AMAZON FUND
The G7 leaders have agreed on a plan to help fight the Amazon wildfires, creating an immediate $20 million aid fund and a longer-term reforestation initiative, The Guardian reports.
The assistance plan was announced following a group session on climate change, biodiversity and the oceans, which Donald Trump did not attend, although French President Emmanual Macron said “his team was there”. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has criticised the plan, tweeting that Macron treated Brazil as if was “a colony or a no-man’s land”, but Bolivian President Evo Morales has done an “about-face”, declaring himself now open to international aid, the Nine papers report. The fires have doubled in size since Thursday, engulfing rural villages around the border of Bolivia and Brazil.
ART OF THE DEAL
China and the US are considering returning to trade negotiations ($) in an attempt to stem the escalating trade war, The Australian reports. Speaking from the G7 summit in Biarritz, France, Donald Trump raised the prospect of resuming talks, claiming China had called to ask the US to “get back to the table”. Comments from China’s top trade negotiator also brought relief to uncertain markets, with vice-premier Liu He telling the 2019 Smart China Expo that Beijing was willing to resolve the dispute “through negotiation and cooperation in a calm manner”.
Australia is reportedly competing with Trump for the first post-Brexit UK trade deal, with Scott Morrison meeting Boris Johnson on the sidelines of the G7 summit to press his case for a deal.
WITNESS K MISGIVINGS
Former attorney-general George Brandis reportedly had “misgivings” about prosecuting Witness K and Bernard Collaery, leading to the nearly five year gap between the 2013 raiding of their homes and the 2018 charges laid against them, Four Corners has revealed.
Brandis, who declined to be interviewed, did not give consent to prosecute before leaving the role in 2017, despite being asked by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions as early as 2015. His successor Christian Porter gave consent within six months of taking office.
Former president of East Timor Xanana Gusmao told Four Corners he wants to give evidence on behalf of the pair, warning his evidence would likely embarrass the Australian government.
[free_worm]
THEY REALLY SAID THAT?
They are the left-wing opposition. Green bloody unionists at that. We are a team. All or nothing. Seven musketeers.
Lisa Scaffidi
The suspended Perth lord mayor’s WhatsApp messages, which have been tabled in an inquiry into the City of Perth, support claims of a deeply divided council.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
You don’t get to decide whether Brexit happens, Johnson tells MPs
Indonesia: Capital moving from Jakarta to Borneo, says president
John Setka blames ‘politically motivated’ attack for latest allegations against him
ALP under scrutiny over $100,000 cash donation in plastic bag: ICAC hearing
‘Behind every number is a student’: Racism rife in schools, study finds
Questions over Victorian Liberal Senate candidate’s living arrangements
Only four refugees transferred under ‘medevac’ laws admitted to hospital: Pezzullo
‘Not a good sign’: Australia’s R&D investment slips against developed peers
Coalition agrees to pass laws forcing priests to report child abuse
Australia’s ‘broken’ visa system being used for human trafficking, experts say
Julie Bishop says the onus should be on serving MPs not to meet with retired ministers
Coalition divided over water policy in wake of damning Barwon-Darling report
Captain’s call: Pope may rule on Pell’s future in the church ($)
Chinese dissidents accuse NGV of stifling free speech over refusal to host pro-democracy talk
CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY
Frydenberg sees the light on tax, but provides little leadership
“There’s a broad sense in which Frydenberg is right to put the onus on business. Australian corporate management is generally poor, as the banking royal commission, billions in writedowns by mining companies, mismanagement in the media industry, our poor record in innovation and the epidemic of wage theft illustrate. Australian business is good at ripping off workers and pressuring governments for handouts and regulatory advantages, but poor at innovating or serving their customers well. And it’s been that way for long enough that even back during the last “productivity crisis”, which turned out to be a false alarm, right-wing economists were admitting Australian business were duds.”
Has losing the Nationals top job only made Barnaby Joyce stronger?
“Hasn’t Joyce always been like this you ask? Absolutely, but unleashing it against colleagues, political enemies and even the general populace has had little negative impact on his political fortunes. Time and time again, we’re told voters respond to Joyce largely because “he’s a maverick” — something he has only leaned into since his leadership career derailed. Condemning him to a quiet spot on the crossbench (while possibly just another bluff from the government) would do nothing to quash him.”
In My Blood It Runs and the crisis facing Indigenous students
“It could be easy to point to individual teachers but the film transcends above that, connecting the dots is between racism, the schooling system and the prison system. It demonstrates how a school system transplanted from urban, non-Indigenous settings, running an English-only, cookie-cutter curriculum is inherently biased against the Indigenous students it supposedly wants to empower. For students who can’t find their way through, the consequences can be ruinous.”
THE COMMENTARIAT
What Gladys told Ben about abortion and why it matters – Jenna Price (The Age/Sydney Morning Herald): “Berejiklian discloses with the barest of prompting. She is on radio to say that although she would not have an abortion herself she thinks decriminalisation is the right way to go. And actually she chides Fordham for getting her to repeat that she wouldn’t choose to have an abortion herself because she doesn’t want anyone to feel guilt. You all should listen to this interview because the Premier doesn’t prevaricate. She explains she separates her faith and her politics. “Not only did I cast my vote according to what I believe, but I cast my vote according to how I feel future generations have to deal with this issue”.”
