WHAT CRISIS?
Hopes of the Australian government taking climate concerns seriously at the Pacific Islands Forum have been dashed, with Australia removing the word “crisis”, along with all but one mention of coal, from the draft Tuvalu Declaration, The Guardian reports. It also comes with a qualification that leaders do not necessarily endorse the whole declaration, the ABC adds.
Alan Jones, meanwhile, regrets saying that Scott Morrison should “shove a sock down [the] throat” of New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern over her call for Australia to “answer to the Pacific” on climate change. Jones, whose comments have been condemned by both Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull, told The New Daily that he meant to say Ardern should put a sock in her own mouth, arguing he has been “wilfully misinterpreted”.
WHAT RECESSION?
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has vowed to take “necessary actions” amid fears of an impending US recession, with markets now indicating that the odds of one occurring within the year are one in three, The Age/Sydney Morning Herald report. It comes as $60 billion was wiped from the ASX 200 yesterday, with Labor accusing the government of being “complacent” about the economy, The Guardian reports.
Frydenberg says that while he is “certainly not complacent”, Australia is well placed to absorb any global shock. It’s not clear what these “necessary actions” might entail, with the Treasurer referring only to existing policies (tax cuts and infrastructure) as ways to help boost the economy.
MENTAL HEALTH SHORTFALLS
The NSW government knew there were problems with its mental health protocols ($) and was already considering options to better connect the mental health and criminal justice systems before Tuesday’s Sydney CBD stabbings, The Daily Telegraph reports. A government spokesman said there were shortfalls in the system, despite a Memorandum of Understanding between the NSW Department of Communities and Justice, NSW Health and the police to “share information where appropriate”.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the NSW Police Association is calling for an urgent increase in funding for mental health services.
[free_worm]
THEY REALLY SAID THAT?
New Zealand has over 60 million sheep. Sheep produce about 30 litres of methane a day. If Ardern was serious about addressing ‘climate change’ shouldn’t she start by culling the entire sheep population of NZ? Or is she just climate gesturing?
Malcolm Roberts
The One Nation senator suggests ($) New Zealand cull its entire sheep population before making comments about Australia’s ongoing use of coal.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Man injured in stabbing outside Home Office building in London
Inquiry launched into wombat hunting by Chinese high rollers
Gibraltar says it will free oil tanker at centre of Iran row
Corbyn woos allies for Australian-style ‘Dismissal’ to prevent no-deal Brexit
Sydney dams set to drop below half capacity for first time since 2004
Stop arguing: Industrial Relations tsar’s call to bosses, unions ($)
Finance Minister to move amendments on sex selection abortions
Environment minister told of SKM plan to warehouse waste two years ago
Andrews’ $1.7m spend on Shorten ads slammed
Eurydice killer was sexual sadist who fantasised about rape, murder
Under pressure from Trump, Israel denies entry to two US congresswomen
CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY
Mental health, ‘Allahu akbar’ and the challenge of the lone-wolf killer
“When ‘Bourke Street attacker’ Hassan Khalif Shire Ali stabbed three people in central Melbourne last year, his family described a long battle with mental health and substance abuse. But in the aftermath, Prime Minister Scott Morrison called discussion of Ali’s mental health a “poor excuse”, instead focusing on the perpetrator’s apparent embrace of radical Islam. More recently, Donald Trump was criticised by psychologists for pinning the blame for the recent mass shooting committed by a white supremacist in El Paso on mental illness.”
How the ABC gets radio producers to work for free
“INQ has confirmed with six people this week that they have worked unpaid shadow shifts for ABC local radio in anticipation of being offered paid work (three of them did go on to eventually work for the public broadcaster). Two of the people we spoke to had worked for the ABC in a different division previously, and one had worked in commercial talkback radio. None were students or looking for their first job in the industry. Sources have confirmed that unpaid shifts have taken place as far back as 2013 until as recently as the last month.”
Gender equality alone won’t prevent violence against women
“Indeed, it is quite possible that as women gain social power in post-industrial societies while some groups of men lose it, violence will be present as a “backlash effect”, and first level out only to rise again. This would show Sweden to be an exception only if you insisted on applying the “gender inequality” thesis against the evidence. This is relevant to Australia, both because a city like Melbourne may be close to the “inequality” limit, but also because, in the past several years, a bizarre misrepresentation of Australia has grown up. Despite an Australian murder rate — 0.8 per 100,000 for women, 1.3 per 100,000 for men — absolutely even with western Europe, global notions of Australian machismo have created a spurious exceptionalism, feeding notions of an epidemic, running counter to the statistical record.”
THE COMMENTARIAT
Trans people just want to live fulfilling lives. Our mere existence shouldn’t threaten you – Teddy Cook (The Guardian): “You’d be forgiven for thinking that every other person in your neighbourhood was trans, particularly given the explosive media coverage that has played out over the last week. It all started with the launch of some leaflets that are headed to public schools with the sole intention of demonising trans and gender-diverse kids. It progressed to a rage-fest about new guidelines that will make the world a bit friendlier for sporty trans people, and has culminated in a sustained and targeted campaign by certain media outlets. This campaign openly invalidates the trans experience and questions whether people like me should even exist, be able to access healthcare, and whether the services and health professionals providing this care have any place in Australian society.
