OH VICTORIA!
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has slammed protesters against a drag storytime event for exercising “hate speech, bigotry, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia” in “ugly scenes” that included “death threats against council officers and councillors”, news.com.au ($) reports. So what happened? The City of Monash cancelled its drag storytime event, which intended to celebrate the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, on the advice of Victoria Police, after “repeated threats of violence and intimidation against councillors, families booked to attend the event, the performer and council staff”. Monash CEO Andi Diamond described it as “incredibly disappointing”. Some 70 people turned up to the Monash City Council meeting a week back and called the councillors “paedophiles”, accused them of parading “sex in front of our children”, and yelled for them to be sacked and arrested, as Crikey reported.
Meanwhile Victorian MP Moira Deeming, who was suspended by the Liberals for her involvement in an anti-trans rights rally, is threatening Victorian Liberal Leader John Pesutto with bringing in the lawyers. The New Daily reports that Deeming wants Pesutto to publicly confirm she’s not a Nazi sympathiser in return for her copping the nine-month suspension. Pesutto denied accusing her of being Nazi affiliated, and said it’s a free country: Deeming can “sue me — and effectively sue the parliamentary Liberal Party and the Liberal Party” if she wants, as Guardian Australia reports. A “party veteran and ally” warned Pesutto that expelling Deeming was “shooting ourselves in the head”, The Australian ($) reports, but moderate Liberals warned that legal action would probably force his hand.
MOTHERHOOD STATEMENT
Meanwhile a Coalition policy that forced parents to complete education or parenting activities to keep their welfare payments will be scrapped, Guardian Australia reports. The 2018 ParentsNext program required people on the parenting payment to go to a private job agency for career advice, courses and training. The program copped flak from the Australian Human Rights Commission and more recently the government’s Women’s Equality Taskforce and the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee. Minister for Women Katy Gallagher and Employment Minister Tony Burke said women had told them it was “punitive, counterproductive and causes harm”.
From mothers to Aunty, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has told the ABC he reckons King Charles III will be a highly engaged king of Australia, as the broadcaster put it. Albanese named climate change and Indigenous issues as two areas Charles is interested in, as well as environmentally sustainable design in our cities. Still, Albanese said: “I want to see an Australian as Australia’s head of state … as a republican.” Former PM Malcolm Turnbull is also in the news today for saying Rupert Murdoch is, allegedly, one might assume, “Australia’s deadliest export”. Yikes. “Turnbull did not elaborate further on the reasons for his ‘deadliest’ claim,” the SMH ($) adds.
WORKING LIKE A CHALMERS
Treasurer Jim Chalmers will reveal a $112 billon debt bill in Tuesday’s federal budget, according to The Australian ($), which he called the “Liberals’ parting gift to the country”. It left a gross debt of $888 billion on the way out, or net debt of $517 billion, Guardian Australia adds. Why? COVID, for one, but also growing borrowing costs, the Grattan Institute said. Paying our interest down, which amounts to $60 million a day, is a key pressure on the budget, along with the NDIS, health, aged care and defence. But there are also windfalls from record commodity prices and tax revenue.
It comes as Chalmers is reportedly going to raise $3 billion more in taxes from offshore oil and gas companies, the SMH ($) reports, by tweaking the petroleum resources rent tax. It’s 40% of profit but allows big deductions for capital investments. The fossil fuel titans are printing money at the moment — our LNG exports have tripled to $91 billion in two years because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and our cost of living has skyrocketed. To that end, Chalmers has commanded the big banks to give savers the cash rate hike, The New Daily reports. Mortgage holders felt the pinch of the recent increase to 3.84%, but banks are taking their sweet old time giving it to deposit account holders. So far NAB and Westpac have said they would pass the rise on to both mortgage and savings customers.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
In a handsome town in Georgia, US, that is adorned with antebellum architecture and buzzing with bright university students, there is a tree that owns itself. It’s a white oak tree in Athens, with generous branches spread wide enough that one might sit beneath its outstretched foliage and ponder the world. Though the tree owns that land too — indeed a 2.4-metre circumference. The story dates back to sometime around 1825, when Colonel William Henry Jackson, the son of the governor of Georgia, was just a kid who loved the tree. In adulthood, he deeded the oak to itself so that it may be protected for centuries to come. The deed read that, “in consideration of the great affection which he bears said tree, and his great desire to see it protected has conveyed”, Jackson was granting the oak tree the “entire possession of itself”.
The deed has been long lost, and legal pedants might sniff that a recipient has to have the legal capacity to receive a deed. But these are mere footnotes in the folklore. By 1942, the oak was considered to be one of the most famous trees in the US, standing some 30 metres tall. But it was in poor health after a nasty storm some years back, and one day the tree crumbled to the ground. The town was dismayed until one person suggested they replant the tree’s “son” — several locals had planted the tree’s acorns — so a smaller descendant was transplanted to the spot and inherited the deed. Thus the proper name for the tree today is actually: The Son of The Tree That Owns Itself. It was designated a historic landmark on February 2 1988, and many folks travel to see the tree, protected by a little boy’s love.
Hoping you find time for some contemplation today, and have a restful weekend.
As always, I welcome you dropping into my inbox for a chat. Tell me what you like or loathe about the Worm, or about anything: eelsworthy@crikey.com.au
SAY WHAT?
On numerous occasions Mr Morrison strenuously and repeatedly denied the assertion made by Mr Dix whenever it was put to him in the media and in public and found it to be insulting, reckless, disrespectful and harmful.
