WHITE LIES
Anti-Voice to Parliament adviser David Adler repeatedly questioned whether Indigenous journalist Stan Grant had darkened his skin, the SMH ($) reports. He posted a photo to social media saying Grant’s “complexion seems to have changed” and another that asked whether Grant was “doing ‘black face’”. In 2022, Adler also reportedly questioned what percentage Indigenous independent Senator Lidia Thorpe was, saying: “You appear quite white.” Adler, the head of the Australian Jewish Association, is an adviser to the Advance group. Meanwhile Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the No side is using AI to generate misinformation, The Australian ($) reports, though Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price denied it. Albanese added that the likes of Peta Credlin and Andrew Bolt were also spreading lies, saying Credlin had claimed the Uluru Statement from the Heart was longer than the 439-word statement made in 2017. She’s smart, he said. She must know she’s saying incorrect stuff.
It comes as people in masks reportedly connected to at least two pro-Voice Zooms to make racist messages while showing Nazi symbols, Guardian Australia reports. The paper saw screenshots of a far-right Telegram group that spruiked “crashing” the Yes23 online volunteer training, with one user saying it was a “good opportunity to troll”. It comes just three years after ASIO director-general Mike Burgess warned right-wing extremists such as neo-Nazis were a “real threat” to the country’s security, the BBC reports. Meanwhile Australia’s cyber spy agency, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), gave a $46 million contract to KPMG even though it knew the consultant had “helped design the ASD project and was then allowed to bid for its implementation”, the ABC reports. It’s known as “marking your own homework”, the broadcaster continues.
ALBO HEAVIED ON ASSANGE
Former attorney-general Michael Duffy, former NSW attorney-general Bob Debus, and former Victorian MP Rob Hulls have written to Albanese to urge him to get WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange home before he dies, the SMH ($) reports. He’s not a US citizen, and didn’t commit alleged crimes in the US, the letter reasoned, and that makes the US effort to imprison him “extra-territorial reach”. It’s a “dangerous precedent” that puts journalists and whistleblowers anywhere in the world at risk. UK conservative commentator Peter Hitchens has also come out swinging for Assange in the Daily Mail, saying he can’t believe “how few people in [UK] Parliament or the media have spoken out against this grave injustice”. He described himself as not fond of the man — they “clashed angrily” at their only meeting — but asked: “Do we really want the hand of a foreign power to be able to reach into our national territory at will and pluck out anyone it wants to punish?”
From an imprisoned whistleblower to a person repeatedly given a microphone, and former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann admitted he “can’t remember” a coffee date with Brittany Higgins that he claimed showed she “concocted” a story they didn’t speak after the alleged assault, which Lehrmann denies. News.com.au ($) says Seven’s Spotlight featured a recording of Higgins saying so under subpoena, though noted it “was never tendered in the criminal trial or the Sofronoff inquiry”, so it was unclear how Seven got it. Meanwhile, the Victorian opposition wants the speaker to investigate assault allegations levelled at Labor backbench MP Will Fowles, the Herald Sun ($) reports. A Victoria Police spokesman confirmed it has not received an official complaint, however, and Fowles described himself as “shocked and distressed” by the allegation, which he denied. He said he still didn’t know any details but has stood aside anyway.
LOOK WHAT’S COOKING
WA Premier Roger Cook is establishing an embassy in Canberra, The West ($) reports, because the east coast doesn’t understand WA and loads of Canberra bureaucrats haven’t ever been there. The office will resemble WA’s overseas trade missions, the paper says, and will “remind Canberra that we’re the engine room of the national economy”, Cook says. Lobby groups such as the Chamber of Minerals and Energy and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA can use the hub, but it’s mostly for officials to advocate for the state’s strategic agenda.
To more state politics now and Mark Latham has been sacked as NSW One Nation leader by party founder Pauline Hanson after dismal comments he made about NSW independent Alex Greenwich. You know you’ve gone low when even Hanson is disgusted. She said it was the product of the party’s crap vote at the state election in March, but a One Nation source told Guardian Australia it was because mainstream media wouldn’t go near Latham (even Andrew Bolt called the tweets “disgusting” and “homophobic”). It means Hanson is the temporary leader of the party and the three upper house MPs for now.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
A ruddy-faced bloke who was once acting prime minister of Australia was sitting at the pub sipping a beer and watching sport on Saturday evening. It was an unremarkable sight except perhaps for one small detail — it was a women’s team, the undervalued and underestimated flip side of Australia’s cult-like male sporting fanaticism. Feeling rather chuffed with the enormous groundswell beneath the Matildas — the chicks, no less — in the historic quarter-final, Barnaby Joyce held his phone up to his face and pressed record. “In every country pub, city club, suburban home they are doing this tonight. Watching the Matildas,” he declared, in a video he posted to Facebook. He panned his phone to show the Commercial Hotel in Walcha’s crowd avidly watching TV screens… that was showing the wrong match. “In Australia tonight, this is what’s happening.”
In the World Cup game that he saw, the Matildas breezed through 1-0, the crowd cheered, and Joyce wandered off for a spot of dinner unaware half the country was suffering severe heart palpitations from a nail-biting penalty shootout against France. Joyce later appeared on Seven’s Sunrise program wearing a cream Akubra and told host Natalie Barr and Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek: “I think we were watching the wrong game.” Both cracked up. The former deputy prime minister continued that it may have been because the 10 Network had played a repeat that evening. “I don’t think it was the right one,” Joyce added again, a little uncertainly. “Such is life.” Guardian Australia reports rather dryly that: “A Ten spokesperson said the channel was not airing a replay of the match on Saturday night.”
