IMMIGRATION CONSTERNATION
A murderer and an attempted murderer were among 25 people released into the community following the High Court’s decision on indefinite detention last year, Guardian Australia reports. The information was revealed in the ongoing High Court challenge of the conditions placed upon those released, including electronic ankle bracelet monitoring and curfews. Also among those released were three people convicted of domestic violence-related charges, six people convicted of assault offences and three convicted of burglary; several had no criminal history. It comes as Immigration Minister Andrew Giles doubled the amount of re-cancelled visas over the weekend in response to the continued “direction 99” fallout, The Australian writes. The minister remains under intense scrutiny for the ruling, as well as for the alleged use of drones to monitor those released — something the Australian Federal Police said it wasn’t aware of.
Meanwhile, Josh Frydenberg is back in the picture in Kooyong, with multiple outlets reporting that he’s considering a tilt at taking back his former seat. The ABC says Frydenberg has a “rocky path” back from political oblivion, with several Liberal sources warning that it’s “unprecedented and unwise”. The Age has highlighted the woman who would need to be pushed aside for a Frydenberg return, 31-year-old Amelia Hamer, who won the Kooyong candidacy just nine weeks ago. Frydenberg’s return is being seen by some as the beginning of a long path to the Liberal leadership, with the party apparently seeking an alternative should Peter Dutton lose the next election. Either way, it’d be a bad look for the party infamous for its “women problem” to kick out a young, female Oxford graduate in favour of an older man who was booted from his own seat by teal candidate Monique Ryan.
MUD SLINGING
Nine chairman Peter Costello has come under fire from the company’s former nepo-baby billionaire owner James Packer, The Australian reports. With the fallout from the Darren Wick scandal ongoing, Packer came out swinging in the national broadsheet, saying “being chairman of Nine is all he [Mr Costello] has left” before backing embattled CEO Mike Sneesby. In other media news, News Corp chairman emeritus Rupert Murdoch has married for a fifth time, wedding Elena Zhukova, a retired molecular biologist, news.com.au reports. The pair met only last year — though when you’re 93 you don’t have a heap of time to muck around. The SMH writes that the wedding comes at a hard time for News Corp, with a massive newsroom restructure likely to result in job losses as the company seeks to save up to $65 million.
Meanwhile, Brisbane has overtaken Melbourne as Australia’s second most expensive city, The Brisbane Times reports. Housing values have risen 16% in the past year, second only to Perth, where values have risen 22% in the same period. While the actual value of houses in Brisbane is only slightly higher than in Melbourne — $200 for a house and $1,200 for an apartment on average — values in Melbourne are growing significantly slower at only 1.9%. It’s “hand-to-hand combat” up north, writes Ellen Fanning for the ABC, with demand massively outstripping supply. Buyer’s agent Jamie Charman says it best: “People nowadays want to make $500,000 on their property in a couple of years. And they are!” Must be nice.
SAY WHAT?
HELP!!
Some bogged teenagers
Three teenagers were rescued from a remote area in Western Australia where their car had become bogged after pilots noticed a message in the sand.
CRIKEY RECAP
“Trump’s crime is not insignificant — concealing hush money payments to former porn actress Stormy Daniels, something that Team Trump thought was necessary to avoid electoral disaster in 2016 — but it’s still just adjusting a few figures on a spreadsheet. The conviction will be dismissed by some of his supporters as a conspiracy against him, and by the rest as unimportant, something that all candidates and businessmen do.
That it will further dissuade a certain type of voter — middle/professional class, who might have considered Trump in 2016 — does not seem in doubt. But they were mostly likely gone anyway, after the chaos and buyer’s remorse of his four years in office. The people it won’t matter to are the people who will win the election for Trump, if he wins. They’re the working/middle class in the Rust Belt states who voted for him in ‘16, and most likely stayed away in ‘20 because Trump had not done enough for them, and they felt they had been taken for a ride. They had always seen him as ‘a pig’, and it’s not that they didn’t care. It just wasn’t a deal breaker.”
“I am a registered migration agent and have been practising since 2005, mostly in family reunion and humanitarian areas, but more recently in domestic violence, character and citizenship issues. I had one protection visa client who massively ‘failed’ the character test as the result of one particularly stupid decision, made at a time when he was deeply depressed. He was completely rehabilitated within our prison system (yes, truly), assisted the Federal Police in busting a serious criminal group, and is now holding down a responsible job in a high-demand industry …
Minister Andrew Giles is the first minister for immigration in over a decade who actually understands this incredibly complex portfolio. He has been working quietly and effectively to untangle many of the serious messes left behind by the previous four ministers. This includes the 95,000-plus people who arrived in Australia by plane and who have since lodged entirely spurious protection visa applications, the bulk of which have not yet been dealt with.”
“As of May 30, Morrison has managed to sell 1,991 copies of Plans for Your Good, mostly of the paperback edition. It has worked out to just over $61,000 in sales thus far for the former member for Cook, with only 186 copies in hardback form.
Which sounds impressive… until you compare it to the first-month sales of the man he deposed, Malcolm Turnbull. Despite being leaked ahead of time (something that eventually drew an apology from a Morrison staffer), Turnbull’s memoir, A Bigger Picture, sold 33,373 hardback editions in its first month on sale, to a value of more than $1.3 million. By our count, Turnbull’s book outsold Morrison’s in the hardback stakes 179 times over. What’s that saying about battles and wars?
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Netanyahu may face a choice between a truce and his government’s survival (The New York Times) ($)
Zelenskyy accuses Russia and China of undermining summit (BBC)
Tensions rise in Serbia as people cast ballots in municipal election (euronews)
Modi magic: Why Indian exit polls predict record BJP win (Al Jazeera)
Mexican voters about to elect first woman president (Reuters)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Donald Trump’s conviction delivers a new challenge for Anthony Albanese to show political dexterity and the stakes are high — Patricia Karvelas (the ABC): “With less than six months remaining before Trump’s anticipated election rematch against US President Joe Biden, the Australian government has learnt the lessons of history and is zipping it when it comes to Trump and the circus and disruption that inevitably comes with him.
But while zipping it and showing the discipline not to say anything that may come back to bite them down the track, politicians across the political divide are privately concerned about the stability of American democracy and the unpredictability of a Trump presidency Mark Two.
It is utterly unremarkable that a Labor government would privately prefer to deal with a Democrat president. Yet, it is fair to say that this Republican former president’s potential comeback is rattling Canberra insiders who watch the opinion polls in the United States like the rest of us.”
As Albanese beats around the bush, Dutton’s delusions are taking root — Sean Kelly (the SMH): “Dutton’s simplistic presentation of immigration cuts as the silver bullet for Australia’s complex problems is similar: a way to avoid grappling with complexity. Then there is the discussion from both sides about limiting foreign students at our universities. There is a discussion worth having here: how can we recover the original purpose of universities, before they became mostly businesses? But that discussion, which would involve redressing massive funding cuts, is one no major party wants. So we are left with an ephemeral, simplistic debate about foreign students driving up rents.
Or take Angus Taylor’s recent suggestion that productivity could be increased by improving workplace culture, which has apparently suffered under Labor. This is just magical thinking, especially when you realise productivity is the same rate it was pre-pandemic. The more complex discussion the Coalition should be having is why productivity has been low for around 15 years, not just here but across advanced economies.”
