DISCLOSE AND OPEN UP AGAIN
Gina Rinehart’s company, Hancock Prospecting, was behind a $144,000 payment to the Liberal Party that came from a third party, the ABC reports. It’s called the Sydney Mining Club — and Hancock gave it $190,000 for what both called “sponsorship”. Then the club gave $144,000 to the Libs for membership to its business forum. A former club employee claimed Hancock’s CFO Jabez Huang made it clear the money was coming from his company and should be given to the Liberals. After reporters asked the mining company about it, it updated its donor declaration, although it hasn’t been published yet on the AEC disclosure site.
Meanwhile Tasmanian independent MP Andrew Wilkie says Communications Minister Michelle Rowland, who is in charge of online betting regulation, should explain or resign over an $18,960 donation from Sportsbet the day before the election. The SMH reports Rowland got an $8960 dinner at Sydney’s Rockpool restaurant in March and $10,000 for her campaign in May — but she has also accepted Melbourne Cup tickets from Tabcorp since becoming minister. Greens Senate leader Larissa Waters and independents Zoe Daniel, Monique Ryan, Kate Chaney and Rebekha Sharkie raised questions about a possible conflict of interest, and gambling reform advocate Tim Costello said PM Anthony Albanese should sack her.
Rowland said she didn’t break donation disclosure rules. Did she break any others? Sharkie brought up clause 3.21 of the ministerial code of conduct, which said they shouldn’t “accept any kind of benefit … in connection with performing … their official duties as a minister” (though technically she wasn’t a minister at the time of the Sportsbet donation). Hey, speaking of a possible conflict of interest — the NT’s Attorney-General Chansey Paech has been referred to the corruption watchdog over alcohol policy decisions, the NT News says. Independent Araluen MLA Robyn Lambley reckons he acted unfairly on the advice of Tangentyere Council, an Indigenous organisation that represents 16 central Australian town camp housing associations. Paech said the allegations are baseless.
TAYLOR-MADE FOR SECRECY
Former energy minister Angus Taylor delayed telling voters about electricity price rises until after the May election when the Coalition lost power, Guardian Australia reports. But he swears it wasn’t for political reasons, according to his spokesperson. So what’s this about? Every year on May 1, the Australian Energy Regulator releases a “default market offer”, which is basically the highest price our electricity company can charge for default plans. But last year, Taylor, in consultation with then treasurer Josh Frydenberg and then prime minister Scott Morrison, tweaked it so the offer was not revealed until May 26 (the election was held on May 21). Fortunately for the trio, the news that prices were going to rise by 11.3% to 12.6% wasn’t made public until Labor was at the helm. Since being in opposition, Taylor has been a loud critic of Labor’s handling of energy prices.
Meanwhile, a bitter fight for the blue-ribbon Melbourne seat of Aston is on the cards after former education minister Alan Tudge resigned yesterday, The Australian ($) reports. He copped a 7.3% swing against him at last year’s federal election as voters abandoned the Liberals, and we’re still well and truly in the Labor honeymoon period. So who would step into Tudge’s shoes? Maybe City of Melbourne councillor and barrister Roshena Campbell or former Liberal state MP Cathrine Burnett–Wake — but not Frydenberg, who won’t nominate. It’s kind of surprising Tudge lasted as long as he did — he was one of those responsible for the deeply flawed robodebt scheme that resulted in the death of many vulnerable people, as 7News reported, and he was also accused of abusing staffer Rachelle Miller, an allegation he strenuously denied. He cited his father’s recent death and online trolls targeting his children with death threats as reasons for his departure, as The Conversation reports, which is grim.
For anyone seeking help, Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and Beyond Blue is 1300 22 4636. In an emergency, call 000.
MCCRACKEN HEARTY
Newly elected Liberal MP Joe McCracken has come out as gay in his maiden speech to the Victorian Parliament, The Age reports, but says people who are gay do not need “separate flags”. “The only flags I’ll be saluting is [sic] the Australian flag and the Victorian flag,” he said. “They are the only flags that do not discriminate on the people they represent.” McCracken was elected to the state’s upper house in November after gigs as councillor, deputy mayor and mayor at Colac Otway Shire. He revealed his partner was male towards the end of the speech, as SBS continues, and said he has never spoken much about it because “I never wanted to be defined by it. I hate identity politics.” It’s an apparent first for the Libs in Victoria’s Parliament — but follows Labor’s Harriet Shing and Steve Dimopoulos becoming the first openly gay MPs last year.
