As we mark Women’s History Month, what does feminism look like when we recentre sidelined voices from the Global South?
From women’s suffrage of the 1920s to the #MeToo movement, feminism in the West has driven demands for greater gender equality. However, the movement has often overlooked the struggles and perspectives of women from the Global South. This year, women across the world are, once again, calling on those who identify as feminists to engage in conversations about solidarity with marginalized women, who are frequently left out of mainstream conversations about feminism.
Presenter: Myriam Francois
Guests: Yasmina Benslimane – Politics4Her founder Lina Abirafeh – feminist activist and academic Jaimee Swift – Black Women Radicals founder
Beijing imposed tariffs on Australian wine in 2020 during a diplomatic feud, raising duties from zero to above 200 percent.
China says it will lift steep tariffs on Australian wine imposed more than three years ago in the latest sign of improving relations between the two countries.
The anti-subsidy and anti-dumping levies were first imposed in 2020 along with a host of other trade barriers during a diplomatic feud over Australia’s support for a global inquiry into the origins of COVID-19. China had been Australia’s top wine export market, and Australian wine producers took a heavy hit from the duties, which were above 200 percent.
Ties have improved significantly since last year, leading China to steadily lift trade hurdles on Australian goods ranging from barley to coal and raising hopes the punishing tariffs on wine shipments would soon be removed.
“Given the situation in China’s wine market has changed, the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariff imposed on wine imported from Australia is no longer necessary,” the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Thursday, adding that the decision will take effect on Friday.
Previously, Australian wines imported into China were subject to zero tariffs after the signing of a free trade agreement in 2015, giving them a 14 percent tariff advantage over wines produced in other nations.
Australian wine accounted for 27.5 percent of Chinese wine imports before the duties were imposed. In the first six months of last year, they accounted for 0.14 percent as estimates put the cost of the tariffs for Australia’s economy at 20 billion Australian dollars ($13bn).
“We welcome this outcome, which comes at a critical time for the Australian wine industry,” the Australian government said in a statement.
“Since 2020, China’s duties on Australian wine effectively made it unviable for Australian producers to export bottled wine to that market. Australia’s wine exports to China were worth $1.1 billion in 2019.”
The imposition of the tariffs had prompted the Australian government to lodge a complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The removal of the Chinese duties means Australia will end its legal proceedings at the WTO, the Australian statement said.
“We are willing to work with Australia to resolve each other’s concerns through dialogue and consultation,” said He Yadong, spokesperson for the Chinese Commerce Ministry.
Australia’s top publicly listed winemaker, Treasury Wine Estates, also welcomed the announcement and said it will start partnering with customers in China to expand sales and marketing as well as brand management.
“Today’s announcement is a significant positive not only for Treasury Wine Estates, but also for the Australian wine industry and wine consumers in China,” CEO Tim Ford said in a statement.
“This is a medium-term growth opportunity that we will pursue in a deliberate and sustainable manner, focused on growing our portfolio in China.”
Young fans of self-styled “manfluencers” like Andrew Tate, currently facing charges including rape in a Romanian court, are increasingly bringing misogynist views into Australian schools, leaving other children, teachers and parents searching for answers.
In response, the Australian government is offering 3.5 million Australian dollars ($2.3m) in grants in a trial aimed at tackling “harmful gender stereotypes perpetuated online”.
The manosphere’s reach into Australian schools has gotten so bad that some Australian teachers are quitting their jobs, according to a recent study published by Monash University in Melbourne.
The Monash researchers found that students were openly expressing “male supremacist” views in class.
One teacher says a student told her “I hate women”, while another said boys as young as 13 were made “sexual moaning noises” in her class.
“People are crying out for what to do,” Naomi Barnes, a senior lecturer in the School of Teacher Education and Leadership at the Queensland University of Technology, told Al Jazeera.
A former teacher who now lectures aspiring teachers, Barnes says that teachers and parents have come to her asking what to do about the ideas peddled by people like Tate, and how to discuss them with their children,
Drawing on her research on how misinformation from bad faith actors spreads, Barnes developed guidelines she’s used in her own classrooms.
But she acknowledges it is not easy.
“Andrew Tate has already given them all the comebacks,” she said, noting how Tate tries to use arguments of free speech in response to critics, even when what is being said is not true, and potentially harmful.
