A daily 5 minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Welcome to SBS News in Easy English. I'm Deborah Groarke.
A Perth hospital has denied neglecting a one-year-old Indigenous girl who died in its care, amid claims staff were racist and lied to the child's family.
Kailee was admitted to Perth Children’s Hospital last Wednesday where she later died.
Deputy Chair of the state's Deaths in Custody Watch Committee Desmond Blurton has called on the government to take responsibility for the actions of the health system.
"Aboriginal people have become victims of a racist medical system where a young Aboriginal child, Kailee, rest in dreamtime, was taken too soon from a young family. The treatment meted out to the little girl was undoubtedly subhuman. And the doctor involved should be taken to task for mistreatment and abuse of a young child."
PRIME Minister Anthony Albanese has rejected claims that the federal government isn't doing enough to ensure that the Reserve Bank will not continue to increase interest rates.
The RBA board left rates on pause at 4.1 percent at its monthly meeting on Tuesday, but it hasn't ruled out future increases as the battle to contain inflation continues.
The Opposition wants Labor to pull on all the levers it has at its disposal to ensure interest rates don't continue to rise, with cost of living pressures on households already too hard to handle.
But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has told Channel Seven the economy is influenced by outward factors the government has no control over.
"We have had global inflation. It has had a real impact here, as it has around the world. Our interest rates are still lower, of course, than they are in Europe and the United States, even across the ditch. And that's why we are working each and every day. We do have record jobs growth. We do have an increased surplus. And we do have lower inflation."
THE opposition says government bodies have been using thousands of drones and devices made by a Chinese company with links to the country's military, despite them being banned in the United States.
The Coalition's Cyber Security spokesman James Paterson says his audit found over 3000 drones and other technology made by D-J-I were in use by at least 38 agencies and departments.
These include the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Defence, and the Bureau of Meteorology.
Defence Minister Richard Marles grounded the drones earlier this year over security concerns.
Senator Patterson says a government-wide grounding of all D-J-I drone fleets should be urgently enforced.
JAPAN has received approval from the United Nations' nuclear monitor for its plan to release treated radioactive water from the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima plant into the ocean.
After a two-year review, the International Atomic Energy Agency says Japan's plans are consistent with global safety standards and they will have a negligible radiological impact on people and the environment.
Director General of the Agency Rafael Mariano Grossi says the community will be further consulted as the process continues.
"I will be heading to Fukushima where I will be meeting the management of the plant and will be also establishing permanent presence of IAEA at the plant and will be meeting local stakeholders; eleven mayors of the region."
THE iconic Montague Island off the New South Wales south coast has been given a dual Indigenous name in honour of the cultural significance of the island to the Yuin people.
Environment minister Penny Sharpe says the Aboriginal name - Barunguba - will sit alongside the non-Indigenous name.
The island off Narooma is valued as a significant ceremonial area and resource-gathering place, and is also home to several seabird species - including the endangered Gould's petrel.
I'm Deborah Groarke. This is SBS News in Easy English.
