Crikey Worm: Australia’s huge credit card debt revealed

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

A new report from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has found that Australians owe $45 billion in credit card debt and more than one in six are struggling with repayments.

According to the ABC, the corporate regulator has found that while 18.5% of consumers are overwhelmed by debt, banks and credit card companies are having a fab time, with interest being reaped on $31.7 billion of the total $45 billion debt. ASIC has warned against lax credit limits and “debt traps”, specifically credit card offers that allow balance transfers from one card to another.

Deputy chairman Peter Kell has also said that, despite proactive rules introduced in 2012, lenders such as Citi, Latitude, American Express and Macquarie had failed to adopt proactive measures and 525,000 customers are paying more interest than they need to.

ROYAL COMMISSION ROLLS ON

Funeral insurance business Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund has been accused of misleading Indigenous customers into paying $10,000 in premiums for a maximum $8000 payout, and appropriating Indigenous iconography. The business used as a rainbow serpent, which gave the illusion of traditional ownership.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Victorian Tracey Walsh has told the banking royal commission that she felt misled into signing up for ACBF, a Gold Coast-based company which is not run or owned by Indigenous Australians, but has claimed to be the “only insurer with policies specifically designed for Indigenous people“. The royal commission is in Darwin for the week specifically examining financial misconduct with Indigenous communities; funeral insurance and superannuation are the reported top issues.

KYRGIOS KILLS IT AT WIMBLEDON

Australia’s Nick Kyrgios has taken out his first round Wimbledon match in a four-set victory against Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin.

In what feels like the first good Australian sport story for a while (after basket brawl and the Russia World Cup), The Sydney Morning Herald reports that 15th-seed Kyrgios beat the unseeded Istomin 7-6 (3) 7-6 (4) 6-7 (5) 6-3.

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THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

I don’t think the media knew what misandry was until I started talking about it.

David Leyonhjelm

The Liberal Democrats Senator doubles down after his highly inappropriate comments about Sarah Hanson-Young. Leyonhjelm has also called Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull a “p—y” and “soft-c–k” for not speaking about misandry in the same way as misogyny.

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

Don’t mistake Leyonhjelm’s hate for ideologyBernard Keane

“The worst mistake you can make about Sky News and David Leyonhjelm’s smear of Sarah Hanson-Young is to think it was some sort of inadvertent ‘line crossing’, that a boundary had been overstepped in a robust exchange of ideas. Both Leyonhjelm and Sky News are in the same business, of selling the status of victimhood to aggrieved elites, and dressing it up as ideology to disguise the naked self-interest that motivates it.”

Melbourne Press Club draws fresh claims of being closed to outsidersEmily Watkins

“Indigenous journalist, Guardian Australia columnist, and occasional Crikey contributor Jack Latimore was nominated for one of 20 positions, and would have been the only person of colour on the board, which has roughly two men to every woman. Instead, the Birpai man and former daily editor of IndigenousX says he was encouraged not to run, and spoken down to when he attended the AGM vote. MPC CEO Mark Baker said, to his knowledge, no one involved with the MPC had encouraged Latimore to withdraw his nomination.”

Palestinian Authority’s violent new era of stifling free speechLuna Alqamar

“The Palestinian Authority (PA) was established under the 1994 Oslo Accords as an interim body responsible for governing 18% of land in the West Bank. Contrary to the unfulfilled promise of a ‘temporary’ five-year period before the establishment of a Palestinian state, 24 years later the PA is desperately clinging to retain the minimal power they hold. This is now coming at the expense of the Palestinian people.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Joint police taskforce investigates senior CFMEU official

Tony Abbott calls for Australia to pull out of Paris climate deal ($)

Andrew Denton speechless as Guy Pearce says Kevin Spacey was ‘handsy’

Chidren committing serious crimes just to find something to eat, MPs told ($)

Pink kicks off Australian tour to packed house at Perth Arena

Embattled Adelaide-based charter airline Rossair placed into administration ($)

Councils scramble for new laws to stop Airbnb ‘pop-up parties’

Houses lost in the Darwin River region following an out-of-control fire ($)

More cells added to Queensland prison system

‘ATO operates its systems to target revenue collection’: Kate Carnell

Toddler born on Nauru to be brought to Australia for vital health tests

Shorten, Bowen out of step on company tax plan ($)

Malaysia’s former prime minister Najib Razak arrested over 1MDB investigation

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Canberra

• Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, NCIS Director at ANU Professor Mick Dodson, and former President of Saami Parliament in Sweden Lars-Anders Baer will discuss “Road to recognition: an international perspective” at the National Press Club.