She encourages parents and teachers to be prepared to listen and to try to understand what a child is trying to say.
Young people may be more likely to respond when a conversation is brought up by a trusted adult, Barnes adds, including on questions like what it “means to be a part of a fair and just society”.
In her classrooms, she tries to “open up a space where students feel comfortable to tell me what they’re really thinking”.
Instead of telling students their ideas are wrong, she asks them to explain their thinking.
“Be careful. Think through what you said,” she advises, as well as telling them, “You’ve taken a group of people’s humanity away.”
‘He has your children’
Currently facing charges of rape, human trafficking and being part of an organised crime group, Tate’s particular brand of toxic masculinity has attracted some 9 million followers on X, and billions of views on TikTok and YouTube.
A former kickboxer, Tate gained notoriety after he was removed from the United Kingdom’s version of the Big Brother reality television show after a video showing him attacking a woman emerged. He then turned his attention to social media, where bans from major platforms have done little to dampen his popularity.
“You can listen to 20 hours of Andrew Tate, and not hear anything misogynistic. But his fans listen to hundreds of hours. And these things cohere together into a narrative that he’ll never say in one soundbite,” explained author and senior lecturer Tyson Yunkaporta.
Yunkaporta’s most recent book Right Story, Wrong Story delves into the spread of disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking to high school students late last year he says he asked them to “put your hands up, who’s into Andrew Tate?”
“Almost all of the boys. And surprisingly, more than half of the girls put their fists in the air [and] cheered,” Yunkaporta told Al Jazeera.
Yunkaporta says the English teachers he spoke to from the school were aware of Tate’s influence.
“English teachers are the best with staying on top of the problematic discourses that infect the world,” he said.
But he noted some of the other teachers had no idea who Tate was.
“He’s in the top five most influential people on the planet right now. And he has your children,” he told them.
But it is not only schools where followers of the manosphere are making themselves known.
Sharna Bremner, the founder of End Rape on Campus Australia, says similar ideas are now “flowing onto university campuses”.
Australian teachers say students are increasingly spreading ‘manosphere’ ideas inside their classes [File: Dan Peled/EPA-EFE]
And Bremner says it’s not just students who are sharing Tate’s views in class.
“It’s something that people are hearing from their classmates or sometimes even from their tutors,” she told Al Jazeera.
Homegrown misogyny
While much of the recent focus has been on Andrew Tate, who is currently awaiting trial in Romania and extradition to the United Kingdom, the ideas he is spreading are hardly new to Australia, which has long struggled with sexism and gendered violence.
“Manfluencers or manosphere-type” influencers “have been around forever”, said Barnes, who thinks Tate will inevitably be replaced by someone else.
In recent years, sexual abuse and domestic violence have attracted significant discussion in Australia, something Bremner attributes to the “Rosie Batty effect”.
Batty became a prominent advocate against domestic violence after her 11-year-old son Luke Batty was murdered by his father. She was named Australian of the Year in 2015.
But the problems have persisted, including in Australia’s parliament where reports of widespread sexism led to protests across the country in 2021 and efforts to address gender inequality in Australia continue to be met with resistance.
Last month, Australian senator Matt Canavan referenced Tate in response to new data on the gender wage gap in Australia. “I’m sick and tired of this bulls***,” Canavan, a member of the Nationals party, told reporters.
“Young men in particular feel like they are now being discriminated against and that’s why they are going to watch the likes of Andrew Tate.”
Minister for Families and Social Services Amanda Rishworth described Canavan’s comments as “dangerous”.
“Linking Australia’s first major report on the gender pay gap to influencers like Andrew Tate who glorify violence against women is unacceptable,” she said.
“By contrast, we’re investing 3.5 million [Australian dollars; $2.28m] to counter harmful gender stereotypes perpetuated online as part of our record funding to address family, domestic and sexual violence,” Rishworth, a member of the centre-left Labor government, added.
Linking Australia’s first major report on the gender pay gap to ‘influencers’ like Andrew Tate who glorify violence against women is unacceptable.
Bremner, whose campaigning has led to recent reforms in how Australian universities address sexual violence, says there are signs of improvement in government funding models.
