HUA-WHA?
The Australian government and senior intelligence officials are secretly urging the UK to ban Huawei from providing equipment for its new 5G mobile networks, The Age reports.
Australian officials, including High Commissioner to London George Brandis, are arguing that the Five Eyes western alliance of intelligence-sharing partners — Australia, the US, Britain, Canada and New Zealand — should be a united front when it comes to the Chinese technology giant. Australia and the US have already contentiously banned Huawei (counterproductively, as La Trobe research fellow Stanley Shanapinda argued in The Conversation and Crikey last week).
US President Donald Trump, currently on a state visit to the UK, has allegedly also warned the UK against Huawei, according to The Australian.
HOME AFFAIRS AFFAIRS
Labor’s new Home Affairs spokesperson Kristina Keneally said she will push the “economic importance of immigration,” suggesting Labor is leaning toward an increased immigration intake.
Keneally said that having immigration sit beneath Home Affairs in the Coalition’s cabinet structure undermined the benefits of immigration: “Under this government, there has been a near-sole focus on those we exclude … but there’s a whole other aspect here about immigration and citizenship and the contribution it makes to our economy and our culture.”
Her government counterpart, Peter Dutton, has embarked on a “lightning visit” to Sri Lanka to stop the boats ($), The Australian reports. Dutton will meet with the country’s president and prime minister about people-smuggling, amid warnings of more boats heading Australia’s way.
COLEMAN REPRIMANDED
A Federal Court judge has reportedly reprimanded Immigration Minister David Coleman over a case in which a New Zealand national was deported while a legal challenge to his visa cancellation was still underway, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
In his judgment earlier this month, Chief Justice James Allsop wrote that “The [minister] must take responsibility for ensuring that no one is removed from this country while there are proceedings pending in this court challenging the validity of that removal.” Justice Allsop has ordered Coleman and his department to search for the man and inform him that his case is ongoing.
[free_worm]
THEY REALLY SAID THAT?
This is like going down to the local cafeteria there and often you get the first term, the day-one chicken — it’s fresh and the Abbott team is fresh and they were up for the job. Second day, it’s a little bit staler, as happens — still sitting there, being offered maybe at a cheaper price. This is term three, like day three of the chicken in the cafeteria but they’ve had to turn it into a casserole and pretend it’s new.
Anthony Albanese
Labor’s “fresh” leader compares Prime Minister Scott Morrison to day-three old chicken.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Labor takes Macquarie, Coalition takes one-seat majority ($)
Five bodies spotted in Himalayas during search for eight missing climbers
Morrison deflects US pressure to weigh in on China-Taiwan contest in the Pacific
Suicide crisis driven by sex abuse, violence ($)
Surgeons face sanction for imposing severe financial pain ($)
Post-election research shows 11% of voters made up their mind on polling day
Notorious PNG police unit deployed at Manus refugee camp as tensions rise
News Corp Australia plans to axe journalists without digital skills
Nuclear power doesn’t stack up without a carbon price, industry group says
First cancer lawsuit over weedkiller Roundup filed in Australia
Almost 100,000 Australians’ private details exposed in attack on Westpac’s PayID
Swedish court rules not to extradite Assange for rape probe
CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY
What did you do in the trade war, Scott? Not bloody much
“Morrison, invisible Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Trade Minister Simon Birmingham have all gone missing in action as an increasingly erratic and unpredictable US President uses tariffs as a one-size-fits-all solution to any perceived domestic or international problem. Australia has readily fallen into line with the US war on Huawei (guilty of making the kind of surveillance-ready IT equipment for China that western governments like Australia’s want to force western IT companies to produce) and has stayed silent as Trump targets friend and foe alike with tariffs and sanctions.”
A star is reborn: the rapid rise of Kristina Keneally
“Keneally is no stranger to politics and no fool: her upwards trajectory is due in no small part to her successful understanding of the NSW Labor Party’s factional machinations. In 2002, she was chosen for the NSW eastern suburbs seat of Heffron in a bitter contest against veteran incumbent MP Deirdre Grusovin, prompting a (quickly abandoned) Supreme Court challenge from Grusovin against the ALP’s preselection process. After being elected in 2003 and going on to serve as the NSW minister for disability services and planning minister, Keneally was pegged in 2009 as a potential party leadership challenger against then-premier Nathan Rees. She vehemently denied her intention to run all the way up until November 2008. But less than a month later, the NSW’s powerful centre-unity faction withdrew support from Rees and threw its votes behind Keneally who won the party room ballot.”
