Higgins lowers asking price on French house she is selling to pay legal fees
Brittany Higgins has been forced to lower the asking price for the home in France that she and David Sharaz put on the market to help pay their mounting legal fees.
The house near Bergerac, east of Bordeaux in south-west France. was initially listed for €420,000 (A$690,000). The 160 sq metre three-bedroom house on more than an acre of land includes a swimming pool and the agents describe it as “full of charm”. Photos back up the claim – it looks delightful.
However overnight on Monday the asking price fell to €404,000 ($660,000), suggesting the Bergerac property market is not exactly bubbling.
Higgins is waiting on judgment in a defamation suit brought against her by her former boss, Senator Linda Reynolds, whose lawyers have asked for a payout in the region of half a million dollars – plus costs.
Key events
$23m federal funding for early intervention domestic violence scheme
Josh Butler
The federal government will put $23m toward a new early intervention trial for young men and boys against domestic violence, asking organisations nationwide to create new programs for those at risk of committing violence.
Aimed at boys aged 12 to 18 with adverse childhood experiences or at risk of using violence, the program is meant to assist in recovery, help them avoid committing violence, and build evidence bases on how to deal with young men. The social services minister, Amanda Rishworth, said this morning it would include counselling, mentoring, safety plans and case management.
Supporting children and young people as victim-survivors in their own right and addressing the impacts of developmental trauma to help healing and recovery will help break future cycles of violence.
There are currently only limited and inconsistent services available across Australia that specifically support children and young people who have experienced violence and are themselves using or at risk of using violence and this trial will help address this gap.
The 12 sites include a mix of city, regional and remote locations, including Newcastle, Shepparton, Ipswich, Rockhampton, Broome, Hobart and Launceston, with each to cater for up to 160 boys each year. Some services say their plans will include 45-minute support sessions each week for up to 12 months, while others may offer cultural camps, therapeutic counselling or mentoring.
The services are expected to begin rollout from early 2025. The plan is based on studies showing people who use violence can often start using it at a young age, and the links between people experiencing violence then later using it themselves.
“Early intervention is a key area of focus under the National Plan to End Violence against Women 2022-2032,” Rishworth said.
Man stabbed to death in Sydney
A man was stabbed to death in Sydney’s inner west on Monday evening, NSW police say. At about 7.40pm, emergency services responded to reports of a stabbing on Marrickville Rd.
The man died at the scene and a crime scene was established. Police said some streets had been closed and motorists were advised to avoid the area.
In a much anticipated speech in Sydney yesterday, Peter Dutton continued to refuse to release costings for the Coalition’s plan to build seven nuclear plants, saying he would announce details “in due course” before the next election.
He tried to shift the terms of the debate to the cost of Labor’s renewables policy but, as our political editor writes today, he “relied on warm, fuzzy assurances” rather than “cold, hard facts”.
Read her column here:
Victorian paramedics reach pay deal with state government
Victorian paramedics are set to receive double-digit pay rises under a deal to end a long-running dispute with the state government, Australian Associated Press reports.
The Victorian Ambulance Union reached an in-principle agreement with Ambulance Victoria and the premier, Jacinta Allan, yesterday for improved pay and conditions.
The wage increases will range from 16.98% to 33% over the next four years, including more than 20% for experienced paramedics. An additional $12,500 relativity uplift for highly skilled Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance (Mica) paramedics would deliver overall increases of up to 33%.
There will also be $5 an hour availability allowances for rural ambulance officers who volunteer to respond in remote areas.
The Victorian Ambulance Union’s secretary, Danny Hill, said the deal means the paramedics will be among the best-paid in Australia.
“This deal rewards longer serving ambos, it makes our elite Mica paramedics the highest-paid in Australia, it rewards community officers for the time they contribute to their community and most of all it will help our members finish their shift on time and get home to their families,” he said.
Improvements to clinical instructor allowances, unsociable shift allowances, on call allowances, reserve/flexibility allowances and travel allowances are also part of the deal.
Paramedics will also no longer be sent to lower acuity cases in the last hour of a shift and will taken out of service once their hours are up. Instead, they will only be contacted for confirmed life-threatening emergencies.
NSW nurses to strike from 7am
A pay dispute between NSW nurses and the state government will escalate when thousands of union members walk off the job at public hospitals in day-long industrial action, the AAP report.
The stop-work action by nurses and midwives today will affect elective surgery and cause delays for some patients, while support for life-saving care will not be impacted.
The NSW health minister, Ryan Park, said officials had sought to contact patients with surgery scheduled to make alternative arrangements due to the industrial action.
“I acknowledge the dispute between the government and the association has a way to go,” he said in a statement on Monday.
The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association action will start at 7am in the union’s second major stop-work action since Labor came to power in March 2023. The strike is part of a union push for a 15% one-year pay hike for members, a demand that the premier, Chris Minns, has said is unaffordable.
All NSW public sector workers, including nurses, have been offered a three-year 10.5% pay increase factoring in a mandatory rise in superannuation payments.
The union says Labor has failed to express a willingness to move its position after months of talks, prompting the strike.
The industrial relations commission’s president, Ingmar Taylor, has not yet examined the union’s argument for pay rises but recommended an interim deal and four weeks of “intensive discussions” in a bid to broker a deal.
The interim offer involved a 3% wage increase with back-pay if nurses agreed to halt industrial action.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our rolling new coverage. Before today’s regular blogger comes along, this is Martin Farrer with the best of the overnight stories to get you started.
The Reserve Bank is expected to keep its key rate unchanged for a seventh meeting in a row today, according to a survey of 45 economists by Reuters, prolonging the agony for Australia’s leveraged households. The bank lifted the rate 13 times between May 2022 and last November. But despite soft growth and lower inflation, the RBA’s governor, Michele Bullock, and the board are tipped to keep the rate steady. We’ll have the announcement at 2.30 and plenty of reaction.
Nurses in New South Wales are due to walk out for another 24-hour strike this morning. It comes as the Victorian government agreed to wage increases for ambulance workers that will range from 16.98% to 33% over the next four years, including more than 20% for experienced paramedics. More on this in a few minutes.
Our latest Essential poll shows more than twice as many voters support parliament passing the federal government’s two stranded housing bills as want them blocked, including a majority of Greens voters. The survey found 48% polled believe the Greens and Coalition should pass the Labor government’s Help to Buy and Build to Rent legislation and argue for their own policies at the next federal election. Overall support for blocking the bills was at 22%, with 30% unsure and a margin of error of about 2%.
