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Good morning!
I hope you’re not sick of my intros being about sport events that have started at 5am.
This morning, the Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony started. If you’re like us, within days you’ll be watching the pole vault and confidently declaring you could try it, and possibly do better, yourself.
Let the armchair expertise begin.
I’ve got 10 seconds
The quote: “We’re painting an area the size of a typical family home… It wasn’t an option to clean it off, so we actually are painting over the top of it.” Peter Munro from toll-road company Transurban speaking to ABC Radio Melbourne about the task of covering up the graffiti of ‘Pam the Bird’ on Melbourne’s Bolte Bridge. (If you’re not familiar, Pam the Bird is a graffiti tag that has popped up on Melbourne landmarks for years.)
The stat: $44. The average amount Australians spend on streaming services each month, up from $41 last year, according to Canstar’s survey of 8,000 people.
The big question:
Yesterday’s results: 40% of you wash your sheets once a fortnight, 31% wash them once a week, 20% once a month, and a cheeky 9% didn’t want to say. Thanks for voting - your responses inform TDA's journalism and research. [2,600 votes].
I’ve got 30 seconds
Some headlines from this morning:
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has said her comments about domestic violence were taken out of context, following backlash from advocates and experts. Speaking to Brisbane radio station 4BC on Wednesday, Hanson said domestic violence “is wrong, but it’s also a two-way street... I’ve been through it myself in my life... If these women are getting abused by men out there, then don’t put up with it.” Speaking to TDA, femicide researcher Sherele Moody said: “Domestic violence is… a one-way street, and the person in control of that one-way street is the perpetrator.” In a post to Facebook on Thursday, Hanson said the media “constantly take my comments out of context,” which she said “made out that I downplayed domestic violence. That’s untrue”. Hanson urged people to listen to her full interview.
Unemployment remained steady at 4.4% in June, according to new figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The unemployment rate is the percentage of people who were looking for work but couldn’t find any. While the June figure came in line with forecasters' expectations, a sharp rise in employment of 76,300 jobs far exceeded estimates of 15,000 new jobs. The surge was driven by a 47,000-person rise in part-time employment, ABS head of labour statistics Sean Crick said.
Together with AAP.
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I’ve got 1 minute
The Commonwealth Games kicked off on Thursday night in Glasgow, Scotland, with 256 Aussies competing.
These Games were meant to be held in regional towns across Victoria, but the State Government pulled out in 2023, citing funding issues.
Here’s what to know about the event.
The Commonwealth Games
Held every four years, the Commonwealth Games are open to the 74 countries and territories that are part of the Commonwealth of Nations (originally the British Empire), including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, England, and India.
Given there was not enough time to build new infrastructure following the change of location, Glasgow is delivering a scaled-back event, with athletics, swimming, track cycling, artistic gymnastics, netball, boxing, judo, weightlifting, bowls, and 3x3 basketball.
Para and able-bodied athletes compete alongside each other, with para medals counting towards the same national tally.
Most medal events will be held in the early hours of the morning, Australian time, and will be available on Channel 7 and 7plus.
Australia’s chances
The Australian team topped the medal table at the last CommGames in Birmingham in 2022.
While some of our best medal hopes have had to pull out of the Games - gold medal swimmers Alexa Leary and Kaylee McKeown, and athletics young gun Gout Gout - there are plenty of stars to watch.
In athletics, Olympic medallists Nina Kennedy, Nicola Olyslagers, and Jemima Montag will go for gold in pole vault, high jump, and the 10km walk respectively.
Plus, Lachlan Kennedy and new record-holder Torrie Lewis will be seeking glory on the track in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay.
Reporting by Lucy Tassell and George Finlayson.
Quick hits
🎧 On today’s TDA podcast, co-founder Zara tells multimedia journo Elliot about the Govt’s plan to pay for placements. Listen or watch on Apple here, Spotify here, or YouTube here.
🌞 Sign up to TDA Good News here for a wrap of all the good news from this week in your inbox on Sunday morning.