Meanwhile, US singer Phoebe Bridgers told a packed crowd at Melbourne’s Margaret Court Arena, “F*** that stupid c***, change your name,” as Sky News reports. It’s named after Margaret Court, a former No. 1 tennis great who has attracted condemnation in her later years for claiming “tennis is full of lesbians”, opposing marriage equality, and declaring LGBTIQA+ school lessons are “of the devil”. The list goes on. Bridgers encouraged the crowd to say “f*** Margaret Court” on three, with thousands of fans repeating it and cheering, as news.com.au shows. Premier Dan Andrews has slammed Court several times, saying, “I do not believe she has views that accord with the vast majority of people across our nation,” as ESPN reports, and that he was sick of talking about her.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Cuddle up to a cow on Valentine’s Day, the Indian government has advised its citizens, instead of falling for the Western consumerism that clogs up the loved-up day. Hugging a cow “will bring emotional richness” and “will increase our individual and collective happiness”, a solemn government statement read, declaring February 14 was now also known as “Cow Hug Day” for all the “cow lovers” out there. Cows are sacred animals in the Hindu tradition, and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, wants to write the reverence of the cow into national legislation. But as the government would’ve expected, “Cow Hug Day” has been received with some giggles too.
Academic Priyamvada Gopal tweeted: “[It’s] unclear whether bovine consent is required but you’ll find out, no doubt.” Another user posted a photo of a forlorn cow staring out to sea in the shallows of the water, captioning it “When nobody hugs you on Cow Hug Day”. India Today’s Latha Srinivasan was like, yes, it’s funny, but there’s merit in the suggestion hugging cows makes us happy. Snuggling any pet releases serotonin and endorphins, and although cows might seem like an unlikely recipient, the emerging wellness trend is so common in the Netherlands there’s an actual term for it: koe knuffelen. Why? Cows are particularly good to cuddle because they have a slower heartbeat, Srinivasan continues, and their warm body temperature and size make them particularly embraceable.
Sending you a big hug today too, and have a restful weekend.
SAY WHAT?
Higgins, like anyone of whatever politics, has a full and absolute right to every resource of the law and social support that go to people who claim to be a victim of a crime. But why on earth did she become a culture hero for progressives, standing there alongside Grace Tame, when she enthusiastically joined the Morrison government and clearly had no qualms about its actions?
Guy Rundle
Crikey’s correspondent-at-large says progressives need to have a “hard think about victim feminism” and about who gets elevated to hero status after the robodebt evidence from former adviser to Alan Tudge, Liberal staffer Rachelle Miller.
CRIKEY RECAP
A real estate agent offers to help landlords hike rents 24/7. So I tried them at 1.30am
“What caught my eye, however, was the second half of the flyer. The promise of service at any hour of the day was intriguing. After all, imagine being a landlord and being suddenly struck with the realisation at 5.01pm that you might not be scraping every cent out of a working mother tenant? God forbid.
“Could this promise be real? Does the agent really not sleep? Surely that’s ill-advised even if it is impressive. It is a literally unbelievable claim and one that deserves to be tested. Here at Crikey, we pride ourselves on the thoroughness of our reporting. So, we decided to find out.”
The silence is deafening after 10 women killed in just 20 days. It’s time to shout about it
“It is not lost on me that only a few months before this unprecedented, concentrated spree of men’s fatal violence against women, many cautiously welcomed the long-awaited launch of the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children, which Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth pledged would end violence against women and their children ‘within one generation’.
“The plan was meant to pick up where the previous, more than a decade-old national plan left off, a plan which under the stewardship of the former Coalition government had failed to meet the single metric for success it set for itself: to see a ‘significant and sustained reduction in violence against women and their children’. Twelve years later, rates of domestic violence have not fallen and rates of sexual violence have increased.”
