分类： society

A battle over LGBTQIA+ community access to dedicated safe space has erupted in Western Australia’s capital Perth, after local city councillors rejected a plan that would have created the city’s only such venue allowing consensual sexual activity alongside social and educational programming. The proposal’s architect, Nick Needham, managing director of downtown Perth’s Pink Rabbit Adult Shop, is moving forward with a formal appeal of the council’s decision, dismissing the objections raised against the project as baseless.

Needham’s application sought council approval to convert the adult retailer’s underused second floor into a members-only space for LGBTQIA+ community members, designed to deliver what he describes as three core outcomes: trusted social connection, inclusive community education, and access to private, consensual sexual activity. In an interview with NewsWire, Needham confirmed he expects to receive official council documentation of the rejection this week, and will formally file his notice of appeal immediately.

“There are no legal grounds for the council to block this space from opening,” Needham said. “Claims that this project would harm neighboring properties are completely ludicrous.”

The proposal went through a standard public community consultation process, which drew a total of 341 written submissions from the public and local stakeholders. Of those, 290 submissions opposed the plan, while 51 voiced support. Council meeting minutes, however, reveal that more than half of all opposing submissions — 195 total — were filed without any supporting reasoning or justification, and an additional 43 were identical form responses matching language from a circulating petition, rather than personalized objections.

Despite council planning staff formally recommending the proposal be approved with targeted operating conditions, Perth councillors ultimately voted to reject the application entirely.

Needham pushed back on the widespread public opposition, noting that hundreds of local LGBTQIA+ community members have reached out to him directly to express personal support for the project. That groundswell of backing, he said, has been deeply moving and reinforced his commitment to see the plan through the appeal process.

“Just like any other queer venue, this space would act as a welcoming entry point for people who have never felt comfortable accessing existing queer community spaces,” Needham explained. “It would give people a place to meet, build connections, and feel more comfortable in their own identity. Yes, consensual sexual activity is allowed, but that’s not all this space would be — that’s not even a guarantee for every visit. I’m working to meet a critical need for a segment of Perth’s LGBTQIA+ community that currently has no dedicated space of its own.”

Under Needham’s proposed operating model, visitors would pay a one-off $20 fee for seven days of access to the space. Critics have raised a wide range of objections to the plan: one public submission argued approving the project would “fundamentally alter the residential character, perceived safety, and family-friendly nature” of Barrack Street, where Pink Rabbit is located — a claim that overlooks the street already hosts multiple other 18+ licensed venues. Other common objections included unsubstantiated claims the space would inadvertently facilitate prostitution and fail to meet public hygiene standards. Perth councillor Viktor Ko also voiced opposition to the paid membership model, arguing it would make the space exclusionary even as he acknowledged the project’s operating management plan was well-designed.

In response to widespread online harassment directed at him and his business over the proposal, Needham said he has already proactively opened a line of communication with Western Australia Police’s hate crime unit to address the threats.

The rejection has sparked debate over access to inclusive community space for queer Perth residents, with Needham’s appeal set to test whether the city’s opposition holds up to formal legal and procedural review.

Australia’s latest housing construction data shows a welcome uptick in building approvals that has finally pulled the country ahead of annual population growth, but industry economists and housing analysts warn the nation remains far off the ambitious national target designed to fix decades of worsening affordability and chronic underbuilding.

New data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveals that June saw a sharp jump in total building approvals, driven largely by a surprise surge in multi-unit apartment developments. The data shows that approvals for private sector non-house dwellings – a category that includes apartments and townhouses – jumped 17.8% in June, bouncing back strongly from an 11% decline recorded in the previous month. At the same time, approvals for standalone private houses edged up 0.4%, marking the sixth consecutive month that approvals for single-family homes have stayed above the 10,000 mark. When combined, total national building approvals reached their highest level since August 2021.

