The Energy minister, Chris Bowen, has outlined proposals for six offshore wind projects around the country, including a 200-turbine windfarm off the Gippsland coast, claiming the industry could support up to 8,000 jobs and help shore up the nation’s energy security.
“We have some of the best wind resources in the world – just one rotation of one offshore wind turbine provides as much energy as an average rooftop solar installation generates in one day,” Bowen said.
A day after the government’s 43% emissions reduction bill passed the House of Representatives, Bowen laid out plans to harness what he called “world-class offshore wind energy potential”.
It included a project off the Gippsland coast in Victoria, with possible locations off Inverloch and Woodside beach. A 60-day public consultation period opened on Friday.
Five other proposals include developments off the Hunter and Illawarra coasts in New South Wales, near Portland in Western Victoria, in Bass Strait north of Tasmania, and in the Indian Ocean off Perth and Bunbury. Consultation periods for those proposals are yet to be announced.
Bowen said the sites were chosen because of “good to excellent” wind resources, existing energy generation facilities, connections to transmission networks, and locations near ports or industrial hubs.
The windfarms would be built in Commonwealth waters, starting 5.5km from shore, and feature up to 200 turbines.
Australia currently had no offshore wind generation, which has previously been considered too expensive and difficult to build compared to onshore wind or solar. In September, the Morrison government introduced legislation to establish a framework for the construction and operation of offshore power generation, including wind.
The director of climate change and energy at Ai Group, Tennant Reid, said offshore wind had “enormous” energy potential, utilizing the more consistently strong winds off the coast.
The Labor government plans to generate 82% of Australia’s energy from renewable sources by 2030. Bowen said Australia was “way behind the rest of the world” in generating wind power.
Map of proposed offshore wind sites
The Nationals MP for Gippsland, Darren Chester, said his electorate had “abundant” wind resources, and he expected the proposal to build a 200-turbine wind farm off the Gippsland coast would be warmly received by most constituents.
The turbines would be placed between 7km and 25km offshore and could meet up to 20% of Victoria’s electricity needs.
“Respectful community consultation and engagement is now critical to ensure the region understands the potential impacts and benefits of offshore wind projects,” Chester said.
“It’s important that issues surrounding transmission lines through private property to link large-scale renewable projects to the national grid are handled sensitively and transparently.”
Bowen said he expected there would be “very genuine concerns” raised by some locals and the fishing industry about the Gippsland project, dubbed the Star of the South, and that his department would listen.
“Around the world people have found a way for recreational and commercial fishing to work together with offshore wind,” he said.
The Liberal MP for the northern Tasmania seat of Braddon, Gavin Pearce, said he welcomed a proposal to develop offshore wind power in the waters north of his electorate but wanted to see “affordable, reliable, practical” energy generation.
“All I hear from the government is about investment in intermittent renewable energy resources,” he said.
The chief executive of the Clean Energy Council, Kane Thornton, said offshore wind was “an enormous opportunity for Australia”.
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Reed said there were still questions remaining around the dispatchability of offshore wind power, and the periods it would be available, but that it had the potential to add “tens of gigawatts” to Australia’s grid.
“Offshore wind increasingly looks like it will play a quite important role in the whole system,” he said.
“The challenge is to match what’s happened in Europe. It’s not just a matter of higher ambition but [also depends] if we’ve got the skills, supply chains, regulatory approvals and supporting policies on demand in place.”
Flash floods sweeping through Death Valley National Park have closed the park, including all roads in and out of the park, as well as the Furnace Creek Visitor Center.
Approximately 1,000 people are stranded in the park, according to park officials. No injuries have been reported.
The park received 1.7 inches of rain on Friday morning, an entire year’s worth of rain for the area in a few hours. Annual rainfall for the park is 2 inches.
DEATH VALLEY FLOODING: Highway 190 is closed in Death Valley due to flooding Friday morning. FOX5 viewer Landt Robert shared video of flooding in the area that he captured at about 7 am Friday. pic.twitter.com/2XGaaL1blE
“Highway 190 is closed, and additional roads in the park may be impacted or impassable due to flash floods,” a post on the Death Valley National Park Facebook account warned. “Use extreme caution.”
Caltrans has estimated that it will take about four to six hours for roads to reopen.
“Caltrans and National Park Service crews are working to plow ‘admin use’ lanes out of the park,” Abigail Wines, a spokesperson for Death Valley National Park, told SFGATE. “Some vehicles have been able to get out via CA-190 to Death Valley Junction, depending on what type of vehicle they have.”
