Scott Morrison has confirmed Australia will withdraw its last remaining troops from Afghanistan by September, in line with the US and other allies.

The Prime Minister said the number of Australian Defence Force personnel had been drawn down from a height of more than 1500 to just 80 troops in the past two years.

Mr Morrison choked back tears in Perth on Thursday as he read the names of 41 ADF troops killed while serving in Afghanistan.

“Our emotions are of no consequence compared to those who have lost their family members,” he said.

“It is an emotional day, but mainly, and most importantly, we must think of those who have been most significantly impacted – the families of those who are lost and that sacrifice which they live with each and every day, but also those who bore arms with them and served with them.”

Mr Morrison’s announcement came a day after US President Joe Biden confirmed American forces would leave Afghanistan by September 11 – the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on the US.

The US will begin withdrawing its troops from what Mr Biden called “the forever war” on May 1.

“It was never meant to be a multigenerational undertaking. We were attacked. We went to war with clear goals. We achieved those objectives,” he said, noting that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed by American forces in 2011 and saying that organisation has been “degraded” in Afghanistan.

“It’s time to end the forever war.”

Mr Morrison said bringing the remaining Australian troops home represented a “significant milestone”. More than 39,000 Australian Defence Force personnel have served in Afghanistan in the past 20 years.

Australia will continue to provide aid to the war-ravaged country through defence co-operation programs, but the federal government will no longer provide any “in-country support”.

“While our military contribution will reduce, we will continue to support the stability of Afghanistan through our bilateral partnership and in concert with our other nations,” Mr Morrison said.

“This includes our diplomatic resources, development cooperation program and continued people-to-people links.”

Allegations of war crimes by Australian troops in Afghanistan led to a wide-ranging investigation and review, but Mr Morrison refused to be drawn on whether Australia could have done better in the conflict.

“There will be time to talk about those things. Today is not that time,” he said.

-with agencies

The post Last remaining ADF troops to leave Afghanistan within months appeared first on The New Daily .

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says the federal government is just days away from announcing a targeted support package to help struggling tourism operators stay afloat when JobKeeper ends on March 28.

Mr Frydenberg told reporters in Cairns that the government had been working on a package for “some time” and would announce the final details in “a matter of days”.

But although the Treasurer confirmed more support was on the way, he said the federal government was unable to save every business affected by international border closures and had already committed $251 billion in economic stimulus.

“We can never make businesses whole. We have to be realistic about that,” he said, while noting other measures like the JobMaker hiring credit would continue to support businesses after JobKeeper expires.

“What we’ve sought to do is give businesses every opportunity to get to the other side [of the crisis], and of course to keep their staff employed.”

Roderic Rees is the director of Cairns Adventure Group, a family-run business that operates tourism activities such as Foaming Fury white water rafting.

Mr Rees said without a wage subsidy his company would struggle to retain enough staff to service clients during busy periods.

Although he understands the forthcoming package will not include an extension of JobKeeper, Mr Rees said “some form of wage subsidy is imperative to the viability of a lot of the operators here in Cairns”.

“There are going to be so many operators that aren’t going to make it through if there isn’t some sort of support after JobKeeper,” he said.

“People see it as a real cliff face.”

Cairns Adventure Group came off JobKeeper in January as it failed to meet the turnover test in the September quarter, due to strong visitor numbers during the September school holidays and Christmas.

Mr Rees said numerous employees resigned and left the region as soon as the payments stopped flowing, as they were worried about being stood down without the security of JobKeeper.

“You have this one good quarter out of the whole pandemic and then you’re ineligible,” he said.

Mr Rees told The New Daily the exodus of experienced staff members meant his company would now struggle to service customers during peak travel periods, which could force them to turn down bookings over the crucial Easter period.

“A lot of the operators in Cairns have highly trained and highly specialised employees. It’s not a cafe situation where we can find someone to make coffees a week out from the holidays,” he said.

“We’ve got dive instructors and white water rafting guides and a whole myriad of highly trained people who, without some sort of wage subsidy in place, can’t ride those peaks and troughs [in visitor numbers].”

Mr Rees said his company would struggle to replace outgoing staff as many were highly skilled.

ATO data released by the Treasurer’s office in February shows that 55 per cent of individuals who qualified for JobKeeper in Cairns had come off the payments after the end of September.

