FUNDING FOR COMMERCIALISING IDEAS AND AN AGED-CARE BONUS
The government will spend $2.2 billion on commercialising ideas and helping the aged care workforce — it’s one of several things Prime Minister Scott Morrison will speak about at the National Press Club today, the AFR reports. So what does that look like? Well, $2 billion will go into the government’s Research Commercialisation Fund, divvied up between a program that fast-tracks research, a CSIRO program that helps companies commercialise products, and the rest into 1800 industry-focused PhDs and 800 fellowships, The Australian ($) reports. It’s not an election promise though, Morrison will reportedly claim. He says the dosh was put aside in the budget update last month, news.com.au reports. Remember that $16 billion put aside for decisions not yet announced?
Morrison will continue that the remaining $209 million will be given to the aged-care workforce, The Conversation says — with two payments of up to $400 for workers in government subsidised home and residential care. But what about the residents, Guardian Australia asks? On Sunday, NSW Health revealed that 31 of the 52 record deaths were aged care residents — only two had received their booster, as ABC reports. Yet almost half of all aged care homes in every state (except WA) are in the grips of an Omicron outbreak. Opposition health spokesperson Mark Butler pointed out the booster program began 12 weeks ago and asked how such a vulnerable group could’ve been left behind.
A FAIR COP
A veteran Victoria Police officer has been slugged with 86 criminal charges, The Age reports this morning, after a wide-reaching probe “exposed alleged misconduct that may have led to the unlawful arrests of at least 15 Victorians”. The anti-corruption investigation delved into the conduct of Calum McCann, who is also a former director of the police union, but several long-serving officers have been suspended too after allegations they lied under oath to get search warrants. Embroiled in the drama is one offender who served four months in jail, the paper continues — his charge will probably be scrubbed and he could get compensation. Two young offenders are also affected, the cops confirmed. Among McCann’s charges are conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, perjury, and intimidating witnesses — the paper says the alleged misconduct happened in Melbourne’s Macedon Ranges.
Speaking of police misconduct — Tony Fitzgerald is back in the news. The 80-year-old former judge is perhaps most famous for toppling the then-Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke–Petersen with a damning report that also led to the actual jailing of the police commissioner (as well as several ministers). Fitzgerald’s leading a new inquiry into the corruption watchdog in Queensland, The Brisbane Times reports, after a slew of crises — first the integrity commissioner resigned, then the watchdog’s boss walked, and then the former state archivist threw mud on the Palaszczuk government ($) over their resistance to hold an inquiry. The watchdog is under fire for not remaining independent when investigating council fraud, as ABC delved into.
DOWNING DOUBT FOR BORIS IN LONDON
The UK government is in a major crisis after senior British civil servant Sue Gray handed down her damning report into no fewer than 16 (!) Downing Street parties during lockdown. Overnight Prime Minister Boris Johnson began his address to the House of Commons with the hardest word: “sorry”. The shamefaced leader admitted the government “didn’t get it right” when staff got together several times for drinks and socialising while the rest of the country was under instructions to stay home and stay away from others.
The UK public was out for blood as the revelations just kept on coming, and now some are crying out for Johnson to resign — even among his own party, as BBC reports. Last night the leader of the Scottish National Party was booted from the House for calling the prime minister a liar and refusing to retract, as SMH reports. Opposition leader Keir Starmer pointed out that the MET has launched a criminal investigation into Johnson, as The Guardian reports. Even former PM Theresa May slammed her successor, as The Independent says, asking the House “Either [Johnson] had not read the rules, or didn’t understand what they meant, or they didn’t think the rules applied to Number 10. Which was it?”.
So what’s going to happen now? Well, the Tories could call for a vote of no confidence in Johnson if 54 of them agree, as The New York Times explains. Johnson did tell the House he was sure any get-together at Downing Street would have happened within the rules, as CNN reports. We know now that wasn’t the case — so Johnson may have knowingly misled Parliament by saying so, a breach of the ministerial code.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
It’s Saturday evening and the fighters are bouncing on the balls of their feet, listening to the excited crowd outside their separate change rooms in Florida. Their trainers are delivering last-minute advice as each fighter slips in a mouthguard. The energy is electric as they walk out to the ring, elevated in the middle of the auditorium and splashed with flashy branding from the sponsors. It’s the PFC and the 16 fighters are ready — the Pillow Fight Championships, that is.
Each fighter is handed a pillow as they face their opponent. Ding ding ding! goes the bell, and they’re off, slapping each other around with their pillows. The referee watches every move to ensure a fair fight but leans back intimidated at one stage to avoid a stray pillow. The commentators are rapid firing back and forth, discussing the importance of composure in getting through to the next round. “She’s like a pitbull! She’s going to keep swinging!” one remarks, as a high slap of a pillow makes contact around one of the women’s ears. The crowd goes crazy as Brazilian Istela Nunes’s fist is held in the air — she’s the female champion of the evening, while an ecstatic American Hauley Tillman jumps as he’s awarded the men’s title. Both champs went home with a title belt and a cool US$5000 in prize money — not bad!
