PAYMAN ANNOUNCEMENT EXPECTED TODAY
As much as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese would like to redirect focus from Fatima Payman and her decision to defy the Labor Party, the story isn’t going away.
The ABC reports this morning the rogue senator “is expected to make a major announcement about her political future today as her caucus colleagues expressed concern about her claims she was being guided by ‘God’.”
In The Sydney Morning Herald, columnist Niki Savva writes that “Labor believes Fatima Payman’s rebellion was plotted for a month”.
It comes after a late Wednesday government motion in the House of Representatives to recognise Palestine as part of a two-state solution, which was agreed to with 81 votes for and 55 against. The Greens and Coalition voted against the motion, prompting angry tweets from several Labor frontbenchers.
Meanwhile, Israel continued its bombardment of Gaza overnight, with “Apache helicopters and Israeli quadcopter drones [flying] above Gaza City’s Shejaiya district as heavy gunfire echoed through the streets”, according to The Guardian. Over 50 “terror infrastructure sites” were bombed over 24 hours, in the words of the Israeli military, and tens of thousands of Palestinians “scrambled for a safe haven after the army issued an evacuation order for a vast swathe of the territory’s south”.
UK HEADS TO POLLS AS SUNAK FEARS LOSING SEAT
Later today, the British will head to the polls. Most pollsters have predicted a Labour victory — in fact, even the Conservatives appear to have given up on keeping government, instead warning voters not to hand the opposing side a “supermajority”, The Independent reports.
According to The Guardian, Rishi Sunak even fears losing his own seat. The prime minister “confided to members of his inner circle that he is fearful of losing his Yorkshire constituency at the general election”, the outlet reports, adding he would be the first sitting leader to do so.
According to the BBC, while there has been a “small but noticeable narrowing in the polls” in the final week of the campaign, “Labour still has a commanding lead of about 18 points on average”.
Labour leader Keir Starmer kicked off the final day of campaigning in Whitland in Wales, where he said “change can only happen if people vote Labour”.
According to the Herald Sun, up to 400,000 eligible Australians are expected to vote in the election.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
Can a hippo lift all four feet off the ground at the same time? Maybe you’ve never wondered, but researchers at the Royal Veterinary College in Hertfordshire in the UK were curious — and it turns out the answer is yes.
By shooting and analysing video footage of hippos in a hurry, the researchers were able to show that hippos “can become airborne in a rush”, The Guardian reports.
“It’s important for our understanding of what it means to be a big animal and move on land,” professor of evolutionary biomechanics John Hutchinson told the outlet.
Say What?
I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end and we’re going to win.
Joe Biden
The US president told campaign and Democratic staff on a Zoom call overnight he is in the election race for the long haul, while acknowledging last week’s debate performance was damaging, according to Politico. Meanwhile, as The Washington Post reports, Republicans hope Biden will indeed stay in the race, believing he will be an easy mark for Donald Trump.
CRIKEY RECAP
“The Guardian is running a series titled ‘The broken years: Tory Britain 2010-24’. One of the country’s best-selling books is titled How They Broke Britain. Google ‘broken Britain’ and you’ll find an endless stream of news articles, in which members of the public, business leaders, activists and aspiring politicians bemoan that ‘nothing works anymore’. The glum national mood has even gone global, with the ABC’s If You’re Listening podcast running a mini-series on ‘Who Broke Britain?’
It is ironic that the phrase ‘broken Britain’ is now associated with the damage wrought by the Conservatives, for it was they who originally coined it. In the lead-up to the 2010 election, then party leader David Cameron used the term to diagnose a ‘social recession’ and a sense of ‘moral decay’, fanning overblown fears about youth crime, teenage pregnancy and anti-social behaviour.”
“Democracies don’t tend to make the head of state role a religious one: that leader’s ultimate allegiance remains with the higher power of their personal belief. And yet Australia once appointed a clerical governor-general — with distressing consequences. Peter Hollingworth’s 2003 resignation from the role continues to set an instructive example of the risks when decision-making elevates that higher power above the public good. Australia’s king, however, is also a defender of the faith and supreme governor of the Church of England: an ever-present reminder that that distinction does not exist at the apex of our democracy.
Nor do democracies tend to devote the head of state role to the citizen of a foreign power — but Australia is a constitutional monarchy, and won’t truly achieve democracy until that head of state is appointed democratically. Meanwhile, Australians holding dual citizenship are ineligible for election to the Commonwealth Parliament. On election, those who are eligible join the governor-general in expressing allegiance not to this nation, but to a foreign monarch whose actions always prioritise their United Kingdom and not Australia.”
“There’s no doubt that Boyle is a genuine whistleblower under the Public Interest Disclosure Act (the PID Act). Even the prosecution accepts that Boyle made a valid disclosure under the PID Act. He had taken exception to the casual and indiscriminate use of garnishee notices in the Adelaide office of the ATO, and the indifference to the horrific impact on taxpayers that it sometimes caused. He disclosed it to a superior officer, who failed to properly investigate it. Boyle then went to the media, and the resulting coverage on Four Corners led to an investigation by the inspector-general of taxation, which upheld at least part of Boyle’s concerns.
As [Kieran] Pender wrote in Crikey, ‘[Boyle’s] whistleblowing has been vindicated. The tax ombudsman accepted there were problems at the Adelaide branch. The small business ombudsman found there had been excessive use of garnishee notices. And a Senate inquiry found that the tax office’s internal review of Boyle’s whistleblowing had been superficial’.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Russian air strike kills five in Dnipro, Ukraine says (Reuters)
Israel orders Palestinians to evacuate parts of Khan Younis once again (The Washington Post)
Child marriage ban welcomed in Sierra Leone (BBC)
UN finds arrest of renowned Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora ‘arbitrary’ (NBC News)
Democrats in Congress are torn between backing Biden and sounding the alarm (Associated Press)
More than 210 candidates quit French runoff, aiming to block far right (France24)
Crush at India religious event kills more than 120, mostly women (CNN)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Wagga Wagga boo-boo? Perhaps, but Speakman must defang yappy Nats — Alexandra Smith (SMH) ($): “The barely known upper house NSW Nationals MP Wes Fang likes to boast to colleagues that he is a more effective operator in opposition than in government. Just as well, because his behaviour will help keep the Coalition out of power in NSW.
Fang, who often behaves more like a petulant child than an elected representative, ensured a small snub became civil war within the alternate government. Over five days, the Liberals and Nationals were caught in a verbal ping pong match over whether Opposition Leader Mark Speakman should have dropped in to see Fang as he passed through Wagga Wagga.”
All eyes are on Labor’s internal ructions, but the Coalition has its own problems playing out behind closed doors — David Speers (the ABC): “On the Coalition side, the internal unrest this week was more widespread but at least played out behind closed doors.
Free-market Liberals, increasingly uneasy with Peter Dutton’s willingness to embrace heavy-handed government intervention in the private sector, weren’t happy with the latest policy offering.
About half a dozen Liberals raised concerns in this week’s joint Coalition party room meeting over a new policy to potentially force Coles, Woolworths or Bunnings to sell stores if they’re found to be misusing market power.”