Here is a look at some of the flood waters currently pouring over State Route 190 through @DeathValleyNPS . The highway, which stretches from Olancha to Death Valley Junction, remains closed at this time due to flooding. pic.twitter.com/z8M4N6ARKH
A “monumental” hand-woven pandanus sail symbolizing the centuries-long relationship between Yolngu of Arnhem Land and their Macassan neighbors in Indonesia, has taken out first prize in the prestigious National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art awards (Natsiaa).
Margaret Rarru Garrawurra, a senior Yolngu artist from Lanarra in Arnhem Land, created the stunning 2.8m-high hand-woven pandanus sail over several months of daily work.
Garrawurra, who won the bark painting award in 2005, said she is “proud and happy” to win the main prize of $100,000 for Dhomala (pandanus sail), which is about her cultural identity and connection to her father, as well as the historical relationships that endure between Yolngu people and the Macassans.
The winning 2.8m-high hand-woven pandanus sail on display in Darwin. Photograph: Mark Sherwood/MAGNT
“I was with my sisters when I found out about winning. We were very happy. It makes us proud to get first prize,” Garrawurra, known as Rarru, said.
“Yolngu people were watching Macassan people weaving their dhomala over time… then they started to make them. My father picked up the skill as well. I used to make them.
“I thought about how I made them, my father, and I started remembering. And now I’m making these.”
The sail features stripes of distinctive black-dyed pandanus. As a senior weaver at Milingimbi arts centre, Rarru knows the recipe for creating the black mole (dye) she uses – and use of mole is reserved for her, and those to whom she gives permission.
Ms D Yunupingu won the bark award for her colorful work that recalls a mermaid story. Photograph: Mark Sherwood/MAGNT
Rarru said the work took months to create, from collecting pandanus and dyes in July last year, and weaving from October to March “every day, morning to night” before it was complete.
The Natsiaa judges said the work was “a monumental sculpture that is both majestic in scale and exacting in technical virtuosity.”
“Hers is a powerful work which reminds us that Yolngu have long been active and intrepid explorers, participating in international trade since well before the arrival of the Europeans,” Myles Russell Cook and Dr Joanna Barkmann, the judges, said.
Winner of the work on paper was Larrakia artist Gary Lee for a beautiful portrait of his grandfather, adorned with white blooms.
The late Ms D Yunupingu from Yirrkala won the bark award for her joyous retelling of an important mermaid story that is also a story of her relationship with her father and traditional sea country. Ms Yunupingu, who became a master painter like her sisters de ella late in life, used the bright magenta from printer cartridges to create the background on which the ghostly mermaids sit, representing sea creatures as well as the stars of the night sky.
From Buku-Larrnggay Mulka art centre, Merrkiawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs accepted the award on behalf of their beloved “mermaid lady”.
“Mermaid is the spirit that revealed itself to her father, my grandfather, on Wessel Island when they were living there in the late 1930s,” Ganambarr-Stubbs said.
Ganambarr-Stubbs said the painting captured Ms Yunupingu’s effervescent spirit.
“[In the painting room] you could always hear her across the room, her laughter and she was always saying, ‘Awesome!’ That was her favorite word of hers.
“If she was here, this is what she would say: ‘This is awesome!’”
Jimmy Thaiday, from Darnley Island, won the multimedia prize for a moving film about the impact of climate change on his island and a sand key nearby, which is now almost completely underwater. Thaiday said the $15,000 award will help him make more work addressing the crisis of climate change in the Torres Strait.
“I encourage all the younger generation to get up there and talk out, if they feel helpless about climate change,” Thaiday said. “It is really affecting our sand key, affecting breeding seasons for animals and birds, and plants, and our ability to go there and talk to younger ones about our traditions.”
Some of the artworks on display as part of Natsiaa 2022. Photograph: Mark Sherwood/MAGNT
Rebekah Raymond, curator of Aboriginal art and material culture at MAGNT, said there were 63 finalists from across Australia, representing more than 44 different nations and language groups.
“This year, I’ve seen a reemergence of strong works that are made by hand in really tactile practices – carving, ceramics, weaving – which celebrate working with your hands in such intimate ways,” Raymond said.
“During Covid, life slowed down a little bit. For many of the artists across the north of this continent there was a return to homelands, and that gave them more time to consider different things, to push their practice in new ways, to up the scale or return to something they’ve always done .”
The Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander art awards(Natsiaa)exhibitionruns 6 August 2022 to 15 January 2023 at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin. Details: www.natsiaa.com.au
In 2016 at the Rio Olympics, Patterson could not clear a training height and sobbed inconsolably in the mixed zone afterwards. In 2018, she did not make the Australian team for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and just stopped training and engaging with anyone much in the sport.
“Obviously I stepped away from the sport [in 2018]. I wasn’t happy in any way, I wasn’t enjoying the sport, I wasn’t happy within myself, I wasn’t confident, I was not happy in the environment I was in and that was showing out on the field and athletics is such an area where it highlights a lot of things going on in life. And anyone in life can only hold on for so long, but it got to a point where I couldn’t hold on any longer, and I was not happy in any shape or form,” she said.
“There were a number of reasons why I stepped away, it wasn’t necessarily a moment, it took me a long while to wrap my head around it in all honesty. I still held on to such a strong belief in this dream but everything else that life was throwing at me, I couldn’t hang on to any longer, so it was a gradual understanding of ‘I am done’.
“I hadn’t been training for a number of months, but I was hoping to return, and then it got to a point where I was like ‘I don’t think I want to’. It was a slow progression and that was the same for returning. It took me over a year to wrap my head around stepping away and not entering into a gym, not stepping foot on a track. So it took me over a year to feel at peace with myself and realize ‘I am not finished here’. I knew I needed to change my environment and so I had always had in the back of my head if I ever decided to change the environment that Alex Stewart was the one that I would go to.”
Australia’s dynamic duo: High jumpers Nicola Olyslagers (left) and world champion Eleanor Patterson.Credit:Holly Adams
Stewart is a high jump coach in Sydney. I have coached Brandon Starc.
When Patterson broke through in Glasgow, there were offers from Athletics Australia for her to take funding and help with coaching but Patterson for myriad reasons resisted, wanting to stay at home in Leongatha. By late 2019 she realized she needed to change something. She knew she fundamentally still loved jumping and wanted to get back to enjoying doing it. She got in touch with Stewart, who had occasionally reached out with kind, unsolicited messages after she had missed the Australian team.
“It wasn’t until really 2019 … that I admitted to him – and he was probably the first person I admitted it to in the athletics world – ‘hey, I am not training, I haven’t been training for this long ‘. I kind of just disappeared and ghosted the sport.
“I kept under the radar and I kept it that way. Then I spoke to him and he was like ‘come and join us in training’.”
She took some time to pluck up the courage. She was unfit and wanted to hit a gym before rolling up to a training session and embarrassing herself.
She eventually moved to Sydney and the physical shift was as important in opening up her world as Stewart’s advice was about the fact being a world-class high jumper is not just about understanding how to jump high.
“Alex was always telling me simple things like ‘walk like you are an Olympic champion, walk like you’re a world champion’ and about the way you go about life,” she said.
“The training environment with other athletes, Brandon Starc, he is such a professional athlete, and others there that are world-class, and obviously they are men and they are able to jump higher than me, but I am such a stubborn person I was like ‘if they can do that, I can have a crack and do it’.
“Everything was so new and different. It really changed me physically and mentally and I really felt like I was fresh in the sport. I had this rejuvenated love of the sport and enjoyment in so many facets.”
She came from basically scratch for fitness but has quickly rebuilt her career and life. She moved to Sydney, traveled to Europe and began competing on the Diamond League circuit. She has a boyfriend, Marco, who is a European athlete. She is happy.
In the final in Eugene, she was jumping with fellow Australian Nicola Olyslagers, who won silver at the Olympics last year (she was Nicola McDermott then).
Patterson was nearly being eliminated when she cleared 198 centimeters with her third and last jump to stay in the competition. She then cleared two meters for the first time ever and moved from fourth to first place. Then she jumped another personal best, and a national record, when she cleared 2.02m and won gold.
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“In the scheme of things it seems ridiculous. I started from scratch less than four years ago, and I am world champion. It’s good to have a reminder because it still does feel like a dream come true,” Patterson said.
“I knew for a long time I could bring that type of jump to fruition, that type of performance, but now the rest of the world knows.”
CHP officers arrested a woman Friday who they say caused a fiery multi-car crash in Windsor Hills that killed 6 people, including a baby and a pregnant woman.
Nicole L. Linton, identified by multiple law enforcement sources as a nurse from Texas, will be booked after she’s released from a hospital where she’s being treated for injuries she sustained in the wreck.
Clients at a Windsor Hills gas station watched in horror as a fiery crash left six people dead. Lauren Coronado reports for the NBC4 News at 11 pm on Aug. 4, 2022.
