With parliament adding an additional sitting week to their calendar for next week the government will be hoping they can ush through the bill before the end of the year, but opposition MPs and minor parties have a long list of questions about the bill.

Debate on the bill began in mid-October and its been progressing at a glacial pace. During the committee process of analysis the bill, which sees parliamentarians look at the legislation line by line, there’s been a huge range of motions to amend the legislation.

Liberal leader Basil Zempilas told The West Australian that his members were not deliberately slowing down progress of the bill.

During the last session there were attempts to change sections of the bill relating to the use of materials from a partner who had died. Alongside a push to increase the age of people who could serve as a surrogate, and current requirements that they have already given birth to at least one child.

There was also a call from The Australian Christians member Maryka Groenewald to introduce background checks for people wanting to start a family via surrogacy, it also failed to pass.

Each amendment failed, but line by line the debate dragged on.

As debate resumed on Tuesday with a push to ban any advertising about surrogacy services, it also failed. While the government put forward an increased the penalty for people found to be undertaking commercial surrogacy rather than an truistic endeavour.

The proposed legislation had 369 clauses when it arrived in the Legislative Assembly, and they’re currently looking at clause 112.

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In conversation with Dr Norman Swan she highlighted the challenges in the current global HIV funding environment, particularly in the context of the withdrawal of US funding from PEPFAR and other international funds.

“The world has the tools to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030,” she said. “The HIV response that was born from activism, solidarity and science remains one of humanity’s greatest collaborative achievements. So to preserve it, we need we must protect what works. Invest in what is new and never forget who is most at risk of being left behind.” Dr Grinsztejn said.

In her talk Dr Grinsztejn noted that discrimination, stigma, and access to lifesaving HIV prevention and treatment also persists around the globe.

The David Cooper Lecture honours the legacy of the Kirby Institute’s founding director, Scientia Professor David Cooper AC, who passed away in 2018. Professor Cooper was an internationally renowned scientist and HIV clinician who laid the foundations for Australia’s ongoing leadership in the fight against the global HIV epidemic.

Dr Grinsztejn reflected on the early days of HIV research and advocacy.

“In those days, HIV was not just a virus; it was a mirror reflecting who we were as a society,” Dr Grinsztejn said. “Many of the first people I cared for were gay men whose lives were devastated not only by an illness for which no treatment existed, but also by prejudice and rejection.

“The suffering I witnessed was not only biological but deeply social. People were dying from lack of medicines, yes, but also from loneliness, discrimination and the system [was] totally unprepared to care for them.”

It was during this time that she learned to view medicine as a field where “science and justice must walk together”.

The International AIDS Society President said the world had the ability to end HIV as a public health threat, but it as concerning that many countries were reducing their funding to the global challenge.

“The world has the tools to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030,“ she said. “What is missing is sustained political will, predictable and adequate funding and the courage to confront inequity head-on.

“We also need to preserve investment in science and in preparing the new generation of scientists to continue the work.”

Dr Grinsztejn also highlighted that the criminalisation of homosexuality in many countries also created a huge challenges for providing effective services.

The US decision to reduce their contributions through the PEPFAR and USAID programs, and put limits on the conditions preventative medication can be deployed, and new system of setting up agreements would have a massive impact on the challenge.

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The Network 10 show has been a ratings success, and producers might be kicking themselves that they opted for a curtailed season of just a few weeks. With the show heading to its finale on Sunday night Big Brother will need to shed quite a few residents over this week.

Monday night saw a new round of nominations from the housemates and it ended up with Vinnie, Emily and Coco facing potential eviction – but when that night be is not completely clear.

First the housemates heard a parting message from the show’s most recent ejected – Perth based model Holly who was expelled on Sunday night.

In a video message Holly didn’t hold back, she said Connor was someone she never got on with, she dubbed Vinnie as someone who is “performative” and not authentic, and laid into Coco as well.

“Thank you for reminding me why I don’t trust females.” Holly said, describing her whole friendship with Coco as totally fake and said Coco was someone who was “slithering around”.

She made paramour Colin the Head Housemate giving him the power to assign jobs over the next week, and also save someone for eviction.

In the Big Brother Diary Room Allana said Holly parting message was malicious and not based on the truth.

Before the nominations Big Brother added another unexpected twist. A pile of presents were placed under the Christmas Tree and each housemate was asked to select one.

