HARD WORDS FOR ALBANESE
Labor Senator Pat Dodson has pointed the finger at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over Indigenous deaths in custody being a “national disgrace” and urged that we dish out strident criminal charges to private providers, The Age ($) reports. Dismally, more Indigenous people die in jail now than before the 1991 royal commission — 16.6 deaths a year, compared with 11 in the ’80s. Dodson, Labor’s special reconciliation envoy, said there is “no licence to kill people here” and urged Albanese to roll out “an Indigenous justice committee, a federal office to oversee state coronial inquests and ensure the provision of Indigenous tailored health services in jails”, The West ($) says. Today an Indigenous woman, Julianne Williams, will tell court that she was allegedly subjected to torture and inhuman treatment by prison guards in an ACT prison, Guardian Australia reports.
Meanwhile, Albanese’s superannuation tax changes are popular with voters, no matter how many cries of “class warfare” we hear from the tabloids. The latest Newspoll shows two-thirds of those polled approve of the government doubling the tax rate for earnings on balances over $3 million, The Australian ($) reports, a change that affects only about 80,000 accounts from 2025. Interestingly, most Coalition voters supported it, despite Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s promise to unpick it if he becomes prime minister. Albanese’s approval rating has fallen to 55% — seven points below his post-election honeymoon approval — but he’s the preferred PM by basically double (54%). The paper optimistically framed Dutton’s 28% as his “best result on this measure since the election”. Albanese put some of that star power behind NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns yesterday, as Guardian Australia reports, declaring in no uncertain terms that the Perrottet government was “plagued by scandal, dogged by resignation” and “cracking like an imported light rail carriage”. Zing.
DECLARING AN INTEREST
Brace for rates, folks. The Reserve Bank is expected to lift the cash rate for the 10th consecutive time tomorrow, the AFR ($) reports. The bank’s own research suggested that 15% of mortgage holders’ spare cash would go negative if it the rate increases to 3.6% — that’s a fancy way of saying they wouldn’t have enough money to meet their loan repayments and living expenses. Cripes. In dollar terms, The New Daily says, the cost of a $500,000 mortgage over 25 years has risen by $908 a month (!!) since May. If there’s a 0.25% rise as predicted tomorrow, it’ll go up to $983 (if your loan is $750,000, your repayment will have increased by $1474 a month since May). Are there any signs of relief on the horizon? Inflation eased from 8.4% to 7.5% in January, so that’s good. But many wonder if “the cure is worse than the disease at this point”, economist Nicki Hutley said. Bloomberg notes that South Korea, India, the US and Canada are all easing off rate rises as the world hurtles towards a recession.
It comes as the number of first-home buyers has fallen by 8.1% in Australia, making it the lowest level since February 2017, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Rising cash rate aside, the decline is also due to new rules that force a bank to be more strict on loans. They have to assess based on a three percentage point increase to variable mortgage rates — basically that means a worker earning $94,000 can borrow only $436,000, according to Canstar. Considering you need a 20% deposit, someone earning nearly six figures can only buy a house (or, more likely, a unit) worth $585,366. Good luck. Sydney’s units cost about $769,733, as The Daily Mail reports ($587,274 in Perth, $585,836 in Darwin).
WHAT WOULD JESUS SAY?
The largest study of Catholic women will be presented to the Vatican, the SMH reports ($), having found four in five think LGBTQIA+ people should be included in all church activities, and more than half strongly agreed same-sex couples are entitled to a religious marriage. It was led by Aussie researchers — one said there was an overarching sense of feeling “voiceless and ignored” among the 17,200 women they spoke to from 14 countries. Meanwhile Sydney Catholic priest Brendan Lee says The Project is the “worst show on television” and “full of putrid”, news.com.au ($) reports, after gay comedian Reuben Kaye made a joke about Jesus getting nailed for three days and coming back for more. Lee said: “You couldn’t mock something more sacred. He is our everything.” He declared that the show is “hate speech and bigotry”. Host Waleed Aly apologised for the joke airing, but former panellist Em Rusciano reckons the show is nearly all scripted and found it hard to believe it wasn’t greenlit by producers, The Daily Mail adds.
