Taking care of business

FRIENDS IN DEED

Synergy 360’s David Milo gave confidential defence documents he got while working at Deloitte to his new colleagues in 2018, the SMH ($) reports. One of the docs was on the vice chief of the defence force’s letterhead and had ForceNet project draft findings in it — that’s an internal communication platform the military used. And Milo’s not the only one: other Synergy 360 managers appear to have shared confidential Deloitte files, including a tender to defence that Milo prepared in 2016, emails seem to show. If Milo’s name is ringing a bell, it may be because former Coalition MP Stuart Robert was accused of advising Synergy’s clients about how to score lucrative government contracts. He denied it. Robert, who was also in charge of the unlawful robodebt scheme, resigned as member for Fadden in May.

Meanwhile a PwC-backed start-up called Innowell got $33 million of taxpayers’ money without a competitive tender process to develop a mental health platform, Guardian Australia reports. The platform ended up in the bin because health workers found the end product annoying to use. The Health Department said it did know it was PwC-backed, and it didn’t go out for tender because it was “a decision of the [Coalition] government at the time”. To another big four in trouble and EY denied it told the Victorian government the Commonwealth Games would cost Victoria $6.2 billion, Guardian Australia reports. Nor did Victorian Premier Dan Andrews tell Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) vice-president Kereyn Smith that the state’s forecast cost had blown out to nearly $7 billion, she told the ABC. The “speechless” board found out Andrews was cancelling the games only an hour before he told the rest of us — last it had heard was the budget had grown to $3 billion, saying the lack of communication was “unprecedented”.

PETA THE GRATE

Former Tony Abbott chief of staff Peta Credlin says former PM Malcolm Turnbull is foolish to recommend Liberals become more teal to win their seats back, as she writes for The Australian ($). She says climate and the environment were not the most important election issue for 83% of Australia — nearly one in five said it was the No. 1 issue, but anyway — and suggested the Coalition should’ve gone harder on the cost of living. (But the biggest problem for the party was leadership, Credlin conceded, pointing out Scott Morrison had the lowest rating in the history of ANU’s Australian Election Study.) The best thing the embattled party can do now is forget wealthy voters and go for “struggle street”, she says: “Voters earning more than $140,000 a year are now those least likely to vote Coalition and most likely to vote Labor or Greens.”

Speaking of climate politics — the Albanese government’s plan to create a battery industry here wouldn’t be worth it, according to the Productivity Commission via the AFR ($). The government has long held that “if we can mine it, we can make it” — and considering we are the world’s largest producer of lithium and bauxite (third biggest of cobalt and manganese), coupled with Beijing’s solar and EV battery monopoly, it seems a no-brainer. But Productivity Commission deputy chair Alex Robson reckons we should “never forget the lessons of our protectionist past” and focus on selling to US buyers rather than do our own manufacturing because we won’t lose money that way. It comes as Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen granted $1.12 million to the Australian Photovoltaic Institute for a study into “opportunities for production of solar panels and components here at home”.

GINA’S OPEN SECRET

Mining billionaire Gina Rinehart has lost her bid to have a family-affair stoush hidden from the public, WA Today ($) reports. It’s over this deal her dad, Lang Hancock, signed with his business partner Peter Wright and pioneer Don Rhodes back in the 1980s — Wright’s family has been trying to get a bigger bite of the lucrative Hope Downs tenement Hancock Prospecting owns with Rio Tinto, while the Rhodes family want 1.25% of the money. But it’s seen Rinehart’s kids Bianca Rinehart and John Hancock brought into the mix because the bid is at odds with their claims over their grandpa’s assets, as Guardian Australia reported on. Rinehart’s lawyer wanted a blanket suppression order on some 16,700 pages, but the other side was like, most of this info is already in the public domain. The judge agreed, rejecting Rinehart’s bid.

Meanwhile climate activist Emma Sangalli says her home was raided by counterterrorism police last month after protesters put stench gas — non-toxic — in the Perth headquarters of Woodside Energy, the BBC reports. The search took nine hours — phones and laptops were taken and a male cop read her diary. But Sangalli has not been charged. Nor was she there at the gas evacuation, the broadcaster notes. Woodside staff reckon they had trouble breathing and got rashes from the gas, but Disrupt Burrup was like, as if. Several of the group do face criminal charges which will be challenged in court. In extremely related news, this year will probably be the hottest ever recorded globally, The Guardian reports, with the northern hemisphere’s summer creating the hottest June and, possibly, hottest week ever.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

When Tasmanian woman Meryl Hudson noticed a for sale sign on the old Newstead Heights School, something clicked in her memory. The property, in a highly sought-after area of Launceston, had belonged to the Tasmanian government for a long while — nearly four decades, in fact, as the ABC reports. But Hudson, who worked for a disability support charity called St Giles, said the million-dollar lot had actually been promised to it for less than the price of a pack of gum. She explained to the no-doubt dubious chief executive Honni Pitt that the property had previously belonged to St Giles, and it had sold it to the Department of Education in 1984 for the low, low price of 50 cents. Crucially, that was on the proviso that the department would sell it back to St Giles for the same price in future, should it not need it any more.

