And our friends aren’t all aboard

THAT SINKING FEELING

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he’s moving on amid the continued fallout from his French exit from the $90b submarine deal — a drama that has dominated his trip to the climate summit. French ambassador Jean Pierre Thebault — who was yanked out of Australia amid the controversy but has since come back — told the National Press Club yesterday our government’s decision to axe the deal in favour of AUKUS might have been months, or “even years” in the making, as The Australian ($) reports. Thebault continued that the leaked text message from French President Emmanuel Macron sent days before the AUKUS announcement, as AP reports, sent a clear message to heads of state: “Beware, in Australia there will be leaks. And what you say in confidence to your partners will be eventually used and weaponised against you one day.”

Former PM Malcolm Turnbull weighed in about his successor from the summit as well, saying Morrison “always had a reputation for telling lies”. Though, as AFR’s Phil Coorey points out, the French subs contract was Turnbull’s legacy — it sinking would’ve hurt. This morning ABC’s David Speers delves into just how wrong it all went for Morrison this week — he says the bigger problem for Canberra is probably US President Joe Biden saying he thought the French knew the deal was axed. Defence Minister Peter Dutton hit back, saying Biden’s camp was “kept informed of our every move”. What a mess.

[free_worm]

DEFENDING BAD ABBOTTS

Embattled former Victorian shadow attorney-general Tim Smith has been in three “car crashes” this week, his Liberal colleagues are reportedly quipping according to The Australian ($). The first: when he drunkenly drove his Jaguar into a Hawthorn house at the weekend. The others: two spectacularly awful media appearances in the fallout. His boss, opposition leader Matthew Guy publicly said Smith would never be on his frontbench again and should step down at the next election. At a press conference, Smith was asked more than 50 times about Guy asking him not to recontest at the next election, but Smith replied he was merely told to think things over and refused to resign from parliament, as the Herald Sun ($) reports. Incredibly, reporters piped up that Guy’s office had texted them — in real-time — to say Smith was lying, and that he was told to step down. Smith responded, “recollections may differ”. Hmm, is there a vague whiff of Kelly Conway’s “alternate facts” response there?

But Smith has some fairly powerful allies, it seems. The Age reports that senior Victorian Liberals say federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is spearheading a group of federal Liberal MPs who are backing Smith, like Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar, Education Minister Alan Tudge, and Health Minister Greg Hunt. And former PM Tony Abbott has joined in too, telling the Oz that Smith’s departure would be “petty censoriousness” and even offering to write him a reference so he can keep his plum seat of Kew.

A HAPPY ENDING

Western Australian child Cleo Smith has been found 18 days after going missing, in a happy ending that’s gone around the world, as BBC and The New York Times reports. This morning Guardian Australia has a cracking story about how police found the four-year-old girl. Detective Superintendent Rod Wilde said it wasn’t a tip-off (the reward for information was an eye-watering $1 million), accidental sighting, of her or even pure chance — he says a team of 140 cops worked through oodles of information — including CCTV footage, more than 1000 tip-offs, and evidence gathered along a 600km stretch of highway, bushland, homes and industrial estates.

It all pointed them to a home in a working-class suburb in Carnarvon, less than 10km from Smith’s family home. Little Cleo was found in one of the bedrooms, “alive, well and smiling”, as ABC reports. But Detective Cameron Blaine wanted to be sure — so he asked her her name. The little girl’s response was a simple “My name is Cleo”. She’s since been reunited with her mum and dad, where there was lots of kissing and tears — the footage will play your heart like a harp, folks.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

It’s 1961 and blonde bombshell Sylvia is walking the streets of Rome with a cat on her head. She spots the Trevi Fountain and can’t help herself — she climbs in for a swim. The iconic La Dolce Vita scene is still as alluring and sensual half a century on, and it was recently recreated — though perhaps not intentionally — by a brown bear. About 7.45pm last Thursday the creature trounced into the town square of San Donato Val di Comino, about 110km east of Rome, and lowered himself into the water for what looks like quite a relaxing bath. The locals oohed and ahhed — the Marsican bears are actually nearly extinct, with only about 50 thought to be left in the wild.

Incidentally, the bear actually made another cinematic appearance (they think it was the same one, anyway), though this one was far less tranquil. Annalisa Castagna and her husband, Claudio Parravano awoke to what sounded like a burglar on their balcony. Using the torch of her iPhone, Castagna opened the door and was met with a row of teeth and a red tongue. Parravano actually threw himself over the balcony (he’s fine) while Castagna squealed into the night. The brown bear scarpered — but not before leaving a brown deposit on their balcony.

Hope there’s a little action and romance in your own Thursday, folks.

SAY WHAT?

I’m not unwell, I’m an idiot … I’ve spoken to my GP, and the advice I got is: ‘You’re not mentally unwell, you’re just an idiot’.

Tim Smith

The Liberal MP’s frank admission came during what was a bit of a trainwreck press conference yesterday — where he shuttered through at least three of the five stages of grief over the drunken crash that may have crashed his career. Smith has repeatedly called for politicians to step down for similar incidents but appealed for clemency yesterday.

