eSafety commissioner advised against travel to US following X backlash
The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, was advised against travel to the United States amid threats she received for doing her job.
Speaking to ABC RN earlier, Inman Grant detailed how she was targeted and trolled after using her powers as eSafety commissioner to take action against the social media platform X.
Inman Grant described her experience as “harrowing”, and described a “playbook that has been used to try and silence me as a public official with very gendered abuse”.
I mean, you don’t see men getting rape threats or comments about their appearance, their age, their traditional goals in the same sort of weaponisation of their children, family against them.
A subset of the “tens of thousands” of tweets Inman Grant received in the aftermath of Elon Must tweeting about her were examined, and 83% of them were either negative, hateful or threatening in some way.
Inman Grant said there were some “credible death threats” and said she was advised against travel to the US:
I had a trip that I was meant to do to the United States, where a lot of the vitriol stemmed from, and, you know, I was advised by security that I shouldn’t go on that trip because I couldn’t be protected, just because of the way that people could use guns.
Key events
Fire response ramps up in Queensland ahead of stark spring warning
Queensland is readying for worse-than-usual bushfire conditions in coming months with significant resources already hitting the ground, AAP reports.
The state’s fire response has ramped up with the aerial fleet arriving in Bundaberg and Townsville just days into spring. RFS Queensland chief officer Ben Millington said:
We are already starting to see fire activity and we are keeping a close eye on conditions.
A 10,000-litre Large Air Tanker will be based in Bundaberg over spring and summer to be deployed to coastal and inland areas. Bundaberg will also be the base for a Eurocopter and a waterbombing Blackhawk to support the state’s firefighting service and volunteers.
Two Bell 214B helicopters, two AirTractor AT-802 fixed-wing bombers, two air attack supervision platforms and a specialist intelligence-gathering light helicopter are on standby at Townsville Airport.
Queensland has now contracted an aerial fleet of 13 aircraft with a total waterbombing capacity of more than 32,000 litres. There are also 150 aircraft on-call if the state needs them.
It follows the stark seasonal bushfire outlook for spring which found the unseasonal rainfall in Queensland over recent months has increased fuel loads and fire risks:
AFP issues warning amid online trend of ‘sadistic sextortion’
The Australian Federal Police has issued a warning to parents and guardians amid a concerning online trend, where young victims are being coerced into producing extreme sexual and violent content over the internet.
“Sadistic sextortion” is a rising online crime that involves extreme groups targeting children as young as twelve years old on social media and messaging platforms, the AFP said, coercing them to self-produce explicit material to gain acceptance into these extreme online communities.
In some cases the offenders are the same age as the victims being targeted, the AFP said. After coercing the victim to produce an image or video the offender will share the content with other members in the group, who attempt to extort the victim by threatening to share the content with their family or friends unless they produce more.
The offender may demand content that continues to escalate in its seriousness including specific live sex acts, animal cruelty, serious self-harm, and live online suicide.
Western Australian police commenced an investigation into reports of an alleged serious sadistic sextortion offender in the state, 14, accused of targeting victims around the world in 2022.
Police seized the offender’s phone and later allegedly identified child abuse material and videos of animal cruelty. They were charged and received a juvenile caution in relation to the matter.
The AFP said offenders were not motivated by money “but were instead focused on obtaining status or notoriety within the group”. The AFP has provided advice to parents and guardians online, which you can read more about here.
NT chief minister defends use of spit hoods to protect frontline workers
The incoming Northern Territory chief minister was also asked about her position to reintroduce spit hoods – a practice that Amnesty International has labelled as torture.
Host Patricia Karvelas asked, how do you reflect on that? Lia Finocchiaro said that “you need to put yourself in the shoes of the frontline worker”.
So what we’ve said is that modern spit guards should be able to be used by police and corrections officers for young people.
Now this is a highly regulated practice, but when someone is spat on with blood and phlegm, they then can contract communicable diseases. They can’t go home to their families in the way they normally would have.
Now we have a crime crisis in the Territory, and our frontline workers are being insulted at extraordinary level. So the use of modern spit guards in this highly regulated environment provides an additional layer of protection for those people who’ve done the wrong thing and continue to make choices about dangerous and disgusting, degrading behaviour of spitting on frontline workers.
She was pressed on horrifying images of spit hoods being used in the past.
Finocchiaro said: “if you don’t spit, you don’t get a spit guard.”
