NOTRE DAME ABLAZE
Firefighters in Paris are working to contain a catastrophic fire that has broken out in the historic Notre Dame cathedral and which has already caused the famed landmark’s spire to collapse.
Al Jazeera reports that the cause is not currently known but that the cathedral was undergoing renovations. The Guardian‘s rolling coverage says that firefighters are focusing on preventing the collapse of the northern tower and saving artwork. French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited the scene, tweeted “…I am sad tonight to see this part of us burn”.
INDIGENOUS DEATH IN CUSTODY
The Guardian reports that 26-year-old Indigenous woman Cherdeena Wynne died in hospital last Tuesday, five days after being detained by police in her mother’s house in Perth. Her death comes 20 years after the woman’s father was found dead in an Albany watchhouse.
Her family have accused police of racial profiling and mistaken arrest, although police dispute allegations they did not check her ID and are not investigating the matter as a death in custody.
HEALTHY COMPETITION?
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is today expected to unveil more analysis attacking Labor’s tax plans while Bill Shorten will continue Labor’s targeting of out-of-pocket health costs by announcing a $200 million pledge for free blood tests for cancer patients and older Australians.
According to The New Daily, Frydenberg will claim all Australians earning more than $40,000 will be better off under Coalition policies by 2025, while new Grattan Institute analysis ($) finds the Coalition would need to cut spending by roughly $40 billion a year by 2030 to afford the cuts and projected surplus.
[free_worm]
THEY REALLY SAID THAT?
[repeatedly] The question was not to you, okay?
Virginia Trioli
A clearly exasperated Q&A host spends roughly half her night asking male panelists to wait their goddamn turn.
CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY
Welcome to the fight for Warringah
“In one way, calling Tony Abbott the most influential politician of the past 10 years seems a laughable claim. His concrete policy legacy is minuscule; after he was elected as prime minister in 2013 he largely maintained the social infrastructure put in place by the previous Labor government, although he sent mixed messages on and ultimately wounded much of it. More or less everything he tried to actually change famously collapsed, or was scrapped after he was ousted as leader in 2015.”
What does it take to run for federal parliament?
“After Kerryn Phelps’ victory in Wentworth it seemed like every Tom, Dick and Jane saw an opening to be the next candidate to restore faith in democracy. But what does it actually take to run for federal parliament, let alone be in with a chance to win?”
The WikiLeaks arrest is about the journalism, not the journalist
“It’s a dangerous moment for press freedom when governments — and some journalists — prioritise the privileges of the craft over fundamental human rights. Yet that’s where we seem to be with the arrest of Julian Assange for practicing journalism.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Former Manus Island detainee ‘killed in Vietnam’ after being returned to homeland
Final count leaves Premier Berejiklian facing tougher upper house
Budget crisis: More than 50 of NT’s highest paid public servants facing the sack ($)
‘Elections shouldn’t be bought’: Push for donation limits to prevent corruption
Anger at alt-right linked Nat’s promotion
Sharrouf children reunited with grandmother in Syria five years after family joined Islamic State
Malaysian concerns over Lynas raised with Kevin Rudd in 2011
Japan begins massive nuclear pool clean-up after Fukushima disaster
Nine Jewish groups ask Trump to restrain Netanyahu on West Bank annexation
THE COMMENTARIAT
Peter Dutton – Labor’s not-so-secret weapon against Hunt and Sukkar — Michelle Grattan (The Conversation): “While Peter Dutton is fighting for his political life in his marginal Brisbane seat of Dickson, he is being ‘weaponised’ by Labor in its efforts to defeat two of his strongest Victorian supporters, Greg Hunt and Michael Sukkar, despite their relatively solid margins.”
Despite bad press, injecting room is doing what it was designed for — Nicolas Clark (The Age): “The injecting room opened on June 30 last year for the start of a two-year trial. The expectation for some was that it would solve the drug problems in the area and an inability to achieve this might be perceived as a failure of the injecting room itself. The issue is more complex.”
What Wigney failed to understand about harassment ($) — Sarrah Le Marquand (RendezView/Daily Telegraph): “Irrespective of his findings against The Daily Telegraph, and his apparent sympathy for Rush, it was — by any measure — a needlessly withering and tone-deaf assessment of a young woman who had shown immense courage in standing up in court in the presence of her senior peers, including of course, her Oscar-winning former co-star.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Canberra
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The High Court is set to determine whether a sperm donor is a legal “parent” of a female couple’s daughter he helped to raise. The Family Court ruled he is not under NSW state law, but Attorney-General Christian Porter intervened arguing the state law doesn’t apply.
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Stop Adani will host a Canberra Climate Election forum with students from School Strike for Climate Action, former Chief Scientist Professor Penny Sackett, and former UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction Dr Robert Glasser.
Sydney
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The Western Sydney Business Chamber will host a corporate launch of the new Bankwest Stadium with NSW Sport Minister John Sidoti, NRL CEO Todd Greenberg, and Parramatta star Peter Sterling.
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Public policy expert Dr Christopher Pepin-Neff will launch Flaws: Shark Bites and Emotional Public Policymaking at the Sydney Aquarium.
Melbourne
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Southbank Residents Association will host a candidate’s forum with Liberal’s Kate Ashmor, Labor’s Josh Burns, and Greens’ Steph Hodgins-May.
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The Wheeler Centre will host The Fifth Estate event “Right or Duty? Compulsory Voting in Australia” with citizenship law expert Kim Rubenstein and historian Judith Brett.
Hobart
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Hobart City Hall will hold a public meeting on building heights and cable car.
Darwin
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The NT government is expected to release an independent report into budget repair after an investigation by businessman John Langoulant.
Perth
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Federal Court Justice Bernard Murphy will travel to Yangibana Crossing, a remote location in the Geraldton region, to deliver the native title consent determination in favour of the Thiin-Mah, Warriyangka, Tharrkari and Jiwarli People.
Swansea, Tasmania
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Tasmanian Nationals Senator Steve Martin, Glamorgan Spring Bay Major Debbie Wisby, NSW Senator John Williams and Lyons candidate Deanna Hutchinson will announce a grant for the Break O’Day and Glamorgan-Spring Bay municipalities.
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