DUTTON VS ICC
The government has rejected Peter Dutton’s claim that Australia was consulted on the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s decision to seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Guardian Australia reports. The opposition leader said that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “sat on the sideline” after being “consulted in relation to this matter” by the court. A professor of law and international security at UNSW said “It would be absurd if before seeking warrants the prosecutor had to consult with 124 ICC parties”, while Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Tim Watts said Dutton “makes things up just so he can have a fight about them”.
Meanwhile, The Australian is reporting that from 2009 to 2012 Australia had almost no submarines in the water due to a mixture of lack of parts, poor planning and low crew numbers. A new book by defence analyst Andrew Davies outlines how during this time, the number of submarines in the water was “either zero or one”, a fact incompatible with the apparent critical nature of submarines for Australia’s military strategy. It led then Labor defence minister Stephen Smith to declare it politically impossible to argue the case to start building more submarines — laying the groundwork for the AUKUS hubbub that’s dominated the news for the past few years.
MIGRATION NATION
One hundred and fifty private vocational colleges face closure over the next two years, the SMH reports, with a further 250 at risk if the government goes ahead with its planned migration limits and international student caps. Modelling by the industry warns that mass closures could follow the drop in international arrivals, with Independent Tertiary Education Council Australia chief executive Troy Williams pleading with the government for a “long-term and cohesive strategy for international education, not a series of short-term decisions based upon political expediency”. It comes as Nine newspapers report that pain hasn’t plateaued for renters, with inflation expected to rise and remain until 2026. Greens leader Adam Bandt, however, told ABC’s Insiders that he doesn’t buy the link between migration numbers and the housing crisis.
Meanwhile, Victoria Police have been criticised for a presentation on gang violence given last year which was deemed racist and offensive by some in attendance. The ABC reports that the presentation, given to public servants and members of the Department of Justice, focussed “almost exclusively on offending by African background Australian young people and adults”. During the presentation, videos of gratuitous violence were shown, and the presenter allegedly “referred to a 13-year-old as an ‘offender for life’, laughed ‘inappropriately’ when identifying people in prison, made comments ‘trivialising family violence’, and used the ‘n-word’”. Victoria Police apologised for the presentation but denied allegations of racism.
SAY WHAT?
Only if you want to win. Only if you want to win. Maybe you don’t want to win. Maybe you don’t want to win. Only do that if you want to win. If you want to lose, don’t do that. Keep getting your 3% every four years.
Donald Trump
The former president tells people at the Libertarian National Convention why they should vote for him, amid a chorus of boos.
CRIKEY RECAP
“The Financial Review reported earlier this month that News Corp Australia was set to be divided into three divisions — ‘fast and free’, which includes news.com.au and the e-commerce platforms; ‘premium communities’, which includes the capital city mastheads and sports; and prestige’, which accounts for national broadsheet The Australian as well as titles like Vogue Australia. It also reported that beleaguered professional services giant PwC was engaged to lead the restructure process.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported there is a greater role expected for the company’s national desk, which includes sports, the internal newswire service NCA NewsWire, as well as a bevy of senior specialists. However, there has been no clarity on the future of the company’s ‘hyperlocal’ mastheads — in 2023, community reporters in New South Wales previously under the NewsLocal banner were absorbed into the Daily Telegraph, with a number of cuts associated with the change.”
“At first, we were into the Holden Commodore, and it was a thirsty beast that belched carbon. Then petrol prices soared and, around 2011, Australians flipped to hatchbacks. These got more efficient over time, especially the Corolla, thanks to Toyota’s affinity for hybrid engines. But then petrol prices fell and we decided to go big. Hiluxes and Rangers vied for the top spot and the transport sector’s emissions worsened again. They are improving, but are still not as gentle on the atmosphere as a 2010 Mazda 3.
The luxury car tax can bear a lot of the blame for Australians being guided to these enormous cars. A truly courageous government would make luxury utes and ‘pick-up trucks’ an explicit target for its emissions reduction scheme. But we all know truly courageous governments don’t last.”
“Dear Steve,
My partner and I have been told that consuming the pituitary gland taken from the brain of a living teenager will extend life by up to 20 years, and that it’s legal for people born between 1946 and 1964 to do that. We plan on stalking our neighbour’s basement-dwelling adult children with our Japanese bonded steel steak knives and, sinking them deep in, with one swift corkscrew motion, extracting and ingesting the glistening life-affirming sweetmeat as we feel their dying life force flood into our reviving cells.
But will it affect our super?
Yours,
Succulent Chinese Meal“
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Even as violent crime drops, lawlessness rises as an election issue (The New York Times) ($)
Newborn babies die after fire at Delhi hospital (BBC)
Zelenskyy warns of Russian advances, Kharkiv strike death toll rises, peace summit (euronews)
UN estimates more than 670 killed in Papua New Guinea landslide (Al Jazeera)
Spectator racism is still rife in Australia’s major football codes — new research shows it may even be getting worse (The Conversation)
THE COMMENTARIAT
I’ve fathered five children in NSW. If I lived in Victoria, I’d probably have none — Gary Nunn (The Age): “The families who have used my donation know a lot about me — from my highest educational achievement to how often I exercise. They have a picture of me aged eight. Yet, all I know about them is that they live in NSW, their gender, and when they were born.
I’m a de-identified donor, meaning that once they turn 18, my biological children will have the legal right to know who I am, and to request contact with me. If it feels right for them and their families, I can’t wait for that day and would happily play an ongoing role in their lives. I’ve even handwritten a letter, which sits in their file, saying how dearly I’d love to meet them … Not mandating extremely tight limits on how many families can use a donor can rob donor-conceived children of the filial intimacy and belonging that comes from a close-knit family unit, rather than a sprawling one.”
Boomers, be grateful: We’re splitting into a ‘neo-feudal’ nation — Claire Lehmann (The Australian): “Forget about buying a home in order to start a family. Unless they have wealthy parents to fall back on, school leavers in Sydney will only be able to afford a house in their hometown after they’ve retired. But it’s not just Sydney. Across the nation, high-income households in Australia are renting. In 2021, nearly 25% of renting households in Australia had an income of $140,000 or more per year. In 1996, however, equivalent top-income segment households comprised only 8% of renters.
There are many different analyses of how and why we got to where we are today. Many on the left blame tax offsets that have created a speculative bubble in property, while some on the right (and the left) blame immigration. But there is one thing most observers of the housing crisis agree on, and that is that the supply of housing has not kept up with demand. And the reason supply has not kept up with demand has been a change in government priorities over time.”
