Latest news with #AustralianoftheYear
The Advertiser
2 days ago
- Health
- The Advertiser
Author Jackie French wants you to find the champion who'll make 2026 count
Jackie French wants you to think long and hard about who you nominate for Australian of the Year. And it's not because she found her time as Senior Australian of the Year in 2015 such hard work. It's because of all the things she was able to achieve in those 12 months. Nominations for the 2026 Australian of the Year, Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and Australia's Local Hero close at midnight on July 31. The only way someone can be considered for the annual awards, which were first presented in 1960, is if a member of the public nominates them. A decade after she received the honour, as she encourages Australians to think about who to nominate for the 2026 awards, French has recalled her own award's impact on her work. The environmental campaigner and author of novels like The Whisperer's War and beloved children's books like Diary of a Wombat spent her time as Senior Australian of the Year promoting literacy and urging others to recognise the transformational power of reading, creativity and storytelling in the lives of young people. And everywhere she went, people listened to her. "One of the hard things, though, when you're an advocate and you've got a short period of time is that some things can just be done with the stroke of a ministerial pen," she said. "Getting dyslexia classified as a disability, getting the way teachers are trained changed, getting a prototype of what that could look like." Having overcome dyslexia herself, she's passionate about having it recognised more easily in schools so that as many children as possible can get help early. CLICK HERE TO NOMINATE SOMEONE NOW! "I think I expected that within a couple of weeks or a couple of months, everything would change. And of course, it hasn't. People have to be trained. People have to be trained to actually train the trainers, who then need to train the teachers," she said. "[But] it's the way that teaching reading and writing in our schools is changing because of the work I did that year." But she also saw other changes happen quickly. "You can get things done. [For example] speaking to the Northern Territory chief minister, in a very Northern Territory way - he was actually holding a beer at a backyard barbecue - about why my literacy needed to be taught in prisons, which was one of the other things I campaigned for," she said. "I went to prisons and drug rehabilitation areas around Australia, finding out that just about every person in a medium security prison wasn't able to read or write. "And just at the barbecue, the chief minister said, 'Well, they're doing nothing else but sitting on their arses, aren't they?' He calls over his PA or whatever it was and said, 'We'll get it done'." But she cringed at the memory of being invited to the Lodge and lambasting then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at his approach to changing copyright laws, even while she was shaking his hand. "I'm still very embarrassed ... but it was the only way. I knew that greeting or shaking hands was the only time I was going to give a meeting with him." She also played a role in reversing a proposal for a mine near her home in Majors Creek, NSW, to process cyanide upstream of the community's drinking water. And she still cherished the memory of realising that she and her fellow recipients were, for the first time, all women. "We did an enormous amount of work," she said of the ensuing 12 months. "It was absolutely gruelling work that we did to get the projects going, and we kept checking on each other, just saying, basically, how are you going? "And I suspect we may have been the only group of recipients who did that, and I think it was again, because we were all women." READ THEIR STORIES In the same year, she was named National Children's Laureate, and said she found the double responsibility quite overwhelming. "I really urge people to nominate, but when you nominate, remember the criteria," she said. "This isn't for someone who has done something wonderful. That's what all of the awards are for - the King's birthday awards and things like that, for what people have already done when you nominate them. "Nominate someone who can use that year to really, really make a difference." Help find the 2026 Australian of the Year, Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and Australia's Local Hero by nominating someone you admire. The only way someone can be considered for the annual awards, which were first presented in 1960, is if a member of the public nominates them. Nominate online at or scan the QR code on this page. Nominations close at midnight on July 31. Jackie French wants you to think long and hard about who you nominate for Australian of the Year. And it's not because she found her time as Senior Australian of the Year in 2015 such hard work. It's because of all the things she was able to achieve in those 12 months. Nominations for the 2026 Australian of the Year, Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and Australia's Local Hero close at midnight on July 31. The only way someone can be considered for the annual awards, which were first presented in 1960, is if a member of the public nominates them. A decade after she received the honour, as she encourages Australians to think about who to nominate for the 2026 awards, French has recalled her own award's impact on her work. The environmental campaigner and author of novels like The Whisperer's War and beloved children's books like Diary of a Wombat spent her time as Senior Australian of the Year promoting literacy and urging others to recognise the transformational power of reading, creativity and storytelling in the lives of young people. And everywhere she went, people listened to her. "One of the hard things, though, when you're an advocate and you've got a short period of time is that some things can just be done with the stroke of a ministerial pen," she said. "Getting dyslexia classified as a disability, getting the way teachers are trained changed, getting a prototype of what that could look