A member of the AFL's Indigenous Team of the Century, Bill Dempsey was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame this week.

Dempsey, a member of the Stolen Generation, overcame significant hardship to establish a fabulous playing career over 18 seasons as a player in WA and the Northern Territory.

Those who had the good fortune to meet him during those events could not help but be captivated by his presence.

If spinning a yarn was a competitive sport, he would have represented Australia.

Dempsey was a dominant player for West Perth over 17 seasons, but what made that all the more impressive was that for the first 10 seasons of his WAFL career, he returned home to Darwin every summer to play in the local competition for his beloved Buffaloes. He never enjoyed an off-season.

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Mornings with Liam Bartlett - Full Show 16th June 2022

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Professor Elina Hypponen, a Senior Investigator and Director of University of South Australia’s Australian Center for Precision Health, says dementia is one of the major causes of disability and dependency among older people worldwide, affecting thinking and behaviours as you age.

But what if you could stop this degenerative disease in its tracks?

She told Liam Bartlett on 6PR Mornings a world-first study from the University of South Australia could make this a reality as new genetic research shows a direct link between dementia and a lack of Vitamin D. 

 

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The WA government will pay Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei and engineering firm UGL $6.6 million, two years after it axed a controversial $206 million contract to rebuild Metronet’s communications network.

Transport Minister Rita Saffioti revealed in Parliament the government had also entered into a $327 million contract with Finnish telecommunications giant Nokia and Networks Australia, $121 million more than the Huawei deal.

Opposition spokesperson for Metronet, Tjorn Sibma, said the deal with Huawei was shrouded in secrecy and never announced publicly, with concerns at the Chinese company's capacity to deliver the contract at the time it was signed.

"Rita Saffioti ignored every sensible warning about this, she pressed ahead, and she has delivered failure as a result," he told Liam Bartlett on 6PR Mornings.

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The parent company of Facebook and Instagram has added new features on their Instagram platform to help parents and their teenagers on the app.

Mums and dads can now set time limits, monitor follower lists and notifications on inappropriate behaviour on Instagram.

Safe on Social, an organisation dedicated to educating schools and students about cyberbullying and online exploitation, said the new strategy was a positive step but time was needed before assessing its effectiveness.

Founder and CEO Kirra Pendergast said to implement the parental controls, a joint agreement was required between parents and their kids.

"Personally, having spoken to 800,000 teens over the last 10 years or so, I find that concept kind of, um, delusional, to be honest," she told Liam Bartlett on 6PR Mornings.

"I think there will be a quick workaround by teens, like the four other accounts that they'll be using that mum and dad don't know about."

Pendergast said mums and dads don't really know what happens on their kids' social media accounts.

"A lot of parents think they know a lot because they use the apps themselves, but they're not the target audience here," she said.

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Mornings with Liam Bartlett - Full Show 15th June 2022

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The WA Government's decision to close two coal-fired power stations in Collie by the end of 2029 and instead plough billions of dollars into renewable energy and storage has caught local workers by surprise.

Third-generation coal miner Paul Moyses says the decision will change the whole fabric of the town but, more broadly, believes coal should co-exist with renewable energy sources, at least in the short term.

"Coal has been a reliable energy source for 100 years. We don't have blackouts in WA with coal as our energy source," he told Liam Bartlett on 6PR Mornings.

Collie Visitor Centre manager Janine Page says Collie has long been preparing for change but the town has always been optimistic, with a record 27,000 people stopping by the visitor centre in the past year.

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Australia’s lowest paid workers will receive a $40 a week pay raise from July 1 after the industrial umpire raised the national minimum pay by 5.2 per cent, the highest rise since 2006.

Nine Radio's national political editor Michael Pachi told 6PR Mornings host Liam Bartlett the Reserve Bank's decision not to raise interest rates last year had prompted the minimum wage increase.

"Anthony Albanese would be happy with today's decision because the government did make a submission to the Fair Work Commission urging the board to increase wages by at least the rate of inflation, that has now happened," Pachi said.

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A new research report shows Australia is the fourth most targeted company in the world for mobile banking app malware.

Richard Melick, a director at Threat Reporting Zimperium, a mobile security company based in Colorado, said 34 of the nation’s banking apps under attack from malicious backdoor programs known as trojans.

"It's an interesting element of a mixture of a lack of consumer protection from your telcos, protecting you as a phone user from the way that this malware is often spread, like spam messages you receive in texts," he told Liam Bartlett on 6PR Morning

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Police Minister Paul Papalia has announced Deputy Commissioner Col Blanch would run WA's 7000-strong force, with outgoing Commissioner Chris Dawson to become the state’s new governor next month.

6PR news reporter Jake Battrick said Blanch, a regular on Gareth Parker's Breakfast program every Wednesday, had an impressive CV.  

"He spent a few winters in Canberra, he's basically been in the top role while Chris Dawson has been Vaccine Commander for the past 18 months, he oversaw the operation that found Cleo Smith as well," Battrick told Liam Bartlett on 6PR Mornings.

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