Another near miss at Sydney airport + The Census: AI, lies & influence

**Chris Spyrou** (0:08)
Hey, it's Chris Spyrou with you. Happy Monday and welcome to The Briefing.
Every five years, we hand the government our name, address, income, health, and this year for the first time, AI is helping sort through all of it. So should that worry us?

**Jenny Telford** (0:22)
The AI models we are using are machine learning based models that don't learn from anything on the internet. They are only models that kind of only learn from how we in the ABS have trained it.

**Chris Spyrou** (0:33)
Coming up in the second half, a look behind the curtain with someone who's worked on every census since 2006 and their advice for those thinking about lying on their form. First though, let's get into the headlines with Justine Landers-Hanley. It's Monday, the 10th of August.

**Justine Landers-Hanley** (0:51)
Good morning, Chris. Parliament returns this week and the government's scrambling to get its contentious gambling reforms across the line.
Now, Labor's bill partially bans betting ads on TV, radio and online, capping them at three an hour and banning them during live sport, as well as inside stadiums and on jerseys. But the current bill does leave inducements untouched to the free bets and special offers. And that's exactly where the fight is. It follows a bombshell Senate inquiry last week that heard betting companies allegedly wooed problem gamblers with free bets, drugs and even sex workers to keep them punting.

**Jenny Telford** (1:28)
Inducements, of course they should be gone.

**Justine Landers-Hanley** (1:30)
Completely gone?

**Jenny Telford** (1:31)
Oh, absolutely.

**Justine Landers-Hanley** (1:32)
The gambling companies last week tried to tell me they were generosity's.

**Jenny Telford** (1:36)
I mean, give me a friggin break.

**Justine Landers-Hanley** (1:38)
That was Green Senator Sarah Hanson-Young on ABC's Insiders yesterday speaking there.

**Chris Spyrou** (1:43)
The government's been under pressure from the Greens, the Coalition and the crossbench for months on these gambling reforms, and it's copped it internally too, especially after last month's ALP conference, where delegates voted to really ramp up messaging and any sort of reforms around inducements specifically. But both the Greens and the Coalition have said they'll vote down the current reforms as they stand because they do both want inducements to be dealt with, which Labor has, like you mentioned, Justine, left out. Comms Minister Annika Wells says she's in constructive discussions with both sides. But it's interesting because gambling isn't the only thing on Labor's agenda this week. It's also looking to lock in its NDIS cuts, wanting 160,000 people off the scheme to bank $38 billion over four years. And there's also pressure mounting on the government and the immigration minister, specifically Tony Burke, to reveal cuts to net overseas migration this week. And that was after he postponed his National Press Club address last week. There is a lot that the government is going to have to get to from Tuesday.

**Justine Landers-Hanley** (2:51)
Huge week in Parliament, also huge week for the Labour Party, not starting on the best note, I would say today. There is a new news poll out today, which shows that Labour is at its lowest point in more than a decade. It's dropped to a level last seen in the dying days of Julia Gillard's Prime Ministership.

**Chris Spyrou** (3:08)
Yeah, that's a news poll conducted for The Australian, and it showed that primary support has dropped for Labour to 29%.
That's down from 33% in the last result. One Nation has slipped as well one point, so now they are on par with Labour. Greens are up 2%, while Labour does remain well ahead on two-party preferred 58 to the Coalition's 42

**Justine Landers-Hanley** (3:33)
Two Sydney airport workers have been stood down after a Jetstar flight and Qatar Airways plane almost crashed into each other on the tarmac on Sunday. The Jetstar flight to the Gold Coast had to break suddenly while taxiing to avoid colliding with a Boeing 777 that a tug vehicle was towing.

**Chris Spyrou** (3:50)
No passengers were injured, but one Jetstar crew member did fall over and had to be assessed by paramedics at the scene. Federal Transport Minister Catherine King said in a statement on Sunday night that an air traffic ground controller and tug operator had been stood down for mandatory drug and alcohol testing per standard practice. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigating the near collision.

**Justine Landers-Hanley** (4:12)
Concerns have been raised about staffing issues at Sydney Airport, which is Australia's busiest airport. This incident came just one day after more than 150 flights passing through Sydney experienced delays with the airport struggling with staffing shortages.

**Chris Spyrou** (4:26)
Yeah, it's also the second near miss that Sydney Airport has seen in a fortnight. That other incident saw a Qantas flight cleared to cross a runway in front of another flight that had just come in to land. New South Wales Premier Chris Mintz has said he is concerned about these incidences.