One Nation support plateaus + Is Ben Carroll Victoria's political saviour?

**Chris Spyrou** (0:07)
Hey, it's Chris Spyrou with you, welcome to The Briefing. After a tumultuous couple of days, Jacinta Allan has stepped down as the Premier of Victoria, and her deputy Ben Carroll has taken over the Labor leadership. But what happens next?

**Mark Riley** (0:21)
The people there have obviously, loudly and profoundly been calling for change. Now, Labor Party has given it that change before it's exacted that change after the election.

**Chris Spyrou** (0:34)
That's coming up in the second half of this episode first, though. It's time for the headlines, and I am flying solo today. Sacha Barbour Gatt is off unwell. It is just you and I today on Wednesday, the 29th of July.
All righty, let's start with OzPolitics, and support for One Nation has plateaued while Labor firms its grip at the top, according to a new poll out today. The latest Guardian Essential poll of more than a thousand voters puts Labor's primary vote up a point to 31 percent, One Nation down a point to 25, and the Coalition down a point as well, now sitting on 22 percent. It's the second Guardian poll to show One Nation coming off its May high of 28 percent, something being reflected in a number of polls this month as Pauline Hanson continues to copy over her Europe trip, her interview with far right UK figure Tommy Robinson, and her most recent comments around domestic violence. Meantime, opposition leader Angus Taylor's approval has crashed down 16 points with men, four with women. He's also lost significant ground to Aussies aged 18 to 54 As for Albo's approval, that ticked up a point to minus 14, but respondents say Labor needs to be doing more on cost of living, crime, and immigration. Interestingly in this poll, respondents were also quizzed on AI and the government's tech response, and that was after Albo gave that major speech.
Overall, there seemed to be a reluctance to embrace AI data centers. Fewer than a third of respondents actually want a data center in their local area. Some of their big concerns are energy, water supply, noise, and the environment. Just circling back to those economic things, the criticism of labor not doing enough on cost of living and the economy, we do have new inflation figures that will be landing today, and they're the ones that decide really whether or not we're in for another rate hike. It's not looking great. The RBA Governor Michelle Bullock was out last night and she gave a speech talking about Australia's weak productivity and how that's holding down living standards and real wage growth, and the message for her is pretty clear that if inflation doesn't come down, the RBA will lift rates again. So it's worth keeping an eye out on those inflation announcements today.
To South Australia now, where the search for a missing three-month-old boy will continue today after the bodies of his mother and 23-month-old sister were recovered from waters off the Southeast Coast on Monday. Police hold grave concerns but say they'll leave no stone unturned. Restarting their search at first light this morning after rough seas forced them to stop yesterday arvo.

**Grant Stevens** (3:14)
There are no indications at this point of any specific location to search. So the CFS, SES and police and volunteers are doing an exceptional job to try and locate the small child.

**Chris Spyrou** (3:25)
That was South Australian Police Commissioner Grant Stevens there. The family is understood to be from Compton near Mount Gambier and search efforts first got underway on Monday when police found the 36-year-old mum's car abandoned with the engine still running. Police don't believe anyone else was involved, however, are urging anyone with information or dash cam footage that could assist to contact them. Now, this has triggered a massive multi-agency search and investigation in the state. It's involving SES volunteers, police water operation units, major crime investigators, forensic response teams, as well as other maritime agencies. Authorities are saying that, you know, information from survivability experts at the moment is that it is very unlikely that the missing baby has survived. However, they are persisting until that expert advice changes and they're told essentially to call the search off.
Overseas now into Japan, where Prime Minister Sanae Takeiichi has confirmed that lives have been lost after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake tore through the country's southwest.
Around 300,000 people have been sent to evacuation centers and hundreds of soldiers are digging through rubble as aftershocks keep rolling across the island of Keiyushu. The worst of it is a shopping mall, which is home to around 200 stores that was rocked by an explosion moments after the quake. One entire side of the mall has been ripped away. There's still beams that are exposed. Debris has been flung across the car park and authorities say that about 20 to 30 workers can't be reached and there are shoppers still trapped inside, some believe to be dead. While elsewhere, several people are still missing after a massive chimney collapsed at a paper factory. Powers out to thousands of homes on the island. Trains have stopped, flights have been grounded and roads have been split open, with local hospitals overflowing at the moment and for this part of Japan, it's stirring some pretty grim memories of 2016 when twin earthquakes struck the same region and killed more than 270 people.