It comes as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese marched with more than 50,000 colourfully clad folks across the Sydney Harbour Bridge for LGBTQIA+ rights yesterday, The New Daily reports. Among them were the “78ers”, a term for the people who bravely took part in Sydney’s first Mardi Gras as an act of protest nearly half a century ago. Albanese said it was an “incredible” morning and that no matter who you are (and who you loved) you should be “valued, equal and celebrated”. Meanwhile LGBTQIA+ activist and political staffer Sally Rugg is battling it out in court with her employer, Kooyong teal MP Monique Ryan, over working conditions. The SMH ($) reports this morning both women wanted to avoid a trial but efforts to settle were blocked by the Commonwealth.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Twenty years ago, Joseph DeRuvo Jr took his shoes off for the last time. He had painful bunions and just wanted to give his sore tootsies some space ahead of surgery. When he learnt he was allergic to the metal screws to be implanted into his feet, he realised it wasn’t an option any more. But something else was happening too, as he recounted to The New York Times ($). Being barefoot felt good, he realised. Feeling the ground beneath him was a sort of “tactile feedback” that “makes everything else going on feel a little bit smoother”. He realised he was noticing every step he took. So he gave shoes up, mostly for good. He gets all the usual questions: does he get sharp things jammed in his feet? (He carries a sunglasses case filled with tweezers.) Does he get refused entry at places? (All the time.) DeRuvo and his wife, Lini Ecker, have taken to visiting only local stores and cafés, banking on a personal connection with the manager to get them to overlook his bare toes.
Still, he keeps an emergency pair of loose sandals in the car in case he’s going somewhere such as dinner with friends, where others would be put out if he couldn’t get in. He’s not trying to draw attention to himself. He just doesn’t want to wear shoes. And it doesn’t hold him back in his own pursuits — the pilates instructor is a “tinkerer and a maker” of all his own pilates equipment in a workshop behind his house. DeRuvo is a runner too, mostly on the road, because roads are cleaner and more even than the footpaths. “It gives me a lot of sympathy for dogs,” he said. But people are definitely weird about his feet. Strangers treat him with suspicion, and his kids are long used to it. “People don’t like to be reminded that they’re animals,” DeRuvo told his son. “They don’t like to admit we’re not that different from any of the other creatures walking around.” But his wife doesn’t mind. “You take the whole package when you marry someone,” she shrugged. You sure do.
Hoping you feel some grass between your toes today.
SAY WHAT?
We’ll never know. It’s history. But I am pretty confident that if I had run, I would have won.
Tanya Plibersek
The environment minister said she had the numbers in the 2019 leadership spill but chose not to contest because she was supporting her daughter who had suffered an abusive relationship. Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley was touched as “a woman and a mother” but couldn’t resist digging the knife into PM Anthony Albanese.
CRIKEY RECAP
Australian anti-Islamic activist Shermon Burgess becomes the latest far-right figure to convert to Islam
“The former activist’s conversion is part of a global trend of prominent right-wing figures courting Muslim fanbases, sometimes by converting to Islam. In the eyes of a new generation of conservatives, changing societal expectations around gender norms, masculinity and LGBTQIA+ rights have superseded asylum seekers, Islamic terrorism and sharia law as the single greatest threat to Western values.
“The intersection of homophobia, transphobia and misogyny between former adversaries has led to an unlikely allyship between the far-right and conservative Muslims, particularly with young men. ‘Most religions changed their value system and turned on their own beliefs in order to please the modern world,’ Burgess told Crikey.”
Sir, madam, this is a Wendy’s world
“Wendy’s is coming here, in part, because such franchise-chain-platform capitalism has killed American place. Our lower-end wage purchasing power has suffered over recent years; that of Americans has plummeted. Tens of millions of people can’t afford to eat at a place like Wendy’s any more, even as a treat.
