Friday, 2 May - One day more

May 02, 2025

Searching for childcare with The Parenthood

Good morning, it’s Friday, 2 May. In your Squiz Today…

  • It’s election day tomorrow

  • US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz has been moved on

  • And a toastie with the most…ie

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

“I didn’t know he was an artist. He was just a guy in a dishevelled suit.”

Said 2025 Archibald Packing Room Prize winner Abdul Abdullah when describing meeting his subject, fellow artist Jason Phu. They're now best friends who talk daily, and that friendship has proven a winning combination… The main prize will be awarded on 9 May.  

A matter of choice

The Squiz

Well, tomorrow’s the big day - it’s National Scrapbook Day. Oh, and there's also the small matter of a federal election… It's still up in the air as to which campaigns will be one for the scrapbook and which will be for the scrap heap, but here's the big number to keep in mind - with 150 seats in the lower house this year, 75 is the target the major parties (Labor and the Coalition) need to reach if they want a chance to form a majority government. Polls are giving Labor the edge at this point, but they’ve been wrong before…

What do they need to do to get there?

PM Anthony Albanese's team heads into this election with a notional 78 seats (that means they'd have 78 if the last election's votes were applied to the new electoral boundaries). And that means if it loses a net 4 seats tomorrow, it will no longer be in majority government. Net 4 means the total losses - so if they pick up 1 seat but lose 5 elsewhere, that's a net loss of 4. The Coalition needs to pick up a net 18 seats to get to 75 - that's a big ask, but not out of the realm of possibility. If neither party can make it to the magical mark of 75, that's where they'll need to do a deal with minor parties and independents to form a minority government. And there are plenty of those making waves… 

It's far more than a 2-way race…

Especially with voting trends heading away from the major parties over time. Some of the other players include the left-wing Greens, who are looking to improve on the 4 lower house seats they currently hold, right-wing parties One Nation and Trumpet of Patriots, and a range of independents, including the 'teal' candidates who took a bunch of lower house seats off the Coalition under Scott Morrison in 2022. They'll all have a role in how this election plays out. To help you navigate your way tomorrow night, we really like this interactive ‘seats to watch’ map, here’s an exhaustive guide on how to vote cards, and here’s a handy resource on where to get a democracy sausage - and other types of snacks, if meat ain’t your thing. Happy voting… 

*For a deeper dive into the campaign's last week and some of the numbers to look out for, here's our latest election Shortcut…

Searching high and low for childcare

If you know what we’re talking about when we say “childcare desert”, you might be one of the 25% of Aussies who are living in parts of the country where it’s impossible to secure a place… If you want to know where the major parties stand on that issue, The Parenthood’s Early Learning Scorecard sheds some light. It’s also the focus of episode 2 of At What Cost? - a podcast by The Parenthood exploring our childcare crisis and offering up solutions. You can listen here.

Squiz the Rest

Waltzing out of the room

US President Donald Trump has confirmed this morning that Mike Waltz will be leaving his role as National Security Adviser and will become the US Ambassador to the United Nations instead. You might remember Waltz’s name as he was the one who accidentally added the editor of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, to a group chat discussing planned military strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen back in March. Waltz took responsibility for the mistake - telling Fox News he meant to add a colleague rather than a senior journalist to the chat on the Signal messaging app. Despite calls to resign, he has stayed in the role - until now. Replacing him will be current Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will do both jobs for the time being.

When the lights go out…

Questions are flying in Spain and Portugal after the European neighbours experienced their worst-ever blackouts, leaving about 55 million people with no power for half of Monday. They triggered train network and airport shutdowns, gridlocked traffic in cities and trapped people in lifts for hours. So the impact was huge, but what’s less clear is what caused the outages… One theory is that the countries’ high reliance on wind and solar power might have contributed, but that’s something Spain’s grid operator, REE, denies. Regardless, it will be grilled, along with private energy companies from the region, by investigators from Spain’s cybersecurity agency and intelligence service as they try to shed light on what happened. With political fallout building, they’ve been told to move quickly.

Minecraft strikes again

The execs at supermarket giant Woolworths might have a major video game/film franchise to thank for helping the business entice customers back through the doors, if the company’s latest sales update to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) is anything to go by… Woolies ran into problems after being accused of price gouging (aka raising prices solely to make a profit…) despite our consumer watchdog being unable to prove that was happening. But a promotion with Minecraft, the video game-turned-movie blockbuster that saw collectible cardboard characters from the franchise given with every $30 purchase, might have turned things around… The company reports that third-quarter food sales were up by 3.4%, 1% above expectations, and the Minecraft promotion was specifically mentioned several times. Talk about mining for gold…

The Blues are off to an Origin flyer

It was tight until half-time, but New South Wales ran away with the game in the second half to take a 1-0 lead in the Women’s State of Origin opener in Brisbane. In front of a record crowd of 26,022, the Blues scored 3 tries on the trot after the break to win the opening contest 32-12 - and with the next 2 games in the 3-game series to be played on their turf, they’ll be heavy favourites to win the whole shebang. The good news for Queensland is that this happened last year - they lost the opener before winning the next 2 games to clinch the series - we’ll find out if history will repeat itself when Game 2 kicks off on 15 May.

