Australia news live: Richard Scolyer remembered as ‘true communitarian’ with a ‘big heart’ at state funeral
Richard Scolyer remembered as a ‘true communitarian’ at state memorial
Kat Wong
The governor general, Sam Mostyn, has laid out the ways the pioneering cancer researcher touched the lives of those around him.
This was a true communitarian. His radical, inspiring honesty and openness as he and his family and close friends faced his biggest battle, is a lasting and generous gift to us all.
Lycra-clad cyclists from cancer charity Tour de Cure, Scolyer’s carers, his colleagues, fellow 2024 Australian of the year recipient, Georgina Long, and his family were among those gathered at the Sydney Opera House for his state memorial on Monday.
Key events
Kat Wong
Richard Scolyer the dolphin trainer?
In his youth, the joint 2024 Australian of the year had problems convincing others he was a doctor, his long-time best friend, Jim Finlay, told the state memorial service.
During the 80s, Scolyer had bleached blond hair, a deep tan and good looks, which meant people would not believe him.
So he would make up another occupation, Finlay said.
This one particular night, we’re out on the Gold Coast, he walked up to these two lovely young ladies and introduced himself as Rich, the dolphin trainer from Sea World.
Normally that would be a pretty good roast and would get conversation started.
Kat Wong
Melanoma patients’ tributes to Richard Scolyer shared at state memorial
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, has read out messages sent to the Melanoma Institute Australia by patients hoping to honour the pathologist.
One tribute from a 10-year survivor of stage four melanoma said “the world is a better place because of you”.
Another came from a father whose son was diagnosed with stage four melanoma in 2020.
He was given just months to live, but in the last throw of the dice, they arranged to try immunotherapy. We were told it was just a 10% chance of success, and maybe even less than that.
Fast forward several months, multiple operations, multiple doses of the treatment, and then the dreaded follow-up scans.
I can still hear his oncologist’s shouting voice over the phone saying to my son ‘It worked. It worked. You are going to live.’
My son is now cancer-free, married, living the life that we never thought he’d have.”
Caitlin Cassidy
Jewish student called ‘baby killer’ and ‘genocide supporter’ by members of pro-Palestine student encampment
Back to Liat, who has given testimony before the royal commission. She says she was called a “baby killer” and “genocide supporter” by students who were part of the Australia National University’s pro-Palestine encampment. In one instance a protestor connected to the encampment, who wasn’t a member of the university, performed a Nazi salute.
She says she felt “physically unsafe”, and called out two particular chants they used as being antisemitic: “There is only one solution, intifada, revolution” and “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free”.
She says the use of the word intifada is “in reference to historical events … which involved the murder of Jews”. Pointed to the fact some proponents of the term “intifada” aren’t calling for violence to Jewish people but to the liberation of Palestinian people she says:
I think they should use a different word.
Liat says the “core part” of her identity is her Judaism, but she went through an “exhausting” mental toll of weighing up whether to be identifiably Jewish.
Every single day when I would make the walk into uni, I would have to pick, am I Jewish Liat today or regular Lia … I just didn’t want to open myself up to what I had observed being hatred levelled towards myself but also my peers.
Luca Ittimani
NSW renters keeping longer tenancies, report finds
Renters’ rights reforms have helped tenants stay in their homes for longer, a New South Wales government reports says.
The government has analysed bond lodgment and refund data since October 2024, when parliament passed reforms requiring landlords to provide grounds for evicting tenants and limiting rent increases to once a year.
Tenants are staying in their homes for longer, with more than 20% of all rentals now lasting more than five years, from just 15% in October 2024. Rental tenure of one to two years, historically the biggest category, is also just over 20%.
Tenancies of two to three years have declined, as has rental stock churn, which could show the ban on no-grounds evictions has improved stability, the report found. It did not mention the role of house prices, which have also likely risen too high and forced renters to keep renting for longer.
About 499,000 new rental tenancies have begun since October 2024 while just 466,000 tenancies ended. Labor’s minister for fair trading, Anoulack Chanthivong, said the growth in active tenancies showed the reforms had protected renters while giving confidence to landlords.
While the rental market is proving resilient to reforms, the state’s only major planned change will be to allow rental bonds to be portable, with a trial starting in August.
