Reserve judgment

RATE OF CHANGE

The Reserve Bank’s board will lose its power to set the cash rate. It’s the result of an independent review that Treasurer Jim Chalmers will release today, The Australian ($) reports, which found a board of monetary policy experts should decide the interest rate instead. There are 51 recommendations Chalmers will agree to in principle, including cementing the bank’s independence from the government as well as its policy to keep inflation between 2% and 3%. So can he really strip the RBA of that power? The SMH ($) says it’ll probably require legislation, which will require the Coalition’s tick — but opposition Treasury spokesman Angus Taylor indicated he was agreeable. It’s an extraordinary move, but the dual board set-up does bring Australia in line with how the Bank of England and Bank of Canada does it, the AFR ($) adds.

It comes as minutes from the April board meeting revealed Australia narrowly avoided another quarter per cent interest rate rise, Guardian Australia reports, which would have made it 11 consecutive rate rises and brought the rate to 3.85%. Members of the board pointed out inflation — at 6.8% — was still too high, even though all the other cash rate rises were yet to make a dent in it. What’s that saying about hitting your head against a brick wall? On the question of whether we can expect another pause or a rise in May — well, it doesn’t look good. Minutes show the RBA board saying “resilient employment” means we’re well placed to deal with higher interest rates. And since the April board meeting, the Australian Bureau of Statistics says the jobless rate is steady at 3.5%, the AFR ($) reports, with a net increase of about 50,000 more jobs.

[free_worm]

THE WILD WEST

WA Premier Mark McGowan has told Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that national cabinet should be held in China, The West Australian ($) reports. McGowan says he hopes the PM would visit China in the next six months — the premier is there now for a trade jaunt — and “one of the things he could do is, invite all the premiers and chief ministers to come with him”. Why? To mend ties, and also the premiers have a strong “economic connection” to Beijing (mining, international students). McGowan’s also in the news for a “hot-mic scandal” about opposition defence spokesperson Andrew Hastie, the ABC reports. McGowan was recorded saying Hastie, who’s from WA, had “swallowed some kind of Cold War pills back when he was born”, to which Hastie responded in a statement that McGowan was just “a prison guard looking for work” (a barb about WA’s strict border closure). May I just say: LOL.

Meanwhile, the Liberals out west — or what’s left of them — have their eyes on the 2025 state election. President Caroline Di Russo is running a program to attract candidates and campaign managers, The Australian ($) reports, and 60 people have applied. It’s going to be the biggest pool of non-incumbent candidates at a state election, the paper says, and the Oz rather dryly adds: “No-one believes the Liberals can change the government at the next state election.” Brutal. Speaking of losing Liberal parties, former NSW attorney-general Mark Speakman is reportedly throwing his hat in the ring for the state Liberal leadership, the SMH ($) reports. Speakman is a moderate and joins the right’s Anthony Roberts, who is also running.

WHO GETS WHAT?

A happy story this morning, folks. Sydney man Mohamed Barghachoun fell victim to a dodgy migration agent, who took $1500 to lodge his partner visa documents but didn’t actually do so. Barghachoun and his Aussie wife Jihan Merhi are deaf, and had a tough time dealing with the problem because they cannot speak over the phone. Barghachoun’s visa was cancelled and he was told to leave Australia in January, as the ABC reports, but Immigration Minister Andrew Giles has stepped in and granted him permanent residency. Barghachoun said he is “so happy … so emotional, crying tears of joy” that he can raise his three children here.

From new Aussies to traditional owners and art critic John McDonald says he is not surprised by allegations that white gallery assistants may have worked on Indigenous artists’ canvases in the APYACC’s studios, The Australian ($) reports. He said he finds the APY work “repetitive — a slick product rather than an engaging work of art denoting a deep spiritual connection with country”. APYACC general manager Skye O’Meara denied the allegations. Meanwhile SA Liberal Senator Kerrynne Liddle has defended her promotion to the opposition frontbench as opposition child protection and prevention of family violence spokesperson, The Advertiser ($) reports, slamming critics who called her elevation another example of Peter Dutton’s politicising of Alice Springs. Liddle says she has extensive experience, and calls the pushback “offensive”.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Vale Father Bob, who died yesterday aged 88. His charity, The Father Bob Maguire Foundation described him as part Billy Connolly, part Mother Teresa, part angry Old Testament prophet, and he certainly pissed off a few high-profile figures — including the late Catholic cardinal George Pell. Indeed others described him as a “kick-arse dude in a robe” and an “anti-Catholic lowlife” as Guardian Australia scribes. He had nearly 126,000 Twitter followers (his bio reads “The Larrikin Priest … patron of the unloved and unlovely”), clocked some 37,000 views of his cover of Kanye ‘Ye’ West’s song Jesus Walks, and sold bobblehead dolls to raise money for his foundation. So who was Father Bob? Don’t ask his biographer, Sue Williams, who told the paper: “It was like trying to catch a shooting star, and every time you felt you had a firm grip, you just had to close your eyes and hang on, with absolutely no idea where you’d end up.”

After a poor upbringing marred by loss — he became an orphan at 15 — Father Bob studied Catholic social justice crusaders such as Dorothy Day before being ordained in 1960. He was an army chaplain known for joyful irreverence — once he turned the bonnet of a jeep into an altar — and became parish priest of St Peter and Paul in Melbourne in 1973, where he stayed until 2012. His foundation, which launched in 2003, offers food, education, social inclusion and advocacy programs to marginalised folks, The Guardian continues, with the Bob Squad and Bobmobile food vans a common sight around Melbourne. “The poor matter because not only are they the majority, but they’re also the treasure trove of wisdom and resilience,” Father Bob said in 2019. “The elites might have everything but they know nothing.”

Hoping you spot the opportunity for a good deed today, large or small.

