As it happened: National housing target to be increased; Matildas prepare for Women’s World Cup semi-final clash with England

Returning to independent senator Lidia Thorpe, who says the Voice to parliament referendum should be called off.

Thorpe said as a member of the Blak Sovereign Movement she was pointing out the Voice was a “powerless advisory body”.

“We are merrily pointing out that there is no progress,” she said at the National Press Club in Canberra.

The senator said the Voice was a false hope.

“We deserve better. This is why we should call off the referendum,” she said.

Thorpe said the referendum debate had caused nothing but harm and division.

“And, for what? There won’t be change until this society changes, until this society’s thinking, values, attitudes and systems have been revolutionised in order to ensure real self-determination,” she said. “We cannot continue the legacy of the Australian colony.”

Thorpe said there were three positions on the Voice: those who supported it, the “conservative, racist No”, and the “so-called progressive No”.

She said the progressive No was the position of the Blak Sovereign Movement.

Overseas, the death toll from the wildfires in Hawaii last week has risen above 100 as teams intensified the search for more dead in neighbourhoods reduced to ash.

Governor Josh Green announced the confirmed death toll had risen from 99 to 101 in an afternoon video address, saying, “We are heartsick that we’ve had such loss.”

A mobile morgue unit arrived on Tuesday (US time) to help Hawaii officials working painstakingly to identify the remains of people killed in the wildfires.

The US Department of Health and Human Services deployed a team of coroners, pathologists and technicians along with exam tables, X-ray units and other equipment to identify victims and process remains, said Jonathan Greene, the agency’s deputy assistant secretary for response.

“It’s going to be a very, very difficult mission,” Greene said.

“And patience will be incredibly important because of the number of victims.”

A week after a blaze tore through historic Lahaina, many survivors started moving into hundreds of hotel rooms set aside for displaced locals, while donations of food, ice, water and other essentials poured in.

The magnitude of the fire, which charred a 13-square-km area of town in hours, combined with the logistical challenges of recovery have taken a toll on many of Lahaina’s 13,000 year-round residents, who are also facing the prospect of precious tourist dollars evaporating.

Reuters, AP

Independent senator Lidia Thorpe is speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra, where she tells the audience that the Voice to parliament is not a step in the right direction.

“Today I want to take you on a journey about my people,” Thorpe said today.

Thorpe, who quit the Greens earlier this year over its support for the Voice claimed there was a “continued cultural genocide” in Australia.

She wanted to talk about the pain her people were feeling and the fights they continue to fight.

“I will tell you about the proposed Voice to parliament is not a step in the right direction, and that we need to mature as a nation instead.”

Thorpe said she represented the Blak Sovereign Movement, and that it was not a new movement.

“It is just that we have never had a platform nor an audience willing to listen before,” she said.

“We speak truth to power, and our resistance started the day war came here, uninvited, to our shores.”

The Press Club in Canberra will hear from other No campaigners in coming months. Coalition senator Jacinta Price has accepted an invitation to speak and Warren Mundine has postponed a speech.

AFL legend Michael Long has spoken about his plan to walk from Melbourne to Canberra in support of the Yes campaign.

He will set off from Melbourne Town Hall on the morning of August 27, and during the first day will travel to Windy Hill.

Speaking on ABC TV today, Long spoke about his initial walk to Canberra, which took place nearly two decades ago.

Long’s walk in 2004 was motivated by the Howard government’s decision to abolish the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.

“There wasn’t a Voice or vision when Aboriginal Torres Strait islander Commission was abolished in 2004,” he said. “We’re still talking about this in 2023.”

He said the Voice would make a difference to Aboriginal people and offer them the ability to have a say about issues that impacted them.

“We want this to happen in our lifetime,” he said of the Voice.

The former AFL player said everyone was entitled to their opinion, but said it was a referendum and not an election.

“It’s about people voting not just with their minds but their hearts,” he said.

Long met Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton about the Voice referendum in June.

Discount clothing retailer Best & Less is back-paying nearly 700 current and former staff members more than $5.2 million, nearly $500,000 in superannuation and signed an enforceable undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman.

The clothing retailer, which operates 189 clothing and linen stores, did not pay 686 managers the correct penalty rates, overtime, allowances and annual leave between 2013 and 2020.

Many of the managers worked overtime, weekend and night shifts. The retailer also failed to keep proper records.

