Source : the age
Workers on Sydney’s government-owned ferries have vowed to switch off Opal ticket readers for almost four weeks as part of industrial action over a new pay deal with private operator Transdev.
The latest action will allow passengers on Sydney Ferries to travel for free during that time.
Almost a week after a five-hour stoppage halted ferries, members of the Maritime Union of Australia have announced they will turn off Opal readers from this Friday until October 6 as part of protected industrial action.
The union’s deputy secretary, Paul Garrett, said the decision to switch off Opal readers was a “significant but necessary escalation” of members’ industrial campaign.
“Even limited overtime bans have already disrupted several services,” he said.
Workers are seeking a 5 per cent annual wage increase for four years, as well as an extra 4 per cent over the life of a new agreement to take account of higher inflation.
NSW Health secretary Susan Pearce, the state’s chief health bureaucrat, who led crucial aspects of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, will retire next year after a 30-year career.
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said Pearce, a former nurse who has held multiple senior leadership positions across the public health system, intended to bow out at the end of March 2027.
Pearce was appointed secretary of NSW Health in February 2022, following more than six years as a deputy secretary during when she oversaw NSW Health’s operational response to the pandemic, including responsibility for the vaccine rollout, hotel quarantine and testing clinics.
Park said the Minns government was thankful to Pearce for her “decades of dedicated public service, and for her remarkable contribution to the health and wellbeing of the people of NSW”.
“During some of the most difficult moments confronting our health system, Susan has been a constant source of calm, clarity and compassion. It’s been reassuring to have her by our side,” Park said.
He said Pearce would support a smooth transition to her successor in coming months.
Volkswagen sealed a preliminary agreement with Aurelius Capital that would repurpose the German carmaker’s factory in the German city of Osnabrück for the manufacture of military equipment with Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defence Systems.
Under the plan, Tel Aviv-based Aurelius would take over Volkswagen Osnabrück GmbH as the majority owner together with the government of Lower Saxony, the region where VW is headquartered. The plan would provide a lifeline for a 125-year-old facility, which is due to end vehicle production next year.
As an “initial anchor project”, Volkswagen is planning to co-operate with Rafael on the potential manufacture of systems and components for air-defence systems for Germany and Europe.
“We are taking an important step towards opening up a new industrial future for the site,” Volkswagen chief executive Oliver Blume said in a statement.
Social media companies will be required to prompt users to choose whether they want to have algorithm-driven feeds under the digital duty of care laws, Communications Minister Anika Wells said.
Wells pitched the laws as a middle-ground between calls for an opt-in model that would make the default feed algorithm-free, and the opt-out model, which would require users to seek out the exclusion function.
Wells said the design would combat some of the problems with the EU’s attempt to crack down on algorithms, where social media giants have made it difficult to opt-out and impaired functionality for those that do.
“It will look different here because the notification, the pop-up that you’ll receive … will be: what do you want as your primary feed? Do you want the algorithm? Do you want the following feed?” she said.
“And then the ability to choose again and again as you may wish – that looks a bit different to what it is in the EU. And the reality is, lots of people are going to want to choose the algorithm.”
Parents of children and teens who have lost their lives due to exposure to harmful content online have spoken to the press alongside Albanese and Wells.
Emma Mason lost her 15-year-old daughter Tilly Rosewarne, who died by suicide in 2022 after enduring years of cyberbullying.
She told reporters it was a historical day for Australia, and that all Australians should be “proud” of these reforms.
“As one of the parents of lost children, we’re so incredibly proud about today, being Australian, and you all should be proud about being Australian because this is a new era.
“All of us need support at times in our lives, and for children, they need it more. And I just want to thank all of you for being part of this momentous occasion.”
If you or anyone you know needs help, you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, or the Butterfly Foundation on 1800 33 4673.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has downplayed potential backlash from the United States administration as he puts tech giants in his sights.
“Look, we’re a sovereign nation. We decide our policies based upon the Australian national interest. I, as prime minister, will do that regardless of what the issue is,” Albanese said.
“But my relationship with the US president is indeed very good, and I look forward to seeing President Trump in New York in a couple of weeks’ time.”
Communications Minister Anika Wells said the online safety reforms would not enable regulators to police misinformation online, as the Coalition raises the alarm over free speech consequences.
“This is about basic safety standards online for online services, and about the onus being on big tech to identify risks on their platform and to mitigate against those risks,” she said.
“The kind of serious harms that we’re talking about here that adults will be prevented from engaging in online: child sexual exploitation, child abuse material, child grooming, violence, sexual violence, menacing threatening or harassment, and the promotion of terrorism and extremism.
Apart from that, this is about choice – the choice for an adult to decide what their default feed will be: the algorithm or their following feed, their friends, and the content creators they’ve chosen to follow.”
Communications Minister Anika Wells said Labor wanted to put a stop to tech companies running what she called unregulated product testing on Australians.
“Their platforms and tools have infiltrated our daily lives in ways that we could never have imagined. Some good, but some with terrible consequences,” Wells said.
“There is a global reckoning coming for big tech, and it started here in Australia with the introduction of our world-leading social media minimum-age laws.
She said the reforms would give children more time to build digital skills and resilience.
“Tech companies can still move fast, but they will no longer be allowed to break things because online harms have real-world consequences, especially for children, as the parents, advocates, and educators assembled here today have lived,” she said.
“Girls getting advice from chatbots on how to exist on only 600 calories a day, boys being cyberbullied by strangers on online games, and young people doing dangerous or illegal things in real life because they saw it online. The duty of care goes beyond social media to keep kids safe online, be that in games, on AI chatbots, on the web, or chatting with their friends.”
Labor’s Digital Duty of Care bill would require platforms to protect children from harmful content online, Anthony Albanese said.
That includes “content that promotes eating disorders, misogynistic content, pornography, and content that glorifies crime,” the prime minister told reporters in Canberra.
“We’ll require social media platforms to provide user empowerment tools that give people over the age of 16 genuine and enduring choice about what they see in their feeds,” he said.
“We will provide eSafety with the power to issue removal notices for nudify apps… streamline the child cyberbullying and adult cyber abuse schemes, and will require digital platforms to document the measures taken to address harm to Australian users and ensure measures remain effective over time.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in Canberra unveiling Labor’s proposed digital duty of care laws.
He said the proposal would take the world-leading teen social media ban further.
“As part of this draft legislation, we’re acting on algorithms with a landmark initiative: ‘My Feed, My Way’,” Albanese said, speaking alongside advocates for the teen social media ban.
“This is not about giving government control. It’s about giving people control. It’s about putting choice back into the hands of Australians online.”
He said his government was moving with a changing online landscape.