After years of funding going to “awareness raising” morning teas, she says there is now “greater recognition in Australia of the need for evidence-based programmes”.
But, she says, there’s a long way to go.
“We haven’t yet got to a point where Australia is willing to have the really hard conversations that we need to have on the drivers of gendered violence,” she said.
“I also think there is an enormous amount of backlash, and Andrew Tate is almost the poster boy for that backlash,” she adds.
For Barnes, one place where these conversations should take place is in social studies classes like “civics and citizenship”.
But she notes this is also “one of the most under-resourced subject areas in the whole of the Australian curriculum”.
Barnes says such classes offer opportunities to talk through the “dangerous ideas” teenagers are often drawn to.
She acknowledges she herself regrets the Evangelical Christian preachers she followed in her teenage years.
Drawing on her experiences, Barnes encourages parents and teachers to help children think through what they’re saying fully, and help them find ways to express themselves that do not “render a whole group of people inhuman”.
The world number one ends a hugely successful, seven-year partnership with coach Goran Ivanisevic.
World number one Novak Djokovic has ended his highly successful partnership with Croatian coach Goran Ivanisevic shortly before the clay season gets into full swing.
Ivanisevic, who claimed the singles title at Wimbledon in 2001 after finishing runner-up in 1992, 1994 and 1998, joined Djokovic’s team in 2018 and helped the 36-year-old win 12 Grand Slam titles.
“Goran and I decided to stop working together a few days ago,” 24-time major champion Djokovic said on Wednesday in an Instagram post with a picture of himself and Ivanisevic playing a board game.
“Our on-court chemistry had its ups and downs, but our friendship was always rock solid. In fact, I’m proud to say (not sure he is) that apart from winning tournaments together we also had a side battle in Parchisi going on … for many years.
“And that tournament never stops for us. Sefinjo, thanks for everything my friend. Love you.”
Djokovic failed in his bid to win a record 25th Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open in January when he lost 6-1, 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-3 to Jannik Sinner in the semifinals.
The Serb pulled out of the ongoing Miami Open to limit the number of events he plays this year. That decision came after a shock third-round loss to Luca Nardi at Indian Wells.
Djokovic will gear up for the clay season as he bids to claim a fourth title at the French Open, which will take place from May 26 to June 9.
Staff at Australia’s national broadcaster warned that its coverage of the war in Gaza relied too much on Israeli sources and used language that “favoured the Israeli narrative over objective reporting”, internal communications reveal, shedding new light on bias claims that convulsed the outlet.
In a summary of a meeting on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)’s coverage of the war, staff detailed concerns that coverage displayed pro-Israel bias, such as by accepting “Israeli facts and figures with no ifs or buts” while questioning Palestinian viewpoints and avoiding the word “Palestine” itself.
The three-page summary, which Al Jazeera obtained via a freedom of information request with the ABC, is undated, but its contents correspond with a meeting of 200 staff that was held in November to address concerns about the broadcaster’s coverage.
While the broad thrust of concerns aired at the meeting was reported by Australian media in November, the document contains extensive detail about staff’s complaints and previously unpublicised examples of alleged pro-Israeli bias.
“We’re worried the language we’re using in our coverage is askew, favoring the Israeli narrative over objective reporting. This is evident in our reluctance to use words such as ‘War crimes’, ‘Genocide”, ‘Ethnic cleansing’, ‘Apartheid’ and ‘Occupation’ to describe the various aspects of the Israeli practices in Gaza and the West Bank, even when the words are attributed to respectable organisations and sources,” staff said in the document, which is signed “Concerned ABC journalists and staff” and addressed to “managers and colleagues”.
“Meanwhile, we’re quick to use ‘terrorist’, ‘barbaric’, ‘savage’ and ‘massacre’ when describing the October 7th attacks. Similarly, we regularly quote sources referring to highly contested claims made by Israel, but not those made by Palestinians and their supporters.”
While the ABC could not make accusations of genocide or war crimes taking place, staff said, the broadcaster “should be more proactive in reporting them to properly contextualise the conflict”.
“This is especially the case as we are far more comfortable in labelling Hamas’s actions ‘terrorism’ yet lack the language to correctly describe Israeli aggression in the region,” they said.
