THE PM AND THE PRESIDENT
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese talked to Chinese President Xi Jinping about Australia’s support for Taiwan’s status quo, Tasmanian devils, the global economy, “regional security”, imprisoned Australian Yang Hengjun’s plight and pandas. Here’s the speech. AUKUS didn’t come up, Albanese said. Xi’s opening remarks acknowledged the 50-year anniversary of Gough Whitlam becoming the first Australian prime minister to visit China, Sky News Australia reports, saying the Chinese people would not forget that foundational move. He acknowledged that “we’ve worked out some problems” together and felt “heartened” about the “mutual benefit” of our relationship growing and continuing, Guardian Australia reports. Trade in previously sanctioned Australian exports has surged from $85 million last year to $6 billion between January and August, The Australian ($) added.
In future, Albanese said any issues must be talked out: “Where differences arise it is important that we have communication. From communication comes understanding.” That could mean both governments are about to resume the China-Australia Strategic Economic Dialogue and the Victorian Belt and Road deal, the SMH ($) explains. (The latter was scrapped by the Morrison government in 2021, so Beijing suspended the former in apparent retaliation.) Xi is also pushing to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, but Albanese said the other 11 countries would have to agree to that. He did, however, invite Xi to Australia, and when asked if he trusted Xi said the pair were “building a relationship”.
GOTCHA POLITICS
The AFP investigated seven sexual assault allegations against federal politicians after Brittany Higgins came forward with her allegation, Guardian Australia reports. That’s according to documents the paper FOI’d between February 2021 and June 2022. Names and dates were blacked out, however. We did know already about some 28 allegations against parliamentarians, but this is the first time we’ve learnt the proportion that were sexual in nature. Two investigations were completed and finalised — five presumably remain. Meanwhile the future of “the Liberals’ most prominent rebel MP” depends upon whether Opposition Leader Peter Dutton protects her, The New Daily writes. Bridget Archer said she’ll stare down any challenge. Neighbouring Tasmanian Liberal MP Gavin Pearce is reportedly considering doing just that to make a point about how often she crosses the floor (such as on Scott Morrison’s censure, and the NACC).
Meanwhile, Senator Hollie Hughes said a move to make local TV services easier to find on smart TVs is Orwellian, Sky News Australia reports. The framework would see free-to-air broadcasters such as ABC iView, SBS on Demand, 7plus, 9now and 10play preinstalled on home screens, something former Labor senator Stephen Conroy correctly said does not resemble in any way a move from the government to control people’s viewing habits. Hughes said next minute they’ll want “a ministry of truth”. Yawn. Next. Hughes couldn’t miss an opportunity to punch down on the Greens and the ABC either, saying some Greens senators “kowtow and suck up to the ABC, it’s really quite disgusting”. Why? Well, senators want a job there, Hughes rather spuriously claimed, and they also want the ABC to support their agenda.
ROCKY ROAD
Infrastructure Minister Catherine King has told states to pull the belt in by $33 billion notches, the cost blowout of suburban road and rail blowouts under the Coalition government (such as on the inland rail from Brisbane to Melbourne where costs blew out from $4.4 billion to $31 billion, the Melbourne suburban rail link, where costs are now as high as $200 billion, and the Sydney Metro city and south-west between Chatswood and Bankstown, which blew out from $11.5 billion to $20.5 billion, as Brisbane Times ($) lists). Tax the rich instead of our roads, acting Queensland Premier Steven Miles wrote for The Courier-Mail ($), reigniting the stage three tax cuts debate. The $120 billion earmarked for the 10-year building program is still going ahead, King assured everyone, but we’ve got to follow the IMF’s urging that infrastructure spending is pushing inflation up — and that’s pushing the cash rate up.
