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Rich James

No summer break from politics as majors ‘toss out’ rulebook ahead of election

NATIONAL AUTISM STRATEGY

Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth will today launch Australia’s first national autism strategy tasked with improving inclusion, support and life outcomes for Australians living with autism.

The ABC says the strategy will involve 22 “commitments” focused on four key reform areas: social inclusion; economic inclusion; diagnosis, services and support; and health. “Addressing the barriers autistic people face in areas like education, employment and diagnosis is long overdue and we are proud to deliver a strategy that will change lives for the better,” Rishworth is quoted as saying.

The AAP reports over $42 million will be used to fund the strategy, including almost $20 million for a peer support program to provide advice for autistic people and nearly $3 million for a study looking into the prevalence of autism in Australia. The newswire says there are believed to be almost 300,000 people in Australia living with autism.

The strategy will be implemented this month and run until 2031, AAP says, although the ABC points out “the health components of the strategy will be actioned through a separate road map, which has not yet been finalised”. The announcement brings Australia in line with countries such as the US, UK and Canada which already have national autism strategies.

Guardian Australia also reports Rishworth is tipped to take over the NDIS from Bill Shorten when he retires next month.

Yesterday, the federal government pledged $3 billion to upgrade thousands of NBN connections and speed up internet services. AAP says the cash will upgrade the network to about 620,000 homes and businesses, more than half of which are in regional areas.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “Labor created the National Broadband Network, and only Labor will finish the NBN”, while Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said thousands of homes were “stranded” on copper lines that were degrading and getting old.

The Australian Financial Review says the funding brings taxpayers’ stake in the NBN to about $35 billion. Labor is attempting to use the NBN to attack the Coalition, with Albanese declaring: “Given the opportunity, the Liberal and National parties will also privatise NBN Co. Peter Dutton made this clear when he instructed his party to vote against government legislation.”

The legislation in question is the one announced to the surprise of many at the end of last year aimed at prohibiting the privatisation of the network. It will come in front of the Senate next month.

The AFR reports opposition communications spokesman David Coleman said the opposition would not seek to block the funding, but added of the network: “It’s haemorrhaging customers, and it’s haemorrhaging taxpayer’s cash. If you talk to pretty much anyone in regional Australia, they will tell you that the NBN is a joke.”

Josh Taylor at Guardian Australia has written a good piece on what Monday’s NBN announcement actually means and the remaining questions over internet costs, rather than speeds.

POLITICAL RULEBOOK ‘TOSSED OUT’

The announcements above come as politicians start warming up for election season, with the AAP publishing an intriguingly headlined piece this morning claiming the political rulebook has been “tossed out”.

In it, RedBridge Group director and former Victorian Liberal deputy state director Tony Barry declares: “The political orthodoxy is that there’s no politics until Australia Day as everyone’s on holidays and relaxing and getting ready for back to school. But with [just weeks] to go until polls open, they don’t have that luxury.”

Barry says there is growing pessimism among the voting public fuelled by cost of living pressures and warns Albanese “can’t run on his own record, otherwise he’s dead meat”.

Elsewhere, the AFR flags concern the Liberal Party is not doing enough to fix its gender imbalance with six men and just one woman selected for seats held by retiring MPs.

The paper says women make up about 30% of Liberal MPs and senators, compared to 52% of Labor seats held by women. Following the 2022 election, a review by Victorian Senator Jane Hume and former federal party director Brian Loughnane recommended a 50% female representation in federal Parliament and the party’s executive.

The AFR says Mary Aldred is the only female Liberal candidate running in a seat in 2025 where a current member is retiring.

Talking of elections, The Australian reports former US ambassador Joe Hockey reckons Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton should consider offering incoming American president Donald Trump a state visit to Australia.

Hockey told the newspaper: “It costs nothing to make an offer and he is the most powerful person in the world as of next Monday. Both candidates [for prime minister] should be thinking about offering Trump a state visit to Australia later this year. He was close to visiting Australia prior to his 2020 election and time beat us but it’s something that both the prime minister and leader of the opposition will need to think about.”

When asked about his first potential meeting with President Trump 2.0, Albanese suggested on Monday the Quad meeting later in the year would be the most likely opportunity.

The Australian also highlights Dutton’s remarks to ABC radio in which he said Foreign Minister Penny Wong had a lot of “repair work” to do when she attends the Trump inauguration next week and holds meetings in Washington.

Albanese for his part called Dutton “cold-hearted, mean-spirited [and] sometimes just plain nasty” in an interview with ABC Melbourne yesterday, The Sydney Morning Herald reports. The comments came as the PM avoided a debate on citizenship ceremonies being held on Australia Day after Dutton pledged to reinstate a rule, which was scrapped by Labor, forcing councils to hold them on January 26.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE…

Take a minute to have a look at this rescue puppy named Kiwi. Just have a bloody look at how much fun she’s having.

The Pomeranian was diagnosed with a heart murmur last year after arriving at Woodside Animal Welfare Sanctuary in Plymouth, UK, aged nine weeks old.

At the time she was given only months to live, but Kiwi has just celebrated her first birthday, Plymouth Live reports, and her heart is getting stronger.

