Monday, 10 August - Hot steaming porridge all in a cup

Good morning, it’s Monday, 10 August. In your Squiz Today…

• Gambling, tax and immigration on the table as Oz politicians return to Canberra

• Israel says no to President Trump’s Gaza peace plan

• And crowning the GOAT of oats… 🥣

🎧 Listen to the podcast

🤓 This email will take you 6 minutes to read

🙋🏻‍♀️ This newsletter was written by Andrew Williams and Anna Pykett

Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Says Monticah Hawkins, one of many users who are keen for one of the original social media platforms to come back, after its owners flagged it might be on the cards. Please don’t make us pick our Top 8 friends again though, we can’t handle that sort of pressure…

Five weeks is a long time in politics

The Squiz

When the Federal Parliament returns tomorrow, it’ll be 40 days since it was last in session - which means there’ll be plenty to talk about, with tax, gambling and immigration the likely hot topics. And with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese back from leave, he has a challenge on his hands - the government’s primary vote fell to 29% in the latest Newspoll published overnight, equal with One Nation. It’s a similar situation for Coalition leader Angus Taylor, who’s come back from his break to a near-record polling low of 18%. And we thought our overflowing inbox was bad…

What’s on the agenda?

You might have seen a few headlines about the ‘widow tax’, which has come out of the Albanese Government’s tax package it passed in June. Part of that package exempted certain properties from changes to negative gearing, as long as they’d been bought before the changes were announced in the May Budget. But it’s since emerged that if one co-owner of a property dies (or divorces the other), that exemption disappears - leaving the surviving owner with the tax burden. It’s a loophole that independent Senator David Pocock says would “disproportionately negatively impact women” (thus the ‘widow tax’), and Treasurer Jim Chalmers has drafted legislation to try and fix it. While passing that legislation isn’t on the government’s agenda for this week, other parties say it can’t wait, and are expected to discuss how to push things forward faster today.  

What else?

Expect a fair bit of chat about the Albanese Government’s gambling laws, after the Greens yesterday said they wouldn’t support the bill in its current form. Party spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young says she wants inducements (aka perks offered to gamblers to try and get them to bet more often) wiped out of the industry entirely, and the bill doesn’t currently do that. At this point, it’s mainly about limiting advertising of gambling - but the Greens and the Coalition both want the reforms to be juiced up a bit. Also requiring a bit more juice is the government’s planned migration cuts, which it cancelled a speech on last week while it sorted out the finer details. Now the PM’s back, reports say the government could finalise those as well. Oh, and there’s an interest rate decision from the Reserve Bank tomorrow. It’s all happening…

Recognising the signs

Financial abuse is something that can happen to anyone, regardless of their age, background, income, or gender, and recognising the signs is an important step to getting help - whether it’s for yourself or someone you care about... It’s things like restricting access to money, preventing someone from working or studying, building up debt in someone else's name without their awareness or consent, or controlling a household's financial decisions. CommBank’s Next Chapter program offers free support, even if you don’t bank with them.

Squiz the Rest

Israel rejects Trump’s Gaza plan

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his army won’t withdraw from Gaza until militant group Hamas "genuinely" disarms (puts down its weapons). Last month, US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace put forward a 15-point plan, which aimed to secure lasting peace in the territory (which has been at war since October 2023). Hamas accepted the terms, but PM Netanyahu didn’t say much when it was announced - and now he says the wording isn’t strong enough. He’s under pressure… His right-wing coalition government is facing elections in October, and this US plan hasn’t gone down well with his ministers, so analysts say he has to find a way to balance not angering President Trump (who we’ve not heard from yet) and keeping his party happy at home.

