Written by 
Victorian students to learn to be less like Andrew Tate
Caitlin Cassidy
Victorian students will learn how to be less like male influencer Andrew Tate under a suite of resources responding to toxic masculinity.
The respectful relationships resources, being rolled out to schools across the state, teach children how to recognise hate speech and coercive control online, countering the influence of “Andrew Tate-types” by navigating consent, sextortion, pornography and gender-based bullying.
Victoria’s public schools and more than 370 independent and Catholic schools have so far signed up to the program. The resources were developed by education experts professor Helen Cahill and associate professor Debbie Ollis in consultation with teachers, students and parents.
It follows similar moves internationally. In England, teachers are being advised by the government to help develop positive male influencers amid concerns over a rise in sexism and misogyny linked to the social media influencer.
Parliamentary secretary for men’s behaviour change, Tim Richardson, said young people should feel safe online.
These resources play an important part in delivering behavioural change across Victoria and combatting toxic influences like Andrew Tate.
Key events
Prime minister in Tasmania to announce boost to Antarctic program
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, have been speaking to reporters in Hobart on the boost for Australia’s Antarctic program.
As we reported this morning (see earlier post), the Albanese government will contribute $188m over four years to construct a new Macquarie Wharf 6 in the Port of Hobart – which will be home to Australia’s icebreaker, RSV Nuyina, for the next 30 years.
Speaking to reporters, Albanese said funding would be included in Myefo, and the budget next March, and “the funding will be available over four years”.
Plibersek added:
This is a really good deal for Tasmanian taxpayers and for Commonwealth taxpayers. We did think the initial proposal from TasPorts was too expensive, not good value at that time. We have come to an arrangement with TasPorts that I am very excited about. We will be having a state-of-the-art facility to house the state-of-the-art vessel, making a huge contribution to the economy in Hobart, meaning the future of the Antarctic is a secure for Hobart.
Andrew Messenger
Miles and Crisafulli going head to head in leaders debate
In Queensland today, Steven Miles and David Crisafulli are facing off in what will be their penultimate meeting before election day.
With a new poll showing the LNP has a commanding lead, the Labor premier and LNP opposition leader will ask each other questions before the floor is opened to Queensland parliamentary press gallery journalists.
The leaders are expected to be scrutinised on key issues, including abortion laws, youth crime and housing.
Queensland goes to the polls on 26 October.
Teachers reports of sexism, misogyny and sexual harassment ‘rife’, academics say
Prof Steven Roberts and Dr Stephanie Wescott – from the School of Education, Culture and Society at Monash University – have responded to news that Victoria will rollout respectful relationships resources across the state to tackle toxic masculinity.
This includes teaching students to be less like male influencer Andrew Tate, as Caitlin Cassidy reported earlier.
In a statement, the academics said:
The Victorian government’s revised respectful relationships resources respond to widespread and disturbing accounts of a rise in gender-based violence in Victorian schools.
Teachers report that sexism, misogyny and sexual harassment are rife. The influence of Andrew Tate and similar figures on boys’ behaviour and attitudes towards girls and women has been profound. These resources are very much needed.
We hope to see school-related gender-based violence continue to be a priority area for the state government, ensuring adequate support and backing for schools to implement and deliver this program with confidence.
Woman dies after being hit by tram earlier this month
A woman has died in hospital after being hit by a tram in Melbourne earlier this month.
It’s believed the woman was hit by a tram on St Kilda Road, between Inkerman and Carlisle streets, around 8am on 5 October.
The 58-year-old Richmond woman has died in hospital, Victoria police confirmed today.
The Transit Safety Division is investigating the circumstances and will prepare a report for the coroner.
CBA chair says ethical principles will govern AI use
Commonwealth Bank executives are talking up the potential of artificial intelligence and defending the bank’s record on gender pay equality, AAP reports.
CBA chairman Paul O’Malley told shareholders at the bank’s annual general meeting in Adelaide today that AI was a “really important topic” and the bank had already developed six principles to govern its use of the technology.
Those principles include that AI be powered by renewable energy and only use water in the context of Australia’s water governance, it needs to be fair, transparent and respectful of the privacy of CBA’s customers and employees and be safe, reliable and accountable.
Chief executive Matt Comyn said CBA was using AI to improve customer experiences and guard against scams but reports that the bank was rolling out AI in call centres was a little misrepresented.
In particular, it’s fair to say that whilst there is certainly potential with AI, it will take some time before we’ll be sufficiently confident that we can control all the risks to be able to safely manage that at scale.
O’Malley also disputed a question from Jason Hall, the local executive secretary of the Finance Sector Union, who said that CBA had one of the worst corporate gender pay gaps in corporate Australia at almost 30%.
O’Malley said CBA was absolutely committed to gender equality and ensuring that in like-for-like jobs there was gender equality, pointing out that CBA’s board was 44% female, as was 40% of its group executives.
So there’s a structural issue there that we need to work through.