This compared to a drop of 52 per cent across the national accommodation and food services industry and a fall of 56 per cent across the entire country.

Although Mr Frydenberg has ruled out extending a modified version of JobKeeper beyond its scheduled end date on March 28 – as some economists have called for – the Tourism and Transport Forum (TTF) said on Monday it had engaged in “very constructive and detailed in-person briefings in recent weeks” with Mr Frydenberg and Tourism Minister Dan Tehan.

The group’s chief executive, Margy Osmond, said TTF was “confident that our concerns and potential support options are being closely considered at this critical juncture”.

The lobby group released research on Monday showing that more than one-third of Australian tourism regions had suffered at least a 40 per cent drop in visitor numbers over the 12 months to September 31.

It came after the Queensland government on Sunday announced it would hand out 15,000 vouchers worth up to $200 to Queenslanders who book eligible tourism experiences in Tropical North Queensland.

The post Treasurer Josh Frydenberg flags post-JobKeeper tourism package appeared first on The New Daily .

Friends of a woman who accused Christian Porter of a violent rape in 1988 have pleaded for an inquiry into her claims, saying the Attorney-General should temporarily recuse himself from his position.

“I think he should stand aside from being the chief legal officer while a competent person, like a former judge, holds an inquiry,” Jeremy Samuel, a friend of the woman and a former Liberal Party candidate, told the ABC’s Four Corners on Monday.

Explosive allegations of rape were levelled against Mr Porter last week, after an anonymous letter containing a detailed dossier was sent to several senior politicians including Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

The woman making the allegations, identified only as Kate, died in June 2020, but her friends mailed the dossier – which she compiled before her death – in the wake of a growing conversation around sexual assault in federal politics.

Attorney-General Christian Porter denies the allegation. Photo: AAP

Mr Porter vehemently denies the claims, strenuously maintaining he never had any sort of sexual relationship with the woman.

Kate, living in Adelaide, approached NSW Police with her complaint in 2020.

However, despite several meetings with investigators, she never made a formal report, and in June told police she did not want to proceed .

She was found dead the next day, of an apparent suicide.

After a dramatic week in which Mr Porter outed himself as the previously unnamed politician at the centre of the allegations, Four Corners aired a new report, Bursting The Canberra Bubble – a sequel to last November’s Inside The Canberra Bubble .

ABC reporter Louise Milligan claimed the program was aware of the complaint against Mr Porter at the time of the previous report.

“At the time, there was an allegation that we were unable to report on,” Milligan said.

MONDAY ON #4CORNERS : ‘BURSTING THE CANBERRA BUBBLE.’ Don’t miss it. Here’s a preview #CanberraBubble #auspol pic.twitter.com/rbTXSeyg7j

— Sally Neighbour (@neighbour_s) March 7, 2021

In the report, which interviewed a number of Kate’s friends, Mr Samuel called for an inquiry into the allegations.

“I’m certainly not calling for him to resign,” Mr Samuel stressed.

“[Mr Porter] said, if you had to resign just because an allegation was made, then everybody would be stuffed, and I think he’s right … He certainly denied it very strongly. But that’s all we have.”

Mr Samuel, who reportedly stood for Liberal preselection twice in Melbourne seats, said the government’s refusal to entertain an inquiry was not tenable.

“The Prime Minister saying, ‘He says he didn’t do it. The police have looked at it. That’s good enough for me’, I don’t feel like it’s good enough for the Australian people,” Mr Samuel said.

Some media coverage in recent days had focused on Kate’s mental state, probing claims she experienced a dissociative condition and may have given unreliable evidence.

However, the ABC earlier reported the woman’s counsellor recalled her voicing the allegations eight years ago, saying she was “extremely articulate” and “not delusional”.

Four Corners revealed Kate checked into a mental health facility in Melbourne in June. A week after checking out, she told police she did not want to pursue her complaint, and was found dead the next day.

“We couldn’t do everything we hoped … We did what we could,” said Kate’s friend, Jo Dyer.

Scott Morrison says there is “not another process” to investigate. Photo: AAP

From Prime Minister Morrison and deputy Liberal leader Josh Frydenberg down, almost every Coalition member has rubbished calls for an independent inquiry.

