TRANSCRIPT
- Julian Assange's wife Stella says his guilty plea has serious implications for journalistic freedom
- The Greens and the Coalition team up to delay the government's Build to Rent scheme
- Larry Kestelman hopes to revitalise the women's game with his acquisition of the WNBL.
The wife of Julian Assange says the espionage charge levelled against him by the United States government was a charge criminalising journalism itself.
The Wikileaks founder has returned to Australia after a 14-year legal saga, following sentencing on a single charge of breaching the U-S espionage act, for releasing classified documents.
Mr Assange pleaded guilty in a federal court on the U-S territory of Saipan and received a sentence for time already spent in prison, before flying home to reunite with family.
Stella Assange, who married Mr Assange in a ceremony at London's Belmarsh Prison in 2022, said his case has serious implications for journalistic freedom.
"If Julian pleaded guilty in federal court in Saipan, it's because he was pleading guilty to committing journalism. This case criminalises journalism, journalistic activity - standard journalistic activity of news-gathering and publishing. And so this is the reality of this prosecution. It's ... the case should never have been brought. But the important thing is, Julian is free."
A scheme designed to entice property investors to drop rents has been delayed after an unlikely team-up between the Greens and the Coalition.
The Opposition and the Greens joined forces to send the government's proposed laws to a Senate inquiry, which won't report back until the 4th of September.
The Build to Rent scheme would give investors extra tax incentives in a bid to build 150,000 extra rental homes, including 10 per cent rented out at less than 75 per cent of market value.
But Liberal senator Andrew Bragg said the scheme would give foreign investors a disproportionate role in the property market.
Greens Housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather says it would give tax payouts to investors while 75 per cent of the market remains unaffordable to renters.
"Now they've decided they're going to bowl up bills that tinker around the edges or make the housing crisis worse, and then declare it's their way or the highway.
Their way is more renters evicted because they can't afford their rent. Their way is more first-home buyers giving up on every owning a home. Their way is more people waiting for public housing as the government continues to chronically under-fund public housing."
Housing Minister Julie Collins hit back, saying the Greens and the Opposition were prioritising politics over people.
A man has been arrested after a woman's body was found at a Sydney home, following reports of a domestic violence incident.
Police were called to the property in Russell Lea, in Sydney's inner west, where they found the woman, believed to be in her fifties.
Investigators says the pair were known to each other.
An Indigenous-led campaign is touring the country to help fight high suicide rates in remote and regional areas by strengthening intergenerational connections.
"Stronger Together" is run by mental health organisation R-U-O-K, which encourages Australians to start frank conversations with each other about mental health.
Indigenous man Stephen Satour is "Stronger Together" campaign manager, and says Indigenous people in remote and regional areas experience the highest rates of suicide and poor mental health.
Mr Satour told NITV there is a range of ways the "conversation convoy" - which has so far travelled to areas around Perth, Broome and Darwin - encourages connection.
"Getting yarning circles happening, also encouraging young people to teach old people technology. Really simple things that foster connection. And when you create those positive environments, that's when we're going to start to see that deeper rapport building and, really, the listening to the wisdom that our old people have to offer."
In basketball,
Mogul Larry Kestelman is hoping to revitalise the W-N-B-L as he did the N-B-L, after Basketball Australia sold the league to a consortium he co-runs.
The sale was announced on Thursday ((27 June)) after months of speculation, and means the N-B-L will take over operation of the women's league from April 2025.
A Telco entrepreneur, Mr Kestelman bought the NBL in 2015 and has revitalised the league, which welcomed one million fans to games last season for the first time since 1996.
