DUTTON WANTS NSW LIBS ‘OLD, WHITE AND RIGHT’
The federal Liberal Party’s takeover of the embattled NSW division took an embarrassing turn on Tuesday evening when one of the three men announced as making up the committee to oversee the state party’s affairs immediately backed out.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports the NSW Liberals will be forced into a federal takeover for 10 months from September 12, with the proposed administration committee involving former Victorian senator Richard Alston, ex-Victorian treasurer Alan Stockdale and former NSW minister Rob Stokes. But things got a tad awkward last night when Stokes revealed he was not asked about the appointment and could not accept it due to other commitments. The SMH quotes him as saying: “I am always happy to help but I did not anticipate this appointment and I am not in a position to accept it.”
One NSW Liberal MP, speaking anonymously to AAP, described the initial inclusion of Stokes as a “massive surprise”. The ABC also flagged that NSW Liberal Party leader Mark Speakman was not happy with the make-up of the committee the federal executive requested, declaring: “The proposed appointees have significant experience, but I would welcome the inclusion of an experienced female in this crucial role.”
The SMH highlights the federal takeover is set to “cause huge unrest” in the party’s moderate faction. The paper quotes one senior moderate Liberal as initially saying: “The NSW Liberal Party will now be run by two Victorians, with Rob Stokes added for window dressing. The message Peter Dutton has sent to the NSW Liberals [is] that he wants the party run by a committee that is old, white and right.”
Elsewhere last night, ASIO chief Mike Burgess was interviewed on ABC’s 7.30 program, in which he sought to clarify his comments on the vetting process for people fleeing Gaza. Burgess said his original comments, in which he suggested rhetorical support for Hamas might not exclude people from entering Australia, were misrepresented, declaring: “I’ve watched with interest over the last couple of weeks how people have chosen to distort what I said. I said that if you support a Palestinian homeland that may not discount you [from entering Australia] because that by itself is not a problem. But I also said if you have a violent extremist ideology, or you provide material or financial support to a terrorist organisation, that will be a problem.”
The federal opposition had seized on Burgess’ initial remarks, calling for a temporary ban on Palestinians seeking Australian visas. Today the AAP quotes Nasser Mashni of the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network, who said the visa debate had been reduced to “cheap politics”. “It’s an indictment upon this country that it has chosen to demonise these people, rather than offer them the care and compassion that has been so rightly afforded to other people fleeing conflict zones,” he said.
CHALMERS VS RBA
The Australian led overnight with an op-ed written by former prime minister John Howard in which he criticises Jim Chalmers for his comments about high interest rates “smashing the economy” amid accusations the treasurer has been trying to place the blame on the Reserve Bank of Australia. Howard writes “Chalmers’ clumsy attempt to shift blame for the painful consequences of high interest rates has badly backfired.”
The piece comes ahead of the release of the June quarter gross domestic product figures at 11.30am AEST today. (The data will be published here.)
Guardian Australia highlights how the different banks predict the economy will have grown in the quarter, with ANZ suggesting just 0.1%, Westpac and NAB tipping 0.3% and Commonwealth Bank saying 0.4%. Those predictions would equate to annual growth of between 0.8% and 1.1%.
The site says the RBA had modelled for 0.9% growth and any change from that will undoubtedly see plenty of pressure for either rate cuts sooner or push any reduction into next year and keep the option of another hike in play. The Australian Financial Review points out figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday showed state and federal government spending was likely the main driver of growth in June.
Ahead of the data being released, Chalmers spoke to the paper to defend his recent comments about the economy and claim his job was to tell people what was going on. “I don’t see it as a shot at anyone, I see it as a reflection of reality,” the treasurer said. “My job is to tell it like it is, to acknowledge the economy is slowing considerably and what we are doing about it.”
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
A museum in France is inviting people to view its latest exhibition, Naturist Paradise, in the nude.
Marseille’s Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations is allowing visitors to come naked one evening a month to see the collection of 600 photographs, films, magazines, paintings, sculptures and other artworks from naturist communities, The Guardian reports. The exhibition is run in partnership with the French Naturist Federation.
The once-a-month naked evening does come with a couple of rules and suggestions though.
The Guardian said a museum spokesperson had called it “logical” for those booking tickets for the special evening to be in some form of undress, declaring: “Anyone wanting to visit fully dressed during those hours might be considered a little odd.”
Also, footwear — you have to wear shoes. The head of France’s FFN naturist organisation Eric Stefanut told AFP it was to protect visitors against the museum’s floor. The rule was simply to “avoid getting splinters”.
