LAVISH SPENDING
The Commonwealth has spent more than $7.6 million prosecuting whistleblowers including Bernard Collaery, David McBride and Richard Boyle, the ABC reports, a figure made even more dismal by the fact that most of that dosh resulted in abandoned prosecutions. The Attorney-General’s Department revealed the figure after being questioned by NSW Greens Senator David Shoebridge who called it a “lavish use of taxpayer funds”. Incredibly, the Collaery and Witness K case alone cost the Commonwealth $5,510,829. To jog your memory — former ACT attorney-general Collaery allegedly helped an ex-spy reveal info about a secret Timor-Leste mission, McBride allegedly leaked defence info to the ABC, and Boyle allegedly revealed unethical debt recovery at the ATO. In July last year, new A-G Mark Dreyfus dropped Collaery’s prosecution, as Guardian Australia reported, but not the other two.
Speaking of our whistleblowers — some 2000 Julian Assange supporters have marched in London to demand his release, news.com.au reports. The Don’t Extradite Assange campaign event featured speeches from former Iranian prisoner Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband, Richard Ratcliffe; son of the late Dame Vivienne Westwood, Ben Westwood; and former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Folks, I tried to find some recent Assange news in Australia, but I came up empty. All I could find was actor and model Pamela Anderson accusing former PM Scott Morrison of being “smutty”, as Women’s Agenda reports. Morrison said he’d meet with Anderson, who wanted to discuss her friend Assange’s situation, if he could bring some buddies along, as Guardian Australia reported. “You trivialised and laughed about the suffering of an Australian and his family,” Anderson wrote to Morrison in an open letter. “You followed it with smutty, unnecessary comments about a woman voicing her political opinion.”
IS DOM. IS NOT GOOD
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet won’t say whether he’ll back a ban on gay conversion therapy, the SMH reports, or indeed if he agrees with the debunked practice. He sidestepped the questions by saying he’d have to put the gay conversion therapy ban to his cabinet, but his state is woefully behind on the national stage — Queensland, Victoria and the ACT have all outlawed the pseudoscience, which the UN says amounts to torture. NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns has confirmed he’d ban it — it follows independent MP Alex Greenwich vowing he would form a minority government with the March election victor only if they do so.
Perrottet doesn’t have an amazing track record on these things — in 2017, he confirmed he was opposed to same-sex marriage on the grounds that “marriage is about every child’s fundamental right to grow up with their own mum and dad”, as Samantha Maiden at news.com.au delved into. But he’s been pretty good at reading the room of his cabinet (and constituents) on hot-button topics since he became premier — supporting the Voice and campaigning to overhaul Medicare among them — though he is attracting criticism for his hardline pill-testing stance this morning.
Meanwhile Perrottet’s brothers are wanted in an NSW parliamentary inquiry looking into whether property developers influenced Hills Shire Council, Guardian Australia reports. Greens MP Sue Higginson said there’d been “multiple attempts” to track down Charles and Jean-Claude Perrottet, as well as two other possible witnesses. I’m guessing they’re hiding from us, Higginson said, which had left the committee “extremely disappointed”, as the SMH continues. So what’s this about? Last year Liberal MP Ray Williams told Parliament that senior figures had allegedly been “paid significant funds” to usher in councillors who supported development applications for this company, Toplace. The company’s boss denies it.
CLIMATE OF CONCERN
We will only support your key climate policy if you promise no more new coal and gas projects, the Greens have told Labor. Guardian Australia reports the government will introduce its safeguard mechanism bill to Parliament this week — it contains updates to the Coalition-era policy that requires Australia’s dirtiest companies to slash their emissions by 4.9% or face big fines. It’s the crown jewel policy that is driving our national 43% reduction in emissions target — which the Greens say is fraught with holes, not least because the emitters can buy an infinite amount of carbon credits to offset their pollution. Still, Greens Leader Adam Bandt says, we will put our worries aside if you agree to this one thing — it would mean more than 100 gas and coal projects in Australia’s pipeline right now would be blocked, the ABC reports. Will the Greens’ demand be met? Hmm. Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen has repeatedly said no, but the government needs their vote in the Senate to pass the bill. Stay tuned, I guess.
