'The beach doesn't discriminate': surf life-savers rehearse for Sydney Mardi Gras parade
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
a few seconds ago
- ABC News
18yo woman dies in road crash near Yallourn Power Station
A young woman has died in a crash near the Yallourn Power Station in Victoria's Latrobe Valley. The 18-year-old was driving a red hatchback in extremely foggy conditions when she collided with a white ute towing a trailer about 8.40am. The 27-year-old male driver of the ute was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Victoria Police's Major Collision Unit will be at the scene investigating for most of the day. Latrobe River Road is closed in both directions while emergency services work to clear the road. More to come.
ABC News
a few seconds ago
- ABC News
Commitment to quality early childhood education and care is incompatible with the for-profit model - ABC Religion & Ethics
As the Australian community comes to grip with the atrocious allegations of child sex abuse in childcare centres in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, extra attention has been paid to the role of the profit motive in facilitating abuse. Speaking on Insiders last week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese acknowledged that some for-profit operators have put profit above children's safety but has reassured the community that there is no 'in principle' objection to for-profit operators in the childcare sector. The strategy on the part of the government has been to make it less attractive for these operators to put profit above children's interests by withdrawing funds from centres that don't meet quality standards, rolling out CCTV cameras across the country, as well as implementing mandatory child safety training for early education and care workers. We don't doubt that some of these measures can make it somewhat less attractive for for-profit operators to put profit above children's interests. The issue for the government is that it has now acknowledged that the profit motive can lead to abuse and neglect, and that operators must choose how much to prioritise children's interests over profit, or vice versa. By leaving the for-profit model intact, the government is simply making some choices less attractive than others. It is not making it the case that the very choice to put profit first is ruled out. The problem for Albanese is that a serious government would not even allow the choice between profit and children's interests to take place. To see why the profit motive in care is so problematic, consider babysitting. Imagine a babysitter who takes home somewhere between $30 and $60 per hour, depending on how much she cuts costs. If she feeds the child cheap and non-nutritious food, if she minimises her use of nappies and rash cream, and if she does a side-hustle from her phone while letting the child watch television, then she can take more money home. If she looks after the child well, she will take less because she must pay for the costs of decent care. But there is catch — if the child is abused and neglected, she will take home nothing. Even with the safeguard in place where abuse and neglect lead to no payment, it would be foolish to give a babysitter a financial incentive to cut corners and focus on jobs other than looking after the child. Most parents know this intuitively: that's why parents tend to buy their children's food and necessities for babysitters, rather than trusting babysitters to use the babysitter's own funds to buy these items. Even with the best of intentions, those motivated by profit will be tempted to cut corners. Yet that is precisely what is at the heart of the for-profit model in childcare: a strong financial incentive to do the bare minimum in order to put more money in the pockets of shareholders. The perverse incentives of profit As the recent allegations of abuse clearly demonstrate, sometimes the bare minimum will create the conditions for abuse. But there is also a more pervasive problem: doing the bare minimum leads to children being denied the fundamental interest in developing meaningful caring relationships with their educators. These are relationships between an educator and a child where the former is empathetic, genuinely concerned about how the child is developing, and who ensures that the child enjoys all the goods of childhood available in a high-quality childcare centre: carefreeness, exploration, friendship and play. These relationships require a robust commitment to care, which the profit motive inherently undermines. If organisational structures are oriented away from profit, educators are put in the best position to both protect children from abuse and neglect and create the conditions for them to enjoy meaningful caring relationships, quality time with their friends, and learning through playful exploration of their environment. But if organisational structures are oriented towards profit, educators are not put in the best position to both protect children from abuse and neglect and create the conditions for children to thrive. This is because profit in care creates an institutional culture of efficiency and cost-effectiveness on the part of care providers. After all, the more efficient and cost-effective, the more profitable. The status quo is not defensible When discussing the role of profit in childcare, the prime minister has also hinted that the issue is about feasibility. Because the train has already left the station, so to speak, we now must work with the system we already have, where most operators are for-profit. But this is not good enough. Suppose we realised that the way we have structured our roads leads to significantly more fatal crashes than is necessary. Would we just shrug our shoulders and let numerous people die unnecessarily? If the government is serious about universal early childhood education and care — both because of the role it plays in future educational attainment and because of how quality early education creates the conditions for children to thrive — then it needs to engage in serious reform in the sector. And this requires moving away from a for-profit model. It is time to transition towards a system where early education is provided by the government and by not-for-profit operators, and where all families have access to free early education in the same way they have access to primary and secondary schooling. Until the government understands that Australian children's interests are too significant to be in competition with the profit motive, we will see more cases of cases of neglect and abuse. We will also make it much more difficult for educators to create the best conditions for children to thrive. Luara Ferracioli is Associate Professor in Political Philosophy at the University of Sydney. She is the author of Liberal Self-Determination in a World of Migration and Parenting and the Goods of Childhood. Stephanie Collins is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Monash University. She is the author of The Core of Care Ethics, Group Duties: Their Existence and Their Implications for Individuals and Organizations as Wrongdoers: From Ontology to Morality.
