Health News at Your Fingertips

From AAP:

The growth of far-right extremism in Victoria and how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced it will be explored in a new report.

Victoria’s Legal and Social Issues Committee will hand down its final report on Tuesday after the due date was repeatedly pushed back.

The inquiry was announced in February following a neo-Nazi gathering in the Grampians in January 2021 and the erection of gallows outside parliament as MPs debated pandemic legislation in November.

Liberty Victoria President Michael Stanton warned against sweeping reforms to combat the influence of far-right extremism during public hearings in June.

“We need to make sure that in responding to those confronting scenes … that we do not have a legislative response that throws the baby out with the bathwater,” he said.

The inquiry also probed the risk the movement poses to Victoria’s multicultural communities, as well as their methods of recruitment and communication.

In her appearance, Swinburne University researcher Belinda Barnet pushed for the expansion of mainstream social media platform regulations to encrypted apps and a national anti-racism strategy.

Severe thunderstorms are impacting western Victoria:

Thwaites also says the government needs to look at “multinational tax avoidance, we need to look into our long-term tax system so we can pay for the services we all expect and rely on into the future”.

Labor MP Kate Thwaites, who is also being interviewed on Afternoon Briefing has defended Labor keeping the stage three cuts:

We stand by the commitment we took to the election. I think it is important that we are clear with people and that we stand by our commitments.

So, we make the point, you know, great for Russell to talk about where he is now and where he is individually.

These were tax cuts that were put through in the last parliament under his government, and I haven’t seen his party leadership take any sorts of moves to suggest they’re open at all to revisiting that.

They’re open at all to not mounting what we have seen happen from Liberal oppositions in the past, which is probably pretty misleading campaigns about tax cuts and broken promises and what happens there.

Broadbent says he has been “talking to other people for a long time” about how the tax cuts should be scrapped:

You think what has happened since that time, and the mountain of debt that we have, the things that have changed, these issues as Kate [Thwaites] would be well aware, that I have raised, where we could spend the money, they affect women in Australia more than they affect men.

So these are things that we should be doing as a nation and saying, that’s where we were back there, that was a proposition put forward by government, we had a one-seat majority, I don’t think I was going to come out at the time and oppose everything the government was doing, although some in my party say I usually do.

What I’m saying now is the world has changed. It’s turned itself on its head. So therefore, when it changes, we should change.

Liberal party MP Russell Broadbent is being interviewed on Afternoon Briefing on the ABC – he has called for the government to drop the stage three tax cuts.

He said higher earners, like politicians, do not need tax cuts now:

When things change, we should change. The world has turned on its head since the tax cuts were introduced. So people like me don’t need tax cuts.

Not only dealing with national debt as far as the eye can see, we’re dealing with bushfire recovery, flood recovery, we’ve got a housing and rental debacle, we’ve got staffing issues and supply chain issues. What could we be spending that money on? That $700bn over 10 years? We could be spending that money on social housing, defence, it goes on and on.

We’re just sending the wrong message to the Australian people at this time that tax cuts for the wealthier cohort of our community are acceptance. I think the government should bite the bullet and drop those tax cuts now and send a real message to the Australian people that we are on about those that are doing it tough.

From AAP:

The peak body for unions and small business representatives have struck a landmark deal on workplace reform ahead of the federal government’s jobs and skills summit.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions and Council of Small Businesses Australia (COSBOA) have agreed in principle to work together to simplify and reduce complexities within the current industrial relations system.

This includes a pledge to support new options for collective bargaining, proposed by the ACTU last week, enabling multiple workplaces to work together to secure deals for employees.

But any changes to bargaining arrangements would be opt-in rather than mandated, COSBOA chief Alexi Boyd said.

“We’re not looking at any mandates or whole-sector requirements or anything like that,” she told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

“It’s about finding what’s fit for purpose for a particular business so that … we can help them navigate the system, because right now the system is broken.”

Small businesses had previously been left out of industrial relations discussions, but that must change, Ms Boyd said.

I have a statement from the NSW department of education about today’s stabbing in Orange:

Emergency services were called to Canobolas Rural Technology High School today following an altercation between two students. Staff immediately provided first aid.

The school was placed into lockdown for a short period of time as a safety precaution.

Wellbeing supports are in place for all staff and students.

As this is a NSW Police matter, it would be inappropriate to comment further.

Samantha Lock

In a 20-minute interview from inside the Indonesian jail from which he could soon be released, Patek said he “disagreed” with the plan to bomb two nightclubs.

Retail sales up 1.3% in July, ABS reports

From AAP:

Retail sales jumped higher than expected in July, showing that consumers are still spending despite cost-of-living pressures.

Retail sales rose 1.3 per cent in July, which was sharply higher than the 0.3 to 0.4 per cent increase expected by analysts.

The latest lift in retail turnover follows a slowdown in momentum in the past two months, with retail sales increasing by 0.2 per cent in June and 0.7 per cent in May.

“After slowing growth in recent months, the 1.3 per cent rise in July was the largest since the 1.6 per cent rise in March,” Australian Bureau of Statistics head of retail statistics Ben Dorber said.

Overall retail trade was up 16.5 per cent compared to the same time last year.

Paul Karp

Sky News is reporting that Scott Morrison will cooperate with the Virginia Bell inquiry into his secret multiple ministries.

We asked his spokesperson, who replied:

Unfortunately, Mr Morrison is yet to receive any information or formal communication from the Prime Minister or his Department about the Inquiry the Prime Minister has initiated or its terms of reference. Mr Morrison will wait to hear from Justice Bell and communicate directly with her as appropriate and respect the confidences of their interaction.