TRANSCRIPT
- The Prime Minister says the youth curfew in Alice Springs was an enormous success
- Australia's emergency network to be protected against future technical issues
- Hannah Green has snatched the spot of Australia's top-ranked women's golfer off Minjee Lee.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is visiting local organisations in Alice Springs today roughly a fortnight after the three-week youth curfew came to an end.
Authorities say the curfew was an attempt to curb a surge in violence in the town, which was triggered after an 18-year-old was killed in a car crash.
The Prime Minister spoke at Centralian Senior College in Alice Springs, and says the feedback he's had from the community is that the curfew was an enormous success.
"And it seems to me it really has provided that circuit breaker. Just like last year, the decision that was made about alcohol was positive as well, had a positive impact. We need to not be ideological about this. We need to look at what works and if it works, we're up for it. It's as simple as that."
Triple zero will be fortified against future technical issues like the Optus outage in November last year.
Almost one in three Australians were cut off from phone and internet services during the nationwide outage last year, with thousands of calls to the emergency hotline unable to go through.
The government will implement all 18 recommendations from the Bean review, which was commissioned following the outage.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland says there will be greater overisght on access to the emergency outline.
"We will be implementing the recommendation to establish a custodian of the triple zero service. This will initially be led by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, who has wide consumer confidence, but also a strong knowledge of the telco sector."
Labor is facing criticism after a released immigration detainee was among three people arrested for over the assault and robbery of an elderly couple in WA.
The man allegedly involved in the incident was one of 151 people released from immigration detention following the NZYQ High Court ruling that found it was unlawful to detain people when there was no real prospect of removal from Australia in the foreseeable future.
Independent Senator Jacquie Lambie has strongly condemned the incident, and told Channel Nine someone needs to be held responsible.
"Well, they broke their curfew, so that would've been the first warning. They should have been put behind bars. They broke the agreement that they had with our court system, whether they've got a monitoring ankle bracelet on or not, which would've been good if they had, but still that will not stop. Some of them, you won't get there quick enough before they can pull that door down. But seriously, if he'd already broken that curfew, why is he out in the street?"
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has called for an explanation from Immigration Minister Andrew Giles and Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil over the incident.
A group of Melbourne scientists are close to discovering a vaccine that can fight off all forms of influenza.
Scientists at the Doherty Institute have identified nine new similarities between different types of the influenza B virus, which can be particularly dangerous for children.
Killer T-cells in the immune system each reacted strongly to those nine fragments, which lead researcher Katherine Kedzierska likened to a "target" for future vaccines that aim to fight off all forms of the flu.
She said identifying parts of the virus that did not change was the "ultimate goal in the quest for a universal influenza vaccine".
The study was published in prestigious journal Nature Communications on Tuesday.
Authorities have recorded 42,000 laboratory confirmed cases of the flu in Australia so far in 2024 and more than 289,000 cases in 2023.
The federal and Queensland government is set to invest nearly $1 billion in an effort to build one of the world's most powerful quantum computers.
The investment in tech company PsiQuantum is part of the government's manufacturing push in its Future Made in Australia Plan.
The joint funding is looking to help the company build the world's first fault-tolerant quantum computer in Brisbane, where large calculations can be made with a low-error rate.
It's expected 400 jobs will be created through the manufacturing and production partnership.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the partnership could transform Australia into a quantum powerhouse.
And in golf,
Hannah Green has snatched the spot of Australia's top-ranked women's golfer off Minjee Lee.
Green's commanding successful defence of her LA Championship title, her second LPGA Tour win of the year and third inside 12 months, has sent the West Australian from 18th to No.8 in the world.
Green's rise not only elevated the former major winner into the top 10 for the first time, but also almost certainly secures the 27-year-old a spot on Australia's Games team for Paris 2024.