“Demand decline and the rise of online retail have killed their malls, which had killed their downtowns. Councils have given franchises and chains tax holidays, cheap exurban land, unlimited car parking (while taxing it downtown) and acceded to any zoning request they have, no matter how much life it sucks out of actual cities.”
‘Serious corruption’ fears and Liberal Party branch stacking allegations referred to ICAC
“Among the allegations heard by the committee was a claim Jean-Claude Perrottet and a Liberal Party member named Christian Ellis had ‘asked a businessman to contribute $50,000 to an operation to unseat’ a federal Liberal MP, Alex Hawke.
“Because both Jean-Claude and Ellis refused to give evidence and respond to summonses from the committee, the committee found that ‘based on evidence to the committee [the] meeting took place’. Jean-Claude denied the allegation in a letter to the committee.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Tunisian opposition defies protest ban, rallies against president (Al Jazeera)
Estonia votes in election test for pro-Kyiv government (Reuters)
Cyclone Gabrielle passed. Then the rumours of hundreds of deaths began (Stuff)
Climate change threatens Canadian security, prosperity, warns stark spy agency brief (CBC)
Rishi Sunak to launch bill to stop people arriving on small boats claiming asylum (The Guardian)
Companies [to] disclose CEOs’ actual pay for first time (The Wall Street Journal) ($)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Xi Jinping has officially been installed as China’s president for an unprecedented third term. This is what he has planned — Bill Birtles (ABC): “China’s military is also in for a funding boost, with spending to increase by 7.2% for the year ahead — a similar rise to last year — and one that again outstrips the pace of overall economic growth. Li Keqiang said China’s military — the world’s biggest army by troop numbers and navy by fleet-size — needs to be ‘combat ready’. It’s standard language in some ways, but the build-up of Chinese ships, fighter jets and missile capabilities really is rattling nerves across the Taiwan strait and in the region.
“Money for China’s military has doubled in the past decade, and while the US$224 billion ($331 billion) official budget pales in comparison to the US$800 billion ($1.184 billion) a year the US spends on defence, China’s forces are focused on much more specific goals. Taking Taiwan is chief among them, so even as the overall economy grows more modestly than some might hope, Xi is maintaining the spending to make a US intervention over Taiwan more costly. And it’s not just hardware. One of the most eye-catching funding pledges is a 12% boost for China’s diplomats, the so-called ‘civilian soldiers’ fighting a different battle for influence against the US.”
Super’s purpose is dignified retirement, but tax debate clouds issues — Deborah Ralston (AFR) ($): “There is no argument about the need for a clear objective for superannuation, as Jim Chalmers has promised to legislate. But whether the changes the treasurer has announced to the super tax concessions, which lift tax on balances over $3 million to 30% from 2025, will raise the amount of revenue that has been promised is open to question. The purpose of super has been discussed for more than a decade and has been supported by both sides of politics. Several expert groups, including the Council of Superannuation Custodians in 2013, the financial system inquiry in 2014 and most recently the 2020 retirement income review, have endorsed the need for a legislated objective and a clear framework to evaluate proposed policy changes.
“Over time there have been many budgetary or politically motivated changes to super policy which have passed with little analysis. Not only would such a framework ensure greater accountability, but it should also reduce the policy instability that undermines trust in the system. In the consultation paper, the treasurer proposes: ‘The purpose of superannuation is to preserve savings to deliver income for a dignified retirement, alongside government support, in an equitable and sustainable way.’ This statement reflects the key dimensions of a retirement system: adequacy, equity and fiscal sustainability. Most importantly, super is there to provide retirement income. It should be preserved and used for this purpose and not as a ‘nest egg’ or a store of personal wealth.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)
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Refugee advocates will get together at Parliament House to urge the government to provide more permanent visas to refugees, particularly those on bridging visas.
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Former governor of Jakarta Anies Rasyid Baswedan will give the 2023 ST Lee lecture, discussing Indonesia, democracy and the way forward, in an event at the ANU’s Cultural Centre.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Internet personality Friendly Jordies — real name Jordan Shanks — will talk about being sued for defamation in a talk at Kinselas Hotel.