Hudson’s story may have raised some eyebrows around the organisation, but a couple of others piped up that the story sounded right, so St Giles staff went diving headlong into the dusty archives to find out more. They miraculously turned up minutes from a meeting back in the early 1980s, and there it was in black and white: the 50 cent agreement with the government. So Pitt took it to education officials, and they agreed that a deal was a deal. St Giles could have the property back for the price of $1 (adjusted for inflation), an incredible bargain considering real estate in Tassie is eye-wateringly expensive. It’s also remarkable, Launceston real estate agent Phillipa Jenkins added, considering the enormous land value in the ritzy area of Newstead specifically. But no-one could say it wasn’t well-deserved for a disability charity that changes so many lives for the better.

Hoping your memory serves you well today.

SAY WHAT?

It’s like a Peter FitzSimons book on nano-chemistry. Dear lord, take me now … The Yes case reads as if it has been written by a sincere final-year law student trying not to upset anyone on the way to a second-class honours degree. The No case is written by the Terminator on a very bad day.

Greg Craven

The constitutional lawyer who was quoted against his will in the No case, goes on to say it was always going to be easier to write the No case because it didn’t need to persuade anyone, only scare and confuse them: “No argument is too crazy, no example too egregious.”

CRIKEY RECAP

The Games’ up: Dan Andrews rescues Victoria from his own stupidity

BERNARD KEANE

“Quelle surprise, the costs of the Commonwealth Games started blowing out at Olympic rates even before a single contract had been let. It was almost as if by linking two bad ideas, the costs were squared, not doubled — by yesterday’s announcement that the games were being dumped, the putative cost had risen to $6-7 billion, which, given the history of cost blowouts for major events, probably means $10 billion.

“Not even a dodgy big four consultancy with the most extravagant estimates of ‘social benefits’ and ‘global branding’ was enough to paper over the deep financial hole Andrews had proposed to dig in a budget already billions in the red. Unusually, Andrews has cut his losses, rather than persevering with an event that would have cost Victorian billions for no discernible benefit. But if the Commonwealth Games are gone, the pork-barrelling isn’t …”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

US military scrambles to determine fate of soldier who fled to North Korea (Reuters)

‘Work, food, freedom’: Afghan women protest beauty parlour ban (Al Jazeera)

BAFTA unveils non-binary longlist for directing category: progress or mistake? (euronews)

Senators to propose ban on US lawmakers, executive branch members owning stock (The Wall Street Journal) ($)

Leader of Thailand’s most popular party fails in final attempt to become PM (The Guardian)

Putin cut deal with Wagner ‘to save his skin,’ MI6 chief says in rare speech (CNN)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Voice to Parliament: why mob are staying silent — Chelsea Watego (IndigenousX):
“If those Yes vote evangelists are as committed as they say they are, to us having a Voice, then Blackfullas should be able to express what we think, we feel, and know — with or without the readings, law degrees, children’s books, or whatever. Blackfullas should be able to speak of the limitations of the proposed Voice, without being cast as intellectually incapable, mentally ill, politically disloyal, professionally inept, deceptive, treacherous, and a threat to be contained, complained about, blamed, or blocked. But this is the gaslighting and the sorry satire of settler colonialism. Those who claim to support us having a voice, are the ones most threatened by the varying voices of Blackfullas in this moment.

“Even in their knowing that our voice, in terms of our vote, doesn’t count for shit. Settlers meanwhile roam free with their outlandish claims to benevolence or destruction on either side of the campaign. It is not they who are perpetually required to declare and defend their voting intentions at writers’ festivals or wherever else, nor are they being summoned to the principal’s office as a result of such utterances. While the nation muses over whether to vote Yes or No to an Indigenous Voice to Parliament with no actual power, we are witnessing how power actually operates on the lives and livelihoods of Blackfullas in this place right now. Another day in the colony indeed.”

Hey blokes, if you want to have kids, get on with it. Your biological clock is ticking — Raelia Lew (The SMH) ($): “Putting on weight, smoking, drinking, medications for anxiety, depression and hair loss prevention, and the chemicals in common household cleaning products, deodorants and plastic containers around the home can all impair male fertility either by reducing the quality of the sperm, causing erectile dysfunction or reducing libido. Yet so much of what we talk about when it comes to fertility relates to the woman. The woman’s age, the quality of her eggs, her health conditions, her lifestyle choices …

“The myth that the fertility cliff doesn’t exist for men is just that: a myth. Delaying fertility for males (as well as females) can seriously jeopardise a couple’s chances of having a healthy baby. Studies show that in instances where the father is aged over 35, a pregnancy is significantly more likely to end in miscarriage than those aged under 35. The risk for gene mutations that can cause conditions like achondroplasia and multifactorial conditions such as autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia are also higher in older fathers. At a deeper level, there’s also evidence to show DNA fragmentation increases with age, which provides the opportunity for DNA errors to creep into the stem cells over time.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)

• Politico’s Zoya Sheftalovich and the Lowy Institute’s Mick Ryan will talk about the Russia-Ukraine war and where to next at an event at the Lowy Institute.

• Author Mark Brandi will talk about his new book, Southern Aurora, at Better Read Than Dead bookshop.

Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)

• Artist Tricia Reust will talk about her books Landscape as Story and Using Chroma Art Materials at Avid Reader bookshop.

Muwinina Country (also known as Hobart)

• Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff will give the 2023 State of the State address at Wrest Point.