like." Having overcome dyslexia herself, she's passionate about having it recognised more easily in schools so that as many children as possible can get help early. CLICK HERE TO NOMINATE SOMEONE NOW! "I think I expected that within a couple of weeks or a couple of months, everything would change. And of course, it hasn't. People have to be trained. People have to be trained to actually train the trainers, who then need to train the teachers," she said. "[But] it's the way that teaching reading and writing in our schools is changing because of the work I did that year." But she also saw other changes happen quickly. "You can get things done. [For example] speaking to the Northern Territory chief minister, in a very Northern Territory way - he was actually holding a beer at a backyard barbecue - about why my literacy needed to be taught in prisons, which was one of the other things I campaigned for," she said. "I went to prisons and drug rehabilitation areas around Australia, finding out that just about every person in a medium security prison wasn't able to read or write. "And just at the barbecue, the chief minister said, 'Well, they're doing nothing else but sitting on their arses, aren't they?' He calls over his PA or whatever it was and said, 'We'll get it done'." But she cringed at the memory of being invited to the Lodge and lambasting then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at his approach to changing copyright laws, even while she was shaking his hand. "I'm still very embarrassed ... but it was the only way. I knew that greeting or shaking hands was the only time I was going to give a meeting with him." She also played a role in reversing a proposal for a mine near her home in Majors Creek, NSW, to process cyanide upstream of the community's drinking water. And she still cherished the memory of realising that she and her fellow recipients were, for the first time, all women. "We did an enormous amount of work," she said of the ensuing 12 months. "It was absolutely gruelling work that we did to get the projects going, and we kept checking on each other, just saying, basically, how are you going? "And I suspect we may have been the only group of recipients who did that, and I think it was again, because we were all women." READ THEIR STORIES In the same year, she was named National Children's Laureate, and said she found the double responsibility quite overwhelming. "I really urge people to nominate, but when you nominate, remember the criteria," she said. "This isn't for someone who has done something wonderful. That's what all of the awards are for - the King's birthday awards and things like that, for what people have already done when you nominate them. "Nominate someone who can use that year to really, really make a difference." Help find the 2026 Australian of the Year, Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and Australia's Local Hero by nominating someone you admire. The only way someone can be considered for the annual awards, which were first presented in 1960, is if a member of the public nominates them. Nominate online at or scan the QR code on this page. Nominations close at midnight on July 31. Jackie French wants you to think long and hard about who you nominate for Australian of the Year. And it's not because she found her time as Senior Australian of the Year in 2015 such hard work. It's because of all the things she was able to achieve in those 12 months. Nominations for the 2026 Australian of the Year, Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and Australia's Local Hero close at midnight on July 31. The only way someone can be considered for the annual awards, which were first presented in 1960, is if a member of the public nominates them. A decade after she received the honour, as she encourages Australians to think about who to nominate for the 2026 awards, French has recalled her own award's impact on her work. The environmental campaigner and author of novels like The Whisperer's War and beloved children's books like Diary of a Wombat spent her time as Senior Australian of the Year promoting literacy and urging others to recognise the transformational power of reading, creativity and storytelling in the lives of young people. And everywhere she went, people listened to her. "One of the hard things, though, when you're an advocate and you've got a short period of time is that some things can just be done with the stroke of a ministerial pen," she said. "Getting dyslexia classified as a disability, getting the way teachers are trained changed, getting a prototype of what that could look like." Having overcome dyslexia herself, she's passionate about having it recognised more easily in schools so that as many children as possible can get help early. CLICK HERE TO NOMINATE SOMEONE NOW! "I think I expected that within a couple of weeks or a couple of months, everything would change. And of course, it hasn't. People have to be trained. People have to be trained to actually train the trainers, who then need to train the teachers," she said. "[But] it's the way that teaching reading and writing in our schools is changing because of the work I did that year." But she also saw other changes happen quickly. "You can get things done. [For example] speaking to the Northern Territory chief minister, in a very Northern Territory way - he was actually holding a beer at a backyard barbecue - about why my literacy needed to be taught in prisons, which was one of the other things I campaigned for," she said. "I went to prisons and drug rehabilitation areas around Australia, finding out that just about every person in a medium security prison wasn't able to read or write. "And just at the barbecue, the chief minister said, 'Well, they're doing nothing else but sitting on their arses, aren't they?' He calls over his PA or whatever it was and said, 'We'll get it done'." But she cringed at the memory of being invited to the Lodge and lambasting then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at his approach to changing copyright laws, even while she was shaking his hand. "I'm still very embarrassed ... but it was the only way. I knew that greeting or shaking hands was