SBS News in Filipino, Monday 21 July 2025
A survey of 5,000 Australians reveals the toll of chronic pain.
Tourism is a major pillar of the Philippines' economy, contributing 8.9% to the national economy and providing 6.75 million direct jobs to Filipinos.
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ABC News
28 minutes ago
- ABC News
Hakea Prison still breaching national and international human rights standards
Conditions in one of WA's busiest prisons are continuing to breach national and international human rights standards, according to the prisons watchdog. An inspection found Hakea Prison in Canning Vale remained overcrowded, with some cells holding three prisoners despite being designed for one. "The conditions are still in breach of international human rights," Inspector of Custodial Services Eamon Ryan told the ABC. "The prison is full, way over capacity, and the prisoners that are being held there are not getting any sort of effective rehabilitation. The prison is the state's main remand facility, mostly holding inmates who are yet to be sentenced. Mr Ryan said the problem with a lack of rehabilitation went beyond individual prisoners. "Most people who are in prison will one day be released from prison, and they'll be standing next to you in the shopping centre or on the street," he said. "And if they don't get effective rehabilitation, they're more than likely to come out worse than they went in." Longstanding problems came to a head in mid-2024 when Mr Ryan issued a show cause notice to the government over its running of the facility — one of the strongest warnings he can issue. Since then, he said, there had been increased recruitment of prison officers to address staffing pressures and the creation of a task force to tackle other issues. "Despite this, the men at Hakea are still being held in conditions that do not meet the basic level of decent treatment required under national and international human rights and standards," Mr Ryan's report reads. "There is limited evidence available to me to show that the significant system level reform and change needed is likely to be achieved." The report's first recommendation is for the government to hold a "formal inquiry" into problems at Hakea to work out a path forward. "The problems in Hakea are symptomatic of the broader problems within the justice system," Mr Ryan said. "I think we need to have a circuit breaker. "We need to look at all options, not just how to manage prisons, not just how to have increased bed capacity. "We need to look at diversion programs, we need to look at pre-release programs, we need to look at programs and rehabilitation within prison, and then better support once people are released from prison to help them not return to prison." A family member of a prisoner who was recently in Hakea has described conditions as "barbaric", echoing many of Inspector Ryan's concerns. The ABC has referred to the family member as Darren because he asked to remain anonymous due to an upcoming sentencing hearing. "The conditions in the cells are unhygienic. There's cockroaches everywhere," he said. "[They said] on one occasion there were 40 cockroaches overnight that they caught in one room, and three [people] to a cell. Darren said he had tried to visit the family member six times over about two months, but half were cancelled before he could attend, which he blamed on short-staffing and lockdowns. He said he used to believe in locking up prisoners and throwing away the key, but seeing a close family member's experience first-hand had completely changed his views. "We should be putting money into the prisons to do rehabilitation because all we're doing in there is breeding offenders and turning them against the custodial system," he said. The family member had recently been transferred to a different prison, Darren said, where they were doing "much better". In a statement, the Justice Department said it was "actively implementing changes" at Hakea, including efforts to improve medical and custodial staffing. "We remain committed to addressing issues identified by [the Inspector of Custodial Services] and delivering better conditions and outcomes for Hakea Prisoners," Director General Kylie Maj said. Corrective Services Commissioner Brad Royce said a Hakea task force was working to improve the safety, care and welfare of prisoners and return to normal daily routines. "Beyond Hakea, the department is also strategically managing the overall adult prisoner population across WA through a newly established adult prisoner population co-ordination working group," he said. "This initiative demonstrates our commitment to systemic, state-wide solutions." The department supported or supported in principle all of the recommendations it was responsible for, including allowing all prisoners access to at least one hour of fresh air each day, ensuring access to clean clothes and increasing access to social visits.
SBS Australia
28 minutes ago
- SBS Australia
SBS News in Easy English July 22 2025
The Prime Minister paid homage to the Welcome to Country, which opened the first sitting day of the 48th Parliament of Australia. 40 new senators and MPs will be sworn in to Parliament today as Labor holds an increased majority, with 94 of 150 lower house seats. He says the ceremony is an opportunity for MPs to embrace and show a profound love of home and country. "And the welcome to Country lets us touch the very beginning of the story, our story, the Australian story in the 48th Parliament. We write the next chapter. Let us do it with the same sense of grace and courage that First Nations people show us with their leadership." Ukraine and Russia appear close to agreeing to hold a new round of peace talks in Turkiye this week. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he want to see a planned agenda for the meeting. "We need more dynamics in the talks with Russia to end the war. This is very complex and we all understand that talks can only be effective if they are held on the level of the leaders. As we speak, our colleagues are working to prepare at least one more prisoner exchange with Russia. The Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, Rustem Umerov has proposed to the Russian side a new meeting between representatives of both countries in Turkey." However, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the two sides hold opposite positions on how to end the war. The United Nations says wars in the Middle East and Ukraine are pushing global Sustainable Development Goals further out of reach. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by all UN Member States in 2015 and a meeting is reviewing the 2030 Agenda and its 17 goals. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says a sense of urgency is essential if the global community wants to meet the UN targets. 'The Sustainable Development Goals are not a dream. They are a plan. A plan to keep our promises to the most vulnerable people, to each other, and to future generations. People win when we channel our energy into development. But we must face a tough reality - only 35 percent of SDG targets are on track or making moderate progress.' Nick Kyrgios has lost his first match since March in a men's doubles defeat at the ATP Tour's Washington DC Open. Kyrgios had a tough opening draw alongside French veteran Gael Monfils, as they played against third seeds Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Hugo Nys. Kyrgios has been grappling with injuries since reaching the Wimbledon final in 2022.
