DEEPSEEK BANNED
Having got everyone very worked up recently after startling Wall Street with its reported capabilities and low cost, Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek now finds itself banned from Australian federal government computers and mobiles after being deemed “an unacceptable risk” to national security.
The ABC reports all government bodies, except corporate organisations (like the ABC), will be forced to remove all DeepSeek products from their devices effective immediately. “They will also have to block access to DeepSeek products and report back to the government when they have completed it,” the broadcaster adds.
However, employees will still be able to use DeepSeek on their personal devices.
“AI is a technology full of potential and opportunity — but the government will not hesitate to act when our agencies identify a national security risk,” Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke is quoted by the AAP as saying. He added the ban was “country-agnostic and focused on the risk to the Australian government and our assets”.
Guardian Australia says Australia is the latest country to ban DeepSeek from government devices following Taiwan, Italy and some US agencies. The site also points out that the risk to national security stated by the Home Affairs Department remains unspecified.
China has been among the international headlines overnight after Beijing responded with “limited tariffs” on some US imports as American President Donald Trump’s 10% tariff on all Chinese imports came into effect, Reuters reports. The response includes a 15% tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas products, plus a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery, and large-displacement cars, the ABC says.
The BBC points out the new taxes on US imports will “not take effect until Monday 10th February, so there is some time to stop a spiralling tit-for-tat trade war”.
For those keeping score, Trump has so far announced and threatened tariffs on China, the EU, Canada and Mexico as president, only to pause the last two for a month following agreements on increasing border security. The BBC reckons the China scenario is not as straightforward to resolve given “Beijing is Washington’s chief economic rival and cutting China off from major supply chains has been a goal of the Trump administration.”
The British broadcaster adds “If Donald Trump asks too much, President Xi might feel he can walk away. For now, China is building up its bargaining power — but there will be limits on just how far Beijing is willing to be pushed.” It also points out Xi and Trump are scheduled to speak later this week. In the meantime, China says it has followed through with its threat to file a complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
“The US imposition of additional tariffs on Chinese products severely violates WTO rules. This action is egregious in nature and represents a typical example of unilateralism and trade protectionism,” China’s Commerce Ministry has said.
As the world works out how to “negotiate” with Trump and escape the tariffs (commentators are unsurprisingly asking how many times the threat can be used), Guardian Australia leads this morning on the talking points prepared by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in the hours after Trump’s election win, which the site obtained under freedom of information legislation.
“Trump presented numerous tariff proposals during the campaign … Currently, it is unclear which proposal will be implemented and how,” the memo stated.
It also suggested emphasising Australia and America were “the closest of partners” across defence, foreign policy, climate and trade, adding that the Albanese government would “continue to advocate for the United States to remain engaged in the world and our region, where it continues to play an indispensable role”.
What did Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd, make of the return to Donald Trump (his previous opinions obviously generated a few headlines)? Well, his correspondence to the advisors of the prime minister and foreign affairs minister came back mainly redacted, although he concluded his email: “Interesting times. Too interesting.” Indeed.
Another Australian with links to America making headlines is a certain 93-year-old who was photographed sitting comfortably in the corner of the Oval Office while Trump signed an executive order creating a sovereign US wealth fund (and suggesting it could be used to buy TikTok).
For some reason the Nine newspapers had their fashion editor write about Rupert Murdoch’s decision to wear running shoes during his White House visit.
LABOR CAN’T ESCAPE GAMBLING BAN
As all polls continue to point towards a hung Parliament at the next election, teal MPs are making it known that a gambling advertising ban will be a central feature in any minority government negotiations.
The AAP reports three teal MPs have confirmed a blanket ban will feature in negotiations, if they happen, following the recommendation by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy.
“My position has been clear and consistent, as the Murphy report unequivocally found, partial gambling bans do not work,” Goldstein MP Zoe Daniel said. “If we have a balanced Parliament, I will want to see that the recommendations of that report are delivered.”
Sophie Scamps and Allegra Spender echoed those thoughts, with the latter saying: “People in my community back a ban on gambling ads and this will be one of a number of priorities I continue to pursue if I am reelected.”