Meanwhile, half of all homeowners would be plunged into financial stress (where 30% of the household income goes to a mortgage) if the cash rate rises today, Guardian Australia reports. Most pundits expect it to hit 4.35% today, it’s highest since 2011, which in dollar terms would see repayments on a $700,000 loan go up $105, according to Rate City. The proportion of financially stressed homeowners has nearly doubled in the past few years, from 26.7% in 2019 to a predicted 48.5% today.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
On the craggy coastline of the Scottish Highlands stood a woolly figure, staring forlornly out to an endless sea. Fiona the sheep had been alone 700 or so days, with only distant birds for company. The then-lamb had been idly nibbling the grass near the water when she suddenly realised she couldn’t see her mum anymore. Looking upwards at the steep cliff, her pathway home was gone. “It’s easy to go down. It’s not as easy to go back up,” sheep farmer Cammy Wilson told The New York Times. He had heard about Fiona’s predicament after a kayaker had spotted her and just couldn’t bear the thought of it. The ewe, so named for the wife of Shrek the lonely New Zealand merino, was officially the world’s loneliest sheep.
After a petition to save her attracted thousands of signatures, Wilson got five farmers together to rescue her. The reclusive Fiona was actually in great health because of the ample grass she had to snack on — indeed technically considered “fat” for a sheep at 92kg. “I am not sure if you are allowed to say that these days to sheep, but she didn’t seem to be too offended,” Wilson said. Fiona was taken to her forever home, a local petting farm, where she’ll live alongside four or five other sheep. There was some concern that her solitary life wouldn’t lend itself to human interaction, but farmer Ben Best assured everyone that Fiona would not be “an experience for visitors”. Remarkably, the former recluse is taking it all in her stride, eating, drinking and relaxing as 9kg of wool was shaved off. The world’s loneliest sheep is lonely no more, Best said.
Hoping you get a little alone time today too.
SAY WHAT?
He says that I’m a fraud … He’s the one that didn’t value property correctly. How do you do that? How do you rule against somebody and call them a fraud, as the president of the United States who did a great job … It’s a terrible thing you’ve done … You believed that political hack back there, and that’s unfortunate.
Donald Trump
The former toddler-in-chief is at the penalty phase of his $250 million civil fraud trial but had a little tanty. Judge Arthur Engoron asked him whether he was done, to which a chastened Trump replied: “Done.”
CRIKEY RECAP
Residents in these groups share links to studies that they say support their beliefs, international news articles about wind turbine failures or setbacks and posts from friendly politicians. Sometimes this veers from cherry-picked information to outright misinformation: one article posted by an anti-wind farm page that claimed the Illawarra and Hunter Valley projects were purportedly from the Marine Policy journal turned out to be completely fabricated, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
“(No Coastal Wind Farms Port Stephens leader Rhys Westbury posted to his Facebook group last night that all claims need to be cited to ‘mitigate danger of allowing information that isn’t factually backed by sources to creep in and undermine the solid work we’ve been creating’). Posts show how anti-wind farm activism is being influenced by connections with other groups.”
“The camera then flashed to the interviewer, who was leaning in and squinting, really squinting, and nodding in a way that impressed upon everyone watching that he knew what the hell Howard was on about, even if no-one else did. What a hero.
“Howard then slurred and sludged out a few more words, finally muttering something inaudible about a ‘progressive barn dance’ and ‘institutionalised difference’, at which point every dead-eyed attendee at this blazing nirvana of right-wing group therapy more or less found themselves on the same page. Cue the unserious applause. This is modern conservatism, catatonic, stripped bare. A disturbing glimpse into the vasty deep of what passes for high-tide right-wing thinking today.”
“Their visit is particularly apt because Israel is currently led by a figure very similar to them, albeit with key differences. Netanyahu’s handling of the pandemic, at least until the second wave hit the country, was far better than Johnson’s. And unlike Johnson and Morrison, Netanyahu is alleged to be personally corrupt — he remains on trial for fraud and corruption. He has also had a far longer career as his nation’s leader than either Morrison or Johnson managed.