Acting Fair Work Ombudsman Kristen Hannah said Best & Less had co-operated with the ombudsman and since implemented stringent measures to pay workers correctly.

“Employers that take a set-and-forget approach and fail to record and reconcile actual hours worked when paying salaries risk substantial back-pay bills to their hard-working staff,” she said, adding this was another reminder for employers to meet workplace obligations.

Best & Less discovered the underpayments, which spanned across regional and metropolitan areas across Australia, after an internal review and self-reported to the ombudsman in December 2020.

The average underpayment is about $7600, with the highest underpayment at $42,144.

Best & Less has already back-paid the majority of underpaid managers, and under the enforceable undertaking must repay all remaining staff by October.

The retailer will have to make a $200,000 contrition payment to the Commonwealth’s Consolidated Revenue Fund, implement notices in store, on its website and on social media about the contravention, set up a phone hotline for employee enquiries, pay for an independent expert to oversee a rectification program, and write to affected employees about the enforceable undertaking.

Farmers protesting the rollout of power lines drove their tractors into the heart of Melbourne, as the federal government declared Australia had no time to lose after a decade of inaction on renewables under the Coalition.

The mounting community backlash against new transmission lines needed to shift the electricity grid from coal-fired power to renewable energy looms as a crucial fight for federal and state governments, which have each set pressing climate targets.

The Albanese government has pledged to more than double the amount of power the electricity grid sources from renewables to 82 per cent by 2030 to help achieve its target of cutting greenhouse emissions 43 per cent by the same deadline.

Boosting supplies of cheaper renewable energy is also crucial to the government’s election promise to cut power bills by $275 by 2025, which has been brought into sharper focus amid heightened cost of living pressures.

Energy experts are increasingly worried that time is running out to build the thousands of kilometres of new high-voltage transmission lines needed to connect far-flung renewable energy zones to major cities, risking Australia’s ability to compensate for the looming closures of coal-fired power plants.

Readers can find out more about the protests here. 

Targets for ending violence will be set for the first time in Australia, with the backing of federal, state and territory governments.

The target includes a 25 per cent annual reduction in female victims of intimate partner homicide.

Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth told reporters in Brisbane today that governments across the country came together to end family, domestic and sexual violence.

“We’re working together and co-ordinating for shared responsibility and shared desire to end this and this today with the launch of the action plans are our next concrete step that we are taking to end violence against women and children,” Rishworth said.

A dedicated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander action plan charts a path to reducing, and ultimately ending, pervasive rates of family, domestic and sexual violence in Indigenous communities.

It is the first dedicated plan which acknowledges that underlying causes of violence in First Nations communities are different to those for non-Indigenous Australians, and was developed in partnership with Indigenous advisory bodies.

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said it was “incredibly significant”.

“The idea that we are a first-world nation that is doing so well, but yet the issue of family violence is something that is prevalent in the broader community and absolutely prevalent in an overrepresented way in the Aboriginal community,” Burney said.

She said it was a very important step of identifying the issue of family violence that was not spoken about until recently, particularly in Indigenous communities.

“It is something profound that this is taking place,” Burney said. “We live in a country where Aboriginal women and children experience violence, death ... at a much worse rate than other women, it’s not competition, that’s the reality.”

with AAP

Ross Gittins’ opinion piece on the pain of interest rate rises and why our politicians need to find a better way to fix inflation is sparking much debate with our subscribers.

@Matthew Corradin says: “I don’t think governments think about the alternatives because it directly affects how people view them. They nicely have the RBA as a buffer and say “it’s not us making your life harder”. It would be good to see some politicians think of the greater good rather than the short term mileage.”

@Cynthia Foster writes: “Finally, some sensible economics (is that an oxymoron?). When the RBA raises interest rates we transfer money from a vulnerable section of the public to the profits of the private banks. Is this a good outcome?”

@Mark says: “Even if inflation were to drop to ZERO tomorrow, the damage is done. A lot of these costs are not going to suddenly retract. My council rates have gone up 23% and my home insurance has skyrocketed 50% due to increased building costs.The pain has just started and I think it’s here to stay.”

@Paul Fletcher writes: “Some very good points in this article Ross. GST and or compulsory super adjustments make very good sense.”

But @Gregoire has a different take: “All true. But interest rates are not really punitive, they are just returning to a more normal level after a very unusual period.”

What do you think? Let us know using the link above.