Tuesday, 8 September - Holding hands and skimming stones

Good morning, it’s Tuesday, 8 September. In your Squiz Today…

• One Nation is spruiking its early-access superannuation scheme

• Germany’s far-right AfD party close to taking power in Saxony-Anhalt

• And Scotland hosts the World Stone Skimming Championships…🪨

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🙋🏻‍♀️ This newsletter was written by Andrew Williams, Anna Pykett, Larissa Huntington and Sophie Felice

Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes to documentarian Nathan Fielder in the trailer for You Can See Everything, which starts following Holmes as she prepares to report to prison for fraud. The film comes out in October, and the trailer is intriguing, to say the least… 

A super-sized debate

The Squiz

Arguments about superannuation dominated federal parliament yesterday after One Nation announced its new cost-of-living policy. It wants renters and people paying off a home loan to be able to direct part of their super into their salary for up to 3 years. Party leader Senator Pauline Hanson says it’s designed to give household budgets “breathing room”, but the idea has come in for some heavy criticism from the superannuation industry and some economists. Treasurer Jim Chalmers called it a “full-frontal attack” on our system of saving for retirement, flagging that the next election is shaping up to be “a referendum” on superannuation.

How would it work?

Under the plan, workplaces would still pay the compulsory 12% super contribution into their staff’s nominated superannuation fund. If a worker opted in, their fund would then pay 3% of it directly to them - for a maximum period of 3 years. Hanson said a worker on a salary of $90,500 would pocket an extra $44 a week, or $2,300 a year. But Chalmers said it’d leave people tens of thousands of dollars worse off in retirement. Number crunching by the Super Members Council backed that up, showing a median full-time worker would be $25,000 poorer by retirement if they opted in. The Council’s boss Misha Schubert said “turning super into an ATM is a reckless idea that would make battling Australians poorer”.

Please explain…

In a nutshell, the concern is that workers would lose the compound interest that builds up on their super over decades. There are also fears that putting extra cash in people’s pockets will add to our inflation worries. But One Nation’s treasury spokesman Barnaby Joyce says the money would be for housing payments, so any extra would be “incredibly small”. As for the Coalition, it says the plan is short on detail - but reports say it’s hatching its own plans for super… The policy is the latest in a string of announcements by One Nation, which has won by-elections in the federal seat of Farrer and the Western Oz seat of Secret Harbour this year - putting pressure on the major parties. Next up, the Victorian state election in November - but with historical drug use allegations against the party’s state leader Warren Pickering in recent days (which he denies), the party’s experiencing some pressure of its own…

More’s possible with Google AI

One in five Australians live with some form of hearing loss, and it can be deeply isolating. Part of the problem is that people with traditional hearing aids don’t like wearing them. They don’t isolate sounds - they just turn up the volume on everything. To solve this and improve hearing devices, researchers are using Google AI to isolate clear speech from background noise in real-time. By replicating how the human ear naturally filters sound, this technology can help restore vital human connections. When medical research joins forces with Google AI - more's possible.

Squiz the Rest

A “seismic” election result in Germany

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says he’s “deeply shocked” by the outcome of elections in the country’s eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt on Sunday, where the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party came within 3 seats of an outright majority. This result is making waves because it’s the closest any far-right party has come to holding power in Germany since the Nazis in World War II - and the Saxony-Anhalt branch of AfD is considered an extremist organisation by the state’s intelligence agency. Most other parties in Germany say the AfD is undemocratic, and refuse to work with it, but senior party leader Beatrix von Storch said the election results meant they now had to enter talks. The result is also putting pressure on Merz, who promised to halve AfD’s support when he was campaigning, and so far, has done anything but.

A constitutional challenge in the High Court

Neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell’s White Australia group (formerly known as the National Socialist Network) will mount a legal challenge against its listing as a hate group today. The group was listed in May under new federal anti-hate speech laws that make joining or funding it a crime. It'll argue that the government didn’t have the power to pass the law in the first place and that it breaches the implied freedom of political communication under our Constitution. On the first point, it leans on a legal precedent from 1951 when the High Court ruled that the Menzies government didn't have the power to ban the Communist Party. On the other side, the government will argue that the harm the group could cause justifies the ban. The hearing is set down for 2 days, but a decision isn’t expected for weeks or even months.  