I’ve got 2 minutes
On Thursday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced paid placements will be extended to 10 more allied health degrees.
The Government rolled out its Commonwealth Prac Payment (CPP) program in 2025 for degrees including nursing and teaching, and will now expand it to courses including physiotherapy and paramedicine.
While some students welcomed the news, the Australian Medical Students’ Association told TDA their exclusion will disproportionately impact students from rural, low-income and First Nations backgrounds.
The program will be available from July next year.
Placements
Since July 2025, nursing, social work, teaching, and midwifery students have been able to access payments for compulsory placements that are more than 30 hours per week.
Since January, the payment has been $338.60 per week. In a full-time week (38 hours), this is equivalent to $8.91 per hour.
Nursing students are required to complete 800 hours (20 weeks) in a clinic or hospital. Teachers need to do about 600 hours (16 weeks) in a classroom.
Expansion
On Thursday, Albanese announced the Government would expand the program to 10 additional allied health degrees.
These are physiotherapy, speech pathology, occupational therapy, radiography, pharmacy, audiology, psychology, podiatry, paramedicine, and rehabilitation therapies.
Albanese said the Government was expanding the scheme “because [students] shouldn’t have to choose between paying the bills and graduating.”
Health Students Alliance (HSA) President Sebastian Harper told TDA he is “ecstatic” to see the expansion to pharmacy and allied health students, which he said the HSU had “advocated for... over the last two years”.
The HSU conducted a survey in 2025, asking 1,374 students about their experiences with living costs during placements.
It showed 42% of respondents “went hungry” during placement, while 53% said they considered leaving their degree due to the burden of placement.
Medical students
Medicine – which requires up to 4,000 hours of placement – has not been included in the expansion.
Australian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA) President Seniru Mudannayake said balancing paid work to afford living costs is difficult, noting that some students are homeless and rationing food during placements.
Mudannayake said that this exclusion disproportionately impacts students from regional, First Nations, and low-income backgrounds, who often “just don’t have the family financial support to be able to do [placements].”
Mudannayake said these students are more likely to return “to serve their communities,” but the cost of placement is “shutting them out of these degrees.”
AMSA data shows First Nations medical students make up 4% of the first year cohort, but 2% of graduating classes.
On Thursday morning, Albanese told the ABC “there aren’t shortages of people who want to do medical degrees,” compared to other allied health fields.
In response, Mudannayake said “if you have money, you can do this,” adding “medicine [is] not being reflective of the patients that we’re meant to serve”.
Reporting by Emily Donohoe.
In partnership with Anthropic
Aussies are transforming safety for construction workers using AI.
Presien, a physical AI company for heavy industry, used Claude to develop an agentic platform that analyses worksites around the clock - cutting critical safety events by over 70% in three months.
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Give me some good news
Researchers from Australia and Thailand have developed biodegradable seed pods aimed at restoring Thai seagrass meadows. Seagrass acts as a nursery for newborn fish and crab species, and is also the main food source of Thailand’s dugong population – which has faced significant decline over recent years due to the impacts of climate change and overfishing on seagrass habitats. Local researchers have teamed up with scientists from Murdoch University in WA to boost seagrass growth in the region. New 3D-printed bioplastic pod prototypes are “designed to protect [seedling] transplants from waves, sediment movement, and grazing animals during those critical early stages” of growth.
Reporting by Emma Gillespie.
TDA titbit
Photo inset: LinkedIn
Brendan Gunn, the brother of Olympic breaker Raygun (real name Rachael Gunn), has been sentenced over his involvement with a possible crypto scheme, according to ASIC.
Gunn pleaded guilty to dealing with money reasonably suspected of being proceeds of crime back in January and was sentenced to 12 months in jail this week. He is out on a good behaviour bond.
In other Raygun news, it’s been announced there will be a whole Netflix series dedicated to her time at the Olympics.
Reporting by Lucy Tassell.
TDA asks
