Here is a look at what is making news around the country today.
Today’s national news includes an Australian being indicted of passing information to foreign spies, half a million kids working amid Australia’s labour shortage, and a Napier teen winning the Australian golf title. Also in the news is Qantas starting Melbourne to Jakarta flights, and the ACCC asking for extra powers to change merger laws.
Nation
500,000 children working amid Australia’s labour shortage
There are an estimated half a million children aged under 17 working across Australia. About 214,500 kids aged 11 to 15 worked at some point in the 2022 financial year, and 367,100 kids aged 15 to 17 were employed as of August 2022, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. An increasing number of small businesses rely on younger family members to help fill workforce shortages. NSW, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory do not have a minimum age to work, with exceptions around how many hours can be worked in certain industries and age brackets.
National security
Australian indicted of passing information to foreign spies
An Australian man who recently returned to the country after living overseas has been charged with supplying sensitive information to foreign intelligence agents, The BBC has reported. Fifty-five-year-old IT specialist Alexander Csergo was arrested by Australian federal police shortly after he landed back in Sydney. The authorities say that two years ago he was approached by two foreign spies. They allegedly offered to pay him for national security information. The maximum penalty for the count of reckless foreign interference, for which Mr Csergo is facing is 15 years imprisonment.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-65284522
Business
ACCC asks for extra powers to change merger laws
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission are urging the government to grant them more powers, specifically to dismiss company mergers before they happen, Sky News reported. Organisations are not required to share merger information with the ACCC before the event occurs and this is the problem with Australia’s regime, according to ANU Crawford School of Public Policy Professor Rod Sims. Australia’s regime is almost unique; in most other regimes you cannot merge unless you provide the appropriate information to the competition regulator.
Travel
Qantas starts Melbourne to Jakarta flights
Victorian travellers now have access to another international route out of Melbourne with the national carrier today launching new flights direct to Jakarta. The year-round flights will operate three days per week with an Airbus A330 aircraft and add to Qantas’ existing flights to Jakarta from Sydney. Together, these flights offer customers almost 300,000 seats between Australia and Jakarta annually and the choice of ten flights per week, more than any other airline. The new service is the fourth international route to be added to the Qantas map out of Melbourne since borders reopened, Breaking Travel News reported.
https://www.breakingtravelnews.com/news/article/qantas-flights-take-off-from-melbourne-to-jakarta/
Sports
Napier teen wins Australian golf title
Zack Swanwick, 17, took out the Australian Junior Amateur Championship, beginning the final round with a three-shot lead and closing with a two-under-par 70 to win by four shots, Hawke’s Bay Today has reported. Swanwick said in an interview with Hawke’s Bay Today last month he just wanted to work and “hopefully make money, and just live a good life”.
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