Google blocked STI consciousness advertisements as ‘grownup content material’, well being estimates hears
Natasha Could
Google blocked advertisements for a commonwealth funded STI consciousness marketing campaign, lessening its attain and elevating prices, Larissa Waters has informed well being estimates.
The Greens chief mentioned the marketing campaign being run by the Sexual and Reproductive Health Alliance had been proven to be efficient, main folks to guide screening exams:
However what we’ve found is that their focused advertisements are being blocked by Google as grownup content material. After which, in November of final 12 months, Google added ‘STI testing’ to its record of delicate subjects, which triggers an computerized evaluation. Now that’s meant that in the course of the nationally funded STI consciousness campaigns, advertisements are being rejected, delays for weeks, prices have risen from $5 to $17 per click on till the problem is resolved.
It’s interfering with public well being targets and probably losing the commonwealth cash, if the advertisements are solely meant to value $5 per click on, and so they’ve gone as much as $17 as a result of Google’s censoring truly what’s a really protecting public well being marketing campaign.
Mandy Charlton, the performing assistant secretary of communicable ailments department within the division, mentioned they had been conscious of the problems which were created by Google in blocking these advertisements. The alliance had not requested the federal government to escalate the problem any additional, Charlton mentioned.
Stephen Bouwhuis, the performing assistant secretary for well being safety coverage and surveillance, confirmed the alliance had a dialog with Google and resolved the problem.
Key occasions
Luca Ittimani
Treasury confirms it has modelled modification to Labor’s superannuation tax hike
Treasury officers have confirmed they’ve modelled a minimum of one change to the Albanese authorities’s tax hike on superannuation balances over $3m, within the wake of trade enterprise complaints.
The division responded to at least one stakeholder’s suggestion they need to be exempt from the proposed tax by modelling the consequences of exempting them, in line with the income group deputy secretary, Diane Brown.
Brown couldn’t affirm whether or not the federal government had requested that modelling or the division took its personal initiative. She informed Senate estimates:
Stakeholders have raised considerations with us. To ensure that us to grasp it higher, we’d have carried out modelling, and that is to ensure that us to supply good recommendation to authorities.
The division had carried out additional analysis into different considerations, discovering solely a small proportion of superannuation accounts had been invested in enterprise capital or in actual property, limiting the tax’s implications for these sectors, in line with an assistant secretary, Brendan McKenna.
Treasury has not drafted amendments to the federal government’s invoice to double the tax charge on tremendous balances and the federal government has not requested it to, Brown mentioned. She declined to reply a broader query of whether or not the federal government had requested for options to the coverage, below repeated questions from the Liberal senator James Paterson.
India and Australia signal bilateral defence settlement
India’s defence minister is city (for the primary time since 2013) to signal a bilateral settlement on … you guessed it … defence.
It comes a day after Australia and Singapore signed an enhanced defence cooperation deal.
The federal government says the brand new bilateral preparations will embody cooperation on submarine rescue and help and a discussion board for extra joint employees talks between the defence forces.
Natasha Could
McCarthy to comply with up Google blocking public well being marketing campaign with communications minister
Waters requested if the federal government has a coverage on coping with public well being campaigns, not simply this one however usually, when Google decides one thing is grownup content material in a method that makes the expenditure of commonwealth funds inefficient, and that prices extra taxpayer {dollars} and due to this fact reaches fewer folks. “I don’t suppose that ought to simply be left as much as the people who find themselves doing the work. I believe that needs to be the federal government’s concern.”
Charlton mentioned if the organisation had sought the federal government’s help, they’d “completely elevate that with Google”.
On the level that they raised it with us, they had been in ongoing discussions with [Google] in regards to the nature of the content material and the charging and people issues, and so they haven’t sought us to particularly intervene, however completely we agree that had been this to proceed to be an issue and to dam the effectiveness of the marketing campaign, that might be a job that we might help with.
… We don’t have a particular coverage. It goes to the totally different social media and search platforms which might be at all times evolving.
Malarndirri McCarthy, minister for Indigenous Australians, representing the well being minister, Mark Butler, mentioned she’s going to comply with this up with the minister, and “will definitely comply with that up with the communications minister as properly”.
