COSTELLO PUSHES FORWARD
Incredible footage has shown Nine chairman and former federal treasurer Peter Costello appearing to knock a journalist to the ground at Canberra Airport. The Australian reports that its journalist, Liam Mendes, was asking questions of Costello about Nine’s recent sexual harassment scandal involving former news director Darren Wick when Costello “shoulder-barged [Mendes and] knocked him flying”. Costello says that Mendes was walking backwards and tripped on an advertising placard, the ABC reports, which the Oz calls an “extraordinary denial”. You can watch the footage and make up your own mind. Sources have Costello as a smokey to line up for NSW in June’s second State of Origin fixture, potentially replacing banned centre Joseph Sua’ali’i.
Meanwhile, the Australian Border Force (ABF) has apologised to its staff for failing to prevent workplace sexual discrimination and harassment after two reports exposed such behaviour was rife in the organisation, Guardian Australia writes. Senior leadership wrote to staff pledging to do better to prevent hostilities in the workplace, saying “We will not compromise on how we treat each other to deliver the mission.” Last month, the Australian Human Rights Commission found that a shocking 100% of women working for the ABF’s marine unit had “witnessed sex discrimination, sexual … and/or sex-based harassment”. It comes as new research has exposed the extent of sexual harassment experienced by women in the retail industry, according to the SMH. Sydney University’s Australian Centre for Gender Equity and Inclusion has found that most women in the industry have experienced some form of sexual harassment at work, mostly at the hands of male customers but also from bosses and coworkers, with systems consistently failing to identify and act upon incidents.
NO STOPPING VIC LABOR
If a state election were held today, Victorian Labor would win a historic fourth term in office, the Herald Sun reports. A new Redbridge poll has Jacinta Allan ahead of Coalition opponent John Pesutto 55-45 on two-party preferred, with the embattled Victorian Libs seemingly failing to make any serious ground. Redbridge’s Kos Samaras has said that while the Coalition is reclaiming some votes lost to right-wing minor parties, and Labor is losing some to those on the left, the result is the same, saying “Victoria’s highly polarised political landscape results in a static two-party preferred outcome.” Nationally, Labor continues to clash with the Greens over weapons manufacturing and the war in Gaza, The Age reports. The Greens are accusing Labor of complicity in the war due to a nearly $1 billion contract with controversial Israeli arms company Elbit Systems, while Labor is arguing that no such contract exists, saying that the money instead went to South Korean company Hanwha to build infantry fighting vehicles in Australia. Hanwha subcontracts Elbit to put gun turrets on the vehicles.
Meanwhile, Queensland police commissioner Steve Gollschewski has said the state should be “ashamed” of its rates of domestic violence, the ABC reports. In the past 12 months, police in the Sunshine State have responded to 200,000 callouts for domestic violence issues, saying they believe the real number, once unreported incidents are taken into account, could be “five times higher”. Gollschewski says DV is his number one concern, adding that “Despite reaching out to all our colleagues interstate and internationally about who’s got the great ideas, there are no silver bullets.” It comes as women fleeing domestic violence are sometimes being forced to pay land tax when issuing a new address, the Herald Sun reports. Women’s Community Shelters’ chief Annabelle Daniel calls it an example of “how victim-survivors are penalised at multiple levels when systems are not set up to be domestic violence-informed”. The Allan government has conceded it is a flaw in legislation and has promised to investigate.
If you or someone you know is affected by sexual assault or violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.
SAY WHAT?
That grumpy old bloke in the suit didn’t look very happy.
Matt
A witness describes Peter Costello following an altercation with The Australian’s Liam Mendes. Another witness described Costello as a “fucking big bloke”.
CRIKEY RECAP
“The Greens have made much of the fact that an Australian manufacturer contributes a part to the global ‘everyone gets a prize’ supply chain for the F-35, part of the US military-industrial complex’s means of selling more of its garbage planes. To deem this ‘complicity in genocide’ is far-fetched.
