Latest news with #CheekMedia
The Age
14-05-2025
- Business
- The Age
Australia news as it happened: Liberal National Party holds on to Longman, Hume stands by foreign interference warnings
Key posts 5.43pm Terry Young holds on to Longman 5.39pm ASX ends higher, led by energy and tech stocks; Macquarie, Aristocrat shares fall 4.47pm Ley welcome to engage with PM on 'any issue' 1.41pm Cheek Media's Hannah Ferguson to run for Senate 1.30pm This afternoon's headlines at a glance 12.55pm More seats close to results in 'most complex count in history' 12.05pm Price 'chickened out' of deputy vote 11.49am Wage growth hits post-pandemic high Hide key posts Latest posts Latest posts yesterday 6.00pm What we covered today By Hannah Hammoud Thanks for following our live news blog. That wraps up our coverage for today. Here's a quick recap of the key stories: Loading The federal Liberal Party shared confidential voter data with the Exclusive Brethren, a secretive Christian group that made nearly a million pre-election calls supporting the Coalition. Federal vice-president of the Liberal Party Fiona Scott made a joking remark suggesting Sussan Ley's leadership could be short-lived, offering a lacklustre endorsement of Ley's future leadership. Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price surprised colleagues by declining to run for deputy leader after Angus Taylor lost the leadership vote, leaving Phillip Thompson to step in unexpectedly. Liberal senator Jane Hume stood by her foreign interference warnings but conceded that a video referencing 'Chinese spies' may have hurt the party's campaign. Caleb List, a 25-year-old Australian who joined Ukraine's foreign legion, is feared dead. The Prime Minister called the news 'deeply troubling.' ASIC has accused Macquarie Group of misleading conduct for failing to report up to 1.5 billion short sales over 15 years, in a second action this week. Hannah Ferguson, founder of Cheek Media, announced she'll run as an independent Senate candidate in NSW at the next federal election. Joel Cauchi's psychiatrist reversed earlier claims that he was not psychotic during the Bondi Junction Westfield attack, now suggesting her evidence about his 'hatred of women' was merely 'conjecture'. Olympian cyclist Rohan Dennis received a suspended sentence following the death of his wife, fellow Olympian Melissa Hoskins. The Liberal National Party's Terry Young has held on to the seat of Longman, north of Brisbane, after a tight race with Labor candidate Rhiannyn Douglas. Thanks again for joining us. We'll be back tomorrow morning. yesterday 5.43pm Terry Young holds on to Longman By Matt Wade The Liberal National Party's Terry Young has retained the seat of Longman, north of Brisbane, after a tight race with Labor candidate Rhiannyn Douglas. Young now leads by 335 votes with only about 750 still to count. Loading The Liberal National Party had previously held Longman with margin of 3.1 per cent but at the next election it will be among the most marginal electorates in the nation. Terry Young has held the seat of Longman since 2019. His victory in Longman brings the Coalition's seat total in the lower house of the new parliament to 43. Meanwhile, the Liberal Party's Zoe McKenzie is ahead in the contest for the Melbourne seat of Flinders. It is likely the winner of that race will become clear tomorrow morning. In the ultra-close count in the northern Sydney seat of Bradfield, Liberal contender Gisele Kapterian has maintained her advantage throughout counting on Wednesday; at 5pm she led by 80 votes with about 920 votes yet to count. yesterday 5.39pm ASX ends higher, led by energy and tech stocks; Macquarie, Aristocrat shares fall The Australian sharemarket swung into the green in afternoon trading, sent higher by energy and tech stocks, which more than made up for losses from big names such as Macquarie Group and Aristocrat that had kept the market in negative territory for most of the session. The S&P/ASX 200 finished up 10.6 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 8279.6, rising for its sixth session in a row. Six of its 11 industry sectors advanced, with tech and energy stocks the big winners. Their gains were countered by falls in consumer stocks and utilities. The Australian dollar was flat at US64.71¢. Tech stocks yet again followed their peers in the US, where chipmakers were leading a rally after AI giants Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices said they would supply semiconductors for a massive data-centre project in Saudi Arabia. The ASX tech sector rose 1 per cent, led by family member tracking app Life360, which soared a further 9.5 per cent after reporting huge sales growth this week. The iron ore heavyweights also extended their recent gains amid hopes for easing global trade tensions since the US and China on Monday announced a 90-day truce in their trade war and agreed to temporarily reduce tariffs on each other's goods. BHP, the world's largest miner, rose 0.6 per cent. Its CEO Mike Henry told a global mining conference overnight that the mining titan was well-positioned to navigate its way through the uncertainty created by Trump's trade wars. Rio Tinto added 0.5 per cent and Fortescue climbed 