☕️ The AFL's first openly bisexual player

In 129 years of the AFL, no male player, past or present, had ever publicly identified as gay or bisexual.

That all changed yesterday, when TDA sat down with former West Coast Eagles player Mitch Brown to hear his story of becoming, as of that moment, the first openly bisexual man in the AFL’s history.

Today, we’re bringing you Part One of our full exclusive chat with Mitch.

It’s a watershed moment for Australian sport, and we couldn’t be prouder to be the place that Mitch came to when he wanted to tell his story.

Listen here, and we’ll bring you Part Two tomorrow.

"I played in the AFL for 10 years for the West Coast Eagles, and I'm a bisexual man."
Former West Coast Eagles player Mitch Brown has become the first openly bisexual man in the AFL's history, in an exclusive interview with TDA. You can listen to the first part of Sam's conversation with Mitch on today's podcast.

2.8%
The rate of inflation in the 12 months to July, up from 1.9% in June.

1963
60 years ago today, civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led over 200,000 peaceful protesters through Washington D.C. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedoms gathered at the Lincoln Memorial, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. The historic address was broadcast live nationwide.

The Western Australia Supreme Court has found former WA Senator Linda Reynolds was defamed by her former staffer, Brittany Higgins.

Higgins was working for Reynolds when she alleged she was raped by her then-colleague, Bruce Lehrmann. A judge in a civil case has found it is more likely than not that Lehrmann raped Higgins.

Reynolds’ defamation case related to three social media posts published by Higgins and her husband, David Sharaz, two of which were found to be defamatory.

She has been awarded more than $315,000 in damages. Higgins has flagged she won’t appeal.

In 2021, Brittany Higgins publicly alleged she had been raped by a then-unnamed coworker in Parliament House, while she was working for Linda Reynolds.

A criminal trial failed due to juror misconduct. A re-trial was abandoned.

Lehrmann later launched a civil defamation case in the Federal Court, claiming he was identifiable in the initial coverage of Higgins’ allegation.

The judge in this case found it was more likely than not that Lehrmann raped Higgins, on the balance of probabilities. An appeal is underway.

After going public, Higgins criticised Reynolds, her former boss, in a number of social media posts.

In these posts, Higgins alleged that Reynolds “continues to harass” her through the media.

Sharing an article about Reynolds, Higgins also claimed: “Instead of solving the problem, there are people who would prefer to just silence victims.”

Reynolds sued Higgins in a WA court over the social media posts, arguing that her reputation was unfairly damaged due to the posts.

She argued they falsely suggested she harassed Higgins, mishandled the rape allegations, and wants to silence victims of sexual assault.

Higgins had relied partly on the truth defence, requiring her legal team to argue that some of the meanings were substantially true.

Justice Paul Tottle found Higgins and Sharaz had defamed Reynolds in two social media posts.

In his judgment, Tottle ruled one of Higgins’ posts was defended on the grounds of qualified privilege, fair comment, and honestly-held opinion.

The defamatory posts were also found to have breached a “non-disparagement” clause in Higgins’ 2021 settlement with the government, which was reached after she first publicly aired the rape allegations.

Outside court, Reynolds said she felt “vindicated”.

“This was never about Higgins’ rape allegations,” Reynolds said, instead saying the case was over posts which she said “cost me my reputation [and] my health”.

Higgins posted on social media, saying: “I accept that Linda Reynolds’ feelings were hurt by these events and I am sorry for that.”

She said she was “grateful” the case was over, and that she and her family “look forward to... rebuilding our lives.”

Reporting by Harry Sekulich.

An overhaul to the national environmental law will be introduced later this year, following long delays.

Environment Minister Murray Watt said the changes would help speed up project approvals and strengthen environmental protections.

Industry groups and climate activists have been calling for reforms to the law, calling it “broken,” complex, and weak.

Here’s what you need to know.

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) is the formal name for the national environmental law.

It was first introduced in 1999, under then-Prime Minister John Howard.

While it has been updated over the years, the law doesn’t mention climate change, aside from one reference to a 1992 UN climate conference.

There have long been calls to simplify and modernise the EPBC Act.

Former chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Graeme Samuel led an independent review of the law in 2020.

Samuel called the law “outdated”, criticising the lack of protection of natural habitats and long wait-times for project approvals.

Projects under the act include fossil fuel explorations (e.g. gas drilling) and housing construction.

Environmental groups and the University of Queensland have also found 7.7 million hectares of potential protected habitats were cleared between 2000 and 2017, when the law was in effect.

In the last term of Parliament, Labor introduced a bill to bring in a national Environmental Protection Agency.

The agency would be tasked with enforcing laws to protect natural habitats and threatened species.

The bill was dumped in February, months out from the federal election.

Environment Minister Murray Watt has pledged to overhaul the environmental laws before the end of the year, six months earlier than he initially announced.

It follows last week’s Economic Roundtable, which looked at changes to tax and boosting productivity.

Head of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Andrew McKellar welcomed the government’s commitment to “accelerate the process” of reforming the EPBC Act, to get “clear and fast answers” on project approvals.

Watt said: “We need to move quickly to reform these laws, as delays mean holding up investment and more environmental destruction.”

The Government will consult over the next few months before introducing a new bill to Parliament.

Shadow Environment Minister Angie Bell said she’s opening to working with the Government, adding: “It’s too important to get this reform wrong.”

“Industry can exist alongside environmental protections that need to be stronger,” she said.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the reforms have been in the works for three years already, adding that she’s willing to get stronger environmental laws through the Parliament.

“Environment laws that protect nature must include: protection of critical habitat and forests, stop[ping] species extinction, a climate trigger, [and] federal control over approvals”.

The Greens have previously pushed for a ‘climate trigger’, which would require projects to be weighed against their likely impact on the climate.

Reporting by Harry Sekulich.

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🍊 The Panthers have made 16 changes to their side ahead of tonight’s game.
🍊 Lachie Kennedy is out of the upcoming athletics World Championships.
🍊 Cadillac has announced its first drivers for the next F1 season.
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Local authorities used cranes to pull the 2,000-year-old relics from the Mediterranean Sea near the ancient city of Alexandria this week. The underwater ruins included a 125-metre dock, a partially preserved sphinx, merchant ships and stone anchors from the Ptolemaic and Roman eras. According to Egyptian Government officials, only specific materials meeting strict criteria can be brought to the surface. The rest will remain part of the country’s “sunken heritage”.

Want more good news? Sign up to our weekly Good Newsletter here - we promise it’ll make your week better!

Reporting by Emma Gillespie.

Netflix's animated film ‘Kpop Demon Hunters’ is now the streamer's biggest film of all time, racking up 236 million views since it premiered in June.

The movie is about fictional girl group Huntr/x, who fight demons using music and martial arts.

Earlier this year, their song "Golden" topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with multiple songs taking over Spotify's global chart.

Huntr/x and rival group Saja Boys even outpaced BTS and Blackpink as the highest-charting K-pop artists in American Spotify history.

Reporting by Rosa Bowden.

Until this week, in 129 years of the AFL, no male player, past or present, had ever publicly identified as gay or bisexual.

That changed with former West Coast Eagles player Mitch Brown.

In today’s episode, we share the first half of our conversation with Mitch, who spoke exclusively to TDA.

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