WAR AND PEACE
NSW Liberal MP Kellie Sloane has written to Premier Chris Minns and Arts Minister John Graham about author Clementine Ford’s upcoming gig as co-curator of March’s All About Women festival, The Australian ($) reports. Sloane said Ford was “exposed for ‘doxxing’ Jewish creatives” amid a history of being “divisive”, and some people would feel “uncomfortable” attending. The paper says a petition to address Ford’s involvement has reached “almost 6,000” signatures (by what rounding measure? It’s at 5,445 as of 5.52am AEDT). Ford was among those who posted a screenshot of a WhatsApp group of Jewish creatives, as Guardian Australia reported — she wanted to show “how coordinated efforts are to silence Palestinian activists and their allies” as members of the group chat were urged to contact Ford’s publisher over both Israel-Palestine coverage and the leaked Lawyers for Israel chat that showed lobbying for then ABC presenter Antoinette Lattouf’s sacking.
Meanwhile, a proposed Brisbane inner-city laneway passing by the heritage-listed Brisbane Synagogue has been scrapped amid fear from the Jewish congregation, Brisbane Times reports. Plans for a 71-storey tower included a link between Mary and Margaret streets alongside the building — but after they were submitted in 2021, police seized a Nazi flag hanging from a window of a student accommodation tower over the synagogue. It comes as PM Anthony Albanese, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau and New Zealand PM Christopher Luxon co-signed a statement calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, SBS reports, and shared “grave concerns” about Israel invading Rafah, where 1.5 million Palestinians are taking refuge. “There is simply nowhere else for civilians to go” the statement read.
LOVE AND MONEY
Media speculation is rife about Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s upcoming nuptials to partner Jodie Haydon. Guardian Australia reckons it won’t be a church wedding (Albo’s non-practising and used a civil affirmation when being sworn in as PM), and if it was to happen before the next federal election (May 23, 2025 at the latest) they’ve got 15 months. The paper then lists the cost and seating of several inner west spots, asks Vogue for its thoughts on Haydon’s dress (probably Australian), and concludes with a service that offers dog wedding packages ($575) for Toto. The SMH’s coverage of the meal they shared (blue-eyed cod, zucchini flowers) goes on to note Haydon “made a point of saying she had grown up reading The Sydney Morning Herald” in May 2022. How on brand (for the paper). Political strategists The Australian ($) spoke to say it’s better Albanese keeps it modest and privately funded, saying it’d be a boon for his popularity — after a royal wedding, republicanism drops, one pointed out.
Speaking of government coffers — independent Senator David Pocock said the government shouldn’t make money off current and former students, after the cohort was slugged a 7.1% indexation rate last year (determined by the Consumer Price Index or CPI). Pocock told ABC we should link it to the government bond rate (4.1%) when it’s lower than CPI. Shadow education spokesperson Sarah Henderson said it’s not a fair system anyway — someone with a $20,000 HECS debt could pay $5,000 back during the financial year but gets indexed on the $20,000 anyway.
ENERGY DRINKS
I do not have a drinking problem, former deputy PM Barnaby Joyce said, after he was filmed lying on a footpath after he fell off a plant box. In the aftermath the Nationals MP blamed a combination of booze and meds, but told Sky News Australia he goes long periods without having a drink, and that it’s been “confirmed” he doesn’t have a problem. Independent MP Zali Steggall called for random alcohol and breath testing in Parliament, to which Joyce scoffed that she could lead by example and run a dry office. He also drew an incredibly long bow in remarking that he’d think she’d be preoccupied with renewable projects in Manly, Mosman and Middle Head, not this issue. Erm, OK?
Speaking of — Anthony Albanese is spruiking green jobs in the coal-heavy Hunter Valley today, The Australian ($) reports, saying the transformation of the Liddell coal plant to a large-scale battery will be a sign of things to come across Australia. The Coalition want it to become a nuclear site — indeed the party’s climate energy policy touts nuclear as our baseload power source on the road to 2050, even though it’s too expensive (costing an eyewatering $387 billion to convert all coal power stations to nuclear), and too slow (plants take nearly 10 years to build, compared to one to three years for solar and wind). The AFR says Albanese is going to announce a multibillion-dollar initiative to compete with the US’ $624 billion Inflation Reduction Act — though not spend the same dosh.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
What is romantic love? A mere chemical reaction in the brain? A biological imperative to keep the species reproducing? The warm feeling you have for your companion despite routinely stepping on their toenail clippings in the bathroom? For Guardian readers, it’s something a little more specific. When Brian buys a book for his wife, he has this funny little habit of making her a bookmark to go with it, scrawling something to make her smile. She’s kept all the bookmarks, even after some of the books moved on, and they’ll look at them from time to time to reminisce. Love is a bookmark. When RDG goes to bed earlier than his partner, he’ll lie on the other side of the bed to warm it up before rolling to the cold side — and his partner does the same for him, both gaining “pleasure from giving and receiving”. Love is a warm bed.
When Ed first met his future wife, he was so giddy that he started writing her name on the steamed-up shower screen next to a small heart. Looking back, he knows it was juvenile, and yet he continues to do so, some five years into their marriage, hoping the love will reveal itself during her daily cleansing ritual. For Pamela, it’s picking up a salty spring roll for her husband on her walk home; it’s his favourite, and yet he never seems to expect it, he’s always surprised. Love is a spring roll. Working in a hospice, Fiona’s nights were filled with the great unknown and she’d pass her daywalking husband in the early morning like ships in the night. Folding her tired bones in beneath the covers, she’d feel the heat of a freshly filled hot water bottle all around her before dropping off to sleep. Love is a place where one can rest.
