Police will allege teenage girl ‘solely responsibly’ for death of 10-year-old
New South Wales police Det Supt Daniel Doherty is speaking to the media from Belmont, after a teenage girl was charged with murder (DV) over the death of a 10-year-old girl, who she allegedly stabbed.
Doherty told the media:
There is a family at home still grieving, trying to come to terms with what happened to the 10-year-old family member and their loved one.
It is important to note the sensitivity around this. Our thoughts are with the family … Support services will be provided to them. Homicide victim support groups have been notified to help support them as well.
But the 17-year-old is before the court at the moment. The circumstances will come out through the investigation but we will allege that she was responsible, solely responsible, for the death of the 10-year-old.
Key events
Amy Remeikis
Here’s the latest on the Faruqi-Hanson court case:
Sue Chrysanthou SC has finished her questioning of Deakin academic professor Yin Paradies, so Mehreen Faruqi’s counsel Saul Holt KC has taken the opportunity to ask Paradies about Britishness as an ethnicity and whether criticising the colonial empire could be considered being racist to British people.
Holt is re-examining Paradies after Chrysanthou’s questioning yesterday in the first day of the hearing about whether it was possible to be racist against white people.
Paradies says from the research, “racism experienced when you’re white, has a weaker association between a weaker association with health outcomes. So you have to map it differently”.
Paradies then turns to another issue:
“There is also of course, the issue of what is sometimes called white fragility.
And in these cases what people who experiences termination can be particularly perturbed by the experience as they’ve they don’t really have much history of being subjected to the experiences themselves.”
On the idea of Britishness as an ethnicity, Holt asks about the idea of Britishness including a colonial history and whether “to criticise a colonial history is to criticise the ethnicity, ethnicity of modern British folk.”
Paradies:
“There were many nation states that engaged in colonization, Britain was certainly one of those. And yes, some people certainly feel people of British descent certainly feel a kind of a guilt over that coloniality but in the end, people are not institutions. “And so to critique the British Empire is not to critique any particular British person.
…So I think there’s a difference between critiquing colonisation and being racist to British people.”
Paradies is excused by the court.
Luca Ittimani
Australian shoppers cut back a little more than expected in March, with retail trade falling 0.4% from February.
The figures surprised markets, which had expected trade to pick up 0.2% over the month, a little below February’s monthly increase of 0.3%. Today’s data from the Australian Bureau of statistics also showed NSW shoppers cut back the most, by 1.1%.
A key indicator of cost-of-living pressure on Australian customers, household goods trade, has now resumed its downward slide, falling to $5.61bn in the month compared to a $5.8bn trend at the end of 2023.
The figure has been slipping since the end of 2022, as steeper prices and interest rate rises ate away at the savings households would have spent on fridges and furniture.
Expect the sector to keep sliding as price rises prove hard to curb, after Australia’s inflation rate slowed less than expected in the March quarter. That led markets to fear the Reserve Bank could still hike interest rates further before the end of 2024.
But Sean Langcake, Head of Macroeconomic Forecasting for Oxford Economics Australia, said today’s data confirmed rising costs were ‘still putting the squeeze on household budgets”.
Last week’s CPI data spurred concerns that the RBA may yet need to raise rates again to rein in inflation. But these data are a further confirmation that consumer demand is very restrained at present.
We’ll get a better sense of how the RBA views the data after its meeting next week.
Peter Hannam
CBA joins Westpac in pushing back first RBA rate cut to November
CBA, Australia’s biggest bank, had been the most “dovish” about official interest rates, previously forecasting three cuts in the final three meetings this year starting from September.
Not any more. Today CBA pushed back the timing of when the RBA will move to November, and now it forecasts just the single 25 basis-point cut to 4.1% for the cash rate in 2024.
CBA joins Westpac in delaying the first cut to November, with ANZ and NAB still also looking at just the one cut, and in that month.
Gareth Aird, head of CBA’s Australian economics, said the “near-term risk sits with an interest rate hike” but the bank expects the RBA to hold its cash rate steady as the economy is shrinking on a per-capita basis.
Coles profits as shoppers search for cheaper groceries
Jonathan Barrett
Strong sales of Coles’ private label groceries have underpinned a bump in quarterly profits, as shoppers turn away from more expensive branded goods amid a cost-of-living crisis.
Australia’s second biggest supermarket chain recorded a 5.1% lift in sales revenue from its supermarket division in the March quarter to $9.1bn, the company announced today.
Revenue from exclusive brand sales, which includes its own labels, jumped 8.8%. Coles chief executive Leah Weckert said:
We know that one of the key things that customers do when they’re trying to manage their budget is that they will look to trade in some more affordable brands and our own brand is definitely one of those.
We also know that more customers are willing to drive further and shop across multiple retailers to manage their budgets.