Hope your day has a little surprise and delight in it too.
SAY WHAT?
Our glorification and glamorisation of alcohol in this country is normalised to the point where we can’t even celebrate success without booze on live TV. It’s bizarre.
James Mathison
The former Australian Idol host found it problematic that a bottle of Corona was handed to Australian Open champion Ash Barty as she chatted to Nine’s commentary panel following her win. Mathison pointed out that booze causes major health and family impacts for some Australians, and asked whether a sporting star smoking a joint on Canadian TV (cannabis is legal in Canada) would sit as comfortably for viewers. What do you think?
CRIKEY RECAP
The blood of dead seniors is spilling over the hands of Morrison, Hunt and Colbeck
“Literally every Commonwealth response to the pandemic within its aged care responsibility has been bungled and delayed, and the same disastrous errors have been repeated: the original vaccination rollout; the booster rollout; RAT supplies; PPE supplies; interventions by the Commonwealth aged care quality regulator, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.
“Remarkably, the commission’s quality assessment and monitoring activities — primarily infection control spot checks — fell dramatically in late 2021. Just 76 were carried out in November, and so far in January just 119 site visits have been conducted, or just over a third of the number of visits this time last year.”
Morrisons — where bad polling numbers are just the beginning
“…the government returns, reluctantly, for a parliamentary sitting fortnight next week. The final sittings of 2021 were chaotic and messy for the government. Expect no different.
“Now a March election is off the cards, it has to try to ram through its contentious religious discrimination laws, with two parliamentary inquiries due to report on Friday. Any attempt to legislate it might run into a roadblock: conservative Liberal Senator Alex Antic is still vowing to withhold his vote …”
Figures don’t lie: taxes are not lower under the Coalition
“Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and his Coalition predecessors have been telling Australian voters that the Coalition parties stand for lower taxes and that the tax take is always higher under Labor. This is not true. It has not been true since 1975.
“Taxation as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) has been higher under Coalition governments since the Fraser years. It reached an all-time high during John Howard’s tenure. We know this from Frydenberg’s own agencies …”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
WWF welcomes $50m in federal funding for koalas (The Advocate)
UAE intercepts Houthi missile as Israeli president visits (Al Jazeera)
How Facebook is morphing into Meta (The New York Times)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has tested positive for COVID-19 (CBC)
High hopes for Portugal’s optimism-prone Socialist PM after big win (The Guardian)
Pakistan court acquits media mogul in corruption case (Al Jazeera)
Joe Rogan pledges to try harder after Neil Young Spotify row (BBC)
#MeToo scandal at a Dutch TV show spurs a sexual assault reckoning (The New York Times)
N Korea releases space photos taken from missile (BBC)
I can’t believe it, but the Cincinnati Bengals are in the Super Bowl (The Wall Street Journal) ($)
A world of waste, stripped of transcendence: James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’ at 100 (Quillette)
THE COMMENTARIAT
The RBA must hold its nerve — Craig Emerson (The AFR): “While US inflation has shot up to an annual rate of 7%, there is no reason to believe that Australia’s inflation rate will follow. The US inflation rate and tightness in its labour market have led to increases in nominal wages. Not so in Australia, where the most recent annual wage price index has only just poked above 2%. It is true that higher international prices for oil, meat, timber and many other commodities flow through to Australian prices — more so with a falling Australian dollar in response to higher US interest rates.
“But experience since the late 1990s shows that without accelerating wage increases from full employment, these are one-off effects. The RBA can wisely allow them to pass through the economy, as it has done in the past. If Australia were truly at or near full employment, businesses would be obliged to offer wage increases to retain their existing workers and attract new ones. That this is not happening on a widespread basis is possibly due to employers being worried about another coronavirus variant sending them backwards, leaving them stuck with a bigger wage bill and falling sales.”
Sydney Festival 2022: best in years, shame so few saw it — Helen Pitt (The SMH): “Sydney Festival 2022 was one of the best festivals I have attended. It is a shame so few — due to COVID-19 cancellations, boycotts or wet weather — were there to agree with me. For many of the showstopper moments, there was barely an audience. Like the crowd on the night I went to see Edward Albee’s classic, Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? There were barely 60 people in the Opera House Drama Studio to witness the gruelling more than three-hour performance, the astounding set and First Nations director Margaret Harvey’s excellent ‘colour-conscious’ cast …
“If the sign of a successful festival is a change in perspective of how we see our city, country and selves, then this January’s Sydney Festival won audiences, game, set and match. For those brave enough to go. Brava, director Olivia Ansell. Take a bow for your first festival, under trying conditions, along with all the Sydney Festival performers.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Online
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Veteran journalist Kerry O’Brien and Bradfield independent candidate Janine Kitson will chat via webinar about the importance of the ABC for voters ahead of the federal election.
Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison will speak to the National Press Club ahead of this year’s federal election.
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The Reserve Bank of Australia board will get together for its monthly meeting, ahead of an announcement on interest rates.
