POLITICAL DONATIONS
As we inch towards the end of the year, the federal government is doing little to stop speculation that an early election might be around the corner as it announces reforms to electoral spending (although once again we’re talking about measures that won’t come into effect until well after polling day).
The likes of the ABC, Guardian Australia and the Nine newspapers have given considerable coverage overnight to the government’s plans to introduce a bill to Parliament on Monday that will change electoral laws by capping campaign spending and donations.
The ABC says Labor is hopeful its bill will pass in the next fortnight following an in-principle agreement with the Coalition. The Sydney Morning Herald says the government is confident of making a deal with the opposition that would cap at $20,000 how much a candidate can receive from any individual donor in a calendar year. The reforms would also set a limit of $800,000 for the amount any candidate can spend in a seat during an election campaign.
Guardian Australia says the bill would also set a spending limit of $90 million for a federal political campaign, and there would be separate caps for each state and territory based on their size. The reforms would prevent campaigns like the size of the one run by Clive Palmer nationally, as well as teal independents at a local level.
Special Minister of State Don Farrell will announce the plans today, with the SMH saying he will introduce the bill next week. Labor is hopeful the legislation will pass through the Senate the week after before Parliament rises for the year. The paper also points out the proposed laws would not come into effect until 2026, suggesting next year’s election “will be the last at which unlimited cash can be splashed”.
Elsewhere in the draft legislation is a proposal to increase the amount the Australian Electoral Commission pays candidates and parties from $3.50 to $5 per vote, The Age reports. It also highlights how a donor will still be able to donate $600,000 in a year. In an example, the paper says: “This means Palmer could in theory give $20,000 each to 30 candidates. But the cap-per-candidate would mean a wealthy backer of teals, for example, would still only be able to give $20,000 to each of the teal MPs.”
The paper claims crossbenchers have not been briefed on the full details of the legislation, which has “generated paranoia”. Guardian Australia adds the bill has yet to go through the Coalition partyroom.
UN RESOLUTION
The other major story leading coverage overnight is Australia voting in favour of a draft United Nations resolution recognising “permanent sovereignty” of Palestinians to natural resources in the occupied territories, the ABC reports.
The broadcaster said a total of 155 countries voted in favour of the resolution, including Australia, the UK, Japan, France, Germany and New Zealand. The resolution calls on the UN to recognise the “permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources”.
Guardian Australia says seven countries, including the US, Israel and Canada, voted against it, while another 11 abstained. The vote will now proceed to the UN General Assembly.
The site said it represents the first time an Australian government has voted in favour of the “permanent sovereignty” resolution in more than two decades. A spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong is quoted as saying the vote on Thursday reflected international concern for Israel’s actions, including its “ongoing settlement activity, land dispossession, demolitions and settler violence against Palestinians”.
“We have been clear that such acts undermine stability and prospects for a two-state solution. This resolution importantly recalls UN Security Council resolutions that reaffirm the importance of a two-state solution that has had bipartisan support,” the spokesperson said.
The ABC and Guardian Australia also flag that Australia voted in favour of a second draft resolution that blames Israel for an oil spill that hit Lebanon during the 2006 war and demands the payment of compensation.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports the votes on Thursday were “the latest in a series of votes that have angered local pro-Israel groups in Australia”.
Elsewhere on the world stage, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is attempting to bolster Australia’s reputation as a reliable trading partner amid a fairly turbulent backdrop.
The ABC reports the PM will tell a business reception on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Lima, Peru: “Australia has weathered the storm better than most, and is poised to take advantage of stronger conditions.” The AFR also carries sections of his address, including: “Australia is taking advantage of our natural resources and our position in the fastest growing region of the world to power a new generation of prosperity.”
The paper says Albanese is pitching Australia to regional business leaders as “both a safe investment option and a secure and trusted trading partner”. “Australia will always support free and fair trade. We’re a trading nation. One in four of Australia’s jobs is trade-dependent, and that will be a focus with the meetings that we will have over coming days,” he announced after landing in Peru.
The backdrop to all of this is, of course, the man not in the room — a certain Donald Trump and his threatened tariffs.
The ABC reports that yesterday Opposition Leader Peter Dutton tried to continue pressure on the government’s ambassador to the US in light of Kevin Rudd’s previous comments about Trump. “The difficulty the PM is in at the moment is if he sacks Kevin Rudd, then what does he do with Penny Wong?” Dutton said.
“And if he sacks Penny Wong, what does he do given he’s made his own disparaging comments about president-elect Trump as well?”
A reminder: Trump isn’t even inaugurated until January 20. It’s going to be a long two months/four years.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
Two critically endangered parrots have been found 60 miles away from London Zoo after escaping last month.
