A TECH AND DEFEND
TikTok will ban ads for the Voice to Parliament campaign from both the Yes and the No camps, The Australian ($) reports. The video social media platform has long banned paid ads for political parties, but a spokesperson said it had been extended to the Voice because “our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy — we aren’t the go-to place for politics and/or news, nor do we claim to be”. Hmm. Nyunggai Warren Mundine complained to the paper that the ban would favour the Yes side because campaigners had the funds to produce videos “while we’ll just have some bloke in Hyde Park with an iPhone”. Talk about an own goal.
To another tech drama now and Queensland public schools will ban ChatGPT, the unsettling AI bot causing waves across the web, after NSW schools did the same, Guardian Australia reports. The Sunshine State’s Education Department said it could be a “risk to students”. So what’s the issue? Users can give ChatGPT incredibly specific prompts, like “Write an essay on Australia’s involvement in World War II”, and the answer, while not always 100% accurate, doesn’t get picked up by plagiarism software. But not everyone is worried. Victoria’s public school system and Sydney Catholic schools aren’t banning it, while the Islamic College of Brisbane is embracing it, as The Courier-Mail ($) reports, calling it a teaching aid.
USING THE GOOD CHINA
Our cash rate rises could end sooner than we thought as inflation is probably going to peak at 7.5% in the December quarter, the AFR reports, a little below the Reserve Bank’s 8% prediction. The central bank meets on February 7, and pundits are pretty sure our interest rate will rise to 3.25%, the ninth consecutive increase — but it is perhaps just one hike shy of the financial market’s prediction of a 3.54% ceiling. The whole idea of putting the interest rate up is to get us to spend less, so there’s more supply, and things (ideally) cost less. But it hurts like hell. The Australian ($) points out that a $500,000 mortgage holder now pays $10,000 more a year since it skyrocketed from 0.1% last year. And it’s not just our individual hip pockets — Queensland has been crowned the best-performing economy in Australia, The Courier-Mail reports, but the CommSec report warned it depended on how well the housing and job markets held up against interest rates.
Another thing that’ll probably help drive down inflation is China’s reopening — Treasurer Jim Chalmers said it was good news for the global markets, but better news would be Beijing lifting trade tariffs on things like wine, lobster, beef, barley and more, as Reuters explains. Speaking of China — we’re reportedly spending up to a billion dollars on sea mines to “deter China and other potential adversaries”, the SMH reports, the country’s biggest investment since the Vietnam War. The sea mines are explosive devices that can be placed in spots like straits and harbours to blow up enemy vessels — the paper says China has 100,000 of them in a stockpile. The government said that sea mines, unlike landmines, can differentiate between targets and other ships.
NEW SOUTH WELSHMEN
Nearly all Liberal candidates on Sydney’s north shore are blokes, the SMH reports, despite Premier Dominic Perrottet cheering on the Liberal Party for its diverse election candidates. To be fair, City of Canada Bay deputy mayor Stephanie Di Pasqua was preselected last night in Drummoyne to replace outgoing MP John Sidoti. But 10 of the 11 seats on the affluent north shore are male after RSL club director Toby Williams scored Wakehurst — it means MP Felicity Wilson is the sole woman in the region, which one anonymous Liberal called “a terrible look”. Perrottet really wanted a woman in Pittwater — that’s Cities Minister Rob Stokes’ soon-to-be-vacant gig — but Northern Beaches Councillor Rory Amon won. Some 20 seats still don’t have a Liberal candidate ahead of the March 25 poll, and they better get a wriggle on to avoid 2022’s disaster.
