WEATHERING THE STORM
About 2000 Sydneysiders have fled their homes amid rising floodwaters — some for the third time in a month — as evacuation orders were rolled out last night, the SMH reports. Chipping North and Camden residents were told to go by 3pm and 10pm respectively, The New Daily reports, while earlier this morning Gronos Point was told to move as the swollen Hawkesbury continues to rise, the NSW SES warned. Nearly 100mm of rain fell on Sydney’s CBD in what was described as “exceptionally sharp, short bursts of rain” by the SES, with 930 calls for help in 24 hours alone. Check out this time-lapse from 10 News First Sydney to see just how quickly floodwaters can rise.
It comes as Prime Minister Scott Morrison has bowed to pressure and pledged another $385 million in flood funding for Queensland, the AFR reports. It comes just one day after rebuffing a three-week-old request from the Queensland government to help fund the $771 million buy-back scheme — basically the state government will either buy back or upgrade 7000 flood-affected homes, as The Brisbane Times continues. At first, Morrison dismissed it as a state responsibility and said the Commonwealth had given them enough money, but he’s flipped on the decision “amid pressure to buy peace”, as the Fin’s Phillip Coorey puts it.
SEEING GREEN
United Australia Party (UAP) chair Clive Palmer says he will put the Greens ahead of Liberal and Labor at the federal election, SBS reports. He named the debt as the reason, but also says he’d consider preferencing MPs who advocated against vaccine mandates. He made the comments at the National Press Club, where he wheeled out plans to spend $70 million in total on his election campaign — $13 million less than his 2019 spend, which saw his party fail to win a single seat in either house of Parliament.
Speaking of the UAP, leader Craig Kelly has billed taxpayers for his decision to fly to anti-vaccine-mandate and anti-lockdown rallies in Melbourne twice, Guardian Australia reports, but Kelly retorted that it was “parliamentary business” as he was spruiking the private member’s bill. Kelly told crowds Victoria was “a fascist medical state” at the time and that medical bureaucrats were “a mad, insane cult”.
Speaking of eye-watering debt, former treasurer Joe Hockey says he struck a deal with former PM Tony Abbott to hand him the top job, The Australian ($) reports. “There wasn’t a Kirribilli Agreement,” he said, “[but] that was the expectation, yes,” he says. Hockey says the deal was thwarted when Malcolm Turnbull ascended to the job in 2015. Hockey was super disappointed, saying his life-long ambition was “unfulfilled” and that he has “more experience” than most to be PM. Hockey quit Parliament and became ambassador to the US.
RUSSIA V UKRAINE
Australia will provide Bushmasters worth $50 million in total to support Ukraine amid the war with Russia, The Australian ($) reports. They’re armoured vehicles we designed which were retrofitted with more defensive plating — Ukraine’s military asked us for them to protect soldiers against mines and improvised explosive devices. It comes as Russia was booted from the UN Human Rights Council overnight 93 to 24 (58 countries sat the vote out), ABC reports. Suspensions are pretty rare — the last one was more than a decade ago when Libya was booted in 2011 amid protests from Muammar Gaddafi supporters.
More than 4.3 million Ukrainians have fled their country since Russia invaded six weeks ago, with an estimated 6.5 million internally displaced, and the horrors many have faced are resulting in a mental health crisis. Crikey’s Amber Schultz spoke to one volunteer, Melinda, who says she’s seeing 100 people a week, including volunteers affected by what they’ve seen. Meanwhile the World Health Organization is preparing for “chemical assaults” in Ukraine, news.com.au reports. Peace talks between the nations continue.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Auto mechanic Terry Wallis — a medical miracle — changed neuroscience forever. At 19, he was in a car accident that left him in a minimally conscious state — his eyes could track objects and blink on command, but that was it. In 2003, nearly two decades later, his doting mother walked into the room and Wallis suddenly said “Mum”. What followed baffled doctors and thrilled his loved ones — three days of rapid progression from Wallis, until he had completely regained verbal fluency, scientist Nicholas Schiff said. Upon seeing his adult daughter walk into the room, who was just six weeks at the time of the crash, Wallis said, “You’re beautiful. I love you.”
Other than thinking it was still 1984, he was pretty well adjusted, recognising everyone and no doubt full to the brim with questions. His dad says he was even a bit flirty with the nurses. Wallis’s brain scans revealed the incredible power of the connections in the back of the brain in repairing themselves. Schiff described Wallis as a “unicorn”, continuing, “We’ll never know exactly why he emerged after 19 years.” But his family says they believe it was their regular visits, year after year, that helped his incredible recovery. This week, Wallis peacefully passed away and his loving family, including his daughter, say they will always remember Wallis’s “wonderful sense of humour”. Schiff says Wallis leaves an enduring legacy for the power of healing in the human consciousness.
Hope you spot a miracle today, folks, and have a restful weekend ahead.
SAY WHAT?
I’m sorry that you think that way because I don’t believe that we have a history of racism.
