CHINA SEES RED
China launched a misinformation campaign to demonise Australia after the Solomon Islands riot, according to a new report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). But the campaign, which also smeared Taiwan and the United States, as the ABC reports, was described as mostly “ineffective” by the report’s author. Chinese state media published 67 articles on the Solomon Islands over 18 weeks — 70% of them threw mud on the archipelago’s relationship with Australia or the US, or spruiked Beijing’s narratives. But they were shared only 11 times on Facebook, which is where most Solomon Islanders get their information. That’s not to say it didn’t work at all — 75% of Facebook comments about the Honiara riots last November were critical of China before the campaign, the report found. That dropped to 57% after the campaign.
It comes as the Trans-Pacific trade pact members are torn over China’s bid to join, the AFR reports — Singapore is supportive, but Australia and Japan say Beijing must stop using trade as a tool to control things. So who else is in the pact? Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru and Vietnam — and they all need to agree on any expansion. Chinese officials have been working their charm in Malaysia and Vietnam too, but Australia and Japan have dealt with 12 years of trade bans on a $20 billion export market — like wine, as CNBC reports. We may be watching on nervously as China might is growing in the Pacific, but the Coalition says it should remain the decision of Australia’s government to deploy troops overseas, Guardian Australia reports. Only the prime minister and senior ministers can commit Australia to war — cast your mind back to 2003 and you may remember John Howard sent troops to Iraq despite Labor’s opposition.
GOD 1 — ESSENDON 0
Former NAB CEO Andrew Thorburn has quit as Essendon’s CEO 30 hours after he was appointed after backlash over his high-level involvement with a church that called same-sex attraction a “sin” and compared abortion with “concentration camps”, The Australian ($) reports. Thorburn says he “grieves” that his “Christian faith” is unacceptable in society — which is kind of ironic considering the City on a Hill sermon in question asserted the LGBTIQA+ community and the one in six women who have had an abortion are apparently unacceptable in society — but anyway. Thorburn says he “sometimes disagrees” with the church, though cryptically failed to point out on what, and claimed Australia is poorer for the loss of our great freedoms of thought. Victorian Premier Dan Andrews had a decidedly different take, the Herald Sun ($) continues, calling the “wrong” views “appalling”, driven by “hatred” and “bigotry”.
To another footy drama now and an Indigenous barrister and a king’s counsel leading the AFL’s concussion probe are both poised to head up the investigation into the Hawthorn scandal, The Age reports. Bernard Quinn KC is probably going to be the chairman of the panel, while Yuin man and barrister Tim Goodwin will probably be one of four on it. The former players who made serious allegations of gross mistreatment from the club have said they don’t want to front an inquiry unless it was independent of AFL influence — and the AFL has had some trouble forming the panel since, the paper says. WorkSafe Victoria is investigating the allegations too, ABC adds.
ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH
A security firm for prisons and the Manus detention centre has been hacked, with tax file numbers, bank account information and medical checks posted online. Guardian Australia reports that G4S told past and present employees yesterday that a “cyber incident” had seen a third party or “malware program” gain personal information. And it’s not the only one — Telstra has also been hacked, with the names and email addresses of as many as 30,000 past and present employees posted on the dark web online, ABC reports. It wasn’t Telstra’s system that was penetrated, however — it was a third party offering rewards for Telstra staff. No customers were affected, but the data was posted in the same online forum as the Optus breach, The Australian ($) adds.
Meanwhile Singtel, which owns Optus, said it has not yet received a legal notice of a class action lawsuit, the Financial Post reports, but it’ll be ready when it does. “Any class action will be vigorously defended, if commenced,” Singtel said in a statement. Both Slater & Gordon and Maurice Blackburn are sizing up a class action to get compensation for up to 40% of Australia’s population affected by the breach — yowza. Though it may only end up being the smaller, 2.1 million cohort who were directly exposed that are looped into legal action.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Everyone to whom writer Sirin Kale talks to for her column in The Guardian on goodness tells her some version of the same thing: too much selfishness corrodes us, and time spent helping others enriches us. It’s a simple yet extremely potent truth, and one that threads its way through each of her stories this year. She’s come to understand that people don’t set out to be a do-gooder. Often “something happens to a person — calamity, sickness, loss — that opens a cavity in their chest, and once the air gets in, they’re not able to shut out the misfortunes of others”. Doing good often starts small, yet compounds quickly in its might and influence. It can take a person’s free time, their extra savings, even a little of their good health, but what we receive in return is the rich, wholesome flavour of togetherness, gratitude, and love. Fair trade.
Kale reflects on some of her favourite stories, like Syrian refugee Khaled Wakkaa who dreamed of opening a Syrian food van. He wrote a business plan for a loan, but was rebuffed. Now, following some crowdfunding, his dream is within grasp. The goodness “woke me up”, he says. A little help made him see that “I could realise it in the future. This could be real life.” Then there’s retired nurse Sandra Lowe, who ran a makeshift hedgehog “hospital” in her garden. Fast forward to now and her small facility has gone from a “Morris Minor [to] a Jaguar”, treating more than 220 hedgehogs this year with loads of volunteers. The story that hit Kale the hardest, however, was James Anderson, who puts the profits from his plumbing business into installing discounted or free heating for those in need. He was floored when a crowdfunding effort raised $123,000 for the cause, and this week he installed a new boiler for a man and his daughter living with a disability — neither had heating or hot water for five years. It makes you feel “really humble”, Anderson says, that so many people are willing to pitch in to do some good, too.