Only one box had a gift inside though, and it was picked by Edward. It gave him double to votes at this week’s nomination round, he could assign 10 points while the others only had five each.

As the housemates headed into the diary room to cast their votes they revealed who was getting on their nerves and who was judged to be a game player.

Colin gave four points to Coco calling her a “game player” who made him annoyed him, and then gave his ither point to Vinnie saying he wasn’t genuine. Emily gave three more points to Vinnie saying he was a “people pleasing game player”, and gave her other two points to Bruce saying she’d had enough of his temper.

Bruce gave three points Allana saying she didn’t listen to other people’s perspective, and gave two points to Emily saying she was a threat to his chances of winning. Allana also nominated Vinnie for three points saying they were not connected, while giving two points to Connor saying he could end up a winner and should be eliminated.

Vinnie gave four points to Allana sensing they were not having a good vibe, and then gave his remaining points to Coco. Coco have three points to Edward saying he was “two-faced” and gave two points to Vinnie describing him as someone who could not be trusted.

Connor nominated Emily for three points, saying she needed to be taken out because as a wonderful person Australia would be loving her and she needed to be evicted. He then nominated Coco, despite her being his closest friend.

The tally board put Vinnie, Allana and Coco at the top of the tally board, but then Edward got his massive 10 votes to deploy.

Edward gave Vinnie seven points, saying he was giving too much life advice and relationship advice for someone of a young age, and said he agreed with the assessment Holly and Jane delivered in their messages labelling him a “fake”.

Edward said Coco was getting his final three points, because she was a potential winner. Edward’s choices didn’t change the top nominations, but Vinnie ended up with 16 points.

Allana was saved from the chopping block when Colin used his Head Housemate powers, pushing Emily into the eviction club.

Tune in to see what happens next on Ten and 10Play.

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The book opens with Dan peddling his bike across the deserted country town of Chipping Hollow late at night. His destination was his girlfriend Libby’s place because he needed to have a face-to-face conversation with her about something that couldn’t wait.

Unfortunately, he never made it to his destination because he didn’t see the truck as it crested the hill until it was too late. And the driver of the truck didn’t see him because Dan never got around to getting the bike lights fixed.

While Dan lies in a coma at the local hospital, Libby finds out that she has become the target of a hate campaign at school. There is an online posting of her supposedly cheating on her boyfriend and the school hallway and classrooms echo with snide remarks calling her a ‘slut’, a ‘whore’, a ‘bitch’ and a ‘tart’.

I suppose it is wishful thinking on my behalf that this kind of behaviour had become extinct, but abusive sexualised name calling and insults and spreading rumours of a sexual nature online is alive and well.

Neha, who arrived in the last year of St Hilda’s co-ed school half-was through the school year, was finding life difficult and friendless as well. She could avoid the subtle racism, but being queer at a Christian school in a quaint village where everyone seems to have known each other since birth was a difficult hurdle to navigate.

Neha keeps her sexuality a secret because she feels that exposing her sexuality would make her more of an outcast. As the bullying of Libby turns from verbal to physical, Neha decides that she has to befriend her and protect her from the poisonous teenagers at the school.

When Libby finds herself falling for Neha, she worries that if she follows her heart she will betray the people she cares about most. Can she discover who she really is before she loses everyone, and what secret did Dan want to share with her as he sped towards her place?

Lezly Herbert

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American composer Aaron Copland died on this day in 1990, just a few weeks after his 90th birthday.

Born in New York in 1900, his family were immigrants who had come to America from Lithuania via Scotland, along the way changing their name from Kaplan to Copland. The young Aaron Copland began composing music at an early age and went on to study at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

After further study in Paris, and travelling around Europe he returned to the USA where he began his career as a composer.

His works involve slow changing harmonies, which many feel capture the wide openness of the American landscape and evoke a feeling a patriotism.

Appalachian Spring is one of the most admired works by composer Aaron Copland, surpassed perhaps only by his earlier work Fanfare for the Common Man.

Appalachian Spring (A Ballet) was commissioned by choreographer Martha Graham, and the work made it’s debut at the USA’s Library of Congress on October 30, 1944 with Graham dancing the lead role.

