?
Bonds are supposed to be safe and boring.
Which means when bond markets are getting exciting, you can bet that something big is going down in the global economy and the world of finance.
Australia’s 10-year interest rate on government debt has jumped past 5.2% – the highest in more than 15 years.
And it’s happening around the world.
So what’s going on? And why should you care?
Kyrgios accepts one-month ban for cocaine use
Nick Kyrgios has entered a treatment program after accepting a one-month ban for testing positive to cocaine.
After admitting his “huge mistake” when initially suspended for failing a drugs test on 22 June at an ATP 250 tournament in Spain, Kyrgios is allowed to compete again from Friday.
Kyrgios, who had been provisionally suspended since 4 August, had faced a ban ranging from a baseline three-month period to up to four years.
The 2022 Wimbledon finalist also forfeited the 6,570 euros he won in Mallorca for losing in the first round to countryman Adam Walton.
But his suspension was reduced for agreeing to enter a treatment program.
“I recently failed a drug test in Mallorca after testing positive for cocaine,” Kyrgios posted on Instagram last month.
I made a huge mistake and I take full responsibility for it.
Remembering Gloria Steinem: ‘She’s a hero to all women’
In case you missed the news overnight, we have an obituary for the late, great Gloria Steinem.
Steinem was a groundbreaking campaigner for women everywhere who brought the feminist perspective to the mainstream. She was 92.
Public trust in politicians drops amid voter cynicism
Four in five Australians believe governments should deliver social services directly but a majority no longer think politicians serve their interests, AAP reports.
A new report from the Centre for Policy Development comes amid a surge in support for One Nation as voters vent anger at the two major parties.
The research found more than 80% of people surveyed want governments to maintain the capability to deliver social services directly and believe health, education and childcare must be universally affordable.
But almost six in 10 people believe their elected representatives do not serve their interests, a figure that has steadily increased.
Almost 70% of people surveyed viewed modern politics as far more concerned with short-term political gains than addressing long-term challenges.
The research also found 65% of people want ordinary citizens to have a much greater say in setting core policy priorities.