The newswire highlights the Greens will today push legislation in the Senate to ban gambling adverts before, during and after live sports broadcasts as well as during children’s shows. It will also propose a cap of two adverts for programs outside that as well as banning online betting ads, including on social media.
Much has been made of Labor so far not progressing with any legislation on the issue, with some reports suggesting nothing will be put up before the election. AAP states Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has put any legislation “on ice”.
Elsewhere, The Australian highlights the government “formally killed its nature-positive legislation, passing a motion to ‘discharge’ the bill from the notice paper on Tuesday”. The paper adds the Coalition also sought assurances it would not be brought back in the next term.
Talking of the opposition, the same report in The Australian states the Coalition is being urged to release its childcare package as the Labor government’s reforms look set to pass with support from the Greens and members of the crossbench (getting Peter Dutton to release policies and costings might be a tricky ask though…)
The paper also reckons several crossbench sources have said the government is looking to combine plans to change taxes for super balances worth more than $3 million with a policy to scrap credit card surcharges. However, Labor sources have rejected the claims.
Guardian Australia reports Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has not ruled out adopting amendments from teal independent Allegra Spender to widen Labor’s hate crimes legislation but the government “is wary of pursuing changes that could inflame tensions with religious groups”. The site also states the opposition “is yet to form a position but was understood to have several concerns”.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports Spender is negotiating with the major parties in the hope they will accept a new provision in the bill to add to the penalties against those who incite hatred against people on the basis of religion, race, disability, gender, sexual orientation or other attributes.
“Her amendment would criminalise a public act, done with intent, to promote hatred towards individuals or groups on the basis of these attributes,” the paper says.
Finally, the AAP says the election writs in Western Australia will be issued on Wednesday, marking the official start of the state’s election campaign.
Voters in WA are set to head to the polls on March 8, with the newswire stating the opposition is unlikely to stop Labor Premier Roger Cook from leading his party to a third term in office.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
2024 was the year the world couldn’t get enough of pygmy hippos. First, there was Moo Deng in Thailand and then it was Haggis in Scotland.
Now there’s a new tiny hippo on the scene — welcome Poppy, the star of Metro Richmond Zoo in Virginia.
Forbes reports the zoo revealed the baby hippo’s name last month after a public vote which saw people deciding between Poppy, Juniper, Hammie Mae and Omi.
Apparently, 116,000 votes were cast from 165 countries, with Poppy’s mother Iris also voting (choosing between piles of food with names written above them).
With the world a rather full-on place at the moment, take a break from the chaos and check out the pictures Metro Richmond Zoo recently released of little Poppy.
Go on, treat yourself.
Say What?
As always everything has been appropriately declared.
Prime minister’s spokesperson
It has been reported Anthony Albanese and his fiancee Jodie Haydon have put their much-publicised home in Copacabana, NSW, up for rent at $1,500 a week.
CRIKEY RECAP
His government continues — at the behest of the state’s powerful and generous clubs and pubs industry — to put off any outcomes from the farcical cashless gaming trial Minns devised to prevent any meaningful action on pokies reform. Minns is also handing $450 million to fossil fuel giant Origin Energy to keep its antique Eraring power station ongoing, and ordered an end to public servants working from home in order to look after the commercial property sector, with whom he spent a day meeting in August. This isn’t a government; it’s a corporate concierge service.
But Haylen’s “mistake”, and Minns’ ineffectual response to it, suggests something worse: that NSW Labor, in its three terms in opposition after the spectacular scandals, blatant corruption and in-fighting of its post-Carr years in government, learnt nothing about the importance of integrity in public office and its role in good government. It learnt only how to be electable again. It’s still a party that treats public resources as a private treasure chest, that gleefully politicises the public service, that sees only a seamless union of the private interests of MPs, the interests of NSW Labor and its union backers and the extended Labor family, and the public sector.
Its actual ideological beliefs, if any, are hard to determine. Certainly they don’t reflect those of the communities that elect Labor MPs, as Minns’ assiduous suppression of any criticism of the Palestinian genocide from within his own ranks illustrates. After all these years, NSW Labor believes only in itself and its interests — whether Haylen is minister tomorrow or not. A movement that once produced Neville Wran and Bob Carr is now a dried-out husk dedicated only to serving itself.