“We mention the number of Israeli hostages in many stories, but we never mention the number of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.”
As a result of the ABC’s editorial policies, staff said, audiences had been led to believe that the broadcaster “stifles one narrative in favour of another”.
“Many community members – not limited to the Arab and Muslim communities – in Australia have expressed this view to several ABC journalists and in other forums,” they added.
Staff also said they felt ABC management had failed to defend their staff from attacks by other media and politicians for expressing their personal views on the war, “despite there being instances of the ABC doing that for some senior journalists who have posted about other issues in the past”.
In response to the concerns raised by ABC staff, an ABC spokesperson told Al Jazeera the broadcaster does not comment on confidential staff matters.
“All major stories are subject to robust internal discussion and we listen to and respect staff input,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that the ABC Ombudsman’s Office had found the outlet’s coverage of the war in Gaza to be “professional, wide-ranging and reflective of newsworthy events”.
“Given the extent of our coverage of this important and difficult story, this is a testament to the professionalism, expertise and dedication of our journalists,” the spokesperson said.
Months after the staff meeting, tensions continue to simmer at the ABC over the conflict.
The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) union last week registered a second vote of no confidence in the ABC’s managing director, David Anderson, and “all ABC managers involved in the decision to unfairly dismiss” freelance broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf.
Lattouf’s short-term contract as a presenter on ABC Radio Sydney was abruptly cut short in December after the journalist shared a report from Human Rights Watch accusing the Israeli government of deliberately starving civilians in Gaza.
This is the 100% accurate video that Australia’s @ABCNews fired Antoinette Lattouf for posting on Instagram. Why? Because it was “controversial,” a euphemism for criticizing Israel. @antoinette_newshttps://t.co/xBRWTpbnVV
The Sydney Morning Herald later revealed that a WhatsApp group calling itself Lawyers for Israel had lobbied for her removal with ABC’s top management.
Lattouf, who is of Lebanese heritage, has filed an unlawful termination claim against the ABC with Australia’s Fair Work Commission.
The ABC has denied that external pressure played a role in its decision to take Lattouf off the air.
The ABC spokesperson told Al Jazeera that the broadcaster “has a demonstrable track record of doing our utmost to defend our journalism and employees against unwarranted criticism.”
The spokesperson said the ABC is currently “defending the Antoinette Lattouf matter before the Fair Work Commission” and it would be “inappropriate to comment further while that decision is pending”.
The ABC’s chair, Kim Williams, on Monday accused staff who had joined the votes of no confidence over Lattouf’s treatment of rushing to judgement and being “enormously unhelpful.”
Williams earlier this month also warned journalists against letting their personal politics affect their work.
“If you don’t want to reflect a view that aspires to impartiality, don’t work at the ABC,” Williams told the Fourth Estate podcast.
Rachel Withers, the editor-in-chief of the new Australian publication The Politics, said the ABC chair’s comments about impartiality were “worrying”.
“Would we rather have a public broadcaster committed to ‘integrity, transparency and rigour,’ to investigating facts and exposing the truth, or to ‘impartiality’, whatever that means, in the context of a conflict that is seeing civilians die in their thousands?,” Withers told Al Jazeera.
In the document obtained by Al Jazeera, ABC staff also expressed concern that the broadcaster’s coverage of the war in Gaza risked alienating certain audiences, including younger listeners.
“We believe failing to offer different perspectives has them turning away from the ABC to alternative media sources,” they said.
In July, the Australian Financial Review reported that 80 percent of the audience for the ABC’s leading 7pm news programme was more than 55 years old, while less than 8 percent was under 40.
Tito Ambyo, a journalism lecturer at RMIT in Melbourne, said young people “cannot ignore what’s going on” in the world and that the ABC shares problems with other newsrooms in Australia, including a reluctance to address “journalism’s colonial history and problems with racism”.
“From what I can see, many of my young students do care about what’s happening in Gaza in quite a deep, empathetic way,” Ambyo told Al Jazeera.
Ambyo said young journalists’ willingness to challenge their “biases and privileges” may be dismissed in newsrooms as “naive instead of exciting and relevant”.
Ambyo said, however, that the ABC’s recent episode of its flagship investigative programme dedicated to the war was one example of how the broadcaster could cover the conflict well.
