RADICALISATION WARNING
In an unprecedented move, the security agencies in the Five Eyes countries, of which Australia is one, have today collectively warned about growing concerns over young people being radicalised by extremist online content.
Guardian Australia reports the joint paper by the agencies in the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand warns “that mental ill health, neurodiversity and social isolation were among the characteristics making young people vulnerable to exploitation, especially on gaming sites and messaging platforms”.
As part of the warning the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) revealed two Australian teenagers, aged 16 and 14, have been convicted under the country’s counter-terrorism laws, Guardian Australia flags.
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said every Australian terrorist attack, disruption and suspected terrorist incident in 2024 was perpetrated by a young person, the AAP reports. Burgess also revealed one in five priority counter-terrorism cases managed by the organisation involve young people.
“As a parent, the numbers are shocking; as an intelligence officer, the numbers are sobering,” he said. “Parents, teachers, health professionals and frontline workers need to understand and identify the early signs of radicalisation.
“Once ASIO and the AFP get involved, it is usually too late — the young person is already in a dark and dangerous place.”
AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw called on parents, teachers, and healthcare workers to help limit children’s access to violent extremist material, Guardian Australia said, adding the two agency chiefs had “flagged an upcoming government strategy on counter-terrorism and violent extremism, which had been partly informed by the Five Eyes collaboration”.
The warnings have received considerable coverage overnight, as have the latest concerns about the AUKUS submarine programme. The ABC recalls Defence Minister Richard Marles has appointed former Defence Department secretary Dennis Richardson to conduct an urgent review of the Australian Submarine Agency (ASA) amid concerns over how it is managing the AUKUS agreement.
The broadcaster says Richardson will be tasked with examining how to improve the ASA’s performance as it oversees the $368 billion programme. Guardian Australia says the review is expected to be completed over the next few months, focusing on the agency’s governance.
The Australian Financial Review says the review comes “amid complaints of a ‘toxic’ workforce culture and staff churn”.
PRE-CHRISTMAS CAMPAIGN PUSH
Just when you thought you might be able to go one day without a reference to next year’s federal election, AAP brings us the headline “Pre-Christmas campaign push begins as election looms”.
The newswire flags Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is off to Western Australia today for three days and once again makes the same point everyone has been making for years, namely that the state was key to Labor’s victory last time round. The PM will start his visit in Perth and is set to use the trip to promote $21 million in clean energy incentives for the state’s critical minerals sector.
AAP flags the grants are part of the government’s Future Made in Australia plan “aimed at funding clean energy projects and creating jobs in the decarbonisation transition”. The newswire highlights how the grants, which are expected to create almost 400 jobs, have also been allocated to companies in South Australia and Queensland.
The backdrop to the visit is obviously the election and Albanese’s desperate desire to try and maintain Labor’s previous support in WA, as well as the rather chaotic nature in which he killed off the negotiations between his Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and the Greens over key nature reforms last week.
AAP reckons that legislation “is now dead in the water” after WA Premier Roger Cook learnt of the deal and spoke to Albanese, who then killed it. As mentioned in previous Worms, the PM is claiming the legislation is in fact not dead and reckons it will be brought up again when Parliament returns in February. Whether either of those things happens remains to be seen.
Talking of things we may or may not see, there is growing speculation Opposition Leader Peter Dutton may finally be about to provide some long-sought-after details on his eye-catching proposal to build seven nuclear power plants.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports Dutton will reveal the costings for his policy “as soon as next week”. The paper says Dutton “will claim the Coalition’s nuclear-backed grid will cost less to deliver than Labor’s renewables-led approach”.
The shadow cabinet has not yet been briefed on the costings, the paper added, although a “top Liberal” is quoted as saying they reckon Dutton’s plans will cost “significantly less than Labor”, with another claiming the total cost of the Coalition’s energy system rollout would be about $500 billion.
What Labor’s energy plans will cost very much depends on who you ask, with the two sides coming up with significantly different figures (unsurprisingly).
Finally, AAP flags the Fair Work Commission will today hear Woolworths’ application to stop United Workers Union (UWU) members from picketing four key distribution centres.
The industrial action is now into its 16th day with UWU demanding better pay and changes to a performance management framework that it claims puts workers at risk. Meanwhile, thousands of supermarket and bottleshop shelves in Victoria, NSW and the ACT remain empty at a cost of more than $50 million to the company, the newswire reports.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
Japanese sake has been added to UNESCO’s list of “intangible cultural heritage of humanity”.
The Associated Press reports members of UNESCO’s Committee for Safeguarding Humanity’s Cultural Heritage voted to recognise 45 cultural practices and products. They included Brazilian white cheese, Caribbean cassava bread and Palestinian olive oil soap.
