‘SEX, DRUGS AND INVOICES’
A former Seven producer tasked with “babysitting” Bruce Lehrmann while the network courted him for an interview last year has told a defamation trial he watched the ex-Liberal staffer order cocaine and google sex workers at a ritzy Sydney restaurant that were later invoiced to Seven. Ex-Spotlight producer Taylor Auerbach’s Federal Court testimony is all over the newspapers today. “Seven billed for ‘bender’,” reads The Sydney Morning Herald front page, “Googling prostitutes, cocaine after dinner: tawdry evidence of Bruce’s TV ‘babysitter’,” says The Australian. Even Seven-owned The West Australian chose the story for a front-page splash: under the headline “Lehrmann trial circus”, the paper described Auerbach’s testimony as a tale of “sex, drugs and invoices”.
The court livestream was watched by thousands yesterday, but for those who weren’t following along, the print coverage of the testimony is worth a read. The SMH’s Harriet Alexander, for example, has an analysis of the proceedings that includes the following paragraphs, describing a social media video of Auerbach breaking golf clubs that belonged to a former Seven colleague and friend: “Taylor watches with a raised eyebrow as his alter ego whacks the clubs at the wall and bends them over his knee until they snap. One of them will not break, and his maniacal smile becomes a grimace. Justice Michael Lee chuckles. ‘The shorter the iron, the more difficult it is,’ he says with the authority of one who has snapped a few clubs in his time.” Network Ten, which is being sued by Lehrmann for defamation, hopes Auerbach’s evidence will undermine Lehrmann’s credibility. Lehrmann maintains his innocence in a high-profile rape case that was aborted in 2022 due to juror misconduct.
CHARITY CALLS FOR INDEPENDENT PROBE
The charity that employed slain Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom has called for Australia to join in demanding an “independent, third-party” inquiry into the Israeli airstrikes that killed her and six of her colleagues in Gaza on Monday. World Central Kitchen (WCK) also asked Canada, Poland, the US and the UK to join in the demand. The other aid workers who were killed were citizens of those countries.
“This was a military attack that involved multiple strikes and targeted three WCK vehicles,” the charity said in a statement, according to The Guardian. “All three vehicles were carrying civilians; they were marked as WCK vehicles; and their movements were in full compliance with Israeli authorities, who were aware of their itinerary, route and humanitarian mission … An independent investigation is the only way to determine the truth of what happened, ensure transparency and accountability for those responsible, and prevent future attacks on humanitarian aid workers.”
Meanwhile, the UK newspaper Daily Telegraph reports Israel may pay compensation to the victims’ families. Britons John Chapman, James Henderson and James Kirby were among the aid workers killed.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Shanglish is like any other bustling Western Sydney restaurant, with busy waiters doling out generous serves of fragrant lemon garlic chicken and tangy baba ghanouj to hundreds of grateful customers. But they’re doing it for free. Community Care Kitchen has repurposed the restaurant for the month of Ramadan to ensure families who have fled war-torn Gaza can eat. A man named Alaa told Guardian Australia his family are here on visitor visas, which don’t allow any access to welfare. “Into this void have stepped community organisations,” reporter Mostafa Rachwani writes simply. It’s costing around $5,000 a day to feed about 45 families each night, but one of the volunteers said the gratitude is even larger. Some families say it’s the only good thing happening to them right now.
Rachwani also spoke to Sunday Kitchen’s Karima Hazim, who is heading up a volunteer team baking boxes of ma’moul — a butter-filled special occasion biscuit — with all of the proceeds going to new arrivals. She thought they’d be making 20, maybe 30 boxes, but she received a hundred orders on the first night alone. Some customers don’t even know what ma’moul is, she told the paper, but they’re “grieving” for Gaza — some pick up the boxes with tears in their eyes. Hazim says the fundraising dosh is going straight into the hands of fearful and often traumatised Palestinians to buy what they need to survive in Australia: rent, clothes, essentials. It’s been over six months since the conflict in the enclave stepped up, she said. “We had to do something”.