the only time I was going to give a meeting with him." She also played a role in reversing a proposal for a mine near her home in Majors Creek, NSW, to process cyanide upstream of the community's drinking water. And she still cherished the memory of realising that she and her fellow recipients were, for the first time, all women. "We did an enormous amount of work," she said of the ensuing 12 months. "It was absolutely gruelling work that we did to get the projects going, and we kept checking on each other, just saying, basically, how are you going? "And I suspect we may have been the only group of recipients who did that, and I think it was again, because we were all women." READ THEIR STORIES In the same year, she was named National Children's Laureate, and said she found the double responsibility quite overwhelming. "I really urge people to nominate, but when you nominate, remember the criteria," she said. "This isn't for someone who has done something wonderful. That's what all of the awards are for - the King's birthday awards and things like that, for what people have already done when you nominate them. "Nominate someone who can use that year to really, really make a difference." Help find the 2026 Australian of the Year, Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and Australia's Local Hero by nominating someone you admire. The only way someone can be considered for the annual awards, which were first presented in 1960, is if a member of the public nominates them. Nominate online at or scan the QR code on this page. Nominations close at midnight on July 31. Jackie French wants you to think long and hard about who you nominate for Australian of the Year. And it's not because she found her time as Senior Australian of the Year in 2015 such hard work. It's because of all the things she was able to achieve in those 12 months. Nominations for the 2026 Australian of the Year, Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and Australia's Local Hero close at midnight on July 31. The only way someone can be considered for the annual awards, which were first presented in 1960, is if a member of the public nominates them. A decade after she received the honour, as she encourages Australians to think about who to nominate for the 2026 awards, French has recalled her own award's impact on her work. The environmental campaigner and author of novels like The Whisperer's War and beloved children's books like Diary of a Wombat spent her time as Senior Australian of the Year promoting literacy and urging others to recognise the transformational power of reading, creativity and storytelling in the lives of young people. And everywhere she went, people listened to her. "One of the hard things, though, when you're an advocate and you've got a short period of time is that some things can just be done with the stroke of a ministerial pen," she said. "Getting dyslexia classified as a disability, getting the way teachers are trained changed, getting a prototype of what that could look like." Having overcome dyslexia herself, she's passionate about having it recognised more easily in schools so that as many children as possible can get help early. CLICK HERE TO NOMINATE SOMEONE NOW! "I think I expected that within a couple of weeks or a couple of months, everything would change. And of course, it hasn't. People have to be trained. People have to be trained to actually train the trainers, who then need to train the teachers," she said. "[But] it's the way that teaching reading and writing in our schools is changing because of the work I did that year." But she also saw other changes happen quickly. "You can get things done. [For example] speaking to the Northern Territory chief minister, in a very Northern Territory way - he was actually holding a beer at a backyard barbecue - about why my literacy needed to be taught in prisons, which was one of the other things I campaigned for," she said. "I went to prisons and drug rehabilitation areas around Australia, finding out that just about every person in a medium security prison wasn't able to read or write. "And just at the barbecue, the chief minister said, 'Well, they're doing nothing else but sitting on their arses, aren't they?' He calls over his PA or whatever it was and said, 'We'll get it done'." But she cringed at the memory of being invited to the Lodge and lambasting then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at his approach to changing copyright laws, even while she was shaking his hand. "I'm still very embarrassed ... but it was the only way. I knew that greeting or shaking hands was the only time I was going to give a meeting with him." She also played a role in reversing a proposal for a mine near her home in Majors Creek, NSW, to process cyanide upstream of the community's drinking water. And she still cherished the memory of realising that she and her fellow recipients were, for the first time, all women. "We did an enormous amount of work," she said of the ensuing 12 months. "It was absolutely gruelling work that we did to get the projects going, and we kept checking on each other, just saying, basically, how are you going? "And I suspect we may have been the only group of recipients who did that, and I think it was again, because we were all women." READ THEIR STORIES In the same year, she was named National Children's Laureate, and said she found the double responsibility quite overwhelming. "I really urge people to nominate, but when you nominate, remember the criteria," she said. "This isn't for someone who has done something wonderful. That's what all of the awards are for - the King's birthday awards and things like that, for what people have already done when you nominate them. "Nominate someone who can use that year to really, really make a difference." Help find the 2026 Australian of the Year, Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and Australia's Local Hero by nominating someone you admire. The only way someone can be considered for the annual awards, which were first presented in 1960, is if a member of the public nominates them. Nominate online at or scan the QR code on this page. Nominations close at midnight on July 31.
