CAUCUS ON AUKUS
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he would’ve signed up to AUKUS had he been leader at the time, Guardian Australia reports, despite calls from former Labor PM Paul Keating to walk away. The diplomatic ménage à trois is not just about nuclear submarines, Albo continued — it’s a defence pact between “friends” in an “insecure world”. Incidentally, Defence Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong will meet with their British counterparts today before Marles heads to the US — it’s prep work for the revelations next month about how exactly we will get to own at least eight subs. It comes as the British navy is urgently investigating whether someone repaired one of its nuclear submarines with superglue, the BBC reports, which honestly sounds like a Monty Python skit.
Meanwhile Albanese has written to Opposition Leader Peter Dutton asking him just what it’s gonna take to get his support on the Voice to Parliament, the SMH reports. Albanese asked Dutton for “practical suggestions or amendments on the wording” and reinforced that it’s up to Parliament to decide the structure if the referendum is successful. Dutton is meeting with the referendum working group today, with members Pat Anderson, Megan Davis and Noel Pearson to explain to Dutton how important the Voice really is. So what’s Dutton’s problem? One is how far-reaching the Voice would be — could it have a say in defence matters or budgetary priorities, he wondered on 3AW last month. But Albo wrote in his letter it would offer advice on Indigenous policy — for example, when the alcohol bans in a bunch of Indigenous communities in the NT were suddenly lifted without consultation, as the ABC reported last year.
LETTERBOMBING
Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann has lodged an explosive formal complaint against the ACT’s top prosecutor, accusing him of “malice” and “political interests”, The Australian ($) reports. Lehrmann says Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold’s “public behaviour continues to smear my name and the presumption of innocence that is a cornerstone of our justice system and that demands him to uphold”, news.com.au continues. He also accused Drumgold of “repeatedly and frequently” failing to ensure a fair trial following Brittany Higgins’s allegation of rape. The trial was ultimately abandoned over concerns for Higgins’ health.
The ACT government has confirmed the inquiry (the territory’s version of a royal commission) into Lehrmann’s trial can look at political interference in the case, the ABC reports. The inquiry is also looking into why a letter between Drumgold and the ACT’s top cop was made public — in it, Drumgold said detectives had “cherry-picked” evidence and pressured him not to charge Lehrmann. Hey, to another court case now and one of 14 mostly “grey-haired” climate activists who allegedly disrupted Queensland Parliament last year says she’d rather die in jail than a nursing home, Guardian Australia reports. The crew were released on bail under the condition they do not enter Parliament — the case will resume in two weeks.
THAT HURTS
The number of people who put off going to the doctor because it’s too expensive surged by almost 50% in the past 12 months, a damning new report has revealed, amounting to 3.5% of the population, or about one in every 28 people. It’s one of several grim findings in the latest Productivity Commission report, as the ABC reports. Another was that almost a quarter of respondents delayed going to a psychologist, psychiatrist or mental health professional because of money worries. Another finding: 3 million Australians went to the emergency department instead of the GP, the AFR reports, because of expense or wait times. Health Minister Mark Butler put it plainly: “It has never been harder to see a doctor than it is right now. It’s also never been more expensive.”
It’s good timing — the premiers will meet with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese tomorrow and are expected to beg for more hospital funding from the Commonwealth. Australian Medical Association vice-president Danielle McMullen said it should be 50-50 state-federal for good, as the AFR reports — that was a temporary hospital funding split during the pandemic. At least we can rest easy about the tiny-yet-dangerous radioactive capsule lost on an enormous stretch of highway between Perth and Pilbara — it has been found. It was like finding a “needle in a haystack”, WA Emergency Services Minister Stephen Dawson said in a story that has gone around the world.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
“Nothing fans the fires of romance like a ticking clock,” The Guardian’s Clem Bastow says wisely, and she knows that now. On her first trip overseas at 31, not so much. She’d just completed a short course in London when a handsome Scot bailed her up at the pub bleating about a cryptic crossword. Her friends “looked on in dismay” as Cupid fired his arrow, she says. After some deeply romantic make-outs next to some supermarket’s bins, she was certain: he was the one. So what that his housemate did a wee in the kettle, she reasoned. Who cares that he seemed to survive on a diet of gruel? Big deal that he was an acquaintance of dishevelled rocker Pete Doherty! Bastow’s return to her home in Los Angeles only intensified things: late-night video chatting, exchanging playlists. She couldn’t wait to get back to London.
After she landed, he didn’t reply to her texts. Hmm, she began to wonder, perhaps I have been too quick here. When she finally teed up a time to meet her handsome Scot, she was met instead with a “waterlogged figure [who] scurried in the side door” and “attempted to dry his beard with a tea towel and explained he’d had to sell his umbrella”. Hmmmm, she continued to wonder. As they talked, she realised it had been nothing more than a spark caused by a dank alleyway and an impending flight. “Overcome with relief, I started laughing and could not stop,” she says. As they left, Bastow spotted a Starbucks. “Well, this is me!” she declared brightly, and hid behind a rack of mugs. He didn’t follow. The lesson? Avoid Scots who sell umbrellas — and stay clear-eyed, even in the romantic throes of an overseas adventure.
Hoping the smiles come easily today folks.
SAY WHAT?
It just had not crossed my mind until I read it in the newspaper, I think following the Federal Court case.
Alan Tudge
Whether or not the robodebt scheme was legal did not occur to the former Coalition human services minister, who was responsible for the illegal welfare crackdown for two solid years. He’s been accused of releasing details of the people who complained about robodebt to the media.
