KING HEADS TO CANBERRA
Following their sunny day out in Sydney on Sunday, King Charles and Queen Camilla are travelling to Canberra today for more formal engagements and a spot of tree planting.
Despite my colleague Anton Nilsson highlighting that Taylor Swift generated many more column inches than the royals during her visit to Australia earlier in the year, pretty much every site and newspaper featured very prominently overnight the king and queen’s trip to St Thomas’ Anglican Church, NSW Parliament and meeting the governor-general at Admiralty House on Sunday.
AAP reports today the king and queen will privately pay their respects at the Australian War Memorial commemorative area, laying a wreath and floral tribute, before moving to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Memorial “For Our Country”.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will then host a ceremonial welcome at Parliament House. As mentioned in previous Worms, none of the state premiers are attending the event and are instead sending representatives. Guardian Australia says in the afternoon the royals will then plant a tree each on the grounds of Yarralumla before heading to the Botanic Gardens.
The Sydney Morning Herald adds Charles and Camilla will return to Sydney on Tuesday and then on Wednesday fly to Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
While Albanese is hosting the king his mind might well be on other things as his government continues to try and wrestle back the narrative as we edge ever closer to that federal election no-one can stop talking about. This morning The Australian reckons it knows the PM’s strategy for dealing with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton during the election campaign.
The paper believes Albanese’s strategy will be one of “character assassination” against Dutton “and not on Labor’s record alone”, with the opposition apparently doing… the opposite, and senior sources quoted in both directions. The Labor source said: “Our campaign will ask Australians — what will Peter Dutton’s arrogance cost you? He’s arrogant, aggressive and reckless, which is why Australians can’t see him as prime minister. Peter Dutton doesn’t have a plan for the economy or the cost of living. He’s a policy-free zone — the Coalition are the laziest opposition in living memory.”
Meanwhile, Dutton’s campaign will be “less about personality and more about Mr Albanese’s policies”, The Australian reckons. A Liberal Party source is quoted as saying: “The main point of our campaign is that Albanese and Labor, through their bad decisions, their wrong priorities, their broken promises, have made your life harder. And the cost of living pain that you’re feeling is a direct result of their bad management.”
Slightly confusingly, the paper also says Labor’s campaign strategy will be in two parts; firstly on the government’s record and agenda and then secondly on Dutton. As always, the campaign will be a joyful experience for all, I’m sure.
Talking of elections, the weekend saw Labor secure a seventh consecutive term in power in the ACT. This coming weekend it’s Queensland’s turn, with voters heading to the polls on Saturday. The AAP says polling still indicates Queensland is set for a change of government, with the LNP leading the incumbent Labor 55% to 45% on a two-party-preferred basis.
DUTTON’S HOUSING PLAN
The weekend also saw Coalition leader Peter Dutton promising to spend $5 billion speeding up funding for critical housing infrastructure in a new housing policy announcement.
AAP reports the Coalition claims its Housing Infrastructure Program will expedite the construction of up to half a million homes through a mixture of grants and concessional loans. The opposition has said it would temporarily fund water, power and sewerage to get the housing projects moving.
This morning, Guardian Australia quotes independent ACT Senator David Pocock criticising some parts of the policy announcement. The plan to freeze national building codes for 10 years is described by Pocock as “seriously regressive”, while he also accused the opposition of continuing its record of “climate change denial”.
The site said the opposition claims its new policy could result in up to 500,000 new homes being built on mostly undeveloped lands, and if a development did not progress within 12 months of receiving the funding, the money would be removed. The Property Council and Master Builders have reportedly backed the announcements.
Labor has claimed the announcement actually mirrors the government’s existing $1.5 billion program to fund critical housing infrastructure. Housing Minister Clare O’Neil said the opposition’s proposal would cut $19 billion from Labor’s housing commitments, Guardian Australia reports. Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt told ABC’s Insiders the plan was a “road to nowhere”. “He’ll [Dutton] provide the infrastructure works — the same works that we are providing — but he won’t be providing the housing, which we’re providing, at the end of those roads,” he said.