7NEWS
3 days ago
- Sport
- 7NEWS
Crisafulli Government encourages Queenslanders to submit locals for the 2026 Australian of the Year
The Crisafulli Government is encouraging Queenslanders to celebrate local individuals who have made a difference to their community. Nominations for the four categories will close on Thursday. The awards include: Australian of the Year, Senior Australian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and Australia's Local Hero. 'This is about recognising those heroes who quietly go about making Queensland a better place to live, today and into the future,' Premier David Crisafulli said. The panel said they are looking for someone who has made a significant contribution to Australia or community, excels in their field, and inspires others. Last year's winner was Neale Daniher, former AFL legend, recognised for his contribution to charity and advocacy for motor neurone disease research. Anyone over the age of 16 can be nominated, except sitting politicians. Nominations can be submitted via the Australian of the Year website.
West Australian
18-07-2025
- Politics
- West Australian
Tanya Plibersek claims Mark Latham's behaviour in the workplace ‘completely unacceptable'
Tanya Plibersek said the only time she remembers crying in her 27-year career in politics was when Mark Latham was elected as the leader of the Labor Party. It comes as Ms Plibersek revealed discussions were underway about whether to remove Mr Latham's portrait from a wall of photos of past leaders hanging in the Labor caucus room. Salacious allegations have come to light about the NSW independent MP this week, including that he took secret photographs of female colleagues in the upper house of NSW Parliament and shared them in messages with his former partner. Along with the photos, he made inappropriate and sexually-charged comments, including that one MP 'looks pregnant' and that he had 'pinched her bum lightly and she smiled.' His former lover, Nathalie Matthews, has also made other extraordinary allegations against Mr Latham, including that he subjected her to domestic abuse and degrading sex acts, including defecating on her before sex. Mr Latham has vehemently denied the claims. Another claim that Mr Latham recorded a sex video in his Parliamentary office has also come to light. Ms Plibersek, who was elected in 1998 and served in the Labor caucus with Mr Latham until 2005, said she did not see any evidence of behaviour alleged against Mr Latham but said she always had 'doubts about him as a political figure.' 'Do you know, I've been a Member of Parliament for a long time, and the only time I remember going home and having a little cry after work was the day that Mark Latham was elected as leader of the Australian Labor Party,' she said on Friday. 'I always had my doubts about him as a political figure, and I think those doubts have only increased in recent decades as his behaviour has become worse and more extreme.' Ms Plibersek said the fact he has been described as a 'pig' was 'perfectly justified.' 'I think the behaviour is the sort of behaviour that will get you sacked in any other workplace, but it's probably consistent with what we've seen from Mark Latham over the last few decades,' she told Today. 'And he is the guy that said of Rosie Batty, who was Australian of the Year, who suffered the most horrendous domestic violence murder of her son. 'He said she was waging a war on men. He's the guy who said that men hitting women are doing it because they need a kind of stress release. 'He's the guy that picked on high school students when they made an International Women's Day video saying that the boys, you know, making fun of the boys for doing that. 'He just really doesn't get it and he hasn't for many decades. I think, you know, the criticism is perfectly justified. 'In any other workplace, this behaviour would be completely unacceptable. Of course it's unacceptable in the State Parliament. Of course it is. People, taxpayers, are paying his wages to represent them, not make videos in his office.' Ms Plibersek then revealed the party was in discussions about whether it was appropriate Mr Latham's portrait stayed on the caucus room wall. Asked if she would take it down, Ms Plibersek said 'that's not a decision for me alone.' 'But I can tell you over the last couple of decades, looking at that photo on the wall, I scratched my head at times and thought, you know, this guy doesn't represent the Labor Party,' she told ABC Radio. 'He doesn't represent what we stand for. I don't think he represents mainstream Australia. And I think the people of NSW are getting a bit of buyer's remorse for the fact that he's actually in the NSW Parliament.' Latham left Federal Parliament in 2005 after losing the election to John Howard at the 2004 election. He returned to politics and was elected into the NSW Parliament for One Nation in 2019, before resigning from the party in 2023 and sitting as an independent.