Only maverick backbench Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce has voiced support for such a process.

“Some form of external inquiry would be a vastly better alternative than what we’re seeing,” he told ABC radio last week.

Inquiry calls grow

Labor, the Greens and most of the parliamentary crossbench demanded the government hold an independent inquiry into the allegations against Mr Porter.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese claimed on Monday “the government will continue to face questions over the issue unless an independent investigation occurs”.

The Opposition is set to further hammer the issue when Parliament resumes next week – despite Mr Porter, and embattled Defence Minister Linda Reynolds, both being absent on medical leave.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said she did not back an independent inquiry into allegations of rape against Mr Porter.

“It would be unprecedented if we moved to establish an inquiry of this nature based on an allegation,” Senator Payne told AM radio.

“It would mean any person in Australia in any role in any job could be put in the position of ignoring the rule of law.”

Former foreign minister Julie Bishop appeared on ABC’s 7.30 program on Monday night, before Four Corners , and said she was “surprised” neither the PM or Mr Porter had read the letter that outlined the allegations against the Attorney-General.

Senator Anne Ruston, from South Australia, said she believed “everybody will be happy” if the coroner in that state opens a coronial inquiry into Kate’s death.

The post Friends of Christian Porter accuser call for inquiry, Porter to stand aside appeared first on The New Daily .

Adequate sleep is key to good health, wellbeing and proper functioning across all life stages, but is especially critical for children.

Poor sleep can inhibit rapid growth and development in early childhood.

And it’s not just about sleep duration; the time one goes to bed also plays an important role in the physical, emotional, and cognitive development of children.

A consistent early bedtime is especially important for young children transitioning from biphasic sleep (where children still nap during the day) to monophasic sleep (where sleep happens at night).

Late sleepers don’t always get the recommended amount of sleep, but evidence also suggests late bedtime is associated with sleep quality problems and difficulty falling asleep.

All this can add up to concentration, memory, and behaviour issues in children.

An early bedtime is good for physical health, too

One study of low-income, preschool-aged children found not getting enough sleep was associated with a higher risk of obesity.

A review of academic literature on the question found poor sleep is increasingly common in children, and associations between short sleep duration in early childhood and obesity are consistently found.

Adequate sleep is key to good health. It’s worth noting that most of the studies on this question are cross-sectional, which means they look at data from a population at one specific point in time.

That has major limitations that make it hard to say poor sleep habits cause the higher obesity risk.

To know more, we need more longitudinal studies that examine change over time.

That said, emerging evidence from longitudinal studies supports the idea an early bedtime may be worth the battle.

One longitudinal study found: “Preschool-aged children with early weekday bedtimes were half as likely as children with late bedtimes to be obese as adolescents. Bedtimes are a modifiable routine that may help to prevent obesity.”

My own research , published last year with colleagues in the journal Acta Paediatrica , analysed four years of data from 1250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged five to eight years old.

The results highlight that even after controlling sociodemographic and lifestyle factors, children who had consistently late bedtimes (after 9.30pm) were on average 1.5 kilograms to 2.5 kilograms heavier at follow up three years later than children who go to bed early (about 7pm).

Nobody can yet say for sure what the exact relationship is between bedtime and obesity risk.

Maybe it’s that staying up late provides more opportunities for eating junk food or drinking caffeinated drinks.

Or there could be more complex physiological factors.

The body’s internal clock, which regulates sleep, also plays a crucial role in hormone secretion, glucose metabolism and energy balance.

Try to stick to the same bedtime.

How late is late?

Sleep habits are shaped by a range of biological and cultural factors.

When parents set their child’s bedtime, they’re influenced by cultural norms, lifestyle and what they know about the importance of sleep.

There are clear guidelines for sleep duration for each age group, but the time a child should go to bed isn’t always as clearly defined.

For a preschooler , I’d recommend a consistent bedtime between 7pm and 8pm to ensure adequate sleep (recognising, of course, that work and caring responsibilities can make this really difficult for some parents).

Develop an early bedtime routine for your child and try to stick to it, even when it’s “not a school night”.

Irregular bedtimes disrupt natural body rhythms and, as many parents know from direct experience, can lead to behavioural challenges in children.

Early childhood is a critical time in which the foundations of life-long habits are built.