Hoping you feel the love today, and have a restful weekend.
SAY WHAT?
Dear Steven, congratulations. What an incredible moment for you and your family — a real moment to savour and credit to many years of hard work and loyalty. There are many comrades from NSW cheering you on premier.
Jo Haylen
Is there something I don’t know, Queensland MP Stephen Andrew must have wondered, when his electorate received a congratulatory note from the NSW transport minister that was meant for Premier Steven Miles. A One Nation premier? Chilling stuff.
CRIKEY RECAP
“Australia has a military recruitment problem, top brass in the Australian Defence Force acknowledge. The ADF is 7% under strength and its workforce is continuing to shrink, Defence chief Angus Campbell admitted at Senate estimates yesterday. Defence Personnel Minister Matt Keogh has long identified recruitment as a major problem, with a new recruitment partner selected by the Defence Department last October. Back in 2022, Defence launched a six-pronged initiative to improve recruitment and retention in the ranks.
“Australia isn’t alone in failing to recruit. The United States armed services have been struggling for a long time to recruit soldiers — in the wake of the Iraq fiasco, the need to retain enough troops for combat operations led to repeated lowering of standards, without great success …”
“But it’s not just rural conservatives who sometimes disrupt the rollout of renewable infrastructure. Many environmentalists who otherwise profess support for renewables take issue with the placement of particular projects and their environmental impact.
“Some of their concerns are hopelessly misguided. For instance, some claim that decommissioned wind turbines ‘aren’t green’ because they will end up in landfill. But according to the Clean Energy Council, approximately 85-94% of a wind turbine is recyclable. Other conservationist impulses are derailed by misinformation. For instance, in the Hunter and Illawarra, myths have spread about wind turbines killing whales.”
“While journalists use surreptitious recordings in certain circumstances (indeed, the ABC publishes its editorial policies on the use of secret recordings), [Sydney-based barrister and media law specialist Matthew] Lewis said journalists have no different a position to the public at large and looked to the 2010 case involving 2GB talkback host Ben Fordham when he was a reporter at A Current Affair.
“While Fordham avoided conviction after illegally setting up a sting operation where he posed as a hitman, Justice Elizabeth Fullerton found he had displayed an ‘appalling lack of judgment’ in breaching the Surveillance Devices Act.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Which countries have stopped supplying arms to Israel? (Al Jazeera)
Why Russia’s Putin backing Biden for the US presidency is not what it seems (BBC)
Israeli special forces raid largest functioning hospital in Gaza (CNN)
Donald Trump again threatens to sacrifice Nato allies to Russia (The Guardian)
What minister said as media leaders stated case for making tech giants pay for news (Stuff)
Trump to stand trial on March 25 in NY criminal hush money case (Reuters)
European Commission cuts EU growth forecast and expects inflation to fall further (euronews)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Rookies inject moral clarity into Joyce’s fall and antisemitism’s rise — Phillip Coorey (The AFR): “One was West Australian Tania Lawrence who, unlike almost everyone else in the building that day, decided not to stick to the talking points regarding Barnaby Joyce … Using one of the 90-second slots allotted to backbenchers each afternoon, Lawrence, one of the few Labor MPs with private sector corporate experience, said politicians could no longer grant themselves or colleagues leave passes for behaviour deemed unacceptable in other workplaces … A few minutes earlier, on a topic of far greater import, first-term Victorian MP Michelle Ananda-Rajah let rip at the rising tide of antisemitism, driven by those who deem it permissible to target Jews because of their grievance with the government of Israel.
“Anthony Albanese promised last year not to let antisemitism take root in Australia but since then, he and the relevant ministers have given the impression of politicians walking on eggshells. They have been reacting to antisemitic events, rather than taking the lead, all while trying to avoid giving either side oxygen in the cause of social cohesion. The prime minister’s is a greater juggling act but, in the meantime, antisemitism has taken root. Lawrence and Ananda-Rajah are newcomers to Parliament, but that can be an advantage because they haven’t had the idealism kicked out of them yet. Out of the mouths of babes.”
Morrison’s departure will help Liberals ‘move on’ but Nationals can’t ‘move on’ until Barnaby does — Michelle Grattan (The Conversation): “Scott Morrison will say his farewell to Parliament the week after next. This timing happens to follow neatly Monday’s final episode in the ABC’s Nemesis series, in which some Coalition figures excoriated their former leader and Morrison defended his record. For the Liberals, Morrison’s departure is a significant symbolic ‘moving on’ moment. It’s not that he has had any influence, or been disruptive, since the election. But even though he’s been hardly noticed publicly, his presence in the parliamentary party has been a reminder of all that went wrong last term.
“The Coalition Morrison is exiting is a mixed bunch, in terms of performance, illustrated by the first weeks of this year. The opposition could not have avoided being outfoxed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s bold reworking of the tax cuts. But it could have prevented the Liberals’ Deputy Leader, Sussan Ley, impulsively suggesting a Dutton government would roll back the tax cuts, which a nanosecond of thought would have told her would never happen. It was typical of Ley, and a bone Labor hasn’t stopped chewing. On the other hand, the row over the ex-detainees — released by the government from immigration detention after a High Court decision last year — has shown how an opposition working effectively can have a minister squirming.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Online
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Australian National University’s Jane Golley, Trivium’s Dinny McMahon, and Australia-China Relations Institute’s Marina Zhang will talk about the impact of China’s economy on Australia in a webinar.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Author Victoria Vanstone will talk about her book, A Thousand Wasted Sundays, at Better Read Than Dead bookshop.
