Crikey Worm: Labor to fight government’s marine park changes

MARINE BLUE

Labor has vowed to fight new marine park management plans, set to be announced by the Turnbull government today, after they were uploaded by officials on the federal register of legislation yesterday.

Reported in The Guardian, Labor has confirmed it will move to disallow the Coalition’s proposed management plans, which opens up significant recreational and commercial fishing areas in the Coral Sea. Labor’s environment spokesperson Tony Burke has criticised the changes as “the largest removal of area from conservation ever from any government in the world” over Twitter. 

UHLMANN BANNED

Nine’s political editor Chris Uhlmann will be suspended from federal parliament next week for sharing a photograph of Employment Minister Michaelia Cash texting staffers following her controversial Senate estimates appearance.

The Australian ($) reports that Uhlmann will be barred from parliament from Monday to Wednesday next week, when both the House of Representatives and the Senate sit, after the Senate’s Usher of the Black Rod ruled Uhlmann breached parliamentary rules for including the photograph in a Nine News report.

VALE SUDAN

The last male northern white rhino, 45 year-old Sudan, has died at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.

According to the BBC, Sudan was put to sleep on Monday following worsening age-related complications, leaving behind only two females — his daughter and granddaughter — alive in the world. Hopes for preserving the subspecies now lie in developing in-vitro fertilisation techniques.

THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

“The rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has become the biggest dream of the Chinese people. We are resolved to fight the bloody battle against our enemies … with a strong determination to take our place in the world,”

— China’s President Xi Jinping begins his second-of-now-infinite terms with a confident, nationalistic, and just slightly aggressive speech. 

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12 Months Later And Rod Culleton Still Refuses To Accept He’s Not A Senator

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Canberra: ACTU secretary Sally McManus at the National Press Club

Melbourne: Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass will make a statement upon releasing her report into allegations of ALP MPs’ misuse of staff budget entitlements prior to the 2014 state election.

Hobart: Tasmania Premier Will Hodgman and his new ministry to be sworn in at Hobart’s government house.

Sydney: Internationally acclaimed artist Tracey Emin and Lord Mayor Clover Moore will launch new permanent public artwork “The Distance of Your Heart”.

Brisbane: Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate will be the guest speaker at a QUT business luncheon.

Canberra: Senate hearings into the waste and recycling industry in Australia, with witnesses from the Department of Environment, ACT government, and Local Government Association. The hearings will also look at the impact of defence facilities on regional areas, with witnesses from the Department of Defence & Finance.

Melbourne: “Child Safe Organisations: Prevention And Practice Beyond Royal Commission” conference.

Melbourne: The “Glamour on the Grid” event will see racing car drivers, celebrities and sports personalities launch the Australian Grand Prix. 

Sydney: Students from across Sydney will protest against university cuts and military spending as part of a national day of action organised by the National Union of Students.

Sydney: Amnesty International will launch a campaign against the online abuse of women. Activists will reportedly carry out a stunt near Twitter Australia HQ.

Melbourne: A 20-year renter with three sons will become the 59th family to receive a Habitat for Humanity home in Victoria.

Australia: The Annual Alcohol Poll 2018, run by the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) and the country’s most comprehensive alcohol poll, will examine Australians’ attitudes towards alcohol, their drinking behaviours, and their perspectives on alcohol policies.

Wellington: New Zealand’s spy agencies, the GCSB and the SIS, to answer questions at parliament’s Intelligence and Security select committee.

Wellington: Disability Issues Minister Carmel Sepuloni and Employment Minister Willie Jackson to launch new guidelines outlining what disabled people can expect from employment services.

Tauranga: The New Zealand Planning Institute will hold its annual conference, discussing everything from water quality and availability to the impact of natural hazards and climate change to rapid urbanisation.

Dunedin: Announcement of Department of Conservation mice eradication project result on Antipodes Island by Minister Eugenie Sage.

THE COMMENTARIAT

A monstrous strategic mistake — Kevin Rudd (Sydney Morning Herald): “John Howard’s decision to commit thousands of Australian troops to the invasion of Iraq 15 years ago ranks as one of the two great failures of Australian foreign policy since the Second World War. The other is Menzies’ decision to send forces to Vietnam. Both cases represented an abysmal failure of Australian political leadership, driven by an unnecessary capitulation to strategically foolhardy decisions by the US administrations of the time.”

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi can’t be the messiah we want her to be — Stan Grant (ABC): “The country has moved significantly in the decade since that was written, but Myanmar’s constitution still entrenches the military grip on the nation. The army controls security forces, the police and is allocated a quarter of the seats in parliament. Ms Suu Kyi does not exercise control over the military commander in chief. Simply: she can’t silence the guns.”

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

Razer: 15 years since we declared war on Iraq, little has changed — Helen Razer: “Irrefutable. Fifteen years ago, not every respected US war correspondent made this assessment of the threat posed by Iraq. Nor did every respected US scholar of international relations. Fifteen years ago, though, respectability could be lost in an instant. To oppose a war that began March 20, 2003 was to oppose freedom, humanity and the low theatre performed by Secretary Colin Powell at the United Nations.”

Lies, damned lies, and banking mea culpas at the royal commission — Bernard Keane: “It was a thoroughgoing apology from Commonwealth CEO Ian Narev in July 2014. Amidst the turmoil of revelations about the shonks and spivs of Commonwealth Financial Planning, senate committee inquiries and Adele Ferguson routinely exposing more scandals, Narev wanted to apologise to victims of CFP. “I unreservedly apologise to all customers affected. Poor advice provided by some of our advisers between 2003 to 2012 caused financial loss and distress and I am truly sorry for that,” Narev said. And he was at pains to state that this was atypical of the Commonwealth Bank.”

As a farcical election approaches, Egypt reckons with a second term of the Sisi regime — Salma Islam: “‘The election is over, it’s all about the turnout,’ says the former parliamentarian, who is the nephew and namesake of late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, who was assassinated while in office in 1981. [Mohamed Anwar] Sadat had sought to challenge the country’s incumbent leader, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in the presidential elections scheduled for March 26-28, but withdrew his candidacy in January suddenly, citing repression and intimidation against his campaign staff and supporters by the state.”

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