TRANSCRIPT
- The Prime Minister casts his Yes vote in the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum;
- Workers at Coles and Woolworths take industrial action
- Wallabies coach Eddie Jones takes responsibility for World Cup defeats in Fiji
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has cast his vote in favour of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament proposal in his home seat of Marrickville.
This comes one week ahead of the official referendum voting day on the 14th of October.
He says there's a long way to go in closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, but he believes the voice proposal is an important first step.
"We want to do things with Indigenous Australians, rather than for them or to them. And that's what this referendum is about, the opportunity that we are giving every Australian with one vote, one value. To write yes. Everything to gain and nothing to lose."
And you can find comprehensive information about the referendum by visiting the SBS Voice Referendum portal at www.sbs.com.au/voicereferendum
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A number of Coles and Woolworths workers have stopped manning checkouts and stocking aisles across the country today in the first national supermarket strike in Australian history.
The Retail and Fast Food Workers' Union [[RAFFWU]] says about a thousand workers went on strike for two hours from 10am to midday today.
The union secretary Josh Cullinan says they are demanding a base rate of $29 per hour for all Woolworths and Coles workers; safer workplaces and secure jobs for casual workers.
He says the supermarket companies are not prioritising the safety of their staff.
"Coles workers are experiencing abuse, threats, intimidation and assaults every single day. The workers are being stalked home, the women are facing sexual harassment every shift. The workers are being assaulted on the floor, and what does the company say? 'Why is there a safety issue? Why don't these workers raise it with their managers?"
R-A-F-F-W-U members account for fewer than 500 of Woolworths' 132,000 supermarket employees and less than 0.4 per cent of Coles' workers, with the majority represented by the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association who did not go on strike.
Despite the strikes, Coles and Woolworths maintain the parties are collaboratively engaged in working out a new enterprise agreement.
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New South Wales police are pleading with young drivers to take care after a 16-year-old boy has died and five others were injured after a crash on Sydney's northern beaches.
Emergency services arriving at the scene found six teenagers with varying injuries after the ute they were in left the road and hit a tree.
One of the boys, who was travelling in the front passenger seat, was taken to hospital but later died.
The 17-year-old red P-plate driver was airlifted to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital where he remains in a critical but stable condition.
New South Wales Police Superintendent Pat Sharkey says the tragedy serves as a reminder for all drivers to take caution when driving at night and follow the rules of the road.
"Look, it's a very traumatic situation for all parties involved, the families will be clearly devastated. We believe they're all friends and that certainly makes it more difficult for the families. It's certainly traumatic for police, fire ambulance, doctors and nurses. This is a common message that gets put out by police as a result of these incidents, I would appeal for all drivers and obviously particularly young and inexperienced drivers to simply obey the road rules. They're there for a reason, and drive with due care and consideration of the road conditions that prevail at the time."
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Wallabies coach Eddie Jones says he blames himself for injuries to captain Will Skelton and prop Taniela Tupou in training in the run-up to the World Cup pool match against Fiji in mid-September.
Skelton, who suffered a calf strain, and Tupou, who was ruled out with a hamstring problem, were key to Jones's plan of combining forward power with backline flair in the key matches against Fiji and Wales, both of which were lost.
Jones says there are lessons to be learned but he ultimately takes responsibility for the failure.
"The best experience is having the lessons. I don't want to make any excuses for us, we accept the results, I accept the responsibility for it. There are things that need to be done and they'll be done in due course."
