Calls for deeper gambling reform in NSW; ACT Police criticised over the wrongful arrest and search of Aboriginal teenager; Jai Arrow set to reach 100 games for South Sydney.
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TRANSCRIPT
- New South Wales unveils sweeping new poker machine reforms
- ACT Police criticised over the wrongful arrest of Aboriginal teenager
- And in NRL, Jai Arrow set to reach 100 games for South Sydney
The New South Wales government has unveiled major new poker machine reforms, including mandatory facial recognition in gaming rooms and a statewide exclusion register.
The package will also ban VIP gambling programs, but stops short of mandatory account-based gambling and a major cut to the state’s 87,000 poker machines.
Critics say the government is still avoiding the strongest measures to reduce gambling harm.
Wesley Mission CEO Reverend Stu Cameron says the changes are too little, too late.
"Whilst we welcome some of the initiatives in the announcement made today by minister Harris, in many ways it's too little too late. It feels like we're kicking the can down the road when it comes to real proportionate gambling reform and poker machine harm here in NSW."
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Heading across the border to Queensland: the state has recorded its second case of H5 bird flu, after a dead migratory seabird tested positive on the Sunshine Coast.
The wild shearwater was found at Castaways Beach, with samples now sent to the CSIRO for confirmation.
Queensland’s first case was detected on Moreton Island last month, but authorities say there is no current detection of the virus in poultry.
The state government has increased surveillance and is urging people to report sick or dead wild birds.
An investigation has found ACT police unlawfully searched a 17-year-old Aboriginal boy, after mistakenly arresting him at gunpoint in Canberra last year.
The teenager was pulled from a bus in Woden, forced face-down onto the ground and handcuffed after being mistaken for a man suspected of an attempted carjacking.
The ombudsman found the use of firearms and handcuffs during the arrest was appropriate, but the boy was searched after officers realised they had the wrong person.
Iain Anderson found no evidence racism led to the arrest but has recommended police reconsider using race as a way of describing suspects.
"I don't believe racism was involved in this. Police were looking for another Aboriginal youth, dressed in an identical way. I have made recommendations about whether police should cease using race as a descriptor because Aboriginal people are as varied in the way they look, and in their culture as non-Aboriginal people. It's not a useful nor meaningful descriptor to say we're looking for an Aboriginal."
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The Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation is urging the government to invest in Aboriginal-led suicide prevention.
Representatives from the organisation have gathered at Parliament House to mark 2,000 days since Victoria's Royal Commission into Mental Health tabled its final report.
Gunditjmara woman and VACCHO Chief Executive Dr Jill Gallagher says during that time over 121 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have lost their lives to suicide.
Speaking with SBS, she says the establishment of Aboriginal-led, on Country healing centres would go a long way to reduce the demand for crisis mental health services.
"So, what these two healing services will do. They will marry, Aboriginal healing, with modern day mental health services. So, we'll marry those two aspects together. And we believe, and the data is showing, that we will have better outcomes if we do that in the Victorian national community."
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Construction has begun on a new gallium recovery plant in Western Australia, aimed at reducing global reliance on China for the critical mineral.
The facility at Alcoa's Wagerup alumina refinery is expected to eventually produce up to 10 per cent of the world's gallium supply.
Gallium is used in semiconductors, telecommunications and defence technology, with around 98 per cent of global supply currently coming from China.
WA Premier Roger Cook says critical minerals will be increasingly important to Australia's sovereign capability.
"Critical minerals will continue to play an important role, particularly as we confront uncertain times into the future, and we very much look forward to making sure that Western Australia can stay an important partner for the country as part of that sovereign capacity."
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And now to sport.
South Sydney forward Jai Arrow will be allowed to reach 100 games for the Rabbitohs under a special arrangement with the NRL.
The 31-year-old, who retired in May after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease, will start in rounds 26 and 27.
He’ll be substituted in the opening seconds before taking any active part in play.
Arrow will lead the team onto the field and then sit on the interchange bench with his teammates.
