Trump pauses Iran strikes + Today’s AusAlert explained

**Sacha Barbour Gatt** (0:08)
Hello, happy Monday, and welcome to The Briefing for another week, Sacha Barbour Gatt with you. Australians right around the country are being told not to panic today when their phone makes this sound.
It's the national test of a new warning system called AusAlert that the government and experts say will save lives when the next fire or flood hits. So why are some Australians switching off their phones and wrapping them in tin foil to avoid it?

**Paula Dootson** (0:35)
I think it's just a really interesting reflection on the state of our society and trusting government these days. So the fact that you have these, oh, it's something negative the government is doing, is that reflection that maybe there is a bit of loss of trust in the government and they need to build that in order for people to trust the system.

**Sacha Barbour Gatt** (0:56)
That chat covering everything you need to know about today's AusAlert test is coming up in the second half of this episode. But first, as always, it's time to get into the headlines with Chris Spyrou on Monday, the 27th of July.

**Chris Spyrou** (1:11)
Morning, Sacha. The Victorian Premier is set to face a leadership challenge this week, just four months out from the state election. Jacinta Allan was reportedly told last night she doesn't have the support of the Labor Caucus after factional leaders from both the right and left sides of the party met to agree to move against her leadership. Allan will be given the option to resign today with a spill expected to happen at tomorrow's caucus meeting if she doesn't. Word is, the premier is digging in her heels and will refuse to step down as Labor leader.

**Sacha Barbour Gatt** (1:41)
She does have her backers though, and many within the party say she has their support and a challenge against her leadership will fail. Regardless, infighting so close to a crucial election happening on November 28, which Labor will struggle to win, is risky and could further hurt the government's chances at re-election. Current polling has Labor, the Coalition and One Nation, splitting the majority of the primary vote. But when you look at two party preferred between the Coalition and Labor, there's actually as much as a 15 percent swing against Labor.
A change in government or a hung parliament is the likely outcome, according to pollsters. So just for a quick bit of background in terms of the state of politics in Victoria at the moment and how we got here, Labor has been in power since Dan Andrews was sworn in as Premier back in 2014 So that's 12 years that Labor has been in charge in Victoria. Now he was re-elected in 2022 Remember COVID had a massive impact on Victoria from a lot of different angles. So not only from an economic point of view, from a health point of view, but also from a social point of view and a cultural point of view, people were really angry about how Dan Andrews led the state through the pandemic. But also a lot of people were really supportive of the measures that he took. But I think he copped a lot of really negative headlines and that was kind of the story coming out. But he did win re-election. However, he resigned in 2023 in September. That's when Jacinta Allan took over. She was his long-serving deputy. And since then, there have been a lot of issues. There's been record net debt, cancelled projects, including the Commonwealth Games, which we're seeing play out in Glasgow at the moment. These were the ones Victoria was supposed to host. Cost of living issues persist, health, youth crime. So she has faced mounting issues as she's been leader.
One Nation as well has had momentum in Victoria, especially in the regions and outer suburbs. So that is kind of the state of play at the moment. And something like this coming in to impact labour right now, you can imagine the Premier would probably be pretty pissed off that someone's planned a leadership spill right now.

**Chris Spyrou** (3:45)
Yeah. And an interesting that you mentioned, and you reminded us all that she was Dan Andrews' deputy. So, and it's widely tipped this time around that her Deputy Premier, Ben Carroll, he's widely tipped to replace her.
So that'll be very interesting to see how that shakes out this week. Yeah, like we said, she's digging her heels in. This doesn't seem like a fight you'd willingly give up, but at the end of the day, they are heading to the polls in November. And to your point, there is a lot of muddiness surrounding this. So we will see what happens.