Good morning. A new Guardian Essential poll suggests that only one-third of Australian voters want a treaty, truth-telling commission or Indigenous voice. It comes as Anthony Albanese faces heat over his decision not to push ahead with a makarrata commission despite funding being set aside for it in the budget.
There are calls for stricter regulations targeting nutritional quality and deceptive labelling after a study found that no baby or toddler foods in Australian supermarkets meet World Health Organization standards.
Eight years out from the Brisbane Olympics we take a look at eight athletes who might pull on the green and gold to compete on home soil. And: a new discovery has scientists raising new hope of finding life on Mars.
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Higgins v Reynolds: a very political defamation trial
Senator Linda Reynolds is suing Brittany Higgins in the supreme court of Western Australia over social media posts. The former minister’s legal team claims that after Higgins alleged she was raped in Parliament House, she and her now husband, David Sharaz, cast Reynolds as the “villain” and damaged her reputation on social media. But Higgins’ legal team says this case is about the power discrepancy between a then 24-year-old with limited job security and the minister for defence. Sarah Basford Canales discusses the trial with Hannah Parkes.
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Higgins v Reynolds: a very political defamation trial – Full Story podcast
In-depth
The report from parliament’s inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and children is due this week, and for one Bourke family it’s another step on a long road for police accountability. Cindy Smith, a Wangkumara girl, and her cousin Mona Lisa Smith, a Murrawarri and Kunja girl, were both killed in a car crash in 1987. A drunk, white predator survived. Family members are still seeking justice for the girls after a decades-long struggle to discover the truth about the crash – and the investigation into it.
Not the news
Justin Kurzel’s film Ellis Park, about the Bad Seeds and Dirty Three musician Warren Ellis and the animal sanctuary he founded in Indonesia with the activist Femke den Haas, is richly cinematic. The Australian auteur was never going to direct a paint-by-numbers talking heads fest. Instead, Guardian Australia’s film reviewer, Luke Buckmaster, finds that this documentary – much like its subject – moves to the beat of its own drum.
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The world of sport
Three rare plants and an iconic whale species are on their way back from the brink of extinction, reports the Mercury. Sydney councils spent more than $23m on legal action in the land and environment court last year amid claims some developers are “jumping the queue”, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
What’s happening today
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ACT | Bill Shorten will give an address to the National Press Club, speaking about government services in the next decade.
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ABS | The latest wage price index figures are to be released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
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NT | Yipirinya school’s principal, Gavin Morris, is to appear before an Alice Springs court charged with five counts of aggravated assault.
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Brain teaser
And finally, here are the Guardian’s crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.