FREE AND EASY
The gambling industry — mostly Tabcorp — has given federal politicians 150 free tickets to sporting events, shows and hospitality since the 2019 election, Guardian Australia reports. It’s according to analysis of Parliament’s interest registers by Open Politics, which found Sportsbet, Star Entertainment, Australian Hotels Association and ClubsNSW had also given gifts to pollies. But we’re not saying it influenced ’em, the paper says. We should assume politicians are not humans but robots who can undertake pleasurable free experiences and feel nothing afterwards. Anyway — between 2019 and 2022, then opposition spokesperson for communications and now Communications Minister Michelle Rowland accepted 17 tickets from the gambling industry, Open Politics says, including to the musical Hamilton and the Melbourne Cup. Last month Rowland said she wouldn’t do it again, as the ABC reports, but added that they were completely fine by the disclosure rules.
Meanwhile the human resources department in charge of the robodebt scheme withheld key documents that showed the possible illegality of the scheme, the royal commission has heard. Senior assistant ombudsman Louise Macleod was surprised when she was shown emails from 2014 that flagged that robodebt could be illegal, as The New Daily reports. She said she’d never seen them before, and said it “annoys the hell out of me and it’s really disappointing”. The reason she’s in the hot seat is because a 2017 report from the Commonwealth ombudsman pointed out a bunch of flaws but didn’t say the income averaging method was unlawful. Macleod said her office would’ve called for the scheme to stop had they seen those emails. Former ombudsman Richard Glenn will be up today, as Yahoo adds.
SMOKE SIGNALS
Black Summer bushfires decimated up to 5% of the ozone layer in one year (2020), according to a new study Guardian Australia reports on. The ozone layer absorbs intense ultraviolet light from the sun that stops us from cooking under the glare of radiation. But bushfire smoke aerosols activated chlorine to form little ozone-eating molecules. Yikes. It’s an ominous sign if climate inaction causes Australia’s bushfire season to be longer and more ferocious. It comes as NSW had its first emergency fire warning in two years as a blaze rages 250 kilometres north-west of Sydney. It’s one of 33 fires burning in the state, the BBC reports, with 10 considered not under control by the RFS.
From fires to floods, and severe weather in the Top End has seen a bus filled with schoolkids wash off the road and into Finniss River, the NT News reports, though thankfully no one was hurt. NT police are investigating how it happened, reiterating that no one should drive through flood waters. A small car can float in just 15 centimetres of water, as Victoria’s SES reminds us. Meanwhile the Australian Defence Force is flying into the East Kimberley, which hasn’t had fresh food in days because the floods have cut off the Victoria Highway, the ABC reports. WA Premier Mark McGowan said each flight would have 20 tonnes of supplies, and expressed sympathy for the people of Kununurra, Wyndham and surrounds.
LOSING FACE
Indigenous Senator Lidia Thorpe said she gave “no consent, no permission” for her image to be used by leading No campaigner the Conservative Political Action Conference Australia (CPAC), chaired by No campaigner and Indigenous man Warren Mundine. It launched two Facebook ads showing Thorpe: one alongside text that reads “How will a Voice to Parliament tackle problems in Indigenous communities? No one knows”, as Guardian Australia reports. That concern is definitely shared by Thorpe, who advocates for a treaty before Voice, but she said she was “disturbed” by the ads, continuing: “How dare Warren? Warren has my number. He should have rang me, texted me, to ask permission.” Thorpe added that she doesn’t want to be associated with people like that. It seems an inevitability, but she won’t exactly be in cordial company. CPAC’s national director told the paper Thorpe hadn’t complained to it and was “a politician keen on stunts and outrageous statements to gain national publicity”.
It comes as the 21-member referendum group will add final touches to the referendum question and proposed amendment today, The Australian ($) reports. Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney said there was still time for the Liberals to get on board ahead of Labor introducing the bill at the end of this month, but called the campaign a “marathon, not a sprint”. A few extra interesting tidbits. An Indigenous artist named Nathan Maynard says he’s been overwhelmed with responses after seeking an Australian of British descent to donate their dead body for an installation, the ABC reports. The Indigenous Women of the Great Barrier Reef was awarded the Earthshot Prize (founded by Prince William and Sir David Attenborough) and has now mentored more than 135 women in ranger jobs such as managing fires and protecting threatened plant and animal species, Yahoo reports. And the employment rate of First Nations peoples has jumped from 51% to 55.7% since 2016, The Australian ($) reports.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
The more time passed since the lockdown era, the more unreal the whole thing seems. Take farmer Michelle Malone. She thought nothing of living on the quiet edge of South Australia until army and police personnel turned up one February day in 2020 to set up a checkpoint. Her youngest kid was scared, Malone told the ABC, and couldn’t quite comprehend why the police never left. One of the army officers noticed the frightened boy and strolled over with a special gift for him: a mini ration pack. Fast forward two years and the Malones say they’ve formed lifelong friendships with some of the enforcement workers. It was hard not to — they saw them every day as the family would grab the mail or tend to the sheep. Polite smiles turned into cordial chats turned into small tokens of country hospitality, like firewood or leftover servings of homemade lasagna. Even though it was a good sign, she felt a pang when they packed up and left in 2021.
Neighbour Tracy Parker lives a hop, skip and a jump over the border in Victoria. The checkpoints were hard for her — the closest health facility and school are over the border — and she still feels a small sense of foreboding crossing over today. At the time, Parker figured the best thing to do in that tricky situation was to act with kindness. She delivered enforcement staff homemade baked goods most days when the shifts changed. Spending a little time with the cops and army personnel each day made her realise the restrictions weren’t their fault: they “were just doing their job”. A few times about 10 local families gathered at the Kybybolite checkpoint on a Friday night, with the kids running around happily and the adults talking about the woes of the world. “It’s always nice to show a bit of country hospitality to people,” Parker says, “and show that there’s good in the world.”
