One flight cancelled every three days across Australia due to staff shortages
Luca Ittimani
Worker shortages have cancelled one flight every three days on average in the last year, Airservices Australia has told a Senate hearing.
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Australia → cancel → hearing
The government agency’s deputy CEO, Peter Curran, said Australia’s airports recorded 2,536 cancellations over the year to 31 August, of which 121 were attributed to Airservices.
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121 → say → Airservices
Sydney accounted for 103 of those.
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Sydney → account → those
Just this morning, the troubled airport recorded 14 inbound cancellations and more outbound cancellations, after some overnight staff were unavailable, Curran said.
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Curran → record → cancellations
Airservices and airlines manage the shortage by delaying or cancelling flights.
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Airservices → manage → flights
Curran said Sydney had grown and now needed a team of 41 air traffic controllers, spread across the roster.
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Sydney → say → roster
It has 49 employed but eight are unavailable at the moment.
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eight → have → moment
Curran said:
When we have a bit of short-term sickness or unavailability, like we had last night, it makes it very difficult to recover.
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it → say → sickness
Curran said retired staff had been asked to come back to work but some of them were “simply not interested”.
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some → say → them
He said there were about 1,100 air traffic controllers working across Australia and 91 would join in the coming year.
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91 → say → year
With more recruitment, Curran said Airservices would be able to enough on-call staff to cover two absences a day by March 2027.
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Airservices → say → March
It’s not an ironclad model, but it certainly reduces the likelihood of the sorts of issues that we’re having today.
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we → ’ → that
That’s a wrap on another eventful week in the news cycle.
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That → ’ → cycle
Before we let you go, let’s recap the day’s top headlines:
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’s → let → headlines
Anthony Albanese has marked 25 years since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US.
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Albanese → mark → US
Ten Australians were among 2,977 people killed in the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania – “lives tragically cut short far from home”.
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Australians → kill → home
The saga surrounding the One Nation cartoon labelling Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie a “traitor” continues as Pauline Hanson doubled down despite growing condemnation from all sides of parliament.
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Hanson → surround → parliament
Hastie said Barnaby Joyce had reached out to him with an explanation and apology, which he accepted.
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he → say → which
The Victoria premier, Ben Carroll, joined in on the hype around the NFL game at the MCG this morning, calling it an exciting and historic day for the state.
Roxanne Tickle welcomes rejection of Giggle’s appeal in landmark transgender discrimination case
The transgender woman at the centre of a successful discrimination case has welcomed the High Court’s rejection of an attempted appeal.
The High Court refused, with costs, an appeal by the women-only app Giggle against a Full Federal Court ruling in May.
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Court → join → May
The ruling upheld a landmark decision that the app and its founder, Sall Grover, unlawfully discriminated against Roxanne Tickle after she was denied access to the platform.
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she → uphold → platform
In a statement, Tickle said:
It’s been nearly 5 years since I lodged my discrimination complaint.
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I → say → complaint
I hope that yesterday’s High Court special leave refusal provides clarity to the protections in law for transgender and gender diverse people in Australia, and perhaps provides a beacon of light to the rest of the world.
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refusal → hope → world
I wish my trans and gender diverse siblings, as well as their loved ones, much hope and love for their collective futures.
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I → wish → futures
May we all learn that just being different is not grounds for you to be ridiculed, attacked, feared or hated, but that instead you are providing a little something extra to the world.
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you → learn → world
Let’s all be kinder to each other and we might all enjoy it a little more.
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we → let → it
Erin Patterson should receive peer counselling, prisoner rights group says
Mushroom murderer Erin Patterson is being kept in near constant isolation, leaving her frightened and at risk of psychological decline, AAP reports.
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AAP → receive → decline
A prisoner rights group is advocating on the triple murderer’s behalf for her to receive peer counselling to improve her mental wellbeing at no cost to the state.
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her → advocate → state
Patterson’s current conditions at the Dame Phyllis Frost centre, west of Melbourne, involve being confined to a cell for a minimum of 22 hours a day and having approved contact with just one other prisoner through a wire mesh during limited yard time.
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conditions → involve → time
Advocacy group Justice Action has called the treatment tantamount to torture, invoking United Nations rules named after Nelson Mandela which say a person should not spend more that 15 consecutive days in solitary confinement.
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person → call → confinement
The group is yet to be allowed direct contact with Patterson, but says information from other prisoners in the same unit suggests she is in a poor mental state.
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she → allow → state
Justice Action co-ordinator Brett Collins, who is a former inmate, said Patterson was entitled to be treated like any other prisoner and to serve her time constructively.
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Patterson → say → time
He told AAP on Friday:
She’s a frightened woman, understandably so.
She’s actually been now isolated for such a long time, and she’s already had those disorders before she before she was convicted, so now we’ve heard she’s unused to people being around her.
That’s the sort of behaviour that causes causes permanent damages.
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that → tell → damages
It’s torture, actually.
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It → ’ → ?
Justice Action is proposing Patterson be permitted a trained peer support mentor to help address and mitigate the psychiatric risks, which it would offer at no cost to taxpayers.
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it → propose → taxpayers
Major fire breaks out at building in Sydney’s north-west
Authorities are investigating the cause of a major building fire in Sydney’s north-west.
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Authorities → break → west
Emergency services responded to reports of the blaze on Loftus Street in Riverstone at around 1.35pm.
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services → respond → 1.35pm
Fire and Rescue NSW said about 40 firefighters and 12 trucks remained at the scene.
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firefighters → say → scene
The fire has since been contained to the building where it started.
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it → contain → building
Four people were assessed at the scene, but none were taken to hospital.
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none → assess → hospital
Fire and Rescue NSW said the cause of the fire was under investigation.
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cause → say → investigation
…and 33 more, not listed.