Google blocked STI consciousness advertisements as ‘grownup content material’, well being estimates hears
Natasha Could
Google blocked advertisements for a commonwealth funded STI consciousness marketing campaign, lessening its attain and elevating prices, Larissa Waters has informed well being estimates.
The Greens chief mentioned the marketing campaign being run by the Sexual and Reproductive Health Alliance had been proven to be efficient, main folks to guide screening exams:
However what we’ve found is that their focused advertisements are being blocked by Google as grownup content material. After which, in November of final 12 months, Google added ‘STI testing’ to its record of delicate subjects, which triggers an computerized evaluation. Now that’s meant that in the course of the nationally funded STI consciousness campaigns, advertisements are being rejected, delays for weeks, prices have risen from $5 to $17 per click on till the problem is resolved.
It’s interfering with public well being targets and probably losing the commonwealth cash, if the advertisements are solely meant to value $5 per click on, and so they’ve gone as much as $17 as a result of Google’s censoring truly what’s a really protecting public well being marketing campaign.
Mandy Charlton, the performing assistant secretary of communicable ailments department within the division, mentioned they had been conscious of the problems which were created by Google in blocking these advertisements. The alliance had not requested the federal government to escalate the problem any additional, Charlton mentioned.
Stephen Bouwhuis, the performing assistant secretary for well being safety coverage and surveillance, confirmed the alliance had a dialog with Google and resolved the problem.
Daisy Dumas
Contempt ruling exhibits ‘frequent sense prevailed’, assistant commissioner says
NSW’s assistant police commissioner says right now’s contempt ruling, figuring out Palestine Motion Group’s deliberate protest on the Sydney Opera Home could be illegal, was a case of “frequent sense” prevailing. Peter McKenna informed reporters:
[It was a] pleasing consequence for us. It’s good to see that … frequent sense prevailed on a public security difficulty.
When requested in regards to the police response to the ruling – the primary of its type – he mentioned:
I’m not a lawyer, I’ll say that the courtroom made their very own judgments, the best courtroom in New South Wales … and we’ll adhere to that.
He additionally mentioned he didn’t imagine the ruling meant expanded police powers.
Daisy Dumas
Ruling received’t undermine cooperation between police and protest organisers, assistant commissioner says
At present’s contempt ruling is not going to undermine cooperation between protest organisers and the authorities, police imagine.
Assistant commissioner Peter McKenna this morning informed reporters he doesn’t anticipate the ruling to result in fewer Type 1 functions.
By no means. We nonetheless have powers that we will utilise with out the Type 1 course of. The Type 1, that course of truly protects folks from committing sure offences. It permits us to work with them. It permits us to maintain them secure.
I believe, by and huge, folks wish to work with the police, and so they wish to get the result they need. They don’t need the battle, we don’t need the battle and we wish to ensure that individuals are secure.
Daisy Dumas
Police warn protesters to avoid Sydney Opera Home
Police are urging protesters to avoid Sydney Opera Home on Sunday or face “applicable motion” after a courtroom of enchantment ruling discovered the Palestine Motion Group’s proposed protest route, ending on the landmark’s forecourt, could be illegal.
Assistant commissioner Peter McKenna mentioned the police had been anticipating giant numbers to attend the general public meeting – its route now operating from Hyde Park alongside George Avenue to Belmore Park – however that prime safety could be in place on the Opera Home.
He informed reporters a short while in the past:
I’ll say to anybody who thinks that they might go to the Opera Home nonetheless and be part of any sort of demonstration or public meeting, that you can be committing an offence, and applicable motion can be taken by us.
Having mentioned that, I perceive that the Palestine Motion Group have come out and mentioned to not go to the Opera Home. They’ve come out and mentioned they’re working with police and they’re going to adhere to the courtroom ruling. They’ve additionally overtly mentioned that they may now help with this new march from Hyde Park to Belmore Park.
Nick Visser
Minns says he is not going to mild up the Sydney Opera Home in Palestinian colors
Minns was requested if he would take heed to calls from protest organisers to mild up the Sydney Opera Home sails within the colors of the Palestinian flag. The premier mentioned he wouldn’t achieve this.