But where the Greens are closer to the mark is in the way the current government is handing nearly a billion dollars to Elbit Systems, an Israeli company that really is complicit in Israel’s atrocities and helped kill Zomi Frankcom. Frankcom’s murder by the Israeli Defence Forces appears to have slid into a convenient memory hole for both the government and most of the media since early April, with complete silence on any ‘investigations’ into the deliberate targeting of Frankcom and her colleagues (Penny Wong was asked about the investigation by SBS two weeks ago and refused to say anything).”
“But perhaps most misguided was the assumption Frydenberg would be more competitive than Hamer in Kooyong, which — like the rest of the country — has a growing number of millennials and Gen Zs, for whom the current Liberal brand is anathema. Kooyong currently has the highest proportion of 18-24-year-olds in Victoria, partly due to Swinburne University; 60% of those who have enrolled since 2022 are under the age of 40, while the majority of those departing are over 50.
Young millennial Hamer looks like the kind of voter the Coalition desperately needs to start speaking to; middle-of-the-road Gen-Xer Frydenberg absolutely does not. But what of teal incumbent Dr Monique Ryan, herself on the boomer end of Generation X?”
“October 20, 2023
Tourism Australia employees discover three employees had breached the agency’s travel policy. ‘The breach … was immediately reported and escalated in accordance with Tourism Australia policies,’ managing director Phillipa Harrison told Senate estimates this week.
In the following months, several things happened, although it’s not clear exactly when or in what order:
- The chair of the Tourism Australia board, and the chair of the agency’s audit and risk committee, were verbally notified of the breach.
- Trade Minister Don Farrell’s office was ‘verbally notified soon after the issue was discovered’.
- The consultancy firm Deloitte was engaged to ‘carry out a thorough forensic audit stretching back to 2021’. No further breaches were identified.
- External legal advice was sought ‘in Australia and overseas’.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
40 years later, Biden seeks to echo Reagan’s legacy of American leadership (The New York Times) ($)
Myanmar soldiers cut off tattoos and gave detainees urine to drink, witnesses tell BBC (BBC)
Macron says France will provide Ukraine with its Mirage combat aircraft (euronews)
‘The battleground is Palestine’: Israel’s war looms over European elections (Al Jazeera)
Cows infected with bird flu have died in five US states (Reuters)
THE COMMENTARIAT
How bold will Anthony Albanese be in his ‘offer’ for a potential second term? — Michelle Grattan (The Conversation): “A Trump presidency might favour Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s national security focus. But an opposite view, held in Labor circles, is it could make people stick to the status quo. Trump’s triumph would also be fodder for the Greens in their attack on Labor’s closeness to the US. For its part, Labor would argue the Australia-US alliance is enduring regardless of individual US and Australian leaders and governments.
Because most observers discount the chance of a Dutton win, the thinness of Labor’s present majority (it has 78 seats in the 151 member House of Representatives) is often overlooked. It wouldn’t take much to slip into minority. The polling suggests things haven’t moved significantly since the 2022 election, and history tells us governments can expect to go backwards at their first election. The 2025 election could be decided by a handful of seats — the days of huge swings and massive majorities seem behind us at least for now. We’re in an era of large crossbenches.”
Peter Costello: Time to throw in towel, not reporters — James Madden (The Australian): “Nine has long celebrated its blokey, work-hard, play-hard culture, but it’s a mantra that no longer sits well in the world of corporate Australia. The wave of Nine staffers (almost all women) who have complained, anonymously, to The Australian since it revealed the serious, longstanding harassment and bullying allegations levelled against former news boss Darren Wick, speaks to a company that is in desperate need of change.
Which brings us back to Costello. Here’s a bloke with a wealth of media experience, having batted away political journalists for more than two decades, including 11½ years while he was in charge of the nation’s finances. Pushing a journalist to the floor, just because you don’t like his questions? It doesn’t fly — not at an airport, not anywhere.”
