☕️ The astronauts due to arrive back home

Here is today’s riddle: I am a word that begins with the letter “e” and ends with the letter “e” but only contains one letter. What am I?

Answer is in the tidbit!

“Crew-9 is going home.”
Nick Hague, the commander of the departing Crew Dragon, which is carrying NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore. The pair have been at the International Space Station for nine months, after only intending to be there for eight days. You can watch the livestream of their splashdown, due this morning, here.

63,600
The number of claims Australian insurance companies have received in the wake of ex-tropical Cyclone Alfred.

Mugwump [mug-wuhmp]
A person who sits on the fence, especially from party politics.

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A survey by Royal Life Saving Australia (RLSA) has found one in four schools are no longer running swimming carnivals.

RLSA collected data from around 330 school staff at public and private primary and high schools across the country.

It found a third do not offer any swimming lessons.

RLSA said an overall decline in swimming skills puts “thousands at increased risk of drowning in early adulthood.”

While 76% of schools surveyed held swimming carnivals, student participation rates sat at 59%.

Schools that did not run a swimming carnival largely cited low student skill levels, and the cost of hiring a venue, as deterrents.

Other factors included staff availability and “lack of student interest”.

The RLSA and other life-saving organisations have outlined a national framework for key swimming benchmarks for children aged 6 to 17.

Under the framework, by the end of primary school, students should be able to swim 50 metres continuously and tread water for at least two minutes.

Survey respondents told the RLSA 48% of Year 6 students are unable to meet these targets.

The report found there was no improvement in swimming skills among high school students.

By age 17, students are expected to swim at least 400 metres continuously and tread water for five minutes. However, 84% fell short of this standard.

Teachers reported 39% of Year 10 students still couldn’t meet the swimming benchmark set for primary school students.

A majority of schools reported their schools still provided swimming lessons, with half of primary schools offering a “learn to swim program,” while 17% of high schools did.

However, RLSA data shows that a third of children stop attending swimming lessons before the age of nine.

One in ten children aged 5-14 years have never attended swimming lessons.

The new data follows a recent RLSA report which found a 5% increase in drowning deaths over the past summer compared to the previous year.

CEO Dr Justin Scarr described the summer as “terribly tragic in so many ways”.

“It’s alarming to see so many missing out. We risk creating a generation with extremely poor swimming skills,” Dr Scarr said.

Reporting by Achol Arok.

Content Warning: Domestic Violence

Over the weekend, Nine published allegations criminal conduct has continued on Victorian building sites in relation to the CFMEU, including some women being physically attacked.

In July, Nine newspapers reported bikie gangs had infiltrated the CFMEU, Australia’s largest construction union. The CFMEU was placed into administration shortly afterwards. It’s now independently controlled.

Victoria Police has expanded its investigation to include these allegations.

The CFMEU is one of Australia’s biggest unions, representing more than 115,000 workers across construction, manufacturing, and shipping.

Last year, Nine newspapers uncovered alleged links between criminal figures and the CFMEU.

This included giving people with known criminal convictions positions of power to oversee government-funded construction projects, as well as bribery and intimidation.

The Federal Government passed a law to allow an external administrator to take over the CFMEU.

More than 270 officials were removed from their posts, inciting a wave of protests across the country.

The administrator appointed the director of the independent think tank the Centre for Public Integrity, Geoffrey Watson SC, to investigate allegations of criminality within the CFMEU’s Victorian branch.

In his interim report, Watson accused the branch of “lawlessness”. Watson said: “In this cycle of intimidation and violence the CFMEU had lost control”. He urged the administrator to allow for further investigation, which was accepted.

Separately, Victoria Police set up “Operation Hawk” in July 2024 to look into allegations of criminality within the CFMEU.

Premier Jacinta Allan confirmed the existence of Operation Hawk on Monday.

Over the weekend, Nine newspapers published additional allegations against the Victorian wing of the CFMEU.

This included allegations that some people linked to organised crime, including underworld figure Mike Gatto, had been receiving money through companies affiliated with the Victorian Government’s $100 billion ‘Big Build’ infrastructure project.

Speaking to Nine, Watson accused the Victorian Government of covering up the degree of criminal infiltration within the union. The Government has denied these claims.

Nine program 60 Minutes also aired footage appearing to show a CFMEU health and safety official kicking his girlfriend at an apartment.

Another woman alleged she was attacked by a relative of someone from the CFMEU outside a ‘Big Build’ worksite.

Nine also published accusations that a man with an “extensive criminal history” locked himself in a room with a female co-worker while he smoked ice.

After she complained about the incident, CFMEU officials allegedly banned the woman from working on Big Build sites.

Allan said she was “sickened” by the footage of a CFMEU official appearing to attack a woman.

On Monday, she announced the existence of ‘Operation Hawk’, a police unit investigating criminal conduct in the construction sector.

Allan has since clarified Operation Hawk has been in place since July, while Victoria Police confirmed in a statement to TDA it had expanded to investigate “fresh allegations linked to the construction industry, including assaults against female workers.”

The Federal Coalition is calling for the CFMEU to be deregistered altogether, meaning it would no longer be officially recognised as a union.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton called the CFMEU “a modern-day mafia operation” with a “culture of criminality and corruption”.

The Labor Government has pushed back against deregistering the union. Speaking to the ABC, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said deregistration would “hand the union back to the worst criminal elements that used to run the show”.

Reporting by Harry Sekulich.

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The unusually-well preserved small, freshwater fish were found by a team led by Australian Museum and UNSW paleontologist Dr Mathew McCurry in Gulgong, near Mudgee. McCurry said “the fossils formed between 11 and 16 million years ago and provide a window into the past,” proving the dry area they were found in was once an abundant, “temperate wet rainforest”. Researchers attribute the “remarkable” level of detail seen in the fossil to the iron-rich rock which it is encased in.

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Reporting by Emma Gillespie.

Content Warning: Distressing themes 

A woman has avoided jail after she plotted to sell human toes online.

The woman was employed at a Victoria animal shelter when, in 2024, two dogs vomited up toes. 

The dogs had been surrendered to the shelter after their owner died. It appears they ate part of their owner’s body following his death. 

Following this incident, the woman took the toes home, preserved them in formaldehyde, and told family members she planned to sell them. 

Police later found she was a member of a Facebook group used to trade animal specimens. It’s not clear how they were tipped off. 

The woman has been sentenced to a community corrections order. 

Reporting by Rosa Bowden.

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Riddle answer: An envelope.

Last week, TDA exclusively reported that Coalition Senator Matt Canavan is proposing a policy to offer couples a low-interest loan of $100,000 once they have a child. This loan would only apply to families buying their first home and would be wiped if they have three children. While Canavan has put forward the idea, the Coalition hasn't formally adopted this policy. But it has kickstarted a fascinating conversation about Australia’s declining birth rate. Today we’re here to explain why a declining birth rate is an issue, and break down Canavan’s idea to solve it.