ABC News
28 minutes ago
- ABC News
RBA meeting minutes reveal plan for 'cautious and gradual' rate cuts clashed with unemployment 'surge'
They say hindsight is 20-20, but three members of the Reserve Bank board are likely to turn up at the next meeting with the strong temptation to say, "we told you so". The RBA has released the minutes from its meeting two weeks ago, when interest rates were left on hold, catching the market and most private-sector economists off guard. That decision to keep rates steady was made by a six to three majority, with the minority arguing there was no need to wait. "The case to lower the cash rate target at this meeting rested on a view that there was already sufficient evidence to be confident that inflation was on track to be sustainably back at the midpoint of the target range, if not lower," the minutes revealed. The minority in favour of a cut argued that US tariff policy would be a drag on future global economic growth, that Australia's economic expansion remained "subdued", households were saving more, wages growth and services inflation were weakening, and that "recent data suggested a loss of momentum in activity". "Moreover, there was uncertainty around whether market sector employment growth would increase by enough to offset an expected slowing in non-market sector employment growth to maintain momentum in overall employment growth," the minutes showed. That last concern appears to have since been vindicated by another weak set of jobs numbers, released last week, showing unemployment had jumped from 4.1 per cent in May to 4.3 per cent in June, seasonally adjusted, although some analysts have attributed the scale of that increase to statistical variation. At her post-meeting press conference, RBA governor Michele Bullock said the disagreement among the board was not one of where rates should head, but merely the timing of further rate cuts. This is reflected in the formal minutes from the meeting. "All members agreed that, based on the information currently available, the outlook was for underlying inflation to decline further in year-ended terms, warranting some additional reduction in interest rates over time," the minutes noted. The majority who decided to keep interest rates on hold based their decision on a few key elements. Unlike the minority, most board members interpreted recent economic data as surprisingly upbeat, including the very monthly inflation figures that had prompted some market economists to bring forward their rate cut forecasts from August to July. "Monthly indicators of inflation had been marginally higher than were consistent with the staff's forecast for underlying inflation in the June quarter, growth in private demand in the March quarter had been a little stronger than expected and conditions in the labour market had so far not eased as anticipated," the majority argued. They also said that global economic outcomes had so far been more benign than feared at the previous May meeting, when rates had been cut, reducing the urgency for another rate cut. "Members noted that the baseline forecasts already incorporated some deterioration in global economic conditions because of higher tariffs and policy uncertainty, which was consistent with the evidence currently available on how the trade tensions and other factors might be resolved," the minutes revealed. "Moreover, the forecasts had been conditioned on a relatively modest and gradual path of further easing of monetary policy over the period ahead." After two rate cuts, the majority of the board was also concerned that it would be difficult for the RBA to know exactly when monetary policy had changed from being restrictive — that is, holding back economic growth — to neutral or boosting activity. Given the degree of uncertainty around what the current "neutral" level of the cash rate is, the majority argued that "lowering the cash rate a third time within the space of four meetings would be unlikely to be consistent with the strategy of easing monetary policy in a cautious and gradual manner". Despite the expressed caution of the majority on the RBA board, Abhijit Surya from Capital Economics expects rates to fall at next month's meeting on August 11-12, with further cuts to follow. "With the unemployment rate having surged in June and timely indicators suggesting that activity and inflation both remain subdued, the bank will almost certainly resume its easing cycle in August," he noted. "Looking further ahead, we expect the board to cut rates to 2.85 per cent by mid-2026, in line with the bank's stated goal of ensuring that monetary policy is no longer restrictive. "Our terminal rate forecast is below the 3.1 per cent currently predicted by the analyst consensus." Either way, that implies between three and four more rate cuts from the current cash rate of 3.85 per cent, unless the market has again misread the degree of caution among the majority of RBA board members.
