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Below are some of the key questions we answered in our daily #WAgenda this morning, sent to our subscribers before they sipped their first coffee.
Our newsletter’s where we share our best stories, and where we announce the day’s ‘Agenda Setter’, the woman driving conversations that day.
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Wait, Tokyo just got its first female Governor?
Yes! Her name is Yuriko Koike. She is a former defence minister and now takes on the huge responsibility of preparing the city for the 2020 Olympic Games.
Koike beat 20 other candidates to win the election race in a city of 13.6 million people, after the previous governor had to resign due to a financial scandal.
Koike’s come up against plenty of misogynistic slurs, only last week being publicly described as a “caked-up old woman well past her prime” (by an 83-year-old-man).
She’ll now fly to Rio for the 2016 Games this week, before returning home to determine how to bring the city’s own budget for the Games into line, and pushing new policies that enable “both women and men to shine”.
Less than 10% of MPs are female in Japan’s lower house of Parliament where Koike has previously served — so we’re guessing she has the ‘merit’ to take on the city’s biggest job.
How about that Kyle & Jackie O?
Expect to hear a lot more from the radio duo — if that’s your thing. At least five years more.
The pair, AKA Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson, have just signed a historic five year contract with ARN worth a massive $40 million, in their 11th year in breakfast radio together.
Since launching their show with Sydney station KIIS 1065 in 2014, they’ve dominated in the breakfast show ratings. They have a combined following of more than 2 million on social media, attract more than 1.9 million monthly video streams and 1.5 million unique users to the KIIS website.
What happened in the netball?
It was a one of the most nerve-wracking games to watch in Grand Final history, in front of a record-breaking crowd.
The Queensland Firebirds took on the NSW Swifts in the ANZ Championship Grand Final yesterday, a much hyped re-run of the 2015 game.
It was the Firebirds that came out on top, claiming victory in extra time, 69 to 67.
The game moved to extra time after the Swifts managed to score three goals in the final minute
The defeat marked two in a row for the Swifts, with captain Kim Green saying it “hurts just as much” in 2016 as it did in 2015.
But the Firebirds have experienced their own pain, having lost successive finals in 2013 and 2014.
Meanwhile Firebirds Captain Laura Geitz summed up our love of the game perfectly when she said:
“These 11 girls standing here are the best of the best. They are a family away from our family … They are humble, they are genuine and they go about their business creating no fuss, and it’s an absolute inspiration to come to work.
“It’s not work, it’s fun every single day [to] play alongside these wonderful women.”
Well done Firebirds!
Need another reason to get into tech?
Well how about this. A cool US$5.6 billion has been added to the fortunes of the founders of Facebook, Amazon, Google and its parent company Alphabet in just a week.
According to the Australian Financial Review, the Google co-founders scored themselves a combined US$2.7 billion following strong user base growth reports in its ad business, while Amazon’s Jeff Bezon got himself an extra US$1.4 billion due to his business’ results and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth rose US$1.5 billion after excellent second-quarter earnings.
Zuckerberg’s wealth alone has increased a massive US$7.9 billion this year.
So it certainly pays to be a tech entrepreneur. Now we just need to see some women in the billionaire club.
Did we just get another female MP?
Looks like it, for now. Cathy O’Toole has claimed victory in the seat of Herbert, more than four weeks after the election, giving Labor an additional seat in the lower house and the Coalition an even smaller majority to hold on to.
But O’Toole’s won by just 37 votes after the Australian Election Commission finished counting on Sunday, and the National Liberal Party’s released a statement saying it is “Examining a number of issues reported to the party to determine if all Herbert electors were given the opportunity to vote.” It is now determining its next “course of action”.
And so it continues. But big congrats to O’Toole, who looks set to get on with the job and becomes the first woman to hold the seat.
Drumroll… Today’s Agenda Setter is: Vicki Thomson, for speaking out
Vicki Thomson is head of the Group of Eight (Go8) universities. Today, she will speak out against the oversupply of students enrolling in universities and the idea that someone is a “failure” if they don’t have a a degree.
According to Fairfax papers, Thomson will deliver a provocative speech at the Graduate Employability and Industry Partnerships Forum asking why we’re so “reticent” to state the obvious: that university isn’t for everyone. She’ll also ask why employers are demanding degrees for jobs like admin co-ordinators, and positions that until recently only required a TAFE qualification or high school completion.
