PORK-BARRELLING IN THE TOP END?

Treasurer Scott Morrison has pledged an extra $810 million for the Northern Territory, including a $259 million GST boost and $550 million over five years for remote Indigenous housing.

The Guardian reports that both federal and territory governments have denied the funding is linked to the Northern Territory’s recent decision to lift its fracking ban. Speaking at Alice Springs yesterday, Morrison, who once threatened GST penalties for states and territories limiting gas exploration ($), instead argued that the funding compensates an otherwise unequal GST distribution.

The Australian ($) also notes that, with Country Liberal Party candidate Jacinta Price joining Morrison at yesterday’s announcement, the funding push comes as the Coalition aims to take Labor’s two NT lower house seats at the next election.

JAIL BREAKS THE BANK

The number of prisoners on remand in Victoria has almost doubled since Labor came to power in 2014, with tougher bail laws contributing to an overstuffed and, at $800 million a year for male prisoners alone, costly prison system.

The Age reports that more than a third of Victorian prisoners are currently awaiting trial or sentencing, with the jump from fewer than a quarter in 2013-14 corresponding to an annual spending increase of more than $300 million.

BACK TO BASICS

A new safety memo at the Royal Adelaide Hospital teaches highly trained doctors, nurses and staff how to open doors.

The Adelaide Advertiser ($) reports that the Central Adelaide Health Service has, rather bafflingly, advised staff on positions to “help reduce the risk of discomfort when opening doors”. And while there’s likely a decent justification for this incredible bit of bureaucracy (SA Health say the memo relates to the weight of doors in some clinical areas), one wonders how thrilled an overworked, overqualified medical practitioner must be to be told to use “two hands to open the door where possible”.

THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

To some extent, inequality is a measure of freedom. It is a measure of the choices we make. If Bill Gates moves to Australia right now, Australia is a more unequal society. So there are different measures of inequality. 

John Roskam

The executive director of the Institute of Public Affairs offers Q&A an oddly romantic definition of income inequality. The travel plans of billionaires aside, stagnant wages, geographic disparity of opportunity, and emerging technologies (i.e. the gig economy) are all actual factors contributing to freedom inequality in Australia.

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

Weakening jobs market bodes poorly for wagesBernard Keane and Glenn Dyer

“It’s now clear that the strong jobs growth the government has presided over since 2016 is coming to an end. The question is whether we’re entering a significant slowdown, or merely reverting to the lower, but still solid, level of growth that preceded it. Neither outcome is good news for wages growth.”

Facebook
Facebook downplays dominance as ACCC submissions are filedEmily Watkins

“The social media giant used its submission to argue that it, like other media companies, was working in a competitive environment in securing advertising dollars and was not dominating the market. In the 56-page submission, Facebook summarised all the good it says it does for the community — connecting people, informing them, and working with publishers — which it funds with advertising.”

Imagine if ASIC actually did its jobBernard Keane and Glenn Dyer

“ASIC has yet to force out a chairman, CEO or board member of a major Australian company, even in a sector like finance where ASIC itself has readily admitted there are major problems. Financial planning was a “target rich environment” for the regulator, one executive said back in 2014, and they’d known that since the turn of the century. But ASIC simply let the banks and financial planners break the same rules over and over again.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

The Duchess of Cambridge gives birth to a baby boy

AMP facing threat of several shareholder class actions for misleading ASIC over ‘fee for no service’ scandal

ATAR should be simplified or even abolished, says chief scientist Alan Finkel

Paying down debt more important than tax cuts: Newspoll ($)

Emergency departments key to $1bn costs shift ($)

Former NT police commissioner admits to intimate relationship with target of investigation

Architect Robert Morris-Nunn’s planned Recherche Bay development moves forward ($)

US task force arrives in the NT ($)

Hero who snatched AR-15 from gunman: ‘I didn’t fight to save everyone else’

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Logan, Queensland

  • Inquiry hearing into drug testing welfare trial.

Melbourne

  • The banking royal commission will hear from senior NAB executive Andrew Hagger before moving to an ANZ executive, a consumer, the CEO of a non-aligned financial advice firm, and a Financial Planning Association CEO.

  • Aurecon’s “Global Design to Innovate” Director Maureen Thurston will make address design-thinking, innovation and creative cultures at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia design forum.

Canberra

  • Opposition spokesperson for Defence Richard Marles will speak at the National Press Club on Labor defence policy.

  • Parliament electoral matters committee inquiry into section 44 of constitution, with Guy Reynolds SC expected to give evidence.

Brisbane

  • The Climate Council will launch a report into land clearing and climate change across Queensland, which has reportedly accounted for between 50%-65% of total loss of native Australian forests over the past four decades.

  • Acting Leader of the Opposition Tanya Plibersek will visit Humpybong State School with Labor’s candidate for Petrie Corinne Mulholland.

  • Education Minister Grace Grace will address a Committee for Economic Development of Australia lunch.

Sydney

  • Senate inquiry into the Business Council of Australia’s commitment to make the most of corporate tax cuts, including appearances from BCA and other corporate representatives.

  • NSW Police will donate five decommissioned bikes to the Children’s Hospital at Westmead.

Bendigo, Victoria

  • Labor Member for Bendigo Lisa Chesters will announce party plans to protect local jobs and small business from phoenix activity, with Bendigo Trades Hall Council secretary Luke Martin and sec officer Peter Watkinson expected to attend.                                                                                                                                                                                      

Houston, Texas

  • Former Sydney resident and convicted terrorist Asher Khan will face sentencing.

France/Europe

  • Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Defence Minister Marise Payne will continue meeting with European counterparts ahead of Turnbull opening the Sir John Monash Centre at Villers-Bretonneux, France, for Anzac Day.

THE COMMENTARIAT

Why did a police officer give out a woman’s address to her abusive ex? — Clementine Ford (Sydney Morning Herald/Daily Life): “Senior Constable Neil Punchard had found Elizabeth’s (not her real name) address using the confidential police database, and directed the man to ‘just tell her you know where she lives and leave it that’. He then joked with Elizabeth’s ex that she would ‘flip out’ when she realised her ex – who had a string of domestic violence orders against him – had her address and ‘will f…ing explode’.”

Korean summit between Kim and Moon crucial to peace — Alan Dupont (The Australian $): “The next act in the immensely consequential decades-long ­Korean nuclear drama takes place on Friday, when the two Koreas launch their much-anticipated summit in the tiny Potemkin village of Panmunjom that straddles the demarcation line separating the divided nation.”

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