TRANSCRIPT
- Qantas fined $250,000 fine over its treatment of a health and safety rep
- The Greens want the government to build homes to sell or rent below market prices
- Bayern Munich has made it through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League
The Transport Workers Union has applauded a $250,000 fine imposed on Qantas for sacking a worker concerned with the airline's COVID-19 policy.
The health and safety representative, Theo Seremetidis, directed staff not to clean planes arriving from China early in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Transport Workers Union National Secretary Michael Kaine says the ruling has proved Qantas is a corporate criminal.
"Theo Seremetidis is a workplace hero today. Theo made the call as he could, as a workplace health and safety representative to down tools so that they would be safe. And what did Qantas do? Well, they marched him off the premises as if he was the criminal, but today the district court has confirmed that it's not. Theo, who's the criminal? Theo is a hero. It's Qantas. Qantas is not only no longer the spirit of Australia, it is a corporate criminal."
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Police in Western Australia have charged a 45-year-old man with three counts of aggravated assault after a video went viral of three young Indigenous children cable-tied and forced to sit in the hot sun pleading for their release.
Police were called to the incident the home on Broome's Cable Beach after receiving reports of a trespassing incident.
Police say they found a seven-year-old and a six-year-old child forcibly restrained when they arrived.
The third child, aged eight, had managed to escape.
Western Australian senator Dorinda Cox says the footage is disturbing and confronting.
She says watching the video was like witnessing a slow repeat of the race-based abuse experienced by previous generations of First Nations people in Australia.
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The Greens have called for a public property developer to be established, which would see the federal government build homes to sell or rent below market prices.
In an address to the National Press Club, Greens housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather announced the policy which the party will take to the next federal election.
The plan would see the public developer build 360,000 new homes over five years, costing nearly $28 billion.
Mr Chandler-Mather says there needs to be a public option for housing.
"As a society, we have decided that health and education are essentials for people to live a good life, so we provide a public option for people to access them. But imagine if Australia only had private schools and hospitals and they could charge as much as they wanted. What do we think would happen to the price of health and education? The same thing is happening with housing. The Greens believe and, we don't apologise for this, a roof over your head, is just as important to access to health and education."
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The United Nations' World Food Programme says a rare aid convoy has been denied entry into north Gaza by Israel’s military amid famine concerns.
The organisation says it’s deeply disappointed by the decision.
U-S National Security spokesman John Kirby says the situation is unacceptable and Israel must allow civilians to access food and medicine.
"There's nothing acceptable about the dire situation on the ground in Gaza in terms of the lack of food, lack of water, lack of medicine, in some cases, a lack of fuel that shouldn't be acceptable to anybody. So short answer to your question is, no, it's not acceptable. And that's why we continue to work with our Israeli counterparts. As I said in my opening statement, and you've heard the president say as well and the vice president that it's time for Israel to open up more crossings and allow more aid in."
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In football,
Bayern Munich has made it through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League with a 3 nil win over Italian rivals Lazio.
Star-striker Harry Kane scored twice to lead the Bavarian team to victory.
Head coach Thomas Tuchel says it was a tough match.
"Today we enjoy the fact that we have made it through to the next round. The task was difficult. It was against an Italian team that can defend very, very well. We absolutely had to score at least two goals to reach the next round. We put in a very good team performance."