The arrest was also confirmed by members of Linton’s family.
Public records in Texas show someone with the same name as a registered nurse with a current, valid license.
Kaiser Permanente released the following statement regarding the crash:
“Everyone at Kaiser Permanente is deeply saddened by Thursday’s horrific crash. It’s impossible to imagine the pain those involved are experiencing. Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this tragedy. At this time, we are not able to comment on what has been reported as a criminal investigation. Any further questions about should be forwarded to law enforcement authorities.”
The high speed crash happened around 2 pm Thursday at the intersection of Slauson and La Brea Avenues and was captured by a security camera at a gas station nearby.
As of Friday morning the CHP said 6 people died in the crash and at least 8 others were injured.
A Call Of Duty server outage caused a delay during this year’s League Championship, with it affecting four titles overall.
The outage, (spotted by Twitter page Intel CDL) affected Black Ops 3, Black Ops 4, Warzone, Cold Warand 2021’s Vanguard which is the start of this year’s League Championship. Thankfully, Vanguard was resolved, allowing the tournament to continue (as well as Black Ops 4), however according to Activision’s Support Page, the other three are still experiencing server issues as of the time of publication.
Call of Duty: Vanguard. Credit: Activision
The outage, which occurred just after the first game of the tournament, unsurprisingly left viewers with a bad taste in their mouths. One user posted, “THIS IS RIDICULOUS #CANCELCDL needs to start trending. Wake these people up. Too much money is made for us to wait this long it’s a joke” in response to a tweet from the official League Championship account promoting the second match.
Another stated, “Nah this is straight up fucking embarrassing. You aren’t ready for champs and it is clear. How can this esport ever compete with the likes of Valorant etc when we are waiting in hour long delays every single fucking event”.
The event, which is awarding teams with just over $2.5million (roughly £2.05million) has continued without issue so far.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. Credit: Infinity Ward.
On Sunday, Activision will be sharing information on Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 during the event. While no specifics have been mentioned, those interested will need to go to the official Call Of Duty League YouTube channel on August 7 at 12pm PT / 3pm ET / 8pm BST to see more on the game. Modern Warfare 2 is set to release on past generation consoles, current generation consoles (excluding Switch), and PC on October 28.
In other news, multiplayer shooter Overwatch 2 won’t be getting another public beta.
I arrived first, my date was running a couple of minutes late so as I was chatting to the staff and being walked to our table, I noticed a dude with a backpack sitting in the corner and thought, oh god, please not him. Thankfully it wasn’t and my date arrived soon after.
Lily’s verdict: 9.5/10 Credit: John Koh/The West Australian
My first impressions of Connor III were that you picked a good one. He was tall and very easy to talk to. It didn’t feel forced at all.
We started off with some stock standard questions about work, how many siblings do you have etc., then once we both had a drink and relaxed a little, conversation just flowed. There were no awkward silences or any awkward moments actually. You can tell talking to people comes very easily to him. I mentioned he had recently been to a really crazy wedding. He told loads of good stories and made me laugh a lot.
I’d describe Connor III as funny, charismatic and likeable.
For dinner, we shared some plates. I’ve been to Lotus before so I knew even if my date wasn’t great, the food/cocktails would be. To be honest, I had set my expectations low for this date but funnily enough, we ended up staying until about 10pm. We shared a bottle of red and just took our time. I didn’t feel rushed or anything like that – it was just easy conversation. It was really bad weather, so we just decided to stay put instead of checking anywhere else out.
He showed me his application to Blind Date and it was hilarious – I can see why you picked him.
We exchanged numbers and may have exchanged a kiss or two. I have also asked for my work email.
I messaged him when I got home and sent him a screenshot of all my friends checking in on me while the date was happening asking if I needed them to call with a fake emergency.
I’m 90 per cent sure there will be a second date.
Verdict: 9.5/10
CONNOR III, 27, SAYS:
I have zero regrets being convinced to message PerthNow at 2.43am on Saturday for this date.
In that message, I claimed to be a “fun-loving rollerblader who lets my hair run free in the wind, an overly avid recycler and a diligent and vigilant sensei of the roads”. None of this was true. Not even close. For the record, I blame that on The Court’s two for $22 vodka Vs.
As such, I was concerned that I’d be matched with someone looking for the type of bloke who could be a contestant on Beauty and the Geek.
Connor III’s verdict: 9/10 Credit: John Koh/The West Australian
I couldn’t have been more wrong. Lily is a total babe. In fact, she could be a BATG contestant herself.
