HEALTH OF A NATION
People living with a disability are waiting 160 days on average for the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) to get them out of hospitals, even though they have been found fit to leave, The Australian ($) reports. By the numbers, 1384 of the 2328 NDIS participants in hospital right now are medically ready for discharge. The astounding figures have prompted NDIS Minister Bill Shorten to urge the agency to respond within four days after a person is fine to leave hospital — he’ll also deploy more NDIS staff with powers to fast-track discharge. So why the heck does it take so long? Shorten says plain old bureaucracy, but also lack of accommodation, lack of support teams, and poor communication. His new framework seeks to get to the bottom of it. We could do with the extra beds, that’s for sure. Australia’s health system is groaning under the pressure of the pandemic, Guardian Australia says, with the exhausted healthcare workforce struggling to find room for surging numbers of patients.
Speaking of health, today NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews will urge Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to keep pandemic leave payments in place as long as COVID isolation is compulsory, The Age reports. The payment of up to $750 per period (for those who don’t get sick leave, like casual workers) is supposed to expire on September 30. Treasurer Jim Chalmers said it couldn’t go on forever, but Albanese said he was happy to talk about the possible extension. It comes just days after our mandatory isolation was cut from seven to five days if we have COVID-19 — the Department of Health has more here.
DEFENCE DEFIANCE
The Department of Defence did not launch an inquiry into the responsibility held by senior levels following the bloody revelations in the Brereton report, despite a recommendation from an independent panel to do so. That’s according to The Australian ($), which FOI’d documents that showed the Afghanistan inquiry oversight panel urged the Morrison government to launch a “top-down” inquiry in 2021 to look into Defence’s “corporate responsibility”. Instead, a “lessons learnt” paper was created. So what was in the Brereton report? Allegations of unlawful killings — including 39 alleged murders — at the hands of Australian special forces in 23 incidents, Guardian Australia reports. The report — the product of a four-year inquiry — also alleged deadly hazing ceremonies known as “blooding”, and a culture of cover-up and entitlement. Defence has a four-year plan to respond to the Brereton findings, including stripping medals from some recipients, but the panel said the “bottom-up” plan won’t see any “senior officer accountability”.
Meanwhile, Defence is at risk from cybercrime from those formerly in its ranks, according to a brief to the Albanese government. Guardian Australia FOI’d the brief and reports it includes mention of “inappropriate use of defence ICT”. In other words, the Guardian continued, “revenge, coercion, ideology, ego or seeking financial gain” could see employees, contractors and more steal data. Interestingly, pressure to get back into the office can heighten the chances of disgruntled staff acting out — “particularly problematic” in military, an expert said. It comes as the department has urged Defence Minister Richard Marles to help with its recruitment drive on national security grounds, The Examiner ($) reports.
A RIGHT ROYAL HECKLE
A man in a Melbourne City FC shirt has yelled “Andrew, you’re a sick old man” at Prince Andrew while he walked behind the queen’s coffin in Edinburgh overnight — watch the footage via Reuters. A police officer escorted the heckler away and later arrested him, the SMH reports. The cops said he was a 22-year-old man, but didn’t say if he was Australian. Andrew has been stripped of all royal duties, military affiliations and patronages after a woman named Virginia Giuffre alleged she was sexually assaulted by him. He denied it, and made no admission of liability when the pair settled a civil sexual assault case in February for an undisclosed sum, BBC reports.
With the queen coverage continuing, so too is chatter about the growing republic movement in the 14 countries outside the United Kingdom. The Australian ($) has a good story from The Wall Street Journal about the push — on Sunday the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne said there’d be a referendum within the next three years, as Al Jazeera reports. Jamaica is preparing to cut ties to the crown too — and Barbados made history last year when it declared independence. Closer to home, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern acknowledged that her country would drop the British monarch as head of state “in my lifetime” too, as Bloomberg reports.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
They say you should never meet your hero, but it never seems to apply to receiving mail from one. When Waltham Petcare Science Institute’s Darren Logan got home one day, his beaming daughter was excited to introduce him to her brand new pet. It was a tiny alien-like stick insect with long legs and a curly tail in a camouflage-appropriate sandy colour. She had christened the critter Sir David Stickenborough, an easy choice for Logan’s daughter — the British environmentalist was her absolute hero. She was so enthused about her find that she figured she’d jot down a quick note to Sir David Attenborough to let him know about the bug. Probably to everyone’s surprise but hers, Attenborough wrote back.
“I am so glad you are interested in stick insects,” he wrote. “I am too and when I was your age I also kept some. They are indeed fascinating.” He goes on to explain there are 2500 species worldwide — and most are sunning themselves in the tropics. Mostly they stay still during the day but love to adventure during the night time. But that’s not a stick insect, he gently added. It’s a leaf insect! They come from the same family — the Phasmatoidea family — and usually leaf insects look more, well, leafy, Attenborough said. Hers was a unique little critter. Best wishes, Attenborough signed off, and scrawled his name. Logan was touched. “Sir David is getting renamed, apparently, but my daughter’s fascination with nature has been reinforced,” he wrote.