AMP senior economist My Bui explained that the full-year totals for the 2025-26 financial year now put the country in a better position than it has been in years, with almost 205,000 new dwellings approved over the 12-month period. That marks a notable increase from the 189,000 approvals recorded in 2024-25, and exceeds the roughly 190,000 new dwellings that industry analysts estimate are needed each year to keep pace with current population growth. “Despite some softness in the first quarter of this year, the recent strength in approvals has gotten us to a point where new supply is matching demographic demand for the first time in several years,” Bui noted.

Yet this progress is not enough to get Australia on track to meet the federal government’s landmark National Housing Accord target. Launched by the current Labor government as a core policy response to skyrocketing housing costs and rental shortages, the NHA brings together federal, state and local governments to deliver 1.2 million new homes over five years ending in June 2029, which works out to a required annual average of 240,000 new dwellings. While approvals have risen steadily since mid-2024, per capita approval rates remain far below historical averages. In the 2025-26 financial year, only nine new dwellings were approved for every 1,000 Australian residents. That is substantially lower than the 12 approvals per 1,000 people recorded in early 2015, and represents only a marginal improvement from the eight per 1,000 recorded in June of last year.

Most critically, the recent uptick is not large enough to offset the major underbuilding that occurred between 2022 and 2024, when new supply failed to keep up with rapid post-pandemic population growth. Bui added that because completed home construction lags approvals by months or even years – due to project delays, high cancellation rates and extended construction timelines – the accumulated national housing shortage is unlikely to shrink meaningfully any time soon. “Even with this improvement in approvals, we are not making much progress in closing the gap that has built up over the past three years,” she said.

Looking ahead, economists warn that multiple headwinds will continue to pressure the housing construction sector over coming months. Commonwealth Bank associate economist Lucinda Jerogin noted that elevated interest rates remain a major constraint on new construction activity, while ongoing supply chain disruptions linked to the Middle East conflict and broad capacity constraints across the building industry are pushing construction costs higher. “Although cost pass-through to consumers and developers has been limited so far, the recent escalation of hostilities in the region increases the risk of renewed cost pressure that could derail new projects,” Jerogin explained.

Housing Industry Association chief economist Tim Reardon added that shifts in market conditions typically take months to show up in official approval data, meaning the full impact of rising interest rates, global geopolitical instability and recent tax changes will not be visible in the numbers until late this year. “While leading indicators of industry confidence have deteriorated since the federal budget, and investors are already starting to pull back from the new home building market, these trends will not show up in approval figures for several months,” Reardon said.

With Australian housing affordability currently at its worst level in more than 30 years, Reardon emphasized that policymakers need to take additional action to boost long-term housing supply. “It is more important than ever that policymakers support housing investment and development by reducing the costs of home building, not increasing them,” he said.

A 1,000-kilogram wild southern elephant seal named Neil has become an unlikely viral celebrity after a 34-day stay on the coast of south Tasmania left local authorities with a damage and management bill totaling more than AU$31,500 — but the animal will not be required to pay a single cent, all thanks to his overwhelming charm. Neil first came ashore in the Clarence region of Tasmania on June 24, and his unexpected visit quickly captured public attention, with hundreds of social media posts documenting the giant seal’s daily antics, turning him into a local sensation overnight.

Local government body the City of Clarence recently published a full breakdown of the costs generated by Neil’s extended stay. The total invoice came to AU$31,540.53, with the vast majority of the expense tied to staffing. Over the 34-day period, council workers logged 131.5 standard work hours and an additional 144 overtime hours to manage crowds of tourists and local residents gathered to see the seal, as well as reroute vehicle traffic around his resting spots. That labour cost alone added up to AU$26,520.08. On top of staffing, equipment rental cost AU$3,600, plant hire came to AU$114.75, and material costs for repairing damaged public infrastructure hit AU$1,297.70. The damage Neil caused came from scratching his massive body against public property, which wore down one large sign, 10 roadside bollards and a section of perimeter fence enough to require full replacement.