In these circumstances the place the applying was made by the [Palestine Action Group] to carry a protest on the Harbour Bridge and the Opera Home, I believe you’d agree [it is] the alternative of pulling the neighborhood collectively in these circumstances.
Whereas I respect folks have a proper to protest … I wish to take heed to not inflaming the state of affairs.
Nick Visser
Chris Minns says ruling to dam pro-Palestine march to Sydney Opera Home the ‘proper resolution’
NSW premier Chris Minns says the courtroom of enchantment’s ruling to dam a deliberate pro-Palestinian march to the Sydney Opera Home was the “proper resolution”, including “frequent sense” had prevailed on the matter.
Minns spoke to reporters this morning after the courtroom rejected the Palestine Motion Group’s bid to diverge from the conventional route of its common rallies on 12 October, saying he expects organisers to abide by the ruling.
We anticipate all candidates to abide by the courtroom’s resolution. I believe cheap folks in Sydney would anticipate the police to uphold this judgment.
I do know that there’s been many [Palestine Action Group] protests over the past two years, one thing approaching 100 throughout that time frame. In equity, the overwhelming majority of them may have gone off with out incident. We’re calling for the organisers to do the identical in the event that they elect an alternate route.
Minns added that “anybody who breaches the supreme courtroom resolution can anticipate the complete pressure of the regulation, and that’s how a civil society ought to function”.
I do know it’s simple for everyone to say ‘Oh we don’t like the choice’, but when it went unhealthy on the weekend and 40 or 50 thousand folks turned up on a slim peninsula with no turnaround, then everybody could be pointing fingers at police and the federal government as to what went flawed.
Luca Ittimani
Housing fund faces ‘important’ challenges, Treasury secretary says
Jenny Wilkinson, the federal Treasury secretary, says the Haff has struggled with building prices and confronted delays delivering houses.
Wilkinson declined to say what number of houses Housing Australia has constructed, in response to a query from the Coalition’s housing spokesperson, Andrew Bragg, at Senate estimates.
She mentioned delivering houses had been made “more difficult” partially as a consequence of hovering building prices within the final 5 years, when requested about ABC reporting that the fund was going through delays and spending greater than $1m per dwelling in some circumstances, properly above common.
I don’t suppose that anybody is denying that this can be a important problem to fulfill the federal government’s dedication round growing the inventory of social and reasonably priced housing, which is what the target of the Haff is. It at all times takes time to make agreements, agree contracts with entities like neighborhood housing suppliers, to ship these homes.
Wilkinson defended the company’s report of supply, saying it had a “huge agenda” that had typically been held up by delays within the parliament to passing laws:
A number of the challenges in relation to a few of the packages replicate when the laws was truly handed … There are different tasks which were successfully run and take-up has been comparatively robust.
Two key housing commitments languished within the parliament for months within the Albanese authorities’s first time period amid negotiations between Labor and the Greens: the Housing Australia future fund and Help to Buy shared equity scheme.
Luca Ittimani
Treasury investigated housing company, secretary confirms
The Treasury secretary has confirmed her division investigated the Albanese authorities’s housing company.
The federal government’s Housing Australia company was revamped and had new executives and board members appointed in mid-2023 to ship packages together with the flagship Housing Australia Future Fund (Haff).
Jenny Wilkinson, who was this 12 months appointed to run Treasury, mentioned the evaluation was triggered just a few months after that, in late 2023, and was undertaken in 2024. She informed Senate estimates:
I used to be made conscious of that evaluation although solely very lately … Clearly I wasn’t concerned in that evaluation in any respect.
The evaluation was targeted on organisational challenges together with alleged behaviour by senior employees, the Age reported right now.
Albanese and Wong urge all events to respect phrases of first section of Gaza peace plan
The federal government has welcomed the signing-off of the primary section of the Gaza peace plan, and says it urges “all events to respect the phrases of the plan”.
In a press release, the prime minister and the international minister thanked the US president, Donald Trump, and mentioned the federal government has constantly known as for a ceasefire, the return of hostages and the unimpeded move of assist to Gaza.
