From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …
PhotoBernarding. If photobombing implies the deliberate act of mischievously turning up in a photo in which you do not belong, perhaps Cory Bernardi should coin a term for the opposite. As the marriage equality debate has dominated the news cycle in recent weeks, the Australian Conservatives Senator has unsurprisingly maintained his firm and long-held opposition — recently he wrote an email to subscribers of the No Campaigners Coalition for Marriage describing marriage equality as a “rainbow Trojan horse”, maintaining the”slippery slope” argument while excising his conclusion on where that slippery slope ends up. So you can well imagine he would not want in on a pro-marriage equality photo opp. But that’s exactly what happened when Labor’s WA members and senators decided to take a photo while holding rainbow Yes placards and T-shirts, and Bernardi unwittingly wandered in front of the cameras — giving us the image of Bernardi covering his face like a tabloid favourite leaving a nightclub, captured in a tweet from BuzzFeed‘s Alice Workman:
As amusing as it is, Ms Tips very slightly prefers a similar image tweeted 15 minutes later by Labor MP for Burt Matt Keogh, only because the timing of this picture makes it look like Labor has surprised Bernardi on his birthday and he’s doing a little dance because he’s happy:
Prime ministerial embarrassment? You might recall recently that, as part of its relentless campaign to demonise Bill Shorten as a socialist/too close to business/Cuba/the Soviets/in cahoots with New Zealand, the government took a leaf from Donald Trump’s book and talked about how Shorten would be jailed if the laws it had recently introduced had been in place in the Howard years. At a press conference in August, Michaelia Cash made this extraordinary claim:
“One of the deals that is now banned under this legislation, and could potentially face time in jail, is of course a union official who gets onto an employer’s private jet, enjoys a holiday in Cuba while sipping Cristal champagne, but at the same time is negotiating an enterprise agreement with that employer. Yes, you’re right, it was Bill Shorten. Another corrupting benefit that is now banned under this legislation is an employer, Cleanevent, handing over to the AWU $75,000 to ensure that the union did not agitate for higher wages for the workers that it represented.”
But did Cash go too far for the liking of Malcolm Turnbull’s office? Search for the transcript of that press conference now on Turnbull’s website and you get a 404. Perhaps someone in the PMO decided that suggesting your opponent be jailed wasn’t a good look in a democracy. No such qualms in Chuckles Cash’s office — it’s still up on their site.
Where is section 44 when you need it? In a revelation that will neither enhance the New Zealand National Party’s chances against a rampant Jacinda Ardern nor do much for those who insist only xenophobia is behind criticism of the role of Chinese-born citizens in domestic politics, a major scandal is breaking about National MP Jian Yang, whom the Financial Times has revealed is under investigation by New Zealand’s intelligence agency because he “spent more than 10 years training and teaching at elite facilities including China’s top linguistics academy for military intelligence officers”. Yang, who also studied at Australian National University before moving to New Zealand, has been an enthusiastic supporter of closer ties with Beijing and echoed Beijing positions on international affairs. More seriously, he served on the New Zealand parliament’s foreign affairs committee, potentially giving him access to confidential government information. The revelations will alarm intelligence establishments in other Five Eyes countries given the possibility a Chinese spy could have had access to internal government information.
Satire cuts too deep. Satirical website The Juice has been prodding the government for a while, particularly in the last year, since it started producing “Honest Government Ads”. The ads lampoon various policies from the Carmichael coal mine to the marriage equality postal survey – – and end with faux authorisation messages. These come complete with a facsimile of the Australian government logo, altered to misspell “Australian” the addition of a little alien head and a fake department, like the following at the end of its “plebbyshite” ad, which The Juice says was authorised by the Department of No Leadership and Unnecessary Harm:
Savage stuff. Anyway, it turns out the suits in Canberra can’t handle the heat. The Juice reports on its Facebook page that the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has emailed the satirical news site to ask it the site cease using it — apparently the government has received “complaints from members of the public raising concerns that the content on this website may be mistaken for Australian Government material”.
The Juice has obligingly agreed to no longer use their current mock up, replacing it with another, this time replacing the kangaroo and emu heads with surveillance cameras and adding a banner saying “not the real logo”.
We suppose people are no longer going to think that the government is actually telling people who don’t work for Adani that they can “fuck off and die“.
War surcharge, what is it good for? If you’ve ever wondered why exports costs so damn much, a Crikey spy has an insight. Our tipster was chatting to an international client of his (an importer/exporter), who bemoaned the high cost of doing business with Australia and mentioned that Australian exporters are required to pay a “War Surcharge”. Incredulous, our spy asked for proof, and the client produced an invoice: “Bloody hell — no wonder he was complaining — a base export cost of $81 inflated by 2.5 times with add ons including two ‘war surcharges’ “.
Crikey asked the company in question to explain exactly how the war surcharge works, but it didn’t get back to us before deadline. According to our tipster, “the bloke who gave me the invoice said it was still a WWII surcharge to pay war debt”. Ms Tips couldn’t find any evidence that Australian exporters are required to do that, however, exporters are required to take out war risk insurance, both for trips that go near live war zones, and the ongoing risks presented by factors like terrorism and hijacking. Has your business been affected by the war surcharge? Let us know.
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“Prime Ministerial embarrassment”
Michaela “The Strutter” Cash . . . dragged along in a vortex of her own self importance.
Fair Go,
Anyone can make a mistake.
As soon as she can find a teenager or someone computer literate, she’ll take it down.
Nah, Caw Cawrey B*mdumbnuts doesn’t do little dances. It might encourage polygamy or bestial relationships.
But there exists no entity called “Australian Government.” This was something invented out of the blue by John Howard. There is an entity called the “Commonwealth Of Australia.”
I think The Juice should brazen this one out.
Surely Borey Carnadi, is repeating his ‘gay=bestiality’ theme by warning about SSM being a Trojan Horse, with the addition of xenophobia for extra zest?