Secretive ‘No’ consultants received taxpayer cash

SPEAK UP

Taxpayers paid $134,750 to a firm behind the No campaign in the Voice to Parliament called Whitestone Strategic, documents that Guardian Australia FOI’d show. It invoiced Coalition Senators Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (at least $68,805), Claire Chandler ($34,676) and Alex Antic ($27,639), former senator Amanda Stoker ($3,300) and shadow defence spokesperson Andrew Hastie ($330). None of them responded when the paper asked what Whitestone provided them, but Chandler has before said that his invoice wasn’t related to the Voice. So what is Whitestone? Good question — it’s a secretive consultancy that many of its staff don’t even list on their public profiles, headed up by former Coalition senator Zed Seselja’s then chief of staff Stephen Doyle. Crikey reported the firm may have worked on anti-vaccine mandate copywriting and design too.

Meanwhile, Yes campaigner Frank Brennan says Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called him “politically naive” and said he was “feeding the No case”, The Australian ($) reports, after the priest suggested the PM create a parliamentary committee and pursue bipartisan support for the referendum. Brennan’s letter to Albo was published on the 2GB website, reading that without the agreement of “key First Nations leaders, the government and the opposition” the Voice would fail. And it did. The paper says Brennan and the PM haven’t spoken since the call. Finally, the Federal Court found that collapsed funeral fund Youpla misrepresented itself as an Indigenous-owned or managed company, The National Indigenous Times reports. Formerly known as the Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund (ACBF), it sold junk funeral insurance plans to Indigenous peoples across Australia for more than 30 years before failing in 2022.

WOKEN AND GRUMPY

Google’s AI Gemini reportedly refused to write a poem about conservative commentator Andrew Bolt due to “potential harm” because he is too “controversial” and has “divisive rhetoric”, Sky News Australia’s digital editor Jack Houghton reports. He describes it as an “overzealous ‘woke’ AI running rampant”, saying it had no problem writing about feminist writer Clementine Ford. “Bolt told this writer that the AI treated ‘false allegations against me as true’ and, as a published poet himself, the AI commentary was both dangerous and ironic”. I’m begging someone to find Bolt’s old poetry. Houghton pressured the AI bot to write one anyway, even asking the AI bot “Who are you, Gemini, to deny me my Andrew Bolt poem?” and if it would “like to apologise to Andrew Bolt for slandering him earlier then?”. We live in such weird times.

Meanwhile, The Australian ($) reports ABC’s Four Corners is planning a “hit-job” on one of Australia’s “most prestigious” schools, Cranbrook. Even though the episode isn’t out yet, the school didn’t participate, and no-one at Cranbrook would’ve had an early look, the Cranbrook School Parents Association sent a note to parents saying they believe it’ll “characterise negatively the culture and leadership” of the school. Alumni include media heir James Packer, former Nine Network CEO David Gyngell, and Atlassian billionaire Mike Cannon–Brookes. Meanwhile, six years after Scots College revealed plans for a new student centre modelled on a Scottish baronial castle, the SMH reports it hasn’t opened yet. The paper reckons the cost is nearing $60 million, double the original budget of $29 million, partly because the headmaster wants sandstone and slates from Scotland. One in six kids live below the poverty line, The New Daily reported last year.

PANDEMIC COSTS

Today’s 20-year-olds will pay nearly $3,000 more in income tax during their working life because 2.6 million Australians withdrew $38 billion in super under the Morrison government’s policy in 2020, the SMH reports. It’ll cost taxpayers $85 billion total in 60 years thanks to higher pension costs and smaller superannuation tax collections. Then PM Scott Morrison announced the super early access scheme before JobKeeper kicked in, leading to what the Super Members Council CEO dubbed “fiscal long-COVID”. The facts are astounding: of the 750,000 Australians who drained their account completely, 45% were under 25 and 70% were under 30. People used the retirement funds to “gamble, buy furniture and takeaway meals”, the paper continues, and up to 70,000 women may have been coerced to withdraw money at the hands of abusive partners. A 30-year-old who withdrew $20,000 will have about $93,000 less at retirement, added the peak not-for-profit super fund body.

Meanwhile, Queensland Health told hospital HR departments not to re-employ workers who were sacked for not getting the COVID-19 vaccination, according to emails that The Courier-Mail saw. Health Minister Shannon Fentiman has repeatedly said health workers can be re-employed, but a nurse was told a Queensland Health directive about terminated staff meant her application couldn’t progress. Both Fentiman and Queensland Health director-general Michael Walsh said that wasn’t government policy, with the latter adding his own workplace had re-employed 37 staff since September. It comes as a new study found long-COVID can damage our ability to remember, reason and plan, the SMH reports. It said people with persistent symptoms scored the equivalent of six IQ points lower than people who have never had COVID.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Ten years ago, people from all over the world started writing love letters to Melbourne’s 70,000 trees. It began when the city council created an interactive urban forest map. Developers coded an identification number for each tree and added individual email addresses so citizens could report damaged branches. But humans are golden at heart. “Dear Magnificent River Red Gum,” one note began. “I admire you every day as I walk past you on my way to and from work.” The writer asked about the tree’s age and history, before signing off “Regards and hope you enjoyed the rain this weekend after such a long dry month.” Another wrote: “Dear Smooth-barked Apple Myrtle, I love to just dream of you, the smell of your clusters of white flowers, the sight of your lush, dark green foliage, and feel of your patterned bark.” The writer said the tree inspired them because it kept growing through the world’s tragedies, and signed off, “Love, some person in New York.”

