Cows on a windfarm
(Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas)

A BUNDLE OF ENERGY

We’re poised to get cheaper, cleaner and more secure energy, with downward pressure on prices and thousands more jobs, according to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, who are offering a hefty $1.5 billion for renewable energy zone projects in the state. They’ve also promised a speedy regulatory process to sweeten the deal, Guardian Australia reports. The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (which is a government-owned green bank) is also chipping in a $750 million loan to make sure the interconnector between Victoria and NSW is done by 2028. We really need it to be done ahead of when our coal plants shut, the regulator says. This will actually be the first major announcement in Labor’s $20 billion “rewiring the nation” plan, as The Australian ($) reports, which aims to secure our energy supply. Victoria is home to six offshore renewable energy zones at the moment, as well as Australia’s most ambitious offshore wind farm proposal, which would go in near Gippsland. Andrews wants 4GW of offshore wind capacity by 2035 and 9GW by 2040.

Meanwhile, the Victorian Greens want a 21-kilometre “bike superhighway” from Elsternwick to Coburg, the Herald Sun ($) reports, with the hope of getting Andrews on board. The minor party will launch its $2.5 billion “big bike build” plan today, which would see hundreds of kilometres of separated bike lanes across Melbourne and the regions. Hey, speaking of, Pat Cummins has told major sponsor Alinta Energy “on your bike”, Guardian Australia reports, as the Test captain vowed to not appear in any promotional material in the final year of the fossil fuel giant’s sponsorship deal with Cricket Australia. Cummins is a loud climate advocate and voiced concerns to the governing body, but Cricket Australia reckons it was actually Alinta that ended the partnership.

[free_worm]

WELL, WELL, WELL

Next week’s federal budget will include the nation’s first well-being section — and we can expect to see education standards, the quality of health services, and the state of the environment, not “ashrams and yoga retreats”, according to one expert. The section will also explain how we’ll measure things, the Brisbane Times reports, and what parts of society we’ll track — and it’s not so unusual. The New Zealand annual budget, for instance, has a well-being section that goes far beyond traditional budget metrics such as GDP, inflation and unemployment. Meanwhile the Albanese government has acknowledged it needs to cut NDIS funding after costs are projected to blow out by $9 billion over four years, surpassing $50 billion by 2025-26. That’s about $20 billion more than the Productivity Commission estimated in 2017, the AFR ($) reports, and well above the $44.6 billion estimate contained in the last Coalition-era budget. Disability Minister Bill Shorten announced the NDIS review would be brought forward and would report to the government by next October.

Labor’s first budget is certainly going to look different from that of Josh Frydenberg’s “Back in Black” campaign — the 2019 budget forecast “increasing surpluses as far as the eye could see (which was 10 years, the limit of the graphs presented in the budget papers)”, The Conversation’s Peter Martin quips, reminding us that they even began selling mugs that read “Back in Black”. Oh, brother. Interestingly, Martin adds, Frydenberg made extra spending nearly impossible — predicting the NDIS wouldn’t blow out, and that governments couldn’t and wouldn’t spend more on aged care or disability royal commissions, which were all wrong. Our aged care sector has long been in major trouble — two-thirds (67%) of nursing homes made an operating loss in the year to June 2022, according to an analysis of 1300 residential homes, as news.com.au reports. The reasons? Staff pay, inflation and super, the report found.

DROPPING A BOM

If my high school nickname of Smellsworthy taught me anything, it’s that you just can’t choose your own nickname in Australia. It didn’t stop the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) from announcing yesterday it was now known as “The Bureau”, after paying communication consultants $70,000 (!) for an 18-month (!!) rebranding exercise, as the ABC reports. The timing of the request could not have been worse — Victoria, NSW and Tasmania are battling life-threatening flooding as La Niña’s rain dance returns for the third summer in a row. Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said she doesn’t get why the rebrand happened and doesn’t care about it right now, saying the BoM really should focus on getting “accurate and timely information” to people in need. One thing’s for sure: those faceless communication consultants would’ve been shamefaced yesterday when they forgot to reserve the Twitter handles (18 months!!!!!). A bunch of Twitter users quickly snapped them up and held them hostage — one user who took @TheBureau_NSW laid out one simple demand: a signed photo of Sunrise weatherman Sam Mac.

