‘ENOUGH IS ENOUGH’
Sixty-three Australian MPs and senators have signed a letter demanding that “the prosecution and incarceration of the Australian citizen Julian Assange must end”, Guardian Australia reports, warning it is eroding our respect for the US justice system. The WikiLeaks founder, who is languishing in the UK’s Belmarsh prison, has suffered for a decade in various states of incarceration — it’s “wrong”, “serves no purpose” and is “unjust” for him to be further persecuted, they wrote. The US wants him on charges under the Espionage Act because of the publication of hundreds of thousands of documents on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. But if he is extradited, “there will be a sharp and sustained outcry in Australia”. The latest supporters included Labor’s Shayne Neumann and Louise Pratt, and the Coalition’s Melissa Price, and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has also called for Assange’s return. A bipartisan Assange delegation leaves for Washington next week.
Meanwhile, military veterans and former Defence staff could get 20 years’ jail if they work for foreign governments without permission, the SMH ($) reports. Defence Minister Richard Marles will introduce the espionage laws today — but authorisation won’t be necessary if they’re working for Five Eyes (the United States, United Kingdom, Canada or New Zealand). It’s already illegal for former Defence staff to reveal knowledge from their government job, but this bill goes further. It also captures any Australian who conducts weapon or military training for another government without the authorisation of our own. It comes as three of the Big Four consulting firms are being investigated for their time as contractors to the Defence Department, the AFR ($) reports, with one investigation probing possible misuse of government info.
PETER PECKS AT PILLS
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton wants to use Commonwealth power to override the ACT’s decriminalisation of the possession of ice, heroin and cocaine, The Australian ($) reports, which will start on October 28. The extraordinary intervention will be put forward in a private member’s bill in the Senate — where 31 seats are held by the opposition, 26 by Labor, 11 Greens, three independents and the remaining five being One Nation, Lambie Network or United Australia. Dutton would need everyone except the Greens (and Labor, of course) to get this up, and passing private members’ bills is tough at the best of times, so his comments that “the ACT government is rolling out the red carpet for drug use and more crime” will probably just kick off some debate for the next fortnight. ACT independent Senator David Pocock said: “If they would like to see changes in the ACT’s laws, I would encourage them to run for the Legislative Assembly at next year’s election.”
From lawmaking to lawyering, and Qantas could pay up to $200 million to compensate 1,683 workers who were illegally sacked during the pandemic, the AFR ($) reports. Not such a cost-saving measure now, is it? The High Court unanimously upheld the finding in an appeal yesterday — now the Federal Court will decide how much Qantas will be fined. The Vanessa Hudson-led Qantas, the Fin pointedly writes, apologised yesterday and vowed to sort it as quickly as possible. It was heartbreaking, one worker told the ABC — some had worked for decades on the tarmac through rain, freezing winter and heatwaves, and on public holidays such as Christmas Day, only for the “axe” to fall on their necks one lunch as Alan Joyce’s Qantas outsourced the jobs. Meanwhile Guardian Australia says some of our most powerful regulators — such as the ACCC boss Gina Cass–Gottlieb and ASIC boss Joseph Longo — are members of Qantas’s swanky, invite-only Chairman’s Lounge. Five of the seven ACCC commissioners are, two deputies at ASIC are too. It’s not like they’re corrupt — but it is always interesting to see how the country’s most influential people are treated.
SPEAKING OF RACISM
Folks, brace yourselves. There is new footage of Marcia Langton that says the Voice to Parliament will tackle racism if the Yes campaign succeeds, Sky News Australia reports in what will surely mean Sharri Markson gets scoop of the year. You almost can’t parody this stuff. In other actual news, has your phone dinged with a text purporting to be from Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price? It popped up on phones this week, news.com.au reports, reading: “Hi, it’s Jacinta Price. The referendum is on 14 Oct. This Voice is risky, unknown and divisive. Don’t know? Say no. For a postal vote go to https://postal.vote.” Who paid for it, and who do I complain to, people wondered on X (aka Twitter). Advice from top legal experts has found the Voice is not “risky” and “unknown”, as Guardian Australia reports.