I was extremely nervous because I had recently lost all three of my camouflage fedoras which are essential to my self-belief. I had a strawberry Up & Go and watched a re-run of Deal or No Deal before I left. The contestant (Toby) took a deal of $34,000 which instilled me with some confidence.
We had a reservation at Lotus, a restaurant within the Beaufort. By the time our massaman curry arrived we were already a bottle of red deep and mildly bullying each other.
Lily was born in New Zealand, spent some time in Brisbane and enjoys a four-shot coffee with vanilla. She has an identical twin, recently signed a 12-month lease extension and once ordered a ham and cheese toastie from HJs. I know all this because I was taking notes with an Artline text throughout the evening.
She has a great laugh and is super genuine, which I really liked. She was dressed to impress, which she did. The photographer took about eight times as many photos of her as he did of me.
As it was a Tuesday, Connections had its weekly mud wrestling competition on, so we ventured into Northbridge and took part. I was brimming with confidence and attempted a rear naked choke. I slipped and was submitted in the opening 12 seconds. OK, that part didn’t actually happen.
We did exchange numbers though and afterwards I secretly trailed her home on my e-bike. I checked her water meter de ella as I was curious to know how much H20 she used on her garden de ella before deciding whether to ask her out de ella on another date.
So now we know. Despite the assurances by Daly Cherry-Evans that his Manly team remained unified even after seven players chose to trash the season rather than support the rainbow jersey, now comes the truth.
“[The seven] are still saying they weren’t consulted about the [rainbow] jersey and it went against their religious and cultural beliefs,” an anonymous first-grader told Wide World Of Sports columnist The Mole.
“We weren’t consulted when a betting sponsor was placed on our jersey – the guys wear that every week … I’m not sure what their god would say about that.
“No one asked us when our oval was renamed after a brewery – I don’t think their god would have been crazy about that either. And I can tell you very few young blokes in our club live by the 10 commandments – nor most young blokes in Australia for that matter.”
Bravo. How could you be anything other than still pissed off with the seven players who did this? What have they got to say for themselves? Funny you should ask. Step into the next section.
Standing strong – on rocky ground
At last, the Manly Seven speak!
Or at least one of them did, passing on his thoughts to Danny Weidler, for his column last Sunday.
“I can speak on behalf of all the players, the seven, plus another player who was asked to replace the players,” the player said, “the view of the group is united, the players will not be taking part in a pride exercise .”
Jason Saab, Christian Tuipulotu, Haumole Olakau’atu, Josh Aloiai and Josh Schuster are five of the seven Manly players who drew from the pride round clash.Credit:Getty/NRL Photos
Great, so they’ll trash next season’s rainbow jersey plan, too, and tear apart some within the club rather than even be tangentially involved with a gesture supporting the idea that gays are just like everyone else and deserve respect. But they’re not homophobic, so do bear that in mind! Look, If I was a potential Manly sponsor right now, I’d run screaming from the room. And if I was the incoming Manly CEO Tony Mestrov, I’d resign sooner than re-sign any of them.
The implacability of the Seven, was backed up by an intermediary telling Weidler: “The players will not be told what to believe.”
Great. Believe what you damn well please, no matter how absurd. God made everything, but he strongly disapproves of gays – really?
“They won’t tell others how to believe or behave and want the same respect given to them.”
So, you will unsettle the season rather than stand with the notion of equality inclusivity for gay players and fans, but you want respect? Any thoughts that they might deserve some, too?
“While consultation was important, the real issue relates to their religion. The players have been criticized for playing in a sports betting jumper at a beer field. The critics may not have read the Bible. There is nothing to say it’s not OK, just not in excess…”
Champion, bring it in tight. The bible doesn’t come out against beer, or betting on sports outcomes by using points spread? And you are being freaking seriously?
And yes, I gather the Old Testament actually does have some stuff against gays. That, however, would be the same text that, as in Exodus 21:7, says you can sell your youngest daughter into slavery? And let’s not forget Exodus 35:2 which says “Whoever does any work on [the Sabbath] is to be put to death.”
Say, don’t you professional footballers play on Sundays? Isn’t that your job?
I could go on, but if you google “President Josiah Bartlett and Leviticus”, you’ll get the drift from that famous episode of West Wing. He speaks for many of us.
Don’t get upset. They’re our beliefs, yo’?.
No London buzz for Commonwealth Games
The Colonial Games?
No doubt there’s been lots of fine sporting moments, and good luck to all the competitors. But as one who has been in London for the last week researching a book, it has been instructive.
