TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to SBS News In Easy English. I'm Catriona Stirrat.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he will be using his visit to the Garma Festival tomorrow to show his support for First Nations people and his desire to achieve practical outcomes on Closing the Gap indicators.
The Garma Festival is Australia’s largest Indigenous gathering held over four days in remote northeast Arnhem Land.
Constitutional law professor and Cobble Cobble woman Megan Davis was one of the co-chairs of the Uluru Dialogues that led to last year’s referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
She told Garma festival attendees the need for First Nations recognition and representation is urgent, adding that data from the referendum showed most Indigenous Australians had voted "yes" to a constitutionally-enshrined body.
Mr Albanese says he will be taking senior members of his ministry with him to listen to Indigenous leaders.
"Education, health, life expectancy, infant mortality, incarceration rates - they shouldn't be determined by someone's origins in this country. And I seek a more reconciled country. I seek a country that brings people together. That requires more work to be done to achieve those practical outcomes - and to close the gap."
This week, the Productivity Commission released the first Closing the Gap report since the Voice referendum was defeated.
It shows only five of the 19 measures monitored are considered on track.
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United States National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says the US had wanted to include former Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a prisoner exchange before he died under mysterious circumstances in February.
Several Russian political dissidents, including at least four who had worked for Navalny, were among those included in the prisoner swap.
Exiled human rights lawyer Ivan Pavlov used to represent Navalny's team.
He told SBS Russian that Vladimir Putin had his motives for negotiating the prisoner swap - and he is not to be trusted.
"Russia is trying to score points. To show the whole world — look, you can deal with us, we can negotiate, we can keep some agreements. After all, this is really a large-scale operation, the largest exchange in history. This is a strong move on the part of Vladimir Putin in order to make an impressive show for everyone. Yes, it had an effect - and our colleagues, friends, political prisoners, they returned to us from prisons. But this does not stop the demonstration from being just a demonstration."
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First Nations writer Alexis Wright says she is deeply humbled to win the prestigious $60,000 Miles Franklin Literary Award.
The 73-year-old Waanyi writer has made history as the only author to have won both the Stella Prize and Miles Franklin award twice each.
The Miles Franklin judges commended her book, Praiseworthy, which is about residents in a fictional town in Australia's north. It also includes a haze cloud, Indigenous land rights, and global warming.
The book is also being translated into Italian.
Ms Wright says she hopes the prize encourages readers to take up the challenge of reading her book and "giving the brain cells a workout".
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In sports, Australia's women's 4x200-metre freestyle relay team has won the country's eighth gold medal of the Paris Games.
Mollie O’Callaghan, Lani Pallister, Bri Throssell and Ariarne Titmus achieved an Olympic record time of seven minutes and 38.08 seconds.
It's Pallister's first Olympic gold at her debut Games.
She almost missed being in the relay after contracting COVID.
Pallister says she cried with joy after winning gold.
Team USA took silver in the 4x200-metre swimming relay, making Katie Ledecky the most decorated American woman in Olympic history, with her 13th medal.
That was SBS News in Easy English. I'm Catriona Stirrat.