Scoreboard ideologues will try to win at any cost ($) – David Penberthy (The Daily Telegraph): “The action of these anti-Islamists and anti-multiculturalisms this past few days is the Right’s own version of the denial shown by the Left during that other atrocity on the streets of Sydney, the 2014 Lindt cafe hostage crisis. In the same way that it was obvious to a reasonable person that Mert Ney wasn’t a terrorist, it was glaringly obvious that the Lindt siege perpetrator Man Haron Monis most definitely was a terrorist. Monis had a documented history of hounding the widows of ADF personnel, of preaching hate, he had a keen online interest in Islamic radicalism, and when the siege started, like any self-respecting ISIS franchisee, the first thing he did was hang up his Islamic State flag, properly branding his squalid operation as an act of lone wolf Islamist terror. To this day there are still progressives in Australia who struggle to accept that as fact, and would rather throw out red herrings such as his mental state, which most definitely apply to Ney but have no bearing on Monis’s desire to hurt and kill in the name of Islam.”
Whistleblower protections hang in the balance – Alice Drury (The Age/Sydney Morning Herald): “This week, backbencher Andrew Hastie is chairing a powerful parliamentary committee that is looking into laws that criminalise whistleblowing and journalism. It’s ironic, because his opinion piece for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald last week is a perfect example of what is wrong with these laws. It is entirely likely the article, which was strongly rebuked by China as being “detrimental” to Australian-Chinese relations, could have constituted espionage. Were he not a politician and therefore probably protected by a defence for people acting in their capacity as a public official, technically Hastie – and his editor – could be facing prosecution for publishing it.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Melbourne
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The plea hearing for Jaymes Todd, who has confessed to the to murder, rape, attempted rape and sexual assault of Melbourne comedian Eurydice Dixon, will continue in the Supreme Court.
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Nominations will close for the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria.
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An appeal directions hearing will be held for Jan Visser, another person appealing a conviction due to of the legal involvement of “Lawyer X” Nicola Gobbo.
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A mention will be heard in the matter between Leeanne Joy Creese v Anne Hamilton-Byrne, late leader of “The Family” cult, with Creese bringing a class action claim on behalf of people who suffered personal injury from the sect.
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NECA Victoria will host its 2019 Excellence and Apprentice Awards luncheon celebrating best projects across the state.
Sydney
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The first hearing will be held for an upper house inquiry into koala populations and habitat in NSW.
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A public hearing will be held for the NSW parliamentary inquiry into the regulation of building standards, building quality and building disputes.
Perth
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The Corruption and Crime Commission will hold a public examination as part of an ongoing investigation into allegations of serious misconduct and corruption in relation to the use of parliamentary electoral allowances.
Brisbane
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The Magistrates Court will hold a mention for Adani over its misleading annual return, after the Department of Environment and Science announced it had started prosecution proceedings against the company for providing false or misleading information.
Adelaide
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Trade Minister Simon Birmingham will speak at the Australia China Business Council, providing a report on his recent trip to China.
Centre Alliance Senators Stirling Griff and Rex Patrick and Senator Jackie Lambie sold themselves and us for small change when they passed the second $140 BILLION set of tax giveaways (very largely for the already rich) backed in the end by Labor. Added to the already legislated $154 BILLION in tax giveaways – also backed in the end by Labor – we now have at least $294 BILLION in cuts to services over those ten years. Thanks to them, by the end of this decade banking and other CEOs executives will be in the same tax bracket as trainee apprentices!
Yet, only weeks after that massive tax giveaway to the rich, the much-touted stimulus is invisible.
Now, we are being reminded of “the cost to the budget of franking credit refunds”, the “Budget cost of increasing Newstart”, “aged care underfunding”, “Demon Deficit at any cost (to us, of course)”, “reducing suicide to zero”, “refusal to fund removal of flammable cladding”, “militarism in the Gulf”, “trade war damage”, and now “the lack of stimulus” !
Look forward to further eager morrison-driven cuts to services, for which those three Senators are primarily responsible. Remind them, all day every day that they allowed those cuts.
According to Google there were about 30 million sheep in NZ in 2017.
Australia had about 70 million sheep at the same date.
At the 2019 Pacific Islands Forum, head of government morrison is acting his customary role of cunning aggressive bully, heavying the Pacific Island leaders into accepting his heavily transnational mining industry-sponsored phrases. Frank Bainimarama, the prime minister of Fiji and political heavyweight in the region, said Morrison’s approach during the leaders’ retreat on Thursday was “very insulting and condescending … After what we went through with Morrison, nothing can be worse than him”.
Deputy prime minister Michael McCormack – acting prime minister while Scott Morrison attended the forum – reflected the Australian government’s focus on protecting, subsidising and promoting foreign-owned fossil-fuel industries noted for their contempt for Australia and plunder of our resources. After six years of persecution, Witness K pleaded guilty to exposing Australia’s bugging of East Timor’s government for the benefit of Woodside.
McCormack said at a business – note, business – function in Wagga Wagga said “I also get a little bit annoyed when we have people in those sorts of countries pointing the finger at Australia and say we should be shutting down all our resources sector so that, you know, … they’ll continue to survive on large aid assistance from Australia … because many of their workers come here and pick our fruit, pick our fruit grown with hard Australian enterprise and endeavour …”
McCormack said “I’m proud of the fact that we’ve just given another $500m to our Pacific island neighbour friends”. But “we” haven’t; as with many political infrastructure promises, $500 million of existing commitments was simply promised to be re-badged. It may never appear in any form.
China will be delighted with morrison’s efforts to help it move in and take over. It should make a large thank-you donation to Liberal Party funds, laundered of course through the Free Enterprise Foundation or Cormack Foundation.