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Good morning!
I have another question for you. As the year draws to an end, we’re thinking about how this newsletter can be improved in the new year.
We’re thinking of perhaps changing the ‘today in history’ to something else. Maybe a ‘word of the day’? Or a ‘random fact of the day’? Or a ‘viral moment of the day’?
Would love to know your thoughts - just hit reply to this email. And if you have any other sections you think could be improved too, we are all ears!
I’ve got 10 seconds
Quote of the day
“I’m not afraid of you, f*** you Elon Musk.”
Janja da Silva, wife of Brazil’s president Lula da Silva, at an event ahead of the G20 summit. Musk’s platform X was previously banned in the country for several months.
Stat of the day
1.42 billion
How many items of clothing were sold in Australia in 2023, according to clothes recycling initiative Seamless. That’s 53 per person.
Today in history
2007
The Kindle first went on sale in the U.S. by Amazon, retailing at $US399 ($AU617).
I’ve got 30 seconds
Some headlines from this morning:
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has arrived in Brazil for this year’s G20 Summit, where he’s expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Group of Twenty includes some of the world’s most powerful economies, such as the U.S, the UK, China, Japan, and the European Union. This week’s summit is being held in Rio de Janeiro, where Albanese will address world leaders. He’s expected to urge the global community to take a firmer stance in their calls “for a de-escalation of the violence in the Middle East” and to condemn the actions of Russia and North Korea. The PM is also preparing for a formal meeting with his Chinese counterpart. It comes after he joined Asia-Pacific leaders in Peru on the weekend for the 2024 APEC Leaders’ Summit.
Woolworths has faced the ACCC’s inquiry into the Australian supermarket industry. CEO Amanda Sharpwell told the inquiry she believes the industry is “fiercely competitive”, with Woolworths being “a substantial part of the market”. In response to Woolworths’ first day of hearings, the National Farmers Federation said growers “haven’t received price increases for 15 years” while “supermarkets have continued to post record profits.” Woolworths will continue its hearing with the consumer watchdog today, followed by Coles on 21 and 22 November. Meanwhile, the ACCC is pursuing court cases against Coles and Woolworths for alleged breaches of consumer law by using “discount pricing claims” to mislead customers.
Recommendations of the day
🏝 Sand, be gone: Muk Mat keeps sand out of your space and gives $2 to Aussie Surf Life Savers with every mat sold.
☕️ Win a lifetime of coffee: Head to the Coffee Supreme website, pick your coffee of choice and enter your details to enter!
I’ve got 1 minute
Police have laid 24 charges against Alan Jones
NSW Police has charged Australian broadcaster Alan Jones with 24 offences, including 11 counts of alleged aggravated indecent assault against people he employed.
On Monday morning, Jones was arrested and taken into custody. It followed allegations he indecently assaulted young men.
It comes after The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) published an investigation into alleged assaults by Jones last year.
A lawyer for Jones said he will “assert his innocence appropriately in the courtroom.”
Jones’ career
Jones was once considered one of the most powerful figures in Australian media.
He was a speechwriter for former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser before becoming the coach of the Wallabies in the mid-1980s.
He became a radio host on Sydney talkback radio stations 2UE and later 2GB. He regularly wrote opinion columns for News Corp’s newspapers and had a dedicated program on Sky News until 2021.
To understand more about the charges laid against Jones, listen to today’s podcast here.
1800 RESPECT: 1800 737 732
I’ve got 2 minutes
The head of Victoria’s exam authority has resigned over leaked year 12 exam questions
The head of Victoria’s Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) has quit over controversy surrounding year 12 exam papers.
Sample papers for nearly half the subjects included in this year’s final exams were found to have similar material to the actual tests.
The Victorian Government has announced an investigation into the tests. It also said students’ marks could change if they’re found to have been advantaged by the leak.
The CEO of the state’s exam authority, Kylie White, has resigned.
Sample questions
Ahead of VCE exams, the VCAA publishes sample questions and study guides to help school leavers prepare.
It also publishes “cover pages” for the final exams, which include details like the allocated reading time and sections of the paper.
This year, questions for some exams were found to be hidden within digital cover pages. Students were able to find these questions by selecting the text on the cover pages and then copying and pasting that text elsewhere.
Matches
The VCAA said it became aware of the hidden questions in mid-October and removed the impacted cover sheets from its website.
However, the sample sheets can still be accessed through an online archive.
Last week, Melbourne newspaper The Herald Sun revealed some of the questions hidden on the cover pages almost exactly matched the final VCE exam.
Resignation
When reports emerged of the exam question leaks last week, VCAA CEO White told media the error was due to an accidental “production issue”.
On Monday, Education Minister Ben Carroll announced White’s resignation, finding the VCAA failed to make “sufficient enough changes to the VCE questions”.
“VCE exams are stressful enough,” Carroll said.
“The last thing our Year 12 students need is additional stress and uncertainty”.
What now?
The leak affected 56 VCE exams out of the total 116, including legal studies, Australian politics, and business management.
Carroll said a full-scale review of the VCAA is underway. He said it will consider if affected students should get full marks for a question that was published.
“Whilst I’m extremely disappointed and angry by what has occurred, we are taking the right steps to ensure... no student is disadvantaged in the marking of this year’s examinations.”
Shadow Education Minister Jess Wilson welcomed White’s resignation, but said “more needs to be done to ensure that the systemic failures of the last three years are not repeated in 2025.”
Last year, the VCAA was subject to a review after the 2023 maths exams were found to have contained a wrongly-labelled graph and multiple questions on content not covered by the VCE course.
In 2022, University of Monash maths professors alleged there were “major errors” in high-level maths exams.
Reporting by Harry Sekulich.
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🍊 Wallabies triumph in Wales. More details here.
🍊 The Tyson v Paul fight set viewing records. How many tuned in?
🍊 This golf course in Queensland was home to six bull sharks.
🗞️ Also in the Sport Newsletter: tennis, cricket, and more…
Give me some good news
A women’s boxing match has likely become “the most watched professional women’s sporting event in U.S. history”.
Nearly 50 million households tuned in to watch the Netflix stream of the Katie Taylor v Amanda Serrano bout in Texas on the weekend.
Taylor retained her undisputed light-welterweight title after ten rounds of fighting. The match was streamed as part of Netflix’s first live-streamed sports event – ahead of the Mike Tyson v Jake Paul boxing match.
Want more good news? Sign up to our weekly Good Newsletter here - we promise it’ll make your week better!
Reporting by Nandini Dhir.
TDA tidbit
Would you book an AirBnB inside the Colosseum?
The short-term rental company is offering a night at the ancient Roman landmark, as promotion for the new film Gladiator II.
Marketed as an “evening experience”, a select number of visitors will get a night’s visit to the Colosseum with gladiator-related activities.
However, some locals are unhappy with the promotion, saying short term rentals are part of the growing issue of over-tourism and housing affordability.
Colosseum Superintendent Alfonsina Russo told the Associated Press that partnerships like AirBnB and Gladiator II financially support the site’s operations.
Reporting by Nandini Dhir.
Want more from The Daily Aus? Listen to our podcast!
Yesterday morning, news broke that well-known broadcaster Alan Jones had been arrested at his home in Sydney over alleged indecent assaults. Later in the day, police announced that he’d been charged with 24 offences.
In today's podcast, we explain who Jones is, what police have said and why this story matters.
TDA asks