Meanwhile, Labor is on track to win the election, according to a YouGov poll. Guardian Australia reports Labor was ahead of the Coalition by 56% to 44% on a two-party-preferred basis and 39% to 33% on first preferences. Perrottet’s support has dropped to 44% amid the Nazi costume scandal, but Labor has taken a (much less controversial) hit too after candidate Khal Asfour dropped out of the race. The Canterbury Bankstown mayor walked away after a Friday report in The Daily Telegraph ($) that said he claimed alcohol and spa treatments in Japan. A spokesperson said booze was fine to claim as per the rules, and a spa treatment was for some cramping. Even so, the headlines were “the last straw” for Asfour, the spokesperson added.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
An extraordinary cloud formation has appeared over Turkey, in what some say resembles a UFO, and others say resembles… well, take a look and decide for yourself. It’s a warm blushing pink colour, with a larger, thicker elliptical shape around a smaller inner shape. BBC wasn’t going there, primly describing it as a “lenticular cloud” that could be confused as an extraterrestrial optical illusion. But the comments were a little more giggly. “UFO? I’ve seen something very similar next to Uranus,” one comment read, and Democratic nominee from Texas Linsey Fagan wrote: “Good thing it’s not in Texas. That thing would lose its rights so fast.” Another faux-exasperated commenter wrote: “Mother Nature is exhausted with men not being able to find it, so she’s drawn a massive diagram. But, no, they’ve decided it’s a lenticular cloud.” My stars.
Meanwhile, The Guardian has no problem with a little low-brow humour. UK writer Tom Lamont visited all the rude placenames on Britain’s map. En route to Twatt, on the island of Orkney, he received a text message from an exasperated pal saying the town sign had been pinched so many times that the council wasn’t replacing it. Lamont also visited Ass Hill (not much more than a lane) and the village of Shitterton (many locals swear the “h” is silent). But some are happy to go along with the joke — take the village of Wetwang, in east Yorkshire. The locals have been appointing minor celebs as mayor since the ’90s after the town was the butt of a few jokes on the tele. Among them, Countdown’s host Richard Whiteley, who proudly held the honorary title until his death in 2005, and then BBC’s Paul Hudson, after he made a few good-natured jives about the name while reading the weather. Hudson cheerfully described his Wetwang mayoral responsibilities as judging the annual scarecrow competition and choosing the best veggies at the summer fair.
Hoping you can have a little laugh at yourself too on this lovely Monday morning.
SAY WHAT?
All [Jacinda Ardern’s] economic instincts were bad, all her strategic instincts were bad. She had a great desire to undo productive economic reform and remove or shut down the engines of economic growth for what should be a nation of limitless opportunity.
Greg Sheridan
Que? Despite The Australian’s foreign editor’s interpretation, New Zealand has just set a new record for its annual GDP growth, according to the latest figures, ranking fourth among 38 wealthy OECD members at 6.4% (double the 3% it was when Ardern became PM in 2017). It means New Zealand’s annual growth under Ardern is triple that of the US and four times higher than Japan, Germany, France and Switzerland, Michael West Media points out.
CRIKEY RECAP
Qantas’ week from hell was a long time coming — are its engines finally failing?
“The broader context of Qantas’ emerging technical problems is a stretched, under-resourced engineering workforce that has been shorn of much of its deep experience. During the pandemic, Joyce sacked thousands of staff and packed many off with redundancies, including many experienced licensed aircraft maintenance engineers. Engineers who spoke to Crikey said maintenance on aircraft was being delayed beyond Qantas’ previous standards and a lack of experienced staff was also slowing down essential maintenance work …
“Old hands say Qantas is an airline operating under stress, with insufficient operational staff who have insufficient experience. Management is not listening to pilots, flight crew and engineers at the coalface. The airline is being run for shareholders — and management bonuses — not for passengers and staff, and this is stretching the fleet.”
A Senate push could force Albanese to hand over his diary
“Lambie, meanwhile, said she will assess her options to force Albanese into a disclosure through the Senate. Birmingham wouldn’t confirm whether she had his support, and Steggall suggested that Albanese should release his diary of his own accord. Greens senator and justice spokesman David Shoebridge said that if the government did not voluntarily release the contents of Albanese’s diary, using the power of the Senate to force its disclosure was the ‘logical next step’ …
“Patrick said the irony of Wednesday’s outcome was that by denying access to the PM’s diary on administrative grounds, the PMO has now signed up to a far greater volume of administrative burden. The desired outcome, he said, would be for Albanese to just come out and disclose it: ‘We don’t want to see it come out by force.’ “
Babylon, Elvis, Blonde, The Fabelmans — why can’t modern films evoke the Hollywood-era spirit?