Hoping you’re able to see — or be — the good in the world today.
SAY WHAT?
As it happens, I do sometimes disagree with things I hear in church — but I believe strongly in the right of people to say them, especially when taken in context. Reducing complex matters to a sentence is dangerous.
Andrew Thorburn
The former banking boss and City on a Hill church chairman says we should take comments made at the church — including, one assumes, a 2013 sermon that claimed same-sex attraction is a “sin” and abortions are comparable to concentration camps — in context. Thorburn says people with different views should be able to live and work together “always with respect”, which one may agree with, though not in the way he meant it.
CRIKEY RECAP
Inside CPAC, conservative elites are fighting their supporters over the future of the right
“I was among 1000 attendees who made their way to the ICC in Sydney to hear from a mix of Australian right-wing politicians and commentators and a few headline international names like Nigel Farage, former Trump adviser Jason Miller, and former Trump acting attorney-general Matt Whitaker.
“What the audience heard over the weekend, the speakers promised, was the way out of the wilderness for the conservative political movement. Speakers listed their many enemies — most common were climate scientists, indoctrinating teachers, unelected bureaucrats, Dictator Dan, and the radical and woke left — but one group earned more opprobrium from the crowd than almost any other: ‘conservative cowards’, said Farage.”
True to Coalition form, Julian Leeser looks to further sabotage federal ICAC
“Leeser’s proposal comes from the same legal approach that Christian Porter and Scott Morrison took to their toothless pro-corruption corruption body: prevent it from making its own decisions about corruption investigations. Porter and Morrison — presumably with the full support of then backbencher Leeser, given he failed to object to any of its features — wanted to block the body from holding public hearings, conducting its own investigations, receiving complaints, and making findings of corruption by MPs.
“When the government unveiled its model for the NACC, Leeser complained that the body had ‘extraordinary powers’, despite the fact they are exactly the same powers the Coalition wanted to give the discredited Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) …”
Genetic hangovers or evolutionary benefits? Nobel prize winner explores effects of Neanderthal gene
“There’s a genetic advantage in the Neanderthal gene for women who want to have a lot of kids. They were able to produce more progesterone receptors in their cells, which ultimately protected them against miscarriage and bleeding during pregnancy.
“A weaker immune system but stronger on top of a mountain, Pääbo has explored the basis for exploring what makes us uniquely human. With so many differences in such a small genetic code, he has said he wonders just how much more of an influence Neanderthals could have had on humanity had they survived another 40,000 years.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Nobel prize in physics is awarded to 3 scientists for work in quantum technology (The New York Times)
Twitter stock surges on reports Elon Musk again proposes buying the company at full price (CNN)
North Korea fires ballistic missile over Japan (BBC)
What does sustainable jet fuel mean for Air NZ and will it help save the planet? (Stuff)
How Norway’s central bank is trying out its own digital currency (Euro News)
Zelenskyy, Musk in Twitter showdown over Ukraine ‘peace’ plan (Al Jazeera)
Apple forced to change charger in Europe as EU approves overhaul (Reuters)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Without those ‘lefties’ the Liberals can’t regain government — Michelle Grattan (The Conversation): “These days those representing the latter, the moderates, are a shadow of their former selves. Surviving moderate federal parliamentarians are scarce, although they do have some significant positions — Simon Birmingham is opposition Senate leader and Julian Leeser is shadow attorney-general, and spokesman on the Voice to Parliament. At the grassroots level, there is little incentive for small-l liberals to join the party, especially as for some the alternative can be to mobilise behind a teal candidate (which is happening at present for the November Victorian election).
“Meanwhile the Liberal conservatives are divided between traditionalists and those on the hard right, the latter wanting the party to turn its back on centrist policies and candidates. The traditional conservatives include former Howard government minister Nick Minchin, currently one of the party’s federal vice-presidents. It was telling that he was booed at the weekend conference. Labelled as a ‘right winger’ through his political career, Minchin wasn’t considered ‘right wing’ enough. Those from the uncompromising right (some of them, installed via branch stacking, coming from religious groups) appear to have a strong grip in a party that is hollowed out at rank and file level.”
Working in these professions can save thousands on your mortgage — John Collett (The Age): “Workers in the medical, legal and education fields are among a growing list of professionals who can save thousands of dollars when applying for a mortgage with a deposit of less than 20%. A variety of different lenders offer waivers to certain professions on lenders’ mortgage insurance (LMI), which is usually imposed on borrowers with a deposit under that 20% mark. LMI can cost several thousands of dollars and is usually added to the repayments for the duration of the mortgage.
“Banks offer these waivers to those in jobs that are likely to be secure and pay good incomes. Top of the list is health professionals, though people working in education, law enforcement and the legal and accounting professions are also eligible for waivers from certain lenders. Sometimes, the waivers are advertised by the lender, but sometimes you have to ask. Sally Tindall, research director at RateCity, says while some banks actively promote these professional waivers, others are ‘documented in the backwaters of bank websites’.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Yuggera Country (also known as Brisbane)
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British intellectual Jonathan Sumption will give a lecture on the rule of law in times of crisis, in an event held at the Banco Court.
Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)
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Poets Claudia Rankine and Evelyn Araluen will chat about their contributions to The Big Anxiety: Taking Care of Mental Health in Time of Crisis in an event held at The Capitol.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Author Fiona Kelly McGregor will chat about her new book, Iris, at Glee Books.