Wong on the heckling: ‘I understand people are upset, horrified, distressed’
Daniel Hurst
Penny Wong went on ABC Radio Tasmania today and was asked about the heckling from pro-Palestine advocates during her speech at the University of Tasmania the previous night.
The radio host read a question from a listener who said:
Can you ask Penny Wong when she’s going to call for a ceasefire and stand up against the genocide?
Wong replied that she had called for a ceasefire “months ago” and “this is the problem with this debate … there’s a lot of disinformation that’s going around”. She said:
You know, people – one person said yesterday, “When are you going to stop bombing Lebanon?” I said, we’ve called for a ceasefire in Lebanon.
We joined with the United States and all members of the G7 to call for a ceasefire in Lebanon over a week ago. In fact, that’s what Peter Dutton has been criticising the government for. I called, the prime minister called, and we voted for a ceasefire [in Gaza] months ago. We’ve said there should be a ceasefire in Gaza.
Asked whether she had been frustrated to be heckled at the speech last night, Wong told the ABC:
I think it was probably the 10th interruption, I was a bit frustrated I couldn’t finish a sentence. Look, I understand the depth of feeling this issue generates. I understand people are upset, horrified, distressed by what they are seeing. What I’d say is what I said there – I don’t think we gain anything by shouting each other down. And I don’t think we gain anything by being disrespectful to one another …
This is a hard issue for Australians, and what I’d say is, we should try and deal with it respectfully.
Potential oil slick spotted off coast of Coogee after mysterious debris washes ashore
Rafqa Touma
Pictures have come in of a potential oil slick spotted off the coast of Coogee in Sydney this morning, after hundreds of “mysterious black, ball-shaped debris” washed up along the beach last night.
Council workers on jetskis spotted the potential oil slick this morning, after lifeguards discovered the golf ball-sized debris on the sand yesterday afternoon at the popular eastern suburbs beach.
Man charged for allegedly making Nazi salute at football game
NSW police have charged a man after allegedly making a Nazi salute during a football game earlier this year.
In April, detectives began an investigation after reports a man had allegedly performed a Nazi salute towards a group of people at a football game in a Moore Park stadium.
A 36-year-old man was arrested at Surry Hills Police Station on Monday, and charged with make a gesture in a public place that is a Nazi salute.
The man was granted strict conditional bail to appear before Downing Centre Local Court on 28 November.
Westpac and St George says online services restored
Earlier, we reported Westpac and St George customers were having problems with online services for the third day in a row (see post).
We contacted Westpac and St George for more information – including the cause of the problem, and if there are plans for customer compensation – and they responded:
In recent days Westpac customers may have experienced issues logging into their mobile or online banking. We’re sorry for the disruption. We know how important it is to have access to online banking.
Our teams have been working around the clock and services are restored. We’ll continue to actively monitor the situation. Thank you for your patience. Customers do not need to take any action.
Border force commissioner addressing National Press Club in Canberra
Michael Outram will retire as commissioner on 9 November, with the former head of Defence Intelligence, Gavan Reynolds, to take on the role.
Speaking in Canberra, Outram said the cost of living crisis across many countries “illustrates just how quickly disruptions can cascade through our hyper-connected world.”
It has to be acknowledged that many international borders are perceived, at least, to be in a state of perpetual crisis. The truth is that many of the contemporary challenges to our sovereignty, which can and does drive those perceptions, are unlikely to diminish in the decades ahead, including the displacement of people through conflict or climate change … But a state of perpetual crisis is really exhausting for our officers to sustain, and their margin for error become unrealistically narrow.
The commissioner said that if our border is viewed as a strategic and economic asset “which balances the forces of globalisation and sovereignty”, then, like any asset, “its depreciation should be of serious concern”.
Failing to invest in it in the coming years will cost us much more in the long run. So is Australia’s border equipped to handle the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead?
With the projected 70% increase in cargo volumes and 50% increase in passenger numbers over the next decade, with one in five jobs being related to trade … it’s pretty hard to argue that we can afford to have anything otherwise.
Victorian students to learn to be less like Andrew Tate
Caitlin Cassidy
Victorian students will learn how to be less like male influencer Andrew Tate under a suite of resources responding to toxic masculinity.
The respectful relationships resources, being rolled out to schools across the state, teach children how to recognise hate speech and coercive control online, countering the influence of “Andrew Tate-types” by navigating consent, sextortion, pornography and gender-based bullying.
Victoria’s public schools and more than 370 independent and Catholic schools have so far signed up to the program. The resources were developed by education experts professor Helen Cahill and associate professor Debbie Ollis in consultation with teachers, students and parents.
It follows similar moves internationally. In England, teachers are being advised by the government to help develop positive male influencers amid concerns over a rise in sexism and misogyny linked to the social media influencer.
Parliamentary secretary for men’s behaviour change, Tim Richardson, said young people should feel safe online.
These resources play an important part in delivering behavioural change across Victoria and combatting toxic influences like Andrew Tate.