“They all fall short in their own way. Elvis by Baz Luhrmann is everything you’d expect from Australian (and world) cinema’s Poiter Pan: half an hour or so of a dizzying, accomplished, full-tilt history of Black and white popular music in the US, of Memphis, Tennessee in the 1950s, and Elvis’ explosion on to the scene; of the more colourful, variable and alive place America was before it became a chain of Starbucks and Walmarts from sea to shining sea; and then… nothing.
“The film runs out like all Luhrmann’s films, with the life of the central character never developed as a struggle against self, or within the life of a couple, or to impose a will on the world. What one gets instead is shoutiness, and scenes of conflict endlessly repetitive and going nowhere, which play to Luhrmann’s strengths and those of any great visual director ….”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Iran’s currency hits record low amid tensions with the West (Al Jazeera)
Investigators seize more classified documents from Biden’s home (The New York Times)
First woman pastor in Holy Land ordained (BBC)
Ten dead in [Chinese Lunar New Year festival] shooting outside Los Angeles; suspect at large (Reuters)
Police violently raid Lima university and Machu Picchu closed amid Peru unrest (The Guardian)
[US Federal Reserve] sets course for milder interest-rate rise in February (The Wall Street Journal) ($)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Think Biden is too old to run for president again? No, he’s feeling sprightly — George Brandis (The Age) ($): “Will his age make the difference? Subject, always, to the caveat of his health, I doubt it. In Australia, we are accustomed to the idea that even long political careers end in their 60s (if not earlier). Not so in the United States. When considering whether Biden would see his age as an impediment, it is instructive to consider the institution which shaped him: the US Senate. It was designed by the framers of the constitution to be a body of wise elders (hence the constitution prescribes a minimum age limit of 30). The etymology of the very word ‘Senate’ is the Latin ‘senex’ (old man). When Americans say ‘elder statesmen’, they really mean it. It is not uncommon for senators to serve into their 80s, in some cases their 90s.
“Among the senators elected in last year’s midterms was Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, commencing his eighth six-year term at the age of 89. (Grassley has served continuously in elected office, as a state legislator, congressman and senator since he was first elected to the Iowa House of Representatives in 1959.) Biden served in the Senate with Grassley for 28 years. His other former Senate colleagues included Orrin Hatch of Utah (who retired after 42 years at the age of 86), Ted Stevens of Alaska (who also served for 42 years until he reached 87), Daniel Inouye of Hawaii (who died in office in 2012 at the age of 88, a fortnight before his 50th anniversary), and Dianne Feinstein of California (incumbent, who turns 90 in June and has not ruled out running again in 2024). But the greatest of them all — at least in terms of longevity — was the legendary Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who died in June 2003 at the age of 100…”
Voice right for our country but let’s get there together — Andrew Bragg (The Australian) ($): “Achieving success at a referendum is incredibly difficult. That’s why efforts to build consensus on the wording of the amendment, policy and scope of the voice remain crucial. The prime minister has promoted the Voice. This is welcome. I am pleased he has advanced the concept and built on Ken Wyatt’s work. So far we have a draft amendment to the constitution provided at July’s Garma festival. The PM said at the time: ‘This may not be the final form of words — but I think it’s how we can get to a final form of words.’ In recent weeks, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has asked for more information. This is a reasonable request, particularly given the constitutional risks that have been raised about the draft amendment. It should push the process in the right direction.
“At a minimum, there should be a parliamentary inquiry looking at the referendum question, the amendment and the scope of the body or bodies to be legislated. Surely it is needed to inform how we will get to the final form of words. An inquiry would allow the legitimate legal issues to be investigated and the red herrings dismissed. Engaging the Parliament in a collaborative manner and developing this detail will clear the way for broader support. I am not confused about this. I understand a referendum is a vote of the public, not the politicians. But the public will look to elected leaders for answers. I hope we can provide assurances that a Yes vote is not only the right thing to do for Indigenous people and the nation, but that it’s also safe for our constitution. The process will make or break it.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Check out loads of events as part of Sydney Festival, a citywide celebration of theatre, music, dance, visual art and more.
Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)
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It’s Midsumma Festival 2023, a LGBTQIA+ arts and cultural festival, with loads on across the city.
