STOP SIGNS
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese supports a “sustainable ceasefire” in Gaza, the SMH ($) reports. He joins NZ PM Christopher Luxon and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau in a strongly worded statement that calls for both another pause in hostilities and expressed support for urgent international efforts towards a ceasefire. Both sides have to stop, the statement says — Hamas has to release all hostages, “stop using Palestinian civilians as human shields“, and put down weapons. It can never lead Gaza again, the statement says. Although Israel has the right to defend itself: “We oppose the forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, the reoccupation of Gaza, any reduction in territory, and any use of siege or blockade.”
Meanwhile draft legislation expected to pass in the US offers a future president several ways to weasel out of the nuclear subs deal, The Australian ($) reports, including an off-ramp if the president thinks the transfer of the three Virginia-class vessels threatens the US’ undersea military capabilities or the country’s foreign policy (the first one isn’t due until at least 2032, so we’re talking way in the future, not under possible next president Donald Trump). The subs deal also depends on the US “making sufficient submarine production and maintenance investments” and whether Australia can actually even operate the subs. The Greens’ David Shoebridge says it shows the US will give us the subs only if we use them “whenever and however the US military demands” — like, say, a US war with China over Taiwan. Yikes.
PRESSURE COOKER
WA Premier Roger Cook says he’s seen evidence environmental groups are using minority factions within Indigenous communities to take big projects to court, the AFR ($) reports, although he refused to give an example. There’s the seismic testing from Woodside challenged by Save Our Songlines (it calls Cook’s claim an “a load of crock”), and there’s the Santos Barossa pipeline that Tiwi Island locals are challenging, which could hold up WA’s Dorado project. Cook thinks greenies are copying the strategy from the mining industry’s infamous approach in 2000. What an odd comparison to use when you’re trying to barrack for the fossil fuel companies…
Speaking of — a sanctioned Russian aluminium billionaire represented by former attorney-general Christian Porter is a “personal friend” of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a court has heard, as the ABC reports. Australia banned Oleg Deripaska from coming here after Russia invaded Ukraine, and also banned him from profiting from his 20% stake in Rio Tinto’s Alumina. Perry Herzfeld, the lawyer for former foreign affairs minister Marise Payne, says the friendship was documented in public reports. From filthy companies to the climate they’re cooking — Queenslanders can expect destructive 140km/h winds, a 50cm downpour of rain and flash flooding as Cyclone Jasper hits the coast near Port Douglas at 1pm, The Courier-Mail reports.
WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Happy mid-budget update day. Big banks reckon we’ll see somewhere between a $11 billion (Westpac) to $20 billion (Commbank) surplus today, The Australian ($) reports, because coal and iron ore prices are up, population growth is up, and there are 620,000 new jobs in the market since last May. We know for sure that the Albanese government is putting 92% of additional revenue back into the budget, Guardian Australia reports, more than double the Morrison years (40%) and triple the Howard years (30%). Treasurer Jim Chalmers says it’ll help cool inflation and slash the government’s interest bill. It comes as Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil says fast-tracking tradie visas could put our apprentices out of work and risks a repeat of the 457 saga, the SMH ($) reports — she’s copping it for saying the building sector had to prove a shortfall before recruiting overseas.
Speaking of migration, 220 Indonesians could be compensated after Australian cops wrongly jailed kids as people smugglers in 2010-12, Guardian Australia reports. They went to max security too — it happened because police used an X-ray on their wrist to (incorrectly) determine their age. They won a $27.5 million class action in October. To other police news now and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has voted to cancel a deal with police to conduct “public decency inspections”, the ABC reports. Cops have been conducting “visual inspections” to make sure public decency is not “offended” since 2014. At Mardi Gras, possibly the most scantily clad event in history?! The meeting also agreed to uninvite pollies next year who vote nay on independent MP Alex Greenwich’s equality bill.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
NASA is celebrating the worm. No, not your beloved newsletter — it’s what the space agency calls its logo, a reddish curvature of the letters sans the bridge in the two As. It was officially replaced by another logo — a round orbit trail and a swoosh, known as the meatball — in the early ’90s. (That’s the logo on Neil Armstrong’s suit as he took the first steps on the moon.) But the worm endures. It was designed by the late Bruce Blackburn and Richard Danne, 89, who ran a new design firm when they won the bonza contract. They even developed the first brand guidelines to show how it should be used, which is now bread-and-butter practice for design agencies. Danne told The New York Times he just loves being a part of pop culture. And it has experienced somewhat of a retro revival — not just on T-shirts and other merch, but even on the recent Orion capsule. “Slowly it will die,” a Bush Sr-appointed administrator said of the worm in 1992. “And never be seen again.” It didn’t — and nor will this Worm.
Folks, finding the light in a tough year of inflation, cash rate increases, war, housing instability, a failed referendum and more is no easy feat. But we all did it in our own way this year, whether it was enjoying nature, immersing oneself in a book, mucking around with the dog, bingeing a series, smiling at strangers, cooking up a storm, playing video games, pottering in one’s garden, or anything you do to break the darkness. For me, it’s been writing your Lighter Note each day, and I thought I’d bring you a special Worm tomorrow and on Friday with my 10 favourite Lighter Notes this year. I hope you enjoy this very brief respite from the news, and your Worm will be back to normal programming on Monday. Feel free to suggest your own fave — eelsworthy@crikey.com.au.
