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TRANSCRIPT
- Sussan Ley praises 'constructive' talks with Nationals leader David Littleproud
- The US Justice Department says it's taken down thousands of documents inadvertently including victim-identifying information
- Two mothers feature in the Top 10 for first time in rankings history
Opposition leader Sussan Ley has offered to reunite the Coalition this week on the condiiton that the three senators who crossed the floor on hate speech laws remain on the backbench for six months.
Ms Ley described conversations with Nationals leader David Littleproud last night as 'constructive' whilst also brushing off suggestions of threats to her leadership.
Ms Ley says she feels confident progressing talks with the Nationals.
"We had constructive conversations with the national party last night, but I want to make a point that they were they were constructive. We agreed to keep doing that because we are both parties on the non Labor side of politics."
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Teachers and principals in New South Wales who engage in hate speech could be fired under new rules for school staff.
The state government says the policy change applies from today, and does not require legislation or regulation.
The changes affect the code of conduct for staff across government, independent and Catholic schools - giving the regulator the power to direct a school to fire a staff member in the event of a breach.
Premier Chris Minns says it follows cases where prominent teachers or principals have been accused of hate speech, but the government felt it could not take action.
Deputy Premier Prue Car says the change is needed.
"This is a common sense change. The vast majority of schools this will never apply to. But it is important that the government sends a message to parents of New South Wales that schools should always be safe places. And in order for those to be as safe as possible, we will crack down on hate speech in schools and the community."
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Federal Health Minister Mark Butler says states and territories have endorsed the government's Thriving Kids program promoting early intervention for children with mild disability.
This agreement was reaching during a National Cabinet meeting on Friday, where federal and state and territory governments finalised a hospital funding deal.
The five-year agreement, which will start from July, will see the federal government provide an extra $25 billion for public hospitals.
This was in exchange for states and territories picking up more of the cost of disability services such as the NDIS, as well as $2 billion in funding from states and territories for the Thriving Kids program, which is due to start in October - three months later than originally planned.
Minister Butler challenged the idea that the program would place the burden of care on families.
"Now there was a life before the NDIS. The NDIS has only been in place for a little over a decade. And before that time, all the services that we're really talking about thorugh the Thriving Kids programme, did exist at a state level. I mean it has been, it's not rocket science. It's been quite well understood, that the best thing you can do for a child who is not hitting developmental milestones, is to provide parents with support to support their own children."
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The US Justice Department says it's taken down several thousand documents and media that may have inadvertently included victim-identifying information.
It blamed the release of sensitive information - contained within documents on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein - on 'technical or human error'.
The effect of errors in the document redactions was highlighted on Monday at a sex trafficking trial in New York federal court when lawyers for two high-end real estate brokers and their brother asked Judge Valerie Caproni for a mistrial because of documents that were made public without necessary redactions.
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In tennis,
Two mothers feature inside the Top 10 for the first time in rankings history.
Belinda Bencic and Elina Svitolina are the fifth and sixth players to be ranked inside the Top 10 as mothers, following Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Kim Clijsters and Serena Williams.
Bencic says she is proud of the achievement.
"Making the top 10 means a lot to me. I am super proud of this achievement, but I think mainly I have to thank my support team - my family for helping me so much; to make this possible for me to do what I'm doing. To travel around the world and still play tennis. I think without them, I wouldn't be able to do that. And in general, I am just super happy. And also thanks so much for the fans for the support."
Under rules introduced from 2019, new mothers returning to the tour are able to use their previous ranking to enter 12 tournaments over a three-year period from the birth of their child.
