Referendum date to be announced next Wednesday
Josh Butler
It’s now locked in: the announcement about the referendum date will be made on Wednesday 30 August in Adelaide, the prime minister’s office has confirmed.
The PM, Anthony Albanese, said in a statement this morning:
Very soon, our nation will have a once-in-a-generation chance to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our constitution – and make a positive difference to their lives with a voice.
Next week the date will be announced. I will be campaigning for constitutional recognition. Because if not now, when?
Albanese said the referendum campaign would be a chance to “celebrate our shared history and build a better shared future”.
Nothing to lose, everything to gain. Every Australian will get a say in this. Every Australian will have the opportunity to vote yes for a practical, positive difference in people’s lives.
No confirmation yet of what day the referendum will be held, but 14 October is still widely expected by government and campaign sources.
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The PM, Anthony Albanese, said in a statement this morning:
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Very soon, our nation will have a once-in-a-generation chance to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our constitution – and make a positive difference to their lives with a voice.
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Next week the date will be announced. I will be campaigning for constitutional recognition. Because if not now, when?
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Albanese said the referendum campaign would be a chance to “celebrate our shared history and build a better shared future”.
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Nothing to lose, everything to gain. Every Australian will get a say in this. Every Australian will have the opportunity to vote yes for a practical, positive difference in people’s lives.
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No confirmation yet of what day the referendum will be held, but 14 October is still widely expected by government and campaign sources.
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Australian music legend John Farnham has released his first personal statement in more than a year.
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The statement – a message of thanks to his fans – comes exactly 12 months after Farnham underwent a 12-hour surgery to remove a cancerous tumour from his mouth.
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Since then Farnham has been in and out of rehabilitation care and has undergone subsequent reconstructive surgeries, and was officially declared “all clear” of cancer last month.
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Farnham said he is the “luckiest man I know right now”:
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It’s been a year since my first surgery and to be honest I’ve lost count as to how many other procedures there’s been since then. I’m sure someone’s kept track of them all – let’s just say, there’s been a few.
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But, I’m home now and I’m a very grateful and happy man. I’m sitting here in my living room lapping up the attention from my beautiful wife, Jill, my boys Rob and James, and my mini schnauzer, Edmund.
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Farnham said it is only now, a year on, he can appreciate and comprehend how many messages of love and support he’s received since his first surgery:
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I don’t know what to say, other than thank you so very much. It honestly means the world to me.
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Farnham said he is going to celebrate today’s milestone with pizza, “because I can!”
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I can’t wait to see what might be next on the menu. Bring on 2024.
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The education minister, Jason Clare, says the Naplan results released this morning show the need for reform to overhaul the attainment gap between cities and remote regions.
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The Naplan results showed fewer than 30% of students in very remote schools rated as “strong” or “exceeding” in literacy and numeracy.
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That compared with at least 60% of students at major city schools across years 3, 5, 7 and 9 hitting those high targets in almost all learning areas.
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Nationally, one in 10 students across all grades were found to need extra support, while on average a third of all Indigenous students were in that category.
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“There is a massive over-representation in that group of children who are below the minimum standard, who are Indigenous, who live in regional Australia, whose mums and dads come from a poor background,” Clare said.
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“If these kids who, identified early, can’t break out of that minimum standard, it tells us that our education system needs some serious reform to identify those children and then do something about it.”
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Here’s our full story on the results:
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The referendum date is likely to be confirmed formally at an event in Adelaide next week, with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, expected to officially lock in 14 October as the Indigenous voice voting day in South Australia – a must-win state for the yes campaign.
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Guardian Australia understands Adelaide has been chosen as the location for the announcement, reflecting its importance to the yes campaign. The required “double majority” for the referendum change to succeed means that the Yes23 campaign needs to win four out of six states: Western Australia and Queensland are expected to vote against the change, while New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania are tipped to support the voice.
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That leaves South Australia as potentially the lynchpin of the entire campaign, for both sides; with victory in that state key to the referendum failing or succeeding.
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The date of 14 October has been long-tipped as the likely day of the referendum date due to a complicated set of timing factors, including considerations around football grand finals in early October and the rainy wet season in Australia’s north later in the year. However, the government may have other possible dates if it decides, for instance, to alter the parliamentary sitting calendar.
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Government and campaign sources were tight-lipped on Tuesday night on speculation about the referendum announcement, but Guardian Australia understands voice supporters are preparing for an event in Adelaide in the middle of next week, around 30 August.
