MEAN GREEN MACHINE
Australia owes $2.6 billion in promised funding to poorer, climate-vulnerable countries, The Australian ($) reports, the third-worst debt behind the US and Canada. That’s according to an analysis from Carbon Brief, which found Australia has paid only about a third (38%) of our fair share. That’s despite Australia having the largest per-capita emissions from coal in the world — double China’s. It dates back to COP15 in 2009 where we joined an agreement to collectively give US$100 billion to suffering nations by 2020 — Germany, France and Japan actually gave more than their fair share, though it was via loans, not grants. Oxfam International put it plainly: “Rich countries are largely responsible for the climate crisis,” as Guardian Australia continues. And analysis has found poorer countries have already suffered $500 billion in losses because of climate impacts, a former president of the Maldives said.
As COP27 opens in Egypt, what’s changed since COP26 in Glasgow? It was actually the largest gathering since the UN’s environmental treaty was formed in the ’90s, Crikey reports, and the 153 nations in attendance (responsible for 80% of greenhouse gases) were told to submit a climate plan by September. Just 22 nations did. We were one — our 43% reduction target. Meanwhile, we got a look at the money that went into the teal uprising, bankrolled only partly by the Climate 200 group. Stepping heroically over the pun opportunity, Allegra Spender topped the charts with $2.1 million poured into her winning campaign in Wentworth. Kooyong’s Monique Ryan spent about the same in second place, while Zoe Daniel forked out $1.6 million, the SMH reports. Kylea Tink was the “top teal” getting $808,411 from Climate 200 to take the affluent seat of North Sydney. Also of note: Alex Turnbull, son of former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, gave $25,000 to Spender to topple his father’s Liberal successor, Dave Sharma, Guardian Australia reports (independent Kerryn Phelps served a short stint in between).
LAYING DOWN THE LAW
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus will have an “urgent meeting” with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), the ABC reports, after it was revealed that 17 members have had bullying and harassment allegations levelled at them in the past six years. The number of complaints was revealed after questioning from Labor Senator Nita Green — Dreyfus said he was “very concerned” about it, and doesn’t know what the former Coalition government knew about this. Meanwhile, Dreyfus has sent a stern letter to former prime minister Scott Morrison basically telling him to shut his trap about secret government business, Guardian Australia reports. Morrison dished on the inside story of the pandemic to The Australian reporters Simon Benson and Geoff Chambers, who revealed the five secret portfolios the former PM held during the pandemic and a prolonged period later, for some reason, as The Conversation delves into.
Speaking of top lawyers, WA’s highest court has told the former WA solicitor-general to better explain his $11,000 a day charges after finding about $500,000 worth of bills were “opaque”, The West ($) reports. Grant Donaldson, who is one of WA’s top barristers, charged Mammoth Investments $800,000 for his legal work in 2019 as it battled financier Rural Bank. On one occasion Donaldson charged $150,000 for 11 days’ work, WA Today adds. Cripes. He used only the words “getting up” to explain about two-thirds of the bills. The appeals judges were like, you’ll need to elaborate. And it’s not just private practice — Michael West Media says the country’s law firms are the big winners in the lucrative government-funded litigation world — in 2020-21, Rex Patrick writes, the federal government spent $1.05 billion of taxpayers’ money on legal services. That’s up from $826 million in 2016-17, $857 million in 2017-18, $951 million in 2018-19 and $1.02 billion in 2019-20.
QUESTIONS OF PRINCIPLE
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews wouldn’t answer 15 questions about what he meant by “smear” and “innuendo” in a statement at the weekend about his integrity and the state’s corruption watchdog, The Age reports. It all started last week when the paper reported that Andrews was the subject of this inquiry looking into a Labor-aligned union that got funds for a training program. At the time, Health Department officials objected, the program didn’t go ahead anyway because of the pandemic, and most of the funds weren’t paid. But then the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) stopped the report from being published, and everyone was up in arms — shouldn’t the public get to see the report, considering we are hurtling towards an election? And did Andrews’ office tell IBAC to get the injunction to stop the release? We don’t know.