Finocchiaro discusses moves to refer parents to income management when child offends
Lia Finocchiaro was asked to expand on that point, about “hold[ing] parents accountable”, and said:
There’s a number of ways. We have family responsibility agreements that need to be strengthened. There’s also opportunity for the Territory to refer parents to further income management with the commonwealth, and they are discussions I’ve had with my federal counterpart in the Northern Territory.
So there are a number of ways to make sure parents are being brought in and that we’re providing that important wrap around. Because, if a 10-year-old child is engaging with the law, something’s gone on in that child’s life, probably for a very long time, and probably at home.
New NT chief minister defends move to lower age of criminal responsibility to 10
Sticking with the Northern Territory, and the incoming chief minister, Lia Finocchiaro, spoke with ABC RN just earlier and fielded some questions about her approach to crime.
She was asked about her move to reduce the age of criminal responsibility to 10 from 12 – while most jurisdictions are working to lift their age of criminal responsibility.
When asked if she thinks a 10-year-old child should be dealt with in the same way as an adult, Finocchiaro responded “no, absolutely not” but said:
Lowering the age to 10 allows us to make sure that young people who are falling into a life of crime can be diverted into a better pathway. Now, if we raise the age, there can be no sort of legal response, which means you can’t then make sure that young people are engaged in boot camps, for example, or programs to turn their life around.
It also means you can’t hold parents accountable. So we’re much more focused on accountability for the young person and the family, and around delivering meaningful consequences that give that young person an opportunity to have a better future going forward.
Candidate set to become first Green in NT parliament says she is looking at ‘evidence-based solutions’
The Greens candidate for Nightcliff in the Northern Territory, Kat McNamara, spoke with ABC News Breakfast earlier.
McNamara is set to win the seat from former chief minister Natasha Fyles, which would mean the Greens would win their first ever seat in the NT parliament.
McNamara said it has been “an incredible time and an incredible campaign”. She said the local community has been concerned about safety and crime, but also the environment.
The decision by the former chief minister to greenlight fracking left a lot of people feeling betrayed. I have spoken to so many people who have told me that that was a really turning point for them, people who described themselves as rusted-on Labor voters said they were going to vote for Greens for the first [time].
For issues like this, we know that we are looking at evidence-based solutions. So things like locking up children, putting 10-year-olds in prison, not only is it wrong but it doesn’t work. And we want to make our community safer with evidence-based solutions. That’s what we heard from the community.
Deputy opposition leader lays blame on government for rising interest rates
The deputy opposition leader, Sussan Ley, was also on Sunrise alongside Jason Clare and weighed in on the topic:
The treasurer has targeted the Reserve Bank, I’m not going to do that. I simply make this point: In the UK, interest rates are being cut. In Canada, in New Zealand, they’re on their way down in the US. So what’s different here? Why is this not happening here?
It is the government’s mismanagement of the economy. Australians are not going to get those years back. [I’ve] got some advice for Jim Chalmers: put down the megaphone and pick up the mirror. Because taking responsibility is so important right now for the Australians that we know are really anxious, really worried, looking at those monthly bank statements and just not knowing how they’re going to meet their commitments. It is important that we have an economic plan and that’s not present. That’s not anywhere in sight from where I’m sitting.
Minister says banks need to play role in helping people pay mortgage
The education minister, Jason Clare, was on Sunrise earlier this morning.
He was asked to respond to comments from the RBA governor, Michele Bullock, yesterday that some owner-occupiers “may ultimately make the difficult decision to sell their homes” where income is not keeping up with essential spending and their mortgage repayments.
Clare said that “I don’t want anyone to have to sell their home”:
It is easy to say, ‘Look, people might have to sell their home’, but not if it’s you. Not if it is your life savings, not if it is your life work to save for a deposit, buy a home. That’s why we’ve got to get inflation down and if we get inflation down [we will] make it easier for the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates.
Inflation has dropped from about 8.4% down to 3.5%, but there’s more work to do there. Tax cuts are important and wage rises, that helps people to pay the bills and pay the mortgage. There’s a role here for the banks as well. Banks play an important role when their customers are struggling to pay the mortgage to provide them with the support and flexibility to pay their mortgage.
If you have a mortgage from the bank and [are] struggling to make repayment, then the banks should – and do – reach out to you and say, ‘Can we change your repayment plan to support you?’ That’s always happened, certainly happened during the pandemic.
Clare said he was not putting the blame on banks but in addition to the role of government and the RBA to bring inflation down, “there’s a role for the banks as well”.
