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At around lunchtime, the remaining politicians in the Greens will meet to choose their new leader, after the electoral defeat of Adam Bandt in his seat of Melbourne.
The three contenders are Mehreen Faruqi, Larissa Waters and Sarah Hanson-Young.
Some media outlets are reporting the three might enter a job-sharing arrangement. Keep an eye on The Daily Aus today to find out!
I’ve got 10 seconds
Quote of the day
“I invited [Sussan Ley] at any time to engage with me, as Peter Dutton was always welcome to do on any issue to advance the national interest.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on his working relationship with newly-elected Opposition Leader Sussan Ley.
Stat of the day
6,000
The number of Microsoft employees who have been fired in recent days, according to U.S. outlet CNBC.
TDA reader’s comment of the week
“What about people that shower before and after? Who's looking after us double showerers?”
A comment left on a quote from Nationals Senator Matt Canavan, who was vying for the party's leadership this week. Canavan said he would "stand up for workers who have to shower at the end of the day, not the start of the day". Nationals leader David Littleproud, who defeated Canavan, has not confirmed which shower-type person he will stand up for.
I’ve got 30 seconds
Some headlines from this morning:
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has travelled to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, in his first overseas trip since his decisive victory at the federal election. Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong, who will be joining the Prime Minister, told the ABC on Wednesday morning “there is no country more important for Australia” than Indonesia. Wong said the economy, trade, and defence, will be among the issues on the agenda. After his trip to Indonesia, Albanese is set to travel to Rome for Pope Leo XIV’s formal inauguration on Sunday.
Wages increased by 3.4% in the year to March, according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. With inflation for the same period at 2.4%, this means wages have been increasing at a faster rate than prices over the past year. The data suggests that wage growth was strongest in the public sector, mostly due to state-based enterprise bargaining agreements, as well as increases for aged care workers. Wage growth data is part of what will be considered by the Reserve Bank of Australia when it meets next week to discuss the cash rate, which influences interest rates across the economy.
Recommendation of the day
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I’ve got 1 minute
1,800 votes went missing after they had been counted on election night. They have since been found at an AEC worker's home.
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is looking into how a container of ballot papers briefly went missing during the counting process after election night in Sydney.
More than 1,800 votes were found at an AEC staff member’s home in the Labor-held seat of Barton, in south Sydney.
The AEC said the votes were tracked down quickly and weren’t tampered with.
It said the incident doesn’t appear to have been deliberate and hasn’t affected the count in the race.
Counting
These are the steps involved in counting votes at a federal election:
Voters cast their ballot at a polling centre.
AEC staff count the ballots at the centre, overseen by scrutineers (people appointed by candidates to keep an eye on the count).
The votes are packaged into containers and sent to an external counting centre to undergo a second count three days later.
Missing container
Staff tried to start the second count for the seat of Barton at a Sydney counting centre on Tuesday 6 May.
However, they found a container of 1,866 lower house votes was missing from the Hurstville polling place.
The AEC said one of the transport officers responsible for moving all the containers had failed to drop off all of the ballots.
The AEC tracked down the container at the official’s home.
It was found to be “fully intact, with all the uniquely coded security seals unbroken”.
The AEC concluded, based on its initial review, that it was an accident.
“We are of the view, with evidence available to us at this time, that the transport officer inadvertently overlooked the return of the transport container and was indifferent to the implications and our serious concerns,” it said in a statement.
Impact
The AEC said there was no impact on the overall count in the seat of Barton.
Labor’s Ash Ambihaipahar won the safe seat with 66% of the two-party preferred vote against her Liberal rival.
The AEC described the temporarily missing container as a “near miss,” and said it’s reviewing transport practices of ballots to avoid future incidents.
TDA understands there could be further consequences for the worker involved.
Reporting by Harry Sekulich.
I’ve got 2 minutes
The Menendez brothers’ successful resentencing hearing makes them eligible for parole for the first time
The Menendez brothers have been resentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Previously, they were sentenced to life in prison without parole. This means they could soon be released.
The two brothers were first sentenced in 1996 for the murder of their parents in 1989.
A hearing scheduled for June will determine if they will be released on parole.
The case
Lyle and Erik Menendez lived with their parents in Beverly Hills, California.
