ROLL OF THE DRUMGOLD
ACT top prosecutor Shane Drumgold has been accused by the Sofronoff inquiry of a “serious breach of duty” in not disclosing police investigation documents, creating a “false narrative to support a claim of legal professional privilege” and making representations against Bruce Lehrmann that were an “untrue … invention of his own”, according to The Australian ($) which got a copy of the 600-page report. It also found Drumgold “knowingly lied” to the ACT Supreme Court in saying he had warned journalist Lisa Wilkinson — who Lehrmann is suing — over her Logies speech, news.com.au ($) adds, predicting the damning findings will almost certainly end Drumgold’s career as the ACT’s director of public prosecutions. He’s been on leave since May after giving evidence at the inquiry.
The Oz says the most serious accusation in the report is that Drumgold tried to keep the Moller report away from Lehrmann’s lawyers — it described Lehrmann’s accuser, Brittany Higgins, as “evasive”, “uncooperative” and “manipulative”, the ABC reported, and said police were concerned about proceeding with the rape charge against Lehrmann. However, the report also found the decision to charge and prosecute Lehrmann was the right course of action, though News Corp’s Samantha Maiden, who Lehrmann is no longer suing, is careful to spell out that this finding does not mean Lehrmann was guilty. Even if he had been, the Sofronoff report claims: “Any conviction would have been set aside on the ground of a miscarriage of justice.”
CONSULTING THE CONSULTANTS
The Finance Department spent $32,000 on an external consultant to get advice on how it should engage other external consultants who also give advice to the government, Guardian Australia reports. Finance Minister Katy Gallagher says the Ethics Centre’s Simon Longstaff was helping with its dealings with PwC and its former company Scyne — but Longstaff is a “well-respected philosopher and ethics adviser”, the paper qualifies, and the Ethics Centre is a registered charity that helps on workplace culture and decision-making. Greens Senator Barbara Pocock was like, no shade against Longstaff, but can’t we do anything in-house? It comes as consulting firm Noetic quietly claimed it was across future government decisions because it had access to high-ranking defence and national security agencies, the SMH ($) reports. Noetic, who has done tens of millions of dollars worth of work for defence, was trying to secure a buyer.
Back to Scyne a moment and former politician and head of Scyne’s South Australian business Jamie Briggs will head up government and external communications operations, The Australian ($) reports. He was “key to the negotiations around the sale of PwC’s government consulting business”, the paper adds. If his name is ringing a bell it might be because Briggs was minister for cities and the built environment during the Turnbull reign, but resigned after a female public servant complained about his behaviour on a night out in Hong Kong, as Guardian Australia reported at the time. He said it was an “informal” night and apologised to the woman.
MAKING WAVES
MPs have been warned to brace for “devastating” climate change consequences in the Asia-Pacific including “failed states, forced migration and regional conflicts over water shortages”, Guardian Australia reports. The Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration also warns climate change will see a retreat to “authoritarian and hyper-nationalist politics”, noting water from the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau is shared between India, Pakistan, China and others. Defence Minister Richard Marles has acknowledged before that climate change, particularly resources, would “give rise to greater tension”. It comes as smoke haze alerts in Perth have tripled over the past decade, WA Today ($) says, from 37 in 2014-15 to a high of 101 in 2019-20. It’s mostly from prescribed burns, but is hazardous to health — linked to asthma attacks, lung cancer, heart attacks and premature death, the WA government found.
Staying in WA and climate activists Gerard Mazza and Matilda Lane-Rose, who were arrested during a “peaceful” protest at Woodside Energy CEO Meg O’Neill’s Perth home yesterday, used to be teacher and student at Perth Modern School, The West ($) reports. The group was alleged to have planned to throw paint at O’Neill’s lavish beachside home and padlock themselves to the outside, but their lawyer said having a can of spray paint on them proved nothing. One of the co-accused also pointed out Lane-Rose was met with a “wall” of 20 armed counterterrorist police (who happened to be there, waiting) with nothing but a “couple of water balloons and a spray can”. Disrupt Burrup Hub wants to thwart the eponymous hub, which will emit 6 billion tonnes of carbon over the next 50 years… if we don’t all burst into flames from human-induced climate change first, that is.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
A Kansas man named Lee Wilson knew this was definitely not the year to forget his wedding anniversary. This month the childhood sweethearts were celebrating a half-century of marriage, but how to mark the momentous occasion and show just how bright his love remains for wife Renee? As romantic lore goes, it’s tin or aluminium for the 10-year anniversary, china for the 20th, pearls for the 30th, a ruby for the 40th and gold for the 50th (there’s a traditional gift for every single year, according to Hallmark). So Wilson decided on a rather quirky (and far more laborious) spin on the 50th’s traditional gift.
In May, the farmer approached his son with a question: would you help me with, ahem, a rather large gardening project? His plan, he told his kid, was to plant 1.2 million sunflowers across 32 hectares on the property. “She always liked sunflowers,” Wilson told local media, so he figured “this is the year to plant sunflowers”. When he surprised Renee with the field filled with golden flowers, she was blown away. “It couldn’t have been a more perfect anniversary gift,” she said. The sunflower season is short, so they will begin to wilt in two weeks. But for a guy who knew Renee was “the one” on their first date, it appears the love lives on. Meanwhile, as Twitter user Austin White dryly added:, “I can’t even get a text back.”
Hoping you feel special today too.
SAY WHAT?
The return is a miracle and sets an example for the world.
Kong Vireak
The undersecretary of state from Cambodia’s ministry of culture and fine arts was positively thrilled that the National Gallery of Australia gave back the top exhibit in its Asian collection, a trio of 9th-century Cham sculptures, after investigations found it was illegally sold by a UK dealer.