After greater than two years of battle, hostages held and a devastating lack of civilian life, this can be a a lot wanted step in direction of peace.
Australia strongly helps the plan’s dedication to denying Hamas any function sooner or later governance of Gaza.
There’s a very lengthy street to restoration in Gaza, securing long run peace and constructing the Palestinian state.
The federal government additionally acknowledged the “vital function” of Egypt, Qatar and Türkiye.
The opposition has additionally welcomed the event.
You’ll be able to learn extra particulars right here:
Gaza settlement ‘a joyous second’, Government Council of Australian Jewry’s Alex Ryvchin says
Alex Ryvchin, co-chief govt of the Government Council of Australian Jewry, spoke to Sky Information a little bit earlier in regards to the information Israel and Hamas have reached an settlement over the first phase of the Gaza peace plan.
He mentioned he was “elated” to listen to the information in regards to the settlement and imminent launch of the hostages:
This can be a joyous second. It’s one thing the Jewish neighborhood has been praying for and hoping for.
Ryvchin mentioned the remaining 20 dwelling hostages might start a technique of therapeutic as soon as launched.
He was additionally requested in regards to the Palestine Motion Group dropping its bid within the NSW courtroom of enchantment this morning to march to the Sydney Opera Home on the weekend.
He mentioned whereas there’s a proper to protest “no proper is limitless”:
These protesters, each via what they are saying and do at these protests but in addition the frequency, the intention, to intentionally take over nationwide landmarks and insinuate themselves into our streets and public locations, the truth that it’s taking place week and week on the public expense.
Lastly a line has been drawn. We’re more than happy with it and we’re happy for our fellow Australians. They’ll have the ability to entry the Opera Home on that day.
Josh Taylor
Greater than 10,000 antisemitic posts from X customers in Australia in 11 months, anti-hate group says
The Heart for Countering Digital Hate has discovered practically 10,000 antisemitic posts from X customers which have their location set to Australia between February 2024 and January 2025, as a part of a report that claims antisemitism is prospering on Elon Musk‘s platform.
The analysis, made with the help of OpenAI’s GPT-4o, discovered antisemitic conspiracy theories had been normalised on the platform, with X not taking motion on posts that violated its personal insurance policies.
Globally, the centre discovered 679,000 posts violating X’s antisemitism insurance policies, with 193m views within the 11 months the report covers. Just one% of the posts had a neighborhood observe.
In evaluation supplied solely for Guardian Australia on Australian customers, there have been 9,293 posts that had been seen a minimum of 1.8m instances and obtained 39,258 likes.
The vast majority of the Australian posts (61%) contained conspiracy theories about Jewish energy, satanic tropes and holocaust denial, the centre informed Guardian Australia.
The evaluation discovered 29% contained anti-Jewish character assaults, dehumanising rhetoric and violent speech.
In July, Australia’s particular envoy to fight antisemitism, Jillian Segal, cited X as a platform she believed was combatting antisemitism on its platform utilizing AI.
The workplace of the particular envoy didn’t reply to requests for remark.
X was approached for remark.
Joe Hinchliffe
Australian Gaza flotilla activist vows to return regardless of ‘humiliations’ in detention
Juliet Lamont was freezing at the back of a jail van that had been driving via the desert for hours – no concept the place she was going, listening to the roar of army plane – when she noticed the signal.
The van home windows had been blacked out and he or she was afraid she could be struck if she appeared round however, craning her head and peering via a crack, she might learn it. A number of the blue and white indicators had been in Hebrew, others Arabic. This one was in English. Later, as quickly as she had entry to a pen, the Australian documentary maker would scribble it down, as finest as she might recall, upon a napkin.
“The everlasting state by no means forgets and can pursue its enemies until the top”.
These had been the phrases fluttering upon a banner within the Negev desert that Lamont learn as she entered Ketziot jail in Israel.
Lamont, an Australian activist on the Gaza-bound flotilla intercepted by Israel, says she was overwhelmed, groped and verbally abused by Israeli jail guards
Learn extra about Gamont’s expertise in detention right here:
