Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What are the latest headlines affecting Australia?
A listener production.
Hey, Chris Brew with you. Welcome to The Briefing. They're the places we go to socialise and unwind, but a growing number of restaurants and bars in Melbourne are instead becoming crime scenes. The situation has become so dire with attacks, including drive-by shootings and Molotov cocktails, that a police task force has been set up.
These are people who are sending text messages to landlords and hotel owners saying that they're going to destroy their souls, which is a methodology, a threat level that we haven't seen before. And so they've certainly escalated their threats and the ability to carry them out.
That chat is coming up in the second half of this episode. First, though, let's get into the headlines with Sasha Barber-Gatt. It's Wednesday the 6th of May.
Chapter 2: How are Melbourne's restaurants and bars being impacted by crime?
Hey Chris, Australia's big four banks have wasted no time in passing on the latest cash rate hike to customers. The RBA yesterday afternoon announced a third consecutive increase of 25 basis points to 4.35%, effectively wiping out the cuts made during a brief cycle of decreasing the official rate last year.
So the Commonwealth Bank, NAB, Westpac and ANZ in the hours after the announcement confirmed that they'd be increasing interest rates on their loan products. But of the four, only Westpac has announced a rise in interest rates for savings products.
Yeah, good note there. And look, in her announcement, the Reserve Bank's Governor Michelle Bullock issued a warning to the federal government about handouts in the upcoming budget, saying things like cutting the fuel excise and tax offsets increase inflationary pressures, which the bank is trying to dampen with interest rate rises.
If we are increasing interest rates, what we are trying to do is slow growth in demand. The extent to which government make up the shortfalls for households, By giving them more money, it makes it harder to dampen demand.
Now, there have been reports of a potential new tax sweetener in Tuesday's budget for households, a one-off perk of between $200 to $300, but the Treasurer has defended the government's record on spending.
The Reserve Bank statement it's important to recognise does not point to public spending as a factor in their decision to increase interest rates today and I think that's really important.
To those people who are pretending that the government's budget is the sole driver of prices in our economy or interest rate decisions, they weren't saying that last year when interest rates were cut three times.
As to what's next for interest rates, well, economists are split. Some are predicting a holding pattern until around August. Others think we're in for another hike come June.
So, stand by. We will see what happens there. Just while we're on the topic of government spending, there has been a major project axed because of a cost blowout. So, we got word of this overnight. The major freight rail project, which was being called the Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail Project, which
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Chapter 3: What is the significance of the recent firebombing spree in Melbourne?
was supposed to connect the two cities and also allow a connecting point out to Perth through the town of Parks. That has been pitched since about 2013 by both Labor and Coalition governments, but the project in its entirety has been shelved by Labor. because it was going to blow out in cost to $45 billion. Now it's going to stop at the New South Wales town of Parks instead.
So there will still be the connection to Perth, but this has been sold as like a major infrastructure project for the country, the biggest rail project in a century. But they've shelved it because of just how expensive it was going to be.
The World Health Organization says it suspects there may have been rare human-to-human transmission of Hunter virus on a cruise ship docked in the Atlantic where three passengers have died. The virus is usually spread from rodents, but the WHO says it could have spread among really close contacts aboard the Hondias.
Our assumption is that has happened. And that's why we are operating and working with the ship to make sure that anyone who is symptomatic, you know, anyone caring for patients is wearing full personal protective equipment. The medical personnel who have boarded the boat have brought additional PPE as well.
That was WHO official Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove there. While she said human transmission is rare and the current risk to the public is low, she did say the WHO suspects the first patients to fall ill could have contracted the virus before boarding the ship in Argentina where they picked up that rare human-to-human strain.
The Honda S set sail from Argentina about a month ago and stopped at some of the world's most remote islands before passengers started getting sick. Now, of the total seven cases, two have been confirmed as Hunter virus infection. One, a Dutch woman who has passed away. The other is a UK national who has been evacuated to South Africa for treatment.
Around 150 people are currently stuck on the ship just off Cape Verde, which has not been allowed to dock as a precaution. Four Australians are on board, as to our 17 US citizens, among them a travel blogger, Jake Rosemary, who yesterday posted a video saying passengers were struggling with the uncertainty.
And what's happening right now is very real for all of us here.
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Chapter 4: Who is behind the firebombings targeting Melbourne's hospitality industry?
We're not just a story. We're not just headlines. We're people. People with families, with lives, with people waiting for us at home.
Now, there are concerns that because of the incubation period of this virus, they could be on the ship a little longer. So the incubation period is up to eight weeks. So there are potentially a few more weeks here. The WHO said that Spain has accepted or in principle has accepted that they will let the ship dock at some stage. Authorities in Spain haven't really confirmed that just yet.
But yeah, I think that is the reminder here. This was very reminiscent of COVID, how we had a lot of those cruise ships docking and people stuck on ships for a really, really long time. It is tough on board. And I think that's the point he's trying to make there.
Back home and the AFL has fined Carlton $75,000 for its handling of the Elijah Hollands incident as the player continues to receive mental health treatment. Now a reminder, the 24-year-old sparked concern from fans and commentators alike while on the field for the Blues against Collingwood on April 16 when he appeared to behave erratically.
