Race to the bottom

NATIONAL SHAME

It’s “dangerous” for the Voice to Parliament debate to degenerate into a more racialised discussion, Race Discrimination Commissioner Chin Tan warns. He told The Age ($) it empowers racists and risks abuse and vilification of First Nations folks. The Voice “in itself is not racist and it does not racialise Australia”, he emphasised, an apparent reference to Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s comment that it would “re-racialise” Australia. Meanwhile, cashed-up international investors will be turned off Australia if the Voice fails, Wesfarmers boss Michael Chaney says. He told The Australian ($) Australia won’t look like a “fair place” and added that other CEOs agreed (he’s former chairman of NAB and Woodside Energy). It comes as independent Senator Lidia Thorpe is pondering whether to abstain from the vote, the ABC reports, saying she can’t support “something that gives us no power” but nor can she support the opposing side which looks “more like a white supremacy campaign”.

Indigenous man Eathan Cruse said he thought he was going to die after he suffered injuries requiring hospitalisation during a police counter-terrorism raid in 2015. He was 15, and never charged with a crime, Guardian Australia adds plainly. Cruse told Victoria’s Indigenous truth-telling commission he was diagnosed with PTSD, used drugs, and felt like an outcast in the years since the raid in which he copped a cut ear, bruised eye, swollen neck and racial slurs. He was awarded $400,000 by the Supreme Court. An internal Victoria Police review found no excessive force was used, even though the Supreme Court judge and the corruption watchdog found there probably was. “I think the police have been doing it for too long,” Cruse said.

WAKE IN FRIGHT

Melbourne may have shaken through its largest earthquake in a century after a 3.8-magnitude quake struck 3 kilometres beneath Sunbury, the ABC reports. Folks as far as Bendigo and Hobart felt the tremor too, which was reported at 11.41pm. The Seismology Research Centre’s Adam Pascale says the last time a magnitude 4 hit the metro area was 1902. A magnitude 5.9 rattled Melbourne in 2021, the broadcaster adds, but the epicentre was about 130 kilometres away. So far there have been no reports of injuries, but one Sunbury resident said he has a massive crack in his wall. Another said he thought a tram had hit his home, and hospital beds and floors shook in Footscray.

From quakes to leaks and it seems commercial clients are turning away from scandal-plagued PwC after Lendlease paused its tender for an auditor. The contract, which pays $8 million a year, was widely expected to go to PwC, the AFR ($) says, but the consultancy has been embroiled in a tax leak scandal where secret government info was used to advise clients how to sidestep new tax laws. It comes as the full Ziggy Switkowski report will be published in September, something Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill and Greens Senator Barbara Pocock will be pleased about after slamming PwC for committing only to releasing key points. And neither PwC tax partner Peter Collins nor former CEO Tom Seymour will go before a public hearing next month, because it might prejudice an AFP investigation. Yikes.

PRIVATE EYES

Former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins told ABC’s Laura Tingle that she planned to make a formal complaint against the Australian Federal Police, according to leaked WhatsApp messages obtained by Daily Mail Australia. It was over the release of Higgins’ private mental health records and psychology notes to Bruce Lehrmann’s legal team. The messages appear to contradict cop Scott Moller telling the inquiry last week that Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold had tipped off Tingle. In the texts, the ABC veteran journalist told Higgins’ it was “fucking outrageous” that the records were handed over, the SMH ($) continues, with Higgins calling it a “massive breach of privacy, unlawful and quite stressful”.

Speaking of privacy — Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning has accused Australia, the US, the UK, New Zealand and Canada of a massive disinformation campaign, news.com.au ($) reports. Five Eyes launched a report with Microsoft that found Chinese Communist Party-backed hackers — Volt Typhoon —  had attacked telecommunications and transportation hubs in the US and its territory of Guam. Mao said it was ironic considering “Five Eyes is the world’s biggest intelligence association and the NSA [US National Security Agency] the world’s biggest hacking group”.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Uni, a Japanese backpacker, did not realise there were so many nice people here in Australia. Everywhere he goes, he told Guardian Australia, helpful folks give him water, places to stay, and help fix his mode of transportation. It’s this final thing that has particularly captured the minds and hearts of eager onlookers — Uni, 23, who prefers not to use his last name, is scootering up the east coast of Australia. And he’s really made tracks — he started in Melbourne in January and has just scooted into Cairns. (“It’s very very hot.”) With a funky Japanese kasa (hat) on his noggin and a pair of slippers on his feet, he’s the sort of guy you just want to get behind. And more than 18,000 people have — he’s “something of a celebrity in regional Australia”, the paper says.