Relentless increases in food and drink prices have sparked changes to buying habits, with Coles disclosing that shoppers are shying away from expensive alcoholic beverages like spirits and champagne.
People are moving back into beer because beer tends to be a category where it’s a cheaper cost per serve.
Coles and rival Woolworths have been under intense public and political scrutiny as they continue to print healthy profits during a period of fast-rising grocery prices.
A Senate inquiry is investigating how the major chains set prices for shoppers and use their market power when dealing with suppliers. Separately, the competition regulator is conducting a 12-month price probe into their practices.
Dingo bites boy in latest attack on K’gari
A dingo has attacked a 10-year-old boy in the 10th incident of this kind in as many months on K’gari, formerly Fraser Island, AAP reports.
Wildlife officers said two boys were washing off in Awinya Creek on the western side of the island when a dingo ran at them. The boys screamed and ran towards their parents.
A Department of Environment, Science and Innovation statement said:
The dingo bit the 10-year-old on the back of his leg, leaving minor injuries including a scratch and bruising to his lower right calf muscle.
The parents treated the injury and the boy did not require further medical assistance. The incident occurred on 23 April but rangers were not advised until yesterday due to phone reception issues on the island. The department said:
Rangers believe they have identified the dingo, and patrols have been increased in the area.
Amy Remeikis
Pauline Hanson’s counsel questions academic’s own views on colonialism: federal court hearing
Pauline Hanson’s counsel Sue Chrysanthou is now asking Prof Yin Paradies, about his own views on colonisation and Hanson’s own politics.
Chrysanthou asks about a tweet Paradies sent on 26 January 2023, which said:
On this date in 1788, the vanguard of what was and continues to be the most backward ignorant, primitive infantile, selfish, deluded, egoistic, second punishes mono culture that has ever existed, invaded and commenced annihilating one of the oldest most ineffably complex, lucid, wise evocative primal and balanced society in the earth’s history.
The vicious obliteration of this impossibly beautiful culture and the profound devastation of country by patriarchal colonial capitalists so called civilization in inverted commas, continues unabated in 2023, as it has for the last 235 years.
Paradies says that he remembers that tweet and those are his views. Asked about his opinions on Hanson’s views of colonisation, which are very different to his own, Paradies says:
Honestly, I’m not overly familiar with your client’s [views]. I don’t read the news.
Chrysanthou asks whether Paradies thinks he should have declared his views on colonisation ahead of submitting his report to the court on the impacts of racism on health. Paradies:
No, I didn’t think so.
Chrysanthou references a similar tweet Paradies sent on 26 January 2022 and says:
The fact of you holding those views that I’ve read out to you, as expressed on your tweet on 26 January 2023, has affected your approach to answering the questions about my clients conduct, hasn’t it?
Paradies responds:
I don’t think so.
Amy Remeikis
Academic suggests tweet at centre of federal court hearing ‘likely to have negative impact on somebody’
Back to the federal court, and Pauline Hanson’s counsel Sue Chrysanthou is still questioning Deakin academic Prof Yin Paradies (see earlier post). Chrysanthou has taken Paradies through some of his research and reports on the impacts of racism on health and the body.
Chrysanthou:
I want to suggest to you having regard to the material you’ve read and your experience, that there’s no basis to conclude that the tweet published by my client [Hanson] would have a likely negative [health] impact as you’ve described at paragraph 27 [of your report].
Paradies:
Well, this seems to be the part that we don’t agree on. I would say that, given the literature and the evidence to date, that form of racism applied to people who have at least one of those group attributes is likely to have a negative impact on somebody like seriously, because a fairly strong form of racism [is] very exclusionary, and it’s very much about who belongs and who doesn’t belong.
Chrysanthou asks if he is speaking about “vicarious racism as opposed to direct racism” to which Paradies responds in the affirmative.
Part of Mehreen Faruqi’s evidence includes tweets from other people who said they were impacted by Hanson’s tweet, which told Faruqi to “piss off back to Pakistan”.
Chrysanthou says that Paradies is unable to say for certain whether those people met the criteria for someone who would have a negative impact from racism, based on his research. Paradies says:
Information always insufficient. And that’s the thing about racism is that we need to consider it as a pattern that’s formed over evidence and experience and what we’ve seen happen before, essentially, and so on could always say there’s not enough information and yet at the same time, make an assessment of some sense of likelihood in a particular instance, given the characteristics of that instance, in comparison to other instances, and the patterns that form there in it racism is inherently comparative.
So you need to compare between racial groups, between contexts over time, and so it is possible to form an opinion on a particular instance without all the information that could be theoretically gleaned from that instance.
