Shark attack in South Australia leaves one person ‘seriously injured’, police say
Tory Shepherd
SA Police said this morning that emergency services were responding to reports of a shark attack near Streaky Bay, on the Eyre Peninsula. In a statement, they said:
Police received a report of a shark attack at Westall Way Loop near Streaky Bay about 10.20am on Tuesday 31 October.
Initial information from the scene reported one person has been seriously injured.
Key events
The NSW Rural Fire Service has issued an emergency warning for the Scrub Road fire, 4km southeast of Tenterfield.
The warning reads:
If you are in the area of Kellys Rd, Scrub Rd or Scrub School Rd, The Scrub, or in surroundings areas, you are at risk. Seek shelter to protect yourself from the fire. It is too late to leave.
The fire us burning in a southeast direction towards properties along Kellys Road, Scrub School Road and Scrub Road.
The RFS says embers will be blown long distances ahead of the main fire front starting spot fires, and these may impact homes earlier than the main fire front.
Emergency Warning: Scrub Rd Fire Tenterfield
A fire is burning along Scrub Rd, burning in a SE direction. If you are near Scrub Rd, Kellys Rd, Scrub School Rd or surrounds you are in danger. Seek shelter as the fire approaches. It is too late to leave. https://t.co/Zxa2AIxYPV pic.twitter.com/1D3tAvfjjo
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) October 31, 2023
Three other fires surrounding Tenterfield are currently at a “watch and act” level.
Mike Wassing, deputy commissioner of the Queensland Fire and Emergency Service, has spoken with ABC TV about the ongoing bushfires across the state.
He said high winds and potential thunderstorms this afternoon are “of great concern”, adding there is enormous capacity on-the-ground at fire fronts like the one near Tara.
We still have a large number of fires that we are managing and trying to avoid any new fire starts, particularly from storms.
Wassing said firefighters are facing potentially three days of similar conditions.
It’s probably not until Friday [and] into the weekend before we get some reprieve. But what we are seeing is weekend and week out we get a couple of days spiked, every week to 10 days.
Wassing said firefighters are working amid testing conditions and have “been at this for months now”.
This is absolutely a marathon… it is very hot, very dry and really tough work but as they always do, they continue to step up.
Amanda Meade
SBS has secured all the rights to the 2026 Men’s World Cup, which it has been broadcasting since 1990.
The announcement was made by SBS managing director James Taylor at the broadcaster’s 2024 programming launch.
The multicultural broadcaster paid $20m each for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup editions in Russia and Qatar.
SBS won the bid against rival fee to air networks Seven, Nine and Ten.
Amanda Meade
The ABC acknowledged on air the death of a Palestinian journalist who has filed for the broadcaster from Gaza, ahead of a planned protest about the ABC’s lack of a tribute to the filmmaker.
On 730 last night host Sarah Ferguson noted at the end of the program that the journalist had been killed in Gaza.
A protest took place outside the ABC in Melbourne today after the ABC originally failed to pay tribute to Roshdi Sarraj for a week after his death.
“A final note before we go tonight,” Ferguson said.
On October the 22nd filmmaker Roshdi Sarraj was killed in Gaza. Earlier this month Roshdi filmed material for 730. We take this opportunity to acknowledge his passing and send our condolences to his family.
Senior ABC journalist Norman Hermant last week posted a tribute to Sarraj, along with the “powerful vision from #Gaza’s biggest hospital” which the journalist filmed for a lengthy 7.30 story days before he was killed.
Hermant said:
I am very sad to report the Palestinian journalist who captured those images [Roshidi Sarraj] was killed over the weekend.
Paul Karp
Qantas defends ‘complex’ but ‘legal’ staff pay structure
Qantas is appearing before the Senate employment committee inquiry on Labor’s closing loopholes bill. The bill’s same job same pay provisions are designed to ensure labour hire companies, including those in a corporate group, have to pay the same as the main entity in which employees work.
In previous hearings, unions have complained that Qantas is one of the worst offenders for creating new corporate entities to offer jobs at lower wages.
Nathan Safe, Qantas’ acting executive manager of industrial relations, has given an opening statement defending the practice. Safe says Qantas is a “legacy business” operating in a “highly competitive global market”.