Developing healthy sleep habits can set children on the right path for better future health and wellbeing.

________________________________________________________

Yaqoot Fatima , Senior Research Fellow, James Cook University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article .

The post For children, it’s not just about getting enough sleep. Bedtime matters, too appeared first on The New Daily .

A national child care overhaul will help mend the $242-per-week pay gap that separates men and women, three experts say.

For the past 20 years, the difference between the average earnings of Australian women and men in the workforce has been stuck between 13.4 per cent and 19 per cent.

According to the latest Workplace Gender Equality Agency data , men take home $25,000 a year – or $242 a week – more than women on average.

The reasons why women typically end up with less money in their pockets are complex and there is no simple solution.

But there are some steps we can take immediately to help level the playing field.

Here, three experts share their ideas with The New Daily about ways to narrow the gender pay gap now.

Universal child care, and having men take more responsibility for raising children would give women’s participation in the workforce a “massive” boost.

That’s according to Lisa Annese, who has led seminal research on the economics of the gender pay gap.

For women, taking time out of the workforce to care for dependants is a major driver of the gender pay gap, she said.

• Read: Women lost more jobs and work hours than men during recession: Grattan

“Child care is a ‘women’s issue’ because women bear the brunt of it,” Ms Annese told TND.

“If a straight, heterosexual couple have a child, the cost of child care is only ever discussed in terms of a woman’s salary and never as a family expense.

“But this should be no different to paying a mortgage or electricity. The cost of child care is a family expense.”

Ms Annese said not only will affordable child care help women pursue their careers, it will only give more men quality time with their children.

“It’s a win-win thing,” she said.

“It’s good for men’s engagement with their families and their children, and their sense of wellbeing outside of the workplace.”

In addition to “fixing the childcare system” by offering families more options, Professor Richard Holden said we need to reassess the value we place on jobs considered women’s work.

“We know women are more highly represented relative to men in certain occupations that aren’t as well paid, like nursing and teaching,” he told TND.

“When it comes to that, we need to have a bit of a reckoning as a society about what we value.

“Part of the issue is, those jobs are typically paid for by government, so that’s really a social choice we’re making about how much we value primary school teachers.”

During the coronavirus pandemic, women in poorly paid industries like aged care have made enormous personal sacrifices to keep the wheels of society turning.

• Click here to read how everyday Australian women have been helping us fight COVID-19

“Time out of the workforce is an important driver of receiving lower pay because people get off a certain kind of ladder and don’t get the same skills as they would working longer hours,” Professor Holden said.

“We need to give more women choices about what they want to do.”

We need to set targets aimed at getting more women into higher-paying managerial roles, said Bianca Hartge-Hazelman.

“If you look at the gender gap in the number of women in ASX top 200 boards, in the gender diversity component, the targets set in 2016 are proving really effective,” she told TND.

“If we apply that same rationale for all companies promoting like-for-like pay gaps, then that could have an influence.”

• Read: Labor launches push to shut gender pay gap

Ms Hartge-Hazelman is a former journalist who founded Financy Women’s Index , which measures the financial progress of Australian women and economic equality.

According to the index’s 2020 December quarter report, the pace of improvement in ASX 200 female board appointments doubled in 2020, from a year earlier.

“We need to see a greater level of engagement among women in the full-time workforce in managerial positions overall,” Ms Hartge-Hazelman said.

“Another thing is, male-dominated industries tend to be higher paying.”

But that doesn’t mean women can’t get a slice of the pie.

“There are opportunities for women to be in sectors in types of work where they’re earning better if they want, or more equalised pay to men on average,” she said.

“But because we have so many women in sectors like health and education where we don’t pay as much, and less women in sectors that are quite high paying like technology and mining, it does have an impact on averages.

“We need to talk more about higher-paying career paths that help younger generations.”

The post How to solve a problem like the gender pay gap: Experts speak up appeared first on The New Daily .

A home ownership gap between men and women fuelled by gender pay disparity has increased the risk of women entering poverty in retirement.

But the gap could shrink through private-sector policies that speed up pay rises for female workers, as new research suggests females with higher incomes are more inclined to purchase a home.

CoreLogic’s Women and Property: State of Play report, released on Monday, found that less than a quarter of Australian homes are owned by a sole female compared to 27.7 per cent owned by a sole man.