It comes as Yes campaigners should tell Australians that the No side is punching down on Indigenous peoples, The Age ($) reports. Call it out, say who’s behind it, show they’re creating division by “vilifying Aboriginal people” and “distracting” with requests for “ludicrous detail”, the document from the Victorian Trades Hall Council reads. The No side wants to “safeguard mining interests” and “sell newspapers with shock”, it continues. Meanwhile, First Nations academic Marlene Longbottom has walked away from a Queensland police advisory panel looking at Indigenous issues because the force doesn’t want to change, as Guardian Australia reports. Longbottom said it was a “volatile, hostile space” where Indigenous members had to fight to get senior cops to talk about crucial matters such as police shootings of Indigenous people. I’ll never work with the cops again, she said.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Some 22,500 sweaty Irish folks will cross a line next month in various circles of hellish suffering. Some will be sputtering and dry-retching, others delirious and parched, suffering painful stitches, blistering feet, and burning lungs. Every single wretched person will be there by choice, however — the Dublin marathon, like any marathon, attracts the sort of person who finds satisfaction in the unique suffering that running 42.2 kilometres can bring to the human body. The only reward is bragging rights, whether it’s only to yourself at night or to others over post-run beers, and a small medal to prove the accomplishment — in this case, inscribed with a moving message from Irish poet W.B. Yeats, chosen to reflect Dublin’s reputation as the friendly marathon. It reads: “There are no strangers here; only friends you haven’t met yet.”
Only, well… Yeats didn’t say that. There is “no evidence of any kind” that Yeats wrote those words “either in his numerous articles, essays or book reviews, or in his almost 400 poems and 23 plays”, Yeats Society Sligo director Susan O’Keeffe told The Guardian. But who cares, she added. It’s still a moving sentiment, and besides, “only the great writers, songwriters, poets, philosophers are misquoted”. Yeats also wrote, “For I am running to paradise; and all that I need do is to wish,” which may have been a slightly better fit. But maybe a sentiment about human kindness is more fitting — it may be the only thing that makes this great and, if we’re lucky, long run through life worthwhile when we cross that inevitable finish line.
Hoping you feel the love around you today.
SAY WHAT?
Unemployment has to jump 40 to 50% in my view. We need to see pain in the economy. We need to remind people that they work for the employer, not the other way around. Tradies have definitely pulled back on productivity. They have been paid a lot to do not too much in the last few years, and we need to see that change.
Tim Gurner
Gurner’s wish, in human numbers, would see more than a quarter of a million Australians lose their jobs. The AFR ($) adds the billionaire, who was infamous for saying millennials can’t afford to buy homes because of their avocado-toast breakfasts, got his start from loans from his boss and grandfather.
CRIKEY RECAP
“Qantas received $2.7 billion in taxpayer subsidies throughout the pandemic, $856 million of which was JobKeeper to keep workers employed — the highest amount of JobKeeper paid to any company. Yet, by August 2021, 9,400 employees had left Qantas following redundancies and outsourcing. Qantas argued it could not have breached employee rights, as employees did not have the right to take protected industrial action at the time of the decision to outsource …
“Crikey has learnt from staff based at Sydney Airport that former CEO Alan Joyce boarded an Emirates flight to Dublin the day he departed the company, accompanied by a security detail so he did not ‘have to interact with other passengers or onlookers’.”
“Inspired by the AEC’s electoral disinformation register, I have started a register of commonly encountered false claims spread on social media about polling, mostly from people claiming to be on the left. A few right-wing claims are included too, but I don’t see those so often at the moment. (I do see a lot of right-wing electoral disinformation, especially the ‘three out of 10 voted Labor’ preferential-voting denial.)
“While many of the claims are just whoppers or have some grounding in something that used to be true but no longer is, some result from confusion between what polls said and what media commentary misinterpreted them as saying. Polling is blamed for the way that media sources misinterpret polls (often to play up false narratives that an election is close, but also sometimes to pander to an audience, or at times through more innocent errors).”