Anne Ruston
The senator told a questioner on Q&A the Coalition has not been guilty of racism — though some might argue that point, recalling instances like the Child Overboard Affair and the whole Stop The Boats campaign leading to the indefinite detention of asylum seekers, and the time dozens of Coalition senators voted that it was “OK to be white” in solidarity with One Nation’s Pauline Hanson, who cut her political teeth claiming Australia was being “swamped by Asians” before her foray into commentary about the Muslim community.
CRIKEY RECAP
Enraged, humiliated Taylor looks to block closures of coal-fired plants
“Taylor’s demand for the AEMC to nearly double the length of the notice period, if it had been in place in February, would have forced Origin to keep Eraring open at least another year, despite its obsolescence and the uncompetitively expensive coal-fired power it generates.
“It would also act as a deterrent to any company bringing forward plans to close the last of Australia’s ageing and uncompetitive coal-fired power generators, with Taylor looking to prohibit any company from closing a plant before late 2027, no matter how uneconomic it is.”
Shorten ally compares Albo to Jeremy Corbyn, to ‘help’ Labor
“Doubtless Milner’s intent is nothing other than a desire to maximise Labor’s chances, and it’s only a coincidence that it conforms to the right-wing narrative that Albo is a Che in a wolverine’s clothing, using a small target strategy to conceal his alleged radical leftism. Some would say that tying Albo to Corbyn, a man publicly trashed, has more costs than benefits, but Milner is urging us to let it all rip! Inspiring!
“Indeed, it’s all the more so because Milner has for decades been associated with Bill Shorten, doomed to be mostly dudded by a PM Albo. He returned to Shorten’s office as chief-of-staff (which he notes) having been a lobbyist for Adani (which he leaves out).”
Scott Morrison, the Edgeworth Tavern and a short history of political heckling
“Political heckling makes for good headlines — and honestly, if there was justice in this world, prime ministers would be forced to sit down with the most vulnerable in society more frequently — but it’s nothing new. It is, in fact, exactly what politicians who make decisions that greatly impact people’s lives might expect when they are eventually forced to go out in public and talk to those people.
“In celebration of the colourful past of heckling, and in anticipation of the (surely) many great heckles ahead of us in this election campaign, here are some of the greatest political heckles of our time.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Turkey suspends Khashoggi trial, transfers it to Saudi Arabia (Al Jazeera)
Shanghai seethes in COVID lockdown, posing test to China’s leadership (The New York Times)
‘A massacre’: Deadly Colombia military operation sparks outrage (Al Jazeera)
He’s back: Tiger tees off at Masters in 1st competitive tournament since car crash (CBC)
Shell warns of up to $5b hit from Russia exit (The Wall Street Journal) ($)
A reinvented Marine Le Pen threatens to upend French elections (The New York Times)
Puerto Rico power outage plunges over 1m into darkness (The Guardian)
Sightings of spiders and snakes up thanks to wet weather in NSW (news.com.au)
THE COMMENTARIAT
A new government would bring changes for the bureaucrats in the Canberra ‘bubble’ — Michelle Grattan (The Conversation): “A majority of public servants would likely view a Labor government positively (or at least welcome a change), although there would be some high-profile losers. The occupant of the most powerful public service job in the country — secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet — would change quickly. Phil Gaetjens, the present secretary, who was a former chief of staff to Morrison, and then head of treasury, has been highly controversial in the position.
“Morrison has used him essentially for political jobs, such as the investigation into who in the PM’s office knew what when about the Brittany Higgins rape allegation (an inquiry which never ended, at least publicly). The secretary of PM&C is seen as having a responsibility to stand up for the public service generally, as well as the role of serving the PM. Gaetjens’ critics would say he has failed to do the former. Presumably Gaetjens would quit of his own accord, not waiting to be sacked, if Labor won.”
Remember how fun inconvenience could be? The problem with our uber-convenient, home-delivery world — Diana Reid (The SMH): “For those who are isolating, or struggle to make it to the shops, fast-delivery apps offer an essential service. But for those who do have a choice: what do we gain when we buy into the narrative that our time is so precious, it’s better not spent doing our own groceries?… We outsource household tasks. We combine exercise with socialising so we are fit and happy enough to be maximally productive at a desk for several hours, where we will earn enough money to afford the domestic labour and the gym, so we can do it all again.
“All of this seems like a reasonable — even efficient — trade if you buy the mantra that work is pleasure. Naturally, some people are fortunate enough to love their jobs. But it can’t be the case that the “work = pleasure” equation applies as liberally as companies would have us believe. (Chillingly, James Bloodworth reported in his book Hired, about low-wage working conditions in Britain, that Amazon warehouse employees laboured beneath a sign that read ‘we love coming to work and we miss it when we’re not here’.)”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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UNSW’s Institute for Cyber Security (IFCYBER) will host its inaugural conference, Cyber Security for Society at the Kensington campus.
Stoney Creek Nation (also known as Launceston)
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Eastern Regional Organisation for Planning and Human Settlements will host Bite the Night, an evening exploring how gastronomy, food, and culture can help stimulate a more vibrant nightlife.
Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)
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DJs Nene H and Norman Nodge will perform at Bourke Street Courtyard with visual production lighting up the space.