Hoping you know what’s what today.
SAY WHAT?
One of the best things about the @TheMatildas is how they have brought all Australians together. And when you see all those Aussies cheering, you see they have come here from all countries around the world. This is multicultural Australia. United. Cohesive. With his Voice obsession, @AlboMP is working hard to divide us. What a loser. What a disgraceful, destructive legacy.
Prue MacSween
The Sky News Australia commentator says singling out one race is bad. MacSween once made headlines for saying she’d be tempted to run over Sudanese-Australian engineer Yassmin Abdel-Magied, called tennis player Nick Kyrgios “a spoilt little Greek brat”, and claimed of the Stolen Generations: “We need to do it again, perhaps.”
CRIKEY RECAP
“Among the most recent array of false and groundless suspicions are claims the Yes campaign is secretly taxpayer-funded; that the Voice will force landowners to pay 1% of their income in rent to an Indigenous council, convert all private property into native title or otherwise see all land passed into conservatorship; that it offends and runs contrary to racial discrimination laws; and that it will result in a ‘Black state’ being carved out of the Northern Territory.
“These are bizarre and outlandish claims, and ones that by rights belong to the preserve of the unhinged. But they also speak blunt and tragic truths about the complete lack of good faith on the part of the right’s No campaign and its will to win at all costs.”
“There was never any evidence that Barati had tried to flee to anywhere but the accommodation block in the centre to escape those who would murder him, and no evidence he had participated in violent protests.
“Under pressure from journalists, within hours Morrison had to begin walking back that claim, saying there were ‘conflicting reports’ about where Barati was murdered. The nature or origin of the false report that Barati had been escaping the centre has never been revealed. Nonetheless, Morrison persisted with trying to blame Barati for his own death …”
“News Corp has refused to rule on the future of its widely read Newspoll, which appears to have been put on pause after two of its most senior architects left to start their own polling outfit. Poll watchers conceded late on Sunday evening that another week was set to pass without a fresh Newspoll, some four weeks after the last one, leaving the polling field one survey short just months before the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum.
“The poll has previously been released at an interval that rarely stretches beyond three weeks. A News Corp spokesman would not be drawn into commenting on Newspoll’s future, saying its interruption is ‘an editorial issue’ subject to the decisions of editorial leadership. The unofficial hiatus of The Australian’s Newspoll comes as YouGov, the survey’s provider, reckons with the departures of Campbell White … and Simon Levy.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Why freezing rents would do more harm than good — Brendan Coates and Joey Moloney (The SMH) ($): “Australians are occupying more housing, on average, than we used to. COVID-19 lockdowns and the work-from-home revolution have spurred a “race for space” — many of us have taken on an extra bedroom as a home office. The reopening of Australia’s borders has boosted demand for housing further still. But traffic to Flatmates.com.au suggests that rising rents mean that those who can economise on the housing they occupy — by renting out the home office to a flatmate, or moving into a share house or with family — are now doing so.
“If we freeze rents, that will stop. And people who absolutely need to find a new home — such as new migrants or women fleeing domestic violence — will be left out in the cold. The Greens liken their rent caps proposal to the recent gas price cap agreed on by national cabinet last December. But whereas Australia doesn’t have a shortage of gas — we export 75% of what we produce each year — we do have a shortage of housing. Ultimately, if we freeze rents, more Australians could become homeless, not fewer. And the long-term costs of capping rent increases at just 2% every two years could be even greater. The cap would blunt the incentive to build more housing, leaving us with fewer, poorer-quality dwellings.”
Why the big four could decide to sever their tax arms — Karen Maley (The AFR) ($): “One solution is that the audit and consulting partners of the big accounting firms decide that, after all, there is a compelling case for splitting up the firm. Because severing the firm’s tax division will protect them from huge potential penalties going forward. Particularly since [Treasurer Jim] Chalmers has been astute enough to make his crackdown on accounting firms promoting tax avoidance scheme part of his broader battle to force big multinationals to pay more tax in Australia. In the press release unveiling the new $780 million fine for tax adviser misconduct, Chalmers noted that: ‘We’re also cracking down on the scourge of multinational tax avoidance and making sure multinationals pay their fair share of tax in Australia.’
“Of course, Chalmers is not alone. Governments around the world have become increasingly incensed by widespread tax avoidance by multinationals, particularly the US tech giants. These include complex organisational arrangements whereby profits are funnelled into small, low-taxed jurisdictions (often as a result of fees paid by subsidiaries for the use of intellectual property), which allows the firms to pay relatively little tax in higher-taxing countries where they generate large amounts of revenue. Another common practice is to use interest deductions to reduce taxable income.”
THE COMMENTARIAT
New COVID vaccines are on the way as ‘Eris’ variant rises (Reuters)
Labour promises paid parental leave for partners, after clashing with National over policies (Stuff)
Mount Etna eruption forces closure of Catania airport as dozens of flights are cancelled (euronews)
China’s defence minister visits Russia and Belarus in show of support (Al Jazeera)
Hawaii fires: death toll stands at 96 as hundreds remain missing (The Guardian)
Ozempic settles the obesity debate: It’s biology over willpower (The Wall Street Journal) ($)
Georgia prosecutors have messages showing Trump’s team is behind voting system breach (CNN)
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)
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Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, Treasury and Employment Andrew Leigh will give a speech called “Data and Evaluation: a Match Made in Policy Heaven” at the Data for Policy Summit.
Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)
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Former police officer Tess Merlin will talk about her new book, Rank, at Avid Reader bookshop.
Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)
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Science journalist Angela Saini will talk about her new book, The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule, at The Wheeler Centre.