That’s despite women accounting for more than 60 per cent of Australian single-parent or sole-person households.

&&

Given the estimated $7.5 trillion housing market accounts for 52.6 per cent of Australian household wealth, researchers believe women are losing out on a “big source of household wealth” that is regarded as one of the main “pillars” of retirement.

CoreLogic head of research Eliza Owen told The New Daily the report highlighted how wealth inequality, created through decades of income inequality, manifests once people reach the end of their working life.

“If they still have rental or housing payments when they reach an age when they’re on a lower income such as the pension, that increases the risk of poverty among women,” Ms Owen said.

“Research also suggests women are more likely to exit home ownership when they end a partnership, and it comes back to the idea that home ownership not only creates wealth, but can be used for funding aged care or healthcare costs.”

However, the analysis also revealed women are more likely to own homes in areas with higher average household incomes.

Sydney’s leafy east, for example, has the highest proportion of homes owned by one or more women (34.8 per cent compared to 31.7 per cent owned by men) with Melbourne’s hip inner south (32.6 per cent compared to 27.6 per cent) not far behind.

Ms Owen said this trend suggests women could be empowered to jump on the property ladder if their pay rose to the same level as their male colleagues.

As it stands, a woman on the average full-time wage requires 10 more months to accumulate a 20 per cent deposit on a median-priced home ($583,157) compared to the average-earning male.

The report also found that homes owned by both a man and a woman (“mixed gender”) comprised the highest proportion of home ownership, at 43.9 per cent.

How the gendered home ownership gap can be fixed

The Financy Women’s Index estimates it will take 101 years to close Australia’s gender pay gap.

That timeframe increased by one year over the three months to December as women suffered a “triple whammy” of job losses, reduced eligibility for government support, and a rise in unpaid labour.

Swinburne Professor of Housing and Social Policy Wendy Stone said the research was a reminder for governments and banks to implement mechanisms that address women’s experiences around child rearing and separation, and lower pay more generally.

For example, Professor Stone said brokerage or rent-to-buy schemes tailored to recently-divorced women could help them catch up, as their ex-male partners usually retained ownership over the family home.

Waiting 101 years for income parity to fix housing inequality isn’t adequate for the next generations of women,” Professor Stone said.

&&

Equity Economics lead economist Angela Jackson said the government should be looking at its policy suite with a “gendered lens” to increase economic equity, which would then lead to higher home ownership rates among women.

Ms Jackson said policies encouraging investment in affordable housing for vulnerable women would be an ideal direct intervention.

And improved child care, policies geared towards increasing wages in female-dominated industries, and employment support for older women would close the gap more broadly.

“The economic inequities of Australian women is something that we just live with today, but relative to the rest of the world, Australia is falling behind,” Ms Jackson told The New Daily .

“When you have the IMF, the OECD and the World Bank saying that a gendered lens is a necessary part of good fiscal policy, why it isn’t a part of the toolkit of the Commonwealth Treasury is an interesting question.”

The post Report shines light on home ownership gap between men and women appeared first on The New Daily .

Attorney-General Christian Porter continues out of sight on stress leave as he contemplates his future with his greatest ambition shattered.

There can be little doubt that his tears of anger and frustration at what he considers the unfairness of it all are as much prompted by the ending of his dream to become prime minister, as everything else.

Malcolm Turnbull, in the autobiographical account of his prime ministership A Bigger Picture , recounts a confrontation with Mr Porter in the days before the Peter Dutton coup that saw Scott Morrison come through the middle and snatch the leadership crown.

“The only emotional part of our discussion,” Mr Turnbull writes, “was when, utterly unprompted, Porter started to tear up at the other side of my desk as he bemoaned the narrow 2 per cent margin by which he held his seat and how he was now inevitably going to lose it.

Christian Porter outed himself as the accused rapist, but denies all the allegations.

‘‘‘I didn’t come here to do this. I came here to sit in your chair, and now I’m going to lose it all’, he moaned.”

Mr Porter on several accounts grew up with the conviction his destiny was to be prime minister of Australia.

He left a senior ministerial position in Western Australia at a time when he was heir apparent to then premier Colin Barnett to progress his Canberra ambition.

