‘BUT HIS EMAILS’
The headache that is this week for Anthony Albanese currently shows no sign of relenting with yesterday’s inflation figures and sombre rate cut predictions failing to knock the Qantas flights saga off the top of most publications’ homepages overnight.
A statement from the prime minister’s spokesperson late on Wednesday denying Albanese ever called [former Qantas boss] Alan Joyce for free Qantas flight upgrades during his time as transport minister and opposition leader has led most of the coverage. The Sydney Morning Herald quotes the spokesperson as saying: “The prime minister did not ever call Alan Joyce seeking an upgrade. All travel has been appropriately declared and is a matter of public record.”
The Australian reckons the two sentences represent a “carefully worded statement” and don’t mention communicating through other means. That theme was also picked up by independent Senator David Pocock on ABC’s 7.30 last night.
“I think a lot of people wish he would have said that at the start. Probably could have saved some of his ministers a lot of painful interviews trying to, you know, defend him,” the ABC quotes him as saying. “What I’ve seen is he said he didn’t call Alan Joyce. Were there text messages, emails?”
The Sydney Morning Herald flags the public support for Albanese from numerous cabinet ministers this week with senior Labor figures making a series of media appearances on Wednesday. However, the paper also says it has spoken to eight Labor MPs, including ministers, who have “expressed a mixture of dismay, anger and frustration with the prime minister’s actions and the handling of the fallout”.
Since the allegations, which originated from former AFR columnist Joe Aston’s new book The Chairman’s Lounge, the opposition has attempted to heap pressure on the PM. On Tuesday Coalition leader Peter Dutton called on the prime minister to refer himself to the National Anti-Corruption Commission and the SMH reports the opposition plans to continue questions to Albanese on the issue when federal Parliament returns next week. Guardian Australia quotes the PM as saying of Dutton’s claim that there were questions over the government’s decision to reject Qatar’s requests to fly extra services to and from Australia as “a pathetic attempt at creating a headline”.
Meanwhile, the AFR has led overnight on shadow transport minister Bridget McKenzie checking with three airlines about whether she had received multiple flight upgrades having initially claimed it had only happened once.
Attempting to move away from politicians and their flights (reminder, my colleague Anton Nilsson reported back in February that “nearly all MPs and senators have accepted gifts from Qantas, and 92% of them have declared membership in the airline’s exclusive Chairman’s Lounge”), coverage of yesterday’s inflation data was also prominent across the news sites.
The AFR highlights investors are now increasingly thinking the Reserve Bank of Australia might not start cutting interest rates until next May — which, as we all know by now, is when the next federal election needs to be held by.
On Wednesday new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed headline inflation fell to 2.8% in the three months to September, the lowest it has been since March 2021. However, underlying inflation, which the RBA is most interested in, came in at 3.5% — above the central bank’s 2-3% target. The AFR points out that following the figures, the Commonwealth Bank became the final major forecaster to ditch predictions of a rate cut this year.
Having said all that, the paper does go on to say: “Economists are more optimistic than bond market investors, with the average economist tipping a rate cut at the RBA’s February 18 meeting.”
Elsewhere, the AAP flags supermarket giant Woolworths has its “yearly shareholder grilling” later today, following a stream of negative headlines for the grocery chain and its stock price slipping yesterday after it revealed it expects profits to be down.
BIDEN’S GARBAGE REMARKS
Over in America, a fight has broken out over an apostrophe.
On Tuesday, 81-year-old US President Joe Biden attempted to criticise Republican candidate Donald Trump’s controversial Madison Square Garden rally while on a campaign call with Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino.
During Sunday’s rally, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage”, prompting days of criticism aimed at the Trump campaign. Addressing the comments, the Associated Press reports Biden said: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”
As Republicans leapt on the comments, claiming Biden was calling Trump supporters “garbage” and drawing comparisons to when Hillary Clinton in 2016 said half of Trump’s supporters belonged in a “basket of deplorables”, the White House claimed the president was talking about the rhetoric on stage, not the supporters.
CNN reports White House spokesman Andrew Bates claimed Biden actually said: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s — his — his demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.” The BBC says the White House later released a transcript which included an apostrophe.
Trump and his supporters have responded strongly to the comments, with the former president declaring: “Joe Biden finally said what he and Kamala [Harris] really think of our supporters. He called them garbage. And they mean it. Even though without question my supporters are far higher quality. My response to Joe and Kamala is very simple. You can’t love America if you don’t love Americans”, the BBC reports.
AP highlights Biden chose not to answer when asked about his comments during an Oval Office meeting with the president of Cyprus on Wednesday. Instead Democratic candidate, and Biden’s Vice President, Kamala Harris told reporters the president had “clarified his comments”, adding: “Let me be clear, I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”
Harris and Trump are making their final election pitches to voters in the swing state of North Carolina on Wednesday with both also traveling to Wisconsin. Harris is also heading to Pennsylvania, The Washington Post flags. In another key state, the BBC reports Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has said more than three million people have now voted early, compared to 2.1 million at this point in the last presidential election.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
NSW Police say they have recovered more than 40,000 stolen limited-edition coins based on the hit children’s TV show Bluey.
The Associated Press reports the Bluey coins were found on Tuesday afternoon in a self-storage business in the Sydney suburb of Wentworthville.
Back in July, police were notified after 63,000 of the yet-to-be-released coins produced by the Australian Mint had been stolen from a warehouse in Western Sydney.