Hoping you feel brave enough to go for it today, whatever it looks like.
SAY WHAT?
When you immigrated to Australia you took every advantage of this country. You took citizenship, bought multiple homes, and a job in a Parliament. It’s clear you’re not happy, so pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan.
Pauline Hanson
The One Nation leader had an explosive outburst at Mehreen Faruqi after the deputy Greens leader posted that she sent her condolences to those who knew the late Queen Elizabeth, but that Faruqi could not “mourn the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples”.
CRIKEY RECAP
Q+A is dead. And no matter the host, its glory days are never coming back
“And who needs more barely informed or ill-opinion these days? My social media and news feeds are awash with the stuff, while in-depth, expert analysis on important issues outside the daily news agenda — once the mainstay of Fairfax’s broadsheets and the ABC — is as scarce as hens’ teeth.
“And if I’m desperate to hear the day’s talking points of our national leaders or the opposition, I can tune into the ABC news app to listen anytime. Why would I want to hear them repeated on Q+A?”
Artist behind Russia-Ukraine mural says he painted over it to increase NFT’s value
“But after painting over the mural, Seaton continued to post content to social media in defence of his work.
“In a video shared on the artist’s Instagram — in which he claimed the ‘mob’ of Ukrainian critics of the mural were ashamed by their participation in war — Seaton said his motivation for painting over the artwork was to juice the value of his digital artworks … Seaton told Crikey that increasing value was just one of three reasons he painted over his work.”
So, now we owe allegiance to someone else. How embarrassing
“Consider the crime of treason. In Australia, that offence now lives in the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act. You’ll be guilty of treason if you kill or kidnap the sovereign, the heir apparent of the sovereign or the sovereign’s consort.
“No change so far as Charles is concerned. But if you had tried to assassinate Prince William or Camilla last Thursday you would not have committed treason, yet on Friday you would. What was the difference?”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
In four days, Ukraine nullified four months of Russia’s ‘success’ (Al Jazeera)
Former Czech PM Andrej Babiš goes on trial in $2m EU subsidy fraud case (The Guardian)
Hijab ban proposal sparks debate, protests in Denmark (Al Jazeera)
Massive healthcare strike: 15,000 Minnesota nurses walk off the job (CNN)
Modern slavery shoots up by 10 million in five years (BBC)
UN says three Afghan female staff temporarily detained by Taliban (Reuters)
Queen Elizabeth II: a day-by-day guide from now to the funeral (BBC)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Australia’s new natural party of government? — Craig Emerson (The AFR): “Now Albanese can change the political rule book. Although Labor has a majority of only two seats, the Coalition is 19 seats short of a majority. Moreover, the Liberals are in the throes of an identity crisis. Most of the moderates lost their seats in the May election, leaving mainly the hard right of the parliamentary Liberal Party to run their show.
The hard-right Liberal playbook has been to identify outsiders, real or concocted, as a threat to Australian voters, and campaign to protect us from them: the postwar Soviets; the North Vietnamese communists; the illegal boat people; too many Asian immigrants; the Muslims; the Sudanese gangs that Peter Dutton warned had frightened decent Melbourne Aussies from going out to dinner; and, at this year’s election, the Communist Party of China. While the Liberal Party continues to pursue the politics of division, Albanese will press ahead with the consensus model, judging that the Australian people want politicians to solve problems cooperatively, not create more of them.”
No rate rises until 2024? Behind the RBA’s ‘best guess’ — Jessica Irvine (The SMH): “In judging Lowe, it helps to understand exactly what he did and did not say, which I’ll get to. However, it’s also important to understand Lowe’s remarks were no mere slip of the tongue or off-the-cuff remark, but part a premeditated strategy deployed by the Reserve Bank of Australia during the COVID crisis, designed to help stimulate the economy. In central bank circles, statements about the likely path of future interest rate movements are known as ‘forward guidance’. And in ordinary times, our central bank has been unusually reticent by international standards to offer anything of the sort.
“That all changed on March 19 2020, when the RBA unleashed a suite of previously unthinkable policy measures designed to sandbag our economy against the COVID storm. These included a massive program of buying government bonds, a new ultra-cheap credit facility for banks and a target to keep wholesale borrowing costs low. More subtly, it also included formally providing forward guidance on the likely path of future interest rate movements. The guidance was vague at first, with Lowe stating only ‘we are likely to be at this level of interest rates for an extended period’.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Online
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Former president of Kiribati Anote Tong and former president of Palau Tommy E Remengesau Jr will speak about regional climate diplomacy in a webinar held by The Australia Institute.
Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)
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Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Catherine King, Regional Australia Institute’s Liz Ritchie, Emerson Economics’ Craig Emerson and chief scientist Cathy Foley are among several speakers at the Regional Australia Institute — 2022 National Summit.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Writer Nicola Harvey will discuss her new book, Farm: The Making of a Climate Activist, at Glee Books.
Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)
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Photographer Barat Ali Batoor, soccer player Fatima Yousufi, and Australian Muslim Women’s Centre for Human Rights Diana Sayed will speak about their experiences in Afghanistan and here, in an event held by the Wheeler Centre.