For legacy carriers, failing to adapt has not ended well … Our legacy conditions are by far the highest domestically, and are high compared with every other international carrier. If we kept hiring especially when domestic competitions are paying at or slightly above award, Qantas would likely not be here …
Yes, our structure is complex. But it evolved legally, and it is based on the enterprise bargaining system.
Rather than undercutting old pay and conditions, Safe characterised the Qantas structure as “grandfathering legacy conditions”. New entities directly employ their workers on “more modern and market relevant conditions”. These are negotiated with unions, voted on by employees and approved by the Fair Work Commission, Safe says.
ABC staff mourn death of Gaza journalist
The ABC house committee has released a statement via the MEAA union, extending its “deep condolences” to the family of freelance journalist and filmmaker Roshdi Sarraj, who was killed in Gaza on 22 October during an airstrike.
The statement reads:
Mr Sarraj, who was working for the ABC shortly before his death, is among at least 23 journalists killed in the conflict since October 7.
The ABC House Committee calls on all sides to respect the role of journalists and to avoid civilian casualties. Journalists working for the ABC in these dangerous situations deserve the ABC’s support.
Earlier this afternoon, a silent vigil was held outside ABC Melbourne to pay tribute to Sarraj:
A silent vigil was held outside @abcmelbourne today to pay tribute to Palestinian journalist Roshdi Sarraj and the over 20 other journalists killed by Israel’s bombing of Gaza. Anger was expressed at ABCs refusal to pay tribute to the passing of Roshidi #FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/Df9LpB04Bc
— Green Left (@GreenLeftOnline) October 31, 2023
As per usual, the Victorian SES media team is delivering with its meme content, this time for Halloween:
We mustn’t be ‘at war’ with our bodies, 2023 Australian of the Year Brumfitt says
2023 Australian of the Year Taryn Brumfitt has just concluded her speech at the National Press Club with an appeal to those listening: “it is not your life’s purpose to be at war with your body”.
Remind yourself daily that you get 28,000 days on the planet if you’re really lucky.
I don’t know about you, but it only felt like yesterday that I was a teenager and I had P-plates on my car and I was putting the backpack on to go travelling across the world. And then one click of a finger, I’m in a 45-year-old body … click again, I’m going to be 65, and then 95 …
Life is short, life is fleeting. So, please, don’t waste it being at war with your body and please don’t set the young ones up in your life for a lifetime of the same. We weren’t born into the world hating our bodies, it’s something that we have been taught. For everyone’s sake, it’s time to unlearn.
She is now taking questions from reporters.
Hundreds of firefighters tackling 77 bushfires across NSW
As per the latest NSW RFS update, there are currently 77 fires burning across the state, with 24 not yet contained.
Three fires are burning at “watch and act” level near Tenterfield, meaning there is a heightened level of threat and conditions are changing.
Nearly 700 firefighters and incident management specialists are working to contain these fires.
As of 12pm, there are 77 fires burning around the state, with 24 not yet contained. There are currently three fires burning at a Watch and Act level, with nearly 700 firefighters and incident management specialists working to contain these fires. https://t.co/SwFG8PzKTA pic.twitter.com/hNhyCVE4sv
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) October 31, 2023
Midday heat increasing fire activity in rural NSW, bushfire service says
The NSW Rural Fire Service said there has been an increase in fire behaviour across multiple fire grounds as we move into the hottest part of the day.
It has shared a video on social media showing several fires burning near Tenterfield, including the Frost Road fire and Sawyers Creek fire:
As we move into the hottest part of the day, we are seeing an increase to the fire behaviour across multiple fire grounds. This video below shows several fires currently burning in the Tenterfield area including the Frost Rd and the Sawyers Creek Fire. https://t.co/SwFG8PzKTA pic.twitter.com/XXO36mBT0M
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) October 31, 2023
Social media not the only driver of body image distress, says 2023 Australian of the year
Taryn Brumfitt says its a myth that social media is to blame for the epidemic of body image distress.
It is part of the problem, but not the whole problem, she says:
Many of us had body image issues long before Zuckerberg and influencer culture were even a thing, let alone smartphones. Social media is here to stay and we need to use it for good.
