A SPORTING CHANCE
Matildas captain Sam Kerr has called for more funding for grassroots soccer after her team lost to the Lionesses last night in the Women’s World Cup semi-finals, the SMH ($) reports. To her, legacy isn’t about what happens on the pitch, but rather the change you make to the sport. And the Tillys’ historic climb “needs to be the start of something” where investment isn’t so scant so we can be “contenders for medals and tournaments moving forward as well”. She said the only thing leaving her smiling after the loss is the enormous groundswell of support from Australia: “We won the heart and the passion for this team in this country.” It definitely got a little too rowdy in Melbourne, however, as the ABC reports, where fans threw flares and stormed barricades. If you missed the match or just want to relive it, Guardian Australia’s Kieran Pender writes brilliantly on it.
Meanwhile, global governing body World Aquatics is threatening to boot Swimming Australia (SA) out, The Daily Telegraph ($) reports, after president Michelle Gallen received a “laundry list” of concerns. The paper says it has 30 days to fix the sport’s constitution otherwise a “stabilisation committee” will be sent in and it will no longer be recognised as a member. So what’s the problem? Well, SA’s last president, Tracy Stockwell, was overthrown in the boardroom as Swimming World magazine reported, then SA slashed funding to grassroots programs, and then CEO Eugenie Buckley quit after complaints, as Guardian Australia reported. The letter also pointed out SA hadn’t recognised World Aquatics vice-president Matthew Dunn’s voting right, and various conflicts of interest for members who have commercial partnerships, as The Australian ($) reports.
VISA AND PAYMENT
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles is quietly revisiting hundreds of appeals from Afghans denied visas as the Taliban seized control of Kabul, The Australian ($) reports. The Immigration Assessment Authority denied 9861 visas during the Morrison government era, partly because it figured there was no way the Taliban would take over the Nawur district near Kabul. How wrong it was. Lawyer Michaela Byers, who is representing six of those denied, says there were “piles of evidence” that the IAA ignored. One of her clients had his visa waved through by Giles last week, the paper adds.
To another Giles now and former SPC boss Robert Giles has settled with the fruit and food giant over unpaid wages and annual leave totalling as much as $400,000, the AFR ($) reports, after legal action hit the Federal Court on Monday. SPC was owned by a farmer co-op for a century — in 2005, Coca-Cola bought it for $750 million, and then Perpetuity Capital/equity firm The Eights together paid a bargain price of $40 million in 2019 when Giles was appointed. Meanwhile, mining matriarch Gina Rinehart has been accused of devaluing Hancock Prospecting shares in a family trust back in 1994 which then decreased her kids’ inheritance, a WA court heard yesterday, the ABC reports. John Hancock and Bianca Rinehart’s lawyer said it was a ploy for their mother to get more shares.
BOTTOM/BATTLE LINES
We’re headed for a recession in the next year, some 70% of mostly east-coast insolvency professionals, turnaround advisers, company boards and lawyers say. The ABC reports it’s the result of 115 responses — 43% of them were in Victoria, 36% were from NSW and 12% were from Queensland. Meanwhile, another report has found 90% of Victorian government agencies were hit by cyberattacks last year, The Age ($) reports, including Fire Rescue Victoria having personal info leaked and Victorian hospitals shutting down bookings for 24 hours. The paper notes the government sees cybersecurity as one of the top 10 risks for the state, but 94% of staff at the agencies examined didn’t even have multifactor authentication.
To a rather different battle and support for the Queensland LNP has surged past Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s Labor government for the first time in a Nine newspaper poll, 38% to 32% (the rest would go minor or independents). Opposition Leader David Crisafulli is the preferred premier also for the first time, according to the poll. Palaszczuk is due to speak today at the opening of the Labor Party conference in Brisbane, where some hard-leaning left figures are pushing for AUKUS to be removed from the national platform, The Australian ($) reports, because the national benefit isn’t clear. Earlier this month former foreign affairs minister and former NSW premier Bob Carr called the AUKUS submarine deal “the largest ever transfer of wealth overseas to subsidise [US] shipyards”.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Maura Kelly was lonely. It was the dead of winter, she’d just broken up with someone, and the sheer exhaustion of insomnia was leading her to accidentally-on-purpose avoid her circle of friends, as she writes for The New York Times ($). She was buoyed by one glimmer of hope though — her uber-successful and effortlessly zesty close pal Amy, who Maura was sure had the secret to getting her writing career steaming along again, making her big bags of cash in the process, and somehow leaving her married with two polite kids by spring. No-nonsense Amy said this instead: become a regular somewhere. A slumped barfly, Maura scoffed? Her friend countered that the venue didn’t need to serve liquor; just that it’d be someplace where, in time, they’d learn her name. Maybe even wonder about her when she wasn’t around.
Maura was strolling the streets one evening when she noticed a tiny ice cream shop, lit warmly and with a dozen expectant wooden tables. She was met with the smooth tones of Neil Young (her favourite) and ordered a pot of tea. Night after night she sat down, wrote, and got to know the staff: buoyant Jordan, dramatic Eric, and quiet James, all making ends meet slinging cookies-and-cream en route to their own dreams. Her casual drop-ins were met by nods, grins, and even order recall from the guys. One night Eric tossed his broom aside and sat with Maura to ask about her writing. He wrote too, he revealed. It was low stakes, she admits, but “weak ties” can be profound in their own quiet way. Spring thaw saw the city’s streets bloom, and they all moved on to their different chapters. But one thing lingered: a realisation, Maura writes, that “a small change can help you build the strength for a more significant one”.
