TRANSCRIPT:
- Vandalism blamed for the latest Optus outage in Melbourne;
- Advocates cheer an EU court ruling on same-sex marriages in the bloc;
- More charges laid over an alleged suspicious betting ring for the Brownlows.
Australia's inflation rate has officially reached its highest level in 16 months.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics says the monthly consumer price index is now at 3.8 percent, with electricity increases of just over 37 percent and a rise in housing rents and new dwelling prices contributing to the new tally.
The opposition's Ted O'Brien has told the National Press Club that government policies are to blame.
"I refer to it as Jim-flation or the Jim-flation effect. It is a direct consequence of the spending spree by the Treasurer Jim Chalmers. And it's also why living standards by the way have fallen more sharply in Australia than in any other advanced economy."
The Federal Treasurer though says today's higher figure doesn't make Australia different to any other country.
"We won't be taking lectures from the Coalition about responsible economic management. If they'd had their way if they won the election, Australians would be earning less, paying higher income taxes, and there'd be bigger deficits and more debt."
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Optus says coverage is fully restored after an outage this morning in Melbourne that affected an estimated 14,000 people in Frankston and the Mornington Pensinsula.
Optus spokeswoman Jane McNamara says all six impacted sites are back online, and the telco does not believe triple zero calls were disrupted.
The telco says an act of vandalism is the reason for the outage - citing photographic evidence of criminals cutting fibre and removing copper from an aerial line.
Still, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has told Sky News she is seeking urgent advice on the situation, because the failure is the fourth time in months there has been a major Optus outage.
"Clearly, with this particular telecommunications company, this is another incident that is putting great concern in the community about their ability to connect to emergency services."
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The European Union's highest court has ruled that same-sex marriages must be respected throughout the bloc.
The EU Court of Justice has delivered the binding ruling at the request of a Polish court handling the case of two men who were married in Berlin in 2018.
The couple had sued after a Polish registry had refused to transcribe their German marriage certificate on the grounds that Polish law does not allow marriage between people of the same sex.
The lawyer representing the couple, Pawel [ Knut, says the judgement is historic and marks a new beginning.
"Today's decision by the Court of Justice does not introduce marriage equality in Poland, we need to be clear about that. What it does is require recognition of these foreign marriages so that the spouses can claim the rights and obligations that, under various rulings of international courts, already belong to them. It is the opening of a door, the start of a new chapter in the ongoing struggle for equal rights."
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A WARNING THAT THIS STORY CONTAINS CONTENT THAT MAY BE DISTRESSING FOR SOME LISTENERS
A mother who murdered her two young children and put their bodies into suitcases in a storage locker has been sentenced to life in prison in New Zealand.
High Court Justice Geoffrey Venning says the 45 year old will begin her sentence as a patient in a locked psychiatric facility under New Zealand's compulsory mental health treatment law.
Hakyung Lee will then return to prison when she is deemed well enough.
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Draft laws are being introduced into parliament to ban the use of genetic testing in insurance underwriting.
The current legal framework allow insurers to request and use a life insured’s genetic testing results when considering whether, and on what terms, to offer life insurance to individuals.
But Financial Services Minister Daniel Mulino says there have been cases where people are foregoing potentially lifesaving, clinically relevant genetic testing for fear of the negative impacts on policies.
"People getting genetic tests is on the rise. And that is a good thing. Hundreds of thousands of people are currently getting tests. But what we're also aware of is that there are situations in which some people are not getting tested where it could be to their benefit. So we want to make sure that we boost that overall upward trend by taking away any fear that people might have there would be an impact on their life insurance premiums."
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A new study has revealed why former Liberal and opposition leader Peter Dutton lost the last election.
Data from the Australian Election Study has found Peter Dutton was the least popular candidate for prime minister in at least four decades.
Study co-author Ian McAllister says he was the least popular major party leader the AES has ever polled.
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To sport,
A fifth man has been arrested over an alleged suspicious A-F-L betting ring.
The 34 year old has been charged by Sports Integrity detectives with 21 counts in relation to gambling on the 2021 and 2022 Brownlow Medal awards.
Former AFL umpire Michael Pell is also facing additional accusations.
He's facing six betting fraud offences over the 2021 event - and detectives have now added a further two counts of engaging in conduct in relation to the 2022 Medal.
