SPOOKY
The foreign “nest of spies” that ASIO boss Mike Burgess said was kicked out of Australia in 2020 were Indian, national security and government figures confirmed to the ABC. The spooks had “targeted relationships with current and former politicians, a foreign embassy and a state police service”, Burgess said in 2021 without naming their country of origin. They also allegedly tried to get information about security at a major airport. The broadcaster notes India is a fellow member of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, while readers might remember Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi “the boss” and clasping hands when the Indian leader addressed a Sydney stadium, as Guardian Australia reports. But even our friends can conduct espionage, Burgess said in 2022, not naming India.
Meanwhile, two Greens councillors — Anjalee de Silva and Josh Fergeus — have quit the party in Victoria over surveillance, disinformation and intimidation, The Age reports, while five others are expected to quit before October’s election. De Silva and Fergeus said older female members have endured “months on end of invective, abuse, and harassment” and that it was typical of the Victorian Greens — which backs “an inherently, institutionally, and profoundly anti-feminist, chauvinistic [type of] politics”. Yikes. Of 36 Greens representatives elected in 2020, just 28 remain. And yet we need the greenies more than ever, it seems — The Great Barrier Reef has suffered its worst-ever bleaching, Guardian Australia reports, with Greens Senator Peter Whish–Wilson describing the waters off Heron Island as looking like they’ve been “carpet bombed”.
COME ON DOWN
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will confirm former Liberal MP Nicolle Flint’s comeback as the candidate in the marginal seat of Boothby, The Advertiser reports. She held the seat from 2016 to 2022 when she quit politics citing “burnout, abuse, harassment and significant health issues”, the paper lists. Labor’s Louise Miller-Frost, a former chief executive of St Vincent de Paul Society SA, won the Adelaide seat 53.3% to 47.7% after Flint’s successor and Rhodes Scholar Rachel Swift failed to retain it, as the ABC reported at the time. Flint says her health is back on track but the nation isn’t, criticising the Albanese government.
Speaking of — the former chief of staff for Labor Deputy Leader Richard Marles and the former communications director to Jim Chalmers helped Australian-founded and US-owned PsiQuantum get the $940 million boost to build the world’s first commercialised quantum computer, The Australian ($) says. Lobbyists Lidija Ivanovski and Gerard Richardson listed PsiQuantum as a client on their federal lobbyist register. It’s all above board, of course — just interesting. Meanwhile, overseas investors with proven records will get faster approvals, Chalmers has announced, to attract more foreign capital. That includes foreign investors building rental properties, a measure designed to help ease the housing crisis. But there’ll be tighter rules around higher-risk proposals, AFR continues, like Chinese entities trying to invest in minerals or critical infrastructure.
COURT UP
A judge has rejected former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins‘ request to delay the defamation suit brought against her by her former boss, Senator Linda Reynolds, the ABC reports. Higgins’ lawyers had told the court she’d suffered through the defamation case Bruce Lehrmann had brought — and lost — against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson, which found he had raped Higgins on the balance of probabilities. It came as Higgins’ partner David Sharaz tweeted that he wouldn’t fight Reynolds’ legal action anymore (she’s suing both of them) because he can’t afford the legal costs. He urged Reynolds to settle, but she wants Higgins to admit there was no political cover-up. Meanwhile, Lehrmann is mulling an appeal for his failed defamation case, seeking help from “local and overseas funders,” The Australian ($) says. There’s a cost hearing today to determine who has to pay for the case.
It comes as One Nation’s Pauline Hanson told the court she didn’t know Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi was Muslim when she tweeted for her to “piss off back to Pakistan”, the ABC reports. Staying in the courts and violent offenders would be tracked so police know where they are under a plan SA is going to put forward at national cabinet this morning, the SMH writes. State and territory leaders will also discuss stricter bail laws and more funding for family violence support services. It comes as the man charged with Forbes woman Molly Ticehurst’s murder allegedly told her that he’d beaten her 12-week-old dachshund puppy to death — he was on bail at the time of her death for stalking and sexual assault charges. Albanese will tell leaders he’s also worried about boys and men looking at violent and misogynistic online content.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
For a cat, there is nothing more comparable to a 10-bedroom mansion with a tennis court and a lap pool than your average cardboard box. Even if a state-of-the-art cat tree or other fantabulous cat furniture came inside said box, the minimalist tan enclosure of the cardboard calls to the moggy, no matter how snug the fit is. Galeana is no different — she’s a sweet blue-eyed tortie, and she had settled in for a nice catnap alongside some work boots when the box was taped up by her owner Carrie Clark and handed to an Amazon driver for a return, BBC reports. An epic quest one can only imagine followed as Galeana travelled from her home in Utah all the way to Amazon’s factory in California, about 1,200 kilometres by road.
Thankfully the box was inexpertly taped up, giving Galeana plenty of fresh air to breathe, and the transportation was neither particularly hot nor cold, giving her a nice temperate climate. When a bored Amazon worker tore open the box only to be met with the cat’s baby blue eyes, he was floored. He rushed her straight to the vet who, aside from her rumbling tummy and thirst, gave her a clean bill of health. Scanning her microchip, everyone was astounded when an address in Utah came up. Interstate, Clark had spent the last few days growing increasingly anxious that her cat hadn’t been seen. But when she received the call from the vet, she presumed it was a prank. California? An Amazon package? I don’t think so. Once convinced, she and her husband jumped on a flight to get Galeana, who immediately relaxed into her owner’s arms. The moral of the story? Double-check your returns, Clark said.
