TRANSCRIPT
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Fatima Payman made her own decision to quit the Labor Party
- NAIDOC Week about to begin with the theme "Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud and Proud"
- A criminal investigation opened into doping cases involving Chinese swimmers
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the timing of senator Fatima Payman's announcement to quit the Labor party is a matter for her.
A week after she was indefinitely suspended from the party for crossing the floor on Palestinian Statehood, Ms Payman made the decision yesterday [[Thu 4 Jul]] to cut ties with the party that fostered her career.
Ms Payman says she had only made the decision to leave the party and sit on the crossbench yesterday morning, after considering remarks from Mr Albanese during question time on Wednesday that he expected her to make an announcement on her future.
Mr Albanese says Ms Payman's decision is her own.
"We'll look at some of the meticulous timing of events including Senator payment choosing question time yesterday to make the statements that she did, people can draw their own conclusions. You know, I have mine. People will draw their own, but people should be upfront about their actions and should be accountable and responsible for them."
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The federal government has announced an allocation of $100 million for 33 Indigenous health infrastructure projects across the country.
The funding will go towards constructing new clinics, renovating existing clinics, and building staff housing for workers.
Federal Indigenous Affairs minister Linda Burney says the government is committed to seeing an improvement in the Closing the Gap indicators on areas including: health, education and housing.
"Today, we are considering our response to the Productivity Commission review, which found we all need to do better. It's an important part of strengthening and reinvigorating the partnership, the Commonwealth will speed up progress on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander review the assembly and the independent mechanism. And we will continue to deliver in our on our significant significant investments.
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The Royal Australian Mint is releasing a commemorative 50-cent coin designed by Indigenous artist Cortny Glass to mark the 50th anniversary of NAIDOC Week.
The design features the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags, native plants and emu footprints.
27-year-old Indigenous artist Cortney Glass says she was surprised and honoured that her design was selected from among 30 applicants.
Beginning on Sunday, NAIDOC Week celebrates the rich and diverse cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, with this year's theme set as: Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud and Proud.
Co-chair of the National NAIDOC Committee, Aunty Lynette Riley, says this year's theme "is a clarion call to continued unity and solidarity for all Australians to come together and celebrate".
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Online dating apps have pledged to escalate complaints of imminent safety threats more swiftly to police under a voluntary industry code.
The companies behind Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, Grindr, RSVP and eharmony are among those to adapt the code, developed after the 2023 national roundtable on online dating safety.
Features of the code include systems to detect potential incidents of online-enabled harm, termination of accounts found to have violated online safety policies, and prominent, clear and transparent complaint and reporting mechanisms.
Online dating site eharmony says in a statement it is proud to have helped develop the code with the aim of providing the safest experience possible for Australian daters.
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The Australian Tax Office is joining the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange.
The independent, non-profit entity helps to co-ordinate intelligence and data-sharing activities in the public and private sector to investigate and prevent financial and cyber crime.
Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones says the development will enable intelligence to be shared for faster action on scams.
"The sort of intelligence I'm talking about is where we know that scammers are using particular URLs or particular phone numbers or particular websites to attack their victims that will be shared with the Australian Tax Office where banks detect mule accounts or suspicious activity from particular destinations. That information can be shared with the Australian Tax Office."
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In sports, World Aquatics has confirmed its executive director (Brent Nowicki) has been ordered to testify in a US criminal investigation into doping cases of 23 Chinese swimmers.
The swimmers failed doping tests in 2021 but were allowed to continue competing - and won medals in the Tokyo Olympics.
Eleven of the 23 Chinese swimmers are set to compete in this year's Paris Olympics.