CRIKEY RECAP

Scott Morrison lacks what every recent PM had — an imagination

Bernard Keane

Nov 03, 2021

66

Unlocked

“Every prime minister of recent decades has had that imagination, however skewed and bizarre that imagination may have been, or however little they had the chance to implement it … His ‘vision’ speeches are recitations of banality: ‘If you have a go, you get a go,’ and ‘We look after our mates’.

“In his most insightful speech about his personal ideology — delivered to a gathering of fellow evangelicals, and not distributed by his minders — Morrison revealed a profoundly confused, deeply self-contradictory set of beliefs which bounced from communitarianism to individualism to identity politics to social media, overlaid with an obsessive focus on the Bible and a passion for ‘building communities’.”

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Voters still don’t know what Anthony Albanese stands for. But does it matter?

Kishor Napier-Raman

Nov 03, 2021

87

“But Albanese is no Howard and Labor is not the Coalition. Kevin Rudd and Bob Hawke won from opposition on the back of a grand vision for Australia. As the Morrison-Joyce/McCormack government sputters into its final quarter, there’s a fear Albanese has left it too late to show the country what his Australia looks like.

“And yet, despite all the hand-wringing over what Albo stands for, Labor still holds an election-winning two-party preferred lead in all major opinion polls. The idea that it is policy-lite — especially compared with the policy-barren Morrison government — is also maybe a little unfair.’

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The one vital climate solution leaders will avoid talking about at COP26

Bronwen Morgan and Erin Remblance

Nov 03, 2021

20

“During the much-anticipated COP26 meetings in Glasgow, there will be one necessary climate solution missing from discussions: reducing our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by transforming our economic model.

“Instead there will be talk of — and reliance on — risky, yet-to-be-proven-at-the-scale-required technologies and technologies that have not been invented that can save us from the emissions we continue to create in the name of economic growth.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

British woman wins High Court discrimination battle over Australia’s ‘backpacker tax’ (SBS)

Port delays crippling economy: ACCC (The Australian) ($)

Ethiopia’s war marked by ‘extreme brutality’ from all sides: UN (Al Jazeera)

Eric Adams is elected Mayor of New York City (The New York Times)

UK’s ‘longest-lasting’ snow patch melts away (BBC)

Protesters rally against Poland’s controversial abortion law after woman’s death (SBS)

Putin says Russian navy to get hypersonic Zircon missiles in 2022 (Al Jazeera)

From BTS to Squid Game: How South Korea became a cultural juggernaut (The New York Times)

Galapagos marine reserve: Conservationists hail expansion (BBC)

Three Algerians killed in attack presidency blames on Morocco (Al Jazeera)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Turnbull’s treachery knows no bounds — Peta Credlin (The Australian) ($): “It goes without saying that Malcolm Turnbull is no Winston Churchill, despite his cutting a swathe through journalism, law and business before entering parliament as a Liberal — destined, in his own mind, and the minds of many others, to lead his party and our country. Working closely with him (as deputy chief of staff) for the year or so he was opposition leader, I concluded that he had two fatal flaws as a politician: first, he lacked loyalty; and second, he had no real convictions, or at least none that suited a political leader of the centre-right, rather than the centre-left.

“Indeed, that might turn out to be the ultimate tragedy of his public life: that this able, if flawed and arrogant, man went into the wrong party, the party of what he regarded as his class rather than the one of his ­inclination. That is assuming ­Graham Richardson is right that Turnbull made repeated requests for Labor preselection in the ’90s.”

Living in Berejiklian’s shadow: Perrottet’s struggle will be to near her popularity — Alexandra Smith (The SMH): “Berejiklian became a household name, even among the most politically disengaged. Perrottet is unlikely to ever have the same recognition. She was trusted and liked (even by plenty of non-Liberal voters). Her migrant background was a strength in multicultural communities.

“Perrottet, on the other hand, is a young white man in a suit. Yet, in many ways, he should have broader appeal to more voters. He is a suburban dad (albeit with four times as many children as the average NSW family) who coaches kids’ basketball. He has to battle the daily grind of balancing work and family with his wife, who has her own career.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Australia

• The 2021 LGBTIQ Women’s Health Conference will host experts, advocates, and health providers to chat about the wellbeing of the LGBTIQ community, held online.

• NSW Governor Margaret Beazley, Chief Scientist Cathy Foley, and NSW Digital and Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello are among the speakers at a forum exploring challenges posed by digital technology and held online.

• Authors Angela Savage and Christos Tsiolkas will discuss the latter’s new novel, Seven and a Half. Tsiolkas wrote The Slap, which was later turned into a TV series.

• Poet Omar Sakr and author Rabih Alameddine will discuss the latter’s latest novel, The Wrong End of the Telescope, held online.

Whadjuk Noongar Country (also known as Perth)

• Zero emission vehicle fleet transition conference iDriveWA will showcase new technology across local and state government, tourism, commercial, public and mining transport sectors.

Kaurna Country (also known as Adelaide)

• SA Premier Steven Marshall will officially open the new Sofitel Adelaide hotel.