The ABC points out both major parties at the weekend were at pains to declare publicly they are not in favour of changes to negative gearing, despite all the recent coverage and speculation (and Treasury research). The broadcaster also highlighted Dutton, who like Albanese spent the weekend in Western Australia, was met by angry protesters opposed to his plan to build a nuclear power station in Collie when he visited on Friday.
Finally, The Australian lifts a rather interesting line from its interview with former British prime minister Boris Johnson in which he suggests France could one day join the AUKUS nuclear submarine pact. Given former PM Scott Morrison reneged on a $90 billion deal with France to provide submarines and instead signed the AUKUS deal, it would be intriguing to know what French President Emmanuel Macron thinks of such a suggestion.
Clarification: An earlier version of this story, based on reporting elsewhere, listed the Planning Institute of Australia as supporting the Coalition’s housing plan. The group has clarified that while it supports elements of the Housing Infrastructure Program, it does not support freezing national building codes.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
Talking of France, the largest dinosaur skeleton ever to be put up for auction will go on sale in the country next month.
The apatosaurus, nicknamed Vulcain, is being sold by auction houses Collin du Bocage and Barbarossa on November 16, the BBC reports. Vulcain is 25 metres long and 80% of its skeleton is made of its original bones, which are 145 million years old, the broadcaster said.
An advert in the Financial Times for the auction states its estimated sale price is between US$4-6 million (A$6-9 million).
Vulcain was discovered in the US state of Wyoming in 2018 and whoever buys the dinosaur will still have to let scientists examine it, the BBC added.
Auctioneer Olivier Collin Du Bocage is quoted as saying: “You must not forget that the dinosaur is a scientific piece. It is part of humanity and the story of the Earth.
“So even if you are the owner of this one, the scientists will keep an access to this piece and to learn about dinosaur.”
Say What?
I don’t think she’s wrong. Obviously there is a lot of work to do to make us electable…
Elizabeth Lee
The Canberra Liberal leader said at the weekend she agreed with retiring MLA Nicole Lawder’s assessment on the ABC that some within the ACT branch of the party were less interested in being elected than shifting to the right. Lee added people had thanked her for making the Liberals “more electable” with the party expected to win 10 seats but Labor claiming a seventh consecutive term in government.
CRIKEY RECAP
A branding expert said Charles had not had a lot of time to define himself in the Australian imagination, especially compared to his predecessor Queen Elizabeth, who was able to build up an air of “stability and continuity” over her 70-year reign.
“I think that ‘brand royal’ has been fragmented for some time — arguably, [Queen Elizabeth] ended her life and reign as perhaps the dominant strand of that, and now it’s less clear what the royals stand for in Australia,” Tim Riches, group strategy director at the brand consultancy firm Principals, told Crikey.
“People had a clear sense of what Elizabeth stood for in the wider cultural context, and the sense of affection and admiration for her grew towards the end of her reign, helped along by both a volatile cultural and political context and a sort of mythologising [by the Netflix show] ‘The Crown’.”
This story matters because people are suffering, losing hope, giving up on the Australian Dream, and, by extension, Labor… and the PM looks utterly disconnected from it all.
It matters because Albanese made growing up in public housing his calling card, yet failed to make housing an urgent priority, unable to grasp that no one born into his circumstances today could ever hope to acquire what he has. It matters because unlike the Coalition, for whom affluence is a virtue, the PM promised no one would be “left behind” — so much for that.
It matters because optics do; because the PM buying a multimillion-dollar property, when he lives for free in two taxpayer-funded ones and owns two more, six months out from a housing crisis-fueled election, shows appalling political judgment.
And it’s the height of arrogance to dismiss that, even if it doesn’t bother you.
