MARK MY WORDS
Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen says the world must phase out fossil fuels to keep the 1.5-degree goal in sight, Guardian Australia reports, even though Australia is “one of the world’s largest fossil fuel exporters” (and rather cashed up for it). He also revealed his Saudi counterpart told him greenhouse gas emissions, not fossil fuels, were to blame (riddle me that). Australia cannot see our “brothers and sisters” in the Pacific swallowed by the sea, Bowen says (plus we want to be a renewable superpower). It comes as Dubai’s COP28 draft agreement calls for fossil fuel “cuts”, not phase-outs or phase-downs. Verbatim, the petrostate-originating doc calls for “reducing both consumption and production of fossil fuels, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, so as to achieve net zero by, before or around 2050, in keeping with the science”. Tuvalu’s dismayed Finance Minister Seve Paeniu told The Guardian it “provides countries with options rather than obligations”. Tuvalu simply cannot wait, as CNN reports.
Speaking of the importance of words — we should’ve legislated the Voice first to show how effective the advisory body could be, then asked Australia about constitutional recognition, former Indigenous Australians minister Ken Wyatt says in his first interview since the vote came back No. “The quicksands of uncertainty became the glue that lost the vote,” he told the SMH ($), adding referendum questions have to be so precise they’re airtight from confusion. But the Indigenous community has come through “many setbacks over the 230-odd years”, Wyatt continues, and the failed referendum is not the end. He calls on national cabinet and a new close-the-gap taskforce to be “concerted” and “pragmatic”. It comes as the High Court will decide whether the National Parks director should get so-called Crown immunity or face offences for constructing a path in the NT’s Gunlom Falls in Kakadu without getting it approved by the Indigenous statutory authority, the National Indigenous Times reports.
M&MS
“Modernisation, maximisation and middle Australia”, says Treasurer Jim Chalmers — these three vague terms are the key to Labor’s reform agenda until the 2025 election. The Australian ($) reports Chalmers says he wants the middle class and industries to benefit from the challenges ahead. Meanwhile the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook will have $9.8 billion in “savings and reprioritisations”, Finance Minister Katy Gallagher says, bringing the total to $49.6 billion. This comes as nearly six in 10 Australians (57%) are struggling financially, a poll in Guardian Australia reports, and just a third of us (34%) trust the federal Parliament right now. From where we stand, it’s been a great year for the private sector, however — exactly half of us say big companies (coal, oil and gas, grocery duopoly, telcos etc) appear to be positively thriving while many can barely afford food.
Meanwhile, vale the 3G network, which is being switched off starting this week after two decades of faithful, spotty service — Vodafone will call time on Friday, Telstra will wait until June, and Optus will say goodbye in September. “Even emergency triple-0 calls will no longer be possible on impacted devices,” 7News warns, so check in with your telco to get on to 4G or 5G ASAP, if you aren’t already. Speaking of your phone — Qantas says you can’t film staff, contractors or other customers anymore without getting their consent, The New Daily reports. The clause was quietly added to the airline’s conditions of carriage in November. Better privacy or slashed accountability, considering this is likely to include baggage handlers too? You decide.
WARRING WORDS
UN Women Australia chair Georgina Williams called Coalition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson and Victorian Liberal MP Georgie Crozier to confront them about their criticism of the body at a Jewish women’s vigil, The Australian ($) reports. Henderson and Crozier both accused UN Women of being silent on allegations that Hamas committed mass rape on October 7 (though the paper didn’t bother using the term “alleged”). Henderson says Williams’ call was “heated” but Williams says she wasn’t upset and wants support for the Jewish community as well.
Meanwhile Seven Network boss Kerry Stokes has agreed to fork out via his private company, Australian Capital Equity, tens of millions to cover legal costs in the failed defamation case of probable war criminal Ben Roberts–Smith, Sky News Australia reports. It means Seven won’t have to hand over 8,600 emails related to the case, Guardian Australia continues, after Nine newspapers argued Seven had a lot of control over the defamation case and thus should pay its costs. So how much will Stokes part with? We don’t actually know — the court didn’t say — but the case is estimated to have cost $35 million. And BRS brought it himself — an own goal of mythic proportions, folks. But he’s appealing the verdict.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a person who wishes to retain their faith in humanity should never read the comments. With try-hard tech bro Elon Musk running X (straight into the ground), the platform has become an even more insidious place for anonymous people with number-filled handles to say whatever they fancy in whichever colourful devolution of grammar they choose. But there is one place on the web, SMH’s Robert Moran writes, where the comment section is filled with earnest wonder and moving anecdote, a rich painting of the very fibrous light of a human being. And that place is YouTube. Moran writes that the video platform’s comments are the “70% dark chocolate of internet comments: rich, nuanced and delicious”. You feel better reading them — or at least “neutral”, a decently high bar in this faceless digital town square era.
Take the clip of Renee Elise Goldsberry singing “My Home Court” — four years ago, someone mentioned they find themselves quietly crooning “the brown and the beige” at odd times. Hey, I do this too, Moran marvelled, feeling a sudden tenuous string of belonging. There were 288 likes on the comment — his “soulmates across the world”, he writes. Then there was a comment on Elliott Smith’s “The Biggest Lie” from a person sharing a story about spending his last few bucks on what he thought was a lethal dose of heroin (he was sold fake stuff). So when Smith says, “You spent everything you had, wanted everything to stop that bad,” the comment read, it has this profound resonance. Some 172 people liked the comment, a veritable large wedding’s worth of support. “I’m glad you are still here,” some guy named Kevin replied, for no other apparent reason than he probably was glad.
Hoping you realise you are never really alone in this world.
