ALBO HEADS TO PERU, NOT FLORIDA
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is heading to South America for what is being billed as his final overseas trip before the federal election next year which, depending on who you believe, could be happening sooner rather than later.
The Australian flags Albanese will fly to Peru later for APEC leaders meetings before heading to Rio de Janeiro next week for the G20 summit.
The paper says while Albanese will not hold any formal meetings with US President Joe Biden at either event, the gatherings are set to be dominated by Donald Trump’s victory last week and the implications for the global economy. Yesterday the opposition rather transparently suggested the prime minister should stop over in Florida on his way back from the G20 and meet with the president-elect, such is their apparent concern about US-Australia relations.
On Tuesday, Coalition leader Peter Dutton tried to suggest the government needed to “course correct” its approach to America following previous comments about Trump (see: Kevin Rudd’s tweets etc). Dutton also questioned the government’s ability to create a relationship with Trump as strong as the one created by previous Coalition PMs Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison.
The AFR reports Albanese was unsurprisingly having none of it and said: “We had a terrific discussion last week. He [Trump] described the relationship … that we would have a perfect friendship. And I’m very confident that the relationship between Australia and the United States will continue to be very strong.” The paper’s lead overnight, headlined “Albanese channels Turnbull in Trump tariff fight” (so perhaps Dutton needn’t worry), highlights the PM has indicated his government will make the same argument as Turnbull that any potential tariffs are unnecessary due to Australia’s trade surplus with the US.
While at the upcoming summits Albanese is seeking a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the AFR says, as China and its economy are also set to be significant topics of discussion, especially in light of Trump’s threat to impose huge tariffs on Beijing.
The Australian says upon arriving in Peru, Albanese will meet with new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto (you may remember he missed the inauguration in Jakarta last month due to King Charles III’s visit). He is also expected to meet with Peruvian President Dina Boluarte, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. He will also promote his government’s Future Made in Australia policy at both summits.
The APEC meeting and G20 aren’t the only global summits going on at the moment. At the UN’s COP29 climate change conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has pledged a more “ambitious” climate target of an 81% emissions cut by 2035, the BBC reports.
As world leaders traverse the globe to each of these summits, Albanese was keen to help the opposition with its geography. To their requests for him to drop in on Trump in Florida, the PM said: “If you have a look at the map, it’s actually not on the way.”
EARLY ELECTION INCOMING?
With Albo off on what The Australian says is his final world trip ahead of the federal election, the nauseating but continual question once again rears its head — when is this election then?
Well… The ABC has been very excited to tell us that early election speculation has hit a “fever pitch” and Anthony Albanese is apparently “moving aggressively to ready Labor for an early election campaign”.
The reason for all the excitement is the prime minister flying to Tasmania yesterday to announce Senator Anne Urquhart will step down from the upper house to contest the seat of Braddon and former state Labor leader Rebecca White will contest Lyons.
The ABC also says the continual pre-campaign announcements from Labor are fuelling speculation the government might be thinking about not returning to Parliament after the summer break. Any such move would make the next two weeks the final sitting period of this term, the broadcaster highlights. It would also mean the federal election campaign could clash with the West Australian state poll scheduled for March 8.
Albanese has said he has spoken to West Australian Premier Roger Cook about the issue and claimed the election would be called “April or before”.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton reckons any early election announcement deserves an explanation from the PM, and is quoted by the national broadcaster as saying: “If there is a secret discussion or deal going on with the WA premier, I think the prime minister should be open about it because he has looked the Australian public in the eye before and said he would go full term. If the prime minister is proposing to have an early election which requires the March date in WA to be moved… he needs to explain why.”
The ABC reckons another sign “Labor is rapidly clearing the decks to keep its options open” is Albanese has urged Parliament to support reforms that would reduce the electoral influence of very wealthy individuals.
Talking of pre-campaign announcements, The Sydney Morning Herald flags Treasurer Jim Chalmers will today reveal the government will “resurrect a Keating- and Howard-era policy to reward states for undertaking reforms that boost competition and reduce costs to businesses and consumers”. The paper says states will be offered a share of $900 million to rip up red tape which leads to high prices.
The AFR says the National Productivity Fund is aimed at compensating the states for streamlining building approvals and other pro-productivity reforms. Chalmers is expected to say: “It’s all about rewarding states with more revenue, where they deliver meaningful and measurable economic reforms.” The AAP says the treasurer will also say, with regard to the government’s plans for boosting productivity, “We’re applying new thinking to the challenge, broadening our ambitions beyond the tired slogans of scorched earth industrial relations.”
The newswire flags Chalmers’ address to the Australian Business Economists event in Sydney comes on the same day official wage numbers are due to be released. AAP said the data is expected to show “further moderation from the 4.1% annual growth through to June”.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
Despite her recent retirement, the world still can’t get enough of Australian breakdancer Rachael ‘Raygun’ Gunn.
On Sunday, Minnesota Vikings cornerback Camryn Bynum’s touchdown secured a 12-7 victory for his team against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Upon scoring, the 26-year-old broke out into a perfect recreation of Raygun’s infamous routine at the Paris Olympics earlier this year.
Posting his dance on X after the game, Bynum declared: “GOLD MEDAL GAME WINNER”.