Hoping you find the light today and always.
SAY WHAT?
Peter Dutton wants to have his cake and eat it … He’s complaining that the new strategy is not doing enough to curb overseas migration, and he’s complaining the government are not letting enough people in. Pick a lane.
Liam O’Brien
The Australian Council of Trade Unions acting secretary put it bluntly after the opposition leader seesawed between whining that the Albanese government excluded tradies from the fast migration stream and at the same time barking about it for not doing more to curb migration.
CRIKEY RECAP
“Unlike other neoliberal shibboleths, there was always a weird ideological tension around immigration: the industrial left saw a threat to wages, the environmental left saw an unsustainable pressure on natural resources, and the reactionary right saw a threat to racial purity and monocultural blandness.
“The neoliberal right, however, is all in favour of open borders and the free movement of people, like capital, while pro-refugee ‘Let them all come’ progressive purists essentially support open borders for anyone who can get here. In some cases, the latter two fuse into one: former head of the Business Council of Australia Tony Shepherd, doyen of corporate neoliberalism in Australia, is also an ardent supporter of refugees.”
“I struggle to find another instance where allegations of mass rape took eight weeks to prompt any condemnation or statement from notable feminist groups. I lament the delayed and insufficient responses from feminist groups and wish they had reacted with greater urgency and force.
“As the founder and president of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance Australia (JOFA), I advocate for women to have a voice in all areas of public life. The feminist group is dedicated to expanding the spiritual, ritual, intellectual and political opportunities for Jewish women within the framework of Halakha (Jewish law), but we also raise our voices when other women, Jewish or not, are oppressed or silenced.”
“It was a badly needed win for Labor which otherwise ends the year poorly, with missteps piling up and polls starting to sour. But the IR bill’s passage was more than a relieving goal before half-time; it marked a fleeting gear shift. Labor’s IR achievements have been one of few areas where ministers didn’t simply ‘govern’ but actually progressed real reform; steered through choppy waters rather than being buffeted by them; took ground rather than managing retreat.
“The government’s moves elsewhere courted less controversy by being concertedly modest — often to the point of going unnoticed. But on IR, Burke backed himself and stared down a $24 million campaign by the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA), which is vowing to prosecute with a ‘mining-tax style campaign’. And he didn’t do so shyly, telling the MCA …”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Puma to end sponsorship of Israel’s national football team in 2024 (Al Jazeera)
Ukraine mobile network Kyivstar hit by ‘cyber-attack’ (BBC)
Sunak tries to rally party before crunch UK parliamentary vote on Rwanda plan (Reuters)
Brussels rows back on plan to tax €200bn in frozen Russian assets (euronews)
Arizona court weighs 1864 abortion ban that risks ‘conditions of misery’ (The Guardian)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Dutton’s dog-whistle will sound if Albanese fails this migration test — Abul Rizvi (The SMH) ($): “The key is to reduce the extraordinary rate of offshore student visa applications using objective criteria that target high-performing students and aim to select students who will do well in their studies, secure well-paying jobs and go on to become Australian citizens if they wish. Fee revenue for universities should be a secondary objective only. If the offshore student visa application rate does not decline and the government relies mainly on high refusal rates using subjective criteria and slow visa processing, net migration will not fall nearly as quickly as the government wants it to.
“That approach is enormously resource intensive and will only make everyone involved angry. A possible objective tool that could be used is university or college entrance exam results that are used across most of our source countries. There is no reason why it should be easier for an overseas student to get into a university or vocational college in Australia than it is to get into a top university or vocational college in their home country. Another advantage of using national entrance exam results is that the Australian government can dial exam result requirements up or down as needed to allow greater control over net migration.”
Symbolism is welcome, but there are many ways AUKUS subs pact can [flounder] — Greg Sheridan (The Australian) ($): “The US legislation to notionally enable Australia to buy a Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarine in a decade’s time is a good first step, but like everything in AUKUS the payday is far, far beyond the horizon, there are countless ‘out clauses’, making the commitment at the moment purely symbolic. It’s good symbolism, of course. The Congress on a bipartisan basis is endorsing, in principle, the decision to provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia. But the out clauses are prodigious. First, Australia has to have paid US$3bn towards building up the US submarine industry. That’s entirely separate from the purchase price of the submarine itself.
“Second, the US president at the time, and we’re talking probably three presidential administrations into the future, has to be able to reassure Congress that providing the subs to Australia won’t ‘degrade US undersea capabilities’. That’s likely to be a very big ask. The US is barely producing 1½ nuclear submarines a year. A Virginia takes seven years to build. The US is unable to ramp up production numbers rapidly. The Biden administration has not significantly increased defence spending nor ramped up in a big way US defence industrial capacity. Even urgent defence expenditure, such as military aid for Israel or Ukraine, cannot pass the congress at the moment.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Online
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The Australia Institute’s Richard Denniss and Jim Stanford, historian Emma Shortis and The Conversation’s Justin Bergman will speak about 2023’s challenges and significant moments in a webinar from the institute.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Former UK PM Boris Johnson will give the 11th John Howard Lecture in an event run by the Menzies Research Centre.
Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)
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The ABC’s Richard Glover will speak about his new book, Best Wishes, at Avid Reader bookshop.
