STUNTING ONES GROWTH
Former Liberal MP Tim Wilson is in hot water for pointedly laying an Anzac wreath on behalf of his absent successor, independent Zoe Daniel, the SMH ($) reports. Daniel had sent a volunteer named Peter to lay the wreath in her absence and he fired up at Wilson in a social media video, calling Wilson’s move “very inappropriate” and “ridiculous”. Wilson reckons he was asked to lay the wreath by an RSL staff member, and pointed out loftily that the member for Goldstein wasn’t “at an Anzac Day service in her community”. (Daniel was at a personal commitment with her teenage son.) Victorian upper house Labor MP Ryan Batchelor called it a “disrespectful … stunt” from Wilson.
Speaking of possible political stunts, Katherine Deves will not run for preselection for the late Jim Molan’s vacant Senate seat, as she announced just last week. She wants to focus on her “legal advocacy” for the Tickle v Giggle case — trans woman Roxanne Tickle is suing the female-only social media app Giggle for discrimination, The Australian ($) reports, after she was kicked off its platform. You can guess which side Deves is on. Staying with trans issues for a moment and an anonymous “senior” Victorian Green says the party’s new rules about transphobia go too far, The Age ($) reports. They prohibit intentionally misgendering people, and add that “advocating for unnecessary restrictions on transition care” can be transphobic. The mystery Greens member said “you won’t even be able to ask questions” without fearing expulsion.
HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s approval rating has tumbled two points to 33%, the lowest ebb since he became Liberal leader. This is the first Newspoll since he announced the party’s opposition to the Voice to Parliament, The Australian ($) notes. Other highlights: Labor leads the Coalition 56 to 44 in a two-party preferred survey, the largest lead since September. In the primary vote, the Greens are up one point to 11, while One Nation is down one point to 7. Speaking of the PM, he met with his New Zealand counterpart Chris Hipkins who’s visiting, scoffing down a hot dog together at the weekend. They chatted about a strategic review that Defence Minister Richard Marles will release today, The West Australian ($) says, and also announced a change to Kiwi citizenship rights. New Zealanders can now become citizens after living here for four years, a change that affects about 400,000, SBS explains.
Meanwhile, Dutton says corporate Australia is “being played for fools by the Labor Party” because “too many business leaders say one thing in private and don’t advocate it publicly”, The Australian ($) reports. He followed up the comments with calls for an honest debate on energy, which comes as the Liddell Power Station prepares to turn its lights off for the last time. It was once Australia’s largest power station, but nowadays produces only a small portion of NSW’s electricity generation, the ABC reports. We shouldn’t experience any blackouts, one expert said, as long as capacity remains available and no outages occur during winter’s peak.
CASH US IF YOU CAN
The government is pursuing more than 143,487 former low-income students for some $2 billion of debt, Guardian Australia reports. In 1993, a scheme was introduced that lured students with a “low-cost” loan where you got $2 for every dollar of welfare you gave up — like youth allowance, Austudy or the pensioner education supplement. Needless to say, the student financial supplement scheme was a complete debt trap. But those former students are still paying it back today — the highest debt balance was $128,768 as of March. Cripes.
From money owed to money earned and Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones says unpaid super is wage theft, the ABC reports. And the problem is bigger than you may think — Industry Super Australia reckons about 2.5 million of us missed out on about $4.3 billion in super in 2019-20. A quarter missed out on an average of $1736 a year. To that end, Jones says the May budget will include targets for the ATO to chase down unpaid super. Meanwhile, long COVID is costing the economy at least $5.7 billion a year, the SMH ($) reports. Impact Economics and Policy says about 40,000 people call in sick to work every week because of the illness. Parliament’s inquiry into long COVID got some 600 submissions, and will report on its findings soon.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
A Newcastle family was on the trip of a lifetime through the red centre of our sunburnt country when it happened. They were meandering across rough terrain in a four-wheel drive towing a caravan when their car’s frame bent at the chassis. Inspecting the damage and then peering around the expansive Munga-Thirri National Park (formerly the Simpson Desert), Michael Thompson figured there was nothing for it. He flipped out his satellite phone and called the police. The cops were worried. The family was a long way into the desert, Senior Constable Stephan Pursell told the ABC, and efforts to get them moving had made the damage worse. It was an added complication that Cyclone Ilsa was causing havoc, so a grave Pursell informed them they’d have to wait several days in the desert before police could return for a rescue operation.
Thompson was stoked. The family had loads of supplies — “including food and cold beers” — not to mention their air fryer and a coffee machine to boot. The kids played games, fed the ants, and enjoyed downtime on their iPads. At night, Thompson said, you wouldn’t believe how remarkable the stars looked, completely unburdened by the city lights: “It was amazing watching shooting stars and satellites come over.” The whole experience made the family soak in the beauty of the outback, and when the rescue team turned up it was almost too soon — Thompson said he and the kids could’ve lasted days longer. Mum, on the other hand, was decidedly ready to get home. Either way, the experience had “imprinted on our life”, Thompson said, as “something we’ll remember for a very long time”.
Hoping you come prepared to your Monday morning, and wishing you a reflective Anzac Day. Your Worm will be back in your inbox on Wednesday.
SAY WHAT?
To be frank, some business leaders need to stop craving popularity on social media by signing up to every social cause, even though they may not believe in it.