Meanwhile the Australia Institute is referring the federal government to the ACCC over what it alleges is state-sponsored greenwashing, the ABC reports. Greenwashing is an emerging term that basically means an organisation or body is exaggerating how environmentally friendly it is for clout. The ACCC announced last year it was going after misleading environmental and sustainability marketing claims and fake or misleading online business reviews via two internet sweeps. The crackdown was for the private sector after a global investigation found as many as 40% of green claims may be fraudulent, Guardian Australia reports, but could government agencies really be that far off?
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
It is my grave duty to inform you that politicians are, again, trying to be funny. NSW Labor posted a thread on Twitter with its favourite rom-coms to celebrate Valentine’s Day — the first is a doctored Love Actually poster reading “Labor Actually” and showing six MPs including Leader Chris Minns in various states of smiles and grimaces. The tagline reads “very effective, very fresh”, which sounds rather more fitting for a colonic detox juice than an incoming government. It gets worse — the next is 10 Things I Hate About You, a frankly perfect Shakespearean adaption, defaced with “Dominic” instead of “You”. Unsettlingly, Perrottet’s face has been transplanted onto antagonist and male model Joey Donner’s body. Also see “39 going on 38 days until you can ditch Dominic”, which, to be fair, is a decent riff on flick 13 Going On 30.
The Liberals have gone all out with a Valentine’s Day production of a disembodied pair of hands opening a heart-shaped box with Minns’ face on it, and unwrapping “chocolates” that are actually just weird statements like “I don’t have an economic plan”. Zing, I guess. A receipt for $11 million (??) and a card purportedly from Minns that reads “Please give us another chance” (???) is, in Liberal staffer brains at least, the mic-drop moment. The Greens spoke for all of us when they responded “it’s giving out of touch”. It’s not just the major parties, as Charlie Lewis delves into for Crikey. It was the cringe felt around the country when the Australian Bureau of Statistics used the hook of rapper Eminem’s Lose Yourself to deliver some random stats, like that there are 20 deer farmers in Australia. “Back to our spreadsheets now,” the rap finishes. Probably for the best.
Hoping you can laugh at yourself today.
SAY WHAT?
We have 34 coalmines that operate in the Bowen Basin, all of them are close to the Great Barrier Reef, most of them have operated for decades. And guess what has happened over those decades? We now have record coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef.
Matt Canavan
Despite what the scientific community says, coalmines are actually good for the Great Barrier Reef, or at least don’t harm it, according to the Nationals senator. Phew, what a relief. The four mass bleachings in the past six years must be just a coincidence.
CRIKEY RECAP
Even if Russia holds on, Putin has lost
“The results already speak for themselves: for the first time ever last year, wind and solar combined for a higher share of electrical generation in Europe than oil and gas. And this says nothing of other decarbonisation efforts such as subsidies for heat pumps in the EU, incentives for clean energy in the United States, and higher electric vehicle uptake everywhere.
“The cumulative effect for Russia could not be worse. Sooner or later, lower demand for fossil fuels will dramatically and permanently lower the price for oil and gas — an existential threat to Russia’s economy. When increased US shale production depressed oil prices in 2014, for example, Russia experienced a financial crisis. Lower global demand for fossil fuels will play out over a longer timeline, but the result for Russia will be much graver.”
Liberals likely to hold Tudge’s seat of Aston, as Albanese loses a little sheen
“What if something important happened in Australian politics over the summer and no one noticed? We might have seen the first loss of sheen from Anthony Albanese’s still election-warm glow. There was a big hint of it in the first Newspoll of 2023, which recorded an otherwise healthy +24% net satisfaction rate for the prime minister.
“That number is not at all shabby; most political leaders would consider evil deeds to get to this level. However, this is the lowest net-satisfaction, or net-sat as political jargon would have it, for Albanese since last May’s election — a fall from the giddy heights of +35% last July and +33% just before Christmas.”