CRIKEY RECAP
George Pell leaves behind an empty church and a cathedral full of moral losses
“In 1996, Pell’s influence was decidedly on the rise. He was appointed archbishop of Melbourne, having served as a parish priest and bishop for the southern region of Melbourne. His elevation to genuine church power coincided with the election of the Howard government.
“He was invited as a delegate to the Australian Constitutional Convention in 1998 to consider the issue of the republic. In 2003 he received the Centenary Medal from the Australian government. Two years later he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), the highest of Australia’s honours. In the meantime, the Victorian-born Pell had been appointed archbishop of Sydney.”
Tudge’s office used News Corp to ‘shut down’ robodebt media crisis, royal commission hears
“Miller said Tudge requested the files of ‘every single person’ who appeared in news reports on the scheme so ‘we could understand the details of their case’. The bolstered media strategy included ‘correcting the record’ in instances where victims had gone to media with their stories and made claims the department and the minister’s office deemed incorrect.
“She was asked about the process that led to the release of victims’ personal details. The commission heard that Miller discussed the partial release of information against the recipient with Bevan Hannan, her media counterpart at the department, and chief counsel Annette Musolino, who cleared the release, which only drew more criticism.”
Greens to reveal draft cannabis legislation within two months
“The Greens commissioned the PBO [Parliamentary Budget Office] to calculate how much money Australia could make by legalising cannabis for adults. Shoebridge said a combination of GST, company tax and a 15% cannabis sales tax would add up to more than $28 billion in government revenue in the first decade after legalisation. If the cannabis tax was set at 25% instead, the revenue would be more than $36 billion.
“The PBO’s analysis, seen by Crikey, also said the pre-taxed price of cannabis, which is currently estimated at $13.40 per gram, would fall to $6.50 within a decade. It also said that the experience in Canada, where weed is legal, showed that more than half of recreational users would begin buying from legal sources within a few years. Within a decade, the proportion of users buying legally would rise to 95%.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Lebanon devalues official exchange rate by 90% (Al Jazeera)
NFL great Tom Brady says he is retiring ‘for good’ (Reuters)
Inflation in the eurozone fell for third month in a row in January (EuroNews)
Revealed: how world’s biggest fossil fuel firms ‘profited in Myanmar after coup’ (The Guardian)
Vaccine makers kept $1.4b in prepayments for cancelled COVID shots for the world’s poor (The New York Times)
Andrew Tate: influencer’s appeal against detention rejected by Romanian judges (BBC)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Why is Australian TV failing to punch through internationally? — Osman Faruqi (The SMH) ($): “The truth is very few of these shows, especially in recent years, have resonated strongly outside of Australia (Heartbreak High, turbocharged by international streamer Netflix, is one obvious exception). Even when they do break through, it tends to be in isolation rather than part of a cohesive and defined genre that tells a particular story about contemporary Australia. One Heartbreak High doesn’t equate to our equivalent of K-drama, in other words. So, what’s going on? Why does it appear as though Australian TV is failing to punch through? And, perhaps most importantly, does it even matter?
“Let’s start with the question of why it matters. Audience size, whether local or international, has nothing to do with quality. Some of the best TV shows in the world have won more awards than they’ve had viewers. On the other hand, something as trite and meaningless as The Big Bang Theory was regularly watched by tens of millions of people around the world. But a show resonating outside its home country is about more than getting to brag about viewership figures. It demonstrates that, in a flooded TV landscape, the quality of the production and the uniqueness of the story stands out … Australia has some policies that encourage film and TV production, but they don’t go anywhere near as far [as] those in other comparable countries.”
Sunak thinks he is following Thatcher’s union-busting playbook. But he has fatally misread it — Aditya Chakrabortty (The Guardian): “Despite the clichés of a deep-blue ideologue, the longest-serving prime minister of the 20th century obsessed over building public support for her policies. Through the early 1980s, she was sure the electorate, including rank-and-file union members, backed her against the union leaders. ‘Far from proving a political incubus it was one of our strongest appeals to the voters,’ she writes in her memoirs. Forty years ago, her cabinet considered a version of the same law Sunak is ramming through right now — in her case, a ban on strikes in essential services — but ‘the practical difficulties … were immense’ and great pains were taken to present her as wholly sensible. You would never have caught her on camera without a seatbelt.
“After four decades, Sunak’s enemy bears no resemblance to the one faced by Thatcher. She kickstarted the process by which the UK ended up with some of the most repressive union laws of any major rich country and with feeble protections on such essentials as sick pay. Put atop an economic model that has been wrecked since 2008, plus more than a decade of austerity, and what do you get? The average British worker stuck in the longest wage freeze for 200 years. That is the reality of today’s workforce: not a platoon of mini-Arthur Scargills, but men and women who have spent years holding together failing public services, sacrificing a day’s pay and pension contributions on picket lines — merely to stop sinking further into economic misery.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Online
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The University of Oslo’s Eli Skogerbø and Deakin University’s Maria Rae will chat about how Norway’s targeted “press support” subsidies could help Australia get better media diversity, and what Norway could learn from our news media bargaining code with Google and Facebook, in a webinar hosted by the Australia Institute.
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Watch the 2023 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards ceremony via a livestream this evening, with prizes for fiction, non-fiction, drama, poetry, awards for Indigenous writing and writing for young adults of $25,000 each. Here’s the shortlist.
Yuggera Country (also known as Brisbane)
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Consolidated Properties’ Don O’Rorke and The Overpopulation Project’s Jane O’Sullivan will chat about whether we are overpopulated or underpopulated, at The Brisbane Club.