Lattouf identifies with her heritage, and her detractors identify her with it too. Whether or not it factored into her sacking — which is a factual question for the judge, not the punters — it’s just silly to claim that it’s not a thing at all.
Tactically, the argument betrays the ABC’s conundrum: win or lose, it’s going to lose. The optics are devastating and promise only to worsen. It is resorting to technical legal arguments as an exit strategy, hoping to avoid a finding that it monstered a minority at the behest of a powerful lobby group, on the basis that the minority doesn’t exist in the first place. Good luck with that.
Ethically, Lattouf’s barrister wasn’t wrong to call out the public broadcaster for even attempting the argument. Where does the ABC get off suggesting that Lebanese, Arab or Middle Eastern people aren’t protected by anti-discrimination law?
It would also not be wrong to call out one obvious conclusion: that the ABC has bought into the prevailing political/media narrative that, when it comes to Israel, there can only be one victim group, and that to suggest otherwise is, by definition, invalid.
There has been wall-to-wall media coverage in Australia of the launch of Chinese AI model DeepSeek. Reactions have been either hysterical about the risks it poses to national security, or hyperbolic about its potentially devastating impact on the US AI industry. Descriptions of its launch as a “Sputnik moment” causing “carnage” in the tech market have provoked visceral reactions of both fear and excitement.
Many have observed the apparent demure demeanour of the man behind DeepSeek, and there have been frantic attempts to make sense of the geopolitical implications of the model’s unexpected success. But mostly unremarked so far is the potentially revolutionary impact of DeepSeek’s business model on China’s own science and technology sector.
The nerdy, media-shy 40-year-old Liang Wenfeng — now a national hero in China, and flavour of the month across the globe — remains low-key. So far, he has given only two interviews about DeepSeek, in 2023, both of which were to an obscure Chinese blog. In these interviews, Liang displays none of the bravado expected of a successful entrepreneur.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Sweden shooting: 10 people dead after attack at education centre in Örebro, say police (The Guardian)
Second woman confirmed dead in Australia’s floods (BBC)
Residents urged to ‘leave immediately’ as wind change drives fires across Victoria (9News)
Bribie Island community mourns 17-year-old shark attack victim Charlize Zmuda (ABC)
Sam Kerr trial: Police officer accused of changing story to bring charge (The Telegraph) ($)
Trump hints at curbs on Musk’s powers after billionaire shakes up Washington (The Wall Street Journal) ($)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Opposition cries foul over long lunches as Treasurer Jim Chalmers completes Coalition homework — Brett Worthington (ABC): Treasury estimated it would cost $1.6 billion a year, yes billion with a B, a far cry from the shadow treasurer Angus Taylor’s insistence that it would be cheaper than $250 million.
Back in the chamber, Chalmers was really warming up.
“All we have got from them is lower wages for workers and longer lunches for bosses, with the taxpayers to foot the bill,” the treasurer bellowed.
“He wants workers to pay for bosses’ lunches and he will smash the budget in the process. Now, this is the only kind of policy that could have been agreed at the tail-end of a very long lunch.
“You can imagine them sitting around with the blue teeth and soy sauce on the tie, coming up with the big ideas.”
Elon Musk is president — Jonathan Lemire (The Atlantic): Musk’s assault on the government unfolded rapidly in recent days, as he used his role as the head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to slash spending. His stated goal: cut $500 billion in annual spending. DOGE has limited powers. It is not an actual government agency — one can be created only by an act of Congress. Musk’s task force was set up through a presidential executive order. And Congress has the authority to set spending.
His own role remains murky: A White House official told me today that Musk is working for Trump as a “special government employee,” formalising a position in the administration but allowing him to sidestep federal disclosure rules. Musk is not being paid, the official said.
Musk lacks legal authority, but he is close to power. At times working from the White House campus, Musk plainly enjoys his position as the president’s most influential adviser. Trump famously turns on aides who he believes eclipse him. But by his own account, he remains enamoured of Musk, seeming to relish the fact that the world’s wealthiest person is working for him, the White House official told me, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to relay private conversations. Trump, the official said, also believes that Musk has shown a willingness to take public pushback for controversial actions, allowing the president himself to avoid blame.