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If 14 October is confirmed as the date, it would start a six-week campaign – slightly longer than the normal federal election campaign period.
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EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1692739239000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”17.20 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1692737092000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”16.44 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”16.44″,”title”:”Indigenous voice referendum date likely to be announced next week”,”contributors”:[{“name”:”Josh Butler”,”imageUrl”:”https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2022/07/01/Josh_Butler.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=f6e36ddc89d1442611e6b4fe726302d0″,”largeImageUrl”:”https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2022/07/01/Josh_Butler.png?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=b99fc3ae31423d51324e5f82baea0af0″}],”primaryDateLine”:”Tue 22 Aug 2023 18.52 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Tue 22 Aug 2023 16.30 EDT”},{“id”:”64e48b638f08ac5429b5467f”,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
Good morning and welcome to our rolling news coverage. I’m Martin Farrer, bringing you the top overnight lines before my colleague steps up to the plate.
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Anthony Albanese is expected to announce the date of the Indigenous voice referendum next week at an event in Adelaide, and 14 October is looking the most likely. With the yes campaign needing to carry four out of six states and Queensland and Western Australia expected to vote no, strategists say the yes team must win South Australia to go with hoped-for wins in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania. And as the campaign builds, today we report how a New Zealand culture war activist is being co-opted by far-right groups in Australia that could spread “dangerous falsehoods” about the vote.
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It’s Naplan results day today and they show that one in 10 students are not meeting standards in literacy and numeracy. Students with high levels of socioeconomic disadvantage are even less likely to be keeping up. We’ve got more on this coming up. It comes as advocates are calling for urgent federal investment in high schools to ensure children with disabilities are supported through their final years of study.
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Australia is experiencing an intense surge in cases of “invasive strep A”, which develops from the common bacteria strep A, a study published in medical journal the Lancet Regional Health has found. Our medical editor Melissa Davey has the full story of this potentially deadly infection.
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Key events
Baby dead after being found unresponsive in car
A baby has died in an outback Western Australian town after being found unresponsive in a car, AAP reports.
The child was found in the vehicle in Fitzroy Crossing, in the Kimberley region, on Tuesday and taken to the Fitzroy Crossing hospital, police said.
Officers were called to the hospital about 3pm. The baby was not able to be revived.
Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the baby’s death.
Farmers federation concerned about buybacks in Murray-Darling plan
The chief executive of the National Farmers Federation, Tony Mahar, spoke to ABC News Breakfast this morning about the new Murray-Darling Basin agreement between the commonwealth and all basin states except Victoria.
The agreement gives states three more years to finish water projects, with more water buybacks also on the table. You can read the full details from my colleague Anne Davies here.
Mahar said the farmers federation has “real concerns” the government has “immediately jumped” to water buybacks. He argued that water coming out of the basin risks food and grocery prices going up and risks bipartisan support:
The key thing of this plan is so complex that everyone has to be kept around the table. You disenfranchise a state like Victoria – a third of the agricultural production comes out of Victoria. The plan will fall to pieces and basin communities and farmers and businesses will be devastated.
Mahar said the federation will lobby for legislation on the agreement to be blocked or at least changed until there is a bipartisan approach.
Murder charge after ‘mummified’ remains found in house
A murder charge has been laid following the discovery of decomposed remains hidden inside a Gold Coast home for a year, AAP reports.
Detectives investigating the death of Tomislav Nemes at Benowa arrested the 48-year-old suspect on Tuesday.
The mummified remains of the 69-year-old were found at the Edinburgh Road residence during a welfare check after interstate relatives raised concerns on 17 April.
Following extensive investigations, police say the accused man will appear before Southport magistrates court on Wednesday.
Nemes and his family moved to the tourist strip from the ACT in 2018.
Friends and relatives told investigators they lost touch over the years before Nemes disappeared.
Clare flags taskforce on sexual assault at universities
The education minister, Jason Clare, was also asked whether he would work to establish a specialised taskforce on sexual assault at universities.
Yesterday while he was speaking at the AFR Higher Education Summit, Clare said student safety on university campuses has “not been good enough” and more needs to be done to protect students from sexual harm. (You can read more on that here.)
Clare has already established a working group on the issue and told ABC RN a taskforce “may be one of the things that comes out of this”.
I’ve been speaking to organisations like End Rape On Campus … who have been advocating for this and [I] have been really affected by the point that they’ve made, that we’re just not doing enough in our universities to take action where sexual assault occurs …
We’ve got to take action and universities aren’t just places where people work or study, it’s places where people live, it’s stories of people living in the same dormitory where the perpetrator is around the corner.