Scott Morrison’s office
The strident and indignant rebuke from the former PM’s electoral office is about the rumour Scott Morrison pooed his pants at Engadine McDonald’s after the Cronulla Sharks lost the grand final in 1997, a tone at odds with Morrison himself saying in 2021 he “always joke[d] about it”. It came after Rowan Dix, otherwise known as musician Joystick, admitted he made it up, though the internet ran with it — a photo seemed to show a plaque erected at Macca’s commemorating the “incident”.
CRIKEY RECAP
“The annual cost of fossil fuel subsidies also dwarfs that required to raise recipients of JobSeeker and like payments out of poverty; is greater than that individually spent by the federal government on public schools, the army or the air force; and, to sharpen the point, outstrips the funds allocated to stem environmental degradation by a factor of 10.
“The report, noting that the sum is also 14 times the amount allocated to the nation’s disaster-ready fund as of December last year, suggests an unconscionably grim situation. Indeed, the full, unvarnished significance of the $57 billion figure only shifts to centre stage when it’s remembered that it excludes what might be called indirect subsidies, such as the almost intangible costs associated with air pollution and those that accompany the increasingly extreme weather impacts of the climate crisis.”
“Earlier this week we said Albanese had spent the whole of the previous weekend putting every single step wrong. Turns out we’d spoken too soon by limiting it to a weekend. ‘I like fighting Tories. That’s what I do,’ Albanese famously said over a decade ago. And how better to demonstrate that than to return to the United Kingdom as a representative of the most enthusiastic and servile remnant of its empire, to swear an oath of allegiance to our new king?
“What more brutal shellacking could the forces of reaction endure than an exclusive interview with the sneering emblem of right-wing tabloid journalism ([Piers] Morgan once was publicly rebuked by Rupert Murdoch for being beneath the ethical standards of the News of the World)?”
“Things are more depressing than they once were, Gawker founder Nick Denton noted in a recent interview. Given the times that “once were” ended with Denton being potentially sued for tens of millions of dollars arising from Hulk Hogan’s libel suit, that’s quite a claim. All the more so, when you recall that the libel suit was funded by Peter Thiel, a purported libertarian, to get back at Gawker for outing his sexuality.
“But, well, it checks out, as they say. Denton was speaking in an interview concerning the closure of Buzzfeed News, the service once touted as the future of news delivery and now wholly shuttered. It appears that while it was doing the interview, news broke that Vice News was reportedly filing for bankruptcy — US Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which allows it to keep trading and reorganise.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Egyptian ex-MP planning presidential bid says relatives arrested (Al Jazeera)
Moscow says US behind Kremlin drone attack, Russian forces target Kyiv (Reuters)
Belize likely to become republic, says PM as he criticises Rishi Sunak (The Guardian)
Four Proud Boys guilty of seditious conspiracy over US Capitol riot (BBC)
Budapest says Brussels ‘biased’ for political reasons and ‘unfairly’ withholding EU funds (euronews)
Pakistani minister flies to India for first visit by a senior official in 12 years (The Guardian)
Jury finds Ed Sheeran didn’t copy Marvin Gaye classic (Stuff)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Is it undemocratic to swear allegiance to King Charles? Bloody oath! — Helen Irving (The Age) ($): “How should we, as Australians, respond to the invitation from Lambeth Palace to all in Britain and its ‘realms’ to swear allegiance to King Charles III at his coronation this coming Saturday? Might a collective oath lift our hearts and unify us, as Australian Monarchist League chairman Eric Abetz suggested? ‘A way of expressing our inclusion in what is a very historic moment.’ A great worldwide shout-out to the king. What could possibly be wrong with that? From the perspective of democracy, everything, as it happens.
“You don’t need to be a republican to believe in democracy. Indeed, Australian monarchists routinely declare that Australia’s constitutional monarchy is fundamentally compatible with its democratic constitution. Australia’s republicans are democrats, too. They see the achievement of a republic as the completion of Australia’s long history of democratic institution-building. Nobody seriously wants a king with the power to override the people’s representatives in Australia’s parliaments. In the debate surrounding the coronation oath, no one is suggesting that it should convey anything of the kind.”
Of course the BBC needs to change – but Britain must decide what kind of broadcaster it really wants — Tony Hall (The Guardian): “It should make two changes right away. The make-up of the panel supervising the appointment of the new chair should be made public along with its members’ political allegiances, if any. And second, the board of the BBC should be asked to approve the proposed candidate alongside the MPs on the Department for Culture, Media and Sport select committee. After all, she or he has to have the confidence of the board in order to be effective …
“The licence fee, which pays for the BBC, yields £3.8 billion a year – for all the TV channels, radio stations, online products and world and local services, it’s about 44 pence a household each day. The latest licence fee settlement means the BBC‘s funding is held flat for two years at a time of high inflation. That will leave the BBC having to find, by its own calculation, about £400 million a year by 2027-28 simply to stand still. And there’s an even higher inflation rate, it’s generally agreed, in the media. But, of course, it can’t stand still. So in addition it needs to find up to another £500 million a year to invest in its plans for a world that is totally digital. That is quite a challenge.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)
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Author Anita Heiss will chat about her new book, Not Meeting Mr Right and Avoiding Mr Right, at Avid Reader bookshop.
Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)
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Father Bob Maguire’s state funeral will take place at 11am at St Patrick’s Cathedral.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Author Ya Reeves will talk about her new book, Over This Backbone, at Better Read Than Dead bookshop.
Kaurna Country (also known as Adelaide)
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SA Minister for Small and Family Business, Consumer and Business Affairs and the Arts Andrea Michaels will speak about the state government’s key priorities at an event at the Cancer Council SA.