Woodside assistant supervisor Kirstin Stone, who took the puppy home to look after her following the diagnosis, said: “I’m really excited and happy for her. I take every day as it comes with Kiwi and don’t look too far ahead, I’m grateful for every adventure. I like to take on animals that need extra care and I wanted to give Kiwi the best life she could have. Her heart has started to get stronger. It hasn’t healed but it is getting stronger.”

Nice one Kiwi.

Say What?

Realistically I can’t see myself playing singles here again.

Nick Kyrgios

The 29-year-old was speaking after his first round defeat to world number 92 Jake Fearnley at the Australian Open.

CRIKEY RECAP

Dutton’s MAGA Down Under pamphlet shows how vulnerable he is on migration

BERNARD KEANE
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton(Image: AAP/Diego Fedele)

Dutton is offering the catchphrases and slogans, the mugging and capering of the original Trump brand, but the delivery is off, the local references jarring, the production incompetent. Most of all, Dutton himself is badly confused about his lines. Does he want more migration or less? Does he want to fix workforce shortages or exacerbate them? The answer seems to change depending on which bit of his pamphlet you read.

It’s one thing for an opposition to go to an election with a minimal policy offering and hope it can demonise enough people to earn a swing. Quite another, though, to be genuinely confused on an issue allegedly central to its offering.

Is the Federal Court’s yearly party budget $100k or nothing at all? The answer is, amazingly, both

ANTON NILSSON

Did the Federal Court of Australia throw parties at a total cost of $424,498 over three years, or did it not? It depends who you ask.

In 2023, and again in early 2024, Liberal Senator Jane Hume asked the Attorney-General’s Department how much money its agencies had spent on functions. Both times, she was told “the Federal Court of Australia” had “not held any functions or official receptions” in the relevant timeframe.

But when Greens Senator David Shoebridge asked the same question in November last year, he got a wildly different answer.

From one Macdonald to another: Hamish set to replace Sarah as host of ABC Sydney Mornings

DAANYAL SAEED

The ABC is set to announce The Project and Global Roaming host Hamish Macdonald as the replacement for axed Sydney Mornings presenter Sarah Macdonald, Crikey understands.

Hamish had been widely tipped to replace Sarah, and brings with him a high-profile background as a foreign correspondent, having covered major events such as the Hong Kong and Egypt uprisings, nuclear disaster in Japan, and conflicts in Afghanistan and Ukraine. He has also won a Walkley for current affairs journalism.

A spokesperson for the ABC declined to comment, saying an announcement was imminent. Hamish and acting ABC Radio Sydney content director David Murray were contacted for comment but did not respond in time for publication.

One ABC insider told Crikey that “presenters need to be in for the long haul to build a relationship with listeners. No-one can imagine Hamish sticking around for long”.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Los Angeles wildfires: At least 24 killed as returning winds threaten to undo progress (CNN)

Just Stop Oil activists spray-paint ‘1.5 is dead’ on Charles Darwin’s grave (The Guardian)

Stocks ease, dollar rises; upbeat US data drives rates rethink (Reuters)

Norway on track to be first country to hit 100% electric vehicle sales (BBC)

British PM Keir Starmer outlines bid to become AI ‘world leader’ (ABC)

Melania 2.0: I’m ‘independent’ and will stand up to Trump (Daily Beast) ($)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Social media’s taken a giant leap to the right. Will it sway Australian voters?Sean Kelly (The Sydney Morning Herald): This is not because Dutton and his colleagues will say — or even think — any of the things that Facebook now permits its American users to say. It is because of the ambient environment those changes create for the dominant image Dutton projects: a strongman, against “woke”, concerned about migration and the problems that result, as he has often argued. This theme was apparent last week, when Dutton posted a video to Instagram implying migration is to blame for the housing crisis.

Interestingly, this seems at odds with other videos he has been posting, which emphasise a more rounded, amiable Dutton, as Professor Ariadne Vromen has told this masthead. If Dutton wants to temper his reputation, to appear softer, is there really enough time to execute that shift between now and an election no later than May?

Anthony Albanese wants to make sure the answer is no. Holidaying voters may not have noticed, but the prime minister just had a good week. In 2023, a narrative took hold, after Dutton used summer to frame the Indigenous Voice, that he drove debate while Labor followed. In getting out early last week, Albanese perhaps headed off an election-year repeat. At the same time, he seemed newly comfortable, untroubled by much; and he was relentlessly on-message.

Go America a kick in the guts for Australian shares, dollarChanticleer (The Australian Financial Review): This American exceptionalism movement goes well beyond just a financial markets game.

Australians should already notice the impact of a US dollar nearing an all-time high (on a trade-weighted basis) and at its strongest level against the Australian dollar since the pandemic. Petrol prices have already come off, while exporters’ revenue should be up.

That export revenue is one reason why economists think Australia’s budget may somehow finish in the black in FY25, which would mark a stunning turnaround.

What makes this American exceptionalism push stronger is that it comes as economic data out of the world’s other major economic regions — Europe, China, the UK, Japan — goes sideways or backwards.

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