“Ah, but the media object, the Voice is complicated, involving the recognition of First Peoples, improving policy aimed at Indigenous welfare, and parliamentary process. Except it’s not complex, not to anyone who has made an effort to comprehend the case for genuine recognition in a form on which First Peoples have been consulted, and the need for a fundamental incorporation of the voices of First Peoples in policymaking in order to close the gap.
“Many voters haven’t made that effort, the media would counter, which is why the No campaign is succeeding. But disengagement by voters at this point reflects a deliberate choice. There can be no accidental or natural state of ignorance on the part of voters on October 14 — to insist otherwise is, again, to remove all agency from voters in a democracy. Remaining ignorant, disengaged, electing to be confused, fearful of the unknown, represents a deliberate choice.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Earth ‘well outside safe operating space for humanity’, scientists find (The Guardian)
Cough syrup killed scores of children. Why no-one has been held to account (Reuters)
‘We will fight imperialism together’, North Korea’s Kim tells Vladimir Putin (euronews)
Romney to retire, calling for a ‘new generation’ beyond Biden and Trump (The New York Times)
Taliban gives a warm welcome to China’s new ambassador to Afghanistan (Al Jazeera)
THE COMMENTARIAT
To get our economy on track, we need both tax and spending reform — Allegra Spender (The Australian) ($): “Australia has a spending integrity problem. We spend billions of dollars on programs with few measures of spending effectiveness. Education is a stark example. Under Gonski 2.0, schools funding is increasing by more than $1 billion a year, only to see academic performance decline. There is little economic evaluation of health spending and we are used to seeing infrastructure projects — such as Snowy 2.0 and inland rail — cost double or triple the budget. To truly address spending, we need transparent economic evaluation of public spending, parliamentary oversight of off-budget spending and real improvements in public sector productivity.
“The government has made some sensible moves: ending some of the most egregious grant rorts, investing in a centre for evaluation, and discussing how to fund aged care properly. But it needs to go further. And we need the political will to deliver sensible reform. One example is infrastructure spending. Earlier this year I proposed amendments to require independent evaluation of costs and benefits before the government could invest in major projects. It was based on an amendment moved by Anthony Albanese when he was in opposition and would have ensured public money went only to the best projects. It’s the kind of reform we need, but both major parties opposed it.”
No campaign’s squalid tactics will pollute politics long after referendum day — Niki Savva (The SMH) ($): “Anthony Albanese has just endured his worst two weeks so far as prime minister, largely thanks to the Qantas-Qatar controversy. It doesn’t qualify as a crisis, but there will be one, some day, and if the government manages it in the same way, it will end with the elimination of the prime minister and/or whichever minister is involved. It is an indictment on the government that it allowed the issue to consume debate for so long. The evasions not only encouraged conspiracy theories to flourish. They fuelled concerns about the cost of living and fed suspicions about cronyism and the Voice.
“Albanese has been plagued for months by criticism that he has failed to provide enough information on the Voice and here he was again showing an obstinate reluctance to give straightforward explanations about a fairly routine decision. If the move to block Qatar Airways’ bid for extra flights into Australia was to ensure Qantas survives and Qatar is punished — eminently defensible — the government should have said so, while making clear to Qantas it must treat its customers and staff with respect, or else. Yes, Qantas are bastards but if they go down it would be disastrous. Qatar has taken far too long to resolve the matter of the women who were strip-searched in 2020. It was undoubtedly a factor.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Online
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War on Waste’s Craig Reucassel and the Australia Institute’s Nina Gbor will talk about plastic, food and fashion waste in a webinar.
Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)
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Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price will address the National Press Club.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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The University of Melbourne’s Ghassan Hage, journalist Sarah Ayoub, Macquarie University’s Jumana Bayeh, cultural worker Paula Abood and author Amani Haydar will chat about their new book, The Racial Politics of Australian Multiculturalism, at Better Read Than Dead bookshop.
