IN DEFENCE OF PEACE
Australia will build hypersonic missiles that travel more than five times the speed of sound, the SMH reports. It’s a new agreement under the seven-month-old AUKUS pact with the US and UK, and comes amid increasing hostilities from both Russia and China. The missiles can travel more than 2000km, change directions in the air and can be fired from land, sea and air. Prime Minister Scott Morrison joined counterparts Joe Biden (who remembered his name this time) and Boris Johnson to announce the project — they also confirmed undersea drones were in the making. It comes as China and Russia both tested their own hypersonic missiles, The Australian ($) reports, while North Korea has also been tinkering with the weapons.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Peter Dutton has revealed a $3.5 billion weapons package this week, including air-to-surface missiles with a 900km range for the air force and missiles to double the strike range of the navy’s warships, the Herald Sun ($) writes. It’s all sounding a bit spooky — but the trio of leaders say it’s all in pursuit of “a free and open Indo-Pacific” and “an international system that respects human rights, the rule of law, and the peaceful resolution of disputes free from coercion”. Sounds okay in theory, but I can’t help but recall that Vietnam-era poster at a time like this.
MONEY BUSINESS
Opposition treasury spokesperson Jim Chalmers has channelled his fellow Queenslander former PM Kevin Rudd, The Australian ($) reports, in saying “this reckless rorting and wasteful spending must stop”. He made the comment in a budget reply, where he confirmed Labor would also “work with other countries to make sure multinationals pay their fair share of tax” here. Chalmers confirmed the fuel excise cut would be temporary under Labor (in line with what Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said too).
Speaking of the budget — The Conversation’s Peter Martin has an interesting story about a line called “supporting retirees”. He says the measure allows the seriously wealthy to accumulate more, tax-free — here’s how it works: there was a 2020’s-market-crisis-era relaxation of the rules which required retirees to withdraw from 5% to 14% from their super each year. They can put it in the bank — it’s just to make sure super isn’t used for tax-free savings (which are often inherited by the kids). But markets have recovered, and Martin suggests its extension is just another way the government quietly works to keep the wealthy, wealthy.
Meanwhile, the cost of living is surging — groceries are now 4% more expensive, the Oz ($) says, electricity is going up, The New Daily reports and the Reserve Bank is set to raise its 0.1% cash rate in June, AFR reports — a nail-biting development for aspiring home owners as a recent survey shows three-quarters of mortgage borrowers would have to cut spending in response to a 1.25% cash rate, as ABC reports.
A HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT
Labor, as well as the Greens, independent MP Zali Steggall, environment groups and scientists have all accused the Morrison government of intentionally not releasing the Australia State of the Environment report — because it doesn’t want the bad press, Guardian Australia writes. The important five-yearly report was given to Environment Minister Sussan Ley in December, and she’s required to table it in Parliament within 15 sitting days — meaning she could hold back until the next Parliament forms. The question is, should she? Sure, it’s bad for the Coalition’s re-election prospects but with the IPCC report warning us it’s “now or never” in terms of climate action, you’d think Ley would feel compelled to get all the information on the table. Then again, as SMH reports, this is the same minister who successfully appealed a Federal Court case brought by eight kids who just wanted the government to look after the climate for them.
Speaking of the IPCC report — the SMH’s Nick O’Malley says there is actually some good news in the mostly grim third and final edition. He says the report shows that the rate of growth of emissions is reducing in line with global agreements and reduction policies — that basically means emissions reduction efforts can work. Also, climate action is actually pretty cheap — as GDP grows, the cost of green technology is falling, and besides, not acting will cost exponentially more (think of the eyewatering billon-dollar cost of bushfire and flood relief efforts, for instance). Finally, he says we just need to reduce emissions by 20% by 2030, and it can be achieved for a carbon price of below US$20 a tonne. “In other words,” O’Malley writes, “the pathway to staying below 2 degrees of warming is wide open, if we choose to act”.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Jorge Alejo is 12 years old, and like most kids, his main goal in life is to muck around with his mates. But Alejo has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair — has done for as long as he can remember — and it had made being a kid a little bit difficult for him. That’s until he was fitted with his own state-of-the-art exoskeleton. For the first time in his life, Jorge could walk. His mum, Eva Muñoz-Torrero, says she’ll never forget it. “He said, ‘You can keep the wheelchair. I’m having this now and I’m taking it home’”. But Jorge couldn’t — the exoskeleton was reserved only for physical therapy, twice a week, and so he begged his mum to let him wear it to school to show his friends.
Then, a birthday present beyond all others. Fitted with the exoskeleton, Jorge walked into the classroom where all his friends were waiting, as well as some politician guy — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez that is — to raucous cheers, emotional applause and even the tears of the “stocky, bullet-headed member of the prime minister’s security detail,” The Guardian writes. It didn’t come cheap — the family crowdfund the therapy, which can cost the equivalent of $43,000 a year — but his mum says seeing Jorge’s rising self-esteem, and his zest to “get involved” rather than sit back, has been lifechanging for everyone. “He wanted to have his friends at his side as he stood up and walked,” she continues. “And he’s fulfilled that dream”.
Hope you feel a little wonder and awe today too.
SAY WHAT?
I’m asked all the time, ‘why won’t the Prime Minister do more about getting good women in Parliament and stand up for the women in Parliament?’ I stood up for the women in my team.