Hoping you feel the power of kindness today.
SAY WHAT?
Amplifying it, repeating it, providing clickbait to generate readers or customers to your site, is completely unacceptable because it makes the problem worse.
Katy Gallagher
The minister for women (and finance) didn’t name names when asked about the coverage of trolls targeting ABC News Breakfast host Lisa Millar about her appearance, but the ABC had no problem identifying Daily Mail Australia and news.com.au as two outlets that made it worse by republishing the comments they described as “sickening”.
CRIKEY RECAP
CBA-owned bank confirms ‘cyber incident’ after hacker claims to have stolen customer data
“The user is selling the data for $620,000 of an unspecified denomination. Crikey was not able to independently verify the data as, unlike in the recent Optus and Medibank hacks, the user hasn’t published a sample.
“CBA did not provide an on-the-record comment about how many users had been affected but Crikey also understands that CBA disputes the hacker’s number and has only confirmed 11 records of nine individuals affected so far.”
Why has Australia signed up for AUKUS, a deal serving America’s interests, not ours?
“But AUKUS diminishes our sovereignty by locking in unimpeded US access to bases and interoperability and interchangeability with the Australian Defence Force. In effect this gives the US a command role over our forces.
“As former PM Paul Keating has recently argued, the result will be less Australian independence and more compliance with US policy — which is to encircle China. We could be at war with China if, for example, an American or Australian ship or aircraft is attacked in the South China Sea, and if the US invokes ANZUS.”
The Christian right is trying really hard to disown the Wieambilla shooters
“Organiser of last weekend’s Christian political conference Church and State Dave Pellowe argued that Islam or belief in climate change would be more likely to cause violence than premillennialism in an article titled ‘Queensland Police just called all Christians ‘terrorists’ …
“Writing for Australian Christian news site The Daily Declaration, Strathfield NSW’s Cornerstone Presbyterian Community Church associate minister Mark Powell challenged whether the Trains’ beliefs were even fringe.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Antarctic sea ice extent reaches all-time low: EU monitor (Al Jazeera)
Bank of Canada keeps rates on hold, sees inflation falling as forecast (Reuters)
Fisherman facing 4760 years in Greek prison receives centuries-long sentence (EuroNews)
Georgia protests: thousands on street for second day over ‘foreign agent’ bill (BBC)
TikTok unveils European data security plan amid calls for US ban (The Guardian)
‘Closest to an incel attack NZ has had’: warning after attempted murder of Auckland schoolgirls (NZ Herald)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Powerful voice for rights for some but not others — Barnaby Joyce (The Australian) ($): “The path to a referendum — to insert a racial clause that will have immense power if it has reference to the executive of government — has now been set with passage of legislation to put in place the machinery of that vote. It is a one-way street where there will be no way to turn around if it leads to a dead end or disaster. To contemplate that we could have another referendum to remove the Voice in the future is ludicrously naive. The tables are tilted firmly in favour of the Yes campaign: in funding, business and political support. I would say this is a tactic because it starves the No case of funding and, dare I say it, a voice. Fortunately, the public is endowed with a healthy scepticism that filters out well-resourced guilt campaigns.
“It is not racist to vote No. To vote Yes endorses new rights based on race in the constitution. It will give an extra franchise to some based on their DNA. It does not deal with the issues, circumstances and the problems where they are found, but rather on the circumstances of how you were born and the race you align with. Perversely, a Yes vote does not give Indigenous Australians an extra vote so they can elect who they want to represent them in the Voice. The contenders who would be part of the Voice will be selected, not elected. An Indigenous man from Mosman could apparently be eligible for an additional say in the operation of government simply because he deems it unconstitutional that there has not been sufficient consultation with the Voice. An Asian Australian living on the street in Moree would not be entitled to a path that gave him the same opportunity because of his race.”
What we learnt at Optus from being hacked — Kelly Bayer Rosmarin (AFR) ($): “Whilst we have been silent about how this happened, and respect that this is still an active criminal investigation, we can confirm that this attack was premeditated and undertaken by a motivated, skilled cyber criminal who crafted the attack just for Optus. Whilst it might reassure some to think that Optus was an easy target or didn’t care about security or wasn’t investing enough, that’s not the case. It’s much harder and scarier to accept that even well-meaning, well-resourced companies who do prioritise protecting their customers can also be attacked.
“We need every company and every corner of government to share that sense of vulnerability — and channel that into actions that strengthen each of us, and all of us collectively. Cybercrime will cost the world more than $2 trillion this year, it’s overtaken the drug trade in value, and some call it the world’s third-largest economy behind the US and China. Cybercrime is often state-sanctioned, or state ignored, and the reward for effort equation has been improving for cyber criminals. Australia is unfortunately a prime target, as an affluent and increasingly online society, with high penetration of digital banking and payments. And telecommunications providers are especial targets — given our role in the digital ecosystem and the data we are required to hold.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Online
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POLITICO’s Zoya Sheftalovich and retired major general Mick Ryan will chat about the Russia-Ukraine war in a webinar held by the Lowy Institute.
Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)
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Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce chief Sam Mostyn will speak at the National Press Club.
Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)
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Author Geoff Dyer will speak about his new book, The Last Days of Roger Federer, at The Wheeler Centre.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Writers Shirley Le and Benjamin Law will chat about the former’s new book, Funny Ethnics, at Better Read Than Dead bookshop.