CRIKEY RECAP
“Outgoing Qantas CEO Alan Joyce may have been beloved of financial markets and the right-wing media, but what might be called ‘the Joyce model’ — underinvestment, attacks on workers, gorging on taxpayer handouts, trying to undermine competitors, offering appalling service and blaming customers when they complain — is looking more and more rotten as his long-delayed (how appropriate!) departure in November nears.
“Earlier this year Sydney Airport exposed one of Joyce’s anti-competitive tricks, pointing out that Qantas sought slots for significantly more than its 2019 capacity, but then cancelled vast numbers of flights, leaving competitors without slots. (Virgin also cancelled flights, but had sought only 95% of its 2019 capacity.)”
“CPAC Australia, the annual convention for culture warrior conservatives ranging from the merely right wing to the right out of their damn minds, has been brightly announcing its 2023 line-up for weeks. It includes choices both obvious (One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson, former prime minister Tony Abbott, former deputy PM Barnaby Joyce) and inevitable (newly independent Victorian MP Moira Deeming) as well as just plain questionable, such as long-time US conservative political activist Matt Schlapp, trailing as he is a series of scandals.
“And if all that somehow isn’t enough, CPAC is offering a near-50% discount to attendees to snap up a membership with the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA). It will cost you $55 bucks to help support the only think tank willing to do what really matters: total up every time the ABC used the word ‘Murdoch‘ to make some kind of point, and help take a bit of pressure off Gina Rinehart …”
“Anthony Albanese’s government has declined to implement one of the findings of the robodebt royal commission, in a move a Greens senator has dubbed ‘perplexing’. The Greens had sought to tack on one of the royal commission recommendations to a government welfare bill that’s being debated in the Senate this week, but Labor voted against the amendment on Wednesday.
” ‘It’s really disappointing, and it’s perplexing,’ Greens Senator Janet Rice told Crikey. The amendment would have reinstated a six-year limit on debt recovery for social security debt, which was one of the 57 recommendations made by the royal commission when its final report was released in July … Rice said her party colleagues were hopeful to get some of their amendments passed, but that they would support the bill regardless.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
West African bloc sends delegation to Niger, says force is ‘last resort’ (Al Jazeera)
Civil War-era rights law key in Trump election interference charges (Reuters)
Greek wildfires destroyed an area bigger than London in July (euronews)
[Canadian PM] Justin Trudeau and Sophie Grégoire Trudeau announce separation (CBC)
21 Donald Trump election lies listed in his new indictment (CNN)
Amazon deforestation falls over 60% compared with last July, says Brazilian minister (The Guardian)
THE COMMENTARIAT
To defend Australia, we must create a national citizens’ militia — Anthony Bergin (The Age) ($): “The time for complementary additional solutions is now. There’s an appetite for political leaders to introduce measures to strengthen national resilience. We’ve seen in Ukraine just how valuable and effective a trained population can be in defending their homeland where, for the most part, the ranks of its armed forces are bolstered by volunteers. If the Australian government is serious about the dire warning to come from the review, which noted the ADF’s ‘significant workforce challenge’ and called for the adoption of an ‘innovative and bold approach to recruitment’, it should embrace the review’s concept of ‘national eefence’ and establish a national militia training program.
“The scheme would provide basic military training and knowledge to everyday civilians who wish to contribute to the defence of Australia if our home were threatened, without joining the military permanently or as part-time reservists. In the same way that many Australians learn first aid, hoping never to have to use it, a trained force would add to our national defence numbers in times of crisis should it ever be needed. Administered by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, and using ex-military personnel to deliver training courses, the primary qualification for being accepted should be a person’s motivation to be involved and to serve the nation if called upon, instead of the standard fitness or aptitude tests used when recruiting career servicemen and women. This is important because as we have seen in Ukraine, if Australia were to come under attack, numbers and motivation are key drivers in defending a country.”
With yet another indictment, Donald Trump takes us into ‘unprecedented’ territory once again — Emma Shortis (The Conversation): “Even in what we might unsatisfactorily call a ‘normal’ US presidential election cycle, nominees and results are notoriously difficult to predict. Candidates rise and fall quickly — presumed heirs to the nomination riding high early in the cycle can fall into irrelevance before the primaries even begin. The unprecedented nature of Trump’s second campaign for the Republican nomination blows all efforts to predict any outcomes out of the water. Right now, Trump is following his familiar playbook — claiming this is all part of an extended conspiracy to keep him out of office by a ‘liberal elite’. Leaning into a narrative of victimhood, Trump expertly pushes the buttons of his base, and high-profile members of the Republican Party race to defend him, again.
“Their narrative is consistent and practised: the ‘left’, apparently convinced it cannot beat Trump in an election, is seeking to take him out of the running. Trump acolyte Senator JD Vance, for example, claimed President Joe Biden would ‘rather throw Donald Trump in prison than face him at the ballot box’. Vance, a graduate of Yale law school, undoubtedly knows none of that is true. He would also likely know that even if Trump were to be thrown behind bars, there are no legal obstacles to him facing Biden in an election, or even serving as president from a prison cell. Trump and his supporters insist on his innocence. In a statement released after the indictment, his campaign insisted Trump ‘has always followed the law and the constitution’. Never mind that the former president has stated, publicly and clearly, that he would happily ‘terminate’ the constitution to suit his own ends.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Online
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RMIT University’s Emma Shortis, the Lowy Institute’s Sam Roggeveen and the Australia Institute’s Allan Behm will talk about our relationship with the US in a webinar.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Author Madison Griffiths will speak about her new book, Tissue Launch, at Better Read Than Dead bookshop.