Chaos at Sydney Airport

An investigation is underway into a close call at the country’s busiest airport yesterday, where a Jetstar plane had to brake suddenly before it collided with a Qatar Airways plane on the tarmac. The accident injured one crew member of the Jetstar plane, but no one else was hurt - and 2 workers have been stood down while investigators try to work out how the planes ended up so close to each other. It’s the second near-miss at Sydney Airport in less than a month, after 2 Qantas planes almost had a bingle on the main runway in late July. Plus, it followed a hectic few days at the airport after air traffic control staff shortages led to mass delays and cancellations. Always good for an airport to be even more stressful than usual…

Vietnamese President To Lam is in town…

…and tomorrow, he’s set to meet with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to discuss “opportunities to deepen cooperation” between the 2 countries. Now, you’d be forgiven for not being full bottle on the Oz-Vietnam relationship, so here’s a refresher: a couple of years ago, we signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership that made Oz one of Vietnam’s highest-rated diplomatic partners. (The other countries on that list are a tense group: it includes Russia, China and the US…). So it’s a fairly close bond, diplomatically speaking - and Vietnam also supplies us with lots of our fuel, so our PM is likely to raise that topic when the 2 have a chat tomorrow. And here’s a weird detail - because he’s here on Census night, reports say he may have to fill one out … 

Infantino-no

Following a largely successful FIFA World Cup in June/July, things have gone downhill fast for Gianni Infantino, the President of football’s global governing body. As we’ve mentioned before, a plan to sell off the running of the tournament to private business groups landed with a thud for the rest of football’s governing bodies - that plan was rapidly shelved as a result. So his Presidency was already under pressure before a report this weekend alleging that he had an affair with an employee of UEFA (Europe’s governing body) while he was general secretary there - and used his influence to ensure she was promoted and received a payout on leaving. Infantino has denied the allegations, but he can’t stay out of the headlines at the moment - he’s set to run for a fourth term as the organisation’s head honcho next year, if he makes it that far… 

Crowning the oat GOAT

On Saturday, Oz found its first-ever porridge-making champion at an event at Pearl Beach on NSW’s Central Coast. It’s called the Pearly Spurtle, which sounds NSFW but isn’t - a spurtle is a Scottish wooden kitchen tool used to stir porridge. They’ve been running a Golden Spurtle competition in Scotland for years, but this is the first Oz version - and Sydney’s Robert Reid took out the win. Entrants had 30 minutes to cook a bowl of traditional porridge - oats, water and salt only, thank you - and one more creative dish. Reid said his porridge-inal use of a special Celtic salt earned him the win - and he’ll be travelling to the Golden Spurtle this year to represent Oz as a result. That’s on 3 October - move over, World Cup, we’ve got a new comp to obsess over…

Apropos of Nothing

Yolngu hip-hop artist Baker Boy was the big winner at the weekend’s National Indigenous Music Awards, picking up album, song and film clip of the year for his song Thick Skin. Have a gander here to see what all the accolades are about… 

It was easy to miss as it’s no longer broadcast on television, but the Australian Cricket Awards were handed out on Friday night, with Travis Head capturing the top prize as our best all-format men’s player. He’ll hope to continue his good form against Bangladesh in Darwin this week…

And there was quite the spectacle on the Chicago River this weekend, as over 90,000 rubber ducks were plunged into the water as part of a Special Olympics fundraiser. Sesame Street’s Ernie would be losing his mind…

Squiz the Day

9.00am - Hearing Block 8 of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion continues, with a focus on the drivers of antisemitism in Oz

11.30am - National Press Club: A panel on debating changes to the NDIS

2.15pm - Appeal ruling for Damien Patrick Richardson, a former Neighbours actor charged with performing a Nazi salute on 14 September, 2024

Vietnamese President To Lam is in Australia for an official State visit

The RBA will begin its 2-day meeting on its latest interest rates decision

Thriving Women Conference

Ecuador’s National Day

World Lion Day

International Vlogging Day

International Update Your Bio Day

Birthdays for Antonio Banderas (1960), Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins (1962), and Kylie Jenner (1997)

Anniversary of:

• the Louvre Palace officially opening in Paris as The Museum Central des Arts (1793)

• the marriage of Virginia Woolf and Leonard Woolf (1912)

• the release of Michael Jackson's Off the Wall album (1979)

• Ruth Bader Ginsburg being sworn in as a US Supreme Court Justice (1993)

Housekeeping

Reckon you read the email each day?

Want the chance to win a $100 gift voucher for Myer? Hit the button below each day this week, and we’ll know you’ve read the email. That gives you a chance to go in the draw. And repeat…

Button not showing for you? Click here instead. Legend.