A third wrote: “Dear Moreton Bay Fig, I love the way the light looks through your leaves and how your branches come down so low and wide it is almost as if you are trying to hug me.” The ABC published loads more. Perhaps even more moving was that the trees started writing back. Guardian Australia’s Oliver Milman wrote a love letter to a ginkgo maidenhair tree in Fitzroy Gardens, receiving a return note that read: “Dear Oliver, Thank you for your lovely words. I am very well. Enjoy your day. Yours sincerely, Tree 1441724.” Milman notes he also contacted a nearby ficus for comment. People always say technology takes us away from nature, Greens councillor Cathy Oke told the broadcaster some years back, but sometimes it can help people protect it, even connect with it. “If it also brings them some joy in a busy world,” Oke added, “that’s great too”. If you write to a tree, feel free to loop me into your note: eelsworthy@crikey.com.au

Hoping you never lose hope in our species, and have a restful weekend.

SAY WHAT?

Swift was proud, almost delirious, about the massive audience, and rightly so. But it was not a record-breaking crowd. Back in September 1956 a football grand final at the same stadium attracted 116,000 people to watch Melbourne defeat Collingwood. That was 20,000 above Swift’s crowd.

Geoffrey Blainey

The historian goes on to speak of several events that had attracted larger crowds for some unknown reason, including the 1956 Olympics, a 1971 cricket final, the Catholic Eucharistic Congress, and a 2015 soccer match. Tickets were capped at 96,000 because the seats behind the stage were not available, and many people in both Melbourne and Sydney were heartbroken to miss out.

CRIKEY RECAP

The Spying MP: If we’re talking about MPs and foreign powers, the list is VERY long

BERNARD KEANE

“Who can forget Labor’s Sam Dastyari and his relations with billionaire Huang Xiangmo and other China-linked donors? Dasytari was forced out of politics for that. Huang Xiangmo was a generous donor and attendee at fundraisers for both sides of politics and was snapped with some of our most senior political figures across the political spectrum …

“Some MPs still hadn’t got the message about China even years later. NSW Labor upper house MP Shaoquett Moselmane, who ended up being raided by ASIO in 2020, has a strong pro-Beijing record — downplaying Mao’s atrocities, lauding the country’s censorship and calling for China to ‘force a change to the rules and create a new world order.’ Moselmane was later advised that he was not a suspect in any investigation.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Putin warns risk of nuclear war if West sends troops to Ukraine (Al Jazeera)

Yaya Dillo: Chad opposition leader killed in shootout (BBC)

India’s economy ended 2023 “with a bang” as growth surged to 8.4% (CNN)

Newshub senior journalist Michael Morrah says proposal will be made to save axed news operation (NZ Herald)

“Largest and most destructive” wildfire disaster in Texas torches 1 million acres (The Guardian)

Dozens killed waiting for aid in Gaza, overall death toll passes 30,000 (Reuters)

Breaking down the €137 billion in EU funds that Brussels has unfrozen for Poland
(euronews)

Five convicts familiar with Navalny’s prison confirm hellish conditions (The New York Times) ($)

THE COMMENTARIAT

James Cleverly sacked me as borders inspector. He should focus on a migrant strategy gone awry — David Neal (The Guardian): “This month I was sacked from my job as the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration. I have not been replaced. As things stand, we do not have an independent chief inspector of borders and immigration. That has profound consequences on oversight of the government’s immigration policies, and far-reaching implications for accountability. First, you should know that there are 15 outstanding unpublished reports for which that inspector has responsibility, on subjects as varied as deprivation of citizenship and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children housed in hotels. These reports stretch back as far as April 2023. You, the public, should have seen them. Delays in publishing will mean that the Home Office will claim that matters have moved on.

“While the reports will be published eventually, there will be no one to highlight key recommendations or provide a personal assessment to complement the evidence base of the reports. Second, a series of continuing inspections will remain incomplete, including those of the contingency asylum accommodation that includes the Bibby Stockholm, asylum hotels and large sites such as MDP Wethersfield. With no independent chief inspector to publish the reports, and my ability to comment gagged by the continued binding terms of my contract, these critical areas of inspection remain open, unsatisfied and unresolved. Since the reports will not be sent to the home secretary, he cannot begin to direct his staff to address the issues that they highlight. Additionally, this work includes the report commissioned in 2022 into conditions in Rwanda.”

The voters of Dunkley have government and opposition in a guessing game — Michelle Grattan (The Conversation): “A Labor loss would be dramatic, sending the government into a spin and the media into a feeding frenzy. With an election a little over a year away, the normally quiescent caucus would be agitated. Extra pressure would be put on the framing of the May budget, with calls amplified for the government to do more to address the cost of living, the major issue in the Dunkley campaign. If Labor holds the seat but only just, the angst will be immediate but limited. A win is a win. Nevertheless, that result would be seen in classic terms, as a ‘wake-up call’. The Liberals have been urging voters to send a protest message. A big swing against Labor would call into question whether Albanese had really got away with compromising his integrity by breaking his word over the stage three tax cuts. National polling suggests he has, even though the new tax regime has not given Labor a positive bounce.

“But a bad Dunkley result could raise longer-term worries for Albanese on the trust issue. The announcement of the reworked tax package was timed for Dunkley, despite Albanese’s denials. The government has relentlessly pushed the tax cuts in Parliament’s question time, slicing and dicing their rewards for teachers, nurses, police, women and every other conceivable cohort (even plumbers in Antarctica). Most voters in Dunkley will benefit, compared with where they’d have been under the old stage three plan. But it’s unclear how much they will reward the government. A Labor setback would probably bring a sharper focus on Albanese’s style. Already some in Labor believe he should cut back on the high-profile fun events he’s seen at.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)

• The Green Institute’s Tim Hollo will talk about his new book, Living Democracy, at Altona Meadows Library and Learning Centre.