For the naked and fully-clothed alike, the exhibition runs until December.
Say What?
goodbye forever brat summer.
Charli XCX
And just like that it was over. The British musician has declared the all-conquering “brat summer” has now ended. Embraced by the internet and the likes of Kamala Harris, the cultural phenomenon that accompanied Charli XCX’s latest album will be missed by many, according to indy100, with numerous social media posts in denial or in mourning that brat summer has come to an end.
CRIKEY RECAP
From the wider perspective of the pressing need for real, large-scale carbon abatement to avert what will, in human and economic terms, be permanent significant costs from a more extreme climate, the 2022 election was a missed trick. Labor’s ability to form a majority government without needing to rely on a crossbench with a serious commitment both to carbon abatement and reducing our fossil fuel exports has meant an expansion of those exports and taxpayer funding to enable further expansion into the future.
Only a minority government dependent upon climate-committed crossbenchers will deliver meaningful climate action in Australia. A majority government of either persuasion will simply mean more fossil fuel exports — which generate little in the way of tax revenue — and more taxpayer handouts to an industry that effectively charges us to make billions from a finite supply of fossil fuels.
From a climate perspective, the only good outcome from the 2025 election is both major parties falling short of 76 seats. Then we’ll see what records the winter of 2025 brings.
All of this tinkering is necessary because Keating’s overhyped superannuation reforms were full of holes from the outset. The least he can do now is get out of the way while his Labor successors tighten up the rules and impose limits.
Labor’s current reforms modestly backpedal from Keating’s flawed vision. Perhaps the elder statesman should consider retirement as the government — whose treasurer wrote his PhD on the man — charts a new course.
But it was the hot mic exchange between Albanese and Campbell that animated China’s WeChat groups and blogosphere: the video of their conversation has been doing the rounds in both China-based and Australia-based WeChat groups.
In China, public opinion of world affairs is increasingly being shaped by commentary in two arenas — one inhabited by international studies scholars and intellectual elites who write mainly in reputable journals, the other by bloggers whose populist writings tend to be the most widely posted and read online. Some of these bloggers, using a pen name, work for state media for their day jobs, while others are in some cases uncredentialed writers who have a small amount of knowledge but plenty of passion. To attract eyeballs, these writers tend to use more colourful, folksy language, and appeal to the lowest common denominator.
The most frequently reposted criticisms on China’s social media following the hot-mic incident seemed to come from Guancha (The Observer), a Shanghai-based commercial online media digest known for its nationalist bent. A Guancha reporter argued that the exchange between Albanese and Campbell was evidence that the United States intended to patrol the Pacific, and that Australia was willing to play second fiddle in this plan. However, rather than relying on official Chinese responses to the incident, the reporter pursued the argument by citing critical voices from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Pregnant woman among 12 dead after boat carrying migrants capsizes in English Channel (BBC)
Russian strike kills more than 50 in Ukraine, Zelenskyy says (The New York Times) ($)
How China extended its repression into an American city (The Washington Post)
Elle Macpherson refused to have chemotherapy after breast cancer diagnosis (The Guardian)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Jim Chalmers’ attack on RBA reeks of political expediency — John Howard (The Australian): Dr Chalmers’ attack on the RBA a few days ago had a tone of desperation about it. They were the words of a treasurer who has lost his grip.
After all, Bullock was appointed governor only 11 months ago, and by the Albanese government on the recommendation of the treasurer. Her appointment was widely praised, enjoying the full support of opposition Treasury spokesman Angus Taylor. She was well qualified for the job and has demonstrated the wisdom of her appointment.
She does not deserve the Chalmers broadside. Since she has been in the chair, the level of inflation, as well as government spending and other pressures, has left Bullock and her colleagues no alternative other than that pursued in relation to interest rates.
Smash or be smashed: Chalmers gambles on a rift with RBA — David Crowe (The Sydney Morning Herald): Chalmers is not retreating from his remarks but he needs to be careful. Political leaders can suffer the consequences if they make too many assumptions about what a Reserve Bank governor should do. A previous governor, Glenn Stevens, stung John Howard by lifting rates a few weeks before the prime minister went to the 2007 federal election.
The hard-heads inside the federal government do not expect an interest rate cut this year, but some of them live in hope of a cut next year — just in time for an election due by May. Bullock and the Reserve Bank board have immense power to help or hinder Labor before polling day. One false move and someone might get smashed.