To another corruption watchdog now and statements taken by South Australian ICAC officers were in breach of international law and cannot be used in a trial for a former public servant who allegedly used taxpayer funds for a holiday. Prosecutors say they need time to fly in six German witnesses in the trial of former Renewal SA boss John Hanlon, as Adelaide Now reports. But their statements to ICAC don’t count, the court decided, and the request for adjournment was rebuffed. Hanlon’s lawyers said he had no idea “what prompting ICAC gave to get these witnesses to give these statements to them” and it would impede his client’s right to a fair trial.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Hou-mei Sung stood gazing at a mirror. She didn’t stare back at herself, however — it was an ancient mirror in the backroom of the Cincinnati Art Museum, coated in the foggy remnants of time layered upon it by millennia. For the past five years, the mirror hadn’t even been on display, forgotten about in storage. But Sung just had this feeling about it. It kind of looked like an artefact from Edo-period Japan, Sung, who is the museum’s curator of East Asian art, mulled. But it has Chinese script on it, she reasoned to herself, and besides, the mirror is tiny — much smaller than similar ones in the esteemed museums of Tokyo, Shanghai and New York City. But Sung couldn’t shake her curiosity, so she asked a conservationist to indulge her for a moment. They went to the backroom, lugged the thing out, and shone a smartphone light onto the mirror’s musty surface.
Suddenly, the wall behind them was illuminated with a Buddha. He was sitting upright, an ethereal glow represented by a dozen golden lines flowing off him. His facial expression was pensive as the two women gazed at him. It was Amitabha, an important figure in East Asian Buddhism. “We were so excited,” Sung told CNN. It’s a magic mirror — an incredibly rare artefact, one of only four in museums worldwide. They’re made from polished bronze and date back 2000 years to the Han dynasty. An artist would cast an image on to one side, then scratch the surface of the other, before polishing it until it was reflective. Magic mirrors mostly hung in temples or noble households, a secret hidden in plain sight until the light hit them just right. They mystified Western scientists when they were discovered in the 19th century, and they still kind of baffle us today. Sung says it would’ve been “tremendously difficult” to make them, which is why they’re so rare. And she thinks there are more out there — mirrors “people don’t even know are magic”. Yet.
Hoping you see the light today too.
SAY WHAT?
Nope, I’m done. You can never say never but no. No, no, no. I’m done.
Ash Barty
Wait, what? Bookies would’ve been scratching their heads at the emphatic denial the former world No. 1 tennis player delivered when asked if she’d ever make a comeback, with her jamming in a little hope in the middle of her answer. The 26-year-old says she misses competing but enjoys that there’s no “white line fever” any more.
CRIKEY RECAP
Elon Musk’s Twitter changes can be explained by this one simple number
“So, how will it change? There have been endless attempts to decipher Muskology as told through the mercurial billionaire’s tweeting about vague free speech platitudes and (sometimes literal) shitposts. Even before Musk had been officially handed the keys, some had flocked to the platform in anticipation of the new regime; others fled. Major advertisers have paused their spending as they wait to see how the platform changes.
“His track record of inflated promises, backflips and contradictions makes it hard to predict his next move, let alone sketch out a coherent ideology. The key to understanding Musk’s plans for Twitter is one simple number: US$1,000,000,000. That’s reportedly the amount that Twitter must now find to pay the annual interest on the loans Musk took out to buy the company.”
Anatomy of a conspiracy theory: stairgate and the Republicanisation of Australian conservatism
“Far-right politics researcher Cam Smith told Crikey that ‘within hours’ of the news breaking of Andrews’ accident on March 9, right-wing anti-lockdown conspiracy groups on Telegram were posting content along the lines of ‘I hope he was really bashed’. Soon this morphed into people in the same groups speculating on whether he had, and before long the same circles were posting that as though it were an actual rumour: ‘I heard he was bashed.’
“Other conspiracy groups on Telegram posted the ‘strange trend’ of politicians needing time off around this time (former federal minister Greg Hunt was hospitalised around the same time and Christian Porter and Linda Reynolds were also taking leave for completely different reasons), ultimately concluding it may have something to do with adverse vaccine reactions.”