The Four Corners episode titled The Forever War drew praise from, among others, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian Territories.
Australia’s media, just like much of mainstream Western media, struggles to report honestly on Israel-Palestine. But then, you hear a brilliant journalist like John Lyon, and one regains hope.@TheLyonsDenhttps://t.co/MerbOSXvJu
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) March 10, 2024
In their summary of their meeting with management, ABC staff noted that the broadcaster did not have a correspondent in Gaza despite stationing several reporters in Israel.
Staff also said that the ABC’s style guide advice against using the word “Palestine” was out of step with international norms and that the broadcaster used terms favoured by both sides in the case of disputed territories in East Asia.
“Nearly every UN member state recognises Palestine as a state. What grounds does the ABC have to refuse the mention of Palestine? How can we explain what Palestinian means without calling it Palestine? How can we show our audiences that this is a people, not just some ‘territories’?” they said.
The ABC spokesperson said the outlet’s coverage is always grounded in its editorial policies and pointed to its style guide’s detailed instructions on acceptable ways to refer to Gaza and the West Bank, including the “Occupied Palestinian Territory”.
Sainz finished ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc after Red Bull’s Verstappen retired on the fourth lap with engine fire.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz has ended Red Bull’s Formula 1 winning streak by winning the Australian Grand Prix in a triumphant return to the circuit two weeks after appendicitis surgery, which kept him out of the previous race in Saudi Arabia.
The Spaniard took advantage of Verstappen’s early retirement – his first in two years – due to a fiery mechanical failure.
Sainz, who started on the front row alongside Verstappen, kept his place into turn one but passed the Dutchman on lap two at turn nine for the lead and took control once his rival retired two laps later with a fiery mechanical failure.
Sainz was the only non-Red Bull driver to win a race last season.
Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz of Spain steers his car into pit lane as his teammates celebrate after winning the Australian Grand Prix [Scott Barbour/AP]
In Melbourne, he held off teammate Charles Leclerc before a final-lap crash by Mercedes driver George Russell triggered a virtual safety car and eased the Spaniard’s path to victory.
“It was a really good race. I felt really good out there,” said a thrilled Sainz.
“Of course a bit stiff and especially physically it wasn’t the easiest but I was lucky that I was more or less on my own and I could manage my pace, manage the tyres, manage everything, and it wasn’t the toughest race of all.
“But very happy, very proud of the team, and happy to be in a one-two with Charles here.”
Lando Norris was third for McLaren, thwarting fourth-placed teammate Oscar Piastri’s hopes of a first podium by an Australian driver at the F1 race.
Verstappen, the winner in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, started on pole for the third time this season but retired on the fourth lap with a brake problem as flames leapt out of the right rear of his car. He was on a nine-race winning streak.
It was Verstappen’s first Did Not Finish (DNF) since retiring from Albert Park in the 2022 race and ended his run of nine successive race wins.
Verstappen said he was basically driving with the handbrake on from the start.
“That’s why already it felt the car was really weird to drive in some corners. It was just very snappy,” said the Dutchman.
Red Bull have now suffered two defeats in 26 races dating back to the last round of 2022.
Mechanics work to extinguish a fire in Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s car [Scott Barbour/AP]
Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton was also forced to retire early with a power unit problem after starting 11th on the grid following his worst Melbourne qualifying since 2010.
His teammate Russell completed a dismal day for the Silver Arrows by skidding into gravel at turn six and crashing into the barrier to wreck his car and bring out the virtual safety car.
Sergio Perez finished fifth for Red Bull, one ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who started 10th on the grid and edged seventh-placed teammate Lance Stroll.
Alonso was later summoned to the stewards over Russell’s crash.
Two countries warn of ‘potentially devastating consequences’ if Israel pushes ahead with ground offensive in Rafah.
Australia and the United Kingdom have called for an “immediate cessation of fighting” in Gaza, warning of “potentially devastating consequences” if Israel goes ahead with a planned ground assault on the southern city of Rafah.
The two countries issued a joint statement on Friday, expressing “deep concern at the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza” after Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles hosted their British counterparts, David Cameron and Grant Shapps, for talks in Adelaide.