On 20 August 1989, police received a call from Lyle, who said he and his brother had found their parents dead in the living room.
The brothers told police they had been at a movie theatre before they came home and discovered their parents.
At the time, Erik was 18 and Lyle was 21. They were arrested in March 1990 and faced trial in 1993.
Initially, the pair suggested the mafia might be behind the murder of their parents, Jose Menendez and Mary Louise Anderson (also called ‘Kitty’) .
Authorities became suspicious of the brothers when they began spending large amounts of money following the death of their parents.
They were arrested in March 1990 and faced trial in 1993.
1993
The brothers eventually confessed to firing multiple shots at close range, in what they argued was self-defence.
Both Lyle and Erik testified in court that they had endured years of sexual, emotional, and physical abuse from their father.
They claimed their mother knew about the abuse, but ignored it.
Verdict
Each brother was assigned a separate jury, but neither could reach a consensus. The hung juries resulted in a mistrial.
Both were found guilty of murder in 1996 following a re-trial, and were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Renewed efforts
The case gained renewed interest following the release of the series ‘Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story’ on Netflix in 2024.
Following the series, the LA County District Attorney’s Office said it would review possible new evidence in the case, which Erik’s lawyers say corroborates allegations of sexual abuse by his father.
In October 2024, then-District Attorney George Gascón recommended reducing their sentences.
Gascón then lost his bid for re-election, and was succeeded by Hochman, who has since argued the brothers “are not rehabilitated and pose an unreasonable risk of danger to public safety.”
Despite Hochman’s opposition, a judge decided last month that the re-sentencing hearings for the brothers could go ahead.
New sentence
On Tuesday, the LA County Superior Court ruled in favour of the brothers’ bid to reduce their sentences.
The resentencing makes them eligible for parole under California’s youth offender laws.
Under these laws, a parole board is required to give special consideration to offenders who were under the age of 26 at the time of the crime. This came into effect in 2018.
Parole allows a person to be released under specific conditions, such as restrictions on where they can live.
Presiding Judge Michael Jesic said: “[It’s] not for me to decide... I do believe they’ve done enough in the past 35 years, that they should get that chance.” Their release will be decided by the state’s parole board.
A parole hearing had already been scheduled for June 13 under a separate clemency case brought by the state’s Governor.
Lawyers for the brothers are also seeking to have their murder convictions downgraded from murder to manslaughter, to allow their immediate release.
Reporting by Achol Arok.
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With built-in protection for light to heavy flow and recycled materials crafted in partnership with SEAQUAL®, it’s made for comfort, confidence, and those moments when your period doesn’t take a break.
🍊 The NRL is yet to confirm an NRLW team for Vegas 2026.
🍊 A new study will investigate the links between menstruation and ACL injuries.
🍊 De Minaur is out of the Italian Open.
🗞️ Also in today’s Sport Newsletter: cycling, basketball, and more…
Give me some good news
Five fishermen who spent nearly two months lost at sea have been rescued by a tuna boat and have arrived safely back on shore on the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador.
According to the Ecuadorian Navy, the men had been missing since mid-March. They will now coordinate with foreign authorities to ensure the safe return of the men to their respective countries – three are from Peru, and two are from Colombia.
Want more good news? Sign up to our weekly Good Newsletter here - we promise it’ll make your week better!
TDA titbit
We have a confession…
Frequent readers will know this as the ‘TDA tidbit’ section, where we bring you funny and strange stories from around the world.
In an unexpected turn of events, we have discovered the Australian spelling is actually ‘titbit’, not ‘tidbit’, which is the U.S. spelling.
So, as we drag our heels into the naughty corner, we have reflected on our error and have made haste to formally change this section to ‘TDA titbit’.
We hope you enjoy all the wacky and wonderful titbits to come!
Reporting by Rosa Bowden.
Want more from The Daily Aus? Listen to our podcast!
A new bill in NSW’s Parliament re-ignited a debate around abortion, six years after the state decriminalised the procedure.
Parties allowed their members to choose how they vote, protesters gathered outside the Parliament, and one upper house MP has compared abortion to Nazi Germany.
In today’s episode, we’ll explain why the medical procedure was up for discussion once again, and what is going to change.
TDA asks