The BBC recalls that shortly after the theft was reported, NSW police launched an investigation into the incident codenamed Strike Force Bandit, named after Bluey’s father on the hit show.
NSW Police said in a statement on Wednesday: “To date, three people have been charged for their alleged involvement and remain before the courts.”
Say What?
Vote this week. Turn the page and put this junk behind us.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
The former Republican governor of California told his followers on X he’s voting for Kamala Harris.
CRIKEY RECAP
Williams, a former News Corp chief executive known for his way with words, was announced as the new chair of the ABC in January at a critical juncture for Australian journalism, with industry competitors under strain in a difficult commercial market, as well as alongside the challenges involved in covering Israel’s ongoing occupation of Gaza.
A couple of months later, we received an invitation from Williams’ office into the C-suite of the national broadcaster for a cup of tea. In a wide-ranging conversation, we talked about the direction of the ABC, its competitors, and whether it truly remains the mirror to the nation (much to our chagrin, however, there was no actual tea).
Owing to the length and breadth of the September 25 interview, we’ve opted to let the transcript speak for itself — you can click through to Williams’ responses to specific topics below.
The inquiry said “with the benefit of hindsight, there was excessive fiscal and monetary policy stimulus provided throughout 2021 and 2022, especially in the construction sector. Combined with supply side disruptions, this contributed to inflationary pressures coming out of the pandemic.”
The inquiry criticised the Homebuilder program’s contribution to inflation, as well as Jobkeeper’s targeting, and said blanket access to superannuation should not be repeated.
The government — which might have originally expected the inquiry to have been more critical of the Morrison government — quickly seized on the report’s economic criticisms.
One of the characteristics of Peter Dutton’s federal Coalition that Crikey has pointed out a number of times, but which still seems not to have penetrated the sage minds of other outlets, is that this isn’t the Coalition we’re used to. It’s not the “broad church” dominated by NSW and Victorian Liberals and led by a Sydney Liberal (if you’re over 40, you might remember a time when Melbourne provided Liberal leaders, but the idea is now risible anywhere outside of Dan Tehan’s dreams).
Instead, it’s a Queensland LNP affair: there are nearly as many Liberal National MPs from Queensland (21) as there are Liberals from elsewhere (25, including the not-Liberal-enough Ian Goodenough), and combined with the Nationals, who never met a trough of taxpayer money they didn’t like, they dictate the direction of the alliance.
This numerical superiority is exacerbated not merely by Peter Dutton leading them, but by the fact that, with the removal of Josh Frydenberg at the last election, there are no Liberal figures of note in the Coalition to articulate Liberal values internally. The shadow treasurer, who in normal circumstances would be a potential successor and even rival to Dutton, is the laughable Angus Taylor; the Liberal component of the shadow ministry is populated by second-raters like Paul Fletcher. It’s no wonder that the Nationals have seized the chance and steered the Coalition toward breaking up supermarkets, even if Bridget McKenzie got into strife calling for Qantas to be broken up too.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
At least 95 people dead in Spain’s worst floods in three decades (The Guardian)
Biden may have handed Trump a big assist with his ‘garbage’ gaffe (CNN)
Elon Musk’s SpaceX, already a leader in satellites, gets into the spy game (The New York Times) ($)
Ronan says reaction to women’s safety comment is ‘wild’ (BBC)
UK’s Reeves announces rise in capital gains tax for most assets (Reuters)
Supreme Court’s conservative justices allow Virginia to resume its purge of voter registrations (Associated Press)
THE COMMENTARIAT
When will we get an interest rate cut? It’s largely up to you — Michael Janda (ABC): The chance of a pre-Christmas gift from the RBA to borrowers is less than 20%, down from close to 30 before the latest inflation data.
What’s more, the chances of a February rate cut, which is what the majority of local economists had recently been forecasting, have gone from better than 60% on Wednesday morning to around 50-50 as I write.
And this is where you might be able to do your indebted family and friends a favour by being a tight-arse this Christmas.
“Consumer spending is now pivotal for both the RBA and businesses alike,” notes RSM economist Devika Shivadekar.
The Guardian view on Rishi Sunak’s exit: Fated to be a forgotten prime minister — Editorial (The Guardian): From this weekend, though, when either Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick will take over, Mr Sunak will become history. His Commons reply to Rachel Reeves’ budget speech on Wednesday is his last important appearance as party leader. After that, who knows? It seems unlikely that Mr Sunak will want to serve in the new shadow cabinet. During the election campaign, he promised he would stay as an MP for a full parliamentary term. Many nevertheless assume, though, that he will quit Westminster much sooner, perhaps for California.
Mr Sunak has had a remarkably brief career at the summit of British politics. He only became an MP for the first time nine years ago, succeeding William Hague in 2015 in the North Yorkshire seat now called Richmond and Northallerton. Three years later he was a junior minister, and a year after that a cabinet minister. In 2020 he was chancellor, and in 2022 prime minister. Still only 44, he is now quietly closing the political door as he leaves altogether, but with perhaps half of his life in front of him.
Mr Sunak’s eventual fate may be as one of Britain’s less celebrated prime ministers. But he should be remembered for three things. One is as Britain’s first-ever Hindu prime minister, and our first of Asian heritage. By any standards, this was a formidable achievement, of which he is rightly proud, as this country can also be. The second was his family riches. The third is as the man who led the Tory Party to its worst election defeat in parliamentary history, losing 251 seats and being reduced to 121 MPs.