Clare said this is why the working group is important – to develop recommendations and figure out a pathway forward.
School funding must be linked to resources to help struggling students: education minister
More from the education minister, Jason Clare, who spoke to ABC RN this morning about the latest Naplan findings.
He said the case has been clearly made that not only do schools need to be funded “fully and fairly”, but funding needs to be linked to the resources that will help students who are falling behind.
That is my chief concern here … If you fall behind and you stay behind, you’re more likely to drop out.
Clare said falling rates of children from poor families who finish high school “keeps [him] up at night”:
Six years ago in public schools it was 83% of children finishing high school, last year it was 76 …
This is happening at a time where you’ve got to finish high school and then go on to Tafe and university, otherwise it’s going to be harder and harder to get a job and build a career and do everything in your life that you hope to do.
Caitlin Cassidy
Clare: early intervention ‘critical’ to improving Naplan outcomes
The education minister, Jason Clare, says the poor Naplan findings are a result of changes to the test’s minimum standards, which raised the bar on where students were expected to perform.
This year’s results found about 10% of students were failing to meet minimum standards in literacy and numeracy. Clare compared this to around 7% last year.
He said the next step was to provide the additional support required.
The changes we have made to Naplan have raised the bar. We have done this on purpose … so we can really identify the students who need additional support.
Research released this week by the Australian Education Research Organisation (Aero) found only one in five students who are below the minimum standard in year 3 are above it in year 9.
Clare said early identification and intervention was “critical”.
That’s what the O’Brien review into the next national school reform agreement is all about. Making sure we are tying funding to the sort of things that help children who fall behind to catch up, keep up and finish school.
Hanson-Young: Victoria ‘like spoiled brats’ by not joining Murray-Darling plan
Sarah Hanson-Young was also critical of Victoria’s decision not to sign up for the new Murray-Darling plan.
She told ABC News Breakfast that South Australia is “at [the] mercy” of Victoria across the border and that Victoria is “carrying on like spoiled brats”:
It is not good enough. We need a national plan that will return water to the river to keep it flowing right down to the bottom.
I am very concerned without a guarantee that the water, that 450 gigalitres of water that was promised to SA that is needed to save the environment, particularly in the lower reaches, with Victoria carrying on like spoiled brats, it is very difficult to believe that that water will ever come.
She said that is why legislation ensuring there is a guarantee of water is important:
Currently, as outlined by the minister, there is no guarantee and we have got to get that fixed.
Hanson-Young calls for guarantees on new Murray-Darling Basin plan
The Greens environment and water spokesperson, South Australian senator Sarah Hanson-Young, spoke to ABC News Breakfast about the new Murray-Darling Basin plan announced yesterday between the federal government and all but one basin state:
The federal environment and water minister, Tanya Plibersek, announced yesterday that the states will have three more years to complete water efficiency projects in the Murray-Darling and will be offered more money, but more water buybacks from agriculture are also on the table.
Hanson-Young argued that without any guarantees the water will “actually be delivered by these new deadlines”, it is simply “a plan to kick the can down the road”.
We have seen this happen over and over again and frankly South Australians are sick and tired of the broken promises and the environment can’t cope with any more.
We have seen a decade of delay, of dragging the chain, of promising, ‘Oh next time, next year, wait until the 2024 deadline and SA will get the water we were promised’.
It hasn’t come. We need guarantees before the parliament locks this in place.
Hanson-Young said she wants to “work constructively” with Plibersek on solutions.
Caitlin Cassidy
Children’s mental health not improved since Covid, research shows
The pandemic may be behind us but its impacts are still prevalent in the mental health of young people, new research shows.
A University of South Australia study, released today, found children’s mental health and wellbeing had gradually worsened over the past six years, particularly during and after the pandemic.
The study of about 60,000 South Australian children aged nine to 14 found most wellbeing measures, ranging from optimism and happiness to worry and sadness, had consistently worsened from 2020.
Female students, older students and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds were more likely to have poor wellbeing.
The lead researcher, Dr Dot Dumuid, said the pandemic had fostered an environment of “widespread uncertainty and anxiety”.
Now that pandemic restrictions have been lifted, life has not necessarily gone back to how it was pre-pandemic. Wellbeing clearly dropped during Covid and has shown little signs of improvement since then.
Co-researcher Prof Carol Maher said the findings were likely to be globally relevant.