Richard Scolyer ‘opened his big heart to us all’, Albanese tells state memorial
Kat Wong
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has honoured the legacy of the pioneering cancer researcher Richard Scolyer, who continued his work even as he was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer that Scolyer described as a “straight path to death”.
Richard was without question one of our brightest stars.
As he faced up to his new reality, no one would have begrudged him retreating into the shelter of his family and friends.
Yet that is not what he chose. Instead, he opened his big heart to us all, and what Australia got to see was a man absolutely determined to change that straight path.
Richard Scolyer remembered as a ‘true communitarian’ at state memorial
Kat Wong
The governor general, Sam Mostyn, has laid out the ways the pioneering cancer researcher touched the lives of those around him.
This was a true communitarian. His radical, inspiring honesty and openness as he and his family and close friends faced his biggest battle, is a lasting and generous gift to us all.
Lycra-clad cyclists from cancer charity Tour de Cure, Scolyer’s carers, his colleagues, fellow 2024 Australian of the year recipient, Georgina Long, and his family were among those gathered at the Sydney Opera House for his state memorial on Monday.
Caitlin Cassidy
Jewish student says friends ‘stopped talking to me entirely’ due to her Zionism after 7 October terror attack
A Jewish student who is appearing under the pseudonym Liat has told the royal commission she lost her friends after the 7 October Hamas terror attack because of her Zionism.
Liat moved to Canberra in 2022 to study at the Australian National University and describes herself as proudly Zionist, with both her parents born in Israel.
After the 2023 terrorist attack and subsequent Gaza conflict, she said she lost the vast majority of her non-Jewish friends. In one instance, she said, someone at a theatre afterparty told her “we’re not friends any more, you’re a Zionist”.
I was very taken aback and deeply hurt that someone so flippantly could just go, ‘well, you’re of Israeli heritage, you can’t possibly be my friend’ … The majority of the people who were my friends at the time just stopped talking to me entirely.
Liat said you could critique Israel without being antisemitic but she hadn’t seen “examples that accuse Israel of doing things without playing on those [antisemitic] tropes”.
She pointed to an article in a magazine distributed by ANU’s student association which described Zionism as a far-right political project and the state of Israel as run by proponents of genocide, which she said “plays on the very classical antisemitic trope that Jews are particularly murderous”.
Luca Ittimani
ASX slips as Iran claims strait of Hormuz closed again
The Australian share market has dipped as the US war on Iran heats back up.
Iran has claimed it has closed the strait of Hormuz after trading strikes with the US but Donald Trump has said the waterway is still open.
The news has lifted world oil prices, with Brent crude up from US$76 a barrel on Saturday morning to US$79 this morning. Markets’ reactions have been more muted than they were on Thursday, when strikes resumed in the first place and Brent rose to US$80 – still well below the US$115 a barrel it reached in May.
Australian shares have taken a small hit. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index is down 0.14%, falling back below 8,800 points to 8,794 this morning.
Resmed, AGL Energy and Virgin Airlines have seen some of the biggest share price falls, respectively down about 4.4%, 3.7% and 2.8%.
Miner BHP and ANZ bank shares are each up almost 0.5%, CBA is up about 0.2%, Westpac and NAB are flat and Macquarie is down 0.45%. Ampol and Viva, the petrol retailers, are up at least 1.3%, enjoying a steady rise over the last fortnight with fuel prices set to rise once more.
Kat Wong
State memorial for Richard Scolyer to begin
A state memorial for Prof Richard Scolyer, 2024 Australian of the year and pioneering melanoma researcher, is about to get under way.
Hundreds of people – including the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the governor general, Sam Mostyn – are expected to attend the Sydney Opera House on Monday morning as Scolyer’s family and loved ones celebrate his life.
I’ll be bringing you updates throughout the service.
Caitlin Cassidy
Royal commission to hear from Jewish staff and students ‘verbally abused’ and ‘physically assaulted’ on university campuses
Counsel assisting at the royal commission, Zelie Heger SC, says there have been “significant concerns” raised in submissions to the commission about antisemitism at universities, which also have to balance “different rights and freedoms”.
