Midday News Bulletin 27 February 2024

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Source: SBS News

Thousands of Australian private-sector companies reveal their gender pay gaps; police continue to search for the bodies of Luke Davies and Jesse Baird and in cricket, India has beaten England by five wickets.


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TRANSCRIPT
  • Thousands of Australian private-sector companies reveal their gender pay gaps
  • Police continue to search for the bodies of Luke Davies and Jesse Baird
  • India has beaten England by five wickets
Some of Australia's biggest companies have had their gender wage gap data made public for the first time, with transport, construction, and mining among the worst affected.


The Workplace Gender Equality Agency has published the median gender pay gaps of the nearly 5,000 Australian private-sector employers with 100 or more workers.

The report has been welcomed across the political spectrum by federal politicians.

Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley says the information makes clear who is getting this right and who is getting this wrong.

Federal Minister for Women Katy Gallagher has told the A-B-C the publication of this data would incentivise businesses to improve.

"I don't think it's surprising in the fact that we've got a lot of businesses where there is a substantial pay gap. This is really about driving improved performance, making sure businesses understand what's going on in their own business, and trying to get a better deal, more gender pay."
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Former prime minister Scott Morrison will bid farewell to federal parliament with a final speech before his retirement from politics.

 Mr Morrison is due to give his valedictory speech to the House of Representatives on today, capping off a 16-year career in parliament.

The speech comes after Mr Morrison announced in January he would step away from politics in February for a job in the corporate sector.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he will attend parliament for Mr Morrison's speech.
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Police are continuing the search for the bodies of Luke Davies and Jesse Baird, following confirmation a patrol car responded to a triple-zero call made from one of the couple's phones.

N-S-W Police say they have yet to find to anything in a search of rural land in Bungonia, almost 200km southeast of Sydney, but are leaving "no stone unturned" and believe there may still be evidence in the area.

Police allege the couple was murdered by 28-year-old police constable Beau Lamarre-Condon, who is in custody but has exercised his right to silence after receiving legal advice.
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A political ally of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has claimed he was close to being freed in a prisoner swap at the time of his death.

Russian journalist Maria Pevchikh has made unverified claims Russian President Vladimir Putin could not tolerate the thought of him being released and had him killed.

Speaking on YouTube, Ms Pevchikh says talks about exchanging Mr Navalny and two unnamed U-S citizens, for a Russian security service operative jailed in Germany, were in their final stages.

There has been immediate comment from the Kremlin, which has denied state involvement in his death.
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A parliamentary group is offering federal M-Ps the chance to test drive electric cars, ahead of the end of consultations on the government's proposed vehicle efficiency standard.

The Parliamentary Friends of Electric Vehicles is hosting an electric transport roundtable in Canberra alongside community and industry groups, in support of measures to reduce transport costs and pollution.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has called the standard a "new tax on cars and utes," claiming the price of some vehicles would go up "dramatically".

But Solar Citizens chief executive Heidi Douglas says it would mean more efficient and affordable cars brought into Australia.

"If we'd had fuel efficiency standards as proposed in 2016, Australians would have saved $27.5 billion in fuel costs. We can't afford for the delays of fuel efficiency standards any longer."
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In cricket,

India have beaten England by five wickets to secure a home test series win at the fourth test in Ranchi on Monday.

The hosts initially cruised to 84 without a wicket, after a modest 192 from England in the second innings, but the English spinners engineered a collapse that left them reeling at 5 for 120.

But Shubman Gill and Dhruv Jurel combined in an unbroken stand to win the series 3-1 with one test remaining.

Ben Stokes, suffering his first defeat as England captain, says it was a "great Test match" nonetheless.

"If you look at the scoreboard, India win by five wickets, I don't think it gives really gives enough credit to the game as a whole. The amount of ebbs and flows, every single day that happened, and I've got to give so much credit to our spinners."

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