Any movement Elijah Hollands as he touched the footy? Silva has not touched the footy and we're almost 17 minutes into the final quarter. Yeah, I'm not entirely sure what his role is tonight, but he's just a lateral of the footy. He's in all sorts out there.
That was the commentary on Triple M. Five days later, Hollands was hospitalised, with the club confirming he was having a mental health episode on the night of the game.
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Chapter 5: How does the illicit tobacco trade relate to Melbourne's crime wave?
Following an investigation, the league yesterday announced the fine, saying Carlton's actions brought the game into disrepute.
What transpired during the game was something we haven't seen before. And while Elijah did undergo checks, he should not have been left on the field for that period of time. And the incident has highlighted something important for our game. Whilst our physical injury protocols are strong and well understood, mental health presentations can be variable and are complex.
That was AFL CEO Andrew Dillon there. The Blues have responded overnight confirming the full fine will be paid to the AFL's mental health partner Headspace. Also giving an update on Holland saying Elijah is taking the necessary time to prioritise his health and wellbeing right now and he will continue to do so with our full support. A work safe inquiry into the incident remains ongoing.
The Blues also acknowledged that the public had a lot of questions and that there was a real appetite for the club to take accountability here, but that there are some obviously very private health issues at play here, which is why they weren't going to go into any more detail about how Elijah is doing.
But I think, you know, we're not alone in saying that everyone just hopes that he gets better and that he's okay.
Tobacco giant Philip Morris has told a secret Senate hearing that black market cigarettes could wipe out the legal trade in Australia as soon as 2030.
An executive from the company who asked for their identity to be kept secret because of threats from organised crime gave evidence in a closed-door session in Canberra earlier this week, warning the rise of the illicit trade could push some multinational manufacturers to leave the Australian market altogether.
Yeah, so illegal tobacco sales account for between 50% and 60% of the Aussie market. That's worth as much as $6.9 billion. And we have talked about this before, Chris, in terms of how much money is actually being wiped from the government's coffers because they're not making the tax on the cigarette sales anymore because people are buying them illegally.
tobacco execs are pushing the federal government to lower the excise to undercut black market operators, something the health minister, Mark Butler, has also talked about before, and he said, we will not be beholden to organised crime, basically. Our health policy doesn't change because a couple of criminals want it to. Now, anti-smoking campaigners, the Greens and Labor,
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Chapter 6: What measures are being taken to combat organized crime in Melbourne?
Now, this is because it's ended a more than 15-year precedent that was set by the WHO, which was designed to stop big tobacco from interfering with public health policy. Basically, they created this framework that is designed to, you know, not allow... these companies to give evidence or to have any sort of say in policy around cigarettes and tobacco because of how much they have to gain from it.
So really interesting story there.
Yeah. And I also find it interesting that the warning is that multinational manufacturers will leave Australia if the government doesn't do anything here. Like, I get it. We do want companies running things over illegal trades because illegal trades bring, you know, as we know, firebombings and danger and things like that.
But I'm also like, oh, another manufacturer goes down, a tobacco manufacturer goes down. Okay. Like it doesn't bother, I'm unbothered by that prospect.
But it does create jobs and it helps our economy, which is why that's why they're warning the government. They're saying, do you want to lose that? Because we'll go. So it is a fair point for them to make to the federal government. However, the way that it's been done in this public inquiry behind closed doors, though, a little bit dodgy.
And the Met Gala red carpet has dominated social media feeds overnight, as it always does, with the event now over for another year. 2026 was history making, though, with a record amount raised for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a whopping 31 million US dollars. That's 58 million Australian dollars for those who can't do the conversion, because I really struggled with that while I was there.
Let me be honest with you.
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Chapter 7: How is the illegal cigarette trade threatening the Australian market?
The best place to do it is in England where it's just double basically. So I just double the price. Look, lead sponsors Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos reportedly donated 10 million US of that total, which is just wild. Some individual guests meantime wrote checks for up to $1 million to make the Anna Wintour approved final cut on the guest list.
But we have to talk about the fashion because that's what everyone always talks about. Any major takeaways, Chris?
Yeah, YouTuber Emma Chamberlain rocked up and she was, what did we call, you called her the bog. And I was like, what's bog?
Best on ground.
Best on ground. She was. She wore this cool dress. I urge you to Google it because I feel I'm going to describe it really bad. But it was like yellow and blue.
It looked like an oil painting.
Yes. She looked amazing. Stunning. And I loved Bad Bunny because he had prosthetics to look like an old man. And there was this clip of him talking to Kris Jenner and Kim Kardashian.
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Chapter 8: What were the highlights from the recent Met Gala event?
And both of those women appeared to not know who he was. It was brilliant. Loved it.
Also on the prosthetics was Heidi Klum, who looked like she dragged out an old Halloween costume for the carpet.
She also looked like, for our Charmed fans out there, she looked like the demon that killed Prue.
Oh, my God, Shaxs.
Yes.
Yes.
She really did.
Never forget R.I.P.
Prue. R.I.P. Prue. Oh, and in real life, R.I.P. Shenandoah. Oh, yeah.
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