TRANS ACTIONS
Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says she wants to take up the fight against women “having to play sport against trans women”, the SMH ($) reports. When the paper said that went badly for failed Liberal candidate Katherine Deves, Price said it’s “common sense” that women shouldn’t have to play against “biological men”. She spoke to reporter Latika Bourke after addressing a conference in London, where she also volunteered to help anyone who wants to push back on “ridiculous” identity politics. Australians are “not racists in the eyes of the rest of the world”, she added. Hmm — as someone who lives overseas I’d have to call that into question. Recently Al Jazeera has reported on our “horrific racism”, the BBC has reported on how “lies fuel racism”, and a UN working group told Geneva “Australia has a racism problem”.
Staying overseas, and Australia’s most wanted man, Hakan Ayik, has been arrested in Turkey, the Herald Sun ($) reports, a target of the FBI and AFP’s investigation into the AN0M-encrypted platform. Nine newspapers recently published a fascinating insight into his rise from “local gangster to one of the kingpins of Australian crime”. He’s probably worth about $800 million, news.com.au adds. Turkish Minister of Internal Affairs Ali Yerlikaya confirmed on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the alleged drug importer with other Australian figures Hakan Arif, Baris Tukel and Erkan Dogan were all in custody for trying to “launder the income they obtained”. Ayik has Turkish citizenship, so he probably wouldn’t be extradited to Australia.
MUSHROOM LUNCH MURDER CHARGES
Erin Patterson, who allegedly cooked a deadly beef Wellington meal, has been charged with three counts of murder and five of attempted murder. Her ex’s parents and her ex’s aunt all died after the meal. The other charges relate to alleged incidents between 2021 and 2022 where a man — thought to be her ex — became sick. That’s according to The Australian ($), anyway. Meanwhile there are 319 fewer Victorian police compared with a year ago, Sky News Australia reports, with more than 800 job vacancies. The state opposition says it’s because Labor didn’t give it enough money to do “quality recruiting”.
From crime to punishment, and a teenager in Unit 18 at WA’s Casuarina Prison — an adult prison — told his mum, who recorded the call, that officers were putting “chains around [the] ankles, and chains from the chains to the handcuffs”. Like a frog, he tells her, adding his wrists were numb. The three-point shackling of children is an abomination, youth detention expert Gerry Georgatos told WA Today ($), calling for the “horrors of that gulag” to stop. Many of the kids in Unit 18 are Indigenous. Finally, some people in the NT voted No in the Voice to Parliament referendum because they thought it would stop fracking, federal member for Lingiari Marion Scrymgour told Crikey. The NT was prominent as a topic during the referendum, NT-based Indigenous leaders, service providers, politicians and voters said, but it was excluded from genuine conversations, processes, and outcomes. We’ve got to do better, Scrymgour says.
UNDER FALSE PRETENCES
Accounting academics including Professor emeritus James Guthrie have apologised for using AI to unwittingly make false allegations against the Big Four consultancies. Their parliamentary inquiry submission had several wrong case studies about misconduct that Google’s Bard AI tool had generated, including that KMPG had audited the Commonwealth Bank (it hadn’t), and that Probuild’s liquidators had sued Deloitte for a crap audit (Deloitte never audited Probuild). It’s particularly interesting, Guardian Australia says, because these AI-created accusations are covered by parliamentary privilege — meaning no-one can sue for defamation.
Speaking of — TV presenter Lisa Wilkinson might be “done” at the 10 Network, an anonymous Paramount exec told the SMH ($). She’s in court today opposite her employer, suing over its refusal to pay her legal bills totalling $723,555 in her defence against Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation suit. Ten and Wilkinson are united on their defence against Lehrmann, and a lawyer told the paper that typically one party doesn’t get its own legal team — in Wilkinson’s case, high-profile silk Sue Chrysanthou. Wilkinson was not in Paramount’s content line-up for 2024, released last week. To media news in-house now, and just a reminder that the Worm will go to the inboxes only of paying subscribers from next week. You can subscribe to keep receiving the Worm, and get access to all Crikey stories, by clicking here. If you already pay for Crikey, you don’t need to do a thing. Hoping you’ll stick with me, folks.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Nyikina Mangala elder John Watson was hunting in the savannah, towering gorges and remote coastline of the Kimberley when he encountered a human foe as old as the dinosaurs. A crocodile with a menacing grin playing on its long mouth eyeballed him with a Godzilla-like eye. A tussle broke out — and Watson walked away. He’d lost a finger, but he’d kept his life. Fair trade. The pain was overwhelming, but he knew what do to. He walked to a mudjala mangrove tree, with its root tentacles weaving together above ground, and tore off a long strip of bark. Popping it into his mouth, Watson chewed for a while before applying the mush to his hand. The pain receded and he breathed a sigh of relief.
When researchers from Griffith University heard about the bush medicine, they were floored. They ran some tests and found mudjala bark is stronger than morphine when it comes to reducing pain and inflammation. They’ve since been working with Watson to develop an Aboriginal-owned gel form of the bark for athletes to use at the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, the ABC says. The Indigenous-research partnership recently won an award at the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. Watson’s son Anthony said it proved the power of traditional medicine, passed down from parent to child, in this country populated by our First Nations folks for millenniums.
Hoping you feel inspired to create something today too, and have a restful weekend.
SAY WHAT?
Even in war, there are rules. The international community will not accept ongoing civilian deaths. So when Israel’s friends urge Israel to exercise restraint, when Israel’s friends urge Israel to protect civilian lives, it is critical that Israel listens.
