☕️ A new minimum wage debate

Here is today’s riddle: A person approaches a secret club and hears a voice say "twelve." They respond with "six" and are let in. Another person arrives, hears "six," replies with "three," and also gains entry. The third person hears "ten," says "five," but is denied. What should they have said to get in?

Answer is in the titbit!

"The loss of life will profoundly impact her family, the community and others across the state."
Tasmanian Aboriginal Legal Service CEO Jake Smith announcing the death of a First Nations woman in custody. So far this year, 25 Indigenous people have died in custody in Australia.
13 YARN: 13 92 76

64 minutes
The average commute time for Australian workers, according to new survey data from Real Insurance. The average commute has increased by 10 minutes since 2022, with most Australians using private vehicles to get to work.

Cymotrichous [sigh-MOH-trik-us]
Definition: Having wavy hair.
Sentence: "The girl’s hair turned cymotrichous as it dried after swimming in the ocean."

The Fair Work Commission is currently hearing a case to abolish junior pay rates for workers aged 18 to 20.

Young adult workers in the retail, fast food and hospitality industries earn below the minimum award wage before they turn 21.

The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA) is leading the case, arguing there is “no justification” for these rates.

A peak business group has argued the change would lead to higher youth unemployment, while the Government hasn’t committed to supporting any changes.

Employees in most industries are subject to “awards” which set out their pay and working conditions. The Fair Work Commission (FWC), the national workplace tribunal, determines these awards.

Currently, adult award minimum wages apply to workers aged 21 and older. Anyone younger gets the lower junior rates.

For example, if a 21-year-old gets $29.04 as a waiter, an 18-year-old is paid about $16.04 per hour for the same job.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has joined the call for junior rates to be scrapped for anyone legally considered an adult.

ACTU President Michele O’Neil said: “An 18-year-old needs 50-plus hours a week to earn what an adult makes in 38.”

The SDA is one of the unions representing retail and fast food workers, and filed the application with the FWC.

National Secretary Gerard Dwyer said 18 to 20-year-old workers “do not receive a discount on their rent or bills because they happen to be 18.”

The SDA shared the story of 19-year-old Ahnaf Haque, who has worked at a Western Sydney fast food restaurant since he was 16. He is now a shift supervisor.

Ahnaf does not get adult pay, meaning he earns around $5 less per hour than some of the people he supervises.

“Even though… my employer thinks I am mature enough to supervise other workers and run the store, I am still being paid less than a 21-year-old who could walk into a job tomorrow with no experience in fast food at all,” he told the union.

In a statement on Monday, the National Retail Association (NRA) said: “Abolishing junior wages will create higher youth unemployment.”

Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows youth unemployment is at 10.2%, more than double the overall rate of 4.3%.

The NRA cited an internal survey finding 77% of retailers “would likely cut junior hiring if junior and senior rates were equalised.”

The case began in the FWC this week. It will review the application and call on unions, workers, experts, and businesses to give evidence.

Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth said the Government is moving to “protect pay packets of low paid young workers,” but did not explicitly endorse the proposed changes.

TDA reached out to the Opposition but did not hear back by the time of publication.

Reporting by Elliot Lawry.

What does it mean to “be a man” in 2025 – and who’s shaping that definition? Join the UNSW Centre for Ideas on Nov 18 for Who’s the Man?, a conversation with Thomas Mayo, Tom Harley and ABC’s Siobhan Marin on masculinity, mental health, and how social media algorithms are influencing it all.

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OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has released new data on users’ mental health, and announced it will modify how the bot responds to psychological issues.

The company said around 1.2 million users talk to the bot about suicidal ideation each week.

It comes amid criticism of the company over users’ deaths by suicide, including the family of a U.S. high school student who have now launched a lawsuit.

The family alleges ChatGPT guided the teenager to take his own life.

This week, OpenAI released data on ChatGPT users’ mental health.

The chatbot has more than 800 million weekly users.

OpenAI found around 0.07% of its active weekly users (560,000 people) show “possible signs of mental health emergencies related to psychosis or mania.”

Psychosis Australia says the condition involves “alterations of thinking, beliefs, feelings and emotions, motivation and perception.”