The pandemic, sweeping changes in children’s lifestyles – from physical activity and screen time to sleep and diet – and the pervasive influence of social media aren’t regional anomalies. They’re global phenomena likely impacting children’s wellbeing worldwide.
NSW solicitors welcome new high court appointments
The Law Society of NSW has expressed its “warm support” for the appointments of Stephen Gageler as the chief justice of the high court and Robert Beech-Jones as a new justice of Australia’s highest court.
The appointments follow the retirement of the chief justice, Susan Kiefel, who will step down on 6 November.
The society’s president, Cassandra Banks, said the two widely respected jurists bring the experience of storied careers in the law to their new roles:
Chief justice designate Gageler has earned a reputation as having an unequalled knowledge and understanding of constitutional law, an expertise that was sharpened before and during his term as solicitor general of Australia.
Justice Beech-Jones has provided extraordinary service to the law in NSW, commencing practice as a solicitor in Sydney for the firm now known as Freehills, before being called to the bar in 1992. His honour’s appointment to the high court of Australia, to replace the vacancy left by Justice Gageler’s elevation, will enhance Australia’s system of justice.
Banks said she looked forward to representing the state’s 40,000 solicitors in farewelling Beech-Jones from the NSW supreme court bench in October.
Referendum date to be announced next Wednesday
Josh Butler
It’s now locked in: the announcement about the referendum date will be made on Wednesday 30 August in Adelaide, the prime minister’s office has confirmed.
The PM, Anthony Albanese, said in a statement this morning:
Very soon, our nation will have a once-in-a-generation chance to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our constitution – and make a positive difference to their lives with a voice.
Next week the date will be announced. I will be campaigning for constitutional recognition. Because if not now, when?
Albanese said the referendum campaign would be a chance to “celebrate our shared history and build a better shared future”.
Nothing to lose, everything to gain. Every Australian will get a say in this. Every Australian will have the opportunity to vote yes for a practical, positive difference in people’s lives.
No confirmation yet of what day the referendum will be held, but 14 October is still widely expected by government and campaign sources.
Union calls for ‘real action from the politicians’ to fund public schools
Australia won’t be able to close its education achievement gaps without closing the resources gap, argues the Australian Education Union (AEU).
As my colleague Caitlin Cassidy reported this morning, one in 10 students are not meeting Naplan standards in literacy and numeracy and students with high levels of socioeconomic disadvantage are even less likely to be keeping up:
In a statement, the union acknowledges Naplan is just one measure of student achievement but says the “overall pattern” indicates “unacceptable” achievement gaps between students from different backgrounds and locations.
The AEU president, Correna Haythorpe, said:
While nationally one in 10 students are identified as needing additional support in literacy and numeracy, that proportion rises to as high as nine out of 10 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in very remote parts of the NT.
What we need is real action from the politicians to ensure public schools are funded to deliver the additional support to the children who need it.
Haythorpe argued that funding public school systems at 100% of the schooling resource standard across Australia is “the only way” to ensure every child gets the opportunity to success and “we have the teachers we need for the future”.
This has to happen by 2028.
Daniel Hurst
Australia a ‘role model’ in resisting China’s economic coercion: German minister
The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, says her country has “learned a lot from Australia” when it comes to reducing the risk of economic coercion.
Baerbock said in a webinar with the Lowy Institute last night:
In Australia, you experienced painfully how China is willing to use economic coercion when it imposed restrictions on key exports like wine, meat and coal – to exert political pressure.
You have actually been a role model in not bowing to that pressure. I want to express my great respect for the courage and resilience as well as the sense of proportion that you demonstrated.
Baerbock called for “de-escalation and dialogue to avoid conflict” – but she also said it was important to speak up “when others bend our common rules”.
Speaking about the need to diversify trade links, Baerbock said:
In Germany, in my country, we have learned – I must say painfully – how vulnerable our one-sided dependencies on Russia’s energy imports made us and we don’t want to repeat that mistake.
For many countries in the world, and particularly here in this region, China is by far their biggest trading partner.
But China is not always as predictable, transparent and reliable as is needed to allow a stable economic relationship. Australians know what this means.
In other remarks, Baerbock said Germany “will certainly come back for the next rounds” of the Pitch Black and Talisman Sabre military exercises in Australia:
Because if international law is broken in your region, it can be broken anywhere. Your security matters to our security.
John Farnham ‘all clear’ of cancer
Australian music legend John Farnham has released his first personal statement in more than a year.