The blue-throated macaws Lily and Margot were eventually found in Cambridgeshire after being spotted by members of the public, the BBC quotes the Zoological Society of London as saying.
The broadcaster said a family in the village of Buckden contacted the zoo after spotting the macaws resting in trees in their garden and then searching online for missing bird reports.
The Guardian reports the birds subsequently flew off again but were later found, this time in a field. The paper said when zookeepers came to collect them, they reportedly “flew into the keeper’s arms and were given treats such as pumpkin seeds, walnuts and pecans”.
The BBC quotes a spokesperson as saying: “Our thanks go to those across the country whose assistance proved vital in the safe return of Lily and Margot to London Zoo.”
Say What?
I thought, ‘Wow, this was here when Napoleon was alive’.
Manu San Felix
The videographer discovered the largest coral ever recorded while diving in the Solomon Islands, the BBC reports.
CRIKEY RECAP
As the Albanese government hurtles towards what increasingly looks like one-term status, its flailing desperation and lack of judgement — or, rather, the substitution of its flawed political judgement for sound policy judgement — risk inflicting real damage on the community.
Its thrashing about on online policy grew wilder overnight with Communications Minister Michelle Rowland revealing Labor will impose a “digital duty of care” on social media platforms, along with specifying categories of harm: “Harms to young people; harms to mental wellbeing; the instruction and promotion of harmful practices; and other illegal content, conduct and activity.”
Rowland wants to shift away from “reacting to harms by relying on content regulation alone”, moving towards “systems-based prevention, accompanied by a broadening of our regulatory and social policy perspective of what online harms are experienced by children”.
Needless to say, existing corporate media won’t be subject to a tightly framed, legislated “duty of care”, or specified categories of harm. Imagine News Corp being required to operate with a duty of care concerning harm to young people. Its entire coverage of the climate emergency would have to change from blanket denial. It could no longer demonise Indigenous kids with impunity. Imagine television broadcasters and the major sporting codes being required to operate with a duty of care regarding gambling advertising, especially for children.
Just to reinforce the sense that the Dems were listening to the wrong people, MSNBC commentator Joy Reid argued, on election night, that Harris’ campaign was “flawless” for that very reason:
She had Queen Latifah [who] never endorses anyone! She had every prominent celebrity voice, she had the Taylor Swifties, she had the Beyhive. You could not run a better campaign in that short period of time.
Reid, the day I touched down in America, was running the “breaking news” that six former contestants of Trump’s show The Apprentice had written an open letter endorsing Harris. Trump, somehow, recovered.
Post election we asked Bob Brady and the Philly Democrats if he would talk to us about the shortcomings of the campaign, where the Democrats needed to go from here, and whether Kamala Harris ever truly earned the title of “brat”. Oddly, they never got back to us.
For Ajak, a victory in the class action will help efforts to rehabilitate these young South Sudanese refugees who have instead been sent indefinitely to detention.
“It will help people because they came here as young children and they came from refugee camps,” she says.
“They’ve had bad lives and we were hoping coming here would be for a very good life … we brought our children here to something that can come and kill them — it’s like throwing your child to the lions. It’s really very bad and people should know the situation.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Democrats, GOP clash over release of Matt Gaetz ethics investigation (USA Today)
France deploys thousands of police for Israel match after Amsterdam violence (The Guardian)
Israel bombs targets in Syria, while keeping up strikes in Lebanon (The New York Times) ($)
New Zealand Parliament suspended after haka protest over Māori rights bill (ABC)
The Onion has won the bid for Infowars’ assets (CNN)
Rod Stewart: Potholes are forcing me to sell my Italian supercars (The Times) ($)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Instead of banning young people from social media Anthony Albanese needs to listen to them — Jess Travers-Wolf (Guardian Australia): A ban will not only isolate a generation facing increased loneliness, but also undermine their personal and political agency, limiting their capacity to learn vital future skills.
Banning young people from any activity has rarely been effective — a workaround is usually jerry-rigged in some form. Instead, let’s engage with those who know this issue best: young people themselves. Let’s work together and create a platform where people of all ages and stages have the ability to engage safely and respectfully for their mutual growth, for today and tomorrow.
Albanese and Dutton learn two valuable lessons as their election test looms — Jake Evans (ABC): The lights are being strung up, the plastic pine trees are littering shopping centres; candidates are being announced, protesters are interrupting PMs.
And while we still don’t know exactly when we’ll be going to the polls — despite a few days of fervent speculation that began in the west — two recent events have given the parties some ideas what issues might be winners.
Queensland’s election was a pulse check for both Labor and the Coalition for how they might fare in a federal campaign.
The mood after it and the US election, according to the pundits, is that culture wars are out.
