AGE OF GUILT
Almost 100% of children inside NT youth jails are Indigenous, according to new data released by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (OCC). The OCC was assessing Don Dale Youth Detention Centre and Alice Springs Youth Detention Centre in September when it identified the shocking statistic, as the NT News reports. The acting children’s commissioner Nicole Hucks said there had been a 233% surge in the number of children being held behind bars in the past few years, slamming the NT’s bail reforms, as the National Indigenous Times delves into. It also comes as the NT Parliament is poised to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 12, the ABC reports. About 18 kids aged 10 and 11 were taken into custody between 2017 and 2022, costing the taxpayer $3300 a day, yet they had not committed any serious or violent offences, NT Council of Social Service chief executive Deborah Di Natale says. Today federal Assistant Minister for Treasury Andrew Leigh will declare we are in the “second convict age” with our overall surging prison population, which is costing an eyewatering $4.7 billion a year. If our incarcerated population had stayed at the 1985 level, we would save more than half that — some $2.6 billion annually, Brisbane Times reports.
Meanwhile, more than 12,000 people have donated nearly half a million dollars to a fundraiser after the death of Noongar child Cassius Turvey, The West ($) reports. Turvey was allegedly brutally bashed by a group of men as he walked home from school, with friends alleging the attackers shouted racial slurs at them. Turvey’s cousin says the money will go towards Turvey’s funeral, as well as legal costs for criminal compensation and justice. There will be vigils for the 15-year-old in WA’s Warmun community, Northam, Moora and Geraldton, as well as Albany, Onslow and Broome this week. WA’s Aboriginal Affairs Minister Tony Buti described it as a “deeply tragic situation”, while Turvey’s grieving mother thanked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for calling what happened to the teenager a “racially motivated attack”, WA Today reports. “They’re just words but they mean so much to us,” Mechelle Turvey told mourners.
PROMISES, PROMISES
Victoria’s Coalition has made 59 preelection promises so far with no costs attached, Victoria’s Parliamentary Budget Office has found, while Labor has made just two without costs attached, The Age reports. It comes as Premier Daniel Andrews and Liberal Leader Matthew Guy prepare to face off at the ballot box on November 26. In addition to the mystery price of these 59 somewhat empty promises, the Coalition is still promising to spend $25.7 billion on 222 costed promises, while Labor’s promises amount to a much more austere $8.3 billion. It comes as Victoria is poised to record a $9.7 billion deficit this financial year, according to the state Treasury’s mid-financial year budget update released today. The budget position is $1.8 billion worse than May’s prediction of $7.9 billion — partly because of the $500 million needed to clean up the most recent flood disaster.
Meanwhile, the WA Liberals are reeling after Richard Wilson resigned as state president just 13 months after being elected, saying “toxic self-interest” is dominating the party over “any deep-seated commitment to liberalism”, The West ($) reports. Wilson referenced several scandals without naming names — two senior MPs threatening legal action against the party (possibly MP Nick Goiran, who threatened to sue his own party for defamation last year, as The West ($) reports), speeches settling scores instead of spruiking the party (possibly the Liberal state council censuring Senator Dean Smith, as The Australian ($) reports), and leaks from party meetings to undermine rival factions (possibly the leaked WhatsApp messages of “The Clan”, which was once headed by Mathias Cormann, as AFR reports). It’s a low point for WA Liberals: the party has just two of the 59 seats in the state Parliament’s lower house, and lost five federal electorates in Perth in May’s election.
SOUTH KOREA CRUSH
One Australian has died in the South Korea crush that killed more than 150 people at the weekend, The Age reports. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed the Australian embassy had been told of the death, which happened after 100,000 people poured into Itaewon, a nightlife spot in Seoul, to celebrate Halloween. It was, by some accounts, 10 times the number of people who usually attended — the party hadn’t taken place in the past couple of years because of the pandemic, as Guardian Australia continues. About 10.20pm, the revelries turned into a stampede in an alleyway that was less than four metres wide. An Australian in Seoul told the ABC that another Australian is in intensive care, and a dual citizen is stable, though the broadcaster adds it couldn’t verify his reports.