Though he said last week he has no intention of standing down as Attorney-General or quitting politics, he must realise that seeking to lead the Liberal Party and the nation with an unresolved doubt he is an alleged rapist hanging over him is a bridge too far.

Indeed Mr Turnbull, a bevy of senior lawyers, Labor, the Greens and most of the crossbench are calling for an independent inquiry to address that doubt.

Labor’s shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus says an inquiry could clear Mr Porter’s name because at the moment a preliminary police investigation has had to be ended “because of course the complainant is no longer with us ”.

Mr Porter, however, is probably correct when he says such an inquiry couldn’t achieve an outcome to definitively clear him, and there is some precedent for this view.

In 2002, George Pell when Archbishop of Sydney, stood aside while a retired Victorian Supreme Court judge Alec Southwell inquired into claims by a Melbourne man Cardinal Pell had sexually assaulted him 41 years earlier.

Mr Southwell was not satisfied the “complaint had been established”, though he found the accuser had “spoken honestly from actual recollection”.

Cardinal Pell claimed exoneration and returned to his role while the complainant’s solicitor said his client had been vindicated.

Such an outcome would still leave Mr Porter, the first law officer of the land in an untenable position, for unlike Pell, the attorney’s political opponents would be sure to keep reminding voters about the cloud over his reputation.

Scott Morrison says there is “not another process” to investigate allegations of rape against Christian Porter.

Just as the Liberals were quick to draw comparisons between Labor’s Bill Shorten and Mr Porter’s predicament as soon as the allegations against the Liberal minister emerged – never mind that the Labor politician had faced an extensive police investigation of the rape claims against him.

In the end the calculus will be a political one – not what is fair to Mr Porter, but what is best for the government.

The Four Corners program on Monday night would have given many, more reason to doubt Mr Porter’s denials.

Mr Morrison’s tactic of having Mr Porter and his other embattled minister Linda Reynolds out of view and away from the probing questions of Parliament is at best a time-buying exercise, at worst even more damaging of the government’s credibility.

The political calculus will be how long the Prime Minister judges his government can take water while Mr Porter remains on board – and how big a risk it would be to sack him.

Tweet from @Lisa_Wilkinson

Mr Porter’s fate is much more problematic than Senator Reynolds .

If he quits Parliament there would be a loss of absolute majority and a by-election in a marginal seat.

If Senator Reynolds quits the Senate she can be replaced with another Liberal appointed by the Western Australian Parliament – there are sure to be quite a few putting up their hands after next weekend’s state election.

In the meantime, the Prime Minister will be sweating on just exactly what the Attorney-General with his shattered dreams meant when Mr Porter said he was seeking support and assistance for something that he didn’t expect to happen to him in a million years and that “I’m sure it will change my views on a whole range of things”.

• For confidential support and services around sexual assault, contact 1800 RESPECT online or by phone on 1800 737 732. If you or someone you know needs help contact Life Line on 13 11 14

The post Paul Bongiorno: A government drowning in tears for a lost ambition appeared first on The New Daily .

The Dutch sure do have their priorities in order.

Revellers in Amsterdam were given a break from lockdown restrictions to hit the dance floor, in the name of science.

The government-backed party invited attendees to the city’s largest music arena – the Ziggo Dome – to track just how much coronavirus could spread in such an environment, and what health precautions held the most benefit.

It was an extremely exclusive party – some 100,000 people applied for tickets, but just 1700 got access.

(This wasn’t a fake party – there were real performers, including Sam Feldt, and Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano.)

Tweet from @andyzuidema

Those 1700 were divided into five groups of 250 people, each with a different set of rules or restrictions to follow through the four-hour shindig.

Some groups were allowed free rein, others had to wear masks but could move wherever they liked – others were encouraged to scream and dance as much as they could.

Each attendee was rigged up with sensors and equipment to track their movements and how much contact they had with each other.

People were also given coloured liquids to drink, to monitor just how much saliva they expelled when they sang. Delightful.

Some attendees were asked to wear masks, some were asked to sing as loud as they could. Photo: Getty

(Naturally everyone was required to submit a negative COVID-19 test before attending.)

It’s the latest in a series of experiments, co-ordinated by Fieldlab, that will help the country ease out of its stringent restrictions in the months to come.