The latest chapter in Australia’s war on whistleblowers
“The prosecution of Boyle is just the latest example of Australia’s long war on information. As was the case across many Western countries, Australia’s expansion of secrecy laws was triggered by post-9/11 fears about the spectre of terrorism. But Australia has gone harder than most, and since 2001 we’ve enacted more than 50 anti-terror laws — a number that experts say would have been “unthinkable” prior to 9/11.”
THE COMMENTARIAT
How many more people must die on Manus before Australia ends indefinite detention? – Behrouz Boochani (The Guardian): “I have never seen the refugees on Manus so depressed. Even when Reza Barati was killed, when that innocent man was sacrificed … that time when the other refugees were bashed and beaten. I swear, it has never been like this. Not even on Good Friday in 2017 when soldiers rained shots into the prison camp. Even at the height of the violence and when confronted with death the refugees always maintained a sense of hope. However, the day after the election, everything sank into an abyss of darkness. The outcome of the last election extinguished the last glimmer of hope for freedom, it shut out any hope that remained after six years of purgatory. Overnight everything just slipped away.”
Reversing the despair that drives indigenous suicide ($) – Editorial (The Australian): “The facts are too grave, too clear-cut and too compelling to ignore. They also disabuse Australians of the idea that there is something mysterious about the rash of suicides among indigenous people, especially the young. Researcher and humanitarian Gerry Georgatos, who leads the National Critical Response Trauma Recovery Project, has found that of the 79 indigenous people who have taken their lives this year, 76 were living below the poverty line, 73 were in social housing and three were homeless. Almost two thirds of the 79, the latest of whom died in the past few days, were traumatised as a result of long-term domestic violence. Of the children who took their lives, a third were victims of sexual abuse.”
Treaties in Victoria pave the way for national Voice – Jill Gallagher (The Age): “We as First Peoples must recognise the need to explain what is happening to non-Indigenous peoples. What is happening is something every Australian should be proud of. This is something that will make this country a better place to be. This will lead to every Australian being more able to celebrate the incredible cultures that are at the heart of this nation – the oldest living cultures on Earth. Whatever happens, we must work to make sure no one is left behind.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
International
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Muslims marks the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan with Eid al–Fitr, or the “Festival of Breaking the Fast”.
UK
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison will be in the UK for two days, attending official D-Day commemorations as well as meeting with leaders to build support for a G20 initiative to stop terrorists exploiting social media after Christchurch.
Darwin and Hobart
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Centro Assist will host NDIS Audit Success events, offering NDIS service providers a better way to do policy and process.
Brisbane
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Films For Change Brisbane will host an encore screening of Another Country, a documentary about the Australian government’s efforts to gain control of the lands of the Yolngu people across northern Arnhem Land.
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The Carbon Market Institute & Centre for Policy Futures, UQ will host a Careers in Climate Forum, as part of Climate Week QLD 2019.
Perth
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The UWA Institute of Advanced Studies will host “The Human Cost of Drone Warfare,” a public lecture by Alex Edney-Browne.
Melbourne
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The Department of Transport will host a World Environment Day Forum, with department secretary Paul Younis and colleagues from across DoT, PTV and VicRoads considering ways we can #BeatAirPollution.
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The Grattan Institute will host “How governments can help struggling Australians with rising housing costs”, a Policy Pitch discussion including Council of Homeless Persons CEO Jenny Smith, Consumer Policy Research Centre Senior Researcher Steve Curry and Grattan Institute Fellow Brendan Coates.
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Cosplayers and comic artists will takeover AC/DC Laneway to celebrate the upcoming Oz Comic-Con event.
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The latest inductees into the Australian Football Hall of Fame will be announced at a gala dinner.
Sydney
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The board of the Reserve Bank will meet to decide on an expected cut to the official cash rate, which is currently 1.5%.
THREE DAY old chicken? Stinks like three decades with Our Current Leader reprising Howard. O tempora, O mores [again].