Angus Campbell in political soup

BACKPEDAL ON MEDAL

Defence Force chief Angus Campbell tried to hand back his esteemed Afghanistan medal after the Brereton inquiry but was rebuffed, according to the SMH ($), though Campbell declined to comment on it. The Distinguished Service Cross was given to him for his leadership as commander of Middle East Operations in 2011, but sources told the paper says he offered it to then-defence minister Linda Reynolds in light of the damning war crime allegations in the report. Reynolds said keep it, because then-prime minister Scott Morrison didn’t want to see any medals revoked — though she also declined to comment when asked about it by the paper.

Speaking of leaks… Santos wells have been leaking gas into the ocean off WA for the past 10 years, WA Today ($) reports. They were spotted at the Legendre field, 105 kilometres north of the Pilbara port of Dampier, in 2013 — two years after work was done to seal them permanently. Santos told the regulator, the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA), that it was “not technically feasible” to stem the leaks and that it would monitor them instead, the paper says. “NOPSEMA would never accept that gas wells leak indefinitely,” a spokesman assured the paper, but Friends of the Earth says it beggars belief that “wells have been leaking methane for a decade”.

To more toxic emissions now, and former prime ministers Tony Abbott and John Howard are among six Australians who have joined a global group fronted by Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, Guardian Australia reports. The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) will look at “issues metaphysical, cultural and practical” and “issues pertaining to the meaning of life” but also to “become practical with regard to the realisation of policy”, Peterson said.

BUS CRASH KILLS 10

The bus driver allegedly at the centre of Australia’s worst road disaster in 34 years will face court this morning after 10 wedding guests died in the Hunter Valley on Sunday night, the SMH ($) reports. He was charged with 10 counts of dangerous driving occasioning death, driving in a manner dangerous, and negligent driving (occasioning death), The Australian ($) adds; 25 people were injured. The driver had picked up 35 passengers from a wedding at Wandin Estate winery in Lovedale — shortly afterwards the bus flipped over on a roundabout on Wine Country Drive at Greta. The driver passed drug and alcohol tests, but the Oz says passengers were screaming at him to slow down during the drive. He allegedly told passengers over the coach’s intercom, “If you think that was fast, watch this,” ­moments before the accident, according to The Daily Telegraph ($).

Premier Chris Minns said it “has been a terrible, terrible event in the history of NSW”, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told crash survivors: “Australia wraps its arms around you.” The Daily Telegraph ($) reports this morning that families of the 10 deceased have been told by NSW Police that formal identification “could take days, if not weeks”. As an aside, the SMH has opted to print a photo of the newlyweds on its front page, which feels kind of odd as they weren’t on board. A few of the papers have named the driver too — but the ABC has not. It reports Sydney’s Vivid festival lights were turned off on the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Museum of Contemporary Art and skyscrapers along Circular Quay at 7.30pm on Monday to honour the dead.

DO MORE HOMEWORK

The Albanese government has offered to guarantee at least $500 million a year for housing as a compromise to get its housing Australia future fund (HAFF) legislation through the Senate, the ABC reports. What is the HAFF? It’s a $10 billion fund we’d invest, with all the returns parlayed into creating more social and affordable housing from 2024-25. Originally it had a $500 million spending cap, but Housing Minister Julie Collins said we can think of it as a floor instead — even if the fund makes no money. The crossbench was like, we’re listening, but the Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather said his party will vote no. Half a billion dollars in 12 months’ time after a $4.2 billion budget surplus while we languish through the worst housing crisis we’ve seen in a generation? It’s “genuinely shocking” that this is Labor’s best offer, the MP said.

It’s still doing a better job than the Coalition, according to the latest Guardian Australia poll, which found Labor is preferred for handling the rising cost of living (33% to the Coalition’s 27%) and interest rates (30% to 26%). It’s a remarkable shift considering the Coalition has long boasted a reputation as better money managers. When asked about the cash rate rise to 4.1%, two in five blamed the government (the same number thought the Reserve Bank was overreacting). Meanwhile another poll shows support for the Voice to Parliament is dwindling, the SMH ($) reports, this time dropping from 53% to 49%. Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia have majority support for the No side now, but most voters in NSW (53%) and Victoria (56%) are on the Yes side. It comes as the Senate is due to vote on the wording of the question in the referendum bill this fortnight.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Gelje Sherpa was trudging through the blustery, icy section of Mount Everest known as the “death zone”, but he was in pretty good spirits. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime undertaking for most, including the Chinese client he was escorting, but it’s safe to say Gelje knew his stuff. Just two years ago, he became the youngest person to reach K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, in the dead of winter, and this would have marked his sixth ascent. But at 8300 metres the Sherpa spotted a man lying down in the snow. He knew immediately something was wrong. The 58-year-old Malaysian climber had “no energy, no oxygen, nothing”, Gelje recalled to The New York Times ($) while temperatures hovered near -30 degrees. He “needed rescuing and no one else was helping”, he said simply.

Gelje turned to his client, who was mere hours from the summit, and realised he’d need to attempt the impossible — twice. First, he had to convince the client to abandon the summit attempt so they could rescue the climber. “Saving one life is more important than praying at the monastery,” explained Gelje, a devout Buddhist. Second, he was faced with rescuing someone from the death zone. Gelje and fellow guide Ngima Tashi Sherpa gently rolled the man into a sleeping bag and strapped him on to one of their backs. They began the six-hour ordeal of walking 600 metres down rocky terrain, taking turns with the man. Once they reached the South Col, he was safely transported on to a helicopter. Gelje assured fans he’d be back up the mountain soon, “but I am so happy to say [the climber] is alive and recovering in hospital”, he said.