Not even here, in the host country, it is a particularly big deal. It’s on, and when England wins something there is a good smattering of polite applause. But it doesn’t come up in conversation, nor on the street. It’s happening over in Birmingham, wherever that is, and that’s fine, but there is precisely zero buzz.
What They Said
Peter V’landys on the NSW Government developing a spine and – citing the Lismore floods, and COVID-19 costs – standing up to the NRL on the absurdity of building endless stadiums for a non-tax paying business that already has stadiums: “I find it appalling that they’re using human tragedy of the floods to renege on an agreement.” I daresay the people of Lismore might find endless expenditure shoveled into the gaping maw of stadiums even more appalling?
Premier Perrottet reacting to the threat that – brace yourself subsequent – the NRL grand final might go to Brissie because of it: “Sydney will always be the home of rugby league and, if Peter V’landys wants to take the grand final away from his home, then he can explain that to the fans.”
Former Sports Minister Stuart Ayres: “If the NRL took the grand finale from Sydney, after the NSW government has spent in excess of $1.5 billion on sporting infrastructure that massively benefits the NRL … if the NRL walked away from the home of its sport here in NSW, the state where the grand final has always been played in with the exception of the COVID grand final from last year, that would be an extraordinary move.” See, Premier? We need that kind of money to “massively benefit,” NSW, not the NRL.
Gray Wiggle Andrew Redmayne on the abuse from Peruvian fans. “Half of me wishes I could speak and read Spanish, so I could know what they’re saying. But on the other half I’m glad I can’t, I think.” It’s better that you don’t understand anything, Rojomayne.
Rick Williams, who invented the refereeing “bunker” on which the NRL one was modeled: “When it first started, I said to Graham [Annesley], ‘you are getting guys into the bunker who want to referee the game. You can’t do that, it’s not right.’ That’s the way it has gone, which is unfortunate. It’s a brilliant tool for them, but it should just be for scoring. It’s just gone further and further and this is what happens.”
Kyle Chalmers denying there was any tension between him and his former partner Emma McKeon, after they’d won gold as part of a mixed relay: “I think the media really need to start to grow up and focus on the good things. You look at America, they jump on the winners, they support. No matter what I do these days, the media wants to jump on when I have done nothing but give all to this country. I stand and talk to you guys after every race. Bad, good, I’ve always stopped to give you guys the time of day.” Mighty big of you, Tex!
Chalmers on what will happen if we of the media don’t go into the room full of mirrors, take a good look at ourselves, and stop making shit up about him: “There’s definitely going to be a time when I stop [talking to you after races]if that is going to be the case.” We can’t say we haven’t been told.
Charles Barkley on not going to commentate on the LIV Tour and staying to do basketball which will be his last contract: “I don’t want to overstay my welcome. I’ve been doing it 21 years already. First off, dude, I’m almost 60 years old now. I’m very aware of my body disintegrating, like all the older guys’ bodies are disintegrating. I would like to be on vacation somewhere instead of sitting in Turner’s studio as I decay. I don’t want to decline on television.”
Charles Howell III, 43, formerly ranked No. 15 but now 150 spots lower, on what motivated him to take the blood money of the LIV mob and join the Saudis: “No, money was not a factor.” Perish the thought! Rather, he said, he believed that “Golf can be a force for change and good.”
team of the week
Emma McKeon. I honestly can’t keep track, but she seems to have won everything going in the pool at the Comm Games.
Emma McKeonCredit:john shakespeare
Wallabies. Begin the Rugby Championships early Sunday morning in Mendoza.
Premier Perrottet. Finally, a Premier that stands up to the NRL.
Women’s Soccer. 87,192 fans at Wembley for the final was record for a European finals match – men’s or women’s!
Jess Fox. Successfully defended her world title in Extreme Slalom.
Alex de Minaur. The Australian tennis player won his sixth ATP title.
R.I.P. Johnny Famechon. One of our greatest boxers has died, aged 77. Among other achievements, he won the World featherweight title in 1969.
The impact of what a national Indigenous Voice to Parliament might achieve has had a real-life example in Sydney’s Redfern this week.
Key points:
On Monday, it was announced the NCIE was due to be closed within a week
The community planned a sit-in next Monday to prevent the doors from being locked
The center has become a home away from home for a wide cross-section of the community
There were tears, cheers, relief and cautious celebration on Friday when the immediate closure of the National Center for Indigenous Excellence (NCIE) was averted.
