King of the fossil-fuel industry

STEPPING ON THE GAS

Resources Minister Madeleine King has come out swinging for fossil fuels again, warning slashing gas supply would lead to “shortages, supply disruptions and high prices” and “worsening poverty and inequality”, The Australian ($) reports. It comes as our use of coal power generation is at an all-time low, the AFR ($) adds: 51% of the eastern states’ power at midday on Sunday was from solar. King’s comments also come after Woodside’s proposed Scarborough gas development in WA was thwarted by the Federal Court for not consulting Traditional Owners, Guardian Australia reports — the WA MP was a big supporter of the project. Meanwhile a new discussion paper reveals our resource boom may be over — minerals and gas exports will fall by more than $100 billion in two years — but gas will still “underpin Australia’s economic well-being” for years to come, King promised. Yes, the planet got destroyed, the man tells the children at the end times. But for a beautiful moment in time, we created a lot of value for shareholders.

In related news, Australia recorded its driest September since records began in 1900 as bushfires rage in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania, Guardian Australia reports. Usually firefighters from countries such as Canada fly in to help as it’s cold there when it’s hot in Australia, but bushfires are still raging in Canada as fire seasons get longer in both hemispheres in our rapidly warming climate, The New York Times ($) reports. To another resources giant and Facebook has issued a summons for mining billionaire Andrew Forrest’s personal emails and communication, The New Daily reports. It’s part of this legal battle he launched after crypto ads appeared on Facebook that used Forrest’s image without his consent — his lawyers say Facebook didn’t do enough to take the scam down while the tech titan cashed in from the ad dollars all the while.

HOME SWEET HOME

It was a “dog act” for former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews to announce a plan to redevelop 44 public housing towers before he resigned, independent Senator Lidia Thorpe tells The Age ($). Some 10,000 public housing tenants will be moved on, the towers bulldozed, and a new precinct built that mixes social and private housing. Eventually 11,000 community or public residents will live in 44 towers across Melbourne, Prahran, Brunswick and Richmond, with 19,000 private residents in the mix too. Thorpe lived in one of the towers as a child and says she wouldn’t be a senator without that home — the government countered the buildings were built after WWII and are no longer fit for modern living.

To another departed (well, suspended) political powerhouse, and someone has finally stuck up for Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo, the SMH ($) says. Cybersecurity startup internet 2.0 founder Robert Potter defended Pezzullo, pointing out that the public servant had given his business’s ransomware ideas to the White House. The paper asked why Potter had failed to also mention that his biz was paid $338,580 by Home Affairs for a framework — he said he told the AFR ($), and besides, PwC would charge way more. Mhm. It comes as Jeremy Rockliff admitted he may have to call an election after dumped Tasmanian attorney-general Elise Archer drama, The Australian ($) reports. That’s unless she comes back to Parliament and “guarantees confidence and supply”, the premier says, or else quits altogether (she hasn’t yet) so they can elect another Liberal on a recount. Archer is mulling over a third option: sitting on the crossbench and backing a no-confidence motion. Tasmanians do not want an early election, Rockliff tells the paper, and nor does he.

KIDS GO FOR BROKE

Australian kids as young as 10 are hooked on gambling, Guardian Australia reports, and calls to a gambling help service from those aged under 24 are up 16%. What’s worse, between 2009 and 2016, 184 suicide deaths in Victoria were gambling-related, and 14 of those were aged between 17 and 24. Gambling is everywhere for kids, the paper says, “enmeshed in the sports they play and watch”, including video games, celebrity endorsements and YouTube influencers. Meanwhile Minister for Skills and Training Brendan O’Connor will announce $37.8 million for a crackdown on dodgy behaviour in our vocational education and training (VET) sector today, Guardian Australia reports. There’ll be a new confidential tip-off line for whistleblowers, with the AFP to check on providers to stop the exploitation of international students.

To the opposite age bracket now and the number of people with more than $100 million in their superannuation accounts jumped by 60%, from 17 to 28 in the past two financial years, the SMH ($) reports, while balances above $50 million increased from 78 to 107. Treasurer Jim Chalmers says it’s all the more reason for his proposed super tax hike. He wants to double the tax rate, from 15% to 30%, for account balances exceeding $3 million after 2025’s federal election — he estimates it’d affect 80,000 people and raise $2 billion in one year alone. The Coalition and crossbench aren’t convinced. Meanwhile WA’s long-serving ombudsman has been on the trip of a lifetime, The West Australian ($) reports, with Chris Field charging taxpayers $266,000 last financial year to visit China, Taiwan, Ukraine, Britain, the US, Slovenia, Thailand, Austria, Russia, France, Morocco, Poland and Hungary. Must be nice.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Have you ever bought a cheap seat on the red-eye flight, agreed to take your kid to early practice, or forgotten to take the bin out and figured you’d run out there at dawn, inevitably still wearing your holey unmentionables, to beat the dawn garbo? You set your alarm for a horrifying time that may or may not involve the number five, but somehow you wake up a couple of minutes before it was due to blare. Huh, weird, you think. No-one knows exactly why this happens, The New York Times ($) says, but experts say it may be because of something known as sleep maths. It’s that quick calculation you make when you’re weighing up whether to watch one more TV show before bed — “If I go to bed after this season finale, I’d have precisely six hours, 13 minutes’ sleep,” we reason with the limp remote in our hand.