“Sake is considered a divine gift and is essential for social and cultural events in Japan,” Takehiro Kano, the Japanese ambassador to UNESCO, told the newswire following the announcement about the national drink.
“It means a lot to Japan and to the Japanese. This will help to renew interest in traditional sake elaboration.”
Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba also said he was “delighted” at the news.
Say What?
We call it climate whiplash. We go from heatwaves and fires to floods and storms.
Greg Mullins
The former commissioner of Fire and Rescue NSW was speaking at a media briefing on Thursday as the Climate Council warned cascading severe weather events are a possibility this summer, AAP reports.
CRIKEY RECAP
A staff member at a Sydney university shared with police information that was gathered by a security employee who attended a small pro-Palestine student group meeting as part of the uni’s close surveillance of the student protest movement, internal emails show.
Western Sydney University (WSU) has emerged as a hot spot for on-campus protests against Australian higher education’s links to Israel and arms manufacturers.
After two students were arrested by NSW Police at an October protest in the WSU chancellor’s building, the university sought to downplay the closeness of its relationship with the police force.
A week after abandoning its opposition to much of the Albanese government’s agenda, the Adam Bandt-led Greens are now seeking to dictate terms to the government on a formal alliance ahead of the next election. Given the polls keep pointing to a hung Parliament as the best possible result for a truly ordinary government, that makes perfect sense.
Equally sensible, from the Labor point of view, is to explicitly reject any agreement with the Greens, and commit to refusing to govern in alliance with them in the event Labor finds itself in a minority.
There are two good reasons, from the government’s perspective. The first is that Bandt has ruled out supporting the Coalition at all after the next election (a position that of course could change should Bandt be replaced by a less divisive leader after the election). If Labor’s position is that Bandt can support Labor or Dutton and it won’t be discussing the matter, it doesn’t leave the Greens with much room for negotiation.
The second reason is that Labor — and Anthony Albanese, who was then leader of the House — has been there, done that with the Greens under Julia Gillard. Bandt says that’s a model of power-sharing. Sure as hell is, just not entirely in the way he thinks.
One of her priorities next year will be helping the Greens win Liberal-held Sturt in South Australia, in which the minor party has an outside chance. But she also wants to ensure the party has a strong Senate bloc, ensuring that “nature, climate and the community have a strong voice, whoever ends up being prime minister”.
And like Bandt, she’s adamant that it’s time for progressives in Parliament to start working together.
“Otherwise we end up handing the keys of the Lodge to a Trump fanatic like Peter Dutton, and frankly as a Green, as a progressive, as a woman, I’m not prepared to see that happen.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says Labor’s Palestine support in the UN will invite more terrorism (The Australian) ($)
Police release photos showing face of man sought in killing of insurance CEO (The New York Times) ($)
Ukraine opens talks with Trump team on halting war with Russia (The Wall Street Journal) ($)
As France sinks into the political mire, Macron must be kicking himself (CNN)
Harry says life in US what Diana would have wanted for him (BBC)
Bitcoin breaks $US100,000 for the first time, pumped by Trump (ABC)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Peter Dutton’s one-liner has been getting a work-out, but he can’t dodge questions forever — Tom Crowley (ABC): Nuclear is just one of several “big bang” ideas, along with super for housing, migration cuts, and scrapping the 2030 climate target.
All controversial, and all so far light on detail.
How will migration cuts be achieved? “We’ll have more to say about that.”
How much super will first-home buyers be able to use? “We’ll have more to say about that.”
How much would taxpayers fork out for nuclear plants? “We’ll have more to say about that.”
The third question may be answered next week. But like anything in the energy space, any costing will be hotly contested and highly uncertain.
As Dutton’s quip suggests, though, the politics comes before the policy detail. The ideas are less about their contents, and more about his desire to tap into currents of anger about energy bills, housing and the cost of living.
Each year, Spotify Wrapped is the confronting report card that reminds me of how uncool I am — James Colley (Guardian Australia): The point is not so much to be “on trend” as it is to be you. Maybe that is what is so confronting. Every year, whatever image I have of myself as a cool-enough, young-enough man comes tumbling down like the walls of Jericho. Then, you have to face the unrelenting march of time, when your stats sheet of cumulated listening minutes is placed before you like the kind of report card you would be handed by Saint Peter at the end of your life.
The downside to this process is that it leaks into every aspect of your life. Suddenly, you’re aware you’re being monitored. That everything you listen to in March will be on the final exam in December. Your individual predilection to listen to the part of the song that really hurts over and over and over again is going to return and be put on display for the world.
The tragic news is that the results have dropped and for another year I have failed to become cool. Unfortunately — and this is a shocking development — the person I am in December is a culmination of the person I was in February, March, April, May, June and the rest. Here I was hoping a whole new, more interesting human being would emerge.
Ah well, I’ll try again next year.
