PM’S TIKTOK BLOCK
The Australian ($) reports that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has “signed off on a government-wide ban on the use of the social media app TikTok following a review by the Department of Home Affairs into the security risks of the Chinese owned platform”. All devices issued by the federal government and departments and used by politicians and public servants would be subject to the ban. States and territories “are expected to follow suit with similar bans” and were briefed on Monday, the article says. According to the Herald Sun ($) Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has already been convinced.
In the US Congress, most members “are in favour of limiting the app, forcing a sale to remove connections to China or even banning it outright”, the Associated Press reports. Many US states, and governments in Denmark, Canada, Great Britain and New Zealand, among others, have enacted bans.
So what’s the problem with TikTok? “Perhaps the most pressing concern is around the Chinese government’s potential access to troves of data from TikTok’s millions of users” through legal means or covert backdoor access, Politico reports. “Do the allegations stack up? Security officials have given few details about why they are moving against TikTok. That may be due to sensitivity around matters of national security, or it may simply indicate that there’s not much substance behind the bluster.” TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew denied at a recent five-hour grilling before Congress the app’s parent company, ByteDance, was “an agent of China or any other country”. Chinese state media portrayed the hearing as a “political grandstanding” exercise where “no proof” was offered on TikTok’s harm.
In state news, NSW Premier Chris Minns has revealed his first ministry. The Labor leader said his would be a “reduced” cabinet of 22 ministers — one fewer than the one that came before — and half will be female. In a separate development, Labor says it will support independent Lake Macquarie MP Greg Piper as Speaker of the house. Prue Car will be deputy premier, upper house MP Penny Sharpe will be government leader in that chamber, as well as minister for climate change, energy, the environment, and heritage. Yasmin Catley will be police minister, Tara Moriarty minister for regional NSW and Courtney Houssos finance minister. Jihad Dib will be responsible for customer service and digital government, as well as emergency services and youth justice. David Harris will be minister for Aboriginal affairs and treaty, along with several other responsibilities. John Graham will take on roads, Jennifer Aitchison regional transport and roads, and Jo Haylen transport. Ryan Park will be health minister, and Daniel Mookhey treasurer. “I’m proud of the team we have. We have a lot of hard work in front of us, and a big responsibility, but my team and I are up to the challenge,” Minns said. The new cabinet will be sworn in on Wednesday.
LIB MPS WANT THEIR VOICE
A push for Liberal MPs to be allowed to vote however they want when it comes time to back the Indigenous Voice to Parliament is “gaining ground” inside the party. MPs are expected to use a “crucial party meeting” called for Wednesday to voice their preference for a conscience vote, The Sydney Morning Herald ($) reports: “The call for a free vote gained support from shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser yesterday when he said he favoured the approach taken on the republic in 1999″. ‘‘I think the proposal during the republic referendum was a good one,’’ said Leeser, the Coalition spokesman on Indigenous Australians.
The Australian, which leads today’s edition with a tribute to late Aboriginal elder Yunupingu (headlined “The great voice of his people”), reports another proposal from Leeser. “Leeser … has outlined a blueprint that would let Parliament legislate who in the executive government the advisory body could talk to and what it could talk about, in a proposal radically different to that put by Anthony Albanese.” Leeser’s proposal would remove the second clause of a proposed amendment saying the Voice “may make representations to the Parliament and the executive government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples”. A constitutional law expert has slammed the suggestion, saying the change would leave Australians “with a Voice that may have no voice”. “To argue for changes to the government’s amendment does not mean you oppose the Voice; it means you want to ensure it doesn’t detract from a system of government that is world best,” Leeser writes in an opinion piece for the same newspaper.
MEDICARE IS BLEEDING
Medicare is “so poorly structured and loosely scrutinised that it is no longer fit for purpose” and is wasting up to $3 billion a year, The Sydney Morning Herald ($) reports. The paper cites an independent report ordered by Health Minister Mark Butler that has revealed Medicare has left “the gate wide open” to fraud. Health economist and former head of the Victorian Health Department Pradeep Philip found “the legislative basis for Medicare is fast becoming out of date, unable to reflect the changing health needs and modes of health service delivery in Australia … The vulnerabilities in the system are real and material.”
The Australian Medical Association, which has vigorously pushed back against media reporting claiming Medicare is ripe for rorting, issued a media release yesterday citing a different study that “found GPs were significantly more likely to undercharge than overcharge Medicare for their services, and the amount GPs overcharged ‘was dwarfed by the magnitude at which GPs undercharged’.” The study’s lead author, Christopher Harrison of the University of Sydney, said “allegations of fraud have been damaging to a workforce that is struggling to attract medical graduates to general practice”, according to The New Daily.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Survival reality show Alone has spawned an Australian spin-off set in remote Tasmania. The first two episodes aired last Wednesday on SBS on Demand and the third episode will be available on Wednesday. “It was wonderful. It was horrible. It was dirty. It was muddy. It was frustrating. It was glorious,” says Gina, one of the contestants, to Guardian Australia. PerthNow gave the double premiere a B+ rating, writing: “Fans of the US version will be pleased to hear the Aussie incarnation is every bit as compelling”.
