GREENER PASTURES
Twelve Coalition MPs want us to legalise nuclear but zero said they’d want a nuclear plant in their electorate, the SMH reports. They are: opposition climate change and energy spokesman Ted O’Brien (there are strict criteria, he pontificated), opposition energy affordability spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh (we don’t have any coal-fired power stations to convert, she bleated), as well as Queenslanders Warren Entsch, Llew O’Brien, Colin Boyce, Michelle Landry and Keith Pitt, West Australian Ian Goodenough, Victorians Sam Birrell and Keith Wolahan, NSW MP Jenny Ware and Senator Dave Sharma. Institutional investors handling $37 trillion in super funds and assets said nuclear is the last thing they want exposure to, Guardian Australia reports. The Department of Environment and Energy has estimated it would cost $387 billion to go nuclear, the paper adds.
Meanwhile, WA is on track to increase its emissions 20% above 2005 levels, Guardian Australia reports, and it could force other states to slash way more if we are to reach our 43% reduction target (we were at 26% as of December). It comes as Resources Minister Madeleine King will tweak legislation today to ensure both she and Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek will approve changes to the consultation process of big gas projects, The West Australian ($) says, not just King. She stressed there was no change to environmental standards nor any fast-tracking mechanism — just a consultation rethink for greenies, First Nations peoples, industry and resource companies. Meanwhile The Australian ($) reckons Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen is about to water down our fuel efficiency standards in lockstep with the US following pressure from Thailand and Japan. The story doesn’t explain where the intel came from, however, and doesn’t really say much more new info than that.
BY THE NUMBERS
Newspoll is in — Labor’s primary vote is lower than at the 2022 federal election, at 32%, while the Coalition’s was 37% with the other 31% backing either the Greens who were up one point to 13%, One Nation who were also up one point to 7% or independents who fell two points to 11% (the Greens are really making waves right now, former Liberal attorney-general George Brandis wrote today in the SMH.) The Australian ($) adds that Labor’s two-party preferred is 51-49% however. To another News Corp poll now and the Herald Sun reports the Victorian Coalition’s primary vote has jumped four points to 38, while state Labor’s is down to 36%. It adds, four lines down, that Labor leads the Coalition on two-party preferred 54 to 46. Speaking of Victoria — the Libs have preselected former Liberal Tim Wilson to take on independent MP Zoe Daniel in a rematch in Goldstein next election, The New Daily reports. He lost it with a 13.1% swing last time.
Meanwhile, the Liberals have clung to government in Tasmania, the last jurisdiction in Australia ruled by the party, but Premier Jeremy Rockliff will need to form a minority government. Sky News Australia reports Labor leader Rebecca White conceded yesterday but didn’t confirm whether she’ll resign after her fourth election loss. There was a swing away from both major parties (of 35 seats, the Greens won four; Jacqui Lambie Network won two; and independents and others won two). Finally, the SA Liberals will probably lose former premier Steven Marshall’s seat of Dunstan, the state’s most marginal. The Advertiser ($) called it the most bitter by-election in memory, including the revelation Liberal candidate Anna Finizio applied for a Labor job four years ago. But don’t take a side, new ABC chair Kim Williams has told staff at the broadcaster per The Australian ($), because you’re working at a publicly funded organisation and must be impartial always.
HOUSING DOUBT
Draining your retirement probably won’t cover a home deposit in Sydney or Melbourne if you’re 34 or younger, Guardian Australia says, despite what the Coalition is spruiking. That’s per Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia data that found even the highest-paid Sydney couples aged 25-34 couldn’t afford a median apartment with the $150,000 tops they’d have, while in Melbourne they’d only just afford one ($120,000). But once you’re in the front door there are new problems: Guardian Australia also reports rising strata costs in this cost of living crisis are seeing homeowners fall behind on strata fees and copping litigation for missing the mandatory maintenance and repair levies.
Meanwhile, we need 90,000 tradies to reach the Albanese government’s goal of 1.2 million houses in the next five years, the ABC reports. That’s according to BuildSkills Australia, who said there’s no way we’ll manage to get the people we need to construct the 60,000 new homes each quarter after the target’s mid-year commencement — we’ll start on the back foot, the group tasked by the government to address skills shortages said. Unless the government fast-tracks tradie visas and makes overseas qualifications more easily recognised, Master Builders Australia added, saying they were trying to get tradies on the skilled priority list. Here’s another idea, the WA Property Council said via WA Today — what if we offered businesses payroll tax breaks if they lure workers? Not from overseas, mind you — from the east coast. What could possibly go wrong?
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
A rather tired tradie named Billy strolled into a barber shop in Newcastle, fleetingly perked up by the smiling staff that greeted him. As he plonked down in the chair, owner Jordan Magasiva approached and the pair exchanged a couple of pleasantries before getting down to business. A beard trim as well as a hair cut, Magasiva confirmed, and started gathering his tools. Billy laid back as the barber began the cut, the pair exchanging tidbits of info before falling into a comfortable silence. It was just so nice sitting there, Billy thought, being tended to by this decent bloke in a soft chair after a huge day at work. The indistinct chatter around him and the low hum of the clippers faded into white noise, and Billy drifted off into a slumber.