A cold Bathla

Administrators have stood down 213 staff (roughly 60%) at collapsed property developer Bathla, with construction on most of its sites suspended as of yesterday. The Western Sydney company went under in August owing $3.4 billion, and it’s a big player with about 2,000 homes under construction and another 13,000 in development. Which isn’t great news for NSW, given it’s already about 40% behind (paywall) its housing construction goals. NSW Premier Chris Minns said the state government is in talks with the administrators, who’ve secured short-term funding from 5 lenders to keep some sites going for another fortnight. But Minns has ruled out a bailout for the moment, saying Bathla’s finances are too “opaque and difficult to decipher”.

It’s a small NRL world after all

At the launch of the NRL finals series yesterday, league executive chairman Peter V’landys revealed plans for a new Disneyland-style theme park called either ‘NRL World’ or ‘NRL Land’. It’s aimed at further engaging kids in the sport of rugby league, and the NRL reportedly already has a spot in the inner Sydney suburb of Alexandria marked out for it. V’landys says some of the attractions will include speaking with AI-generated versions of current league players, augmented reality challenges and the ability to “play for a side in the venue”. So no rollercoasters - yet… You can see some of the first images here, but it’s still likely a couple of years away from being built. Once it is, it could be the happiest place on turf…

A stone’s throw from victory

The World Stone Skimming Championships took place on the Scottish isle of Easdale on the weekend, with more than 400 participants competing for the furthest skim on a quarry flooded in 1881. Shadows and wind make it one of the toughest places in the world to skim stones, and competition organiser Dr Kyle Mathews - who has the unenviable title of “official toss master” - says distance, consistency and accuracy are key. And there’s been some drama… After 2 competitors were caught last year grinding their stones to “suspiciously circular” shapes, a geologist was on hand this year to ensure stones were naturally occurring. As for the champs - Abbey McDonald, an Aussie repping New Zealand, won the women's title, and 32yo Liam Knight from North Carolina took out the men’s comp. Rock stars, both…

Apropos of Nothing

From skipping stones to digging stones, the Hungarian Association of Cemetery Maintainers and Operators had its annual grave-digging contest over the weekend. They say the event helps tackle taboos around death, and show off their skills. 

A Canadian sailor who got into difficulty in waters 1000km off Christmas Island has been saved by the Oz Navy, after his boat started taking on water, and his family hadn’t heard from him. The rescue op took around 8 hours, and he’s thought to be well - phew…

Radiohead fans rejoice because the British rock band are set to tour in Oz next year - in what’ll be their first gigs Down Under in 15 years. There are dates in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, so don’t leave yourself high and dry; you can register for tickets here.

Squiz the Day

7.15am (AWST) - Western Australia Premier Roger Cook will deliver an address on Perth as the capital of the Indian Ocean Rim at a CEDA event - Perth 

9.30am (AEST) - Brief status for Ben Roberts-Smith over war crime murder allegations. Roberts-Smith will not be in attendance - Sydney 

10.15am (AEST) - A 2-day High Court hearing begins for neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell, who is challenging hate group laws passed in the wake of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack that resulted in Sewell's White Australia Party being disbanded - Canberra

7.15pm (AEST) - Rural Women's Award Gala, the national Rural Women's Award will be announced at Parliament House - Canberra 

🏏 ​​Cricket Australia is expected to announce plans to privatise the Big Bash League

Opening session of the 81st UN General Assembly 

ABS data release: total value of dwellings, June quarter 2026 

Human Rights Council, 63rd session - Geneva 

World Physical Therapy Day

International Literacy Day

Birthdays for US senator Bernie Sanders (1941), Aussie billionaire James Packer (1967), actor Martin Freeman (1971) and singer Pink (1979)

Anniversary of:

• the unveiling of Michelangelo's David statue in Florence (1504)

• 3M selling its first roll of Scotch tape (1930)

• the start of the Siege of Leningrad by German troops during WWII (1941)

• the birthday of Ruby Bridges, the first Black student to attend an all-white school in Louisiana (1954)

• the US release of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) and Star Trek (1966)

• the first national broadcast of The Oprah Winfrey Show in the US (1986)

• the release of Kylie Minogue's biggest hit Can't Get You Out of My Head (2001)

• the death of Queen Elizabeth II (2022)

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