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Chapter 1: Who was Neale Daniher and why is he significant?
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Good morning, I'm Andrew Williams. And I'm Claire Kimball. It's Tuesday the 26th of May. In your Squiz today, Vale Neil Danaher investigating the Bondi Beach terror attack, more diphtheria cases in the Top End, and the goats of cheese compete. This is your Squiz today.
Now, Alice is sick this morning, Claire, but I'm glad we have you today because you have followed the story of Neil Danaher very closely.
Chapter 2: What legacy did Neale Daniher leave in the fight against MND?
If you don't know his name off the top of your head, he's an AFL great and last year's Australian of the Year. And he died yesterday after he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease 13 years ago. And he did a lot with those 13 years.
Yeah, he really did. And looking at the coverage yesterday, I was really taken by one clip of his daughter saying it wasn't about trying to save himself. It was about making sure that he left a legacy for others, that they could find out more about this really dreadful disease.
But just looking into who he is in a bit more detail, if you're from one of the Aussie rural states, chances are you know a bit about his work because there's one particular event that happens on the June long weekend, the Big Freeze, they call it. It's at the MCG. It's one of these really, really fun fundraising events where they send celebrities and football players down an ice slide and
The ice slide comes into it because it's meant to symbolise the freezing effect of motor neurone disease on a person's muscles. Over the years, since 2014, Fight MND, which is an organisation that Danaher co-founded, it's raised more than $130 million, which is just extraordinary. It's given much needed funds to researchers.
Andrew, on the AFL side of things, I'm going to throw to you because you're a bit of an AFL nut.
Yes, I am an AFL nut, and he was AFL royalty. That's not too much to say, along with his three brothers who all played at the sports top level from sort of the late 1970s to the 1990s. They are one of the most famous family names in football, the Danaher's, bar none. So Neil's playing career at Essendon was a bit injury-ridden.
He didn't really get a good crack at it, but then he went on to coach the Melbourne Football Club For 10 years, which if you follow Australian World Football or indeed any sport, is a pretty good run to have 10 years at the top of a club. And after that, he was head of football operations at the West Coast Eagles from my home state until his diagnosis in 2013.
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Chapter 3: What are the details surrounding the Bondi Beach terror attack investigation?
It was after that diagnosis that he turned his attention to raising money for MND.
Yeah, and just on that disease, there's no known cause, very limited treatments, and there's certainly no cure for it. Essentially, what it does is it attacks the nerve cells that carry the messages from the brain through the spinal cord to the muscles. So ultimately, it leaves sufferers unable to move, to talk, to swallow, or to breathe.
And if you get a diagnosis, the average is about two years to live. But Danaher's case shows that that timeline isn't always the case. To live with 13 years with motor neurone disease is quite something. If it's ringing some bells, Jai Arrow, who you talked about last week, Andrew, he's the 30-year-old NRL star.
He confirmed his diagnosis, a really emotional press conference and interview yesterday. that he gave about that really devastating to see. Andrew, you mentioned that I follow motor neurone disease news quite closely. That's because my mother had it and anyone, of course, who has motor neurone disease or a loved one with it, you know just how devastating it is.
So lots of thoughts to people who are involved in all of that. When you look at the research, Macquarie University in Sydney is globally recognised for the work they do. They have recently called for a national register of cases and for more funding.
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Chapter 4: What challenges are faced by security services in preventing attacks?
Yeah, and obviously funding was the big thing that Danaher was chasing through his work over the last 13 years, which led to his Australian of the Year Award last year. And when he gave his acceptance speech for that, he summed up his outlook. on all of this.
He said, I hope to leave a legacy that says this, no matter the odds, no matter the diagnosis, we all have the power to choose to fight, to choose our attitude, to choose to smile and to choose to do something. So his family have accepted Victorian Premier Jacinda Allen's offer of a state funeral, date to be confirmed on that. And of course, the next big freeze is on King's birthday this year.
That's the 8th of June during the game between Collingwood and Melbourne. We mentioned in Squiz the Day yesterday that the second block of hearings for the Royal Commission into anti-Semitism and social cohesion would kick off. Now, this block is looking into the terror attack that happened at Bondi Beach itself and the actions of our security services around it.
And of course, Andrew, remember that it was that sort of focus on security services and what happened and how they were resourced was really behind Prime Minister Anthony Albanese really sort of taking his time, I guess, to announce that Royal Commission. So it's in a lot of focus, this block of hearings and seeing what it will uncover afterwards.
