Afternoon Update: PM’s census backflip; Aboriginal teen dies in detention; and Kamala Harris’s radically normal interview
Good afternoon. Anthony Albanese has said there will be a question in the census on sexuality, following days of backlash – including among Labor MPs – against the decision to ditch a proposal to include questions on gender and sexuality.
The prime minister told ABC Melbourne radio his government had not gone through the census questions “line by line” and it was for the Australian Bureau of Statistics to decide what was asked.
The backflip came after almost a week of criticism over the decision, including from the government’s own backbench, as well as advocacy groups.
Top news
NSW Liberal MP charged with child sexual abuse offences | Rory Amon has quit parliament and the state Liberal party after being charged with 10 child sexual assault offences, following an investigation into an alleged assault on Sydney’s northern beaches. He has released a statement denying all charges.
Aboriginal teenager dies at Banksia Hill | A teenager has died at a detention centre in Western Australia after calls to staff were ignored. It’s the second time in less than a year a child has died in detention in the state.
Star declared unsuitable to regain casino licence | Star Entertainment has been declared unsuitable to take back control of its lucrative Sydney casino after a damning inquiry highlighted a litany of failures.
Man charged with murder after two bodies found in Brisbane’s north-west | A Brisbane man has been charged with murder by “reckless indifference” after allegedly supplying drugs to two people, then failing to render assistance when they suffered what police describe as an “adverse reaction”.
Warm and windy end to winter in NSW and Queensland | Sydney has recorded its hottest August day since 1995, amid hot and windy conditions in NSW and Queensland.
More surgery for baby scalded with hot liquid in Brisbane park attack | A baby boy who was scalded with hot liquid in an alleged random attack in a Brisbane park is undergoing a second surgery today, as doctors continue to assess the severity of his burns.
IDF launches fatal airstrike on humanitarian aid convoy in Gaza | The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have said they carried out an airstrike on a humanitarian aid convoy in Gaza aimed at “armed assailants” trying to hijack it, but the charity that organised the aid said people killed in the strike were employees of the transport company it was working with.
Kamala Harris defends defends policy and shares plans in interview | Harris sat for her first interview as the Democratic presidential nominee with CNN’s Dana Bash on Thursday, alongside her running mate, Tim Walz, and defended her shifts on certain policy issues over the years – as well as her support for Joe Biden. Our analyst described it as “radically normal”.
New Zealand’s Māori King Tuheitia dies at 69 | New Zealand was in mourning on Friday after Māori King Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII died peacefully at the age of 69.
In video
Who is the Russian billionaire founder of Telegram?
Pavel Durov, known as the “Russian Mark Zuckerberg” for having founded a similar platform to Facebook in Russia called VKontakte, is a self-styled champion of free speech and has cultivated a reputation for being unwilling to work with authorities to censor and more closely control what happens on his platform. His arrest has raised important questions about the extent to which tech executives are responsible for how users employ their social media networks. Chris Stokel-Walker, a technology journalist, explains the implications for the tech sector.
What they said …
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“I think constructing everything as kind of right or left, or woke or not woke, I just think it is part of the problem.”
Tasmanian Liberal MP Bridget Archer, on Peter Dutton describing the addition of questions in the census on sexuality as being part of the “woke agenda”.
In numbers
Sydney has recorded its hottest August day since 1995 as parts of Australia swelter through a warm and windy end to winter, and what is almost certain to be the country’s hottest August on record.
Before bed read
Ethically dubious or a creative gift?
Debate continues to rage around the ethics and legalities that surround artificial intelligence, particularly its role in art. It comes as artists have begun exploring the technology’s possibilities – and its precarities.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: CORE . You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