Peter Dutton
Considering his public approval is at its lowest point since he became Liberal leader, one might counter that Peter Dutton may do well by thinking a little more about popularity. He followed up with a claim that the Coalition understands Australian business in a way that Labor doesn’t — quite the whiplash.
CRIKEY RECAP
Lachlan Murdoch drops defamation case against Crikey
“Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch has withdrawn his defamation case against Crikey. Murdoch’s lawyer John Churchill issued a statement [on Friday] morning saying he had filed a notice of discontinuance in the matter. Private Media issued a statement calling the outcome ‘a substantial victory for legitimate public interest journalism’ …
“Churchill maintained that Murdoch ‘remains confident that the court would ultimately find in his favour, however, he does not wish to further enable Crikey’s use of the court to litigate a case from another jurisdiction that has already been settled and facilitate a marketing campaign designed to attract subscribers and boost their profits’. Private Media said this was ‘absurd’.”
‘We are proud of our stand’: a statement on Lachlan Murdoch withdrawing his case against Crikey
“We stand by our position that Lachlan Murdoch was culpable in promoting the lie of the 2020 election result because he, and his father, had the power to stop the lies. How do we know? Because Dominion sued Fox News for promoting the lies and Fox just paid A$1.17 billion to Dominion to settle the case …
“The fact is, Murdoch sued us, and then dropped his case. We want to take a moment to thank all of those who helped us on this journey — our loyal readers, the ordinary Australians who contributed to our GoFundMe, the Crikey editorial team who’ve worked under immense pressure, the wider staff who have put in colossal additional effort to keep the business going while all this has been going on …”
Spectator Australia keeps publishing white supremacists and anti-Semites
“The publication’s online-only vertical ‘Flat White’ publishes a wide range of conservative writers on Australian current affairs. Crikey can reveal that Spectator Australia has published at least three writers who have schemed with neo-Nazis, are enmeshed in far-right online communities and, in at least one case, have worked with known neo-Nazis to try to disrupt their political enemies …
“The article was written by ‘Lucas Rosas‘, ending with a disclosure that it was republished from Unshackled, a far-right Australian ‘pseudo-news’ website. Rosas appears to be the pseudonym for Luke Hollowood, a Townsville-based former member of the Australian Defence Force (ADF).”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
China lodges complaint over S Korean president’s Taiwan comments (Al Jazeera)
Nations rush high-risk Sudan evacuation, some foreign citizens hurt (Reuters)
UK Labour Party suspends MP Diane Abbott over racism comments (euronews)
This is how much sea level rise has sped up, UN agency reports (CBC)
Disney’s live-action ‘Lilo & Stitch’ remake sparks another debate about colourism in Hollywood (CNN)
‘Sitting duck’: chaplain at top Auckland school reinstated after child sex abuse case dropped (NZ Herald)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Why wall-to-wall Labor governments won’t be bad this time — Lidija Ivanovski (AFR) ($): “The great legacy of Scott Morrison is that no-one wants to be like him, and that means we can expect to see a more constructive and quieter period of politics. People are looking at leaders much more than just the parties they represent. Voters are looking less at red, blue, left or right and more at results. It also means the whole ‘Labor wall’ concept becomes a bit meaningless, not only because people don’t want a circus, but also because the left-right fight frame doesn’t have much of a place in modern mainstream politics. Anthony Albanese zeroed in on that early in his period as opposition leader, and while some accused him of having a small target strategy, he chose to be constructive, knowing that would mean he didn’t always get a line on the nightly news.
“He has carried that approach through to governing, letting his ministers do their own thing (refreshingly not secretly taking their jobs either). Minns and South Australia’s Peter Malinauskas also wisely tapped into this sentiment. Both spent much of the pandemic offering bipartisanship, despite knowing this unity position does not give you much airtime. And of the Liberals’ last hold on state power, the Tasmanian approach is centrist and moderate, an entirely calmer and more considered style than what their conservative colleagues are serving up in Canberra.”
The seeds of Sudan’s collapse were sown decades ago — Nesrine Malik (The Guardian): “There are other protagonists, too, who have locked in Sudan’s fate. The international community applied clumsy sanctions that did little but weaken the Sudanese people’s capacity to resist their despotic government; a cynical cohort of undemocratic governments and monarchies in north Africa and the Middle East backed both the army and militia after the 2019 revolution, in order to extinguish the prospect of a democracy flourishing in their backyard; and lately, Russia has partnered with the Sudanese militia to extract gold and forge security interests.
“It’s painful to confront, but it’s not all the responsibility of local leaders and international players. At home and among those who are now caught in the crossfire, there was co-option and a shortsighted belief that what happened outside Khartoum didn’t matter. Bashir’s regime created a large class that thrived under his government and his patronage encouraged them to wilfully ignore events. The war that now tears Khartoum apart is just a taster of what several regions across the country reaped for years, as the capital enjoyed peace and times of prosperity. This disconnect fostered bitter resentments, fractured national identity and maintained a vast lawless hinterland in which mercenaries and warlords thrived.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Online
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RBA review panellists Carolyn A Wilkins, Renée Fry‑McKibbin and Gordon de Brouwer will chat about the findings in a webinar held by CEDA.
Whadjuk Noongar Country (also known as Perth)
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Artist Sioux Tempestt will talk about her creative projects in a talk at The Balmoral Hotel.
