Happy Friday!

To bring an end to Budget week, Opposition leader Peter Dutton delivered his Budget reply last night. Here are three of the big takeaways from his speech:

Mental health: Dutton confirmed the Coalition would seek to permanently reinstate the 10 extra Medicare-subsidised therapy sessions that were cut last year (meaning there would be a total of 20 subsidised sessions).

Sports betting: He announced a future Coalition government would seek to ban sports betting advertising during sports broadcasts, including an hour on each side.

Migration: Dutton argued the Government's migration policy will worsen cost of living pressures. He promised a future Coalition government would revisit migration numbers to "sensibly manage" them.

I've got 10 seconds

The quote
"Change is never easy. Clearly this restructure impacts some of our leaders… we expect there will be some redundancies and consultation with those leaders who are impacted is underway.” – ABC’s Managing Director David Anderson in an email to staff yesterday, announcing a significant restructure of the public broadcaster.

The stat
9.7%
The increase in turnover for the arts and recreation industry in March, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The ABS said this growth was driven by strong attendance at AFL games and an earlier start to the NRL season.

Today in history
1937: King George VI was crowned at Westminster Abbey.

I've got 30 seconds

Some headlines from this morning:

• Google's artificial intelligence tool Bard launched in Australia this week. It comes amid a major scale-up for the tool, which is now available in 180 countries and territories and in English, Japanese, and Korean, after initially only being available in the U.S. and UK. Google has said it plans on expanding Bard to 40 languages, and adding more visual responses to users' questions.

• TW – Sexual assault

  Former NRL star Jarryd Hayne is expected to be sentenced today after being found guilty of two counts of sexual assault last month. This was the second conviction Hayne had received over an incident that occurred with a 26-year-old woman in Newcastle in 2018, after the first conviction was appealed. Hayne is facing up to 14 years in jail.

I've got 1 minute

Queensland could soon become the first state in Australia to allow nurses and midwives to prescribe abortion medication.

The Government said the change would improve access to the early termination of a pregnancy, especially for people throughout regional and rural Queensland.

The change will require approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration, and will then need to pass Parliament.

Medical abortion:

In Queensland, medication can be used to safely and effectively terminate a pregnancy up to nine weeks gestation.

This involves a combination of two pills (mifepristone and misoprostol) called MS-2 Step, which currently can only be administered by a doctor.

Doctors who prescribe abortion medication must first undergo specialist training and registration.

Only a pharmacist with the relevant training and registration can then dispense the medication.

Will it be approved?

The TGA told TDA that it has expedited an evaluation of the application and will formally consider it at a meeting in June.

"As with all evaluations, the TGA’s assessment will carefully consider the risks and benefits of the proposed change – and will focus on patient safety."

I've got 2 minutes

Over 3,000 illegally-owned weapons have been surrendered to Serbian authorities in the wake of two deadly mass shootings this month.

It has come during an amnesty period introduced by the Serbian Government, which allows people to return illegal weapons without potential prosecution.

The amnesty period will continue for one month, and is directly targeted at removing the number of deadly weapons in public hands.

The school shooting:

The first mass shooting took place on Wednesday morning last week at a school in Belgrade, Serbia's capital.

A 13-year-old student at the school was arrested, and police have said he's confessed to the shooting. The boy killed nine people, with eight of the casualties being fellow pupils.

Police said the boy had prepared a list of people to target during the attack, which he had been planning for weeks. He's believed to have used legally-obtained guns to conduct the attack.

The second one:

One day after the school shooting, a shooter used two guns to kill eight people in two villages in central Serbia.

A man in his twenties suspected of carrying out the attack has been arrested. The second shooting brought the total fatalities from the shootings to 17 in the span of 48 hours.

An amnesty period was announced after the second attack, and began on Monday.

Serbian gun laws:

Serbia has almost 40 guns held per 100 people in its population, which is the equal-most among European countries, according to the 2018 global Small Arms Survey.

Prospective gun owners in Serbia must be over 18, and pass several background checks and medical assessments to be granted a permit.

Many firearms are issued for hunting, or have been kept following military conflict in the Balkans region during the 1990s.

Give me some good news

Scientists from the University of NSW and Boston University in the U.S. have developed an artificial intelligence tool they say could detect Parkinson's disease up to 15 years before symptoms begin to show.

Parkinson's disease is a brain disorder that causes unintended and uncontrollable movements and doesn't currently have a cure.

They say the tool, which was trialled in a small-scale study, could detect Parkinson's disease with up to 96% accuracy, and potentially be used to prevent or slow early signs of the disease. Further work will be required for it to be used globally.

Today's podcast

A message from our sponsor

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A TDA tidbit

Everybody cancel your plans. Hamish Blake has a cake to make.

Tonight is the night the Australian comedian stays up into the wee hours of the morning making his son, Sonny, a cake for his birthday. But not just any cake. The cake always needs to be… impossible.

Blake always documents the journey via his Insta Stories and it’s always a lot of fun.

So what’s tonight’s cake? “The world’s first solvable cake.” He’s making a Rubik’s cube cake that his son will be able to solve.

So. much. fun! See you there.

(FYI, the picture on the far right is from a previous year, when he made a Cave Of Wonders cake from the Disney film Aladdin. I’m pretty sure his then-six-year-old son would’ve had nightmares about that cake but anyway...)

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