• Lieutenant General Angus Campbell will deliver the inaugural “Hamel Oration” to mark the centenary of the Battle of Hamel, the famous Sir John Monash-led WWI victory with Australia-US. The Australian War Memorial will also unveil a new sculpture of Monash.

Sydney

• The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare will release a report on men being more likely to be assaulted and hospitalised by a stranger than women.

• NSW Police Commissioner Michael Fuller and Minister for Police Troy Grant will officially open the new state-of-the-art Southern Highlands Police Station.

Melbourne

• Mayors from inner-Melbourne councils and the Minister for Housing Martin Foley will announce the results of homelessness report StreetCount.

• Crikey contributor Helen Razer will present “The Personal is Ideological: #MeToo and the End of Political Feminism” at the Rai Gaita Wednesday Lectures. Shakira Hussein will also deliver “Navigating the binary between speech and silence: Muslim women in post-9/11 Australia” on Wednesday July 18.

• International marine conservation group Sea Shepherd will deliver a presentation on the impacts of marine debris and micro-plastics on wildlife and humans.

• The cast from Swan Lake on ice will perform two pieces ahead of its official opening.

Darwin

• The banking royal commission will continue examining financial issues affecting Indigenous Australians.

• Day one of Young Change Agents three-day youth incubator for teenage social entrepreneurs, YINC.

Adelaide

• Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and SA Premier Steven Marshall will visit Kangaroo Island.

• Mayo candidates Rebekha Sharkie (Centre Alliance), Major “Moogy” Sumner (Greens), Reg Coutts (Labor) and Georgina Downer (Liberal) will appear at a candidates forum in Nairne.

• The Independent Commissioner Against Corruption public hearing will continue examining SafeWork SA.

Brisbane

• Commodore Chris Smallhorn will deliver the 2018 Sir Hudson Fysh Lecture, “Regeneration of our Nations Fleet Air Arm”.

• Independence Australia will hold its Brisbane Education Day 2018, to feature presentations from a range of healthcare professionals.

• Artist Tony Albert will talk with Alethea Beetson, Artist Director of Digi Youth Arts and First Nations Producer of BIGSOUND, for the first of a series of “Visible” discussions with Indigenous artists at QAGOMA.

Perth

• Premier Mark McGowan and Transport Minister Rita Saffioti will provide an update on the Matagarup Bridge and join construction workers to walk across the bridge as part of the testing phase.

• Director of the AusIMM Alex Atkins will speak on “Shattering the Glass Door to the Minerals Boardroom” at a Rotary of Elizabeth Quay event.

• Terry Stinson, former CEO and current Non-Executive Director of Orbital Corporation, will speak at part of CORE Innovation Hub’s “Meet the Innovator” series.

Hobart

• The Tasmanian Land Conservancy will hold a special screening and panel discussion of the documentary Skullbone Plains, as part of a farewell to its CEO Jane Hutchinson.

Cairns, Queensland

• Federal MP for Kennedy Bob Katter, Leichhardt KAP federal candidate Daniel McCarthy and Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council Mayor Ross Andrews will discuss the need for money for Indigenous housing.

Launceston, Tasmania

• Rural Health Minister Bridget McKenzie and Royal Flying Doctor Service CEO Martin Laverty will mark a federal government funding commitment.

Campbell Town, Tasmania

• The Grains Research and Development Corporation will deliver a research update.

France

• Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove will represent Australia at commemorations to mark the centenary of the Battle of Hamel.

THE COMMENTARIAT

Turnbull’s fine line on climate: Capitulation or denial? — Giles Parkinson (RenewEconomy): “Tony Abbott is at it again. And so too are the rest of the crew — Matt Canavan, Judith Sloan, Nick Cater, and the endless cast of malcontents in the Murdoch media and the Coalition back-bench and ministry. For months we have lamented the stupidity of the debate around climate and energy, and the extraordinary push-back from conservatives against any new technologies such as wind, solar, battery storage, demand management, and electric vehicles.”

Almost every female MP is fair game: ‘Slut-shaming’ standard in Parliament — Paula Matthewson (Sydney Morning Herald): “Most voters don’t even know that sexist innuendo and sledges are part of the political artillery used in Canberra, and that these weapons are almost exclusively used against women. Sarah Hanson-Young has blown the lid on that behaviour, calling out one of her Senate detractors, David Leyonhjelm, for sexist abuse and slut-shaming.”

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