The ministers noted “the large number of displaced persons taking refuge in the area and lack of safe spaces in Gaza” as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved plans for an attack on Gaza’s southernmost area, where more than 1.4 million Palestinians have sought shelter after fleeing bombardments in other parts of the enclave.
“They expressed the urgency of an immediate cessation of fighting in Gaza to allow aid to flow and hostages to be released as a crucial step toward a permanent, sustainable ceasefire,” said the statement, which was released as truce negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States are continuing in Doha.
UN vote
The call, which signals Britain and Australia’s increasing anxiety about the toll and impact of the war, came before the United Nations Security Council’s expected vote on a US-drafted resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The draft text describes an “immediate and sustained ceasefire” as an imperative to protect civilians and allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid. A truce would also be conditional on the release of some of the remaining captives taken by Hamas in its attacks on southern Israel on October 7.
Washington has for months vetoed calls for resolutions including that language, shielding its ally Israel amid rising global condemnation of a war in which close to 32,000 Palestinians have been killed.
A UN resolution would heap pressure on Netanyahu to pull back from an offensive in Rafah. But it is far from clear that any resolution would halt the war altogether.
Britain is also a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council along with the US, Russia, China and France.
Law firm behind class action says outcome among most successful legal actions ever taken against the ride-sharing giant.
Uber has agreed to pay $178m to settle a lawsuit with taxi and hire car drivers in Australia who say they lost earnings to the ride-hailing app, a law firm has announced.
Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, which filed the class action on behalf of more than 8,000 taxi and hire car owners and drivers in 2019, said the outcome was one of the most successful legal actions ever taken against the ride-sharing giant.
“Uber fought tooth and nail at every point along the way, every day, for the five years this has been on foot, trying at every turn to deny our group members any form of remedy or compensation for their losses,” Maurice Blackburn Lawyers Principal Michael Donelly said in a statement on Monday.
“But on the courtroom steps and after years of refusing to do the right thing by those we say they harmed, Uber has blinked, and thousands of everyday Australians joined together to stare down a global giant.”
“This will be one of the top five class action settlements in Australian legal history – putting beyond any doubt that Uber has been held to account for its actions,” Donelly added.
Uber said that it had made “significant” contributions to various state-level taxi compensation schemes since 2018 and that the settlement put “these legacy issues firmly in our past”.
“When Uber started more than a decade ago, ridesharing regulations did not exist anywhere in the world, let alone Australia. Today is different, and Uber is now regulated in every state and territory across Australia, and governments recognise us as an important part of the nation’s transport mix,” the company said in a statement.
“The rise of ridesharing has grown Australia’s overall point-to-point transport industry, bringing with it greater choice and improved experiences for consumers, as well as new earnings opportunities for hundreds of thousands of Australian workers.”
Uber will continue focusing on helping the millions of Australians who use the service to “get from A to B in a safe, affordable and reliable manner”, the company added.
Carey shared 140-run partnership with Marsh as Australia won the second Test by three wickets in a tense finish.
Alex Carey scored an unbeaten 98 and shared a 140-run partnership with Mitch Marsh to drive Australia to a three-wicket win in the second Test and a 2-0 sweep of the series over New Zealand in Christchurch.
The contest played out on a relatively mild fourth-day pitch on Monday and both sides had moments when they took control. But it was Marsh’s innings of 80 and Carey’s steady hand which guided Australia to victory.
Wicketkeeper Carey then teamed up with captain Pat Cummins as Australia chased down their 279-run victory target before tea on day four.
“It was pretty tense,” said Cummins, who scored 32 not out and hit the winning runs with a four to the point boundary.
“I think the story of this series was in key moments, someone stood up and made themselves a match-winner so yeah, [we] keep finding ways to win. It’s a pretty awesome squad.”
New Zealand, chasing a first home Test win over their neighbours in 31 years, had put the tourists on the back foot with four wickets in the last 90 minutes of play on day three.
After rain delayed the start of day four for an hour, skipper Tim Southee struck with the eighth delivery to dismiss Travis Head for 18 and reduce the tourists to 80-5.
In retrospect, however, Rachin Ravindra fumbling a straightforward catch that would have sent back Marsh for 28 off the previous delivery was perhaps the more significant moment.
“I think whenever you’ve finished a close game you always look back on a number of things,” said Southee, who with fellow stalwart Kane Williamson was playing his 100th Test.