Federal ministers Linda Burney and Tanya Plibersek heard the voice of the people who had rallied for five days after being told on Monday their jobs, sports facilities and cultural programs would be forced to close within in a week.
Rugby league players, boxers and wrestlers joined with local Indigenous kids and staff at the centre, which has been a community magnet for 16 years, to hear the news.
“Here is the bottom line,” Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney told them.
“I want to see the tenants who work out of NCIE given permanency… I want to see that this place stays open, and most importantly that people keep their jobs.
“I am saying very clearly to the people making decisions about this place, you’ve got a week to sort it out.
“It can’t be beyond people to sit down and negotiate in good faith because this joint is important.
“Voices need to be heard on this and the fact that you’ve got so many people here, hundreds of people, is a very loud voice.
“To the parties involved, get your act together and sort this out.”
Community members gather during a meeting about the future of the National Center of Indigenous Excellence.(AAP: James Gourley)
Regular users of NCIE’s gym and sporting facilities include NRL players from the Rabbitohs, the governor-general, members of the police and air force, but mostly members of the indigenous community for whom NCIE has become a hub and cultural safe space.
NCIE also provides crucial after school care, job-ready programs, health and cultural classes, as well as learn to swim programs for toddlers through to elders.
Out of the shadow of the 2004 Redfern Riots, with contested facts around a bicycle and a police car that resulted in the death of teenager TJ Hickey, an idea was born to improve community relations with the NCIE’s “sole purpose of creating long-term improvements.” in wellbeing”.
For 16 years it has done just that, making a positive contribution to closing the gap and improving community relations. Crime rates and arrests trended downwards while education and confidence levels trended up.
The former Redfern Public School was bought by the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation (ILSC) but the land the center is built on was divested to the NSW Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC) in June, with the ILSC retaining the license for the operation of the centre.
The sport facilities at the National Center of Indigenous Excellence are used by a vast cross-section of society.(AAP: James Gourley)
Tenants, staff and community leaders were shocked to be told on Monday the center would remain operational for one more week with all staff offered redundancies and one-off payments to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Their silence was not bought. They rallied instead and declared a sit-in at the site next Monday to prevent the gates at the facility being permanently locked.
“This place is for our local community,” local member and federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek told those gathered at Friday’s rally.
“I remember when it was a school, I was against the closure of the school. And I remember when the proposal was… the ILSC will buy it and it will forever be for the community.
“That’s what the promise was and that’s the promise we expect to be kept. This place has to be for the kids … but it’s not just the kids, it’s for the whole community.”
When it comes to measuring success, the community’s measurement stick is at odds with a traditional business model focused on profit.
Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek speaks at the National Center of Indigenous Excellence.(AAP: James Gourley)
NCIE costs money, and it doesn’t make money. It currently has a $2 million deficit, which for now will be covered.
Strategic projects advisor Indu Balachandran worked at NCIE for five years.
Part of her job was measuring the social impact of the organization.
“The question we need to ask ourselves today is … what do we need to do to make this place work for community wellbeing?” Ms Balachandran said.
The first social return on investment (SROI) report found for every dollar spent on NCIE created three times the value for members of the community, according to Ms Balachandran.
“[That was] in terms of health, wellbeing, culture, gathering … we had a technology program, we had job-ready … we were building a really beautiful organisation,” she said.
“After I left the SROI was done again, from with an Aboriginal framework. The SROI was actually three times more [than originally reported].”
The NRL’s Indigenous round was launched at the NCIE in May.(Facebook: NCIE)
Western business models do not value the same outcomes as the local Indigenous community.
“When you ask Aboriginal people what mattered about this place and then valued that – cultural, social, educational, health, gathering value, people value, the value of having a place for people to come together in Redfern — is that worth $2 million? That’s the question to ask.”
Judy Jarratt is a local grandmother who relies on the center for after school care provided by community group RYC (Redfern Youth Connect).
“My grandson’s 13, he lives with me, he’s been with me since he was two,” Ms Jarratt told The Ticket.
“He attends after school care here for cultural programs, mentoring, they get fed, they do sporting activities and I’d be lost without it.
“I work two jobs … this is my big concern. They’ve got nowhere else to go, this is like extended family, they look after Junior. If I’m working late they pick him up and hold him for me until I can get home.
“They go above and beyond to make sure the kids are looked after.”
Six-year old Kyeh is a regular visitor to NCIE.
“I come here to play with my 10 cousins and swim in the pool,” he said.
He has ambitions of being an Olympic swimmer and what he calls a zoo doctor, “because my dad is worried all the animals are dying.”