Hoping you take a second look at things today.
SAY WHAT?
The prime minister obviously has had some serious allegations made against him: he’s been called a liar and his word questioned.
Peter Dutton
The words “serious allegations” are doing some pretty heavy lifting here. The opposition leader was referring to the anti-domestic violence rally organiser calling Albanese a liar for saying he was told he couldn’t speak.
CRIKEY RECAP
“And while this all too familiar pattern has certainly been evident in recent weeks, there is also a far more specific debate emerging. It’s a debate led by those who work on the front line of women’s safety and those with lived experience. It’s a debate that outlines very specific calls for change that have real immediacy.
“Most importantly, it’s a debate that’s cutting through in the media and at the national policy level in a way that I have not seen in nearly a decade. We are now talking about the kinds of things that will save lives today, not in some promised future following some hoped for — but frustratingly slow to materialise — ‘generational change’.”
“Australia has one of the world’s most concentrated media markets — with none of the benefits of concentration, as our media companies struggle in the face of the global shift of audiences and advertising revenue to the tech giants.
“In another instalment of Crikey’s Paint by Numbers series, we pick out the key data points in a media landscape that increasingly looks lifeless for the Australian companies that once dominated it, while social media and tech giants accumulate eye-watering revenue and user numbers.”
“Australian workers who do switch jobs get an average 8% pay rise. Switching from a poorly matched to a well-matched job reportedly improves mental health more significantly than most other major life changes, including getting married (though, to be fair, some weddings kind of suck).
“And those workers who stay on at the firm feel greater confidence and power when negotiating for a better deal, including at the collective level, if they see others successfully move on. Yet despite these benefits, the probability of Aussie workers switching jobs has fallen from 12.8% to 9.5% over the past three decades, due at least in part to rising constraints.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
ICJ rejects emergency measures over German arms exports to Israel (Al Jazeera)
Prajwal Revanna: Karnataka MP’s ‘sex abuse’ tapes spark outrage (BBC)
Columbia University threatens to expel protesters occupying building (Reuters)
Russian bear Putin sharpens his claws to take hold of more European businesses
(euronews)
Scientists warn Canada ‘way behind the virus’ as bird flu explodes among U.S. dairy cattle (CBC)
Democrats vow to block Marjorie Taylor Greene effort to remove House speaker (The Guardian)
Judge holds Trump in contempt over gag order and warns of jail time (The New York Times) ($)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Sogavare’s demise to improve ties with Australia — Ben Packham (The Australian) ($): “Days before the Solomon Islands’ April 17 election, China ringed its Honiara embassy with temporary steel fencing. Despite deploying funds and propaganda in favour of its preferred candidate, Manasseh Sogavare, Beijing was on high alert for a change in the political wind. Sogavare’s withdrawal from contention this week to be reappointed as prime minister is an unambiguous blow to Xi Jinping’s battle for regional influence. But in truth, the writing was on the wall for China’s biggest supporter in the Pacific, who spent years railing against Australia and the US while lauding Beijing as the answer to his country’s economic problems.
“Sogavare’s controversial security agreement with Beijing in 2022 placed his country on the geopolitical frontline between China and the West. He cast the election as a referendum on his China policies, vowing to bolster relations with Beijing if he was returned. But many voters were uncomfortable with his bombastic attacks on traditional partners, who he accused of coercing and belittling his country. Sources inside the Solomon Islands say Sogavare’s colleagues warned him ahead of the election that his time was up. It was a position reinforced by the result — his party won only 15 seats to the opposition’s 20, while Sogavare’s personal vote went backwards.”
The global turbulence behind Bonza’s backers — Anna Hyland (The SMH): “The problems at 777 Partners, which also has a $21.7 million shareholding in soccer team Melbourne Victory, are not limited to Bonza. (Bonza is a major sponsor of Melbourne Victory. The football club last year lost $7.6 million.) Questions, too, have been raised about the health of the operations of 777 Partners, which was founded in 2015 by US financiers Josh Wander and Steve Pasko. The Miami-based private investment firm invests in seven sectors, including sports, aviation and insurance. It has stakes in football clubs such as Italy’s Genoa and the Spanish team Sevilla, British basketball teams, a Canadian low-cost carrier, Flair, and a Bermuda-based reinsurance entity, 777 Re.
“It has also gained a lot of attention recently with its protracted negotiations to buy English Premier League club Everton. In the past eight months, it has sought extensions to that deal as scrutiny has grown about its ability to raise the funds to complete it. Attention has also been growing following a number of media reports that have questioned 777 Partners’ financial outlook. In January, The Guardian reported that 777 Partners was being pursued for $US30 million (A$46 million) in unpaid aircraft leasing fees and damages in the UK, relating to four planes leased to Flair Airlines, which is part-owned by 777. In 2023, four aircraft leased by Flair Airlines were reportedly repossessed due to outstanding fees.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Online
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Treasurer Jim Chalmers will speak to the Lowy Institute.
Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)
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The Grattan Institute’s Aruna Sathanapally, Impact Economics and Policy’s Angela Jackson, and Westpac’s Besa Deda will speak to the National Press Club.