Fox Sports says he told reporters: “I’m a big fan. She [Gunn] went out there and had fun and that’s what I do on the field.
“I’ve been saving for that and it’s been a while since I did a celly [celebration].”
Say What?
The day selected in the latest report was 31 October, which is when Melbourne was hosting Coldplay.
Qantas
The airline blamed the British band’s tour for a surge in airfares after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission flagged prices on some routes had more than doubled following Rex Airlines’ collapse and the demise of Bonza, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
CRIKEY RECAP
Indeed, all this discussion of “elites” seems to boil down to perceived attitudes. You can’t determine elites by education, by wealth, by economic or industrial relations policies. But the picture you get from reading at least the more coherent think pieces from right-wingers is that the “elite” is composed of affluent, educated knowledge workers who have thrived in the globalised economy and share values with people like them in other countries, while being indifferent or hostile to the worldviews of people in their own countries who have failed to prosper in the neoliberal economy.
The funny thing about right-wingers lashing such “elites” — who in no meaningful way are elites, culturally, politically or economically — is that many of those same right-wingers were, until Trump came along, fully signed-up warriors for neoliberalism, who demonised workers and trade unions as at best unhelpful impediments to the smooth operation of free markets and championed the very economic conditions that so alienated working-class voters.
The “elites” now railed against by such commentators are the bastard offspring of the neoliberalism championed by those very commentators — until Trump and Brexit opened up a new path to attack the left for having betrayed the working class by accepting the victory of neoliberalism. Brooks speaks of “an educated class that looks in the mirror of society and sees only itself”. He might more accurately refer to conservatives like himself who look in the mirror and refuse to see what they’ve done.
Restaurants encourage you to buy a vet a beer, and flight attendants ask veterans to make themselves known to staff before boarding. Over the weekend, I watched the Pittsburgh college football team the Panthers narrowly lose to the Virginia Cavaliers. The game opened with servicemen parachuting down into the centre of the field, the stars and stripes fluttering proudly behind them.
And then, in practically every break in play, they would be introduced — scores and scores of service men and women, their achievements and tours of duty listed, the charity work they did for their fellow “wounded warriors”. The crowd stood to applaud every time.
A doctor who works with veterans at Pittsburgh Veterans Affairs Hospital told me later that this is often the most support a returned soldier can hope for. In practice, veterans, often recruited from America’s lower socio-economic areas, are frequently left to rot.
Since 2016, veterans have been some of Trump’s most loyal voters.
Back on the home front, Albanese is in an objectively worse position to fight an inflation election next year. His government hasn’t pushed as hard on full employment as Biden’s did, so wage rises haven’t compensated price rises as much.
Its stimulatory efforts — think of the budget’s energy rebates, for instance — have been poorly designed, verging on inflationary, haven’t significantly advanced social goals, and have gone largely unnoticed. Literally the worst of all worlds. Other items, such as his HECS reforms, won’t kick in until after the election — a common American strategy with hardly inspiring results.
Peter Dutton, while undeserving of office, doesn’t appear to persuadable voters as cartoonishly unfit for office as Trump does. And Labor won’t benefit from Kamala’s “fresh face” boost unless Albanese makes a shock departure. They are careening towards a cliff.
Instead of faffing around with distracting brain farts like this week’s social media age limit, Albanese needs to develop a credible economic plan. If not, he risks being a one-term leader with far fewer achievements than his ageing American counterpart.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Australia amends or ends 16 defence export permits to Israel amid review (Guardian Australia)
Attack, withdraw, return: Israel’s bloody cycle of war in North Gaza (The New York Times) ($)
Shell wins appeal against order to cut greenhouse gas emissions (The Financial Times) ($)
Judge delays ruling on whether to scrap Trump’s conviction in hush money case (Associated Press)
35 killed in hit-and-run after car plows into crowds at sports center in Chinese city, police say (CNN)
THE COMMENTARIAT
If you thought Trump wasn’t serious, look at his first appointments — Michelle Goldberg (The New York Times): Then, on Monday, Trump named the obsessively anti-immigrant Stephen Miller as his deputy chief of staff. Miller’s portfolio, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan reported in The Times, “is expected to be vast and to far exceed what the eventual title will convey.” Miller has been forthright about his desire to purge immigrants here illegally, as well as many here legally, from the United States.
Among other things, Miller has said that Trump would cancel the temporary protected status of thousands of Afghans who fled here after the Taliban’s takeover and take another stab at ending DACA, the program that protects from deportation some immigrants brought to the United States as children.
Most significantly, he’s laid out plans to use National Guard troops to help arrest migrants en masse, warehousing them in military camps while they await deportation. No one should be shocked when this happens. I suspect some will be anyway.
Donald Trump and the one big threat to Australia’s almost $4 trillion superannuation system — David Taylor (ABC): The point here is that there’s concern a Trump presidency could usher in a new period of extreme financial markets volatility.
While Australia’s superannuation is strong, it is fallible, and that’s absolutely worth discussing and monitoring.
“I actually think it’s very fair of the central bank to talk about these risks, and then it ends up not being the black swan event coming out of left field,” Wilson Asset Management founder Geoff Wilson says.
“Do I think it’s a concern at this point in time? No.”
