Good morning. The week kicks off with three busy days of parliamentary sittings as the Albanese government gets stuck into its legislative plans ahead of the budget. And Italians have voted in a potentially landmark election that is poised to deliver a radical rightwing government.
An Australian soldier has alleged a torture survival training course, which involved simulated child rape, has left him with PTSD. The Australian defence force’s alleged handling of the controversial training course known as Conduct After Capture Level C has prompted former soldier, Damien De Pyle, to complain to the Australian Human Rights Commission and prepare a federal court case challenging its legality. De Pyle made disturbing allegations about what is known as the final or “humiliation phase” of the program.
“History is calling”, according to the first ad campaign to encourage a yes vote in a referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament. The ad is the start of a “journey of nation-building”, says the Uluru Dialogue group.
More than 2,000 people have been detained across Russia for protesting against President Vladimir Putin’s partial military mobilisation, according to independent monitoring group OVD-Info. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has vowed to liberate the entire country as Russia pressed on with its supposed referendum in occupied areas of Ukraine and so-called election workers accompanied by masked gunmen knocked on doors to get people to vote.
Australia
Federal politicians will pocket more than $18m over the next decade from the stage-three tax cuts. The Greens have released new modelling that shows 227 parliamentarians will receive an average cut of $10,000 in the first year, totalling $3.9m over the forward estimates and $18.6m over the decade.
The Australian performing art sector is seeing smaller audiences after returning to the stage post-Covid. The subscription model is “broken”, sales are unpredictable and audience behaviour may have shifted for good, companies say.
Alleged serious DNA testing failures at Queensland’s troubled forensic lab developed alongside a “chronic toxic culture” in the workplace, including a large number of bullying complaints, claims of “vendettas” against managers and staff requiring stress leave.
Consumers have been warned that fuel prices will rise after the fuel excise is reinstated this week. How much will petrol rise, how it will affect everyday life and why was it cut in the first place? Here are some answers.
The world
Italians have voted in an election that is forecast to deliver the country’s most radical rightwing government since the end of the second world war. A coalition led by Giorgia Meloni would be country’s most radical government since Mussolini.
Canadian troops are being sent to assist the recovery from the devastation of Storm Fiona, which swept away houses, stripped off roofs and knocked out power across the country’s Atlantic provinces.
Indonesian workers are waiting for farm jobs in Britain to materialise after some are understood to have paid deposits of up to £2,500 to a Jakarta agency to “guarantee” jobs on UK farms.
Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis will be allowed to argue that the Church of Scientology is behind a rape allegation against him, a judge in New York has ruled.
Recommended reads
“Australian kids’ shows can be truly strange. Hell, I should know: I hosted one,” says Paul Verhoeven, who hosted the “incredibly ambitious and bombastic” ABC kids’ show Steam Punks. “I played a Dickensian nitwit who trapped children in the belly of a sentient machine, then quizzed them into a stupor. It remains my proudest and weirdest professional achievements. I don’t think any producers … ever said no to an idea, and frankly, we’re a better country for it.” But which stories crafted for growing Australian minds are the most culturally significant, the most innovative? Here are the 10 strangest but also best Australian kids’ TV shows.
Without radical tax reform, Australia faces an insoluble public finance problem, writes Satyajit Das. “Australia’s social contract, framed in times of abundance and optimism, promises significant government services and financial support for citizens. But an ageing population means fewer taxpayers and greater demands on the public purse.”
Listen
An Australian soldier has alleged that a torture survival course, involving simulated child rape and sleep deprivation, has left him with PTSD. The program was the subject of a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission and may now be challenged in the federal court. In today’s Full Story podcast, reporter Joey Watson speaks to soldiers, their family members and Senator Jacqui Lambie about this secretive training program and the alleged trauma it has left behind.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
Chris Fagan, senior coach of the Brisbane Lions, has been defended by the club as he takes a leave of absence to cooperate with an AFL investigation into allegations of serious mistreatment of First Nations former players at Hawthorn Football Club.
Had Peter V’landys, Andrew Abdo and the powerbrokers at NRL headquarters sat down at the start of this season and handpicked their ideal grand final fixture, it would almost certainly have comprised Penrith and Parramatta. This Sunday’s decider is a match-up made in heaven, and one which ticks every box.
Media roundup
The Herald Sun reports a woman has suffered critical injuries at the Melbourne Royal Show after she reportedly stepped on to the track of a rollercoaster to retrieve her phone. And a poll for the Sydney Morning Herald finds a clear majority of Australians in favour of an Indigenous voice to parliament, though they are unsure of the practical benefits.
Coming up
Federal parliament sits.
Former leader of the UK Independence party Nigel Farage will appear at a press conference in Sydney.
And if you’ve read this far …
No vacuum cleaners and no feather dusters: that’s the order that has gone out to cleaning staff at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. As part of an exhibition exploring the changing perceptions of creepy-crawlies in art and science through the ages, the national museum of the Netherlands has been allowing its crevices and corners to go wild for the last three months.
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