Penny Wong
The foreign affairs minister’s words are the strongest condemnation from Labor yet, and comes as the death toll of Palestinians reportedly sailed past 9,000 as the conflict continued into its 27th day.
CRIKEY RECAP
“1. I have never believed in climate change: ‘So I think it is worth stating that the anthropogenic global warming thesis, at least in its more extreme forms, is both ahistorical and utterly implausible. The climate cult will inevitably be discredited, I just hope we don’t have to endure an energy catastrophe before that happens.’ (2023). 2. I have always believed in climate change ‘Look, I have always thought that climate change happens.’ (2010).
“3. Climate change exists: ‘Yes, we believe climate change is real, yes, we believe humans make a contribution towards climate change.’ (2011) 3. Climate change does not exist: ‘The argument is absolute crap.’ (2009). 5. The science isn’t settled ‘So far reality has stubbornly refused to conform to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s computer modelling.’ (2017).”
“The rapidly heightened clash has created tension around the world, with hostility and attacks on both Jews and Muslims. The visceral anger arising from Israel’s response has unquestionably set a chilling fear through Jewish communities worldwide. Yet the Israeli government has attempted to co-opt this, attaching the entire state to victimhood status.
“Hamas’ attack with motorbikes and guns was on a nuclear high-tech state, yet it was described as an existential threat. It was labelled as a ‘pogrom’, evoking attacks on defenceless communities by the tsarist empire. Suggestions that the IDF air force, while bombing Gaza, dropped a bomb on the Al-Ahli Hospital, were, because disputed, portrayed as a ‘blood libel’ — the ancient charge that rabbis murder Christian children.”
“Asked by Cheek Media Co’s Hannah Ferguson what she thought the role of the media was in the public conversation on gendered violence, Contos said, ‘We need to stop with the clickbait-y headlines that are basically trauma bait for someone’s travesty,’ adding that [Lilie] James’ position as a white woman afforded her a different place in the national discourse relative to others.
“This mattered not for the headline writers at the Daily Mail, who published the since-changed headline: ‘Sexual consent campaigner’s astonishing claim after the death of Sydney woman: “We can’t forget that Lilie James was a white woman”.’ Good to see everyone was listening intently to Contos’ address.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
‘From the river to the sea’: What does the Palestinian slogan really mean? (Al Jazeera)
Iranian mother jailed for 13 years after denouncing death of son shot at protest (The Guardian)
Russia’s Wagner group may provide air defence weapon to Hezbollah, US intel says (The Wall Street Journal) ($)
Trump’s verbal slip-ups threaten his argument about Biden (CNN)
Students walk out of Hillary Clinton’s class to protest Columbia ‘shaming’ pro-Palestinian demonstrators (The Guardian)
Election 2023: National and ACT’s ‘shaky’ majority waits on half a million special votes (Stuff)
Starlink achieves cash flow breakeven, says SpaceX CEO Musk (Reuters)
Vladimir Putin signs Russia’s withdrawal from the treaty banning nuclear tests (euronews)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Is nuclear the answer to Australia’s climate crisis? — Reuben Finighan (The Conversation): “There are four arguments against investment in nuclear power: Olkiluoto 3, Flamanville 3, Hinkley Point C, and Vogtle. These are the four major latest-generation plants completed or near completion in Finland, the United States, the United Kingdom and France respectively. Cost overruns at these recent plants average over 300%, with more increases to come. The cost of Vogtle, for example, soared from US$14 billion to $34 billion (A$22-53 billion), Flamanville from €3.3 billion to €19 billion (A$5-31 billion), and Hinkley Point C from £16 billion to as much as £70 billion (A$30-132 billion), including subsidies.
“Completion of Vogtle has been delayed by seven years, Olkiluoto by 14 years, and Flamanville by at least 12 years. A fifth case is Virgil C, also in the US, for which US$9 billion (A$14 billion) was spent before cost overruns led the project to be abandoned. All three firms building these five plants — Westinghouse, EDF, and AREVA — went bankrupt or were nationalised. Consumers, companies and taxpayers will bear the costs for decades By contrast, average cost overruns for wind and solar are around zero, the lowest of all energy infrastructure.”
‘Airbus Albo’ risks leaving the home front aflame — Phillip Coorey (The AFR) ($): “The China visit will be Albanese’s 18th overseas trip in 18 months. PIF will be 19 and APEC will make it 20. By his own pen, the PM essentially admitted this week what the Liberals are starting to exploit. In an opinion piece written for The Australian, and in a speech delivered on Thursday, he felt the need to explain why the overseas stuff was inextricably linked to better domestic outcomes, be it on national security or a stronger economy and more jobs.
“In May, when Biden invited Albanese to Washington as a consolation prize for the US president pulling out of his trip to Sydney for a meeting of the Quad, the prime minister’s office urged the White House to time the visit with APEC in San Francisco so Albanese — who was in the US in February — didn’t have to travel twice to America in less than a month. They knew how it would look. None of this is particularly new. Tony Abbott and his team used to ridicule Kevin Rudd, under whose prime ministership the travel demands on the Australian PM first began to accelerate as the world shrank, the region became more volatile, and the number of international summits expanded.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Author Amy Doak will talk about her new book, Eleanor Jones is Not a Murderer, at Better Read Than Dead bookshop.
Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)
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Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s David Wilson will speak about analytics and global health at the QUT Gardens Point campus.
