Legal
Beau Lamarre-Condon’s alleged media play sparks jail scrutiny
Beau Lamarre-Condon, the former NSW Police officer accused of murdering TV presenter Jesse Baird and his partner Luke Davies, is reportedly trying to sell a tell-all media interview from behind bars.
As Steve Jackson writes in The Australian, he’s been using a middleman to shop around for a media deal that would include interviews with his mother and details about his court case.
NSW Police are reportedly aware of monitored prison phone calls discussing potential media deals, and prison staff are now paying closer attention to his communications.
Ben Roberts-Smith launches final bid to overturn war crimes findings
Ben Roberts-Smith is taking one last shot at clearing his name.
Australia’s most decorated living soldier has lodged an application for special leave to appeal to the High Court, hoping to challenge the Federal Court’s finding that he was complicit in the murder of four Afghan prisoners.
But, according to Michaela Whitbourn who writes in The Sydney Morning Herald, the High Court hasn’t confirmed whether it’ll hear the case.
Technology
WhatsApp ads are coming, but your chats are safe (for now)
WhatsApp is finally cracking open the ad jar.
Meta confirmed it will soon start inserting ads into the app’s Updates tab, the section where users browse channels and status updates.
As the Australian Financial Review reports, personal chats remain off-limits for the moment, with the company stressing that end-to-end encryption still stands.
Retail
ACCC takes next swing in supermarket discount battle
The ACCC’s case against Woolworths and Coles just moved from theory to courtroom-ready, with all parties now agreeing on the core facts around hundreds of allegedly misleading grocery discounts.
That agreement locks in the who, what and when across about 500 promo items, clearing the decks for the Federal Court to focus squarely on the real question: were shoppers duped?
As Eli Greenblat and Angelica Snowden report in The Australian, the regulator alleges both supermarket giants spruiked discounts that weren’t genuine, think prices hiked, then “slashed,” to manufacture a bargain.
Companies
Work from home trade-off plan alarms unions
Big business is eyeing a major reshuffle of work-from-home rules, and it’s ruffling union feathers.
According to Ewin Hannan in The Australian, confidential documents reveal the Australian Industry Group has pitched a proposal to the Fair Work Commission that would let employers trade off overtime, penalty rates and breaks in return for flexible remote arrangements under the clerks award.
The move, flagged as a “facilitated working from home” model, would allow employers to alter or drop key entitlements by agreement.
Film
Marvel hits the reset button as content fatigue sets in
Even Kevin Feige thinks Marvel got too much, too fast.
The longtime Marvel Studios boss recently admitted that keeping up with the sprawling universe of movies and Disney+ shows had started to feel more like a chore than a thrill.
But, as Ben Fritz writes in The Australian, in trying to feed Disney’s content machine, the studio overextended itself, and the audience tapped out.