Initially it was all fun and games, something interesting to do. In the past he scootered 8000 kilometres around Japan and loved it. But when Uni was travelling through Port Macquarie he met a family of Ukrainian refugees who shared their touching story with him. He was so moved that he resolved to use his notoriety to raise money for UNHCR. People have opened their hearts as well as their wallets — the highlight of his trip was actually the first night in Seymour, in Victoria, where a local family welcomed him into their home. He couldn’t even speak English, he says, and they were so kind to him. “They cried when we said goodbye,” he recalls fondly in English, having learnt the language along the way. Uni is looking forward to touching down in Japan, but not for long. “I think next I want to go to America,” he said happily.

Hoping you spot a little of the good in the world today.

SAY WHAT?

Making art — especially making music — it prevents you from becoming the worst aspects of your character, and that’s why I very much think we need to be very, very careful about the music we don’t think people should listen to any more because of what the artist who has made that music may have been like.

Nick Cave

The Australian songwriter called cancel culture against morally questionable musicians misguided because songs are “the best” of musicians and we should not “eradicate the best of these people in order to punish the worst of them”.

CRIKEY RECAP

Police arrest Sydney man over threats to the ABC’s Stan Grant

JOHN BUCKLEY

“A man from Sydney’s west has been arrested and charged for levelling threats at the ABC’s Stan Grant, who last week took leave as Q+A host following a torrent of racial abuse directed at him after his appearance on the ABC’s coronation coverage.

“NSW Police arrested a 41-year-old man in Fairfield Heights on Wednesday evening, following investigations into a report filed with Sydney city police area command and just before midday on Tuesday alleging online threats made against Grant, police told Crikey in a statement.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

[US House Speaker Kevin] McCarthy, Biden predict Congress will pass debt ceiling deal (Reuters)

Russia to expel hundreds of German workers by start of June (euronews)

Labour congress lays bare Chris Hipkins’ and Labour’s election strategy (Stuff)

Takeaways from the impeachment of Texas Attorney-General Ken Paxton (The New York Times)

Turkey’s Erdogan wins reelection as president: state media (Al Jazeera)

[Ron] DeSantis accused of ‘catastrophic’ climate approach after campaign launch (The Guardian)

THE COMMENTARIAT

An Indigenous Voice to Parliament is our chance to grasp history and create change — Anthony Albanese (The Australian) ($): “The Voice won’t be a funding body. It won’t run programs. It won’t have a power of veto. We know that from the solicitor-general’s opinion, we know from former High Court judges. We know it from leading legal academics. And we know it from constitutional experts, including Megan Davis and George Williams. It will be about consultation, an ongoing conversation. It will be about listening. A body that will be representative of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and chosen by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. A body made up of representatives from every state and every territory. Representatives from towns and remote communities and everywhere between.

“When it’s been tried on a smaller scale, it’s clear that when decisions are made after listening to the people on the ground, the results are positive. Look at the Indigenous-led community health clinics extending life expectancy and improving the experience of people having to undergo dialysis or treatment for rheumatic heart disease. Look at the Indigenous ranger programs that have tapped into a great well of wisdom, cutting feral animal numbers and boosting protection for our unique natural environment by employing local people to work on country. And look at justice reinvestment programs that are reducing incarceration rates. If you want to see that in action, look at Bourke, where the community-led Maranguka Project is delivering results.”

The war won’t be over if Ukraine wins — George Brandis (The SMH) ($): “First, there is the reconstruction of Ukraine itself. The World Bank estimated the cost at $US411 billion ($630 billion). That is not going to come from reparations from a defeated Russia; it will be a global task of Marshall Plan-like dimensions. It will involve private capital as well as public money. Next month, the British and Ukrainian governments will co-host — also in London — the Ukraine recovery conference. “One of the keynote speakers will be Australia’s Twiggy Forrest, who has been a leader among the world’s super-rich in marshalling (no pun intended) private capital.

“​Then there is the issue of bringing the perpetrators to justice. Doubtless, numerous war crimes have been committed by Russian political leaders and military commanders during the conflict — most obviously, the violation of No  VI of the Nuremberg Principles by waging a war of aggression, and the crime recognised by Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court of ​‘​intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population [and] civilian objects​’​. As the experience following the Balkan War demonstrates, investigating and prosecuting such crimes is the work of decades. The possibilities for the enforcement of international criminal justice seem remote.​”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Online

• The Biloela family’s Priya Murugappan and former Manus refugee Moz Azimitabar will discuss how we should improve the permanent visa system, held online.

Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)

• Aunty Violet Sheridan, Yawuru man and Australian National University’s Peter Yu, and Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney will speak at a forum on the Voice to Parliament, hosted by parliamentarians Katy Gallagher, Alicia Payne, David Smith and Andrew Leigh at the Kambri Cinema. You can also catch this one online.

Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)

• Palestinian academic Bassam Aramin and Israeli graphic designer Rami Elhanan will share their stories of loss, empathy and peace at the Wheeler Centre.