Father of methanol-poisoned backpacker ‘devastated’ as charges set to be laid
The father of an Australian woman who died from methanol poisoning while travelling in Laos has said the charges that will be laid against those allegedly responsible have left his family devastated.
Melbourne travellers Bianca Jones and Holly Morton-Bowles, both 19, were backpacking through the south-east Asian nation in late 2024 when they were fatally poisoned with methanol while drinking at Nana Backpackers Hostel in Vang Vieng.
Those allegedly responsible are set to be hit with charges, but the father of Morton-Bowles, Shaun Bowles, has told 2GB radio that they were not the results his family were looking for.
It is devastating news to us.
His understanding was the charges are going to be be put against the owner of the distillery that made the allegedly tainted vodka.
We’re still not convinced that they’re the right people.
We’ve had so many conflicting stories come out, it’s very hard to pin down who exactly is at fault.
But clear, that’s not been the case.
The ABC reports the two charges expected to be laid collectively carry up to one year in jail and a maximum fine of $1,600.
Key events
Pauline Hanson’s appearance on far-right figure’s podcast slammed
The One Nation leader has been decried after travelling overseas and appearing on a podcast with far-right UK activist, Tommy Robinson.
During the episode, released on Friday morning, she makes claims “Muslim streets” have “quite a lot of people on the NDIS”.
But the federal NDIS minister, Mark Butler, hit back.
I‘m not sure where Ms Hanson is getting her figures from, but they’ve never been provided to me as the minister for disability and the minister for the NDIS.
I suspect they don’t exist.
He also condemned her decision to travel to the UK and appear on a podcast hosted by a convicted criminal.
I’m loath to respond to a podcast between Ms Hanson and this convicted criminal, who frankly has been disowned by so many leading figures on the right.
Spike in illicit tobacco ‘a law and order disaster’, health minister says
Australia is experiencing an “explosion” in illegal cigarettes, despite fresh data revealing the nation’s smoking rate has fallen to historic lows.
Those who smoke are increasingly using illicit tobacco, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) National Drug Strategy Household Survey has found.
But daily smoking rates have fallen to a historic low and are tracking well ahead of national targets, while vaping rates have stabilised.
The federal health minister, Mark Butler, responded to the report on ABC radio.
It shouldn’t be any surprise, in spite of this explosion of illegal cigarettes – which has been a law and order disaster – that that hasn’t changed the general mindset of smokers.
They want to quit and they need some help to do that.
Father of methanol-poisoned backpacker ‘devastated’ as charges set to be laid
The father of an Australian woman who died from methanol poisoning while travelling in Laos has said the charges that will be laid against those allegedly responsible have left his family devastated.
Melbourne travellers Bianca Jones and Holly Morton-Bowles, both 19, were backpacking through the south-east Asian nation in late 2024 when they were fatally poisoned with methanol while drinking at Nana Backpackers Hostel in Vang Vieng.
Those allegedly responsible are set to be hit with charges, but the father of Morton-Bowles, Shaun Bowles, has told 2GB radio that they were not the results his family were looking for.
It is devastating news to us.
His understanding was the charges are going to be be put against the owner of the distillery that made the allegedly tainted vodka.
We’re still not convinced that they’re the right people.
We’ve had so many conflicting stories come out, it’s very hard to pin down who exactly is at fault.
But clear, that’s not been the case.
The ABC reports the two charges expected to be laid collectively carry up to one year in jail and a maximum fine of $1,600.
Nino Bucci
Australian military may help protect ships in the strait of Hormuz, UN shipping leader says
Arsenio Dominguez, the secretary general of the UN’s shipping agency the International Maritime Organization (IMO), says the Australian military may have a role in protecting ships travelling through the strait of Hormuz once “volatility” in the region settles.
But he said the focus should be on the US and Iran again walking back from the conflict. Dominguez told the ABC:
It is not a 100% guarantee that a merchant vessel will not be affected while being supported by military assets.
It could be considered as a short term assistance, but not in the long or permanent term.
Once the situation de-escalates, those types of assistance may provide additional guarantees will actually help in the trust and the rebuilding of operations.
Dominguez said that while it was not safe for ships to travel through the strait at present, the focus should be on ending the war, not on other nations providing military assets to allow freer movement of vessels.
The message is very loud and clear for everybody…de-escalate.
Good morning, Kat Wong here to pick up the blog. Let’s dive in.
Pauline Hanson to speak at rightwing CPAC event in London
Pauline Hanson is due to speak at a gathering of hard-right figures from around the world being held in London this week.
The former UK prime minister Liz Truss is hosting the event, which is the inaugural British spin-off from America’s influential CPAC gathering that powered the rise of Donald Trump.
Ben Quinn has the full story:
Meta to alert parents when teens discuss self-harm with Instagram’s AI
Achol Arok
Social media giant Meta has rolled out new safety features that will alert parents using Instagram’s supervision tools if their teen talk about suicide or self-harm with the platform’s AI feature.
The change comes after the platform sought feedback from more than 75 youth mental health clinicians on how to improve Meta AI’s responses to teens’ distressing prompts.
Currently, the platform’s AI chatbot directs teen users to crisis helplines and encourages them to reach out to a parent or another trusted adult. Meta says it will now “proactively alert supervising parents” based on signals developed with experts.
The company said:
We worked with parents and experts to understand which AI conversations warrant an alert – such as those where a teen makes a clear reference to hurting themselves, even if that reference is subtle. We then built a dedicated AI system to identify these conversations.
The feature, now live in the US, UK, Australia and Canada, is expected to be available to users globally by the end of the year.
Telstra CEO to face parliamentary inquiry over national outage
Telstra’s bosses are set to be grilled over a nationwide outage that affected triple zero calls and businesses, disrupted payment systems and stopped trains in two states.
Telstra’s chief executive, Vicki Brady, will be among a group of executives who will front a parliamentary inquiry into the incident in Canberra on Friday.
The Greens communication spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, said the committee holding the probe had called an emergency hearing over the outage.
“The truth is, Telstra, just like Optus, has put their profits ahead of public safety and public service for far too long, and the law allows them to,” she told reporters at Parliament House on Thursday.
“We need better laws in place, stronger laws that protect the rights of the public, the rights of the consumer, and to force these companies to actually deliver a reliable service.”
Telstra is accepting compensation claims from affected customers and small businesses who can provide evidence to support their case.
Hanson-Young said the telco “has done the bare minimum when it comes to compensation for consumers”.
“The company should be taking responsibility, and it should be offering automatic compensation to everyone who they put in a difficult and dangerous position.”
Representatives from the Australian Communications and Media Authority and the communications department will also give evidence at the inquiry.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Kat Wong with the main action.
Telstra’s chief executive, Vicki Brady, can expect some tough questions when she goes before a parliamentary inquiry today. The snap two-day inquiry was called to look at last week’s Telstra mobile outage that shut down trains and payment systems across the nation, and meant some couldn’t make triple zero calls.
And we have news from Instagram, which has announced a new AI safety feature that will alert parents if their children’s chats turn to self harm.
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