☕️ Gender pay gap at lowest level

Good morning!

A joke for you this morning: What did the lazy person do the day after Friday?

Sat.

Have a good (and lazy!) weekend.

I’ve got 10 seconds

Quote of the day

“It’s time to find some balance in my life and look after me.”
Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath announcing her retirement from politics at the state’s next election this year. D’Ath was the state’s Health Minister during the pandemic.

Stat of the day

$869 million
Qantas’ profit after taxes for the first half of the financial year, down 13% from the same period last year.

Today in history

1940
Walt Disney’s “Pinocchio” was released (I promise this isn’t a lie).

I’ve got 30 seconds

Some headlines from this morning:

• Melbourne Football Club player Angus Brayshaw has announced his retirement from the AFL after medical advice following a concussion. The 28-year-old sustained a concussion during the Demons’ 2023 qualifying final against Collingwood. The head knock prompted the AFL to introduce new high-contact rules for players ahead of the 2024 season. Brayshaw said he was “devastated” but respected “the verdict” of healthcare professionals. 

• A joint investigation by Australian and U.S. authorities has led to multiple arrests in relation to an international child abuse ring. Authorities allege the ring was exchanging child abuse material online. Nine men have now been arrested and charged with more than 70 offences combined.

I’ve got 1 minute

The gender pay gap has fallen to the lowest level on record (again)

Australia’s gender pay gap has dropped to 12%, its lowest level on record, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

This is the third time in a row the gender pay gap has fallen.

Over the past year, women's incomes have grown by an average of 5.5% compared to a 4% increase in the average earnings of men.

What is the gender pay gap?

The gender pay gap shows the difference between the average full-time earnings of women and men across the workforce. It doesn't refer to men and women being paid differently for the same job.

There are several different indicators that the ABS uses to measure the gender pay gap.

The one that came out yesterday is based on average earnings for full-time adults, which it says is the most commonly cited of gender pay measures.

I’ve got 2 minutes

Frozen embryos now have the same rights as children in the U.S. state of Alabama

A court in the U.S. state of Alabama has ruled that frozen embryos have the same legal rights as children.

Embryo freezing is a process of preserving a fertilised egg and sperm for assisted fertility practices (e.g. IVF).

The ruling is expected to have the biggest impact on the state’s IVF clinics and their patients, who now risk legal action for discarding unused embryos.

Background

Alabama introduced a total abortion ban in June 2022.

This came after the U.S. Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to an abortion, meaning individual states could make their own abortion laws.

Before this week’s ruling in Alabama, a foetus at any stage of pregnancy was considered to be a protected “human life”. Now, fertilised embryos outside of a uterus fall under this protection too.

Wrongful death

The ruling follows legal action against an Alabama IVF clinic over five destroyed embryos.

It comes after a patient allegedly broke into the clinic’s freezer, removed embryos that belonged to others and dropped them.

The patients whose embryos were lost claimed the IVF clinic was responsible for the “wrongful death of a minor” by allowing access to the freezer.

Court case

The wrongful death lawsuit raised questions about the legal status of embryos.

The IVF clinic argued that embryos were not children because they were “not contained within a biological womb” at the time they were destroyed.

The patients argued that Alabama’s laws say human life begins at fertilisation, meaning that even though these embryos weren’t implanted in a uterus yet, they were still covered by state law as a life.

The court accepted the patients’ argument, finding there was no “unwritten exception” that would exclude frozen embryos from laws protecting “unborn children”.

Part of the court’s reasoning was that it may one day be possible for foetuses to be grown to infancy in lab conditions, outside of a uterus.

It said: “Such a child would both be ’unborn’ (having never been delivered from a biological womb) and not ‘in utero’... their lives would be unprotected by Alabama law.”

The court’s decision means embryos are now protected by wrongful death laws.

Pushback

Reproductive rights groups say the court ruling will make it harder for people to access IVF in the state.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) said the ruling puts clinics at risks of civil or criminal charges, and so “no healthcare provider will be willing to provide [IVF] treatments.”

It said “science and everyday common sense tells us” that frozen embryos should not be treated the same, legally, as a foetus in utero.

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This week, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is back in the news because his final appeal to avoid extradition from the UK to the U.S. is currently underway in the UK High Court.

Assange is facing 18 charges in the U.S. relating to the leaking of thousands of confidential government documents. If found guilty, he faces penalties of up to 175 years behind bars.

Today on the podcast, we break down exactly why this decision is so important.

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Give me some good news

Beyonce has become the first Black woman to top the Billboard Country Chart.

Her single “Texas Hold ‘Em” came out during the Super Bowl, and has topped the charts in less than two weeks.

Beyonce released the song alongside “16 Carriages” after she featured in a Super Bowl commercial. Her new album is set to be released on 29 March.

TDA tidbit

After 140 years, a maple syrup company has changed its logo for the very first time.

Lyle’s Golden Syrup, which has had the same logo since 1885, holds the Guinness World Record for the oldest branding/packaging since 2006.

So why fix something that isn’t broken?

Well according to the company’s brand director: “Our fresh, contemporary design brings Lyle's into the modern day, appealing to the everyday British household while still feeling nostalgic and authentically Lyle's.”

And just before you go there, no, we will not be using this tidbit as an opportunity to talk about TDA’s rebrand (aka #fontgate). Bye!

TDA asks