To another Australian abroad now and environmentalist Jerome Hugonot has been freed after he was taken hostage in Chad on Friday. Hugonot, who has French and Australian citizenship, works for the Sahara Conservation Fund in Wadi Fara province, near Sudan — he’s also spent time working as a veterinarian in the Northern Territory, Western Australia, South Australia and the NSW Hunter Valley, the SMH reports. DFAT said it had been working with Chad and French authorities on his disappearance, ABC adds.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Triathlete Hallee McCoombes has six Australian records: the “100, 200, 400, 800 and 1500 [metres]”, and her next goal is the Paralympics in six years — when she’ll be 16. But the incredible achievements of 10-year-old Hallee become mind-blowing when one learns she has spina bifida. Years ago, doctors gently told her heartbroken mum, Christine McCoombes, that Hallee would never walk — the bright-eyed little girl has no feeling in her waist or below her knees. But it’s never stopped Hallee — recently she competed in Queensland’s all-schools triathlon championships. Hallee says she’s used to hearing the same old phrases, like “You’ll never run” and “You can’t play sport”. “When they say that, I don’t listen to them,” Hallee says. It hasn’t been easy — her brain and coordination are affected by her condition, and she has a lot of damaged muscles and nerves. “Sometimes it’s hard, after surgeries, and it’s hard to get out of my wheelchair,” Hallee admits.
But she always does. Triathlons are gruelling, and are made that much tougher for Hallee because she can’t kick when she swims, as 7News tells it. After she crossed the finish line at the championships, she could barely talk or walk. But you couldn’t wipe the smile from her face. “I love doing it, and it’s fun,” Hallee says simply. And it’s not just triathlons she smashes out — the pint-sized athlete partakes in hurdles and tennis. Christine says her daughter completely blows her away. “People are starting to see that she is capable of doing anything and everything,” Christine says. Triathlon Australia chief executive Tim Harradine agrees. Hallee is his inspiration “every day. It gets me out of bed, it gets me to work excited,” he says. But humble Hallee says she just wants others to see that they can do hard things too. “Just go out there and do your best,” she says.
Wishing you a dash of that Hallee strength today, and always.
SAY WHAT?
Let’s face it: these types of anti-fat attitudes have been around forever and we’re getting fatter — so it’s not working … So to continue shaming people pretending that you’re doing it for their health is bullshit. You’re just doing it because you get off on being mean.
Magda Szubanski
The Australian actor put it bluntly when she said society needs to stop fat-shaming people, writing for ABC that she’s been yelled at in the street and attacked online relentlessly about her weight. Szubanski says it’s actually getting worse, not better: she doesn’t remember the “nastiness” being so febrile and volatile when she was younger.
CRIKEY RECAP
Stunts, gaslighting, bullshit: the Republicanisation of the Coalition resumes in earnest
“Most of the MPs involved in the stunt sat silent while Scott Morrison denounced Christine Holgate in Parliament, while he lied to Parliament about the investigation of the Brittany Higgins matter, while Morrison’s PMO smeared Higgins’ partner, while a Coalition minister described Higgins as a ‘lying cow’, while Alan Tudge was allowed to hide out from the 2022 election and then return as a frontbencher, while Morrison declared there was nothing to see here about historical sexual assault allegations against a minister.
“To see them parade as outraged victims of bullying now is sickening stuff. But this is what the hard right is increasingly doing. It is portraying itself as the victim — of persecution by liberal elites, of suppression of free speech, of efforts to undermine their way of life. Envious of how groups who have traditionally been the victims of real discrimination and persecution have brought that mistreatment to the centre of public debate, the hard right wants a piece of that — awarding itself equal status as another persecuted minority.”
Inquest cancelled into death of man with disabilities as family drip-fed crucial information on NDIS failures
“While a review of the NDIS has been brought forward to take place this year, NDIS Minister Bill Shorten — who criticised the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA)’s care of Harris when Crikey’s investigation was released while he was in opposition — has yet to announce changes to case management of participants with psychosocial disabilities.
“New documentation obtained under FOI show that concerns were raised in 2018 about Harris by his local area coordinator, who previously managed Harris’ NDIS plan. He had stopped working and wasn’t using all of his available NDIS funding and was restreamed in the ‘intensive’ stream, a higher category of care under the NDIS. This meant it was up to an NDIA planner, instead of a third-party local area coordinator contracted by the NDIS, to coordinate a new plan with Harris, beginning three months before its expiry. They never did.”
Labor’s not delivering on wages, critics say — but business screams suggest otherwise
“All this tells you is that for the first time in a decade and longer, we might actually see an industrial relations reform that will deliver higher wages growth, and it terrifies business and its media cheerleaders. ‘The Business Council wants Australian workers to have more money in their pockets,’ insisted BCA head Jennifer Westacott in one of the many AFR attacks. Except, the past 10 years — hell, a lot longer than that, but let’s not get historical — prove that business does not want higher wages for workers and in fact will try to impose lower wages if they can.