Children show their support for the Redfern Youth Connect.(ABC Sport: Tracey Holmes)
For Kyeh and hundreds of other children, NCIE provides regular community connection and sports activities.
Dean Widders, 22, is a trainer and gym manager.
“I’ve grown up in the Redfern community since I was a young boy,” he said.
“My mother and father, my grandfather, my nan, we’re all a big part of the community around here… it’s been such a great turnout… to see everyone supporting us and to see how much this facility means to Redfern.”
One fitness center employee is a refugee from the Middle East. He gave his full name to the ABC but in order to protect him, we’ll call him Farhad.
He describes NCIE as his home, his family having worked there for five years since being released from immigration detention.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke at Garma over the weekend.(ABC News: Michael Franchi)
“NCIE is like a house for me – not a second house, first house because I have spent more time at NCIE than my own place,” he said.
“I’m a refugee from a different country but I don’t feel that, I feel I belong to this community … they are really warm with me, they really respect me a lot.
“Since Monday when we heard the news I can see with my own eyes, and I can feel it, how bad it [closure] can be for the community.
“Straight away after we got the news people got teary and started crying. I was like a lost person. I had a flashback to what happened to me, I lost everything when I had to leave my country. It’s definitely going to have bad consequences for the community.”
For now, that imminent threat has been averted.
Gym manager Dean Widders spoke to the people protesting against the NCIE’s closure.(Supplied)
Community elder Aunty Margaret Campbell understands the sense of loss Farhad and others were feeling.
“It’s almost like there’s another terra nullius,” she told The Ticket, pointing to the failure of the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation and the NSW Aboriginal Land Council to reach an agreement on the long-term future of NCIE.
“We need to work out how we can work together and develop a program and governance to make it [NCIE] viable.
“We feel stuffed up by the whole process, so our confidence has been shattered by them… but I am also excited in one way because it’s taken this community to make them realize that all of these voices are there.”
Her sentiments are echoed by others. There is a shared sense of frustration, the feeling that each time they build something it is ripped out from underneath them by others.
While Monday’s closure is temporarily off the table, there are those in the community who know it will take more than words to guarantee the long-term future of their cultural hub.
They have been burned before, but now there is a glimmer of hope that those in authority are not just hearing their voices but actually listening.
The Florida state attorney suspended by Gov. Ron DeSantis insisted Friday that he still has a job — but the Republican governor’s office said he ca n’t even get into his old office.
Andrew Warren, who served as Hillsborough County’s top prosecutor until DeSantis announced his Thursday, insisted to CBS that he was still on the job.
“He does not have the authority to suspend me,” he told the network, adding that “the people elected me to serve in this position and I am going to continue doing it to keep our neighborhoods safe.”
Warren asserted that the move was “unconstitutional” and that he refused to recognize its legitimacy.
Those comments drew a Twitter rebuke from DeSantis spokesperson Christina Pushaw Friday, who said Warren was being “delusional.”
“Andrew Warren tells the media that he is still the State Attorney because he identifies as a State Attorney,” she wrote. “Sorry but that doesn’t fly here. In Florida we live in the real world. His badge from him wo n’t even work to access his former office from him today. ”
DeSantis said he removed Warren because he wasn’t prosecuting serious crimes and had pledged to ignore current or future restrictions on abortion or gender-reassignment surgeries on minors.
Former Florida State Attorney Andrew Warren insisted that Gov. Ron DeSantis does not have the authority to suspend him.Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via APDeSantis claimed he suspended Warren because he was not prosecuting criminals.Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP
“We are not going to allow the pathogen that’s been around the country of ignoring the law, we are not going to allow that to get a foothold here in the state of Florida,” the governor said Thursday. “We are going to make sure our laws are enforced and no individual prosecutor puts himself above the law.”
Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister backed the suspension, asserting that local law enforcement had grown frustrated with what they viewed as Warren’s prosecutorial leniency.
Warren has ripped his removal, arguing that his office has not handled any cases related to abortion or gender-reassignment surgeries and that he was being punished for hypothetical misconduct.
A Florida governor’s office spokesperson claimed that Warren can no longer access his old office.REUTERS/Octavio JonesWarren called the decision to suspend him “unconstitutional.” Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP
DeSantis has repeatedly blasted progressive DAs in cities like New York and Los Angeles, arguing that they’ve allowed crime to spiral.
Warren was scrubbed from the state attorney’s website shortly after his suspension as DeSantis appointed Susan Lopez to take his place.
