Wednesday, 4 June - The dog days are over

June 04, 2025

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, 4 June. In your Squiz Today…

  • Erin Patterson speaks about mushroom foraging at her trial

  • The minimum wage gets a boost

  • And excess baggage bargains…

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Squiz Sayings

“From one queen to another queen.”

Said Sweden’s Queen Silvia as she handed actor/fashion designer/drag queen Christer Lindarw a rose, wearing the same vintage yellow Dior gown he’d been wearing as he impersonated her during a performance in 1977. Long live the queens…

Foraging for the truth

The Squiz

Accused triple murderer Erin Patterson was back in the witness box for another day of cross-examination yesterday. Following on from her appearance on Monday, 50yo Patterson spoke about the breakdown in her relationship with her estranged husband, Simon Patterson and her health anxieties. Central to that was a claim by the mother-of-2 that she had ovarian cancer - something she told her 4 lunch guests on the fateful day in July 2023. But yesterday, she admitted to the jury that she’d never been diagnosed with cancer and had a history of “consulting Dr Google”.

What else did she say?

Patterson was asked by her defence lawyer Colin Mandy SC about her relationship with Simon deteriorating in the year before the lunch as they clashed over child support payments and issues with their son. She said his parents, Don and Gail Patterson, were often brought in as referees - and admitted to venting about them in a Facebook group chat with her friends, using language we won’t repeat… Patterson said she “was really hurt and really frustrated” at the time, but now regrets the messages. FYI - she’s pleaded not guilty to murdering Don, Gail and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson - who all died after eating toxic death cap mushrooms served by Patterson in a beef Wellington dish. She’s also pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of Heather’s husband Ian - the only surviving guest of the lunch.

Anything else?

Yep - Mandy also grilled Patterson about the mushrooms in the dish, prompting her to concede that there must have been death cap mushrooms in it. But their origins are less clear, with Patterson saying the “vast majority came from the local Woolworths in Leongatha, and there were some from the grocer in Melbourne”. She also spoke about getting into mushroom foraging in 2020 and learning how to dehydrate them - key parts of the initial police probe. Patterson’s evidence will continue today, when she’ll likely give her account of preparing the lunch… And there’s been a development in another high-profile Victorian case, with a trial date being set for Patrick Orren Stephenson, accused of murdering Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy. It’s another one that’ll take place in the regions, beginning in April in Ballarat.

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Squiz the Rest

Lee wins in South Korea

Left-leaning Democratic Party leader Lee Jae–myung, the Opposition leader to ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol, has won South Korea’s snap election by a landslide. A record number of voters turned out following months of political chaos after the impeachment and removal of Yoon, who tried to impose martial law last December. Lee is a former lawyer who narrowly lost to Yoon in the 2022 election, and he was one of the MPs who forced their way past guards to hold an emergency vote to overturn the martial law order. In a victory speech, he promised to revive the country’s sluggish economy and address the rising cost of living, saying “I will do my utmost to fulfil the great responsibility and mission entrusted to me”.

*Want the backstory to this election? We’ve got a Shortcut for you… 

Research finds domestic violence is on the rise

A new study by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) has found that 1 in 3 Australian men admitted to intimate partner violence in 2022 - up from 1 in 4 men when the same group of men and boys was surveyed in 2013/14. The data shows that, each year, around 120,000 men are committing emotional or physical abuse for the first time - a worry for experts… Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek called the findings “concerning but sadly not surprising”, saying they emphasise the need for investing in frontline services - a focus of the Albanese Government’s $4.7 billion plan to address family violence. A silver lining: the study found that boys who grow up close to their father or a father figure have a 48% lower risk of committing abuse - so that’s something for policymakers to work with… 

The minimum wage gets a boost

Millions of Aussies are due for a cash boost as of 1 July, after the Fair Work Commission (FWC) yesterday raised the minimum wage by 3.5% - higher than the current inflation rate of 2.4%. To put that in dollar terms, someone working a 38-hour week on the new rate of $24.95 an hour will pick up an extra $32 a week, as will many people who work on an award rate - that’s about 3 million of us. The FWC says it opted to raise the minimum wage by that much because “real wages” - aka not just the dollars in your pay packet, but how much you can buy with them - have dropped recently. Since the inflation rate has stayed steady in recent months, the FWC’s Adam Hatcher says it’s a good time for a lift - but business groups say some of our smaller businesses like cafes and restaurants will struggle to pay it. 

