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Hopes fade of finding four-year-old boy missing in South Australia
The likelihood of finding a little boy lost in the outback is fading as family and searchers cling to hopes he has found shelter and is waiting to be rescued.
Defence personnel have joined the search for the four-year-old who has not been seen for almost a week.
August, known as Gus, went missing from his family’s sheep station in the remote South Australian mid-north on Saturday afternoon.
The only trace found of the preschooler is a tiny footprint in the dirt about 500 metres from the family homestead, which brought hope, but police now admit it “could have been there a week”.
“A four-year-old lad, they just don’t disappear into thin air,” Supt Mark Syrus said yesterday.
“Our job is to try and find which way he has gone and once we find those little clues, it gives us a bit of an idea.”
Searchers turned their efforts to the homestead area after the footprint was found, but no further clues were discovered.
The search was expanded as almost 50 Australian defence force personnel joined the operation.
Alone in searing temperatures and without food or water, authorities’ best-case is that Gus has crawled into shelter and is waiting to be rescued from the property near Yunta, about 300km north of Adelaide.
But hope is fading and police have prepared the family for the worst as the search shifts from a rescue to a recovery operation.
– via AAP
Key events
Human rights activist has not heard from Australian on board flotilla since it was intercepted by Israel
Tan Safi, an Australian who was aboard the Freedom Flotilla Coalition in July that was intercepted by Israel, spoke to RN Breakfast this morning after the nation said it had boarded and detained many people travelling in the Global Samud Flotilla this week.
Safi, who is currently in Greece, said they had not heard from another Australia travelling on the flotilla this week after he sent them a video of the Israeli military approaching their vessel. Safi described a “complete disconnection” as soon as the boat was boarded. Safi told RN:
So we were sending each other little check-ins, little emojis, making sure he was OK. We managed to do a video call, but I couldn’t see him. And then he sent me a video of the Israeli military approaching them, water cannoning them with chemicals, shining lights in their eyes.
And their hands were up in the air. That was the last I heard of him. So that was roughly, I’m gonna say what, 14, 16 hours ago now.
Safi said despite the intercepted boats, human rights activists hope some aid vessels will eventually be able to reach Gaza.
Good morning and happy Friday, we’ve made it. Nick Visser here to take over the blog. Let’s get to it.
Hopes fade of finding four-year-old boy missing in South Australia
The likelihood of finding a little boy lost in the outback is fading as family and searchers cling to hopes he has found shelter and is waiting to be rescued.
Defence personnel have joined the search for the four-year-old who has not been seen for almost a week.
August, known as Gus, went missing from his family’s sheep station in the remote South Australian mid-north on Saturday afternoon.
The only trace found of the preschooler is a tiny footprint in the dirt about 500 metres from the family homestead, which brought hope, but police now admit it “could have been there a week”.
“A four-year-old lad, they just don’t disappear into thin air,” Supt Mark Syrus said yesterday.
“Our job is to try and find which way he has gone and once we find those little clues, it gives us a bit of an idea.”
Searchers turned their efforts to the homestead area after the footprint was found, but no further clues were discovered.
The search was expanded as almost 50 Australian defence force personnel joined the operation.
Alone in searing temperatures and without food or water, authorities’ best-case is that Gus has crawled into shelter and is waiting to be rescued from the property near Yunta, about 300km north of Adelaide.
But hope is fading and police have prepared the family for the worst as the search shifts from a rescue to a recovery operation.
– via AAP
Former submarine chief casts doubt on Aukus deal
The former head of Australia’s submarine squadron has urged Australia against outsourcing boat construction overseas, as bureaucrats express confidence the US won’t scuttle Aukus.
A parliamentary inquiry yesterday ran the rule over the Geelong treaty, a 50-year Aukus cooperation agreement between Australia and the UK signed in July.
Under Aukus, the US has promised to sell at least three Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia from the early 2030s.
A submarine solution closer to home should be examined instead, retired navy rear admiral Peter Briggs argued.
“Depending on an overseas supply chain for such a critical capability as our submarines is a folly,” he told the inquiry.
Briggs had serious concerns with the plan, including limiting Australia’s commercial interests, and said the nation should build more submarines as it had done previously with the diesel-electric Collins class.
There is no minimum protection in the treaty for a guaranteed work share for genuine Australian industry.
The Collins project has established a viable submarine supply chain within Australia.
We should build on this, not sign a treaty mandating it out of existence.
Briggs cast doubt Australia would receive submarines from the US on time, pointing to it falling behind in building its fleet.
– via AAP
Decision due in psychiatrists mass resignation case before industrial relations commission
Natasha May
The NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) will this morning announce its decision whether the state’s psychiatrists will receive a 25% pay increase.
The doctors union, the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation (Asmof), representing psychiatrists, is arguing psychiatric care in NSW is facing “collapse” because of poor pay and conditions, and the special levy would stem the flow of specialist doctors leaving the state’s public system.
In January, more than 200 psychiatrists threatened to resign, saying it was not about the money but being unable to continue working in a system causing them moral injury, knowing they were providing substandard care to their patients when one in three permanent psychiatrists positions were vacant.
In response, the mental health minister, Rose Jackson, submitted a request to the IRC to urgently arbitrate the dispute and said the government would accept whatever its decision.
The hearing was supposed to take place across a single week in March but issues raised by NSW Health with Asmof’s expert evidence, and subsequently Asmof proceeding with statewide industrial action against the IRC’s direction, saw the hearings delayed and only concluded in late June.
While over 60 psychiatrists have followed through on their resignations, other psychiatrists held off awaiting the outcome of the IRC decision. In the meantime before the outcome is announced at 9.15am, you can read our report on the hearing’s closing submissions in June:
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Nick Visser will be here to take you through that day.
The former head of Australia’s submarine squadron has urged Australia against outsourcing boat construction overseas and said it would be “folly” to rely on other countries. More coming up.
The New South Wales industrial relations commission will hand down its decision this morning in a wages dispute between the state’s public psychiatrists and the government. The dispute brought the system to a standstill earlier this year. More details coming up ahead of the decision, which is expected any time after 9.15am.
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