In his opening, the council assisting the commissioner, a guy named Richard Lancaster, he said that 10 of the 15 victims were shot and killed within the first 30 seconds of the attack. He said it was a surprise attack and neither police nor the intelligence agencies had the information pointing to any sort of imminent threat. So that was really interesting.
There was also a lot of focus on Mike Burgess, who's the ASIO Director General. Of course, when The ASIO boss says anything publicly, it gets a lot of attention. But he was giving evidence for an hour and a half yesterday. What he said is that ASIO was stretched, but they had enough resources and funding. He said that the funding they have is sufficient.
But he did talk about the agency pivoting from counterterrorism to espionage and foreign interference. So lots of questions about whether they had their eye on the ball.
Yeah, and he did say directly that, backing up Lancaster's words from earlier, that there was no credible evidence that a violent attack was being planned in the lead up to what happened at Bondi. So the hearings will continue today. Up next is the New South Wales Police Assistant Commissioner, Peter McKenna.
And speaking of hearings, there's a couple going on in relation to Desi Freeman, the now dead fugitive who was accused of killing two police officers in August last year. One of those is happening in the Victorian Coroner's Court.
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Chapter 5: What is the current status of the diphtheria outbreak in the Top End?
And yesterday we learned that two people have now died as a part of that outbreak.
Yeah, so diphtheria is this bacterial infection that attacks the nose and throat, and we haven't had an outbreak of it since the 1990s. The hope was that it was one of those diseases that just wouldn't ever appear again, but it's here. The health minister is Mark Butler. He says that an investigation is going to be held into the outbreak.
That was after a man in his 60s became the second person to die from the disease in the Northern Territory this month. And just something that happened last week, Butler announced a $7.2 million vaccination program. That's clearly going to be part of trying to get rid of this disease again.
Yeah, the cases at the moment are about 242 so far this year across not only the NT, but Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia. And that means that questions are being asked about
Chapter 6: How is the Australian government responding to the diphtheria cases?
why it's taken so long to get word out about the disease to remote communities to try and prevent that spread of the disease. So Indigenous program coordinator Julie Watson said that the Northern Territories government's response to this was disgraceful. She said there's been absolutely no information given to the community.
And another thing I mentioned on Squeeze the Day yesterday, which I was very excited about, Claire, because it's one of the great global sporting events in the world, the cheese rolling race in the UK.
We've had a bit of heavy news today, so it's nice to end.
It has been heavy. We need to lighten it up with people chasing some cheese.
Longtime squeezers know that this event has been on our radar for a really long time. So I'm really, again, thrilled to be on this morning to be To be able to bring it back. If you're not aware of it, it's at Cooper's Hill. It's an annual event. Competitors run, fall, make their way down this really steep hill and they're chasing this three kilo wheel of cheese to be specific.
A double Gloucester. I don't know what a double Gloucester tastes like. Sounds delicious. But you have to chase it. It's actually really quite dangerous. And, look, do yourself a favour at some point today and find a clip of it, Andrew. We might even put one in the episode notes. Because, like, every year people break their ankles and bones and sprain all sorts of things.
The winner this year, German YouTuber Tom Kopka said, He won his third title. So he's really good at chasing cheese down a hill.
He's really good. His main competitor in this race was the Guinness World Record holder for the most cheese rolling race wins. So he's chasing that level of greatness when he goes down this hill. It is very dangerous. It's technically an extreme sport. That's what it's classified as, even though it sounds like a sort of quaint English activity.
It is very much not, as you'll see in the video if you have a look. And if you're wondering if that cheese still tastes good after rolling down a hill on what was a very hot day as well yesterday, the makers say it is still very good. It's made on a local farm nearby by hand and they say it still tastes delicious. even after all that activity.
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Chapter 7: What is the cheese rolling race and why is it popular?
It's fine.
MUSIC
Squeeze the day now. There's a meeting of the Quad today. This is the group of foreign ministers from the US, Japan, India and Australia. It's happening in New Delhi and safe to say with all the news about at the moment, Claire, they've got a fair bit to talk about those four.
Yep. Anywhere the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is at the moment, it gets a lot of attention. So expect that. And Andrew, just breaking as we're recording this morning, that final group of Australians who have been in the Syrian detention camp for are set to arrive back today. That's a group of seven women and 14 children. They're flying into Melbourne and Sydney.
So expect to see a lot of coverage of that.
That wraps us up.
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Chapter 8: Who won the latest cheese rolling race and what makes it unique?
Thanks very much for listening. We'll be back with you again tomorrow.