Bill Gates gives away his money to Africa

The Microsoft founder said yesterday that he’ll be donating almost all his dosh in the next 20 years to improving health and education services in Africa, just a couple of months after the Trump administration cut US government aid to the continent. Gates had already promised to give away 99% of his money - which he expects to be over $300 billion by 2045 - but hadn’t confirmed to which cause. Gates made the announcement in Ethiopia, and he said his Gates Foundation charity will be focusing on early childhood - things like helping pregnant women with better nutrition to improve healthy birth rates. Even after he spends all that cash, though, fear not… he’ll still be a billionaire. Now that’s financial security… 

I’m leaving… stuff on a jet plane

If you're anything like us, you're paranoid about leaving something on a plane and dealing with the rigmarole involved to get it back. So we've got some sympathy for the folk who made "donations" to Sydney Airport's yearly lost property auction. Among the things you'd expect, like clothes and tech, were some surprises, like a Gucci bag (ouch) and an 18-carat gold bracelet (double ouch). Then there's next-level odd, like a vacuum cleaner, which was likely abandoned at the security gate rather than smuggled on the plane and forgotten about (we assume…). If you're in the mood for a bargain, good news - the auction runs through to mid-June. Happy hunting…

Apropos of Nothing - Roaming Rovers edition

A Tassie dogwalker has made a slightly ominous find on Ocean Beach on the state’s west coast by stumbling upon an oarfish, which is also known as a “doomsday fish”. It’s called that because some people see it as a forerunner to natural disasters, and very few people have ever seen one. We’d be knocking on woodfish…

After sneaking out of their owner’s backyard in Victoria, labrador Ted and labradoodle Penny got themselves into some strife when Ted fell down a nearby mine shaft. But Penny’s barking - and some handy work from local volunteers - managed to get him out 4 days later, a little bit lighter, but no less labradorable…  

And if you thought 4 days was a lot, a troublesome retriever cross named Amber was missing for over 5 weeks in the UK’s New Forest  - including swimming all the way to a nearby island, before she was finally caught. We appreciate the hustle, Amber, but you’ve got a long way to go before catching our very own Valerie’s 529 days at large on Kangaroo Island…

Squiz the Day

9.00am (ACST) - The Lowitja O'Donoghue exhibition: LOWITJA - A life of Leadership and Legacy opens at Kerry Packer Civic Gallery (until 25 July) - Adelaide

9.00am (AEST) - ASIC Commissioner Simone Constant will address the Fiduciary Investors Symposium - Blue Mountains

10.10am (AEST) - Tasmanian Energy Minister Nick Duigan will deliver a keynote speech at the 7th Annual Tasmanian Energy Development Conference - Devonport

10.15am (AEST) - A hearing in a class action brought by PhDs against the Commonwealth claiming they should be classified as employees, not students, and get better wages is set to begin in the Federal Court - Sydney

12.30pm (AEST) - Australian Law Reform Commission President, the Hon Justice Mordy Bromberg and Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner, Micaela Cronin will address the National Press Club on the theme of “Safe, informed and supported: addressing sexual violence” - Canberra

6.30pm (AEST) - Climate Change Authority chair Matt Kean will deliver the Talbot Oration at the Australian Museum - Sydney

7.00pm (AEST) - Sydney Film Festival opening night (until 15 June) - Sydney

ABS data release - Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product, March 2025

Rising Festival begins (until 15 June) - Melbourne

The Hajj begins, as Muslims make the sacred pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest city, Makkah (Mecca) (until 9 June) - Makkah, Saudi Arabia 

🧀 National Cheese Day

International Corgi Day

Birthdays for actors Angelina Jolie (1975), and Russell Brand (1975), co-founder of Snapchat Evan Spiegel (1990) and British Princess Lilibet (2021)

Anniversary of:

  • the creation of a stinky cheese in a cave near Roquefort, France (1040)

  • the US, Soviet Union, Britain and France agreeing to divide up occupied Germany (1945)

  • the patenting of the ATM (1973)

  • China’s Tiananmen Square Massacre (1989)