In a surprising decision that has delighted the public, the Clarence City Council announced it would waive the entire bill, crediting Neil for his unplanned service as a tourism ambassador, the widespread joy he brought to local communities, and what they called his “exceptional cuteness”. While the public is eagerly anticipating Neil’s next appearance on a Tasmanian shore, no one can predict where or when the five-year-old seal will choose to come ashore next. Despite the lighthearted reaction to the seal’s visit, Clarence Mayor Brendan Blomeley has issued a serious reminder to the public about the risks of interacting with wild elephant seals. Blomeley noted that while the final damage bill was relatively small, the constant close attention and overexposure Neil received from crowds could have resulted in a far more dangerous outcome for both the animal and members of the public. Southern elephant seals are large wild predators, and close contact can pose serious safety risks. “Wherever he decides to come ashore next, I hope he is given the space and time he needs,” Blomeley said, urging future visitors to the area to maintain a safe distance from the seal if he appears again.

As a global leader in advanced technology manufacturing, South Korea has built its international reputation on cutting-edge innovation in smartphones and semiconductor production. But behind this widely celebrated tech success story lies a devastating underbelly: a growing epidemic of digital sexual violence against women, with AI-generated deepfake pornography emerging as the newest and fastest-spreading threat. Today, a team of dedicated women digital investigators are on the front lines of this fight, working tirelessly to remove illegal non-consensual content from the internet and support survivors of this abuse.

Based in a sunlit Seoul office, the National Center for Digital Sexual Crime Response employs 23 trained specialists who scour the web to identify exploitative deepfake content, spycam footage, and non-consensually shared intimate imagery, then file formal removal requests backed by the threat of legal prosecution. Founded in 2018 in response to mass anti-spycam protests that drew tens of thousands of women demanding government action, the center expanded to 17 regional branches, offering additional support including legal guidance, emotional counseling, and evidence collection for criminal prosecutions.

In 2023 alone, the organization removed more than 318,000 pieces of illegal exploitative content on behalf of 10,600 survivors, 75% of whom are women and girls. Center director Kim Mi-soon told AFP that South Korea’s faster policy response compared to other nations stems from two key factors: digital sex crimes became widespread earlier here, and South Korean women mobilized quickly and forcefully to demand change.

For survivors, the center’s support has been life-changing. A 33-year-old military service member, who requested to be identified only by her surname Kim, said deepfakes of her were shared on encrypted messaging apps that were initially outside the center’s reach. Even so, she said the center’s help made an enormous difference for someone navigating abuse alone. The organization provided financial assistance to obtain a formal trauma diagnosis for court proceedings, a support that left her feeling validated and relieved. “Navigating the whole legal procedure alone while suffering trauma would have been impossible,” she explained.

The threat of digital sexual violence has evolved rapidly over the past five years. The 2020 “Nth Room” scandal shocked the nation when it was revealed that hundreds of men were exploiting dozens of women and girls in paid “sextortion” chatrooms, where victims were coerced into producing extreme explicit content. After that crackdown, sexual deepfakes emerged as the dominant new threat. Global data from web safety firm Security Hero shows that circulation of deepfake content surged 550% between 2019 and 2023, with nearly 98% of all deepfake content being non-consensual pornography of women, and more than half of all global victims located in South Korea.

While high-profile K-pop idols have been among the most high-profile targets, police data shows digital sex crimes now account for 40% of all sexual offenses in the country, and ordinary women are increasingly targeted. Deletion specialist Kim Yun-hee noted that the trend has shifted sharply: “Since last year, we’ve seen more and more deepfakes of ordinary women and girls — with the images becoming way more sophisticated than before and victims getting younger and younger.” To keep pace, the center has developed its own AI tools, including a continuous monitoring system that can detect exploitative material and grooming messages targeting children.

For the specialists who do this emotionally heavy work, the impact makes the effort worthwhile. “This job is not easy,” 31-year-old Kim Yun-hee said. “But it feels really rewarding whenever our clients say our service is a true life-saver.”