Hey, speaking of bad timing, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has confirmed we no longer recognise West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, just 12 hours after she said there had been no decision to change our recognition of West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, The Australian ($) reports. The announcement came on a Jewish holy day (Shemini Atzeret), opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham pointed out, and in the middle of an Israeli election campaign. But Wong indicated the government’s hand was kind of forced after DFAT went ahead and updated (or more accurately, deleted) words about it from the website, something Guardian Australia noticed. Wong said Jerusalem was “a final status issue that should be resolved as part of any peace negotiations between the Israel and the Palestinian peoples” and argued the Morrison government’s decision to follow in Donald Trump’s footsteps on the issue was just a desperate ploy to win over Jewish voters in the 2018 Wentworth byelection, as the SMH reports.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

A Perth businessman estimates he’s moved house 850 times after he trekked 12,000 kilometres with six camels and a dog by his side. It was 2019 and, unlike others on a hero’s journey, John Elliott didn’t exactly have a reason to leave his comfortable city life for the desert. He just felt compelled. Before he began his trek, he took himself for a run-of-the-mill doctor’s check-up, just to dot his i’s and cross his t’s. Hmm, his GP said. This spot on your back is a bit sus. It turned out to be melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer, but fortunately did not spell the end for Elliott. Even so, that cancerous splodge was a wake-up call, and suddenly, he had his reason before him — or behind him. So Elliott and his seven somewhat unlikely companions set off to traverse no fewer than seven deserts in Australia’s unforgiving outback. It was tough, he says, and at times he wasn’t sure they’d make it. The group was caught in snow storms on Mount Skene, bushfires in Brindabella, and “we even fell off a cliff”, he tells the ABC.

In each outback town the eye-catching group stopped at, Elliott spread the word about skin cancer awareness and regular checks, in partnership with non-profit organisation Skin Check Champions. His words moved so many people that he raised an incredible $60,000 for the cause. The pilgrimage “helped so many Aussies to get checked and saved a whole heap of lives”, its CEO Scott Madds said, adding that Elliott was “amazing”. But Elliott says he was just so chuffed to be there. His view of humankind had become a bit transactional in the corporate world, he admits, but after being hosted and cared for by so many communities, “my view on humanity is peaking now”. The money he raised will go towards better health services in regional Australia where a lot of towns don’t have a single skincare specialist. As for the six camels, they’ll be enjoying a lovely sunny retirement on a farm in WA’s midwest.

Hoping you feel part of something bigger today too.

SAY WHAT?

The rebrand commenced under the previous government for reasons I don’t quite understand. During this time of severe weather and flood disaster, I’m not focused on the name of the agency.

Tanya Plibersek

Call me The Bureau, the BoM told journalists yesterday, after a $70,000 rebrand, while three states struggle against widespread flooding disasters. The environment minister asked the BoM to stay focused on the task at hand rather than cosmetic name changes.

CRIKEY RECAP

How allegations of rape against a Hillsong pastor led to a hunt for the leaker — and one woman being blamed

Oct 18, 2022

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“The Federal Court filing reveals that the final straw for Hillsong was Crikey’s publication of a report detailing credible allegations of rape made against a New York pastor by a junior female staff member.

“Crikey’s report was based on the findings of an investigation by US lawyers appointed by Hillsong. The law firm concluded it was ‘likely’ the pastor would have been convicted had the allegations gone to court. The highly confidential report — provided to Hillsong’s global board — pointed the finger at members of Hillsong’s leadership, including Australian figures.”

Scott Morrison: our beloved ‘globalisation mastermind’ that exuded ‘calm decisiveness and rationale’

Oct 18, 2022

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“To the extent you can get any concrete information out of the above paragraph, or his more detailed bio, it’s not strictly true. Did he ‘manage public safety during the pandemic’? Or was that largely dealt with by the state governments while Morrison’s frontbench undermined them for political reasons? WWSG couldn’t be referring to Australia’s botched vaccine rollout, surely? After all, that wasn’t Morrison’s job.