Noticing this, Magasiva smiled as he finished the cut, then gathered his tools and moved on to his next client. Soon after, another staff member gingerly placed a soft towel over the tradie’s eyes as he continued to snooze through the ramble of the afternoon. Three hours later, at 6pm, Billy woke up. What time is it, he asked the staff sleepily, who cracked up. No one minded one bit that Billy had occupied the chair all afternoon, least of all Magasiva, who captioned a video of the kip saying he appreciated “how hectic work/life gets”. The barber continued: “Shout out to all the hardworking men & women doing what they have to do to make ends meet, we must support each other on this journey”. Indeed.
Hoping you feel rested today too.
SAY WHAT?
Still, I say hooray for a former soapie star I’d never heard of sounding kind of normal.
Janet Albrechtsen
The Australian columnist found it fairly normal that Holly Valance, the Neighbours star turned billionaire’s wife, described 21-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg as a “demonic little gremlin”.
CRIKEY RECAP
“In the years that followed the South Australian royal commission, the nuclear debate was reignited several times, in several jurisdictions: NSW deputy premier John Barilaro, of the National Party, called for nuclear power to be ‘part of the debate’ about the state’s energy supply in 2017; a federal parliamentary committee recommended Australia consider the idea again in 2019 …
“NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham sought to repeal a NSW prohibition on nuclear energy in 2019; a Victorian parliamentary committee found in 2020 that ‘without subsidisation a nuclear power industry will remain economically unviable in Australia for now’ …
“On review, both Cash and Dreyfus told the information commissioner that the document wasn’t in their possession, and in 2023, the information commissioner decided that the documents were therefore not subject to release under freedom of information laws.
“The government later claimed to have lost the document, but the document was later found in preparation for Patrick’s case in the Federal Court. This week, Justice Natalie Charlesworth in the Federal Court held that the information commissioner erred in its construction of the FOI Act …”
“Indeed, TikTok’s response to the latest attempted US ban has demonstrated the power of its resistance. On March 7, the platform engaged its users directly with a pop-up message urging them to contact Congress to complain.
“In doing so, it shifted the narrative from a direct confrontation between itself and Washington to a broader conflict between the US government and American citizens over freedom of expression. The bill that would force ByteDance to sell the app or face a nationwide ban must still pass the Senate …”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Moscow concert hall attack: Why is ISIL targeting Russia? (Al Jazeera)
Kuriga kidnap: Nigerian pupils taken in mass abduction freed (BBC)
Here’s what happens if Trump can’t get a $464 million bond (CNN)
Simon Harris to become Ireland’s youngest prime minister (The Guardian)
Canada is already preparing for Trump’s potential tariff threats (CBC)
Pope skips Palm Sunday homily, an unusual decision for a major event (Reuters)
Russian missile headed for Ukraine briefly enters Polish airspace (euronews)
THE COMMENTARIAT
A British friend with important lessons for Australia — Alexander Downer (the AFR): “No, Mr Keating, we don’t have to suck up to China. We have to balance Beijing’s power through coalition building and co-exist with China within the framework of international law. Talking of Paul Keating, his greatest foreign policy achievement was signing a one-page security agreement with an ageing dictator, which lasted a full four years. It was theatre without substance. At the end of last week, by contrast, we saw substance without theatre. Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles hosted this year’s AUKMIN talks with their British counterparts, David Cameron and Grant Shapps, and signed a status of forces agreement with the UK.
“In the context of China’s belligerent foreign policy and in an era when Western interests and values have come under siege in Ukraine and the Middle East, this sent out a clear message: Western powers, wherever they are on the map, are gradually rebuilding their collaboration — and not before time. It’s 18 years since AUKMIN was created, 17 since the first meeting at Lancaster House in London. At a meeting of our National Security Committee with Tony Blair and his team in Canberra in 2006, I asked — given the bonds of history and values we had with the UK — whether the British prime minister would be willing to set up an annual bilateral meeting along the lines of our AUSMIN talks with the Americans.”
Putin will be ruthless after the Moscow attack, but Russians don’t trust him to keep them safe — Andrei Soldatov (The Guardian): “The FSB is also rather competent at investigating attacks after the event, thanks in large part to video surveillance, combined with up-to-the-minute facial recognition technology. We saw this in the FSB’s response to the Crocus city hall attack in Moscow. Four suspected perpetrators were identified, pursued and arrested within 24 hours. And, sure enough, they were immediately tortured — one of the suspects had his ear cut off and was forced to eat it by special forces, all recorded and at once leaked to pro-Kremlin media.
“But these are not the qualities that help to prevent attacks happening, and time and again, the FSB has failed as an intelligence collection agency because other things are needed: information-sharing capabilities between agencies, both domestic and foreign, and trust between those agencies and within those agencies. They also need to be trusted by the population, and they need to be ready to say very uncomfortable things to the generals — even to the country’s leader. In this country where no freedoms are allowed and political discussion is strongly censored, trust in national security services is in short supply.”
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WHAT’S ON TODAY
Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)
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Writers Abbey Lay, Roslyn Orlando, Ernest Price, Amélie Jean Staff, and Diem Nguyen will talk about their work at The Moat.