Copland later spoke about how it amused him when people told him the score perfectly captured the feeling of the Appalachian Mountains, because the decision to name the piece Appalachian Spring came after the music was written. He had originally simply titled the piece Ballet for Martha, and it was Graham who suggested naming the piece, taking inspiration from a Hart Crame poem.

Over his life Copland created over 100 works. He was very private about his personal life, but it widely accepted that he was gay and comfortable with his sexuality. Throughout his life he had a number of companions who travelled with him, they were usually talented young men who worked in the arts.

Jason Collins was born on this day in 1978

Professional basketball player Jason Collins was born on this day in 1978. Born in Los Angeles, just a few minutes ahead of twin brother Jarron, he became the first person in his sport at a professional level to share that they were gay.

He made his announcement at the end of the 2012-13 season, the following year he was a free agent and didn’t play again until 2014 when he was signed by the Brooklyn Nets. While Collins made the history books in basketball, he is also the second player to come out while playing professional sports in the USA. Soccer player Robbie Rodgers who was playing for the LA Galaxy shared his sexuality in 2013.

During his career Collins played for the Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawkes, Boston Celtics, Washington Wizards and the Nets.

In 2025 Collins shared that he was undergoing treatment for brain cancer.

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The series is set to return to Network 10 in January, and we’ve been tipped off to three celebrity visitors who will be heading to the wilderness next year.

Julia Morris will return as host, alongside Robert Irwin – fresh off his headline-making Dancing With The Stars win in the USA, where he followed in the footsteps of his sister Bindi who won the program in 2015.

Now for the clues – do you have an inkling who is joining the next outing?

“First up, a Hollywood sitcom star will be bringing their star power to the jungle and hopefully bringing the stars back to camp when they trade red carpets for tucker trials.”

“A Rugby Romeo will be trading scrums for chum as he gets his kicks from tucker trials. Will he find romance in the jungle? Or will his time in camp be a Shakesperean tragedy?”

“Joining them is an international supermodel, swapping designer clothes for what we believe is a very fashionable khaki set. With a connection to rock and roll royalty, this celeb is going to be rubbing shoulders with the beetles when she enters the jungle.”

Watch the teasers and let us know your thoughts in the comments!

I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! premieres Sunday, 18 January 2026.

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Taking over The Ice Cream Factory in Northbridge, the Thursday night event drew a crowd of music lovers eager to see the Australian band.

While both Drag stars entertained the crowd with witty banter and some quick numbers, music was the flavour everyone had come out for.

First up DJ Tseba delivered an engaging set.

Soon Miami Horror will filing the stage with their sound. Bandmates Benjamin Plant and Daniel Whitechurch remained largely in the shadows while their guest vocalists took centre stage.

Perth audiences got to experience the band while Sydney fans missed out after their proposed Sunday night show was cancelled.

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Four of the housemates were up for eviction and fans of the show were wondering what had happened to housemate Abiola who had mysteriously disappeared from the live stream in recent days.

Sunday nights show answered the mystery, while Holly, Connor, Vinnie and Bruce waited to see who would be booted and given seconds to leave the house.

At the top of the show the mystery of what happened to Abiola was revealed.

The housemates awoke to discover the house had been transformed in a Christmas celebration, and soon presents were being offered.

After being called to the Diary Room, head housemates Allana returned with a package and explained that any of the housemates who were not up for nomination were eligible for a special prize of $15,000 of the current prize pool.

To claim the prize all they had to do was ring a bell that had been installed near the door. The signal to ring the bell would be the playing of a Christmas carol.

Just moments after the housemates began debating the merits of the offer the sound of We Wish You a Merry Christmas rang out across the house. Abiola declared “I’m going to do it” and moved for the bell and declared that getting her car serviced and fixing her teeth would be a huge win for her.

“This will help me so much.” she told her soon to be ex-housemates.

Back in the house the conversation largely focused around annoying it was to have Holly and Colin “macking on” all day and night in front of everyone.

“The PDA stuff in getting too full on.” Coco said while speaking to Big Brother in the Diary Room. “Can’t they just wait until they’re on the outside!”

Soon the couple were being asked to tone down their affection, and stop involving people in their “situationship”.

With Abiola on the outside, soon Big Brother was bringing down the numbers further with his next eviction.

After host Mel Tracina’s predictable long pause after saying “it’s time to go” multiple times, it was model Holly who was headed for the exit.