Progressives need to have a hard think about victim feminism
“We always knew Miller was in Tudge’s office while the robodebt systematised cruelty was going on. Yet as soon as it became alleged that she might have had some oppressive treatment in a male-female workplace relationship with an imbalanced power dynamic, progressives and the left picked her up as a hero. The notion of interpersonal emotional violence was deployed in Miller’s favour and as a knock against Tudge — even though Miller was clearly a Team Tudge/ScoMo player — and the entire notion of ‘structural violence’ was forgotten.
“This woman was a willing and enthusiastic participant, using her skills and contacts, in advancing and defending a system that has directly caused suicides, self-harm, psychological breakdown and immense misery. Her inquiry appearance shows she’s smart and presumably good at her job. Those skills helped extend the robodebt scheme when it was under attack. She has a share in those deaths it caused.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Cold, hunger, despair grip homeless as Turkey-Syria earthquake toll passes 19,000 (Reuters)
EU summit: Italy’s Giorgia Meloni pushes for stricter migration laws (EuroNews)
Cyclone Gabrielle to make landfall in Northland on Tuesday, latest models show (Stuff)
Legendary composer Burt Bacharach, behind hits like “I Say a Little Prayer”, dead at 94 (CBC)
Chinese spy balloon contained technology to monitor communication signals, US says (CNN)
Nicaragua frees hundreds of political prisoners to the United States (The New York Times)
Missouri votes against banning children from carrying guns in public (The Guardian)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Progressives who love Andrews should be troubled by coroner’s finding — Annika Smethurst (The Age) ($): “As Premier Daniel Andrews nears 3000 days in office, he has much to celebrate. Three election wins, an infrastructure pipeline that is radically transforming Melbourne and a legacy of social reforms that — in his words — prove Victoria is the most progressive state in Australia. But there is an inconvenient truth that doesn’t square with that progressive claim: that of criminal justice reform.
“Sitting behind the government’s progressive rhetoric is the bothersome reality that bail changes introduced by this government are the harshest in the country and have resulted in people who pose no risk to the community routinely being remanded for low-level crimes. Between June 2010 and June 2020, the state’s prison population jumped by 57%, triggered by a huge surge in the remand population. It might not feature on Andrews’ prolific social media feed, but Aboriginal Victorians are overrepresented in these statistics.”
Grattan on Friday: Aston byelection will test Peter Dutton’s ability to campaign on Victoria’s tough terrain — Michelle Grattan (The Conversation): “Dutton will be relieved Josh Frydenberg doesn’t have his eye on Aston. If the former treasurer were the candidate, the media chatter from now until the byelection would be about the implications for the Liberal leadership if Frydenberg were back in the Parliament. Frydenberg’s decision is wise. Given the volatility of politics these days, he couldn’t be certain of winning and if he did, the resulting destabilisation in the Liberals would only benefit Labor. It’s better for Frydenberg to wait and recontest Kooyong, where teal independent Monique Ryan might be vulnerable next time.
“While Dutton has most on the line in Aston, the byelection (likely to be after Easter, in April) will in part give an early ‘real time’ reading on whether cost-of-living issues are harming the Albanese government. This is despite the fact Aston, according to ABC election analyst Antony Green, is no longer the mortgage-belt seat of old. Aston voters showed their disapproval of Tudge, Scott Morrison and the Liberals last year with a swing of more than 7%, leaving the seat on a 2.8% margin. Green observes that one would expect it to revert to a more comfortable position on the Liberal spectrum.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Whadjuk Noongar Country (also known as Perth)
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WA Transport, Planning and Ports Minister Rita Saffioti MLA will speak about her infrastructure vision at the State of the Future lunch at Crown Perth.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Author Mimi Zhu will chat about their new book, Be Not Afraid of Love, at Better Read Than Dead bookshop.
Yuggera Country (also known as Brisbane)
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Scientists Thomas Suddendorf, Adam Bulley, and Jonathan Redshaw will chat about their new book, The Invention of Tomorrow: A Natural History of Foresight, at Avid Reader bookshop.