Why I’m proudly selling Aussie coal to India ($) – Matt Canavan (The Daily Telegraph): “This week I am in India to discuss this potential. I will proudly sell the wares of Australian coal and try to secure more jobs for Australians. There were lots of naysayers about Adani, just as there were 50 years ago about Japan. We need to ignore the doom-mongers and continue to build on the great, successful, world-enhancing Australian coal industry and take it to even greater heights.”
Bamboozled in Biarritz: Morrison stumbles on trade war and Iran at G7 – Paul Bongiorno (The New Daily): “President Macron is opting for diplomacy, though he embarrassed the US President by also inviting Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif as an observer at the summit. When asked about that Mr Morrison headed for the hills. He said he hadn’t “really reflected on it or offering any comment at all”. Refusing to answer hard questions worked for the Prime Minister in the election campaign, but at least there he knew what he was up to. Now it appears he’s bamboozled by it all.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Melbourne
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More than 3000 emergency management personnel from Australia and New Zealand will meet to discuss “the new norm” of fighting disasters at emergency management conference AFAC19.
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The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission will release the third report from its independent review into sex discrimination and sexual harassment in Victoria Police, with speakers including commissioner Kristen Hilton and minister for police Lisa Neville.
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A judgment will be handed down for Eathan Cruse, who is suing the state for police brutality during a raid to arrest his friend Sevdet Besim over a planned terror act.
Sydney
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A public hearing will be held in the NSW parliamentary inquiry into the regulation of building standards, building quality and building disputes.
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The Financial Services Council will hold its annual summit, with speakers including Julie Bishop, Jane Hume, Greg Combet and ASIC’s James Shipton.
Darwin
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“Everybody’s Home”, a campaign in support of a better, fairer housing system, will host a campaign update, offering info about the next phase and how to get involved.
Adelaide
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GaP Solutions will host the Retail Food Tech Trade Show connecting food retail brands while keeping them up to date on the latest trends.
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Author Malcolm Garcia, a former officer in the Royal Australian Air Force and as an intelligence analyst for the Department of Defence, will give a talk on his latest novel, Kill-Capture.
Perth
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Professor Anna Haebich, distinguished Western Australian historian and writer, will give a talk on her recent book, Dancing in Shadows Histories of Nyungar Performance, reflecting on how these histories came to be.
morrison’s open criminalisation of dissent is an entirely logical progression from the Terror Laws eagerly supported by both dominant conservative parties. Ag-gag laws are designed to protect animal cruelty, while protest laws are designed to allow miners and developers to trample on the relevant communities. Industrial laws are designed, as with Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participations (SLAPPs) to either ruin or disable an industrial action.
Note the focus by the Laberals on the crushing of dissent, rather than on creating an egalitarian, cooperative society that by its nature is much more likely to avoid the social and economic tensions that contribute to terrorism. Terror laws are designed, to locate, suppress and criminalise dissent – morrison’s focus on suppressing “extremist” material on the internet means suppressing dissenting material, as many terror laws are primarily designed to do. Former Rudd/Gillard Labor Energy and Resources Minister and Labor class traitor now APPEA executive Martin Ferguson urged the States to criminalise effective dissent by anti-coal activists; both Tasmania and Queensland did so, with Queensland Labor set to enact more.
Big Business’ real aim is to demonise any form of activist, worker or union industrial action, however legal, however justified, that in any way challenges or inconveniences Big Business. Surveillance is also done simply because it can be done.
More pathetic inaction on climate change. If nothing else, “G7 creates Amazon fire fund” underlines not merely the utter refusal to face up to the costs and politics of adaptation to global heating, but also the laughably pathetic small change they are prepared to spend. Similarly massive fires in Indonesia attract even more complete inaction.
One of the aims of denial is to limit action for ever and ever; so it has. Denial thus has us still talking emissions when we needed to swap to adaptation two decades ago. Another aim of denial is to distort the real timetable so as to extend the problem into the far distant future; so it has. Due to aggression by powerful groups, “scientists are being cajoled into developing increasingly bizarre sets of scenarios … that … deliver politically palatable messages” – Kevin Anderson, deputy director of the Tyndall Centre.
Crises caused by global heating are in fact not something for 2100 or 2070 or even 2050, they are hitting now, today. We are out of time.
ADAPTATION needs to be our aim; yes, we still talk about renewables and emissions, but as should now be clear, no effective action has occurred, here or globally, despite us being past 1.6ºC.
ADAPTATION done by government business enterprises with the focus on environmental and social aims will in fact be far less expensive than the endless rightist looting – cf at least $294 BILLION in tax giveaways just a few weeks ago; not a cent for communities having to truck in water, but tens of thousands a year for each politician. But what is getting the money but more military adventures in the Middle East while fires in the Amazon get small change, to be simply forgotten once the G7 is over.
Both the Labor Party and 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). Added to the already legislated $154 BILLION in tax giveaways – both backed in the end by Labor – we now have at least $294 BILLION in cuts to services over the next ten years.
That could have bought a LOT of adaptation! How about reminding them of the fact? It will be a lot less hard to force the cross-benchers to listen. Parliament’s Friends of Coal are not.