Haven’t heard of Alone before? Think Survivor, except each contestant is completely solo, and there are no challenges or tribal councils. Contestants film themselves as they struggle to stay in the wilderness for as long as possible. The host of ABC RN’s Stop Everything, Beverley Wang, describes the show as “one of the most extreme shows on television … This show frankly makes Survivor look like a walk in the park”. “Alone Australia is …noticeably funnier than other versions” and a “study in human resilience in the face of loneliness and boredom”, the Guardian writes.
SAY WHAT?
HEADING TO NEW YORK. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!
Donald Trump
The former US president has left Florida and will hand himself over in New York to be arraigned on criminal charges related to alleged hush payments to two women during the 2016 campaign. He was firing off messages on the social media app Truth Social while crossing the country by air early Tuesday morning, Australian time. Trump will be photographed and fingerprinted — but not handcuffed, according to his lawyers, NPR reports. He is expected to enter a not guilty plea, and the charges against him will be unsealed when the arraignment is completed. That will happen about 4am Wednesday, AEST.
CRIKEY RECAP
After Aston, the right has — hahaha, I can’t finish this headline
“The Liberals could have kept Aston. If they’d run with a local candidate — doing retail politics, campaigning for the neglected middle-outer east, and making some dissenting noises on climate change, and also on the rush to war with China — they might have reversed the 8% swing against them in the 2022 election and made it the starting point of a fightback.
“The trouble would have been finding a local candidate like that, given the state of the party branches and those willing to run. For the Liberal Party, holding an open preselection is now like tapping a ship’s biscuit: all that will come out are the weevils — the reactionary, conspiratorial, fundamentalist and resentful types now crowding out the party’s membership lists.”
The Liberal Party doesn’t have a clue how to win voters back
“The demise of the Liberals looks to have no solid bottom. You can chart this decline from the beginning of the end of John Howard’s time in office after he scored a win against Labor’s Mark Latham (the political equivalent of picking the Lotto numbers).
“Howard crashed and burned, and Kevin Rudd ascended. He then crashed and all but took Julia Gillard down with some Rasputin-like treachery. Rudd’s subsequent comeback paved the way for the improbable Tony Abbott to get back some Liberal pixie dust to sprinkle around, but the electorate soon found out it was more like mycotoxins, certain to cause pain and suffering.”
News Corp keeps talking, but fewer and fewer are listening
“As Australia rolled through the past four years of state and federal elections, the once powerful News Corp slowed, its outrage engine spluttering. Now, with the Aston byelection, it seems it has run out of fuel. Famous for picking winners, the company now can’t even pick the Liberals in Aston, a seat the party has held for more than 30 years.
“Not so long ago, News Corp’s twin goals — make money, wield power — were aligned. Now those goals pull against one another, leaving the company bowing to the demands of its increasingly fringe audience. It can still make (some) money by following the lead of its loyal subscribers, sequestered as they are behind the hardest of paywalls, but there will never be enough of them to deliver the political clout the organisation once enjoyed.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Donald Trump heads to NY amid tight security ahead of his surrender (Associated Press)
‘Inevitable’ that Australia will dump Charles, new high commissioner to the UK says (The Australian)
Oil prices soar on producer output cuts; Asian shares mixed (Associated Press)
New York Times says it won’t pay for Twitter verified check mark (Reuters)
Sanna Marin defeated by Finland’s conservatives in tight race (BBC)
One dead as violence rocks eastern India during Hindu festival (Al Jazeera)
South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius denied parole a decade after killing girlfriend (France 24)
THE COMMENTARIAT
The best way to defeat Trump? Revive the American dream — The AFR View (The Australian Financial Review) ($): “No one is above the law, including current and former presidents of the United States. The details of the criminal charges against Donald Trump won’t be known until the Manhattan grand jury’s indictment is unsealed in New York early Wednesday morning Australian time.
“But after two congressional indictments, and amid ongoing investigations into the Capitol Hill riot and attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, it might be better for the future of the American republic if the allegations against Mr Trump amounted to genuine high crimes and misdemeanours, instead of broken election campaign rules flowing from a billionaire property developer paying hush money to a porn star.”
Dutton is making Labor look like the natural party of government — Nick Bryant (The Sydney Morning Herald) ($): “Labor enjoys a monopoly in government across the entire Australian mainland. The party’s history-defying win in the Aston byelection, the first time a sitting government has won a seat from the opposition in more than 100 years, has provided lustrous red icing on that continent-sized cake. The fact that the island state of Tasmania provides the Liberals’ only seat of state power makes them look even more like a party in exile.
“With all those caveats firmly in place, Anthony Albanese seems to be doing a pretty good job of advancing his project to make Labor the natural party of government. A central reason why is because Peter Dutton is making the Liberals the natural party of opposition.”
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)
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Public hearing on online gambling and its harmful impacts. The committee hearing at Parliament features the Australian Banking Association, Tabcorp, Sportsbet, Responsible Wagering Australia, Coalition of Major Professional and Participation Sports (AFL, NRL), Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association, Lottery Corporation, Australian Communications and Media Authority and the Department of Social Service.
