BFFS
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will quote US President Joe Biden’s late son Beau in a speech today, the SMH ($) reports, repeating the line: “You know when there’s an Australian with you, they’ll always have your back.” Beau died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46 after an illustrious career in the US military and in politics. Albanese will go on to speak of the Australia-US alliance being a pledge to a “common cause”, not against a “common enemy”. Incidentally it’s just two weeks until Albanese will go to Beijing for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. It seems the sky’s not the limit of the US-Oz friendship any more — the PM is also ditching restrictions on commercial US rocket launches in Australia’s outback, the AFR ($) reports, as he’ll announce today. Elon Musk’s ears will perk up, no doubt.
Meanwhile Sky News Australia’s Sharri Markson has dug up a video of Albanese marching at a pro-Palestine rally in Sydney’s Martin Place in what Markson probably thinks is a really good scoop. A young Albanese with a full head of hair says: “The response of Israel has been to meet children throwing rocks with helicopters, with tanks and with missiles.” In 2019, Vox reported that 500-700 Palestinian children were prosecuted in the Israeli military court system each year. The most common charge? Stone-throwing. It comes as Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong called for “humanitarian pauses on hostilities, so food, water, medicine and other essential assistance can reach people in desperate need, and so civilians can get to safety”, Guardian Australia reports, but Israel’s ambassador to Australia said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “fair”. Albanese said he hasn’t spoken to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, The Daily Telegraph ($) reports, and has no plans to visit Israel.
THAT STINGS
Former Howard government immigration minister Gary Hardgrave unwittingly spruiked a Chinese criminal organisation that allegedly laundered $228 million in money and crypto, The Age ($) reports. It was called Changjiang Currency Exchange and Hardgrave appeared in a video promoting the group, though he told the paper he wasn’t involved with it at all beyond an ad and the police don’t think he’s a suspect. The AFP arrested seven people in Melbourne last night — they’re accused of setting up dozens of “shiny” shopfronts for their international money-moving service, the paper says, which was Australian-government licensed. Murdoch papers are calling it an exclusive ($), even though Nine newspapers published it at the same time.
Meanwhile the hero cop who rescued kidnapped child Cleo Smith resigned from the WA Police Force ahead of a Corruption and Crime Commission report, Guardian Australia reports. He’d already stepped down when the investigation was launched. What’s in the report? Stay tuned — it’ll be tabled this week. To another guy who could be ousted — some of Qantas’ largest investors are going to vote against the reelection of Todd Sampson to the board, the AFR ($) says, including the Future Fund (it manages $20 billion for the government). The rumoured witch-hunt is led by the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors, and several pension funds are reportedly following suit. It’s hard to believe Qantas has weathered so many PR crises while perhaps Australia’s most high-profile ad guy sat on the board. But maybe there was no stopping that plane crash.
LIGHTS, BUSES, ACTION
Sydney buses would get every green light under a new plan from the NSW government in what the bus industry taskforce head likened to parting the “Red Sea”. Here’s how it would work: the bus would tell the lights up ahead that it was coming, John Lee told Guardian Australia, and the traffic lights would change — just like how it works for trams. Ideally, it’ll encourage commuters to take a bus instead of a car, with the paper estimating traffic affecting buses was costing Sydneysiders $53 million in lost productivity. Meanwhile the NT may outlaw rent bidding — that’s offering more rent than the advertisement asked for. The NT News ($) says the legislation will also force DV perpetrators, not the victim, to cover property damage (I’m thinking this would apply when the victim was the only tenant).
To more state matters now and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she would stay on as premier until late 2028 if she wins the election next year, The Australian ($) reports. The paper rather uncharitably described her as a “seat warmer” when she became leader in 2012, but she’s won three elections since, making her Australia’s longest-serving current premier. Still, she admitted Labor is “the underdog” at the election, which is exactly one year away. It comes as Queensland’s Human Rights Commissioner Scott McDougall said it was “reprehensible” that the Queensland Police Union president had claimed Treaty would lead to the justice system favouring Indigenous peoples. Writing for The Courier-Mail ($), Ian Leavers offered no evidence for his statements, the National Indigenous Times notes, including that there would be a “free pass to every rapist, domestic violence abuser, habitual home invader and car thief who tells police they identify as Aboriginal”. Dismal and wrong.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
It’s 1918, and the allied and central powers are coming to the end of a deadly conflict across three continents while hunger stalks the civilian populations of all the combatant nations. In Australia, Marmite was among the foodstuff in short supply and aspiring fat cat Fred Walker figured he’d do his darnedest about it. He brought in a “university smarty pants” named Cyril P. Callister who worked in a factory for a full year on a salty black spread that could capture the hearts of our nation. Callister used leftover brewer’s yeast from the Carlton United Brewery, as the ABC says, and through trial and error crafted the perfect flavour. But what to call it? Forget the public relations disaster that was iSnack 2.0 — the name was rather more successfully put to the public in the ’20s, with Walker’s daughter pulling out the winning entry: Vegemite.
“Instantly and spectacularly, it was a complete dud,” Callister’s grandson Jamie said. But grandpa was sure it would be a hit. Go to the US, he urged Walker, and get the licence for this new processed cheese from some guy named Kraft. Needless to say, it was an excellent business decision that changed Australia forever. The crafty pair started giving away a small jar of Vegemite with every block of cheese, and the country was hooked. Fast-forward 100 years and we still are, except for a few sick, twisted and unnatural people out there who don’t like it. Trish Cavanagh isn’t among them. In 1959, she was the little girl who danced on top of the jar in the legendary “We’re happy little Vegemites” ad, and people still introduce her that way today. “Vegemite has always created happy memories for me,” she said. “So to me, happiness and Vegemite go together.”