“But Netanyahu’s incompetence is at the core of current expectations that he will be forced from office whenever the assault on Gaza permits it. Not only was he leader when the most remarkable Israeli security failure in 50 years occurred, his support for Hamas as part of his strategy of preventing any two-state solution is a matter of public record.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Who are Israeli settlers, and why do they live on Palestinian lands? (Al Jazeera)
No school, no play as air pollution chokes Delhi (BBC)
Just Stop Oil protesters smash glass on painting at National Gallery (The Guardian)
Zelensky invites Trump to Ukraine and says former president ‘can’t bring peace’ because of Putin (CNN)
UN leaders say Gaza war must ‘stop now’ as reported death toll tops 10,000 (Reuters)
Chechen leader hands son, 15, ‘prominent position’ in security forces (euronews)
THE COMMENTARIAT
This king’s speech will hold the last cruel words of a Tory party facing oblivion — Polly Toynbee (The Guardian): “Anti-terror security for venues may come with the draconian banning of speech that ‘undermines’ British values, one of which is free speech. A crime and justice bill extending whole-life sentences and jailing shoplifters will add to overflowing prisons. The Mail on Sunday got a tasty morsel with a ‘new law to crack down on airlines’ sneaky add-on charges’, while The Sun got ‘cops to be handed powers to bust into phone thieves’ homes without a search warrant’. The rest will be ‘traps’ for Labour, notably increasing North Sea oil drilling.
“Is Rishi Sunak’s anti-green, anti-rail, anti-Ulez, pro-car, pro-oil posturing a winner? Planet-boiling indifference is not ‘long-termism’, while voters will see weaponising the climate as political cynicism: drivers also worry about fires and floods. A bill banning councils from boycotting other countries, actions often targeted at Israel, may taunt Labour, as may Michael Gove’s ban on four-day weeks for council workers regardless of staff retention. His threats to council CEOs earning £100,000 are a useless decoy to explain council bankruptcies. These aren’t even ‘sticking plaster’ policies for any of the country’s critical injuries. Sunak licenses Suella Braverman as his outrider from hell to propose random cruelties. But are there really enough people who want to rip the tents off homeless people to force them to change their ‘lifestyle choices’?”
Want to help women’s career prospects? Shut up about mmenopause — Tania Ewing (The SMH) ($): “The announcement of a Senate inquiry into the impact of menopause on workplace policies, on the face of it, looks like another win for working women. It is not. Beneath the ‘feminist solidarity’ of this global push to recognise menopause and its impact on our health, finances and lives is, in fact, another example of siloing women out of the workplace, and off career ladders, because of their biology. This gives men a reason to use our biology to keep us out of the workplace, to ‘explain’ why in our 50s, 60s and 70s we are different from them, and not quite up to leading a business or country …
“Women die later than men — globally we live on average seven years longer, we are thinner, have fewer heart attacks, we are less likely to commit suicide and are more socially connected. Yet we are poorly represented when it comes to positions of power even though we are clearly biologically better equipped for our older years. No surprise it’s because of societal norms and expectations. As women in our 20s and 30s we commonly slip off the career ladder to have, and raise, children. Now this movement to catastrophise or at best to ‘normalise’ an obsession with menopause only serves to keep us out of positions of power just when we have finally jettisoned the kids, now grown, the partner, now likely divorced, and we have put the runs back on the board for our careers.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Author Christos Tsiolkas will talk to journalist David Marr about the former’s new book, The In Between, at White Bay Beer Company.
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Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury Andrew Leigh will host a charity sector town hall at Rydges World Square.
Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)
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Writer Marko Newman will talk about his new book, Dronikus, at Avid Reader bookshop.
Of course “AUKUS didn’t come up, Albanese said.” – why would Xi bother talking to the monkey rather than the organ grinder?
One wonders what riding instructions our lapdog PM received in Washington or was his grovelling subservience such an embarrassment that there was no point – completely otiose?