Wishing you the strength of a Sherpa, now and always.

SAY WHAT?

We have become a very negative, wet, whiny, inward-looking country and we have lost the plot.

Christopher Luxon

New Zealand’s opposition leader made the comment during a meeting with farmers while announcing the National Party’s agricultural emissions policy. It’s the second eyebrow-raising statement in a week from Luxon. Last week he encouraged New Zealanders to “have more babies if you wish — that would be helpful”.

CRIKEY RECAP

Conflict of interest should kill off the big four consulting industrial complex

BERNARD KEANE

“And the AGD isn’t the only one poor at managing conflicts of interest. It’s a systemic problem in the public service, one that has naturally worsened as the size of the government’s annual spend on consultants surged under the Coalition — more than doubling over the past decade, according to the ANAO, to nearly $900 million, including a total of over $1.1 billion to the big four for consultancy services alone.

“For the ANAO, the failure of the public service to effectively manage the conflicts of interest that are foundational to its use of consultants is a persistent source of angst, to which it has devoted entire publications explaining what good practice is and isn’t.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Thailand’s PM frontrunner Pita faces election commission probe (Al Jazeera)

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi dies at 86 (BBC)

Netherlands to provide free sun cream to tackle record skin cancer levels (The Guardian)

NATO begins largest air exercise in its history (euronews)

Boris Johnson formally steps down as MP (The Guardian)

JPMorgan to pay $290m to settle Jeffrey Epstein accusers’ suit (The Wall Street Journal)

Trump flies to Florida to face charges in documents case (Reuters)

Mind of the Nation: Universities in Australian Life — out now (Quarterly Essay): In this thought-provoking and timely examination, academic and writer Professor Michael Wesley investigates the forces shaping Australia’s universities, their relationship to Australian society and asks what Australians really think and how they feel about our universities, and where to next?

THE COMMENTARIAT

Any government that adds to housing supply is welcome — Mike Zorbas (The AFR) ($): “Our housing supply deficit is born of the failure of state cabinets, governments and parliaments to hold themselves or local governments to account. A failure to design the right housing approval systems and a failure to champion housing, project by project, as the social infrastructure the nation needs. The housing deficit is always the problem of another level of government, the fault of too many skilled migrants from overseas wanting to help us fill labour shortages, the fault of negative gearing (which actually supports new supply), the excesses of a free market (‘rent capping’ directly reduces new housing funding and production), due to ‘land banking’ (as infrequent as Halley’s comet when there is adequate supply because the bank and investors are waiting for their money back from the developer, with interest) or a solution that should be built ‘one suburb over’.

“As it stands, parliamentarians talking about higher taxes on housing investors or capping their returns is a deliberate distraction from the individual and collective roles of politicians in making new housing more expensive. Depending on the state you are living in now, government taxes are 20 to 40% of the cost of every single new house and apartment that will be built around you. That is before you add the high cost of zoning, infrastructure and planning delays. We need every single new home that is not bogged down by bad planning, political self-interest and big government taxes as soon as we can get them. Though housing all Australians it is about social cohesion, national productivity and labour mobility for key workers, new housing supply around transport and jobs is also about being able to grow old and downsize in your local suburb and about providing future housing for the next generation near the suburbs they grew up in.

”Britain’s economy and politics have been slowly poisoned by Brexit — Troy Bramston (The Australian) ($): “UK politics is plagued by dysfunction, scandal and chaos, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s disastrous Conservative government slowly cascading to defeat and dogged by former prime minister Boris Johnson’s failings, while Labour is revitalised and poised to return to power next year but with doubts about its program and leader, Sir Keir Starmer. I’ve recently returned from nine days in London, absorbing the politics and media, and having talked to Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat politicians, in addition to a crossbench peer, the assessments were near universal with a mix of dismay, disappointment and acute embarrassment about what has happened to the UK. The fundamental root cause of the political turbulence marked by five prime ministers in seven years and two general elections in six years, despite five-year parliamentary terms, is the ruinous decision to exit the EU in 2016.

“That referendum result, with just 51.89% voting to leave, has had catastrophic consequences. It is now widely accepted, even though it was foretold at the time of the vote by those arguing to remain, that the UK is not only politically weaker in Europe but its economy has suffered significantly as a result. Many economists are predicting a deep recession in the UK this year, with Brexit exacerbating a global inflationary and energy crisis. On any measure, the UK economy has suffered significantly since exiting the EU. The pound has lost value; there are critical skills shortages; businesses are dealing with increased regulations, supply chain and border delays, and; consumers are paying more for goods and services. Moreover, the government has increased taxation and spending, and immigration has never been higher.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Online

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will speak at the State of the Nation 2023 conference, held online.

• Indigenous leader Thomas Mayo and journalist Kerry O’Brien will speak about the Voice to Parliament handbook in an Australia Institute webinar.

Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)

• LiteHaus International’s Jack Growden, Global Emergency Care Advisor’s Sarah Bornstein and Graincorp’s Clare Akauma will speak at the 2022 Aus-PNG Network Emerging Leaders Dialogue, held at Green House.

• Author A J Wilton will speak about his new book, You Killed My Wife, at Avid Reader bookshop.