Are you as woke as The Wiggles? (Image: Supplied)

Un Pettitt peu Former Fremantle mayor Brad Pettitt gave us an insight into just how much weight (and money) the federal government was willing to chuck about to try to rein in rogue councils on the issue of Australia Day.

In 2017 Freo became the first local government to shift its Australia Day celebrations away from January 26. As late as 2020 The Australia Day Council (WA) wrote to Pettitt to brief him on the “new $8 million grant program available to LGAs nationally to support the delivery of COVID-safe Australia Day events” and that Fremantle had the opportunity to secure access to an “invitation only” sponsorship of $750,000.

It didn’t stop there. Pettitt said that Morrison’s trusted advisor and Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Ben Morton contacted the mayor to offer to top up the grant to $1 million. The offer was declined. Pettitt told Crikey: “It can only be described as an act of desperation by the Commonwealth government — akin to putting their thumb in a hole to stop a leak in a dam wall — to offer local governments large sums of money to keep celebrations on January 26”.

We asked Morton’s office about this, but didn’t hear back by deadline.

Wiggle room The Australian has dedicated two reporters to making sure the nation doesn’t miss out on the headline “Canavan warns Wiggles: ‘go woke and go broke'”. It really underlines how emaciated 90% of culture war debates really are — Senator Matt Canavan, a man nominally paid to represent the interests of the people who vote for his party, got steamed enough about some children’s entertainers hiring some people of colour that he talked to the nation’s only broadsheet about it, and they decided it was important enough to write down and then print. It’s kind of weird when you think about it.

Beyond that, it will be very interesting to keep an eye on the accuracy of Canavan’s claim. The Wiggles are up there with AC/DC and Kylie Minogue as Australia’s most successful acts ever. Are the tens of millions of dollars they make each year in danger, as predicted by a guy who took a pay cut — ditching cabinet and returning to the backbench — to support his anti-woke pal Barnaby Joyce’s failed attempt to wrestle the leadership of the National Party back in February?

A mere spectator The Spectator Australia does not like this John Hewson! Their Flat White column has, as the name suggests, a particularly bitter rant about the (admittedly unusual) hiring of John Hewson by The Saturday Paper, which apparently “….has a strange and gloomy collection of has-beens, never wills and fringe dwellers that make up the contributors roster of Australia’s most boring paper…”

Wow. We’ll leave the Satty to defend its Walkley-winning roster against the Speccy’s line-up for that week (Alan Moran, sacked from the IPA, state upper house reject David Leyonhjelm, and, uh, David Flint), but we’re most interested in the phrase “fringe dwellers”, which was beloved of our old mucker Christian Kerr. Is Hillary Braying at the Speccy these days?

Vaccine and not heard A little follow-up on our look at COVID in the Northern Territory. Northern Land Council Chairman Samuel Bush-Blanasi is reviewing the permit process for workers visiting Indigenous communities in the NT:

Traditional owners and community members are telling us loud and clear they don’t want unvaccinated workers travelling into their communities and homelands. We know that across the country others are showing the way in how we respond to this virus and our mob expects the NLC to do our best to keep them safe and secure. We will be reviewing our permit terms and conditions as a matter of urgency. 

Another indication that if we want leadership on vaccine mandates, it’s unlikely to come from government.