Dutton says Shorten ‘last adult in room of Albanese cabinet’
Peter Dutton has given some high praise to Bill Shorten after his retirement announcement yesterday, telling the Today show:
I know that he contributed significantly, particularly when he was opposition leader, to national security debates, which are ultimately the most important thing that we can do for our country. And he’s been somebody that who – when you shake his hand or you have a conversation – you do a deal, he honours it.
He’s given an enormous amount to the union movement, and he is as big a figure as Bob Hawke was in the union movement.
And he’s done a lot for his party, I think he’s grown a part of the party. The party’s sort of grown apart from Bill a bit, which he won’t comment on. I think he’s sort of the last adult in the room of that Albanese cabinet, and I think they will dearly miss him when he goes, but his family will get him back. And I think … we don’t agree on politics, but I respect Bill very much.
Shorten thanked Dutton for the “generous” words but said he didn’t agree with the last bit of “politicking” and that the Albanese cabinet is “full of people who just want the best interests of Australia”.
Shorten looking forward to ‘less travel and less trolling’
Bill Shorten also made his regular appearance on the Today Show, alongside the opposition leader, Peter Dutton.
Shorten said that, in retiring from politics, he is looking forward to “a little less travel and … perhaps a little less trolling.”
I keep a bit of a rough count of the nights away when you’re a politician at a senior level. It’s been about 130 days each year where I’ve just been away at night. So that’s longer than six years away, that’s longer than World War II.
And the other thing I’m not going to miss … [is] all those cowardly keyboard warriors who write crap about you. I can read it, it doesn’t change my mind at all, but when your family’s got to read stuff, at least, maybe, you know, that’ll give my family at least a little bit of relief from having to put up with the slings and arrows because your family are conscripts to your career and your aspirations. So I’m looking forward to a little less travel and, you know, perhaps a little less trolling.
Shorten says ‘there was a lot of disunity’ when Rudd and Gillard were toppled
Bill Shorten was asked a question he was asked at yesterday’s press conference – whether he had any regrets in his role of toppling Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.
He repeated yesterday’s answer by quoting Frank Sinatra – “regrets, I’ve got a few” – but added:
I think that political parties need unity. You’re describing a time where there was a lot of disunity. One of the things that I’m proudest of – which doesn’t necessarily get put up in lights – is that, after 2013, we united the Labor party. And sure, we came close in 2016, we came close again in 2019, Anthony [Albanese] finally sealed the deal with the electorate in 2022. But none of that can happen unless the party is united. And I – yeah, I think that that is a good thing.
No regrets at all? Shorten said “I might have a few” but to list them would “make it all about me”.
At the end of the day, it’s never about the politician. It’s about what you can do with the opportunities that you get. And I never lose sight that we’re only here because people vote for us.
Bill Shorten says he is ‘at peace’ with two unsuccessful tilts for PM
The NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, who announced his retirement from politics yesterday, spoke with ABC News Breakfast earlier this morning.
Shorten is set to retire from politics in February and take up the position of vice-chancellor at the University of Canberra.
Shorten was asked whether he is “at peace” with the fact he was unsuccessful on two occasions to become prime minister. He responded:
Not winning the election was incredibly disappointing. But what’s ironic is not many people get a chance to try for their dream, and I now see a government in place, I’m really happy with that. And you learn from defeat as well as victory, so I am at peace with it. I understand the mistakes I made. I also understand some of the external factors I couldn’t control.
eSafety commissioner advised against travel to US following X backlash
The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, was advised against travel to the United States amid threats she received for doing her job.
Speaking to ABC RN earlier, Inman Grant detailed how she was targeted and trolled after using her powers as eSafety commissioner to take action against the social media platform X.
Inman Grant described her experience as “harrowing”, and described a “playbook that has been used to try and silence me as a public official with very gendered abuse”.
I mean, you don’t see men getting rape threats or comments about their appearance, their age, their traditional goals in the same sort of weaponisation of their children, family against them.
A subset of the “tens of thousands” of tweets Inman Grant received in the aftermath of Elon Must tweeting about her were examined, and 83% of them were either negative, hateful or threatening in some way.
Inman Grant said there were some “credible death threats” and said she was advised against travel to the US:
I had a trip that I was meant to do to the United States, where a lot of the vitriol stemmed from, and, you know, I was advised by security that I shouldn’t go on that trip because I couldn’t be protected, just because of the way that people could use guns.