ALBANESE AND ALBO
UN expert Francesca Albanese had a meeting with Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Tim Watts who she found quite clued in about the whole Israel-Hamas situation. More broadly, however, she told Guardian Australia the government’s reluctance to criticise Israel was “dangerous”, arguing it’s just giving Israel more confidence in the Gaza Strip as people run, “kids in their arms … trying not to be killed”. Albanese has gone viral for her spectacular dressing-down of Australian journalists at the National Press Club this week. Guardian Australia’s Daniel Hurst described himself as “tripped up” by her use of the trope “domination”, to which a baffled Albanese responded that it was actually a term used by the Apartheid Convention, not a trope. The clip has now been watched 1.3 million times. When Nine newspapers’ Matthew Knott asked how Hamas could ever sign a peace deal as she suggested, Albanese called out the distortion of Australian media in twisting her words. It’s been viewed 57,000 times.
Meanwhile the government will not ban the Nazi salute, the SMH ($) reports, because it should be a state and territory issue. It makes more sense, Labor argued, because state and territory police enforce it in communities, but Liberal MP Andrew Wallace said that “beggars belief”. If you feel so strongly about it, why didn’t you legislate it during your near-decade in office, Labor MP Peter Khalil asked. Rising anti-Semitism, mostly. Even so, it’s fair to say the Coalition is doing everything it can to make lemonade right now. The SMH’s David Crowe said Opposition Leader Peter Dutton went too far yesterday in trying to link anti-Semitism with the 83 released asylum seekers with the PM not supporting Jewish folks, with the reporter calling it “overreach”, a “tactical blunder” and a “disgrace”. The New Daily’s James Robertson agreed, writing “Peter Dutton finally went too far” and noting PM Anthony Albanese was “visibly, incandescently angry”.
CLOSING THE VISA LOOPHOLE
It will become illegal to breach bridging visas, Guardian Australia reports, after the Coalition pointed out it’s usually punishable by immigration detention. But that’s not possible anymore after the High Court found indefinite immigration detention is unlawful. It comes amid the furore over the 83 people released this week, something the Human Rights Law Centre’s Sanmati Verma doesn’t get. Australians who served their time are released every day, she pointed out, so why are we afraid of migrants and refugees? I think we all know the dismal answer to that.
Meanwhile developers would be on tenterhooks this morning ahead of Transport Minister Catherine King’s list of the infrastructure projects that will proceed, as the AFR ($) reports. She’ll also stump up $6.2 billion more to cover the cost blowouts, but more than 80 road and rail projects may end up in the bin if she takes her independent review’s advice. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was irate that Victoria was keeping its suburban rail loop, warning King that a “fight is what [the government is] going to get” from her if Sunshine State projects suffer. It comes as Melbourne’s airport rail link just locked in $5 billion in funding, the Herald Sun ($) says, while Queensland’s Logan-Gold Coast faster rail project got $1.75 billion, the Brisbane Times adds.
HOT, HOTTER, HOTTEST
This summer could be close to Australia’s hottest, the ABC reports, and next year is set to be another scorcher when El Niño reaches its strongest intensity. This year’s was actually the sixth strongest when compared with 17 other recent El Niños — that’s the hotter, drier brother to its rainy, cooler sister, La Niña. “Considering all factors, it would therefore be no surprise if this summer was close to Australia’s hottest on record,” the broadcaster notes. Meanwhile Victorian question time was interrupted yesterday by three students who brandished banners from the public gallery promoting Friday’s Schools Strike 4 Climate rally, Guardian Australia reports. It’s the fifth time the rally has been held, but this year three leading climate professors — Dr David Karoly from the University of Melbourne, Dr Lesley Hughes from Macquarie University, and the ANU’s Dr Nick Abel — have pre-signed climate doctors’ certificates for protesting kids, The Age ($) reports.
It comes as Year 10, 11 and 12 kids at Chevalier College in the Southern Highlands might go to school only four days a week under proposed changes that would see the fifth day (a Monday) completed remotely, the SMH ($) reports. To Queensland children now, and nearly one in three kids on its serious repeat offender list (or 133 of 452) are under a child protection order — that’s when a court rules a child needs to be protected from harm. Youth Advocacy Centre’s Katherine Hayes told Guardian Australia that kids can be criminalised for behaviour that wouldn’t happen if they were in a loving home — such as if they threw something at the wall in residential care and it caused damage, concerned workers might call the police.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Queensland Rail workers had a problem, and it was really getting their goat. They were continually clearing hard-to-reach weeds and grass along the lines near Tully, in far north Queensland, because the dry scrub was prime real estate for a budding bushfire, not to mention choking out the local wattles. There’s got to be another way, rail vegetation manager Glenn Withers implored landscaper Norveg’s Christina Forrest. Well, she ventured slowly, we could try something that might sound a little… off the rails. Next minute, a herd of 15 goats were brought in. Okay, bucks and nannies, Withers said to vacant-eyed stares, you’ve got three months to munch through two hectares. Happy chewing.
