Government considers recognising Palestinian state

THE STATE OF THINGS

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong says the government is mulling recognising Palestinian statehood, the SMH reports. Wong made the comments ahead of a UN push this week to consider adding Palestine as a full member of the international body (Palestine has been an “observer” for 12 years). It comes seven months after Labor reverted to using the term “Occupied Palestinian Territories”, something the Coalition mostly avoided as Guardian Australia reports, even though Scott Morrison acknowledged we were subject to UN Security Council resolutions that say Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory post-1967 (including East Jerusalem) have no legal validity and violate international law. It also follows a landmark motion passed at the 2018 Labor Conference calling on the next government to recognise Palestine as a state.

Anyway, back to Wong — she said Hamas could never have a role in any future Palestinian state and argued that statehood wouldn’t be “rewarding an enemy” because peace for both sides could only come from a two-state solution (where Israel was recognised by neighbouring countries too — only 84% of UN member states do). For now, Wong also said, although Israel has a right to defend itself, we have to hold the functioning democracy to a higher standard than the terrorist organisation — that means Israel must allow more aid in and it must rethink its major ground offensive in Rafah. “Do not go down this path,” she urged. Wong’s comments follow those of UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who also urged the recognition of Palestine a few weeks back, as The Age reported.

COMPETING IDEAS

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) boss Gina Cass-Gottlieb will get the power to block mergers under sweeping reforms announced by Treasurer Jim Chalmers, The Australian ($) reports. The watchdog has only scrutinised 330 mergers in 10 years because it’s voluntary, but some 1,400 were recorded last year alone, and who knows how much better or worse they made competition. Moving forward, Cass-Gottlieb will know — she’ll be able to block serial acquisitions as well as ones that make market leaders practically invincible. She wanted the power to say no unless the companies prove their case, but AFR reports the ACCC will instead have to satisfy itself that the merger will lessen competition.

Meanwhile, the ABC reports the rate of businesses going under has more than doubled in two years to 503, according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), including brands like Godfreys and Tigerlily. Some blame the cost of living making us pull in the belt — last year retail spending declined 0.9%, the first backslide in four decades, the AFR says. It comes as Bunnings was excluded from plans to fine major supermarkets up to 10% of their profits for breaches, The New Daily reports, even though it allegedly has a near monopoly (70%) over plants, flowers and gardening goods. Former Labor minister Craig Emerson said Greenlife Industry Australia needs to create its own mandatory code of conduct. Also, dumpling chain Din Tai Fung has been fined $4 million for a scheme to “rob employees”, the AFR reports, by underpaying and creating fake pay records to cover its tracks.

TIME’S UP

Seven commercial director Bruce McWilliam allegedly sent a photograph of a “bloodied and bandaged” executive producer to Nine newspapers journalist Zoe Samios accusing her of driving the person to self-harm because she asked questions about a secret fraud investigation, the SMH reports. The paper says the producer’s injuries were actually from a fall in an LA street weeks prior, and says it spoke to friends who said the producer was burnt out from working on Sunrise. Meanwhile, the Cranbrook School teacher who allegedly sent sexual messages to female students has been temporarily banned from working in NSW schools, the ABC reports, and the teacher is no longer employed by the school (he was on leave until Monday). It follows the explosive Four Corners that revealed he’d allegedly shared sexual fantasies with a young woman whom he used to teach at Mount St Benedict College.

It comes as former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins raised the possibility she was drugged on the night she alleged she was raped by colleague Bruce Lehrmann, news.com.au reports. (Lehrmann denied the charge and it was dropped out of fear for Higgins’ health.) It’s per her submission to his defamation case, the conclusion of which we will learn on Monday, Sky News Australia says. But it wasn’t raised in proceedings, her submission continues, even though the AFP noted Higgins had wondered about it out loud and her lawyer said that she had wished it was explored, as the ABC adds. News’ reporter Samantha Maiden is careful to spell out that she isn’t suggesting Higgins was drugged, however, and nor is Crikey.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Movies make us laugh, cry, cringe, fall asleep and sometimes, they make us rethink everything. The Truman Show got to so many people there’s a diagnosable disorder known as Truman Syndrome, where the person really believes their life is a reality TV show. Then there’s The Matrix, which celebrates its quarter-century this year, making us question a topic that’s gaining popularity lately — are we in a computer simulation right now? Probably, CNN’s Rizwan Virk says, because the closer our technology gets to building a hyperreal interactive simulation — known as the simulation point — the more likely it is that someone has already created it. Indeed the chances we aren’t already in it, just like a thoroughly freaked-out Neo was before he ate that all-revealing red pill, is one in billions, Tesla billionaire Elon Musk recently said.