7NEWS
17-07-2025
- 7NEWS
Child abuse images a click away as experts warn predators are using AI
Australia needs to re-examine how it tackles child sexual exploitation as experts warn rapid development in artificial intelligence is widening gaps exploited by perpetrators. International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children chief executive Colm Gannon said the organisation had received a 1325 per cent spike in reports involving AI-generated child sexual abuse material in a year. The centre received more than 67,000 reports on the matter in 2024. Experts and government officials convened at Parliament House for a round table to address the increasing use of AI in the sexual exploitation of children. Child safety advocates called for the explicit criminalisation of the use and possession of software designed to generate child sexual exploitation material. 'I have been involved in investigations where there is active trading and profiteering from using these models, it's a pay-as-you-use design that's happening within child sexual offender communities,' Gannon told reporters in Canberra on Thursday. 'There is no social-positive reason why people are going to be in possession of this software except to generate child sexual abuse material.' A 10-year government plan released in 2021 to address child protection needed to be updated to capture new technology as it didn't mention AI and associated harms, he said. Child abuse survivor Grace Tame said there needed to be a broader review into tackling child sexual exploitation with a royal commission into institutional child sexual abuse more than a decade ago failing to examine key issues. 'It was very specifically focused on institutional child sexual abuse and the responses of institutions,' the former Australian of the Year said. 'Incest accounts for the overwhelming majority of all child sexual abuse. 'A lot of this is taking place in home, a lot of the online content that we're seeing is often filmed by parents and distributed by parents and there's no institution involved in that.' Jon Rouse, who worked in law enforcement for nearly four decades and tackled online child exploitation material, called for authorities to be given greater resources and new tools to quickly identify victims and combat the crime. 'The tragedy about that is that if we don't find them quickly, they get buried in a landslide of new content,' he said of child abuse content. Rouse also demanded risk assessments for new technology as social media algorithms pushed users toward disturbing and harmful content. 'The tragedy is we're at a point now where we're having to ban our kids from social media, because we can't rely on any sector of the industry to protect our kids, which is pretty sad,' he said. One social media app kept suggesting AI-generated content of scantily clad mothers with young children, he said, showing reporters a series of photos. 'They're not sexually explicit but they are telling you something about the people that created them,' Rouse said. There also needed to be community-wide education on how to spot problem behaviours and precipitating actions from offenders, Tame said. 'We've been talking about early childhood education — these kids are pre-verbal, so they're even more vulnerable,' she said.
9 News
16-07-2025
- Politics
- 9 News
Latham denies shocking allegations of domestic abuse by ex-girlfriend
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here Mark Latham has denied allegations of physical and emotional abuse levelled against him by his ex-partner, and defended sending explicit texts while in parliament. Yesterday, it emerged the independent NSW MP's former girlfriend, Nathalie Matthews, had made a private application for an apprehended violence order against Latham. Matthews accused Latham of emotional, psychological and financial manipulation in her filing, as well as pressuring her to participate in depraved acts, and driving his car at her, as first reported by The Australian . Mark Latham has denied allegations of abuse made by ex-partner Nathalie Matthews. (Dean Sewell) In a radio interview this morning on 2SM with Chris Smith, Latham said the allegations were "preposterous" and he would defend himself in court. "Just about all the things she's complaining about, she initiated in consensual arrangements," he said. He said he has had no contact with Matthews since May 27, when their relationship ended, outside of matters relating to a co-owned harness racing horse and returning belongings to her apartment. He said the published messages were inaccurate, had been taken out of context, were not related to the AVO application against him, and showed he was only "guilty of being a human in that regard and male". Mark Latham and Nathalie Matthews together in 2024. (Mark Latham/Instagram) "If you're sitting there listening to (NSW government upper house leader) Penny Sharpe droning on, then a woman that looks like Nathalie Matthews sends you a message, which one would you pay attention to?" he asked. "I am guilty of that on a regular occasion," Smith responded. "There are inaccuracies, a lack of context - the reference to an 'f-parlour' was an in-joke that I don't think you'd understand unless you'd seen or participated in the full context of the messages," Latham added. He also said "the big news is I have a private life, I had a sex life that I've got to say was fantastic". Once the federal opposition leader in the Labor Party, Latham has long been a controversial figure in Australian politics. He has previously attacked Rosie Batty, the domestic violence campaigner and former Australian of the Year, for "demonising men and making them feel worse about themselves". He resigned from the Australian Financial Review in 2015 over a series of tweets against prominent female journalists, and more recently was ordered to pay $140,000 in damages to independent NSW MP Alex Greenwich for a defamatory tweet that explicitly described a sex act. Latham quit One Nation after Pauline Hanson dumped him as the party's leader in NSW over the tweet. Smith, meanwhile, has also previously faced allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards women, having twice been sacked by Nine over misconduct claims. Nine is the publisher of this website. Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) . CONTACT US