SAY WHAT?
Anthony Albanese said before the last election that he had no plans to change the date of Australia Day. He needs to get on the phone to Stephen Smith and he needs to tell him that this event needs to go ahead, that Australia Day is our national holiday.
Dan Tehan
The opposition immigration spokesman called for the PM to tell the high commissioner to the UK to reinstate the cancelled annual Australia Day gala dinner in London, which was scrapped because it “touches on sensitivities for some Australians”.
CRIKEY RECAP
“Treasurer Jim Chalmers, with Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, delivered the first budget surplus in 15 years. This was helped, yes, by a windfall from extractive industries, but nearly all of that was put onto the budget bottom line, even as progressives demanded more spending that would have exacerbated inflation.
“Unemployment has held at around 3.7% throughout the year, while participation rose to a new record of 67%. Inflation has fallen from 7.8% at the end of 2022 to 5.4%, with government policies on rent and energy playing an important role in the reduction. Wages growth — also boosted by government policies — reached 4% …”
“Nuclear power plants take a very long time to build — as Australia’s former chief scientist Alan Finkel told the Nine papers in August, it’s highly unlikely Australia could open a nuclear power plant before the early 2040s, a delay the country can ill afford if it is to dramatically reduce emissions as quickly as it needs to.
“On top of this is the eye-watering price. According to research from the Department of Climate Change and Energy released in September this year, the cost of replacing coalmine sites with small nuclear reactors would be $387 billion.”
“While the performance, to be exhibited through the artist’s website, was intended as a quiet, meditative work, the media response starkly contrasted. Peta Credlin, Sky News host and former chief-of-staff to ex-PM Tony Abbott, condemned IMMACULATE, describing it as a ‘sheer abuse of taxpayer grants’.
“Other right-wing commentators such as Bella d’Abrera also expressed outrage and offence, which was echoed by a particular group of donor-conceived children. The Australia Council soon rescinded Jenkins’ funding, stating: ‘We cannot be party to any act that could result in bringing a new life into the world.’ At the same time, it sent Jenkins a transcript of Credlin’s criticism.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
What’s UN Resolution 377A, can it help in efforts to stop Israel-Gaza war? (Al Jazeera)
Golden Globe nominations: Barbie and Oppenheimer lead 2024 contenders (BBC)
Navalny aides says he has disappeared within Russia’s prison system (Reuters)
Israel trying to clear Palestinians from Gaza, claims UN agency head (euronews)
Kenya’s nationwide power blackout sparks [Kenya Power and Lighting Company] sabotage suspicions (BBC)
Tusk set to take power in Poland after rival is rejected (The New York Times) ($)
Tucker Carlson is launching his own streaming service (The Wall Street Journal) ($)
THE COMMENTARIAT
New political trio restores public sanity to NZ — Nick Cater (The Australian) ($): “New Zealand’s 42nd prime minister has committed to introducing a bill to Parliament nominating English as the country’s official language, a measure none of his predecessors seemed to think was necessary. Ministers have reminded bureaucrats that government business should be conducted in the vocabulary of 89% of Kiwi homes. The convention of writing public signage primarily in English is to be restored, rather than Te Reo Maori, a language only 50,000 New Zealanders speak fluently, mostly in the northernmost districts of North Island. The re-Anglification of civic life is high on the agenda of the new woke-busting, swamp-draining conservative coalition led by mild-mannered former businessman Christopher Luxon.
“Together with his coalition partners, NZ First’s Winston Peters and ACT’s David Seymour, Luxon has set out a detailed plan for the restoration of sanity after the destructive experiment conducted by Jacinda Ardern. The two agreements Luxon signed with his partners a fortnight ago represent a comprehensive rejection of every progressive measure introduced by the former Labour government. For members of the country’s small but vocal elite, such as Te Pati Maori (formerly the Maori Party) co-leader Debbie Ngarewa–Packer, the agreements are ‘a flashback to the 19th century … a manifesto of white supremacy and cultural genocide’, a win for ‘profiteers, landlords, conspirators, and climate deniers’. For much of the rest of the country it is as if dawn has broken on a home-alone party of rebellious teenagers and the adults are back in charge.”
Rishi Sunak’s week of chaos reflects the state of his party. There’s only one answer: an election — Simon Jenkins (The Guardian): “Britain has a proportionately lower immigrant population than Germany, Spain and much of Europe. Immigration is not the biggest electoral issue, merely big on the Tory right. What is a scandal is Britain’s high number of illegal immigrants. But that is the fault of executive government, not of national or international law. Britain clearly needs immigrants, who are a net benefit to the economy. While Sunak should do what he can to process illegal immigrants before they arrive, his currently soaring net migration figure has saved the care sector, the NHS, agriculture and housebuilding from catastrophe. To stifle it is madness.
“Labour has no other answer. Nigel Farage has no other answer. Brexit has made dealings with France over small boats all the more difficult. And who was in favour of that? As for Sunak’s future as prime minister, we have been suffering for the past five years from a Tory flirtation with Johnsonian populism. The Tories were once a party of clubbable middle-class professionals, bonded together by loyalty and competence rather than ideology. That party has disintegrated. Boris Johnson sacked its entire upper echelon of experience and talent in 2019. He left a rabble of self-seekers and WhatsApp outsiders, led now by Priti Patel, Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Reserve Bank of Australia governor Michele Bullock will give a speech at the AusPayNet Summit at the International Convention Centre. You can also catch this online.
Kaurna Country (also known as Adelaide)
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Kellie Finlayson, who is married to AFL player Jeremy Finlayson, will speak about her bowel cancer at The Precinct at Alberton.