The statement – a message of thanks to his fans – comes exactly 12 months after Farnham underwent a 12-hour surgery to remove a cancerous tumour from his mouth.
Since then Farnham has been in and out of rehabilitation care and has undergone subsequent reconstructive surgeries, and was officially declared “all clear” of cancer last month.
Farnham said he is the “luckiest man I know right now”:
It’s been a year since my first surgery and to be honest I’ve lost count as to how many other procedures there’s been since then. I’m sure someone’s kept track of them all – let’s just say, there’s been a few.
But, I’m home now and I’m a very grateful and happy man. I’m sitting here in my living room lapping up the attention from my beautiful wife, Jill, my boys Rob and James, and my mini schnauzer, Edmund.
Farnham said it is only now, a year on, he can appreciate and comprehend how many messages of love and support he’s received since his first surgery:
I don’t know what to say, other than thank you so very much. It honestly means the world to me.
Farnham said he is going to celebrate today’s milestone with pizza, “because I can!”
I can’t wait to see what might be next on the menu. Bring on 2024.
Emily Wind
Thanks to Martin for kicking things off this morning! I’m Emily Wind and I’ll be with you on the Australia news blog today. If you see something that needs attention, feel free to send me an email: emily.wind.casual@theguardian.com
And with that, let’s get started.
Education minister says Naplan results show need for reform
The education minister, Jason Clare, says the Naplan results released this morning show the need for reform to overhaul the attainment gap between cities and remote regions.
The Naplan results showed fewer than 30% of students in very remote schools rated as “strong” or “exceeding” in literacy and numeracy.
That compared with at least 60% of students at major city schools across years 3, 5, 7 and 9 hitting those high targets in almost all learning areas.
Nationally, one in 10 students across all grades were found to need extra support, while on average a third of all Indigenous students were in that category.
“There is a massive over-representation in that group of children who are below the minimum standard, who are Indigenous, who live in regional Australia, whose mums and dads come from a poor background,” Clare said.
“If these kids who, identified early, can’t break out of that minimum standard, it tells us that our education system needs some serious reform to identify those children and then do something about it.”
Here’s our full story on the results:
Indigenous voice referendum date likely to be announced next week
Josh Butler
The referendum date is likely to be confirmed formally at an event in Adelaide next week, with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, expected to officially lock in 14 October as the Indigenous voice voting day in South Australia – a must-win state for the yes campaign.
Guardian Australia understands Adelaide has been chosen as the location for the announcement, reflecting its importance to the yes campaign. The required “double majority” for the referendum change to succeed means that the Yes23 campaign needs to win four out of six states: Western Australia and Queensland are expected to vote against the change, while New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania are tipped to support the voice.
That leaves South Australia as potentially the lynchpin of the entire campaign, for both sides; with victory in that state key to the referendum failing or succeeding.
The date of 14 October has been long-tipped as the likely day of the referendum date due to a complicated set of timing factors, including considerations around football grand finals in early October and the rainy wet season in Australia’s north later in the year. However, the government may have other possible dates if it decides, for instance, to alter the parliamentary sitting calendar.
Government and campaign sources were tight-lipped on Tuesday night on speculation about the referendum announcement, but Guardian Australia understands voice supporters are preparing for an event in Adelaide in the middle of next week, around 30 August.
If 14 October is confirmed as the date, it would start a six-week campaign – slightly longer than the normal federal election campaign period.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our rolling news coverage. I’m Martin Farrer, bringing you the top overnight lines before my colleague steps up to the plate.
Anthony Albanese is expected to announce the date of the Indigenous voice referendum next week at an event in Adelaide, and 14 October is looking the most likely. With the yes campaign needing to carry four out of six states and Queensland and Western Australia expected to vote no, strategists say the yes team must win South Australia to go with hoped-for wins in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania. And as the campaign builds, today we report how a New Zealand culture war activist is being co-opted by far-right groups in Australia that could spread “dangerous falsehoods” about the vote.
It’s Naplan results day today and they show that one in 10 students are not meeting standards in literacy and numeracy. Students with high levels of socioeconomic disadvantage are even less likely to be keeping up. We’ve got more on this coming up. It comes as advocates are calling for urgent federal investment in high schools to ensure children with disabilities are supported through their final years of study.
Australia is experiencing an intense surge in cases of “invasive strep A”, which develops from the common bacteria strep A, a study published in medical journal the Lancet Regional Health has found. Our medical editor Melissa Davey has the full story of this potentially deadly infection.