Sydney Morning Herald
a few seconds ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Beyond the Gold: The highs, lows and whoas of the 2025 Logies
Did you go to bed at a normal time last night instead of bingeing an epic four-and-a-half hours of the 65th TV Week Logie Awards? Honestly, great call. Luckily, deputy TV editor Meg Watson and culture reporter Nell Geraets were up until the wee hours watching and live blogging for you. Here's what you missed: THE HIGHS Some brutal honesty from Sam Pang and the presenters In his third consecutive turn as host, Sam Pang again proved why he's the right guy for the job: daring enough to roast the industry and good-natured enough to get away with it. The jokes weren't quite as pointy as last year, often opting for easy targets such as MAFS being trashy and Ray Martin being old, but there were some good one-liners and decent swings at his own network, too. 'Channel 10, of course, replaced The Project with 10News+, which is like the Titanic being replaced with the OceanGate submarine,' he said, as the hosts of the struggling new show laughed awkwardly in the crowd. Kitty Flanagan and Anne Edmonds also gave a special shoutout to Netflix, as the only streaming platform that seems to work. And things really went up a notch, when beloved Logies troll Tom Gleeson took the stage, presenting with Gold Logie nominee Poh Ling Yeow. 'You are not going to win, just so you know. Because you're not on Channel Seven,' the Hard Quiz host said to a few gasps from the crowd. 'Channel Seven [the host network] are giving out awards for themselves … It's like Channel Seven invited us to their house so we can watch them have a wank.' MW Lynne McGranger being laid to rest inside a Logie Loading As wonderful as it was simply witnessing Lynne McGranger, who has portrayed Irene Roberts on Home and Away for 33 years, win the accolades she deserves, it was her speech that had me slow-clapping into the night. Sure, last year's Gold Logie winner Larry Emdur promised he'd get the initials of his fellow nominees tattooed on his butt on national TV if he won, but McGranger went a step further, explaining how she was going to use the coveted trophy beyond the grave. 'In a few years time, when I die, I might chop the head off, scoop it out, put my ashes in there, screw the top back on and give it to Clancy, my beautiful daughter, who is here tonight, and she can put it on the mantelpiece,' the 72-year-old said while admiring her prize. Living through eternity in a golden trophy – you can't get much more iconic than that. NG A perfect moment for Magda Magda Szubanski was this year's inductee into the Logies Hall of Fame, joining the likes of Graham Kennedy, Noni Hazlehurst and Bert Newton. She was celebrated with a great package highlighting her work from The D-Generation to Fast Forward to Kath & Kim, and kind words from screen legends including Melissa McCarthy, George Miller, Matt Lucas, Rebel Wilson, Richard E. Grant, Gina Riley and Jane Turner. Loading Szubanski, who revealed earlier this year she's been diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma, was unable to attend the ceremony but sent a moving message that had the crowd up on their feet. 'I want to say first of all ... I'm not being awarded this honour because I've got cancer,' she said. 'I'm getting this because of 40 years of hard work. I don't feel like an imposter. I feel like I've earned it.' She also spoke about how difficult the past few months have been for her and her family, offering thanks to the fans: 'The love and support that I have felt, like a tsunami from the Australian public, has been overwhelming. And I have to tell you, it really helps.' MW THE LOWS Pretty much all the music The musical interludes are often my favourite part of award shows – refreshing palate cleansers that get you rearing to go for the next categories. The performances at this year's Logies, however, did not have me rearing to go. First up was Jimmy Barnes, who sang Working Class Man in honour of its 40th anniversary. It was honestly a bit awkward, as Sam Pang noted in his monologue, considering he was singing it to a room filled with people who are the opposite of working class. Barnesy was then followed by Guy Sebastian, who used the awards as one big plug for his upcoming album 100 Times Around the Sun. While they backed his track Get It Done with all kinds of lights, lasers and gizmos, it just wasn't all that memorable. Then there was Richard Marx. Oh Marx – what were you doing at the Logies? Yes, I know, he recently became a coach on The Voice Australia. And yes, he's talented. But his rendition of Should've Known Better ended in an extremely awkward exchange with the audience, where he threw it over to them to sing the rest of the chorus, and no one knew the lyrics. It was painful to watch. NG The length, oh my god, the length It's joked about every year, but the length of this ceremony is absolutely out of control. The telecast ran for four and a half hours, making it a full feature-length movie longer than high-profile international counterparts such as the Emmys. What are we doing here? Do we really need extended crowd work from the likes of M AFS 'experts' Alessandra Rampolla and John Aiken? Could host network Channel 7 start playing the Home and Away theme song when speeches run too long? There's just no way that any normal human being stayed up until midnight on a school night to see McGranger take Gold. MW THE WOAH RIP streaming? Two of the most-nominated shows of the night – Apple Cider Vinegar (eight nods) and Territory (seven) – left with either little or absolutely nothing. The former won just one trophy, for best miniseries or telemovie, and the latter won zero prizes, despite being a favourite to win in multiple categories. Netflix, the streamer behind both shows, took home just one award. Not quite the result most were expecting, especially given the relative dominance of streaming in this year's nomination pool. NG