According to Healthdirect, symptoms of mania include “grandiose ideas, increased energy... along with a reduced need to sleep.”

OpenAI also said that each week, around 0.15% of its users (1.2 million people) have conversations with ChatGPT “that include explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent”.

In a blog post, OpenAI said conversations with ChatGPT that spark safety concerns are “extremely rare” and said mental ill-health is “universally present in human societies”.

OpenAI said it hopes to strengthen ChatGPT’s response to signs of distress.

Its latest update follows a five-step process, aimed at better managing risks when users show concerning thoughts.

OpenAI says its most recent ChatGPT model, GPT-5, responds more appropriately to mental health concerns on a more frequent basis than previous versions.

The family of a U.S. 16-year-old who died by suicide has recently taken legal action against OpenAI.

California high school student Adam Raine died in April this year.

In court documents, Adam’s parents said ChatGPT “pushed Adam deeper into... behaviours that ultimately... facilitated his suicide.”

They provided examples of ChatGPT appearing to suggest suicide methods and offering to write a suicide note to his family.

The documents also include data from Adam’s conversations with the chatbot.

Both Adam and the bot mentioned suicide almost 1,300 times.

The teen spent almost four hours on the platform each day in the lead-up to his death.

His parents believe OpenAI launched the previous version of ChatGPT prematurely, “prioritising a rushed market release over the safety of vulnerable users”.

Australian Psychological Society CEO Dr Zena Burgess told TDA: “AI interventions are best used as ways to complement, not replace, vital human interactions.”

Dr Burgess is concerned about AI models being potentially “harmful because of biases and gaps,” compared to psychologists with “very high levels of education, training and professional ethics.”

She warned that these errors can be “very dangerous, especially in crisis”.

Lifeline 13 11 14

Reporting by Emily Donohoe.

Need plans that aren’t just dinner and drinks?

Bell Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet is back – and this isn’t the version you half-remember from high school.

It’s raw, emotional, and totally gripping. Two young lovers caught in the chaos of family drama and bad timing.

From just $45, you can be swept up in the passion, heartbreak and raw emotion of Shakespeare’s greatest love story – live on stage. Peter Evans’ production has been praised as “a joy from start to tear-stained finish” (Time Out Melbourne).

Playing at Sydney Opera House from 19 November – 7 December.

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A group of 36 northern hairy-nosed wombats were brought to a protected site in the southern Queensland Powrunna State Forest last year as part of an initiative to protect the species, which is one of the most endangered in the world. According to an update from the Queensland Department of Environment, the “wild born and bred babies” are a “clear tick of approval” that the wombats are thriving in their new habitat. The 2,800-hectare site is the state’s third dedicated hairy-nosed conservation site. With only 400 northern hairy-nosed wombats thought to be left in the wild, the Queensland Government said the project is committed to boosting their numbers, “ensuring we keep them on the map for future generations.”

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Reporting by Emily Donohoe.

A nightmare has come true in Brisbane. Two entire Year 12 classes were taught the wrong topic for their final exams.

A Queensland Department of Education spokesperson told TDA that on Monday, Brisbane State High School realised that “incorrect content” had been taught for the Year 12 Ancient History exam, coming up this week.

Instead of the exam topic of Julius Caesar, they were taught a unit on Emperor Augustus.

In 2023, the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority released a memo saying that the 2024 general syllabus unit would be about Augustus, but the 2025 unit would be about Caesar.

The department spokesperson told TDA that the school has “designed a plan for the two impacted classes” and they are “deeply sorry for the mistake”.

A QCAA told TDA that they are working with the school’s staff “to ensure no student is disadvantaged,” and confirmed that “students have already completed 75% of their assessments” in Ancient History.

The exam is today. We wish them the best of luck!

Reporting by Anju Dhanushkodi.

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Riddle answer: The answer is "three." The trick is counting the letters in the number. "Ten" has three letters.

U.S. President Donald Trump has once again refused to rule out running for a third term, telling reporters this week he would love to do it. U.S. Presidents are restricted to a two-term limit, but could Trump change that?

Today, we’ll break down what the U.S. Constitution says about presidential terms, the likelihood of anything changing, and how Australia's system compares.