During an interview on the stage with Mel Tracina Holly said she’d enjoyed the experience and finding Colin inside the house had been “something very very special”.

Holly said she could understand why people thought she and Colin made an unexpected couple given she’s globe trotting model and Colin is, as Mel described him, “A brev from the Gong”.

“A lot of people don’t understand that I’m originally do come from Perth Western Australia, and my family’s from The Goldfields. So I have country people – slash – rough around the outside soft on the inside, that’s my cup of tea.

Holly said her experience in the international fashion industry had made her appreciate people who have “goodness inside of them”.

The cameras cut to Colin back in the house moping over Holly’s departure.

With only a week left before the show’s grand finale, we’re expecting several evictions throughout the week as the finish line approaches.

Vinnie, Colin, Edward, Emily, Alana, Bruce, Coco and Connor remain in the house. Catch Big Brother on Network 10 at 7:30pm each week night and the Grand Finale on Sunday night at 7pm. You can also watch episodes on 10Play and log in to the live stream.

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese married his partner Jodie Haydon at The Lodge in Canberra on Saturday. The low key private affair saw Albanese become the first Australian Prime Minister to wed while in office.

The event was attended by family and close friends including close political allies from the Labor party. Among them Foreign Minister Penny Wong.

Speaking on his Sunday morning Sky News program, Rowan Dean, complained about Wong’s choice of clothes for the occasion.

“Could Penny Wong have not worn, I’m going to say it, a frock?” Dean said to squeals of reaction from co-hosts Rita Panahi and James Morrow.

Morrow had earlier said the Prime Minister has committed a sartorial faux-pas by wearing a tuxedo to a day time garden wedding, arguing that he should have been dressed in a summer suit.

Wong had been dressed in feminine dark silver blouse and dark trousers.

Women wearing trousers was debated in the Australian parliament in 1933. The sudden popularity of slacks for women was attributed to the popularity of film star Marlene Dietrich who worn a suit in the 1930 film Morrocco, soon after Australian retailers were advertising Marlene Deitrich slacks.

Lorinda Cramer, a lecturer in Cultural Hertiage and Museum Studies at Deakin University explored the history of women wearing trousers in Australia in a 2023 article for The Conversation.

She noted that throughout Australia’s history women had donned trousers to work on the land or in the goldfields, and newspaper reports in the 1920’s asked if there should be a law banning women from slipping on slacks.

World War II saw a sudden growth in women wearing trousers, as did the feminist movement of the 1970s. Who would have thought we’d still be criticizing women for waring trousers in 2025!

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Alvin Ailey was one of the most acclaimed choreographers of modern dance.

Ailey’s life was cut short in 1989 when he died aged just 58. He requested that Doctors announce his cause of death as terminal blood dyscrasia, so that his aging mother would not have to deal with the social stigma of announcing that his was an AIDS related death.

Ailey was born in 1931 in Texas and grew up during the great depression, a time that saw racial segregation and violence against black people. Ailey was raised by his single mother.

The family moved to Los Angeles in the early 1940’s, Ailey’s mother finding work helping the war effort.

In his early 20’s Ailey started to learn to dance at Lester Horton’s Dance School in Los Angeles, the first multi-racial dancing school in the USA.

In the early 50’s Ailey moved to San Francisco where he met Margueritte Johnson, and the two created a nightclub act called ‘Al and Rita’, Years later Johnson would change her name to Maya Angelou, and become one of America’s most recognised poets and authors.

In 1954 Ailey formed the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in New York City. At first the company only had African American dancers, but after a few years the company changed it’s approach and focused on being a multi-racial dance company.Ailey would go on to create 79 works for the company and they toured to many countries around the world.

On December 9, 1989, over 4,000 mourners attended his funeral at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The funeral, which lasted two hours, featured his friend Maya Angelou reading an oral interpretation of her poem For Alvin Ailey, drumming by Max Roach, and reading of a statement from President George H. W. Bush.

Today Alvin Ailey’s American Dance Theatre continues as one of the world’s leading modern dance companies, employing over 30 performers and commissioning new works from the world most innovative choreographers.

Find out more about Alvin Ailey at the company’s website. December 1st, the anniversary of Ailey’s death is also World AIDS Day.

OIP Staff, this post was first published in 2013 and has been updated.

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