Any derisive laughter around the Queensland Rail office was quickly stilled as the goats got through the entire area in a third of their allotted time. Withers monitored their palates to note what they would and wouldn’t eat, and how fast they’d do so, quickly realising this goat solution could be the GOAT of all landscaping hacks. Not only that, but the way they chew the weed head seeds destroys them, meaning they’re not likely to experience a reincarnation in the goat excrement. That means we need far less herbicide, Forrest told the ABC. But beware: their appetites know no bounds, one expert warned, and thus the area they munch within very much should. With great power comes great fencing.
Hope you think outside the box today too.
SAY WHAT?
This is the premier who stopped us playing golf for two years during COVID.
Steve Price
The Project panellist says he will tear up his membership to the Portsea Golf Club if former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews is allowed to join because Price wanted to tee off while a deadly virus was endangering Australia’s most vulnerable.
CRIKEY RECAP
“Other extremists view this as an opportunity to mainstream their hateful beliefs by misleadingly conflating opposition to Israel’s efforts with anti-Semitism. National Socialist Network leader Tom Sewell celebrated the Hamas attack and Israel’s retaliation earlier last month on Telegram, arguing that the violence would turn Australians against Jewish people.
“Neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell shared a video of an individual criticising Israel’s attacks with the caption: ‘Antisemitism [sic] appears to be on the verge of mainstream political discourse’. Australian anti-fascist researchers have warned against amplifying these figures when supporting the pro-Palestine movement.”
“While the media mostly parroted the government’s claim that it was adopting “all 56” recommendations of the robodebt royal commission (we’ve not read the whole report but if one of them was ‘make a robot out of papier-mâché and foil and bonk it on the head’ they can tick that off…), a few eagle-eyed parties noted a curious point.
“The report hadn’t made 56 recommendations — it had made 57. And what was that final recommendation the government was looking to sweep under the carpet (with the help of our biggest news outlets)? Reform of the freedom of information laws, specifically to make it less easy for governments to immediately shield decisions from view simply by describing them as a cabinet document.”
“A viral video claims an electric vehicle (EV) charging station in Australia’s outback is powered entirely by a diesel generator. This is false. The off-grid prototype station uses solar panels as its primary energy source, with the generator included as an emergency backup.
“A social media user made the claim while filming the NRMA charging station at Erldunda in Central Australia. But they unknowingly debunked their own claim by capturing the EV station’s primary energy source: a roof made out of solar panels … The Instagram clip (archived here) is spreading across social media (including here, here, here and here) and has almost 200,000 likes.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Belize joins diplomatic backlash against Israel over Gaza bombardment (Al Jazeera)
Greta Thunberg pleads not guilty to public order offence (BBC)
Found document suggests Iran sought to help Hamas make its own weapons ahead of attack, sources say (CNN)
French court issues arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad for complicity in war crimes (The Guardian)
UK’s Rwanda deportation policy ruled unlawful by Supreme Court (euronews)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Indigenous writers in solidarity with Palestine — Karen Wyld (IndigenousX): “Systemic racism is also prevalent in so-called Australia. Many Australians need to reexamine their own core beliefs. No-one can claim to support Indigenous rights in so-called Australia if they don’t support Indigenous Palestinian people’s right to exist. You can’t say you want First Peoples to have a voice on one hand, when you’re using the other hand to proclaim support for a genocide regime. You can’t say you’re against deaths in custody, but don’t listen when Palestinians say they can’t breathe. ACAB includes the IOF.
” ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ imagines the liberation of ancestral land. These are sovereign peoples’ words, similar to ‘Always was, always will be Aboriginal land’. Neither of these chants are harmful. Palestine will be free and olive groves will blossom again; fishing crews will sail without harm; and children’s laughter will fill the air. Story, poetry and song will once again flourish. And Indigenous friendships will continue.”
Breaking news: All politicians are not crooks. Cynicism has gone too far — Martin Parkinson (The Age) ($) : “The antidote, I think, is to do a better job of educating all Australians about how our political system works. A stronger emphasis on civics from an early age is necessary in the curriculum and should continue through our children’s education. This may require a bipartisan view on what should, and should not, be taught, but this is a difficult discussion we should start. Education should also extend to government information campaigns. Currently, federal governments spend heavily to inform people about myriad initiatives.
“How about setting aside some of that budget to educate all of us about the system itself? New politicians and political staffers must also receive compulsory training on their roles, the operation of government and the apolitical public service. It’s hard to conceive of any serious company or organisation that would require people to take on the important leadership roles we give to our elected representatives, and particularly to ministers, without at least some form of training. More broadly, I also think we need to drop just a little of our trademark Australian cynicism.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Journalist Leigh Sales will talk about her new book, Storytellers, at St Stephen’s Church, 189 Church St, Newtown.
Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)
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Author Tony Birch will talk about his new book, Women & Children, at Avid Reader bookshop.