Victorian finances deteriorating, even as Andrews appears a sure thing
“Victorian bonds are now trading at a 60-basis point premium to federal debt and investors are even now demanding Victorians pay a higher interest rate than what they charge NSW and Queensland. None of this is stopping the ongoing reckless promises of the Andrews government, which recently announced it was going to re-create the old State Electricity Commission of Victoria to drive publicly funded renewables investment.
“At his core, Daniel Andrews runs a big-spending and highly centralised command and control government, which voters appear to like. Victoria doesn’t have its own currency and unlike Liz Truss, Daniel Andrews is yet to lose the confidence of bond markets in a material way despite the extraordinary build-up of state debt.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Elon Musk recommends voting for Republicans in US midterm elections (Reuters)
COP27: we’re on a ‘highway to climate hell’, UN chief warns world leaders in Egypt (EuroNews)
Hearings on constitutionality of Quebec’s secularism law begin today in Court of Appeal (CBC)
Rescue charity to take Italy to court over migrants trapped on boat (BBC)
Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin admits interfering in US elections (The Guardian)
Nigerian Senator Ike Ekweremadu to face organ-harvesting charges (Al Jazeera)
THE COMMENTARIAT
The end of pay-secrecy: should you know what your colleagues earn? — Jessica Irvine (The Age): “While banned in many parts of the world, including the UK and US, so-called ‘pay secrecy’ clauses, which forbid employees from disclosing their remuneration, are still legal in Australia. That could all be about to change, however, if the Albanese government is successful in passing its industrial relations bill currently before Parliament, which contains a provision abolishing pay secrecy. Labor argues greater pay transparency will help close the gender pay gap, arming women with more information about their relative pay …
“Advocates of gender equity have long argued the removal of pay secrecy clauses would improve women’s prospects for equal pay. Why? Well, because armed with information about their male colleagues’ superior pay, women could push for a bigger slice of the pie. Or alternatively, managers, fearing reputational damage from an inexplicable gender pay gap, might proactively just do a better job of ensuring their male and female employees are rewarded equally … Increasingly, sites like Glassdoor and LinkedIn are making it easier for employees to compare their salaries. But what could be easier than asking a colleague?”
Why what we read should be up to us — Raymond Bonner (AFR) ($): “Judges opine that in some cases suppression orders are necessary to ensure that defendants receive a fair trial. A legitimate concern, of course. But in some instances it’s the lazy path to justice, allowing the argument to be stretched to farcical extremes. I come at this issue as a former lawyer — both a prosecutor and defence counsel — former journalist, and an author. And now, as a bookstore owner. I don’t want the government telling me what books I can or cannot sell; and I hope I won’t be cowed by zealots. We have books on our shelves that express views I don’t share. Let the customers decide. Not the government, whether the government comes in the form of a customs officer or a prosecutor seeking a suppression order.
“Right now, we can’t get copies of Ego: Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal Party’s Civil War, even though customers are asking for it. In 12 pages of a 305-page book, the author — The Australian Financial Review journalist Aaron Patrick — talks about the Brittany Higgins case. The book was in the stores, and selling well, when the director of public prosecutions (DPP) in Canberra wrote to the publisher demanding that it cease distribution. If the publisher declined, the prosecution said it would seek a suppression order. The publisher could predict how that would end. Why don’t the publishers challenge suppression orders? In a word, too expensive, says Richard Walsh, consultant publisher at Allen & Unwin. Walsh has a colourful history with censorship, having once been sentenced to six months’ hard labour on a charge of obscenity.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)
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Composers William Barton (who is known as one of the country’s best didgeridoo players), Mindy Meng Wang, and Deborah Cheetham will chat about the connection between music, place and country in a discussion at the Wheeler Centre.
Muwinina Country (also known as Hobart)
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The Greater Cities Commission’s Peter Poulet will give the 2022 Sir Patrick Abercrombie lecture about how the past can help us solve the housing crisis, at Sir Stanley Burbury Lecture Theatre.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Service Stephen Jones will speak at The Australian Financial Review’s Super & Wealth Summit 2022, at the Hilton.
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Lowy Institute’s 2022 Distinguished Fellow for International Security Sir Lawrence Freedman will give the Owen Harries Lecture about Moscow assuming Kyiv will give in through military might. It’ll be held at the Lowy Institute.
