In this bulletin: a rush to find seats on commercial flights as Australians seek to evacuate from Israel; Healing ceremonies held as Indigenous leaders reflect on the referendum result; and in sports, multiple attendance records broken during the opening weekend of the A-League women's competition.
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TRANSCRIPT
In this bulletin...
Rush to find seats on commercial flights as Australians seek to evacuate from Israel...
Healing ceremonies held as Indigenous leaders reflect on the referendum result...
and in sports,
Multiple attendance records broken during the opening weekend of the A-League women's competition.
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The Australian government says it is working with commercial carriers to arrange flights to help Australians who have indicated they want to leave Israel.
About 900 have been evacuated already and hundreds more are seeking repatriation flights.
Security concerns cancelled flights on Saturday night [[14 Oct]], before the Australian government announced they had secured more flights to resume on Sunday [[15 Oct]] using government-charter planes and Air Force planes.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong says all flights are subject to security assessments and she urged Australians wanting to evacuate to take the first option that becomes available - rather than waiting.
Anthony Goldman, joint managing director of travel agency Goldman Group, says his company has been dealing with a large volume of requests from those within Israel seeking commercial flight options.
He told SBS It has been challenging trying to book flights.
"Availability of seats is slim. We are managing people to access El Al flights, specifically towards the east, towards Asia which is good. But there is limited availability. There are a lot of Australians wanting to get out - holidaymakers who are literally in Israel last Saturday and have had their holiday disrupted. A lot of Israel study programs operate. So a lot of those students are wanting to leave Israel."
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A number of First Nations Australians have come together at healing events around the country, as they mark what they call "a week of silence" to grieve the referendum result.
Victoria's democratically-elected First People's Assembly urged Aboriginal Australians to be gentle on themselves and others.
In the inner-city Sydney suburb of Redfern [[at the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence]], members of the community say the result is a devastating blow - and it's important to come together at this time.
Shane Sturgiss, from the BlaQ Aboriginal Corporation*, told NITV, the whole process of the referendum has taken its toll - but campaigners will regroup and move forward.
"The votes are in. The country has said their piece. They have had their voice. And it is now time for us to start reconnecting and working together to become stronger and more resilient. This is not the first time that we've had to overcome adversity - and it won't be the last time. But it is an important to reconnect."
Bridget says she is taking heart from the Australians who voted yes.
"What we have to be thankful and grateful for is that 6 million people voted yes and there are a whole lot more people who voted no, but for various misguided reasons they voted no. But even so they support Aboriginal people and the closing of the gap"
First Nations listeners seeking mental health support can contact 13YARN 13 92 76 or Aboriginal Counselling Services 0410 539 905. Lifeline Australia's number is 13 11 14
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The Australian Electoral Commission has rejected suggestions there was interference during the deployment of mobile teams to remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory.
No campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says she doesn't take the voting results seriously in her electorate, after a majority Yes vote was returned across the remote mobile teams.
She says she thinks there needs to be an investigation of the AEC's conduct of polling in remote communities, providing no evidence for her claims.
"I think going ahead, we need to look at the AEC and the NT AEC conduct themselves to remote polling at elections, at referendums. I think we should take away those who come in with their how-to-votes. The unions who come in and overpower vulnerable Aboriginal people in those communities. There is a lot that goes in remote Aboriginal communities, that the rest of the community doesn't get to see."
A spokesperson for the AEC rejected claims of interference in the vote counting process, saying that the issue of political campaigning is separate - and the ability to campaign is allowed at any polling place.
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Six years after Jacinda Ardern's win, and three years after a winning historic majority, New Zealand's Labour party seems likely to have crashed to earth.
The centre-left party is set to return to the dark days of opposition with a basement result in the 2023 election.
With 98 per cent of the preliminary vote counted, Labour is sitting on 26.8 per cent - within a few percentage points of their worst result in the last 100 years.
Leader Chris Hipkins, drafted in as prime minister following Jacinda Ardern's shock resignation in January, put a brave face on the result in his concession speech.
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In football, A-League Commissioner Nick Garcia says the impact of the Matildas' performance during the Women's World Cup can be seen on the domestic league, with four attendance records broken in the opening weekend of the A-League women's competition.
The attendance record set in last season’s Grand Final, has been eclipsed in just two games of the new season.
More than 17,000 fans attended the F3 Derby and Sydney Derby combined.
Overall, the figures have resulted in two standalone attendance records broken; and two all-time round attendance records set.
Garcia says the outcome is the result of more than two years of planning for the Women's World Cup - and he is pleased to see an unprecedented 198 per cent growth in memberships across the league since that time.