The science is showing that body-neutral content and body-positive content on social media is helpful. It’s the over-altered images, weight loss content, and appearance commentary that is most harmful. Social media feeds full of positive imagery and content aren’t just some fictional utopia. There are already companies showing us what’s possible.
Constantly linking weight and health can lead to eating discorders, Brumfitt says
Brumfitt tackles the myth that other people’s bodies are your business.
Nope, they are definitely not.
… From the top-down, we have been taught that other people’s bodies, and what they do with them, belong to the public domain. And we have normalised how deeply invested we are in other people’s bodies to the point that we don’t stop to think twice about how inappropriate it is to comment so freely on their weight and their size and their shape, appearance, health choices, health habits. Can we just stop?
She also rejects the common belief that we have to punish, weigh and shame bodies to achieve good health.
Remember the Biggest Loser? Or Life Be In It? Norm on the couch, Special K pinch and inch, or the toxic fat commercial? It wasn’t that long ago that we accepted these as normal. We never even questioned them. The problem? They’re harmful and ineffective.
We now have evidence that confirms that these type of campaigns lead to an increase in disordered eating.
Continuing to speak at the National Press Club, 2023 Australian of the Year Taryn Brumfitt starts unpacking what she views as the “four biggest, most harmful, most persistent myths and deeply-ingrained beliefs that we hold about bodies collectively”.
The first: that you can judge a person’s health by their appearance.
This is absolutely categorically untrue.
Just as you cannot gauge a person’s mental health by their appearance, you cannot gauge a person’s physical health by their appearance.
And while it’s not our place to judge the health of others, to an extent it’s not our fault that we have collectively come to an associate the ways bodies look with a particular level of health. We have been bombarded with messages from a very young age telling us what healthy looks like. We tie virtue and success to beauty and thinness, and fat is denigrated at every turn.
…without a doubt the stereotypes are everywhere and because of this, we have come to believe that we can assess a person’s inner health by their outer appearance.
Blackouts still affecting about 6,000 Sydneysiders, energy supplier says
A spokesperson from Endeavour Energy confirmed that about 14,000 affected customers have had their energy restored, after 20,000 lost power due to the strong winds in Sydney overnight.
As we reported earlier, homes and businesses across South West Sydney, the Macarthur region, the Warragamba region and Campbelltown were left without power after an Endeavour Energy outage earlier today.
This was caused by the strong winds overnight in Sydney. Additional precautions had to be taken whilst restoring power due to the total fire ban.
Australia’s ‘deeply ingrained beliefs’ about body weight damaging children, Brumfitt says
Taryn Brumfitt highlighted the importance of instilling body acceptance and appreciation from a young age.
Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
She says we can preach better body image “until we’re blue in the face”, but it will “all come unstuck” if we allow harmful messages to reach children in the home, on the sports field, at the doctors or in the media.
It will all be for nothing. I’m absolutely convinced that if we do not do the work as individuals to change our own internalised beliefs and behaviours about bodies, it will be another decade before we see any meaningful, [lasting] change.
She challenged those listening to look inside themselves and at the deeply-ingrained beliefs they have around their own bodies and “commit to challenging these”:
… commit to start unlearning all that you thought you knew about bodies: weight, size, health, and appearance. Because if we cannot identify how we participate in and perpetuate the harmful narratives around bodies, how are we ever going to heal ourselves? And how are we ever going to lead from the front for our young people?
Young Australians still struggling with body image, eating disorders, positivity advocate says
2023 Australian of the Year and body positivity advocate, Taryn Brumfitt, is addressing the National Press Club today.
She begins by recalling a surprised reaction to her Australian of the Year award because “body image was so 10 years ago”.
This couldn’t be more untrue. Body image issues among young people are the worst they have ever been.
Since the start of the pandemic, rates of body image distress and eating disorders in young people have doubled. A 2013 Deloitte Access Economics study found that the total socioeconomic cost of eating disorders was $69.7bn, not to mention the immeasurable personal cost.
Aussie kids have never been in more body-image distress than they are now. This is a very ‘today’ issue.