But gee wouldn’t it be great if journalists turned their forensic gaze from what Albanese and Haydon are doing with their money onto what Albanese is doing with the public’s? Where are the columns on the government’s ongoing financial support for companies directly involved in Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the murder of an Australian aid worker — or Albanese’s evasions and deceptions over the issue? (well, in Crowe’s case, he’s too busy castigating critics of Israel). Where’s the critique of the “optics” of fossil fuel companies being subsidised by taxpayers, and WA Inc 2.0 controlling federal Labor? Or the discussion of Albanese’s “papers please” internet age verification plan?
This is merely another example of how piss-weak political journalists are at covering policy substance compared to their enthusiasm for analysis of “the optics” and race calling. I guarantee that for every column from some media veteran lamenting that politicians these days just don’t have the policy chops of their forebears blah blah Hawke Keating blah blah, there’ll be dozens of bullshit pieces like those vomited forth about Albanese’s house. In Australian journalism, policy will always be a distant second to puddle-deep commentary about how everything “looks”. Put your house on it.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
At least 87 killed in Israeli strike on northern Gaza, health ministry says (CNN)
Musk to give away $1m per day to Pennsylvania voters (BBC)
For Trump, a lifetime of scandals heads toward a moment of judgment (The New York Times) ($)
Australia will dramatically cut ‘forever chemicals’ in tap water — but it will mean a big clean-up (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Stamp duty, councils and big business’ $10bn shot at the housing crisis (The Age)
Tributes pour in for Chris Hoy after terminal cancer diagnosis (The Guardian)
THE COMMENTARIAT
King Charles is not the adversary of an Australian republic — but hasn’t the time of the crown gone? — Thomas Keneally (Guardian Australia): And as for blamelessness, well, he is blameless. He is not the adversary of an Australian republic. It is the enduring affection for the monarchy, particularly but not only in ageing Australians, that keeps the Australian monarchy alive. As adversaries, they dished us squarely in the referendum of 1999. It would be a bad sport not to say, “Good on ‘em”. As for Charles, he has correctly and genially said it is up to us to settle the issue.
This human demeanour of King Charles and Queen Camilla might be why the republican movement welcomes the royals and wishes them well. They welcome the monarchy, but then with a bit of Australian braggadocio, say it is a “farewell tour”. Although, as they also emphasise, becoming a republic carries no implication of leaving the Commonwealth. Indeed, India, a country of almost 1.5 billion, is a republic and a member of the Commonwealth.
So we are not suggesting cultural revolution if we make a transition — not the removal of royal insignia from bush courthouses, not the smashing of coronation mugs nor the chiding of those who drank from them. But we are pointing out the mere reality that at present we have a head of state, the king, who cannot with the best speak for us in international forums, who cannot know who we are or our broader dreams and aspirations. If Charles sought to speak for us internationally, to be a real head of state, he would draw the hostility of his own government in Westminster. And if our prime minister spoke freely… well, he would draw criticism.
Monarchists warn our G-G not to mention the R word to the King. What royal fools — Jenna Price (The Sydney Morning Herald): This visit should be a moment of great celebration for the AML. It should be the highlight of its miserable carping existence. Welcoming King Charles and Queen Camilla with joy, bobs, bows and bowers of flowers. Instead, it has corrupted this moment with a creepy attack on Governor-General Samantha Mostyn. If the AML wants to shore up the monarchy, do it with love. Have fun. Don’t be creepy creepers. This is your shot, monarchists. Don’t throw it away.
Why? Because when Mostyn was just a normal human being (Sam), she expressed a desire for Australia to be a republic. She thought we should have an Australian head of state. That was donkey’s years ago.
Let me tell you about Australians and the republic. We’ve never really come close. Back in 1999, when we voted on this very issue, it was about a 60/40 vibe. Most people wanted to keep things as they were. The pollster Jim Reed, of Resolve Monitor, tells me his observation is that there is no mood for change, no motivator to move away from the monarchy. “And now no mechanism, minister or model to guide a change to a republic either,” he says.
