Wednesday, 11 June - Just a little patience

June 11, 2025

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, 11 June. In your Squiz Today…

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

"The front has caught a dip on the way down and then it was just on for the ride. There were bits flying everywhere.”

Said Finke Desert Race driver Mick Magher after he and navigator Bernie Webb walked away uninjured from a “death-defying” crash. Magher said they were travelling at 160km/hr when they became airborne, and it's not something he recommends people try at home. Or anywhere...

Tassie’s in a political tizzy

The Squiz

The Apple Isle’s political future is in the hands of the state’s Governor Barbara Baker today after she said she’d take a few days to think about Premier Jeremy Rockliff’s request for an election. Last week, a successful no-confidence vote against Rockliff meant he had 2 choices: step down, or call an election. He chose box number 2, and late yesterday he went to see Baker to make the request - but rather than saying yes immediately, Baker's office says she'll "give due consideration to all her options" and they'll meet again later in the week. 

What are the options? 

If the Governor decides that she wants to avoid an election, that means either Rockliff needs to make way for one of his Liberal Party colleagues or Labor leader Dean Winter - who kicked off the no-confidence motion in the first place - would need to become Premier instead. But Labor only has 10 of the 35 seats in the lower house, so it would need to join up with the Greens for that to happen - and Winter has firmly ruled that out. That leaves either Rockliff stepping down or the Tassie Liberal Party making that call for him as the remaining options. The party decided against that on the weekend, but the Governor may ask them to take another look at it to avoid an election. 

So what happens next?

It depends on what Baker decides to do in the next few days. But if there’s no movement from the 2 leaders, Tassie will likely head to its second election in 2 years. One of the big issues in that campaign will likely be whether it should be happening at all - Rockliff has already called Winter a “wrecker” for bringing the no-confidence motion in the first place. But Winter says the state’s high level of debt and the Premier’s plan to sell off public assets gave him no choice. As for who might win that election, the most recent poll taken in May has Labor slightly ahead of the Liberals, but plenty has happened since then, to say the least…

Baby, that's a cracking idea...

Welcome to Purebaby Pre-Loved - a marketplace where you can buy and sell gently used Purebaby clothes with ease. It's where you can score great deals on quality pieces or make some money back on outgrown items. Parents have plenty to get on with, and this takes the hard work out of considered shopping that's kind to both your wallet and the planet. Head to their online store and shop up a sustainable storm.

Squiz the Rest

A tense time in LA

City and state officials are still pushing back against US President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops and Marines in response to protests over federal immigration raids. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass says the deployment of federal troops - who’ll stay in the city for 60 days - makes the city feel like “part of an experiment that we did not ask to be a part of”, and California Governor Gavin Newsom - who’s called Trump’s actions a “step toward authoritarianism” - has filed a lawsuit. In response, when Trump was asked if his border czar Tom Homan should arrest Newsom for intervening in federal immigration matters, Trump said he thinks that would be “great”. As for Aussie journalist Lauren Tomasi, who was hit by a rubber bullet while covering the protests, PM Anthony Albanese isn't happy - he says it's been raised with the Trump administration… 

A sanctioned move

Australia has joined with the UK, New Zealand, Canada, and Norway in announcing sanctions against 2 far-right Israeli ministers for inciting and supporting violence against Palestinians. Under the measures, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich will face financial sanctions and travel bans, effective immediately. In a statement, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said "Extremist rhetoric advocating the forced displacement of Palestinians and the creation of new Israeli settlements is appalling and dangerous" - but she maintained Australia was still supportive of Israel's security. Israel has responded, with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar calling the sanctions "outrageous". It comes a day after Israeli troops seized an aid ship bound for Gaza and deported 4 of the 12 people aboard, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.