There’s also been trial football matches, conferences and theatre performances.

The post Clubbing for a cause: The dance party that’s fighting COVID-19 appeared first on The New Daily .

Former foreign minister Julie Bishop says she was surprised neither Prime Minister Scott Morrison nor Attorney-General Christian Porter had read the anonymous letter containing details of the historical rape allegations denied by Mr Porter.

The anonymous letter was sent to a number of politicians, including the Prime Minister’s office. Both men said they had not read it.

“I wonder why they haven’t,” Ms Bishop told 7.30 .

“I think in order to deny allegations you would need to know the substance of the allegations, or at least the detail of the allegations.”

Ms Bishop said she was aware the South Australian coroner was considering an inquest into the woman’s death and said that was the “next logical step, if there is to be further scrutiny of this matter”.

. @HonJulieBishop says she was “surprised that no one thought to inform the Prime Minister” about the Brittany Higgins case.

“In my experience, an allegation of that nature … would be brought to the attention of the Prime Minister immediately.” #auspol #abc730 pic.twitter.com/QHVtWLvqql

— abc730 (@abc730) March 8, 2021

Ms Bishop said she was also “surprised that no one thought to inform the Prime Minister” about the Brittany Higgins case.

“In my experience, an allegation of that nature, a serious, indictable offence, would be brought to the attention of the Prime Minister immediately.

“It’s the kind of information that prime ministers, in my experience, want to know about.”

Last month, Ms Higgins publicly alleged she was raped in Parliament House by a former Liberal staffer.

“As somebody who has employed many people over many, many years, if someone had come to me with an allegation that a rape occurred, as it turned out in my office, but in the workplace, for which I’m responsible, I would have felt a duty not only to that person, but to others in the workplace to inform the police,” she said.

‘A very unusual workplace’

Julie Bishop told 7.30 the culture in Parliament House needed to change. Photo: AAP

Ms Bishop told 7.30 the culture in Parliament House needed to change, particularly when it came to attitudes towards women and the handling of complaints.

“If the events of the last few weeks haven’t led political parties to embrace change, I don’t know what has to happen,” she said.

“A culture has developed over many years. I think it’s embedded in Parliament because the environment, the conventions, the protocols, were all established at a time when there were no women in Parliament or very few women in Parliament.”

She said that as it was up to Parliament to “make the laws that we impose on workplaces around the country, Parliament House should be the exemplar, the gold standard, the place where people can see how best practice in workplaces should be carried out”.

Ms Bishop said there was a culture within all political parties to ensure that no individual does anything that would damage the party’s image or its reputation, particularly at election time.

“It can mean that a culture develops whereby those who are prone to inappropriate or unprofessional, or even illegal behaviour, get a sense of protection.

“They know that people aren’t going to complain because that will damage the party or damage the party’s prospects. And this is across Parliament,” she said.

“It makes it a very unusual workplace in that regard. But also we don’t have the structures in place to counter that.

“I think we need some basic and fundamental structural change within Parliament – induction programs, proper formalised training programs, and an independent complaints system so that people feel protected and secure if they do make a complaint.”

‘They failed’

Former Liberal minister @SharmanStone recently said a group of male politicians who called themselves the 'swinging dicks' sought to block @HonJulieBishop 's career aspirations: "If their ambition was to thwart my aspirations, then they failed." #auspol #abc730 pic.twitter.com/ON5zC8xApH

— abc730 (@abc730) March 8, 2021

Former Liberal minister Sharman Stone recently said a group of male politicians who called themselves the “swinging dicks” had sought to block Ms Bishop’s career aspirations.

Asked if she was aware of the group, Ms Bishop told 7.30 : “I believe it was ‘big swinging dicks’. So there was obviously an overexcited imagination on the part of some, I would suggest.

“Nobody self-identified to me, thank goodness for that. But if they were seeking to block my aspirations, well, they didn’t succeed because my ambition was to be the foreign minister of Australia and I’m very proud to say that I served in that role for five years.

“And likewise I was deputy leader of the party for 11 years. So if their ambition was to thwart my aspirations, then they failed.”

– ABC

The post Julie Bishop surprised neither Scott Morrison nor Christian Porter read anonymous letter appeared first on The New Daily .