She says this block of hearings will hear evidence of Jewish staff and students being “verbally abused, intimidated and even physically assaulted on campus”, including a Nazi salute being given to a Jewish teacher in the classroom and Jews being called “baby killers or genocide supporters”.
A recurring theme is Jewish staff and students being assumed to take a particular position on the conflict in the Middle East simply by virtue of being Jewish or being Israeli … There are diverse views amongst the Jewish community as to that conflict.
Many Jews are opposed to the actions of the government of Israel. Indeed, there are Jews who do not identify as Zionist or do not identify with the state of Israel at all … No one doubts the importance of being able to debate the conflict in the Middle East … But I anticipate the evidence will show that there have been instances where protest on these issues has crossed the line.
Burke says IS-linked Australian woman Hodan Abby likely considering if she would ever return to Australia
Government officials are monitoring the location of the final woman with links to Islamic State who has not returned to Australia, but the prospect of arrest on arrival might deter her from ever boarding a flight back, AAP reports.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, revealed the government was keeping track of Hodan Abby’s location after an order stopping her return to Australia on national security grounds was lifted.
Burke said Abby would probably be weighing up whether or not to return to Australia, given she may face arrest on her arrival. He told ABC News this morning:
Anybody who made a decision to go and join Isis made an absolutely horrific decision, and we’ve got no interest in doing anything to help any of them back.
Our agencies are aware of her location … she’d be weighing up the different things she’s done and would be making a decision as to whether or not she in fact ever returns.
Witnesses at royal commission subjected to ‘ugly antisemitic attacks’ after appearing, commissioner says
Caitlin Cassidy
The royal commissioner, Virginia Bell, says Jewish witnesses have been subject to “ugly antisemitic attacks” after giving evidence of their own experiences of antisemitism.
The fourth block of hearings in Melbourne this week is examining the lived experiences of antisemitism on Jewish students and academics, including the response of universities to combat it.
Opening the hearing on Monday, Bell drew attention to the provisions of the Royal Commissions Act, which makes it an indictable offence to inflict any damage or disadvantage on a person on account of their evidence.
Four academics and students are giving evidence under a pseudonym on Monday. Also appearing is a co-convener of Students for Palestine and education officer at the National Union of Students, Yasmine Johnson, the president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Hugh de Kretser, and Josh Keller of the Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism.
Josh Nicholas
Does Pauline Hanson really have a path to government?
One Nation’s spectacular rise from a distant 6% of the vote in the last election to first or second in some recent polls has upended Australian politics. It has also made it a lot harder to predict what exactly will happen at the next election.
Traditionally, pollsters and election experts would look at how preferences flowed in previous elections when estimating two-party preferred numbers, or translating polling into seat projections. This was fairly predictable when almost every seat would come down to a contest between Labor and the Coalition.
But, given the rise of One Nation, we are now in “unknown territory”, says George Hasanakos, head of research at DemosAu.
Read more:
More than 600 trombonists gather in Queensland for world record attempt
A fun story from the weekend: More than 600 trombonists gathered in Ipswich, Queensland, on Sunday to secure a new world record for the world’s largest trombone ensemble.
The group performed the piece 76 Trombones with, well, many more than that. Seizing an opportunity to toot their own horn, Ipswich’s mayor, Teresa Harding, said in a statement:
Ipswich has once again shown the world what can happen when a community comes together with passion, creativity and a willingness to dream big.
To see hundreds of musicians of all skill levels in Tulmur Place ready to try and set a new world record is an extraordinary achievement and one that every participant, volunteer and supporter can be incredibly proud of.
Participants travelled from across south-east Queensland and beyond to take part.
The previous world record of 368 musicians was set in Washington DC in 2012. A submission has been made to Guinness World Records for official verification.
Caitlin Cassidy
Australia’s ‘unfair’ visa price hikes: what’s changed and why it matters
The federal government has been accused of exploiting international students and permanent residents after non-refundable visa fees were quietly hiked by up to 200%, placing Australia well in excess of other western countries.
The peak body representing international students has warned prospective students to consider studying elsewhere, while critics affected by the scheme have accused Labor of trying to “out-One Nation One Nation”.
Here’s what you need to know.
