Phil Haines & the case for kindness

The attack on Helen Haines should have forced a national reckoning with the threats and violence women in public life face, yet much of the media has focused on the alleged attacker’s troubled past and lost potential with headlines like:

Accused attacker Brendan Nugent’s descent from rising footy star to reclusive activist.

A headline courtesy of Nine.

It’s a familiar fixation on the downfall of men accused of violence. And it comes at the very real expense of women everywhere, but especially in politics. My take.

Also today, we reflect on the powerful words of kindness spoken by Helen’s husband Phil Haines outside the Alfred Hospital yesterday. With no trace of anger, he talked about his wife’s heart and mind, both of which remain intact. Meanwhile, GG Sam Mostyn urged Australians to start exercising “our muscle of decency” and learn to “disagree well”.

A lesson perhaps not catching wind as quickly as needed, with reports that a man armed with nunchucks had threatened staff at WA MP Hannah Beazley’s electorate office yesterday afternoon.

And finally, with World Menopause Month underway, we share this piece about why women’s midlife mental health keeps getting missed.

More on site!

Tarla Lambert-Patel

Editor in Chief & Co-Founder

Australian federal police acting deputy commissioner Sandra Booth

A parliamentary inquiry has heard that Australia is facing an influx of youth crime as artificial intelligence accelerates the pace and scale of radicalisation. Booth told the hearing on Wednesday that, while radicalisation had traditionally taken years or months, that process could now happen within days. “This can be attributed to artificial intelligence, a growing grievance generation, young people searching for purpose and belonging, and the sophistication of these online networks,” she said. In one example of radicalisation, an investigation found a 13-year-old boy allegedly possessed violent extremist material. He was using the social media platform Discord and, during a raid at his home, police allege they found a notebook that contained plans for a school shooting.

The amount that Labor is donating to the Alice Anderson fund, backing Victorian women to start ambitious businesses and boost the economy. The fund will help women get the capital they need to start, scale and succeed. This latest funding adds to Labor’s $10 million investment to establish the Fund in 2021. 45 per cent of Victoria’s startups have at least one female founder, thanks to our pipeline of female entrepreneurs. But Cut Through Ventures found all-women founding teams get two per cent of venture capital in Australia.

Children from Western Australia's remote Pilbara are sharing a taste of rural education through a country song

The School of the Air students collaborated with award-winning Australian country musician Josh Arnold to produce Kids from the Pilbara. The group gathered on Yarrie Station, a 250,000-hectare cattle operation about 1,500 kilometres north of Perth, to record the song and accompanying music video. While learning in a classroom with peers is normal for most Australian students, it is relatively out of the ordinary for station children, and they often only see their friends three or four days per year.