TASMANIA-TO-MELBOURNE ABORTION TRIPS QUADRUPLE

The number of Tasmanian women presenting at Melbourne abortion clinics has skyrocketed since the closure of the state’s last private abortion clinic in January.

As The Mercury ($) reports, not-for-profit provider Marie Stopes Australia lists an increase of women travelling from Tasmania to Melbourne for terminations: from between one and two a month, to up to 10 women a month since the start of this year. 

TALKING TRASH

Federal Energy and Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg will today meet with state and territory counterparts in Melbourne to discuss short and long-term solutions to Australia’s recycling crisis, which has been thrown out of wack thanks to China’s move 10 months ago to restrict imports of foreign waste.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Frydenberg will advocate for “waste to energy” incineration and a revamp of the packaging industry to incorporate more recycled materials as part of the solution, and intends to work cooperatively with all states and territories following news that China’s ban has led to over 200 dangerous stockpiles of recycling waste across Victoria.

BILL COSBY CONVICTED OF SEXUAL ASSAULT

Actor Bill Cosby has been convicted during a retrial over drugging and molesting a woman.

The ABC reports that Cosby, 80, could now spend his final years in prison after a jury of seven men and five women unanimously found he sexually violated Temple University employee Andrea Constand at Cosby’s Philadelphia home in 2004. He faces a likely 10-year sentence.

THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

He represents me with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal. From what I see, he did absolutely nothing wrong.

Donald Trump

The US President contradicts himself by admitting lawyer Michael Cohen represented him in his case against adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump previously said he had no knowledge that Cohen, who is reportedly under investigation for bank fraud and campaign finance law violations, made a $130,000 payment to Daniels.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

‘There’s no backup’: Baby formula crisis hits prescription market

South Australian Tourism Commission awards advertising contract to Victorian company ($)

‘Genuinely remorseful’ Bondi cocaine dealer George Gerges jailed

Angry residents take aim at TasWater over handling of boil-water alert ($)

Sophie Mirabella defamation case hears newspaper published ‘fake news’

‘Excessive incentives’: Australia’s $26 billion missed opportunity

ALP set to reopen row on asylum-seekers ($)

Banking royal commission: witness collapses after accusation of lying

Turkey Cumhuriyet trial: 13 newspaper staff convicted over coup

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

Why the Australian arts sector could be in for a major reckoningBen Eltham

“Who gets to govern Australia’s major cultural institutions? The question has taken new interest in the wake of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. That’s because many of the top directors and executives caught up in the royal commission also helm Australia’s largest and most prestigious cultural institutions.”

More than 200,000 words published about Yassmin Abdel-Magied since last Anzac DayEmily Watkins

“It’s been just one year since Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s now-infamous Anzac Day Facebook post: ‘Lest we forget (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine)’. That post (which Abdel-Magied edited and apologised for) marked the start of a year in which about 207,979 words were written about her, according to data analyst and writer Ketan Joshi.”

Productivity Commission lashes out at protectionism and security stupidityBernard Keane

“The head of the Productivity Commission has accused policymakers of ‘reaching for the industry assistance jar at the first sniff of cannon fire in President Trump’s trade war’, as the Commission adds national security spending in its annual hitlist of policy failures.”

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Perth

  • Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will make announcements for WA ahead of the federal budget.

  • WA Symphony Orchestra will perform the Hans Zimmer score alongside a showing of Sir David Attenborough’s Planet Earth II, narrated by actor Eric Bana.

Melbourne

  • Final day of banking royal commission public hearing into financial advice. Final witness will come from ASIC, then counsel assisting the commission will make closing remarks (the head of the financial advisory firm who collapsed while giving evidence yesterday will not have to return).

  • Federal minister Josh Frydenberg will meet with state and territory counterparts at a COAG meeting to discuss the country’s waste crisis.

  • Victorian Trades Hall Council will launch a big for ‘industrial manslaughter’ laws, in order to deter businesses from putting profits ahead of workers’ lives.

Adelaide

  • New state premier Steven Marshall will make his first address to the SA Press Club since taking office.

Sydney

  • NSW police force will welcome 234 new probationary constables at the police academy in Goulburn, with commissioner Mick Fuller to attend.

  • NSW farmers will call on the state government to immediately reinstate drought-assistance grants. 

San Fransisco, USA

  • Marijuana smuggler and Queensland fugitive Peyton Eidson will sentenced in court.

Palmerston North, NZ

  • Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway will launch the government’s health and safety strategy. 

THE COMMENTARIAT

Medicare levy: from now on, a constant scramble to fund endless NDIS needs — Rick Morton (The Australian $): “In axing a Medicare levy increase, the Coalition has lost a secure and dedicated stream of funding for a massive social program over which it has little control. Disability groups and advocates are furious at both Labor for blocking the increase, when its policy was to raise it, and the federal government for dumping it with scarcely a fight.”

Why can’t we speed up our acceptance of recent migrants? — Harold Mitchell (The Sydney Morning Herald): “Africans have travelled to Australia since the 19th century. Between the 1940 and 1970s most were from South Africa, Egypt and Mauritius. But the horrific circumstances of Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan have increased the population to 94,000. All up Africans come from 54 countries across the continent, each with different cultures, customs and languages. But they have been given a tough time here in Australia and there has been deliberate fear-mongering by people who should know better.”

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