SAY WHAT?
Why don’t we put a few names up, let the Australian people nominate who they want as governor-general. Let it go on the ballot paper at the time of election. Don’t have a separate ballot for it, and let the Australian people choose who they want to see as the governor-general.
Pauline Hanson
The One Nation leader, a “staunch monarchist”, seems to have inadvertently suggested Australia become a republic.
CRIKEY RECAP
“The Defence Department has stonewalled Crikey’s efforts to uncover what assessment it undertook of Elbit Systems’ human rights record or of the actions of a major defence contractor in our ally Japan. It has failed to even acknowledge Crikey’s repeated questions about Elbit Systems.
“The department’s media team is notorious for its refusal to engage with anything other than requests for propaganda from the reporters — in 2020, the auditor-general released a highly critical assessment of the performance of the area. Overnight, the office of Defence Minister Richard Marles similarly refused to respond to our questions about whether Elbit Systems’ role in the murder of Frankcom …”
“A police community liaison officer has told me that it’s ‘standard procedure’ nowadays to have special operations police at protests. Rather than making protests safer, all this seems to accomplish is increased police violence and aggression.
“At protests, when they are not enacting violence on protesters, police mainly just stand around guarding property, such as the stairs of Victoria’s Parliament House, to make sure grassroots types don’t climb too high. I am certain I am not the only person who feels less safe when the officers are around, particularly as an Indigenous woman.”
“We must confess we share a sense of sadness at the change of Australia’s governor-general. Mainly because it means the end of the era of Linda Hurley, wife of the departing G-G.
“With her fondness for starting the day with a round of hula hooping and bible studies, and her now well-documented tendency to launch into accapella, self-penned songs at seemingly every public event she attends, she was the closest thing Australian politics had to a character from an early Belle and Sebastian song rendered into flesh, and she will be missed.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Biden tells Israel’s Netanyahu future US support for war depends on new steps to protect civilians (Associated Press)
Netflix’s film about the infamous BBC Prince Andrew interview misses the point (BBC)
At least nine dead, hundreds injured in Taiwan earthquake (Al Jazeera)
Judge rejects Trump’s bid to get Georgia election subversion case dismissed on free speech grounds (CNN)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Why four-year terms won’t fix our febrile political culture — James Philips (The Australian): “We often change our prime minister without a general election. So why would a change from three- to four-yearly federal elections reduce short-termism in political decision-making? The real drivers of short-termism are our impossible expectations of government and the negative orientation of our clickbait-driven political culture.
“Partway through a three-year parliamentary term, each of Julia Gillard (2010), Kevin Rudd (2013), Malcolm Turnbull (2015) and Scott Morrison (2018) became prime minister after a decision by their own party or coalition. Rudd in 2007, Tony Abbott in 2013 and Anthony Albanese in 2022 all won the prime ministership by going to an election as their party’s leader in opposition. That is four prime ministers by coup and three by general election.
“It is difficult to be confident that longer federal parliamentary terms would materially extend the life of Australian federal governments. It is even harder to be confident they would make members of a government less poll-driven. There are more profound causes of political short-termism.”
I have a full head of hair, but I’m jealous of bald guys — Perry Duffin (SMH, $): “I envy the bald, not just for their aerodynamics, but because their days at the barbers are mercifully over. I’m not too good for the barber, but for a year I have evaded them, growing my hair and wondering: why do some things get worse the ‘better’ they become?
“In 2022, blogger Cory Doctorow coined the perfect word, enshittification, for the declining quality of online platforms as they become merciless in business. For example, Facebook is no longer a way to connect with actual friends; it’s a way for Wish and Temu to sell you the finest plastic gadgetry modern slavery can produce. What I’m seeing at the barber is a similar yet distinct process by which a service becomes more upscale, cleaner, skilled and professional — though less enjoyable.”
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Author Lauren Chater will talk about her new book, The Beauties, at Better Read Than Dead bookshop.
