Good afternoon. Unions have welcomed Alan Joyce’s early departure from Qantas after the airline was caught up in ongoing controversies.
The chief executive brought forward his scheduled retirement by two months, which the Australian Services Union said gave the airline the chance to “hit the reset button”. Labor senator and former Transport Workers’ Union secretary Tony Sheldon said Joyce’s legacy was a workforce “split across 38 companies and a brand now synonymous with low pay, insecure work, illegal sackings and consumer rip-offs”.
Meanwhile, the Albanese government is facing continued scrutiny over its decision to block a request from Qatar Airways to fly more services to Australia, with suggestions it did so partly to protect Qantas’s profits. The West Australian premier, Roger Cook, said the request should have been approved, while the federal Greens leader, Adam Bandt, questioned whether the government was acting “in the public interest or the corporate interest”.
Top news
Australia’s coal emissions highest per capita in G20 | Australia used twice as much electricity as China on a per capita basis and 48% of it came from coal plants, a thinktank says. The report comes as the NSW Labor government considers extending the life of the nation’s largest coal-fired power station at Eraring.
Interest rates paused for third straight month | The RBA has decided to hold the cash rate at 4.1% in Philip Lowe’s last board meeting as Reserve Bank governor. The decision comes amid easing inflation – from a December peak of 8.4% to 4.9% in July.
The Australian’s editorial on Louise Milligan inaccurate | A 2021 editorial in the Murdoch broadsheet which targeted the ABC journalist Louise Milligan was inaccurate, unfair, lacked balance, caused unnecessary distress and was not in the public interest, the Australian Press Council has found.
Neglect of two boys with autism | The Queensland government has apologised for the neglect and abuse of two boys with autism who were found severely malnourished, naked and locked in a squalid room after their father died. The boys were reportedly denied food and water on several occasions and needed haircuts because their hair had such a strong stench of urine that it could not be washed out.
Melbourne teenager seriously injured | Victorian police are searching for a group that allegedly forced a 14-year-old boy into a car and left him seriously injured at an intersection after being ejected from the moving vehicle.
Image of Russian general surfaces | An unverified photo has emerged that appears to show Russian general Sergei Surovikin, who is regarded as an ally of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner group and has not been seen in public since the militia’s brief rebellion in June.
Kim Jong-un to meet Putin | The reclusive North Korean leader will reportedly travel by train to the eastern Russian port city of Vladivostok to discuss the possibility of supplying weapons to the Kremlin for the war in Ukraine.
Rolling Stones’ new album | Details of the band’s first studio album of original material since 2005 are set to be released. The surviving members of the band, now in their 70s and 80s, teased the music online and in the form of a cryptic advert in the local UK newspaper the Hackney Gazette. The album will feature Paul McCartney playing bass on one track.
White Island case dismissed | The three brothers who owned New Zealand’s Whakaari/White Island when it erupted in December 2019 – killing 22 people including 17 Australians – have had individual charges against them thrown out by a judge, citing a lack of sufficient material.
In pictures
Bird photographer of the year
You’re looking at the best portrait in this year’s awards – taken by Spanish photographer Nicolas Reusens in a tropical forest in Ecuador. The other winners are equally breathtaking.
What they said …
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“Julian Assange should be freed. I’m not sure I agree with Barnaby Joyce on pretty much anything else, which suggests how important this is.” – Monique Ryan
Ryan and Joyce are part of a cross-parliament delegation that will visit Washington to urge the US government to drop its extradition attempts and prosecution of Assange.
In numbers
The Indigenous voice to parliament no vote leads 48% to 42%, with 10% unsure, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.
Before bed read
Australians are big consumers of Big Macs, Whoppers and Zingers. But do the burgers look anything like they do in ads? We put them to the test and gave each a score out of four.
Daily word game
Today’s starter word is: MAY. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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