2.2 per cent. yesterday 5.24pm Australia records big bump in pregnancy heat-risk days By Poppy Johnston Climate change has already added about 10 extra days a year of extreme heat deemed harmful for pregnant women in Australia. Darwin experienced a sharp 17-day jump in heat conditions threatening to pregnant people and newborns, the biggest increase of all Australian cities captured in the analysis by international non-profit Climate Central. Heatwaves pose birth risks, with the World Health Organisation linking high temperatures to preterm birth and stillbirth as well as hypertension and gestational diabetes. Climate Central vice-president for science Kristina Dahl said climate change added more than half of Australia's pregnancy heat-risk days experienced over the past five years. 'That means climate change is already making it harder to have a healthy pregnancy, especially in regions where care may be limited,' Dr Dahl said. She said each day of extreme heat increased the chances of serious pregnancy complications. AAP yesterday 5.12pm 'What happened to Tanya?' Senators clash on ABC By Hannah Hammoud Labor senator Marielle Smith has clashed with Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie on the ABC's Afternoon Briefing after McKenzie accused the Labor Party of investing all its power in the hands of 'faceless men'. 'That's when I know the Labor Party will have actually turned the corner on gender equality, when the people that hold the power can also wear a dress,' McKenzie said. 'Tanya Plibersek should be leading your party – what happened to Tanya?' Smith said McKenzie's comments were 'extremely offensive', and recalled being heckled and called 'quota girl' by McKenzie's colleagues when she was elected and sworn in to parliament. 'This is very rude and very offensive,' Smith said. yesterday 4.57pm Reports Australian killed in Ukraine 'deeply troubling': PM By Hannah Hammoud Loading Following reports that 25-year-old Queensland man Caleb List has been killed in combat while fighting in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, Anthony Albanese said the news was 'deeply troubling'. 'My heart goes out to the family and loved ones of the gentlemen concerned. DFAT are working in the way that they do to make sure the proper notifications are occurring,' Albanese said. He said there was a travel warning in place 'for a reason' given the danger, and that Australians should not be travelling to Ukraine. yesterday 4.47pm Ley welcome to engage with PM on 'any issue' By Hannah Hammoud Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has appeared for a short press conference in Perth ahead of his visit to Indonesia, telling reporters he spoke with Sussan Ley to congratulate her on her election. 'It is a great honour to lead a major political party in Australia, and I congratulate her and wish her well,' he said. 'I invited her at any time to engage with me, as Peter Dutton was always welcome to do on any issue to advance the national interest.' yesterday 4.39pm Labor senator welcomes Ley appointment By Hannah Hammoud Labor senator Marielle Smith has avoided commentating on whether Ley has been set up to fail in reference to the glass cliff phenomenon – where women are appointed to leadership positions during times of crisis. 'Sussan Ley's appointment is a matter for the Liberal Party and the Liberal Party room,' she said. 'All I would say is that more broadly speaking I think it's important that we see and continue to see greater representation of women and people from all sorts of walks of life across our institutions. '... In that sense, I welcome it, but in terms of the nitty-gritty that's really for the Liberal party room, which I definitely do not sit in.' yesterday 4.22pm Does the Liberal Party need to adopt gender quotas? By Hannah Hammoud Ruston is asked if the Liberal Party needs to implement quotas to improve their female representation given the growing number of female voters turning away from the party. Loading 'We need to be really analytical, but we also need to be really honest with ourselves about what went wrong so that we can make positive changes so that into the future we do provide an offering that Australians want,' Ruston said. Caisley pressed Ruston on whether quotas were off the table, to which Ruston replied she has never been a 'great supporter' of them. 'But I do believe that you have to take affirmative action to make sure that you have got representation,' she said. 'One of my roles going forward is to make sure we are supporting women so they are joining our party. I also want to support all young people because they are future of the party and I think for people like me who've been here for some time, part of our role must be to mentor and support young people.' yesterday 4.10pm Ruston backs Ley to guide rebuild By Hannah Hammoud Liberal senator Anne Ruston has appeared on ABC's Afternoon Briefing with Olivia Caisley, where she described Ley's appointment as Opposition Leader as a 'wonderful opportunity' for the party. 'She's an extremely capable politician. She's got a lot of experience both in the parliament and in the real-world having had a series of really quite extraordinarily diverse jobs,' she said.
