TIRED PILOTS
Senior pilots at Virgin Australia have raised safety concerns via Guardian Australia this morning, alleging that fatigue is widespread and rostering practices at the company could lead to an incident. The outlet saw correspondence detailing how pilots are routinely made to work back-to-back 11-12 hour shifts — the maximum length — allowing the minimum of 12 hours between them. A pilot in an internal messaging group asked “Would they like to see blood?”, alleging that the airline “rosters to the limits” because it doesn’t expect anything to go wrong. A Virgin representative told Guardian Australia that “our pilots have the highest number of rostered days off in the industry at 156 per year” as the airline remains in a standoff with the Transport Workers Union.
Staying at work and a Sydney company has been dealt criminal charges relating to the death of a worker in a forklift accident, writes The Daily Telegraph. Tuaese Taufa, a 31-year-old employee of Custom Bus Group, was crushed when a pallet of sheet metal toppled off the forklift he was operating. NSW is looking at introducing industrial manslaughter laws — it would be the second last state or territory to do so — though parliamentary research found that only two cases have ever been successfully prosecuted (both were forklift accidents in Queensland).
PRE-ELECTION ALBO
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will deliver a keynote speech today focussing on cost of living pressures. In an advance copy of the speech, seen by Nine newspapers, Albanese says “I know that when you are living week to week, it’s hard to even find the time to think about the future, let alone plan for it with confidence.” A recent poll showed that the government hasn’t gotten any real bounce in the polls from the budget, despite the budget itself being well received. The Australian, reporting on the same speech, says it represents a “major political attack on Peter Dutton“, who Albanese is seeking to liken to Scott Morrison.
Cost of living is about to get a lot easier for one Adelaide resident, who will become the biggest ever single winner of a lottery draw in Australia — once they realise they’ve won it, writes the ABC. Winning the $150 million jackpot was a one in 134 million chance, according to mathematician Adam Spencer, and the winner has 12 months to collect their prize. The ABC has helpfully run a companion piece on what the lucky winner should do with their money — which essentially boils down to: pay off your debts, don’t tell anyone and hire an accountant. Usually you have to pay good money for that calibre of advice.
SAY WHAT?
We’ve had no information from Singapore. Not a single word.
Keith Davis
An Australian man injured in a Singapore Airlines flight which resulted in the death of a British passenger has been stuck in Bangkok without any correspondence with the airline. Staff from the hospital said they had been ordered to stop patients from speaking to the media.
CRIKEY RECAP
“McKenzie’s degree was a double major from Deakin in applied science, specialising in human movement, and teaching, specialising in mathematics. Later, she conducted research into women’s physical activity in rural settings and had a stint as an education lecturer at Monash University.
Not quite nuclear science, but fair enough — the scientific method is what it is. Careful observation and healthy scepticism are at the core of it, whatever the topic of study may be.
It’s not the first time McKenzie has touted her science credentials — in 2019, during the Black Summer bushfires, she responded to criticism of the Morrison government’s climate policies from NSW environment minister and Liberal colleague Matt Kean by reminding reporters of her degrees.”
“What could go wrong for Labour? It is really difficult to see the Tories winning even a plurality from here, but two things could happen. The ‘Reform’ Party, Nigel Farage’s second successor to UKIP, currently polling at 13%, could withdraw from key constituencies under some deal, and that would give the Tories a 20- or 30-seat boost from their current position. Labour’s scent of victory could tempt the left to fire a few warning shots about better policies, and Tory mid-range seats could get very suddenly nervous.
The Murdoch and other right press could decide that they have to hold the Tory party together and unleash a feral assault of unknowable power (most likely less than in past decades). And sheer random events, local and global. But if the Tories were to come within cooee of even plurality victory from here, then polling is the loser. It is over, broken, unusable.”
“But how much scrutiny has Labor — which is actually in government, and in charge of doling out taxpayer money — attracted from the media with its equally irrational commitment to expanding the role of gas in Australia’s energy economy and funding carbon capture and storage (CCS)?
Not merely has Labor committed in its gas strategy to fund carbon capture as a purported means of reducing CO2 emissions from gas, it proposes Australia take CO2 from other countries and store it underground as well. While there’s some justice in other countries dumping their CO2 back on us given we’ve exported so much of it to the world, it effectively means that we’re not merely pretending that carbon capture is a solution to our own reliance on fossil fuels, we’ll be peddling it to other countries.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
US military faces reality in Gaza as aid project struggles (The New York Times) ($)
China holds military drills around Taiwan as ‘strong punishment’ (BBC)
Absent far right dominates conversation in last debate before EU elections (euronews)
Biden pledges to designate Kenya as ‘non-NATO ally’ during Ruto visit (Al Jazeera)
Mandela’s vision of Black unity fades as South Africa closes door to migrants (Reuters)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Growing momentum for governments to fight social media’s grip on children — Michelle Grattan (The Conversation): “These have been important steps, but perhaps the easy ones. More robust action involves greater challenges to big tech and their revenue and customer streams. Capturing the kids is central to their business models.
The Albanese government has already had a taste of what taking on big tech can look like in its fight with Elon Musk over the eSafety Commissioner’s demand that X (formerly Twitter) remove a post showing the stabbing of a bishop at a Sydney Assyrian church.
Tougher action in dealing with social media is one area where potential bipartisanship should be possible. Opposition communications spokesman David Coleman has been a strong proponent of protecting children and age verification.”
Morrison currently holds the golden chicken trophy. Could Chalmers be next? — David Crowe (The Brisbane Times): “All governments like to frame their new forecasts as achievements, but the habit leads to bad decisions. At heart, it means the politicians will spend tomorrow’s revenue today. Certain the budget bottom line will improve, they commit to new spending and congratulate themselves on their prudence. All based on a dubious bottom line.
The leading example is the National Disability Insurance Scheme, now forecast to cost $60 billion a year within a few years. Labor committed to this policy in its final budgets before losing power at the 2013 election, and it even produced charts showing the new spending was fully offset by savings. But history shows that the savings did not fund the policy in full. The spending surged much faster than forecast.”
