FIJI WHIZZ
Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has told Scott Morrison to do better on Australia’s transition to clean energy and declared climate change “no laughing matter” in the country, a likely pointed reference to Petter Dutton’s 2015 publicly recorded “joke” about the effects of climate change on Pacific islands.
According to the ABC, Bainimarama spoke of how Fiji is already dealing with forced relocations and spoiled crops as ongoing consequences of increased sea levels. Bainimarama also noted Australia’s record-breaking heatwave, and told Morrison to put the lives of Pacific islanders above the interests of “any single industry”. Morrison in turn praised Bainimarama’s international leadership on climate change. While stopping short of an emissions policy, Morrison had promised earlier in the week to fund climate change mitigation policies across the Pacific.
VIGIL FOR AIIA
Mourners will today fill a Melbourne tram with red roses in memory of murdered Palestinian-Israeli exchange student Aiia Maasarwe, as Victoria Police search for the owner of a grey and black Cotton On T-shirt and black “1986” baseball cap discovered near her body Wednesday morning.
The Herald Sun ($) reports that a number of tributes have already been laid near the scene of the crime in Bundoora, where mourners will tonight take a mass of red roses aboard an 86 tram after a vigil at Parliament House. Police have confirmed that the 21-year-old Maasarwe was on the phone with her sister at the time of the attack, and, vowing to “saturate” the Bundoora area as part of the investigation, are now urging anyone who travelled on the route Tuesday night to get in contact.
DOUBLE FAULT
Lleyton Hewitt has accused former Davis Cup teammate Bernard Tomic of “blackmail” and “physical” threats towards him and his family for the past year and a half.
According to the ABC, Hewitt labelled Tomic a “clown” and promised he would never again play Davis Cup under Hewitt’s captaincy, days after Tomic accused the former world No. 1 of exploiting the role and admitting to threatening violence two years ago. The rift clouds an otherwise strong local presence at the Australian Open, with Ashleigh Barty, Alexei Popyrin, Alex Bolt and Alex de Minaur through to the third round and Kimberly Birrell to play No. 2 seed Angelique Kerber in a second round game tonight.
[free_worm]
THEY REALLY SAID THAT?
I never said there was no collusion between the campaign, or between people in the campaign.
Rudy Giuliani
The former New York mayor and Donald Trump‘s personal attorney both shifts the goal posts and straight up lies in an all-time CNN interview.
CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY
Is there a future for Australian music journalism?
“The February 2018 edition of Rolling Stone Australia contained its signature 90-page mix of music and culture, as well as a glossy preview of the year ahead. Twenty days later, the 46-year-old magazine was dead. Rolling Stone Australia’s publisher, Paper Riot, went into administration. The company’s lawyers emailed contributors with the bleak details: no one would be paid. There was a brief, almost tokenistic mourning period.”
Crisis watch: the various dead fish plaguing the Nationals
“It’s an indictment of the state Australian politics when limiting our ‘Crisis Watch’ format to just the major parties seems totally unfair. This is particularly true of the Liberals’ Coalition partner, the National Party, which punches so routinely above its weight in terms of minor-party scandal-generation that we felt it deserved a special look.”
The first fast-food president
“Must have been a hell of a learning curve for Joyce Boghosian, the official White House photographer. Pretty much a starting-from-scratch sort of thing. Pete Souza, Obama’s snapper, had perfected a sort of high-sheen Vanity Fair approach, using the One’s leanness as a sort of organising principle — alternating between composed and funky, big grinning. Boghosian’s boss is a man who likes standing in front of a gold elevator.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Dutton’s immigration decisions showed ‘hypocrisy’: Human Rights Watch
Morrison government offers funding peace deal for Victorian schools
NT Police had phone data of German tourist Monika Billen days before body was found
‘Evidence backs pill testing trials’: physicians tell Berejiklian
Michael Gunner ‘will do anything to stay leader’, says dumped Labor minister Ken Vowles ($)
Labor’s Bill Shorten ramps up class warfare with attacks on BHP, business ($)
‘Pretty disturbing’: AGL pulls toxic waste product off the market
Clive Palmer back on the Forbes rich list after royalties win in Citic case
Australian man reported killed in Kenya attack
THE COMMENTARIAT
Men of Australia, it’s time to pick your side — Clementine Ford (The Age): “Somewhere in Australia right now, there’s a woman reading this news who’s just like Aiia Masarwe, like Eurydice Dixon, Tracey Connolly, Jill Meagher, Lynette Daley, Vicki Cleary, Anita Cobby and all the other countless women who came before her. We don’t know her name yet. But we will.”
Trust ALP to change tune on tax ($) — Josh Frydenberg (The Australian): “Having junked his previous support for negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions, as well as income and company tax cuts, Shorten has also backflipped on the taxation of trusts. In a desperate tax grab, Labor has announced it will tax the distributions of discretionary trusts at a minimum 30 per cent, a rate equivalent to that imposed on large companies.”
We’re heading to 36 days of temperatures of over 35C by 2030 — but we can avoid it ($) — Mark Butler (The Advertiser): “The warnings are familiar: keep cool, stay indoors, drink plenty of water, and look out for family, friends and the elderly. But the Australian Institute’s latest report, Heatwatch Adelaide, shows an alarming future for Adelaide when it comes to extreme heat if we don’t get climate change under control.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Adelaide
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Day one of the aged care royal commission, where commissioners will outline how the inquiry will operate but no witnesses or applications will be heard.
Melbourne
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A number of tributes will be held for murdered Palestinian-Israeli student Aiia Maasarwe will be held around Melbourne, including a vigil outside Parliament House where mourners will fill the 86 tram with flowers.
Sydney
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UNSW Galleries will host a panel discussion on the 1973 labour-led “green ban”, organised against socially and environmentally harmful redevelopment in Sydney, with former Labor president of the NSW Legislative Council Dr Meredith Burgmann and Rocking the Foundations documentarian Pat Fiske among others.
Hobart
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Lead scientists will hold a press conference ahead of a seven-week voyage to the Antarctic ice edge tomorrow, set to study whales and their diet of krill and the value of their poo as a fertilizer to maintain the food chain.
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