ABC News
14-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Political commentator Hannah Ferguson concerned by influencers who accept payment from politicians
Prominent social media figure Hannah Ferguson has called for better regulation of political endorsements on social media and slammed the use of the word influencer while reflecting on the impact of content creators during the federal election campaign. Ms Ferguson, who hosts a podcast and runs Cheek Media, a business through which she promotes progressive politics, addressed the National Press Club in Canberra and raised concerns about content creators who accepted money from politicians during the election. "There's a lot of people who were accepting money and doing authorisations on social media posts, and that did concern me greatly," she said. "An influencer saying 'I'm voting for this person' — that seems fair and reasonable to me. "[But] when they're getting paid to do that, I think that needs to be very clear from the outset: at the start and at the end of the video, it needs to be in the caption." While Ms Ferguson's content was extremely critical of the Coalition, to the extent she sold T-shirts that said: "Good morning to everyone except Peter Dutton," she says she did not accept payment from any political figures, despite being offered, and pointed out it was frustrating to be "lumped together" with those accepting money. She also called out her peers who co-authored Instagram posts with politicians during the election. "For me, we shouldn't be collaboratively posting with politicians, I think that that is an endorsement," she said. Collaborative posts between influencers and politicians on Instagram became an issue earlier this year, after the Australian Electoral Commission issued guidance telling politicians to authorise all co-authored posts with influencers. The issue was further thrust into the spotlight after Independent MP Allegra Spender admitted to paying an agency to commission social media posts from influencers, which were later edited to be more clearly authorised. But Ms Ferguson called for greater transparency on the influence of both politicians and the Murdoch press, arguing content creators were "being scapegoated while Goliath continues his rampage." While media organisations are bound by industry standards and regulations, Ms Ferguson questioned how strongly they were applied to some parts of the press. Ms Ferguson also hit out at the use of the word "influencer" during the election, as a term largely used to describe young women. "Influencer has been the dirtiest word of this campaign," she said. "The agenda is clear — to undermine our intelligence, to paint us as untrustworthy, and to conflate us with green juice and a discount code. "There is nothing wrong with being an influencer, but the label is intended to cause significant reputational damage. "The impact is deeply misogynistic." Ms Ferguson also used the address to reiterate her intention to run as an independent for the NSW Senate at the next federal poll. She said it would be "virtually impossible" to get elected because she'd need to win hundreds of thousands of votes, but she wanted to "step into the arena" as her next attempt at achieving change. "Running a campaign and losing, I think, is also a powerful thing to do to show other young women that they can do the same thing and that it's not embarrassing — it's actually a triumph that you attempted to challenge a system and an establishment," she said.
