Morning mail: spike in domestic violence under welfare card Friday: new research suggests family violence increased in East Kimberley during trial of welfare card. Plus: Japanese crime boss arrested in Thailand Kununurra in the East Kimberley. Police callouts for domestic violence have risen since the introduction of the welfare card in April 2016. Photograph: Jennifer Ennion/AAP Eleanor Ainge Roy @EleanorAingeRoy Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 12 January. Top stories Rates of domestic violence and police callouts related to domestic violence have risen in communities in the East Kimberley, where the cashless welfare card was introduced. New research shows police attendances for domestic violence incidents increased markedly in Wyndham, and both attendances and family violence assaults increased significantly in nearby Kununurra since trials began in April 2016. The cashless card has now been made permanent in East Kimberley and in Ceduna in South Australia, with the trials also being expanded to other areas. But researcher Elise Klein, who has studied the card's impact in the Kimberley, said the data showed there was no clear evidence to support making the card permanent. However, the Department of Social Services said there was no evidence the cards caused an increase in family violence. "The number of domestic violence incidents reported in East Kimberley in 2016 is likely to have increased because more stringent police reporting meant incidents that were previously not recorded were now included in police reports," a spokeswoman said. The suicide of 14-year-old Amy "Dolly" Everett has sparked calls for more funding to be dedicated to supporting the mental health of young people and combating bullying. Youth health expert Patrick McGorry says bullying can be as damaging to mental wellbeing as child abuse, and needs to be funded and guarded against with similar zeal. "It has the same level of impact on a person's mental health and self-esteem," McGorry says, adding that the behavioural and cultural change needed to reduce bullying in Australia would require a "large-scale social movement" similar to those targeting family violence, child abuse, and sexual harassment. Authorities in Tunisia have been accused of an indiscriminate crackdown against their people, who have been staging protests for the third day. The demonstrations kicked off against government-imposed price and tax rises, which will raise the cost of basic goods, but quickly spread around the country into anti-government movements, with the army deployed and more than 500 people arrested. Human rights campaigners have accused Tunisian authorities of "inexplicable violence" and arresting people not associated with the unrest. "The police are arresting protesters in every region," said Heythem Guesmi, of the Manich Msamah organisation. "They're not even interested in the looters and the anarchists. They're seeking our protesters and accusing them of things that just don't make sense." The chill from the global financial crisis continues to be felt for Australian graduates, according to experts who say many more are settling for part-time work. While the trend is true across the board, it is particularly true for graduates. The latest graduate outcomes survey revealed that the number of university leavers in part-time employment has risen by 17 percentage points over the last decade, while the number of recent graduates in full-time work remains stubbornly below below the levels of the global financial crisis. A retired Japanese crime boss has been arrested in Thailand, ending more than 14 years on the run after photos of his yakuza tattoos and a missing finger went viral online. Japanese authorities had sought Shigeharu Shirai's arrest over an alleged role in the shooting of a rival in 2003, after which he fled to Thailand and drifted into a peaceful retirement. That was until a local resident posted photos of the retiree playing a streetside checkers game with his tattoos and missing finger on show. The images were shared more than 10,000 times and caught the attention of Japanese police, who alerted the Thai authorities. Sport The three-part grand final series between Townsville Fire and the Melbourne Boomers is a sell-out in games one and two. On show will be a competition boasting all-time highs in popularity, as well as a tantalising match-up. Townsville defeated reigning champions Sydney Uni Flames to advance to their fifth grand final in six years, while Melbourne have only one championship to their name – as Bulleen in 2010-11. A new pay deal for women's rugby is an acknowledgement that it is a successful sport whose time to share the spotlight and money has come. And the agreement's importance goes far beyond the money – it is a reflection of a changing mindset on the game's vital place in Australia's rugby landscape. Thinking time Australian artist Helen Maudsley. Photograph: Eugene Hyland An artist who began her formal training in the 1940s, painter Helen Maudsley is frank about the fact that her seven-decade career has been "low status". She is similarly upfront about the difficulty of being a modernist painter working in an era in which the traditional boundaries between artistic forms have collapsed. With a solo exhibition currently showing at the National Gallery of Victoria, the 90-year-old artist talks about interpreting images and the "fiefdoms" of the 20th century art world. If you get the cancer diagnosis, and you know a specialist, it's tempting to call and ask for guidance, writes oncologist Ranjana Srivastava. But if giving unsolicited advice is inappropriate, dispensing advice out of goodwill can be outright dangerous. "Cancer is many diseases; modern therapy is many different things; emotion and bias are forever lurking in the background." Three years after retiring from The Late Show, the long-serving TV host David Letterman is back with a new show, with guests including Barack Obama and Tina Fey. At a time when late-night hosts are enjoying a surge in ratings – particularly those such as Stephen Colbert and Samantha Bee who tackle Trump's new America head-on – can Letterman's Netflix debut take him back to the top? What's he done now? Trump has reversed his stance on surveillance law in a series of contradictory tweets overnight. On Thursday the president pushed the House to renew a critical national security program that allows spy agencies to collect intelligence on foreign targets abroad – after having attacked the legislation only hours earlier. Representative Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said Trump's tweets were "inaccurate, conflicting and confusing" Media roundup The Age reports that increasing numbers of Australian teens are ditching alcohol and other drugs in a revolt against binge drinking culture. The paper draws on evidence from a study of more than 40,000 teens, which has shown a significant drop in drinking and smoking rates since 1999. Remote families in WA can breathe a sigh a relief with the West Australian reporting the school of the air has been saved, as have other essential education services, with the state government reversing budget cuts announced just one month ago. "Education is pulling its weight," said the WA premier, Mark McGowan. "But upon reflection we realise we took it too far when it comes to education services and we now need to get the balance right." And the ABC reports on a workforce management company that supplies trainee contractors to telecommunications giants such as Foxtel and Telecom being accused of exploiting its young workers, forcing them to buy tens of thousands of dollars of equipment if they wanted a job, leaving some in major debt and severe distress. Coming up Two men from the Gold Coast will become the first same-sex couple to be married at Queensland's Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages since the passing of the marriage equality bill on 9 December. 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