In 1999, the blockbuster flick, which filmed several scenes around Sydney, was more science fiction than fact. Sure, we were staring down a possible Y2K world meltdown, but the internet was in its infancy, our artificial intelligence was dumb as a post, and the dot com boom was seen more as a business opportunity than a threat to our privacy or well-being. It wasn’t nearly as eerie as it is now to hear Morpheus tell Neo that “sometime in the early 21st century” AI became conscious and waged a brutal and successful war on humans, particularly considering today’s developers are using ChatGPT to write the code that runs our world. So are we doomed? Maybe not. If we are in AI’s fake world, the law of attraction becomes a far more interesting concept — that is, manifesting our most ardent desires into existence using intention. Hopefully, our AI overlords will listen.

Hoping you get what you want today.

SAY WHAT?

Let me answer your question by asking you a question. Do you think it’s right we have thousands of vacant, abandoned homes while we have people living on the street?

Jordan van den Berg

The lawyer and social media personality was responding to a question from a bemused Sarah Harris on The Project asking if his encouraging people to squat in empty private houses was a good idea.

CRIKEY RECAP

Aid workers’ murders in Gaza did not start with Zomi Frankcom’s death

RACHEL COGHLAN

“The truth of Zomi’s slaughter is despicable. The images of her bloodied Australian passport and lifeless body strewn across social media in real time — were we seeing these before her own family and friends? — is horrendous. Hearing of Zomi’s bravery and adventurous spirit from her grieving friends and family is utterly heartbreaking.

“My colleagues and I grieve for Zomi and all those killed in this attack, and we are outraged at Israel’s impunity towards safeguarding aid workers, humanitarian corridors and international humanitarian law.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Turkey restricts exports of 54 products to Israel until Gaza ceasefire (Al Jazeera)

European court rules human rights violated by climate inaction (BBC)

Simon Harris becomes Ireland’s youngest-ever leader [at 37] (CNN)

Michigan school shooter’s parents sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison for role in attack (The Guardian)

Former Conservative leader alleges Chinese interference may have played a part in his ouster (CBC)

Trump loses bid to delay hush money trial pending gag order appeal (Reuters)

March breaks global temperature record for tenth month in a row. How does Europe compare? (euronews)

Arizona upholds 160-year-old abortion ban (The New York Times) ($)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Angus Campbell failed test of defence force leadership — Michael Shoebridge (The Australian) ($): “And yet while calling for honours given to the special forces to be revoked, Campbell failed to do what every leader must — to ask nothing of others that you are not willing to do yourself. He kept his own award. No one in the military hierarchy from this time has been held to account. Campbell’s move to strip the unit citation was apparently overruled by then defence minister Peter Dutton. But if Campbell had publicly returned his Distinguished Service Cross first, his demonstration of moral integrity would have been hard to stand against.

“Two weeks ago, testifying ­before the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide — facing the fact that 20 times more defence members have died from suicide than have on active duty — Campbell apologised unreservedly. He said deficiencies in defence’s efforts had ‘tragically led to the deaths by suicide of some of our people’. But he had few ideas about anything he might have done differently over his six years of command, or even what should be done from here on. And AUKUS? The best that can be said about Campbell and his defence leadership colleagues on AUKUS is they didn’t get in the way of a prime minister who wanted to get hold of nuclear submarines.”

How making abortion a state issue could work for Trump — Matthew Cranston (The AFR): “Trump’s strategy could backfire, of course. Since Roe v Wade was overturned in June 2022, voters in every state with an abortion-related ballot measure have favoured the side backed by abortion rights supporters. But, equally, perceptions of an out-of-control US-Mexican border could cost Biden dearly. And would-be Democrat voters concerned about immigration policy won’t get a separate ballot option on that issue, although there are some states with questions about citizenship requirements.

“So, moderates concerned with Democrats’ handling of more than nine million illegal immigrants might have to use the more blunt instrument of a presidential vote, and that could cost Biden. Trump is clearly trying to ameliorate the political impact of his position on abortion. On Monday, he attacked Republican Senator Lindsey Graham for pushing a bill to outlaw abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The issue is not so much that it’s 15 weeks — that’s a widely accepted cut-off. Gallup polling last year showed that 70% of Americans oppose legal abortion in the third trimester, and 55% in the second. What annoyed Trump was that Graham is pushing it federally.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)

• Alinta Energy’s Jeff Dimery will speak at the National Press Club.

Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)

• Author Tobias Madden will talk about his new book, Wrong Answers, at Better Read Than Dead bookshop.