Another IVF mix-up

Fertility group Monash IVF is back in the headlines after admitting to its second embryo mix-up this year… You might remember the clinic was forced to apologise in April, after belatedly realising a Brisbane woman had given birth to a stranger’s baby due to an embryo mix-up in 2023. Now, it says a patient’s own embryo was “incorrectly transferred” back to them instead of their partner’s at a Melbourne clinic last week. A review into the Brisbane case will now cover this latest incident, but experts say more needs to be done… The Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand has backed calls for a registration process for embryologists - similar to doctors. And Health Minister Mark Butler has added IVF regulation to the agenda for Friday’s meeting of state and territory health ministers in Melbourne. Watch this space…

It’s the end of an era in Aussie current affairs…

…with 2 long-running news-talk shows facing the chop. First up, Channel Ten has announced it’s cancelling news/entertainment show The Project after 16 years and 4,500 episodes. Promoted as "news done differently", the panel format helped launch the TV careers of co-hosts Carrie Bickmore, Charlie Pickering and comedian Dave Hughes - and over the years, it's earned Gold Logies for Bickmore and current host Waleed Aly. It'll air for the last time on 27 June, to be replaced by a new national 6pm news show. And reports say ABC boss Hugh Marks is set to follow suit with Q+A in cuts to be announced today. The show’s been on a break since May but reports say after 17 seasons and 500 episodes, Aunty’s decided to pull the plug for good. 

Jurassic veggos 

‘Sauropods’ might not be in your daily vocab, but you might have seen them onscreen… They’re the dinosaurs known as “Longnecks” from classic animated film The Land Before Time, for one, and they’re pretty big units. Scientists have always suspected they were herbivores, but they didn’t know for sure - until now. A team from WA’s Curtin Uni analysed fossils discovered in outback Queensland of a Diamantinasaurus matildae - which they sensibly refer to by a nickname, Judy - and found that her last meal consisted of a spread of native plants. Combine that with her flat teeth and large body - try chasing prey at 12m high and 16m long - and she’s a herbivore for sure. So if we get some say in a real-life Jurassic Park, we’re cloning Judy first… 

Apropos of Nothing - Community capers edition

Speaking of longnecks, the South Australian town of Milang now has an 8ft-long saltasaurus as its unofficial mascot, after local Brittany Vogelsang took the opportunity to buy herself a dinosaur for her front paddock. She’s named him Milano and he only cost $200 - a huge bargain…

The English town of Hastings has hosted some of the world’s most honed, elite athletes, all jostling to win the glittering prize of the World Crazy Golf Championship. Crazy golf (or mini golf, as you probably know it…) involves putting your way through elaborate obstacles in as few strokes as possible - here’s a gallery of the best in the business doing their thing…

Maybe the idea of sharpening a gigantic pencil is more your style. To pay tribute to a much-missed community oak tree, locals in the US city of Minneapolis turned it into a giant pencil and over 1,000 members of the community rock up each year to sharpen it - many of them dressed as pencils. As for what kind of pencils - 2B or not 2B, that is the question…

Squiz the Day

11.30am (AEST) - European Union Ambassador to Australia Gabriele Visentin will address the National Press Club on “The EU as a Power for Prosperity, Security and Democracy Worldwide” - Canberra

7.30pm (AEST) - The ICC World Test Championship final gets underway between Australia and first-time finalists South Africa at Lord’s Cricket Ground - London, stream on Prime

ABS Data Release - Industrial Disputes, March 2025; Methodological News, June 2025

Birthdays for actors Hugh Laurie (1959), Peter Dinklage (1969), and Shia LaBeouf (1986)

Anniversary of:

  • the marriage of King Henry VIII to his first wife Catherine of Aragon (1509)

  • Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức’s self-immolation at a Saigon intersection, creating one of the Vietnam War’s most iconic images (1963)

  • Margaret Thatcher becoming the first UK PM in 160 years to win a 3rd consecutive term (1987)

  • the premiere of Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Jurassic Park (1993)

  • The tragic Hunter Valley bus crash that killed 10 people who were travelling home from a wedding (2023)