Help the aged (for free) … get Tucker talking … anyone for a Sharma?

Crisis mode Crikey has long covered the abject crisis shaking the aged care sector to rubble — the awful death toll and the workforce shortages. A tipster has told us one of the methods the government is trying to use to ameliorate the issue: you guessed it, unpaid labour. The tipster got in contact via Twitter to show us an email going round at the beginning of the week spruiking the government’s “Re-engaging volunteers into residential aged care facilities program”, a program encouraging volunteers to return to aged care facilities to provide “time-limited non-clinical support” to residents (emphasis added by tipster):

Putin on the Ritz This must make the great truth-telling patriot Tucker Carlson very proud — a hostile foreign government is extremely keen on him. Via Mother Jones, a memo from the Kremlin from the early stages of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been leaked. And it had one clear directive for state-friendly media: get that lovely Tucker Carlson on.

It is essential to use as much as possible fragments of broadcasts of the popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who sharply criticizes the actions of the United States [and] NATO, their negative role in unleashing the conflict in Ukraine, [and] the defiantly provocative behavior from the leadership of the Western countries and NATO towards the Russian Federation and towards President Putin, personally …

Presumably the advice has been updated to reflect the sudden about-turn Carlson took on the matter of the war.

Sharma-geddon? Here’s a tantalising detail, picked up by writer and analyst on all things climate Ketan Joshi: one of the potential factors in the upcoming election is the Climate 200 group, which is backing a group of independents for, among other things, stronger climate action, and is most notably targeting the more socially progressive Liberal “moderate” seats. Seats like Dave Sharma’s Wentworth. So it was notable that, for a time this week, searching Climate 200 would, before Google gave you the results, show a paid ad for Dave Sharma’s website:

This gambit appears to have been short-lived — the Crikey bunker’s searches this morning revealed the ads are no longer coming up. Seen any interesting ads for politicians crop up in unexpected places as the election approaches? Let us know.

Ain’t no (Tasmanian) mountain high enough We may not have an official election date, but that’s not holding back Jacqui Lambie. A tipster in the Apple Isle grabbed a snap of her out on the hustings, throwing her support behind Tasmanian Senate candidate Tammy Tyrrell.

Look, it may not be the most burning issue as far as Tasmania’s voters are concerned, but it’s the first question Crikey needs an answer to before it can decide whether to endorse Tyrrell’s run — is her name a deliberate reference to legendary Motown singer Tammi Terrell?