Aus-first AI royal commission + The survivor taking on Australia's cults

**Sacha Barbour Gatt** (0:08)
Hello, Sacha Barbour Gatt with you. Welcome to The Briefing. Last month, a landmark parliamentary inquiry in Victoria handed down its final report into cults, making 98 findings and 39 recommendations. Survivors and advocates say it's a win, but they warn the fight is only just beginning, especially in a system that still doesn't understand how to support people trying to leave coercive, high-control communities.

**Laura McConnell** (0:33)
It had never ever occurred to me that I would leave. This place was my whole world. This place was my family and my community. And sometimes I still think, had they not kicked me out, I would still be there, because for me, community and people was all I ever cared about.

**Sacha Barbour Gatt** (0:46)
A chat with cult survivor Laura McConnell is coming up in the second half of this episode. But first, it's time to get into the headlines with Chris Spyrou on Tuesday, the 11th of August.

**Chris Spyrou** (0:59)
Well, well, well, she's back, everyone.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:01)
After a week away, she's back.

**Chris Spyrou** (1:04)
And healthy, might I add.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:06)
Mostly.

**Laura McConnell** (1:06)
Mostly.

**Sacha Barbour Gatt** (1:07)
Yeah, no, healthy and well.

**Laura McConnell** (1:08)
Yes, good.

**Sacha Barbour Gatt** (1:09)
And thank you, Chris, for holding down the fort.

**Laura McConnell** (1:11)
Much appreciated.

**Sacha Barbour Gatt** (1:12)
And Justine. Justine was amazing, too.

**Chris Spyrou** (1:14)
Is there anyone else you want to get in there?

**Sacha Barbour Gatt** (1:15)
I'd like to thank my mum, my dad.

**Chris Spyrou** (1:16)
Okay, let's start with the news. And we're starting in Canberra this morning where Pauline Hanson is trying to grab the spotlight as Parliament goes back today with One Nation pushing its own bill to stop foreign terror fighters from coming home. Legal experts as well as the immigration minister, Tony Burke, reckon it wouldn't survive a challenge in the High Court while Hanson says she's confident it will. Now this is the party's first complete policy proposal this term and comes as the One Nation leader kicked off the week accusing Burke of mismanaging Australia's migration settings. Taken to socials, she says that's why rents have exploded, pays have gone backwards, young people can't buy homes and hospitals are turning away sick people.

**Sacha Barbour Gatt** (1:57)
Yeah, and just on that, Tony Burke is expected to provide more detail in the coming days on Labor's plan to slash net overseas migration intake to the budget forecast of $225,000 a year. So that's something else we can expect to see over this first sitting week of Parliament after the winter break. Also, movements on gambling reform. So we've learned that the PM sat down with opposition leader Angus Taylor yesterday to discuss getting Labor's reforms on gambling over the line. Anthony Albanese reckons it will be the strongest anti-gambling legislation the country's ever seen and it is now understood to target inducements. So those are those free bets and bonus offers that are used to reel people in and keep them punting.
Gambling is just the start though, Chris. The government and coalition are also reportedly working through deals on making tech giants pay for news, cuts to the NDIS and a bigger trade-off on migration and tax. The coalition says it will play ball on the NDIS but in return it wants a quick fix to a tax rule that's been stinging widows and a few wins on migration, an area One Nation has been trying to own. This is a rare little alliance, I suppose, between Labor and the coalition. It's not often we see them working together quite so closely. We'll see bipartisan support for things but in terms of actually sitting down and going like, how do we get these bills over the line? What do you want? What do I want? It's quite rare and it shows One Nation's influence.

**Chris Spyrou** (3:21)
Yeah, well, the government was saying over the weekend that, you know, we're leaving the door open to whoever wants to cut a deal with us, whether that's the Greens, whether that's the coalition, we are open, guys, we're open for business. And the Greens were also out and about being like, hey, we can compromise too, we can make deals too, because essentially they need that support to get it through the Senate, whoever they're finding that support from. So interesting to see that it is the coalition at the moment that they're very much leaning towards, but this is not 100% just yet. So there is time for them to cut a deal with others.

**Sacha Barbour Gatt** (3:56)
Overseas now, at least 80 people have been killed following a powerful earthquake in Colombia. The 7.4 magnitude tremor struck in the morning on Monday local time, which was overnight for us, bringing down and severely damaging buildings across cities in the western part of the country.