SAY WHAT?

I think that that level of behaviour is quite clearly unacceptable, and I think there are obvious issues that need to be dealt with in terms of her health. These are not the actions of anyone who should be participating in society in a normal way, let alone a senator.

Anthony Albanese

The PM had some fairly strong words that cast doubt about Senator Lidia Thorpe’s health after an argument with a group of men outside a Melbourne strip club at 3am. But with condemnation from One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson, Labor’s Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, and now the PM, one might start to question whether a few swear words from a woman deserve public calls for her to seek help.

CRIKEY RECAP

Mundine bows out and Deves steps up in bid for Molan’s Senate spot

Anton Nilsson

Apr 19, 2023

16

“Warren Mundine will not nominate for the Liberal Senate seat vacated after late NSW senator Jim Molan’s death, he told Crikey. Nominations for the seat close on Thursday, and Mundine’s name had been thrown around amid speculation about who the Liberal Senate hopefuls might be. ‘I’m not running because I’ve got a commitment to my family and to my business partners,’ Mundine said … Former Warringah candidate Katherine Deves has confirmed her intention to nominate …

“Liberal Party rules prevent candidates from speaking publicly. It’s not clear if Deves’ choice to comment would impact her bid for the Senate spot. The next Liberal senator will be chosen by hundreds of party delegates from across the state at a preselection that’s likely to take place next month. Molan was reelected in 2022 to a six-year term and died in January.”

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IBAC’s Operation Daintree report once again damns Andrews’ government

Guy Rundle

Apr 19, 2023

2

“Victoria’s IBAC has once again damned the Andrews government in Victoria for less than proper practices, to say the least, with the release of the Operation Daintree report, covering the awarding of $3.4 million by the government to the Health Workers Union (HWU) in 2018.

“The money, awarded in two tranches, was ostensibly intended for the union to hire outsource training in dealing with violent and aggressive users of health services and hospitals. But most of the money was never used for this purpose, presumably because COVID intervened, and the training that was delivered was assessed by its trainees to be shoddy and useless, with no expertise, according to the report.”

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Bandt v Bowen: what do they really think of each other?

Emma Elsworthy

Apr 19, 2023

10

“On the face of it, the Greens faced an uphill battle to convince Labor right faction member Bowen to be more strident on climate action. He is a newcomer to the portfolio after Anthony Albanese replaced longtime climate spokesperson Mark Butler in 2021. Plus Bowen is no pushover — he’s the most senior member of the most powerful faction in the country.

“Counterintuitively, however, working with right-leaning Bowen on the concessions was more straightforward than it may have been with Butler — less territoriality. While Labor was pinching Liberal seats like Bennelong, Chrisholm and Boothby in the 2022 federal election, the Greens snatched Griffith from Labor rising star Terri Butler by a mighty 11.9% swing. It was a major blow for members of the Labor left …”

THE COMMENTARIAT

The Reserve Bank review will make 51 recommendations, and the governor’s power is under the microscope — David Speers (ABC): “The governor has already been roundly and regularly criticised for keeping rates too high before COVID and then taking too long to raise them again once growth and inflation started to kick in. Lowe has previously acknowledged the failure and reputational damage done by his misplaced guidance in October 2020 (which went against internal advice about avoiding calendar-specific guidance) that ‘we do not expect to be increasing the cash rate for at least three years’.

“He’s since raised rates 10 times, with an expectation of more to come. This review, however, won’t cast judgment on whether Lowe should stay or go. That’s up to the treasurer, who’s made it clear he won’t make a call until closer to September when the governor’s current term is up. The case for extending Lowe’s term clearly won’t be helped if the review offers scathing criticism of his performance. It may, however, suggest he was in part let down by current structural problems. A stronger architecture around the governor may have helped.”

The Liberals’ condition is a shared failure. But Dutton is the obvious problem — Shaun Carney (SMH) ($): “The internal unity that Peter Dutton regards as his big achievement as leader is killing his party. It has caused his MPs to turn further inwards and entrenched the policy laziness that characterised the Morrison government. Something isn’t right with the path the opposition leader is taking. After almost a year in the post, Dutton comes off as a seasoned, instantly familiar character actor trying to fill a leading man role — a one-speed player who struggles to find a new way to ply his trade.

“His main goal is to avoid arguments and say what the party’s diminished base wants to hear. That can keep the show steady for a while, but it won’t revive its fortunes. The Liberals’ awful condition is not all down to Dutton. This is a shared failure. Most of its parliamentary representatives and frontbenchers and the leadership group are in lockstep with him. But Dutton is the most obvious problem because it’s in his gift to begin to turn things around. When a party is in trouble, the leader is obliged to acknowledge what’s wrong and encourage others to help him fashion a remedy, not to continue flawed behaviours.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Florida expands ‘Don’t Say Gay’ education ban to all [school] grades (Al Jazeera)

More women describe enduring forced abortions in Nigerian Army program (Reuters)

Food barons: who are the billionaires profiting from the cost of living crisis? (euronews)

[England test coach] Brendon McCullum to face no action for partnership with betting firm (Stuff)

Severe heatwave engulfs Asia causing deaths and forcing schools to close (The Guardian)

After tens of thousands of federal workers walk off the job, Trudeau calls for more negotiations (CBC)

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Muwinina Country (also known as Hobart)

• Tasmanian Education Minister Roger Jaensch will speak about the state economy in an address at the RACV Hobart Hotel.

Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)

• Artists and teachers Alice Glenn and Steph Hughes will host a workshop for primary-aged children about composting at The Wheeler Centre.

Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)

• Contributors and activists Michelle Arrow, Patricia Amphlett, Sara Dowse and Ranuka Tandan will speak about a new book, Women and Whitlam: Revisiting the Revolution, at the State Library of New South Wales.