“Elsewhere, we are told Morrison is known for ‘aggressively working toward a net zero global emissions economy’, which, fuck me dead, where does one start? To be fair, on this point WWSG might just have been reading the months of coverage Morrison received in the mainstream press in 2021, crediting him with commitments and ‘shifts’ on climate change that he hadn’t made.”

‘Just because there’s a marketplace for lies doesn’t mean we should value them’

Oct 18, 2022

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“In Australia, more than half a million people signed a petition fronted by former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, calling for a royal commission into, essentially, the power and reach of Rupert Murdoch. The previous government paid it no heed; the new government is showing no signs of urgency.

“There was a mass demonstration of a willingness to engage with the principles and practices of who should own what, and the balance between the public interest and the private purse. Politicians ignore it at their peril. This is an opportunity to reaffirm the understanding that a healthy democracy needs a citizenry that can tell truth from lies, and know why it matters.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Somalia faces worst famine in half a century, UN warns (Al Jazeera)

Iran agrees to ship missiles, more drones to Russia (Reuters)

UK parliament to hear case for mandatory four-day working week (EuroNews)

Trump showed classified Kim Jong-un letter to journalist (CNN)

French cement company to pay $780 million over payoffs to ISIS (The New York Times)

This is not the time to change UK PM, minister says (BBC)

Estonia’s parliament declares Russia a ‘terrorist regime’ (Al Jazeera)

Facebook owner Meta to sell Giphy after UK watchdog confirms ruling (The Guardian)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Australia’s plan to close the loophole allowing multinationals to avoid paying tax — Andrew Leigh (The Australian) ($): “Australians’ ingenuity helped bring the world the Cochlear implant, Google Maps and Wi-Fi, helping to create a more connected and inclusive world. Great ideas and innovation propel our society forwards and their creators should be appropriately recognised. But for tax authorities, the problem has come when intellectual property is used by multinationals to shift profits to low-tax or no-tax jurisdictions. The details are complicated, but the trick is a simple one.

“First, get the lawyers to move the intellectual property to a country that doesn’t have a company tax rate. Second, have the subsidiary in that country charge a fee for using the intellectual property. Third, deduct that fee from the corporate tax bill. Voila: what was once a taxable profit has now disappeared. Now you see it, now you don’t. Using intellectual property to shift profits is especially attractive because patents, trademarks, logos and brands are weightless. Moving them to a tax haven doesn’t require booking a cargo ship or calling the removalists. All it takes is some clever contracts and the intellectual property is sunning itself on the beaches of the tax-free Bahamas.”

Bungled handling of West Jerusalem makes a tough decision worse — Matthew Knott (The Age): “The Israeli government and its local supporters feel not only disappointed but blindsided by Australia’s lack of consultation and warning — just as Emmanuel Macron did when Scott Morrison axed a lucrative submarine contract with French company Naval Group. The only reason the issue flared up now is that in recent days the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade quietly scrubbed a reference to West Jerusalem from the Israel page of its website.

“According to the government, an overeager public servant got ahead of themselves by updating the website to reflect the government’s stated position on West Jerusalem. The problem was that cabinet hadn’t made a decision on the issue and the government hadn’t announced any policy change. After the update to the website was revealed on Monday night, the government hurriedly assured reporters and anxious pro-Israel groups that Australia hadn’t changed its position on recognising West Jerusalem.”

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Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)

Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)

  • Climate 200 founder Simon Holmes à Court and independent MP Sophie Scamps will chat about the former’s new book, The Big Teal, at Glee Books.

Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)

  • Journalist Leigh Sales will talk about her lifelong passion for music as part of the Wheeler Centre’s new series, “Encounters with Music”.

Yuggera Country (also known as Brisbane)

  • Author Diana Reid will talk about her new book, Seeing Other People, at Avid Reader bookshop. You can also catch this one online.