The Guardian
14-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Cheek Media boss Hannah Ferguson planning 2028 independent Senate tilt
Cheek Media co-founder Hannah Ferguson, who curated a distinct progressive voice on social media during the election campaign, will make her own run for parliament at the next election. Speaking for the first time to the National Press Club, the content creator vowed to run as an independent senator for New South Wales in 2028 – though, she added, 'not because I think I would win'. 'Running a campaign and losing, I think, is a powerful thing to do to show other young women that they can do the same thing and that it's not embarrassing,' Ferguson said. 'It's actually a triumph that you attempted to challenge a system and establishment.' The room was filled with young women, some within the political space, including Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young (who Ferguson endorsed to become the next leader of the minor party) and members of independent senator David Pocock's office. Ferguson was part of a growing wave of content creators who dominated the social media space during the 2025 election. She is the CEO of the independent news commentary platform, which publishes short reels on politics attracting tens of thousands of views. She also hosts a podcast, Big Small Talk. After she was invited to cover the federal budget earlier this year alongside other creators – some of whom had travel expenses covered – Ferguson was criticised by some media outlets. Highlighting in her speech that she had not accepted payment for political content during the election, she later said she was 'concerned' about being 'lumped together' with paid creators. 'I said 'no' to money from multiple political organisations that offered it to me this election cycle, and that was why so much of it was offensive, because I actively ensured I was a commentator that was freed from [bias] ... Everything was my bias, but I was forthcoming with this.' While criticising traditional media for perceived bias on Wednesday – and pointing the finger directly at the Murdoch press – Ferguson also acknowledged the social media space should be regulated for its political content. 'I believe that there should be structural accountability for people online … there's guidelines to be changed [and] I think there should be enforceable standards,' she said. 'We have to have frameworks in place to regulate this kind of work. But regulation should be uniform. Let's force the Murdoch media to do the same.' Ferguson backed a royal commission into Australia's media concentration, but going even further than one proposed by the former prime minister and current US ambassador, Kevin Rudd. She said a commission should also look at new media. 'A government that will pass a world-first ban on social media for under-16s should establish a royal commission into Australia's media concentration,' she said, 'examining not only Murdoch, but the entire industry, including unregulated space and social media for which I form part.' Ferguson, who between her personal and Cheek Media pages has a combined following of around 275,000 , called for stronger rules around transparency and accountability for paid content. 'A lot of tests need to be put in place. I'm not an expert but I think in the media landscape there needs to be a fit and proper person test. At a social media level, there needs to be clear regulations and guidance when it comes to authorisations, endorsements, collaborative posting,' Ferguson said. 'There's not really that many limitations to who can advertise on different forms of media and what they can say and how they can lie.' Ferguson said she considered herself a commentator, rather than a journalist. But she was adamant she and her peers should not be labelled as 'influencers', accusing mainstream media and politicians of trying to 'undermine' their work. 'Influencer has been the dirtiest word of this campaign,' she said. 'They want to invalidate and undermine a group of powerful young women who developed the ability to communicate with audiences in a way that traditional media can't.' 'The idea that influencers is an umbrella term that applies to me and [to] someone being paid by the Greens or a particular candidate, when I refuse to do that, that's my concern. Because it delegitimises me in the process.'
The Advertiser
14-05-2025
- Politics
- The Advertiser
No tuning out as influencers reshape political campaign
Young people are turning to social media influencers and commentators to get their news, with politicians warned to either adapt or face irrelevancy. The federal Liberals largely ignored influencers and it stopped them from reaching a large cohort of female voters, Cheek Media CEO and host of the Big Small Talk podcast Hannah Ferguson said. Ms Ferguson, whose channel reached four million individuals during the election campaign, said media giant News Corp had weaponised the word 'influencer' to target progressive young women as part of a culture war. "The agenda is clear - to undermine our intelligence, to paint us as untrustworthy, and to conflate us with green juice and a discount code," she told the National Press Club on Wednesday. "There is nothing wrong with being an influencer, but the label is intended to cause significant reputational damage. The impact is deeply misogynistic." Large media corporations "want to invalidate and undermine a group of powerful young women who developed the ability to communicate with audiences in a way that traditional media can't", she said. Painting every female podcaster with the same brush, depicting them as "friendly, unserious and surface level", sought to delegitimise what they were doing, she added. While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used podcast appearances to humanise himself, former opposition leader Peter Dutton had refused to engage, particularly with platforms run by women, she said. "(It) was one small, yet huge, decision in a series of reckless refusals to