☕️ Inflation rises again

Did anyone else watch Australia’s women’s water polo team compete against the Netherlands last night?

My heart is still recovering from the stress of it. The countries were neck and neck the whole time, leading to a nail-biter penalty shootout.

It was only after eight shots each that Australia eventually won.

Water polo is definitely one of the most underrated Olympic sports. It also seems to be one of the most aggressive. 😬

“We know already that [AI] is used to create deepfakes of celebrities promoting investment scams. Can you imagine the danger that will follow when they start to impersonate you or your loved ones?”
Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones speaking at the National Press Club yesterday.

27
The age at which most Olympic track and field athletes reach their peak performance, according to a new study published in academic journal Significance.

1980
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir became the world’s first elected female leader of a country. She took to office as Iceland’s President on this day.

In February, the Department of Social Services had a backlog of over 1.3 million unprocessed Medicare and Centrelink claims.

Now, the government agency responsible for the services says it has reduced that figure by 66% — meaning fewer people are waiting to receive a government payment or subsidy.

The Department said call wait times to Medicare and Centrelink have also been significantly reduced.

However, social service advocates argue more needs to be done to address barriers impacting vulnerable Australians, like lengthy wait times.

Nearly 500,000 Australians are currently waiting on a Medicare or Centrelink claim to be resolved. This figure is down from around 1.35 million earlier this year.

In the first three weeks of July, the average JobSeeker claim took 6 days to process, 18 days faster than the average across the 2018/19 financial year (for the equivalent payment, Newstart).

Young people had an average wait of 14 days for a Youth Allowance claim to be processed, down from 27 days across 2018/19.

Centrelink received 5.2 million calls between January and July. 34% took over 30 minutes to answer.

For the week of 15-21 July, the average wait time was 26 minutes, “depending on the day”.

Government Services Minister Bill Shorten said “there’s more to do”, but that overall services were “making significant” progress.

It comes after 3,000 department staff were hired last year. The Government aims to hire another 7,500 employees over the next two years.

The new data compares 12 months of pre-COVID figures, and data from the last financial year, to three weeks in July this year.

Shadow Government Services Minister Paul Fletcher accused the Government of using “handpicked” statistics as “spin”.

“These new figures do not resemble a success story or transformation at Services Australia of any kind,” Fletcher said.

He argued that service standards have “plummeted” despite the government “recruiting thousands more staff.”

Economic Justice Australia is a not-for-profit legal organisation that assists social services recipients.

CEO Kate Allingham said that by the time a person calls Medicare or Centrelink, they have often “reached a crisis point”.

Allingham warned when it’s “too hard” to get through to services, “the situation of a person in crisis worsens”, causing feelings of “absolute hopelessness”.

Reporting by Achol Arok.

U.S. President Joe Biden has called for reforms to make his country’s highest court more independent.

Nine Justices serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Once appointed, there is no fixed term for these officials. That means they can serve the court until their death.

However, Biden says these lifetime appointments have contributed to deepening cynicism about the “fairness“ of the court. This includes concern over recent decisions about abortion protections and Presidential immunity.

When the U.S. gained independence from Britain and became a republic, national decision-making powers were split across the judiciary (courts), executive (President), and legislature (Congress).

The country’s founding document, the Constitution, stated the Supreme Court would be the country’s highest court.

As the top court in America, all of its decisions are binding and can’t be appealed.

There are nine Justices on the Supreme Court.

While the Constitution does not expressly require a Justice to have a law degree, every appointee since 1942 has been a law graduate.

When a judge retires or dies, the serving President chooses a candidate to replace them.

Before they can be appointed to the court, a majority of the 100-member U.S. Senate must confirm that candidate.

Justices can sit on the Supreme Court until they die (e.g. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was a Justice until her 2020 death.)

The U.S. Constitution states Justices can serve “during good Behaviour” but this condition remains open to interpretation.

For example, Clarence Thomas – the longest-serving of the current Justices – was accused of failing to declare expensive gifts from Republican donors. Despite this, he continues to serve.

At present, the U.S. Supreme Court is made up of six Republican-appointed judges and three chosen by Democratic presidents.

Unless a Justice voluntarily steps down from their position or dies, they can only be removed through an impeachment motion.

This requires support from the majority of the House and two-thirds of the Senate, and has happened once, in 1805.

By contrast, judges in Australia’s equivalent – the High Court – can’t serve past 70 years old.

The Supreme Court has faced criticism over several recent decisions.

In 2022, the Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a previous judgement that had guaranteed national abortion protections. Since then, 22 states have blocked or partially blocked access to abortions.

Earlier this month, it ruled that U.S. presidents are immune from criminal wrongdoing while performing official duties. This has created new challenges for prosecutors in some of Donald Trump’s legal trials.

This week, President Joe Biden called for the Supreme Court to be overhauled.

In an opinion piece for U.S. newspaper The Washington Post, he wrote, “We can and must strengthen the guardrails of democracy... and restore the public’s faith in our judicial system.”

Biden proposed three major reforms:

Biden argued the proposed reforms would help address historically low confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Pew Research Center, a Washington-based think tank, has tracked favourability ratings for the Supreme Court since 1987.

For the first time, it found a majority of Americans (54%) had an unfavourable view of the Supreme Court in July 2023 — a year after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Biden’s proposals couldn’t be implemented without Constitutional changes.

Similarly to Australia, the U.S. does not often change its constitution.

In the U.S., reforms must be agreed to by two-thirds of its House and Senate, and then approved by three-quarters of its 50 state governments.

Therefore, given the fairly even Republican-Democrat split across federal and state governments, any short-term changes to the Supreme Court are unlikely.

Reporting by Harry Sekulich.

Your pet might just change the world.

We know you already think your pet is pretty special – and they are. But did you know that pets are the second largest consumer of factory farmed animals?

Rather than support factory farm products, Frontier Pets sources grass-fed and free-range alternatives direct from Aussie farms that are not only better for your pet, but better for the planet. By supporting Frontier Pets, your pet can minimise its environmental paw print.

How it works:

By freeze-drying raw, fresh and free-range ingredients Frontier Pet food doesn’t lose any nutritional value. When you feed your pet, measure out their portion, add warm water, let the food sit for around 30-seconds and voila! Dinner served.

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It tops out the previous record of attendance at a women’s sporting season set by the A-League Women’s season for 2023/24.

The Grand Final is set for Suncorp Stadium this weekend.

We’ll tell you everything you need to know about the final over at our sport newsletter. You can sign up here.

Reporting by Harry Sekulich.

Olympic gold medallists are usually celebrated with parades and ceremonies. Pizza Hut Hong Kong had other ideas.

On Monday, Hong Kong fencer Cheung Ka Long beat his Italian competitor Filippo Macchi after a controversial referee call.

Italians were furious with the call and the Italian Fencing Federation announced it will file a formal protest over the refereeing.

This prompted Hong Kong fans to go after the Italian cuisine, with many commenters mocking Italians for “loving pineapple pizza”.

Enter Pizza Hut.

In a Facebook post, Pizza Hut Hong Kong said: “To celebrate this happy time… all restaurant branches can add a pineapple topping for free.”

Reporting by Nandini Dhir.

The Government has handed down its long-awaited response to the Disability Royal Commission.

Over four and a half years, the inquiry heard about experiences of abuse and neglect from more than 10,000 people.

Its final report made more than 200 recommendations to improve the lives of people with disabilities. The Government has now said which of those proposals it plans to accept, and the ones it won't.

In today's deep dive, we'll take you through that response, and what it means for Australians with disabilities.