Benita Kolovos
Seems to be cultural problem within Labor party, Victorian opposition leader says
Asked whether there was a cultural problem amongst male MPs, John Pesutto said it appeared to be an issue within the Labor party, noting the MP for Ringwood, Will Fowles, was also expelled last year after the alleged assault of a ministerial staffer. Fowles maintains his innocence.
Pesutto told the media:
I think what we’ve got to realise is in the term of this parliament, we’ve had two Labor MPs, who are now disgraced and sit in the chamber, unable to serve the constituents who live in their seats, whether it’s Ringwood or South Barwon.
He said if their presence in the Labor party room was a safety concern, then questions should be asked about them remaining in the chamber:
We can only go on what premier Jacinta Allan has been saying. I do, as the alternative premier, wonder why if it’s not safe for either of those gentlemen to sit in the outer ministry, if it’s not safe to sit in the Labor caucus, it’s safe for them to be anywhere else in this precinct? And that is a legitimate question, but we can’t answer that, only premier Jacinta Allan can answer that question.
Benita Kolovos
Victorian opposition calls for Cheeseman to quit politics altogether
Victorian opposition leader John Pesutto says South Barwon MP Darren Cheeseman, who has been dumped from Labor’s party room over allegations of inappropriate behaviour, should quit altogether.
Speaking outside parliament today, Pesutto said:
Mr Cheeseman, who remains a member of the Labor party, has been disgraced by these allegations. My own view is that he should resign from parliament, but that’s obviously a matter for him.
My main concern is one – the reputation of the parliament – and secondly, and perhaps more importantly, is whether the people of South Barwon can be adequately represented by Mr Cheeseman.
Nationals MP to ‘urge strong action’ from PM ahead of Wednesday’s national cabinet
Nationals MP and former deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, says he will be writing to the prime minister and urging “strong action” ahead of tomorrow’s national cabinet meeting.
In a post to X, McCormack said he received “hundreds of letters” from the Wagga Women’s Health Centre, compiled on behalf of local residents, “calling for more to stop domestic [and] family violence”.
I’ll be writing to the prime minister [and] minister for women today ahead of tomorrow’s national cabinet to urge strong action.
At the weekend dozens of rallies were held across the country calling for an end to men’s violence against women, with a rally held in Wagga Wagga– where Riverina MP McCormack resides.
Received hundreds of letters from the Wagga Women’s Health Centre on behalf of the region’s residents calling for more to stop domestic & family violence.
I’ll be writing to the Prime Minister & Minister for Women today ahead of tomorrow’s National Cabinet to urge strong action. pic.twitter.com/biql37Rkxw
— Michael McCormack (@M_McCormackMP) April 30, 2024
Transport Workers Union seeking urgent meeting with Bonza after cancelled flights
The Transport Workers Union (TWU) says the uncertainty of budget airline Bonza’s future points to a “broader issue of instability in aviation” and the need for regulatory oversight.
As Elias Visontay reported earlier, Bonza has cancelled a raft of flights across the country, and sources told the Guardian that its fleet of Boeing 737-Max 8 aircraft had been repossessed.
A statement from the TWU said it is seeking an urgent meeting with Bonza to “ensure workers are prioritised at this difficult and uncertain time”.
TWU’s national secretary Michael Kaine said this was an “extremely distressing time for workers and stranded passengers”.
Bonza and any other airline attempting to enter the Australian aviation market has little chance of survival … this is an industry dominated by aggressive competition and unchecked corporate greed that will squeeze out any new entrant …
We need a Safe and Secure Skies Commission to provide independent oversight and set standards for aviation. Australia needs a reliable aviation industry with good, secure jobs at its core. Now is the time to stabilise this industry before more hell breaks loose.
Amy Remeikis
Academic questioned over definition of ‘migrant’ during federal court hearing
In the federal court, Pauline Hanson’s counsel Sue Chrysanthou SC is questioning Deakin academic, Prof Yin Paradies, over his research into racism and what he considers to be the definition of “migrant”.
Chrysanthou:
Can you clarify for us the answers you gave earlier, my understanding was that your personal definition of migrant background or migrant would mean any person who’s not Indigenous?
Paradies:
Not exactly – what I’m saying is that you can take migrant heritage as a very, a very broad term. If you wish to encompass anyone whose ancestors migrated to Australia, which would also include Indigenous people.
How did Paradies take it?
I took it to generally mean the people who it’s sort of like first, second, third generation Australians who very much aware of in touch with their migrant parents or grandparents or great grandparents, perhaps. And so the general use of the term is what I took it to mean as in a fairly recent intergenerational sense, migrant heritage.
Paradies research goes into possible health outcomes from racism, and has been put forward by Mehreen Faruqi’s team as part of her evidence. Chrysanthou, acting for Hanson, is trying to determine how broad the definition of “migrant” is, given Australia’s colonial history.