attempt to communicate with the voter base that would eventually end his political career," she said. People paid for endorsements on social media needed to ensure this was made abundantly clear in all their posts, she said, adding she had turned down political parties offering payments. Ms Ferguson intends to run as an independent for a Senate spot in 2028. Influencers were invited to the federal budget lockup at Parliament House for the first time in 2025. This helped the government get its message out to people who otherwise wouldn't have paid attention, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said. "It's really clear that new media are going to feature in politics ... and they have a legitimate place at the table." Ms Ferguson agreed, adding her audience was less concerned about the gritty details of a budget that traditional media would focus on and wanted to know what was in it for them in a digestible way they understood. Young people are turning to social media influencers and commentators to get their news, with politicians warned to either adapt or face irrelevancy. The federal Liberals largely ignored influencers and it stopped them from reaching a large cohort of female voters, Cheek Media CEO and host of the Big Small Talk podcast Hannah Ferguson said. Ms Ferguson, whose channel reached four million individuals during the election campaign, said media giant News Corp had weaponised the word 'influencer' to target progressive young women as part of a culture war. "The agenda is clear - to undermine our intelligence, to paint us as untrustworthy, and to conflate us with green juice and a discount code," she told the National Press Club on Wednesday. "There is nothing wrong with being an influencer, but the label is intended to cause significant reputational damage. The impact is deeply misogynistic." Large media corporations "want to invalidate and undermine a group of powerful young women who developed the ability to communicate with audiences in a way that traditional media can't", she said. Painting every female podcaster with the same brush, depicting them as "friendly, unserious and surface level", sought to delegitimise what they were doing, she added. While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used podcast appearances to humanise himself, former opposition leader Peter Dutton had refused to engage, particularly with platforms run by women, she said. "(It) was one small, yet huge, decision in a series of reckless refusals to attempt to communicate with the voter base that would eventually end his political career," she said. People paid for endorsements on social media needed to ensure this was made abundantly clear in all their posts, she said, adding she had turned down political parties offering payments. Ms Ferguson intends to run as an independent for a Senate spot in 2028. Influencers were invited to the federal budget lockup at Parliament House for the first time in 2025. This helped the government get its message out to people who otherwise wouldn't have paid attention, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said. "It's really clear that new media are going to feature in politics ... and they have a legitimate place at the table." Ms Ferguson agreed, adding her audience was less concerned about the gritty details of a budget that traditional media would focus on and wanted to know what was in it for them in a digestible way they understood. Young people are turning to social media influencers and commentators to get their news, with politicians warned to either adapt or face irrelevancy. The federal Liberals largely ignored influencers and it stopped them from reaching a large cohort of female voters, Cheek Media CEO and host of the Big Small Talk podcast Hannah Ferguson said. Ms Ferguson, whose channel reached four million individuals during the election campaign, said media giant News Corp had weaponised the word 'influencer' to target progressive young women as part of a culture war. "The agenda is clear - to undermine our intelligence, to paint us as untrustworthy, and to conflate us with green juice and a discount code," she told the National Press Club on Wednesday. "There is nothing wrong with being an influencer, but the label is intended to cause significant reputational damage. The impact is deeply misogynistic." Large media corporations "want to invalidate and undermine a group of powerful young women who developed the ability to communicate with audiences in a way that traditional media can't", she said. Painting every female podcaster with the same brush, depicting them as "friendly, unserious and surface level", sought to delegitimise what they were doing, she added. While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used podcast appearances to humanise himself, former opposition leader Peter Dutton had refused to engage, particularly with platforms run by women, she said. "(It) was one small, yet huge, decision in a series of reckless refusals to attempt to communicate with the voter base that would eventually end his political career," she said. People paid for endorsements on social media needed to ensure this was made abundantly clear in all their posts, she said, adding she had turned down political parties offering payments. Ms Ferguson intends to run as an independent for a Senate spot in 2028. Influencers were invited to the federal budget lockup at Parliament House for the first time in 2025. This helped the government get its message out to people who otherwise wouldn't have paid attention, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said. "It's really clear that new media are going to feature in politics ... and they have a legitimate place at the table." Ms Ferguson agreed, adding her audience was less concerned about the gritty details of a budget that traditional media would focus on and wanted to know what was in it for them in a digestible way they understood. Young people are turning to social media influencers and commentators to get their