Myanmar’s nuclear ambitions could see it becoming a new North Korea
“Australia has dragged its feet on Myanmar. The Albanese government took until the second annual anniversary of the coup to place extra sanctions on coup leaders and senior figures that other Western countries had enacted early in 2021. This was despite the November 2022 release of Australian Sean Turnell, an academic and former adviser to deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
“Indeed, Albanese’s big show of inviting Turnell to Parliament House in December turned quickly from important statement to window dressing when the words were not backed up with action. China may be key in international efforts to push back against Myanmar’s bid for nuclear power. Unlike Russia, it is highly ambivalent about the dire situation in Myanmar, with billions of dollars in investment to protect …”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Indian tax agents raid BBC offices in wake of Modi documentary (Al Jazeera)
The European Union adds Russia to its blacklist of tax havens (EuroNews)
Three students killed in mass shooting at Michigan State University (CNN)
Ford to cut one in nine jobs in Europe in electric revamp (Reuters)
Nikki Haley to seek Republican nomination for 2024 presidential election (The Guardian)
Video released of captured NZ pilot by Papua separatists (BBC)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Safeguard mechanism is a Trojan horse carbon tax — Tim O’Brien (The AFR) ($): “Labor’s carbon tax won’t work, it will weaken the economy and worsen the environment. The economic theory of carbon taxes isn’t the problem; but like many theories, real-world application is where it falls apart. Other nations have looked to carbon taxes, but despite grand visions of a globally coordinated solution, one has never eventuated. I’ve just returned from a study tour in the United States on climate change and energy issues. Discussions with government and business leaders, think tanks and academics revealed that the US doesn’t have a national carbon tax and isn’t likely to.
“One of the few times carbon taxes featured in my discussions was with Professor David Victor from the University of California who wrote an entire book about why cap-and-trade programs and carbon taxes fail. Labor hasn’t learnt these lessons, and it has a blind spot towards the US. Instead, it’s importing climate and energy policy from Europe. Why, I don’t know. Europe has some of the world’s highest electricity prices, and it’s vulnerable on energy security. Labor is following Europe by introducing a carbon tax, except its version is one of the world’s most punitive. Its cunning plan is to reform the safeguard mechanism as a Trojan horse for introducing the tax. A total of 215 Australian businesses will have to reduce their emissions by 4.9% each year to 2030.”
Fear and loathing in New Zealand: an overdue examination of our ‘underworld of extremists’ is valuable but flawed — Chris Wilson (The Conversation): “Since the horrific attacks in Christchurch in 2019 there has been substantial and growing attention paid to the extreme right in New Zealand. The pandemic — and the conspiracy theories and anti-government sentiment that developed in response — increased that scrutiny, and the sense of unease or alarm many felt about it. Yet until now we have relied on just a handful of academic articles and media reports to gauge the extent and nature of the contemporary far right in New Zealand. Byron Clark’s new work is the first book to provide an overview of the multitude of groups and individuals loosely categorised as ‘alt-right’ …
“Some groups covered in the book — Action Zealandia and Counterspin, for example — clearly fall within the normal definitions of these terms. But for others, their inclusion is puzzling and unconvincing. Many do not seek a society based on law and order and centralised authoritarian leadership, oppose immigration or seek to protect the ‘white race’. And most have not legitimated violence. Opposing vaccinations or spreading disinformation does not qualify a group as far right — many on the left and in between also do that. The book discusses groups as diverse as Action Zealandia and Groundswell, and individuals such as neo-Nazi Philip Arps and former knitting club member and Voices for Freedom founder Alia Bland, as if they are manifestations of the same movement.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)
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Vanuatu Prime Minister Alatoi Ishmael Kalsakau is in Australia to talk trade ties.
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Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, independents David Pocock, Sophie Scamps and Monique Ryan, and former Court of Appeal judge Anthony Whealy are among the speakers at the Climate Integrity Summit at Parliament House.
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Tech Council of Australia chief executive Kate Pounder will speak about post-pandemic Australia in a speech to the National Press Club.
Yuggera Country (also known as Brisbane)
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Author Luke Rutledge will chat about his new book, A Man and His Pride, at Avid Reader bookshop.