Hoping you believe in yourself, even if others aren’t convinced.
SAY WHAT?
This judge is a very partisan judge with a person who is very partisan sitting alongside him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.
Donald Trump
The former US president, who has already been fined $5,000 for violating a gag order that barred him from publicly commenting about the judge’s staff, just went ahead and did it again. Judge Arthur Engoron fined him another $10,000.
CRIKEY RECAP
“Those ‘actions’, it bears emphasising, turn not on the WikiLeaks publication of information damaging to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, which inspired animus towards Assange in many Democrats.
“But instead the series of leaks in 2010 of classified material supplied to Assange by former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, including the infamous Collateral Murder video showing US air crew firing on civilians. In the time since, several authorities have resisted the idea that the leaks visited any real harm, as distinct from mere embarrassment, on American prestige …”
“Much of this has started to work in reverse. The practice of Indigenous peoples, and the media featuring them, putting their several mob names after their names started as a legitimate reassertion of the complexities of Indigenous cultures. Now it’s starting to seem aristocratic and elitist, like we’re dealing with a bunch of Hapsburgs, and the rest of us are null sets.
“The same is true of the ‘oldest living culture’ stuff. Once again, one understands that it was a reassertion of heritage against the idea that Indigenous peoples were just a bunch of folks waiting for the boats to arrive. But continued on, it’s turned cultural history into a weird competition.”
“Ellis is the third member of Trump’s legal team, and fourth defendant overall, to flip on him. Sidney Powell — possibly the loudest exponent of the ‘stop the steal’ movement to become a fixture on a supine Fox News — and, possibly most significantly, “captain of the legal team” Kenneth Chesebro both took plea deals, meaning reduced charges in return for testimony against their co-defendants.
“The more high-profile people flip, the closer the walls close in on figures like Trump and Rudy Giuliani. So it may be true to say — to quote a December 2015 Facebook post still unaccountably available on Ellis’ public page — we are in the last days. One way or another.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Women will vote at a Vatican meeting for the first time (The New York Times) ($)
Hurricane Otis smashes into Mexico coast (BBC)
Israel-UN spat intensifies after secretary-general says Hamas attacks ‘did not happen in a vacuum’ (CNN)
Exclusive: Google to run internet cables to Pacific islands in Australia-US deal (Reuters)
Hamas ‘are not terrorists’ says Turkey’s President Erdogan (euronews)
India to resume visa services for Canadians (BBC)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Side-by-side, our nations will build a better future — Anthony Albanese (The Australian) ($): “Where peace is secured not by fear of force or strength of arms alone but through the collective commitment and the shared responsibility of the international community. That is the heart of our alliance. The soul of our partnership. Not a pact against a common enemy — a pledge to a common cause. A shared belief that freedom, peace and equality are not just American ideals or Australian values — they belong to all humankind. That is why Ukrainian soldiers are driving Australian-made Bushmasters as they drive back an illegal and immoral invasion. And it is why all Australians condemn the atrocities, terror and pitiless brutality of Hamas.
“And, Mr president, we applaud the personal resolve you have brought to this troubled part of the world. You have spoken with moral clarity and you have stood up for a simple principle. The principle that every innocent life matters, Israeli and Palestinian. And that in any conflict, every effort must be made to protect civilians. American leadership is indispensable, but it is not inevitable. It takes a leader to deliver it. It takes wisdom to show empathy, courage to provide humanitarian assistance, and true leadership to seek peace. Because protecting innocent people is not a show of weakness, it is a measure of strength. Mr president, our nations’ steadfast alliance has grown and thrived through 15 of my predecessors and 13 of yours. In Australian public life, it meets the No. 1 measure of a great idea — both political parties try and claim credit for it.”
Hell hath no fury like my cancelled bus. Time for Minns to get on board — Alexandra Smith (The SMH) ($): “Public transport, particularly the troubled bus network, also needs the government to shift its gaze from the rearview mirror. During the election campaign, Labor zeroed in on the problems — substandard services and a chronic lack of drivers — to highlight the impacts of privatisation on essential services. Labor has persisted with this theme since its March victory, but now it is its problem. And voters are impatient. Long-time ALP hardheads have observed that NSW Labor’s regime is adopting Bob Carr-style tactics. That is, create a problem — or at least highlight one — so you can solve it. But with that comes the risk that a government operates like an opposition.
“This is happening with the Minns government. One of the key reasons for the Coalition’s loss in March, as identified in the NSW Liberals’ election post-mortem, was the ‘it’s time’ factor. Other matters did not help, such as party infighting and the ghost of Scott Morrison tarnishing the Liberal brand. But a compelling force was that voters decided the Coalition had had its turn in NSW. It was time to give Labor a chance. Labor prevailed by convincing enough voters that the Coalition had left NSW with a host of headaches. Highlighting those problems is one thing. But as Sarah Mitchell pointedly reminded [Prue] Car — and Labor — this week: ‘It’s your turn now.’ ”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Whadjuk Noongar Country (also known as Perth)
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Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation’s Charlie Gunningham, RARE Company’s Bourby Webster, Bennett Litigation & Commercial Law’s David Stewart, and Evolve’s Stephen Carroll will talk about intellectual property at Anthologie.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Comedian Oliver Twist will talk about his new book, Jali, at Better Read Than Dead bookshop.