South Korea has implemented strict legal penalties to curb the crisis: deepfake pornography is explicitly illegal, with creators facing up to seven years in prison and even possessors can be sentenced to up to three years behind bars. Penalties were strengthened in 2024, after a major scandal uncovered a network of Telegram chatrooms where users shared deepfakes of female classmates, colleagues, acquaintances, and relatives, often made by stealing photos from victims’ public social media profiles.

International experts say South Korea’s holistic response has positioned it as a global leader in addressing this emerging harm. Clare McGlynn, a law professor at Durham University in the UK and a leading expert on image-based sexual abuse, called South Korea’s approach a model for the rest of the world, noting that it “is leading the way on providing holistic support services and investing in the latest technology to try to reduce the harm.”

Even with these advances, campaigners warn that technical and legal responses alone cannot solve the crisis. Activists point to patriarchal cultural norms that frame women as sexual objects without inherent dignity as the root cause of the epidemic. Kim Yeo-jin, head of the nonprofit Korea Cyber Sexual Violence Response Center, argues that online harm requires offline change. “Unless we tackle this fundamental cause by fostering more gender equality in wider society and strengthening gender equality education at school, no amount of removal efforts will be enough,” she said.

Japan has hit a grim demographic milestone that underscores the nation’s long-running battle against plummeting birth rates and rapid population aging: new government data released Wednesday confirms the number of Japanese citizens residing within the country has fallen below 120 million for the first time since 1982.

According to Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the domestic Japanese population stood at 119.74 million as of January 1 this year, marking a 0.76% decline from the same point 12 months prior. The country’s Japanese resident population has now shrunk for 17 consecutive years, after hitting a peak in 2009, per the ministry’s annual survey, which has tracked demographic trends since 1968.

While the count of native Japanese residents continues to drop, the data does offer one small shift: the population of foreign residents living in Japan has reached its highest level since national record-keeping for this group began in 2013. When including non-Japanese residents, Japan’s total overall population currently sits at 123.8 million.

Global demographic data from the World Bank ranks Japan as having the second-oldest population on Earth, with a median age of 49.9 years — outpaced only by the microstate Monaco. The severity of Japan’s demographic challenge was further highlighted by June government data showing the nation’s total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman is projected to have over her lifetime, fell to another all-time low last year. The rate dropped 0.01 year-over-year to 1.14, marking the 10th consecutive annual decline. The number of live births in 2023 also fell by nearly 15,000 to just over 670,000, the lowest recorded figure since national birth tracking began in 1899.

As the world’s fourth-largest economy, Japan’s slow-burning demographic crisis has already translated to tangible, widespread economic and social strain. Chronic labor shortages across multiple critical industries, a rapidly expanding public social security bill to cover aging residents’ pensions and healthcare, and a shrinking national tax base are all direct consequences of the population decline and aging trend.

Against this worrying backdrop, policymakers have turned to innovative strategies to boost marriage rates, with the goal of eventually lifting birth rates over time. A small ray of hope emerged this month from one such initiative: an AI-powered matchmaking app launched by the Tokyo metropolitan government has already resulted in 265 marriages for its users.

Named TOKYO Enmusubi, the platform launched in September 2024 after a regional survey found roughly 70% of single Tokyo residents interested in marriage were not actively pursuing traditional matchmaking opportunities. To address user reluctance to participate and filter for only those seriously committed to marriage, the app enforces strict eligibility requirements: all applicants must provide official proof of legal single status and pass a structured online interview before gaining access.

As of June 30 this year, the app had accepted 16,000 registered members, down from roughly 36,000 total applicants, with 760 of those matched pairs reporting they are in committed, serious relationships. One 40-year-old user, who spoke to the government under the pseudonym “Turtle”, described the app as her last chance at finding a partner. “After going on several blind dates, I met my current husband at the end of August, and we started a serious relationship in mid-September,” she shared. “I accepted his proposal at the end of December.”