“This morning was always going to be a crucial period with the ball still reasonably new, and we were able to beat the bat a few times but they were able to weather that storm.”
The defeat left the Black Caps with just one Test win in 24 attempts against their closest rivals this century, while Australia will now move above them into second place in the World Test Championships standings behind India.
Carey was denied his second Test century but cared little as he and his captain steered their side to their target 281-7 and a sixth win in seven Tests over the Australasian summer.
“I was happy with that,” Carey said. “I didn’t want to be on strike again. It was a great series and this match ebbed and flowed. We had our backs against the wall this morning, they came out and put us under the pump so it’s nice to chase those runs down.”
Carey, who also took 10 catches over New Zealand’s two innings to match Adam Gilchrist’s Australian record, said Australia “stayed resilient” despite the early pressure.
“Everyone’s had their moments and it’s a really special team we’re playing in.”
New Zealand seamer Matt Henry was named Player of the Series for his 17 wickets over the two matches, the first of which finished with Australian victors by 172 runs in Wellington.
Funds come after Philippine president told Australian parliament he would ‘not yield’ a ‘square inch’ in the South China Sea.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong has announced 64 million Australian dollars ($41.8m) in funding for maritime security on the first day of a special summit with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Melbourne.
“The countries of our region rely on oceans, seas and rivers for livelihoods and commerce, including free and open sea lanes in the South China Sea,” Wong said in her address to a forum on maritime cooperation on Monday morning.
Wong did not specify which countries the funding would go to but “welcomed efforts” by Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines to “delimit their maritime boundaries”.
“What happens in the South China Sea, in the Taiwan Strait, in the Mekong subregion, across the Indo-Pacific, affects us all,” Wong said.
The special summit hosted in Melbourne marks 50 years since Australia became a “dialogue partner” of ASEAN, whose members are countries in Southeast Asia, and comes as its members last year held their first-ever joint military drills.
The ruling centre-left Labor party has long aimed to forge closer ties with the region, recognising Australia’s proximity to Southeast Asia.
But Australia’s relationship with its regional neighbours and its interests in the South China Sea is also viewed through the lens of Australia’s close ties with the United States and its membership in the Australia, United Kingdom and United States security pact known as AUKUS.
In her speech, Wong quoted Indonesian President Joko Widodo as saying, “We also have the responsibility to lower the tension, to melt the ice, to create space for dialogue, to bridge the differences” in the region.
Indonesia, along with Malaysia, is among Australia’s allies in the region to have raised concerns that Canberra’s investing tens of billions of dollars in nuclear submarines is potentially contributing to a nuclear arms race in Southeast Asia and the wider Asia Pacific.
Philippines ‘will not yield one square inch’
In a speech to Australia’s parliament last week, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr was resolute on his countries’ position on the South China Sea, amid rising tension with Beijing over their competing claims.
“I will not allow any attempt by any foreign power to take even one square inch of our sovereign territory,” Marcos said.
The Philippines has reported multiple incidents with China in the South China Sea, accusing its coast guard of dangerous manoeuvres and filing diplomatic protests with Beijing over its actions.
“The challenges that we face may be formidable, but equally formidable is our resolve. We will not yield,” he said.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr addresses the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra on Thursday [David Gray/AFP]
But while some Australian representatives reportedly applauded Marcos’s remarks, at least one member of Australia’s parliament, Senator Janet Rice, publicly questioned his legacy and was kicked out for holding up a sign saying, “Stop the Human Rights Abuses”.
Marcos Jr is the son of former Philippine hardline leader Ferdinand Marcos who was overthrown in a popular uprising in 1986 and fled into exile.
Greens Senator Janet Rice holds a sign as Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr delivers an address to members and senators at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on Thursday [Mick Tsikas/AAP Image via AP]
On the streets outside parliament last week, activists held protests on Australia’s apparent lack of scrutiny of its allies’ human rights records, amid ongoing protests over Australia’s support for Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip. More protests are planned around this week’s ASEAN summit.
Wong’s speech also included a nod to Australian funding for climate change resilience through the Mekong-Australia partnership, as many Australians, and neighbouring Pacific countries, question increasing militarisation in a time of climate crisis.
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