Sending you a big hug today.
SAY WHAT?
While the English team may win — they face the ultimate defeat — having to return to England.
Dan Nolan
The Lionesses may be headed to the Women’s World Cup after beating the valiant Matildas 3-1 last night, but keen poster Nolan wryly notes that we Australians ultimately come out on top.
CRIKEY RECAP
“Several universities say The Daily Telegraph and a right-wing think tank ‘selectively misquoted’ a school document to make it falsely appear as if students and staff were ‘banned’ from ‘disagreeing with Indigenous people’. The claim was contained in an exclusive Telegraph story last week based on a study by the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) that claimed most Australian universities were ‘hostile to free speech’.
“Crikey can reveal that none of the universities criticised were afforded a chance to respond by the IPA or Telegraph, that many of the story’s claims are misleading, and that some of the guidelines the article decried as undermining free speech are consistent with News Corp Australia’s own staff policies.”
“The fundamentalist position — one adopted by far-right groups such as the Institute of Public Affairs — is that any constitutional recognition of First Peoples is racist in distinguishing them from any other group.
“This is a simple restatement of the terra nullius lie, by rejecting the fact that First Peoples were attacked and dispossessed and thus have a foundational role not merely in the history of the Australian continent but in the establishment of the Australian state culminating in Federation — far beyond any other group that may have emerged since then.”
“[Keviin] Rudd is surrounded by symbolic allusions to his time in office: the Indigenous totems in the background a nod to the Apology, references to his ability to speak Mandarin via Chinese vases, and conspicuous book covers written in what Rudd once beautifully called ‘this fucking language‘.
“Jack Callil, Crikey’s opinion editor and certified nerd, was the first to notice the board looks off. See, the left side of the board, which Louie the cat is facing, appears to be where the black pieces started out. Yet the top left square, where the white queen stands, is a white square. But this is all wrong — as per chess.com, the board should be set up the opposite way. That square is A8, and it should be H8, which is a black square.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
More than a dozen Niger soldiers killed in attack near Mali border (Al Jazeera)
Jordan Peterson: critics complain over ‘misleading’ book cover quotes (BBC)
German cabinet approves landmark bill to liberalise cannabis use (euronews)
Pakistan crowd vandalises churches, torches homes after two accused of blasphemy (Reuters)
NATO official apologises over suggestion Ukraine could give up land for membership (The Guardian)
The strengths and weaknesses of the Georgia election meddling case against Trump and his allies (CNN)
THE COMMENTARIAT
An open letter to Labor concerning national security — Peter Dutton (The Australian) ($): “And yet, we cannot ignore the facts. Whether it is in Eastern Europe or the Indo-Pacific, we are again reckoning with the unpeaceful. Authoritarian regimes have become emboldened and willing to use deception, coercion and force to exert influence and achieve their national ambitions at the expense of global peace and stability which has been the motor of human progress and prosperity. As we know from history — distant and near — the inability of democratic nations to deter and respond to militarised and aggressive authoritarian regimes is the greatest threat to peace.
“For our country, AUKUS is our best chance to safeguard Australians today and tomorrow so the horrors experienced by our forebears remain confined to the history books. It is hardly controversial to state that some rank-and-file members of the Labor Party have a strong anti-American sentiment. Others are opposed to Australia acquiring nuclear-powered submarines, given the Labor Party’s historic anti-nuclear proliferation stance. These positions, however, are the result of vested interests and symbolism, rather than the national interest and pragmatism … The time has come to cast aside antiquated thinking on nuclear power — just as more than 50 other countries are doing — and discuss the undeniable benefits of new small and micro modular reactors. If this technology can power our submarines, it can surely help power our nation too — as a companion to renewables, not a competitor.”
Dutton is banking on twin calamities to unseat Albanese, but it’s not enough — Niki Savva (The SMH) ($): “The strategy Liberals have adopted in a bid to save what remains of their party and to ensure Peter Dutton’s survival as leader, is brutal, ugly and cold-bloodedly negative. It not only seeks to capitalise on the misery of Australians, it risks inflaming community tensions on race and immigration. The objective is to sour the public mood to the point where, at the very least, the next election plunges Labor into minority government. The goal is to make Parliament unworkable, the government unstable and ignite Labor leadership tensions so that, voila, voters turn to the Liberals to clean up the mess. The latest Resolve poll for this masthead, showing support has declined for the Voice, for Albanese personally and for the government, is a well-timed wake-up call.
“Dutton is aping Tony Abbott, who became prime minister in 2013, albeit one of the shortest-lived ever, by destroying Kevin Rudd, then Julia Gillard, then Rudd again. Albanese has flaws, but he is not Rudd. Postponing the referendum would be his Rudd moment. He would wreck his leadership as surely as Rudd wrecked his after abandoning action on climate change. Having promised the Voice, he has no choice but to stand and fight harder and smarter to deliver it. Delay will not make it any easier. Right now, there is no whiff of tension around Albanese’s leadership as there was with Rudd. Obviously, he will be wounded if the referendum is defeated but, unless he crumbles after a massive loss, there will be no move against him … They can all see what Dutton is doing.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)
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Author Anastasia Tyler will talk about her new book, Survival Mode, at Avid Reader bookshop.
Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)
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Poets Susie Anderson, Manisha Anjali, Emilie Zoey Baker, Andrea Goldsmith (reading unpublished poems by Dorothy Porter), Eloise Grills, Kevin Jared Hosein, Maya Hodge, Andy Jackson, Jason Steger, Jessica Wilkinson will all perform at Poetry Month Gala at The Wheeler Centre.