“That’s why the profit share of income has surged at the expense of the wage share, especially since around 2017. That’s why labour productivity increases have been far ahead of wages growth in recent years. That’s why, even with unemployment at 3.5%, wages growth is stuck at a pitiful 2.6% while corporate profits surge off higher prices. The one area where the government is wimping it is in its pretence that the industrial relations changes won’t lead to more strikes. Yes, they’ll lead to more strikes. That’s the whole point — businesses are not going to hand over pay rises out of the goodness of their hearts.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
At least 40 people killed in bridge collapse in India (Al Jazeera)
South Korea mourns, wants answers after Halloween crush kills 153 (Reuters)
Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun leaves office amid crisis (Al Jazeera)
Google case before High Court could reshape internet economy (The Wall Street Journal) ($)
Iran journalists want two of their colleagues freed [who were jailed for their coverage of Mahsa Amini] (The New Daily)
Ukraine war: Black Sea grain exports blocked as West slams Russia for breaking deal (EuroNews)
Brazilians go to polls with Lula slight favourite to oust far-right Bolsonaro (The Guardian)
By the numbers: has Labour achieved its promises during five years in power? (Stuff)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Rather than an endlessly reheated nuclear debate, politicians should be powered by the evidence — Adam Morton (Guardian Australia): “David Osmond, a Canberra-based engineer with the global energy developer Windlab, is among those with a markedly different, evidence-based take. For more than a year, he has been posting weekly results from a live simulation tracking what would happen in Australia’s main electricity grid if it relied primarily on renewable energy. Using a live stream of electricity data from Opennem, he adjusted inputs to see what would happen if there was enough wind and solar energy to supply 60% and 45% of demand respectively. He added enough short-term storage, likely to be in the form of batteries, to supply average demand for five hours.
“The results are encouraging. They suggest close to 100% of demand — 98.9% over a 61-week period — could be delivered by solar and wind backed by existing hydro power and the five hours of storage. Nearly 90% of demand was met directly by renewable energy and 10% had to pass through storage. Achieving it would require a major expansion of transmission, as proposed by Labor under its Rewiring the Nation policy. The 1.1% shortfall mostly came when it was less sunny in late autumn and winter. Other technology would be needed to fill that hole. Osmond believes for now that would probably be fast-starting gas-fired power plants that are already connected to the grid, don’t run most of the time and can be called on quickly. There was nothing to suggest new ones were needed.”
Only a matter of time before Australia has its own Rishi Sunak — Roshena Campbell (The Age): “When a week ago the UK Conservative Party chose a Hindu of Indian origin to be the United Kingdom’s next prime minister, it was a significant moment in that country’s history. It was also unsurprising. London mayor Sadiq Khan is a Muslim of Pakistani origin. The Home Secretary Suella Braverman is a Buddhist of Indian origin. Her predecessor, Priti Patel, is of Ugandan-Indian origin. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly’s mother is from Sierra Leone. The previous chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is the child of Ghanaian immigrants. Kemi Badenoch, the secretary of state for international trade, was born to Nigerian parents, spending part of her childhood in Lagos.
“In other words Rishi Sunak’s arrival in No. 10 Downing Street reflects the reality of modern Britain. A nation in which it is normal for the faces of those occupying high office to be non-white, and where one in four children has an immigrant mother. The change in the capital has been even more stark. Between 1971 and 2011 the percentage of ‘white British’ residents of London dropped from 86.2% to 42.7%. The huge change in the ethnic composition of Britain in such a short time has been just as remarkable as the rise of the new arrivals (or their children) to the top of the country’s institutions. That this has occurred at the same time as the left has become obsessed with sniffing out white privilege and institutional racism is one of the ironies of our age.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Yuggera Country (also known as Brisbane)
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Historian Marion Stell will speak about her new book, The Bodyline Fix: How Women Saved Cricket, at Avid Reader bookshop. You can also catch this online.
Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)
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Commentator Peter van Onselen will be in conversation with journalist Mark Kenny on the former’s new book, Victory: The Inside Story of Labor’s Return to Power, at The Australian National University.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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NATO secretary-general’s special representative for women, peace and security Irene Fellin, Croatian ambassador to Australia Betty Pavelich, and high commissioner of Canada to Australia Mark Glauser are among several speakers at Advancing the Women, Peace and Security agenda forum.