Scott Morrison
Que? Morrison claims he intervened in the NSW Liberals’ preselection process for the gals. Morrison’s missteps in managing allegations of rape, misogyny and sexism in Parliament aside, female colleagues have repeatedly claimed he treated them badly, including Liberal MP Julia Banks who described her three months under Morrison’s leadership as the “most gut-wrenching, distressing period of my entire career” continuing that he “wanted me silenced”. Last night Banks rather humorously tweeted “Stood Up for the women in his team … He could just Step Down”.
CRIKEY RECAP
False pretences: how deepfakes will open doors to crime and corruption
“But it’s still relatively early in the story of deepfakes, chances are you are fairly media- and tech-savvy and, crucially, we approach the video knowing it not to be true. But what happens in coming years as the technology improves, as it will, and videos are created for an audience who are not only more credulous but actively seeking to have their prejudices confirmed?
“We know from Brexit and Donald Trump the potential of fake news; we probably know from our own families the ability of people to take as read whatever their Facebook feed tells them. What happens to democracy when anybody can make anybody say literally anything?”
You have no idea who Australia’s biggest digital publisher is
“Amid the rubble of the 2021 Q4 report, one name jumped out at me: LADBible Australia was sixth on the most widely viewed Facebook pages, with 94.1m views from the US during those three months alone. For those not in know, LADBible Australia is the Australian arm of the UK-based company that launched as a social media version of a lad’s mag (including some of the more sordid parts of them) in 2012 and has since become an online media powerhouse. LADBible Australia is the jewel in its crown.
“As someone who spends longer than anyone should looking at Facebook analytics, LADBible Australia’s Facebook dominance made sense while still shocking me with the scale they had found.”
A factional warrior goes nuclear: who is Matt Camenzuli?
“Certainly Camenzuli’s battle seems inexplicable to an outsider. Retaining Scott Robertson, the barrister best known for grilling former premier Gladys Berejiklian at the Independent Commission Against Corruption, he’s spent thousands on legal fees so far.
“Camenzuli’s backstory gives some limited insight into the why. In a state executive stacked with state and local elected officials, lobbyists and advisers that make up the Liberal-verse, Camenzuli stands out as having almost no public profile before this run of court cases put him in the news.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Bucha victim: ‘Russian troops beat me, doused me in diesel fuel’ (Al Jazeera)
US blocks Russia’s access to dollars for bond payments, heightening risk of default. (The New York Times)
North Korea warns South of nuclear retaliation (BBC)
[NZ] top detective defends controversial CIPEM interviewing method (Stuff)
Ivanka Trump to testify before panel investigating Capitol attack (The Guardian)
The perilous road to recovery in Madagascar’s cyclone-hit east (Al Jazeera)
Louis CK’s Grammy, after ‘global amounts of trouble,’ draws backlash (The New York Times)
Ukraine war: More than 60% of Putin’s war chest frozen, Truss says (BBC)
THE COMMENTARIAT
All at sea on rhetoric without substance — Greg Sheridan (The Australian) ($): “Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the new missiles announced on Tuesday were necessary to keep the Chinese threat at bay, and to stand up to any acts of aggression against us. Sadly, the missile announcements don’t add up to very much at all. On the plus side, the air force and navy will get new longer-range missiles in two years instead of five. Nobody knew the timetable was five years. Why was there ever such a lazy approach? Self-congratulatory artificial timing announcements are old tricks. Set an absurdly long deadline, announce an advance by a year or two, shower yourself in congratulations.
“It’s like former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan telling us he had brought the budget back to surplus ahead of schedule. How many missiles are we actually going to get? Some time ago, the government announced acquisition of Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles. It gave a quantity, “up to 200”. This was widely seen as a paltry amount, not a war-fighting arsenal. This time, the government hasn’t given us a number, but we can figure out what our platforms can carry.”
Jay-Z and Beyoncé crossing a picket line to party shows how shallow celebrity activism really is — Emma Dabiri (The Guardian): “Ahistoric and devoid of class analysis, this brand of activism doesn’t have the tools to address the shitshow that recently took place at Jay-Z’s annual Oscars Gold party at the Chateau Marmont hotel … Workers — many of them working-class black and brown Americans — at the ultra-exclusive Marmont have been protesting over abhorrent working conditions. The Hollywood Reporter has spoken with at least 30 workers who reported ‘long-simmering workplace issues, including allegations of systemic racial discrimination and sexual misconduct’ …
“The contradiction of billionaire ‘activist’ celebrities crossing a picket line was almost entirely ignored in the post-Oscars discussion. Instead, it was the ‘celebrity slap’ that generated currency: the incident in which millionaire Hollywood actor Will Smith smacked the Oscars host, millionaire Hollywood comedian Chris Rock, for making an inappropriate joke about Will’s wife, millionaire Hollywood actor Jada Pinkett Smith. In a glaring indictment of our current priorities, commentators obsess over the foibles of the megarich while workers struggle to live.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)
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Opposition assistant spokesperson for treasury Andrew Leigh will deliver the 2022 Stan Kelly Lecture, exploring egalitarianism in a multicultural society.
Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)
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Newly minted South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas will deliver an address to the National Press Club of Australia.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Former White House press secretary Anthony Scaramucci, ASIC Commissioner Cathie Armour and NSW Senator Andrew Bragg are among the speakers at the Cryptocurrency Summit 2022.
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University of Western Sydney’s Launch Pad will host a seminar on how startups can get government grants.