news, with politicians warned to either adapt or face irrelevancy. The federal Liberals largely ignored influencers and it stopped them from reaching a large cohort of female voters, Cheek Media CEO and host of the Big Small Talk podcast Hannah Ferguson said. Ms Ferguson, whose channel reached four million individuals during the election campaign, said media giant News Corp had weaponised the word 'influencer' to target progressive young women as part of a culture war. "The agenda is clear - to undermine our intelligence, to paint us as untrustworthy, and to conflate us with green juice and a discount code," she told the National Press Club on Wednesday. "There is nothing wrong with being an influencer, but the label is intended to cause significant reputational damage. The impact is deeply misogynistic." Large media corporations "want to invalidate and undermine a group of powerful young women who developed the ability to communicate with audiences in a way that traditional media can't", she said. Painting every female podcaster with the same brush, depicting them as "friendly, unserious and surface level", sought to delegitimise what they were doing, she added. While Prime Minister Anthony Albanese used podcast appearances to humanise himself, former opposition leader Peter Dutton had refused to engage, particularly with platforms run by women, she said. "(It) was one small, yet huge, decision in a series of reckless refusals to attempt to communicate with the voter base that would eventually end his political career," she said. People paid for endorsements on social media needed to ensure this was made abundantly clear in all their posts, she said, adding she had turned down political parties offering payments. Ms Ferguson intends to run as an independent for a Senate spot in 2028. Influencers were invited to the federal budget lockup at Parliament House for the first time in 2025. This helped the government get its message out to people who otherwise wouldn't have paid attention, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said. "It's really clear that new media are going to feature in politics ... and they have a legitimate place at the table." Ms Ferguson agreed, adding her audience was less concerned about the gritty details of a budget that traditional media would focus on and wanted to know what was in it for them in a digestible way they understood.
Sky News AU
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Sky News host accuses the ABC of broadcasting biased election coverage after program included far-left activist on panel
Sky News host Chris Kenny has accused the ABC of televising biased election coverage, after far-left activist and influencer Hannah Ferguson appeared as a panellist on the Gruen Nation program. There was a shift in the 2025 federal election in the coverage of major political events, as politicians including both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton sought the help of social media influencers and podcasters with the hope of reaching more voters, particularly the younger demographic. Hannah Ferguson, CEO of the far-left news company Cheek Media, was one of many influencers and activists who took an increasingly prominent role during the campaign, appearing not only on social media platforms but mainstream television. Despite the ABC's Gruen Nation program touting itself as an impartial analysis into the world of advertising and marketing, Ms Ferguson, whose business model relies on providing 'progressive perspectives', was inserted on the panel as a 'political insider'. Kenny argued Ms Ferguson was 'anything but neutral' and condemned the ABC for projecting the influencer's 'personal and political vitriol'. 'This world of podcasting and social media influencing has been all the talk of the election campaign and the ABC's been into it too,' the Sky News host said. Kenny presented a myriad of Ferguson's political remarks posted to social media which included scathing critiques of the Liberal Party and attacks against Mr Dutton. 'Here's ten things to remember about Peter Dutton so that you can have better political conversations in the lead up to the election and so that you can talk about him when you're wearing the Good Morning to Everyone except Peter Dutton's shirt,' she said in one post. In another she stated Mr Dutton was 'Donald Trump without the fake tan' and that his political brand was 'a blatant mirroring of the US, and we are seeing how that's going'. Ms Ferguson also said on the Gruen Nation election special the 2025 poll was 'the first time our country's ever seen politics made hot' and that she covered her drinks around 'young Libs and Labor' volunteers, adding she didn't 'want to be around those people'. 'It turns out this new ABC favourite who pushes her unoriginal views on air and then the ABC amplifies them online, well it turns out she's just another rather hateful Green, left activist,' Kenny said, hitting out at the public broadcaster for its selection of guests. 'This is what passes for independent political analysis on the ABC now. "By the way, the public broadcaster has a new minister as of today with Anika Wells, the sports minister, sworn in as communications minister. "You'd be foolish to expect anything to change." Kenny's critique comes as the ABC grapples with a dramatic slump in its TV and radio ratings, with chair Kim Williams vowing in late 2024 the taxpayer-funded broadcaster would undergo a 'cultural renewal'. 'We are of the view that we must consciously reference these primary instruments that artfully describe the ABC remit in terms to meet today's needs, ensuring we are well aligned in determining the right priorities to serve Australians well,'' he said in a foreword published in the ABC's 2024 annual report. The ABC's combined national audience reach across television, radio and online was estimated to be 61.9 per cent over a period of a week in 2023-2024, a decline of 3.5 percentage points compared to the previous year's net reach of 65.4 per cent.