Experts say that can actually send a message to our body to turn the hourglass for our sleep duration. In fact, in one study from 1997, about a quarter of respondents said they were so good at waking up on time they didn’t even bother with an alarm. I imagine they’re the same sort of thrill-seekers who jump out of planes and volunteer during team-building activities at work. But it doesn’t always work, Oxford’s head of sleep, Russell Foster, says. Sometimes the body’s circadian rhythms override the hourglass because we’re just too tired. Circadian rhythms are set by our master clock, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which gets messages from tiny cells in our eyelids that notice changing light. Fire the cortisol and adrenocorticotropin (the two hormones that wake us up), the cells command, really making the case for a consistent bedtime and wake-up. As for daylight saving, however… all we can do is brew an extra strong cuppa.

Hoping you feel rested today.

CRIKEY RECAP

‘The older I get, the younger I was’: What’s it like to be the subject of News Corp coverage? 

GRACE TAME

“The Murdoch press had a defining role in enabling the offender at the outset in this particular case, but its coverage was as much symptomatic as it was causal of a social failure to understand child grooming.

“Major outlets regurgitated his defences, the poorly worded primary charge, and the bare bones of an objectively shallow investigation into a deeply distorted, serial offender … If cover-up is part of the crime, then so was The Mercury’s coverage. It betrayed me, and by extension every survivor of child sexual abuse.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Nobel prize in medicine goes to mRNA COVID vaccine researchers (Al Jazeera)

Trump reaped more than $1 billion from fraud, New York says, as civil trial begins (Reuters)

Abercrombie & Fitch ex-CEO accused of exploiting men for sex (BBC)

Couple dead after bear attack in Banff National Park, grizzly killed (CBC)

Russell Brand facing second criminal inquiry after harassment allegations (The Guardian)

Tom Hanks says dental plan video uses ‘AI version of me’ without permission (CNN)

THE COMMENTARIAT

We must tighten graduate visa rules to reduce population pressures — Brendan Coates and Trent Wiltshire (The Age) ($): “Encouraging so many international students to stay and struggle in Australia after they graduate is in no-one’s interests. It damages the reputation of our international higher education sector and erodes public trust in our migration program. It’s unfair on those graduates who invest years in Australia with little prospect of securing permanent residency. And it adds to population and housing pressures for little gain … But despite these stated aims, the Albanese government at last year’s jobs and skills summit increased the length of temporary visas offered to international graduates: to up to four years for many bachelor’s graduates; five years for masters graduates; and six years for PhDs. Some students studying in the regions can now stay and work in Australia on a temporary visa for up to eight years after they graduate.

“It’s a big reason why the number of temporary graduate visa-holders in Australia is expected to nearly double to about 370,000 by 2030. Unless the government lifts the size of the permanent migration program, which seems unlikely, many more graduates will be stuck in visa limbo in future, with even worse prospects of ever securing permanent residency. The government needs to reverse course, and quickly. Here’s what it needs to do. First, Australia should offer shorter post-study work visas to international graduates. Most graduates that succeed long-term in Australia find a good job within their first two years. Visa extensions for graduates with degrees in nominated areas of shortage, and for living in the regions, should be scrapped. Instead, graduates should be eligible for an extension to their visa only if they earn at least $70,000 a year, a good sign that they’ll eventually secure a permanent visa.”

In one vulgar swoop, Suella Braverman has humiliated every single migrant in the UK — Nesrine Malik (The Guardian): “Even by this government’s standards, last week was bleak and this one, as the Tory conference gets under way, promises to be no less dispiriting. It is clear that Conservative Party policy proposals and rhetoric are now nothing but wild last-ditch attempts to renew chances at the next election, but Suella Braverman’s latest assertion that multiculturalism has ‘failed’ proved that when it comes to immigration, we have moved away from dog-whistles and back towards the sort of Powellite language that, even decades ago, was considered beyond the pale. Braverman’s comments were made to a handful of slouched think-tankers and journalists in Washington, and are no doubt part of her attempt to ingratiate herself with powerful, well-funded right-wing organisations as the voice of Tory future.

“But in the constant din of political campaigning, sloganeering and posturing about immigration, Braverman’s speech is a reminder of how badly millions of real people have been let down. The hostile environment, the ‘go home’ vans, the ‘controls on immigration’ mugs, the ‘small boats week’, and countless other dutiful pronouncements by both parties about “controlling” immigration have all led to this point. Millions have gone through the pain and bewilderment of displacement. They have experienced welcome and rejection, love and heartbreak, childbirth and growth. They have changed, and made peace with their differences. They have all been, in one vulgar swoop, traduced and humiliated by Braverman’s declaration. It’s hard not to take it personally, for it not to break your spirit a little.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)

• Minister for Skills and Training Brendan O’Connor will address the National Press Club.

Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)

• Author Madeleine Gray will talk about her new book, Green Dot, at Glee Books.

Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)

• Goorie author Melissa Lucashenko will talk about her new book, Edenglassie, at Avid Reader bookshop.