Daniel Hurst
Marles announces a plan for WA’s Henderson shipyard
The defence minister, Richard Marles, is in Western Australia to announce plans to turn the Henderson shipyard into a “consolidated commonwealth-owned defence precinct”.
That means land that is now primarily owned by the WA government will become federal government-owned land.
The government’s press release says this precinct will “underpin tens of billions of dollars of investment in defence capabilities in the West over the next two decades and support in the order of 10,000 well-paid, high-skilled local jobs”.
But in terms of the actual announcement today, the funding is relatively small and is focused on a feasibility study:
The Albanese government will make an initial investment of $127m over three years to progress planning, consultations, preliminary design and feasibility studies as well as enabling works for the Defence Precinct at Henderson.
This work will inform future decisions on delivery options and models for the Defence Precinct at Henderson.
The government says the precinct “will support the build of new landing craft for the Australian Army and new general purpose frigates for the Navy announced by the Albanese government, with requisite large vessel infrastructure to form part of the Precinct”.
The site will also be “the home of depot-level maintenance and contingency docking for Australia’s future conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines” under the Aukus plans.
Anthony Albanese, said in a statement that the plans were “a gamechanger for WA industry”.
Catie McLeod
Liberal MP defends party’s decision not to allow conscience vote on equality bill
New South Wales Liberal MP Alister Henskens has defended his party’s decision not to allow MPs a conscience vote on legislation designed to improve the rights and protections of LGBTQ+ people.
Henskens, the shadow attorney general, addressed the media alongside faith leaders and women’s rights activists earlier this morning at NSW parliament, where they outlined their opposition to Sydney MP Alex Greenwich’s equality bill. Henskens said:
Labor doesn’t have a conscience vote either, and we didn’t have a conscience vote on conversion therapy. These are not matters which are automatically conscience votes at all. And the party room decided by an overwhelming majority that we would not have a conscience vote
Henskens claimed conscience votes were “very rare”.
The Liberals do not require their members to vote as a bloc, as Labor does, but MPs usually vote together according to party policy. And although the Liberals didn’t have a conscience vote on the bill outlawing conversion practices, they did unanimously support it.
The NSW Liberals voted with their conscience on the introduction of Voluntary Assisted Dying and the decriminalisation of abortion, two of the biggest social issues to come before the state parliament in recent years.
Birth rate continuing to decline
New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that Australia’s birth rate is continuing to decline.
In 2023 there were 286,998 births registered in Australia, with a total fertility rate of 1.50 babies per woman.
ABS head of demography statistics, Beidar Cho, said the record-low fertility rate is “because there were fewer births in most states and territories”.
Western Australia had the highest total fertility rate at 1.57 babies per woman, while the ACT had the lowest, at 1.31. Only Tasmania saw an increase since 2022, growing from 1.49 to 1.51 babies per woman.
The total fertility rate has slowly dropped from 1.86 in 1993. The decline is most prominent among women aged 15 to 19, the ABS said, while the age-specific fertility rate of women aged 40 to 44 years has almost doubled in thirty years. Cho said:
The long-term decline in fertility of younger mums as well as the continued increase in fertility of older mums reflects a shift towards later child-bearing. Together, this has resulted in a rise in median age of mothers to 31.9 years, and a fall in Australia’s total fertility rate.
Origin Energy defends complex switch to renewables, gas
Origin Energy is pumped on gas being a key part of the energy transition, AAP reports, as shareholders have been warned of a “messy” transition.
Chair Scott Perkins has told shareholders at the annual general meeting in Sydney that the company “continue[s] to have really strong medium- to long-term conviction that LNG will play an important role in the energy transition.”
Shareholders were also warned of a “messy” transition to renewables that would not involve Origin investment in green hydrogen.
Higher earnings from energy markets and gas may be driving higher dividends but transmission and renewable generation projects have been hamstrung by delays in approval and construction, Perkins said.
He said the transition needed to accelerate even further to allow the exit of coal and meet emissions targets set by governments, supported by regulatory certainty.
He also defended the recent decision to walk away from costly green hydrogen and focus on wind, solar and batteries.
Tamsin Rose
Mother tells of dying trans son’s wish
Staying with developments at the New South Wales parliament, mother Heike Fabig has spoken alongside Greenwich and Labor ministers about the experience of her transgender son Bodhi Boele.
Boele died of a degenerative condition and asked his mother to ensure that his death certificate reflected him as a male, even though his birth certificate could not be changed and showed him as a female.
Changes included in the equality bill will mean that people can change their gender on birth certificates without undergoing major surgery, bringing NSW in line with the rest of the country.
In response to comments by opposition attorney general spokesperson Alister Henskens about how changes to rules governing birth certificates would affect the lives of women and children, Fabig said:
When you register a child’s birth, you tick a box. No one checks their genitals. When you become an adult and you buy things like houses … you sometimes have to show your paperwork. That’s where it becomes important that the birth certificate is correct … I don’t know about you, but I have never had to show my birth certificate going to a toilet.