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Gina Rinehart watches on as Aussie swimming team blows the world away

Australia’s richest woman Gina Rinehart has made an eye-catching appearance on a day when the Aussie swimming team went berserk Australia’s richest woman Gina Rinehart has made an eye-catching appearance on a day when the Aussie swimming team went berserk. Australia’s richest woman Gina Rinehart picked a bloody good time to make a surprise poolside appearance at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships. The mining mogul on Saturday watched on as the Dolphins continued to show their class with another series of gold medals. Australia has blown the American team out of the pool with 13 gold medals in Fukuoka. Heading into the final day of competition in Japan, Australia has an overwhelming lead on the medal tally with China (five gold) and the United States (four) nowhere near it.

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Aussie teen claims remarkable fourth gold at world champs

Mollie O’Callaghan has lit up the world championships again – capturing Australia’s 10th gold medal and her fourth in Japan, with another mind-blowing performance. If she keeps this up – and there’s no reason to suggest she won’t – the 19-year-old will head to next Paris Olympics as one the headline attractions. But right now, any thoughts about France are a million miles away because she’s having a ball in Fukuoka, riding the crest of a wave that never looks like breaking.

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King Kyle sits on throne of gold

Kyle Chalmers won the admiration of his countryman when he claimed the Olympic gold medal at Rio in 2016 while still a schoolboy. Now he is the world champion after his stunning victory in the men’s 100m freestyle at Fukuoka on Thursday. It was the one major title to have eluded him during his incredible career but now he has the full set: Olympic gold, Commonwealth Games gold, world shortcourse gold and now world championship gold.

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HERITAGE CHANGES (and it’s not a moment too soon …)

Premier Roger Cook is prepared “to make changes where (Aboriginal heritage laws) need to change” in the clearest sign yet momentum is building for an overhaul of the controversial legislation. The statement — delivered by the Premier in Port Hedland on Wednesday — was echoed by Finance Minister Sue Ellery, who said the Government was open to modifying regulations governing the Act “immediately” if major issues were identified. “The minister has come out this week and said if changes need to take place they will take place,” Ms Chappel said. “Well, I think what would be really encouraging is if it’s acknowledged that a change has to take place, that those changes take place sooner rather than later. We don’t want to wait 12 months to go ‘That didn’t work’. “Let’s change it now. Let’s acknowledge that some of these things may not be working as they should and change them immediately.”

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Worker shortages hit WA

“Job number one for Premier Cook is to fix Western Australia’s worst-in-the-nation worker shortage levels, which is stifling business performance and punishing customers,” Mr Davidson said. “We are calling on Premier Cook to lead the charge in National Cabinet to have discriminatory tax and red tape barriers that are preventing our pensioners, veterans, and students removed to alleviate this crisis and he deserves bipartisan support,” said Mr Davidson. “Removing unfair barriers on pensioners, veterans, and students is a no-regrets policy which will get more Australians who want to into work, more money into local economies, while increasing tax revenue, and providing a critical source of dignity and self-esteem to our most experienced Australians,” said Mr Davidson.

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Aboriginal Affairs Minister Tony Buti opens door to major overhaul of contentious heritage laws

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Tony Buti has opened the door to a major overhaul of controversial Indigenous heritage laws, declaring nothing was off the table and “if there needs to be change, they will be changed”. Criticism of the new regime has come from all quarters, including leading Mabo case lawyer Greg McIntyre who on Monday described the laws as “unworkable” and in need of significant improvements. Responding to those comments, Mr Buti said Mr McIntyre was entitled to “have his own opinion” but that as minister his focus was on “ensuring (the heritage laws) operate in the best possible way”.

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Rinehart gives more to RFDS in WA

WESTERN Australia-based miner Roy Hill has signed a multi-year agreement with the WA branch of the Royal Flying Doctor Service that includes provision for ongoing support, advocacy and promotion plus a cash injection of $150,000. Hancock Prospecting group operations chief executive officer Gerhard Veldsman said Roy Hill provided ongoing opportunities for thousands of people in the Pilbara, building economic prosperity. “Through the strong backing of our executive chairperson Gina Rinehart, we are committed to sharing that prosperity and recognise the significant commitment of rural and regional communities throughout WA, and their right to health care,” he said. Rinehart donated $6 million to the RFDS in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020 for critical care equipment and telehealth technology to help rural and remote Australians in New South Wales, Queensland, the Northern Territory and South Australia.

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Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act: WA Government schedules more workshops amid ongoing confusion

Fourteen more “education workshops” on the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act have been scheduled across regional WA as the State Government scrambles to demystify the contentious new laws. It comes after a series of public information sessions were held in June and July as farmers and pastoralists struggled to wrap their heads around the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act.The Act, which came into effect on July 1, has drawn widespread criticism from Aboriginal corporations, local governments and the Opposition, as well as the Pastoralists and Graziers Association of WA and WAFarmers.

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Hills residents voice concerns at ACH

DPLH assistant director general of heritage and property services Vaughan Davies delivered the information session for the residents, as state Labor members Darren West and Jessica Shaw helped to answer questions and moderate the discussion. Gidgegannup Progress Association Chairperson Sally Block said the presentation was badly prepared and should had been delivered before the new Act came into place. She said the Perth Hills region had many known Aboriginal cultural heritage sites such as Wooroloo Brook or the Avon and Swan rivers, and many landowners had those sites or tributaries going through their property. “This is going to affect them, and people are concerned about this,” she said.

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NEW HERITAGE LAW FARCE PUTS WA ON ROAD TO NOWHERE

It was like a scene from a Fellini movie. The setting is a bleak modernist concrete and bitumen tangle intruding into an ancient landscape. The principal characters are a gaggle of self-satisfied politicians performing a ritual with hardly an elector (certainly not a non-Labor one) in sight. But now Fellini strikes. Two men are arguing about their conflicting rights to the once-tribal land on which a freeway behind them has been built. And, watching, one old school news reporter who’s been around long enough to understand the significance of what’s unfolding before him.

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