Puppet, can you feed me

A baby vulture is being fed in unusual fashion while under the care of handlers at the Bronx Zoo in New York. Vulture chicks are often neglected by their parents, which means they're in danger of identifying strongly with any humans who feed them. That's best avoided, so handlers have taken to using hand puppets that look like adult vultures to give the new chick the sustenance it needs. And keeping it well-fed is important - the chick, which doesn't have a name yet (suggestions welcome…), is the first one hatched at the Bronx Zoo since the 90s. It's a tactic they've been using with condors and vultures for decades, and you can see it in action here - for a video involving a vulture, it’s pretty cute…

Friday Lites - 3 things we liked this week

If you’re okay with a few scares at the movies, the new Ryan Coogler action-horror flick Sinners is a bloody good time. Set in 1930s Mississippi, it stars Michael B. Jordan as twins who return to their hometown to open a juke joint, before some unwelcome supernatural guests send things down a dark path…

Maybe we’ve just got politics on the brain, but we’ve been rewatching the ABC’s various documentary series about our recent set of governments. Labor in Power, The Howard Years, The Killing Season and Nemesis are all available on iView, and they're all fascinating refreshers on how we got to our current political situation.

Probably best to avoid a caramel slice for this week’s recipe, so we’ll go with something savoury - this zucchini and mozzarella toastie with basil, garlic and lemon. It’s fresh, zesty, and cheesy, and you can also add prosciutto if you’re feeling extra fancy. And if you prefer a written recipe, this one looks similarly delicious…

Squiz the Day

Friday
11.00am (AEST) - the world’s largest battery-powered electric ship, Hull096, will be launched from Tasmania - Hobart

8.05pm (AEST) - NRL: Magic Round kicks off in Brisbane (until 4 May), catch it on 9Now

ABS data release - Retail trade, March 2025; Producer Price Indexes, March 2025

Tasting Australia presented by Journey Beyond begins in Adelaide (until 11 May)

The end of the “de minimis” exemption comes into effect in the US - it’s a tariff loophole that allowed imports worth less than $800 to be imported duty-free, and it’s forcing Chinese retailers Shein and Temu to up their prices. 

Savvy B Day (still waiting on that white wine emoji)

PSA for Potterheads: it’s International Harry Potter Day

National Brothers and Sisters Day

Birthdays for actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (1972), singer Lily Allen (1985), and Princess Charlotte (2015) 

Anniversary of:

  • the deaths of Leonardo da Vinci (1519), J. Edgar Hoover (1972), and Osama bin Laden (2011)

Saturday
🇦🇺 8.00am local time - voting opens around the country for the Australian federal election, with election night events for each political party kicking off at 6.00pm local time

7.00am (AEST) - Surfing: WSL Bonsoy Gold Coast Pro begins at Snapper Rocks - Gold Coast (until 13 May), watch on Kayo

9.00am (AEST) - Oz Feline Fair, Australia’s first national cat convention, begins - Brisbane

3.00pm (AEST) - Rugby Union: Women’s Test, Australia vs Fiji - Suva, Fiji, and watch on Stan Sport

4.00pm (ACST) - The Joy of Many Colours Festival is on, celebrating the cultural diversity of the Northern Territory - Darwin

8.30pm (AEST) - Athletics: Shanghai Diamond League Meet - Shanghai, China

It’s election day in Singapore too

Brisbane Street Art Festival begins (on until 18 May)

Astronomy Day

National Scrapbook Day

Anniversary of:

  • New Zealand being proclaimed a colony independent of New South Wales (1841)

  • Margaret Mitchell winning the Pulitzer Prize for Gone With the Wind (1937)

  • the first spam email, sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the US west coast (1978)

  • the disappearance of Madeline McCann (2007)

Sunday
3.00am (AEST) - Rugby Union: Rugby Sevens Series - Los Angeles, and watch on Stan Sport 

Romania heads to the polls after the results of last year’s presidential election were overturned (until 18 May) 

It’s Star Wars Day - May the Fourth be with you… to celebrate, LEGO Star Wars: The Exhibition opens in Melbourne 

Anniversary of:

  • the birthdays of actor Audrey Hepburn (1929) and artist Keith Haring (1958)

  • Margaret Thatcher becoming the first woman to be elected Prime Minister of the UK (1979)