POPULATION SLOWING
The government’s efforts to slow migration are starting to work, according to The Age, with Australian Bureau of Statistics numbers showing the largest quarterly fall since the start of the pandemic. Over the past year, net migration has dropped by 12%, after it rose 26% from 2022 to 2023. Australia’s population is just shy of 27 million — though that will likely slow down too as the birth rate continues to drop, with the country experiencing its lowest level of natural population growth since 1981. International students are primarily the ones bearing the brunt of stricter visa rules, reports the AFR, with net movement of students in the 11 months to May dropping from 280,830 to 199,110 over the same period a year earlier. It’s affecting the education sector, with an estimated 2,000 jobs already lost at Australian universities and colleges.
Speaking of teachers, the Queensland government has scrapped plans to change anti-discrimination laws before the October election — plans that would see it become illegal for religious schools to discriminate against teachers on the basis of their sexuality, pregnancy, relationship status or gender identity, Guardian Australia reports. The Miles Labor government has said that it just wants to make sure it gets the legislation right, but advocates like Nadia Bromley, chief executive of the Women’s Legal Service Queensland, say the reforms aren’t only about schools not being able to hire teachers: “A woman who was fired for being the victim of domestic and family violence cannot sue for discrimination in Queensland,” she said, arguing that the reforms have been in the making for 33 years and it’s time to just do it. It comes as the federal government’s commitment to hire 500 new frontline domestic violence workers has stalled, with just 63 workers hired since the scheme was introduced in 2022, news.com.au reports. The buck has been passed to the states, with Federal Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth saying they have the resources they need to deliver the new positions.
IDF ON UN BLACKLIST
For the first time, the United Nations has added Israel’s armed and security forces to its list of offenders violating children’s rights, the ABC reports. The UN’s annual Children and Armed Conflict Report found that violations against children in Gaza have increased 155% and also implicated Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. The report, intended to shame parties into promising to protect children, puts the IDF on the same list as Islamic State and the Taliban. In a tweet, Israeli ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan called the finding “outrageous”, saying Israel’s army is “the most moral in the world”. More than 15,000 children have been killed in Gaza, with “political wrangling” making peace harder to achieve, according to The Conversation. Israel’s war cabinet minister Benny Gantz quit on Sunday, but not before firing shots at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he accused of “stopping [Israel] from reaching a true victory”.
Meanwhile, The Guardian is reporting on the unfolding G7 summit in Italy, with the US and Ukraine signing a 10-year bilateral security agreement. America will send troops as well as new weapons and munition, with President Joe Biden saying that lasting peace comes from Ukraine’s ability to defend itself into the future. Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the deal, but took a veiled swipe at presidential hopeful Donald Trump, saying “the question has to be for how long the unity will last”, reports the SMH. America’s US$50 billion loan to Ukraine uses frozen Russian assets as collateral, while Biden has said that he received Xi Jinping’s “word” that China will not sell any weapons to Russia. Also, the Pope spoke, for some reason. The summit continues tomorrow.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
Larder Lake, Ontario, 2023: a black bear is woken from its slumber and rudely transported 200km away by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. Fast forward a year and Kayla Seward, who lives in an off-grid house in the Canadian town, found that the same bear had come all the way back and broken into her car for a second time. This time, revenge was on the cards, as the bear tore the upholstery in the Honda beyond recognition.
“Apparently, the bears are attracted to foam, that’s why they eat four-wheeler seats and stuff I was told,” Seward said, as reported by The Guardian. The bear broke into three cars on the property before ingesting enough car-seat foam to put itself in a food coma (haven’t we all?), where it was found dozing by Seward and her husband. “Nothing a little duct tape won’t fix,” Seward joked, in yet another testament to the unfailing good nature of our Canadian friends. Bless their hearts.
It’s aboot time for me to jet off as the author of your daily Worm — it’s been a pleasure to compile the morning news for you these last few weeks. Take care, now.
SAY WHAT?
If America is doing well, we are all doing well.
Holly Valance
The former Neighbours star raised US$2 million for Donald Trump’s campaign when she hosted the largest Trump fundraiser outside of America at her house in Chelsea. One of her neighbours shouted “Vote Biden” as guests arrived, which is pretty great.
CRIKEY RECAP
“Crikey understands it was Tourism Australia itself that made the AFP referral. The agency first contacted the NACC on January 25 and was subsequently advised not to tell Senate estimates too much information, so as not to ‘compromise current or potential investigations and prematurely impact the reputation of individuals’, according to managing director Phillipa Harrison. On June 5, the day after that estimates hearing, Tourism Australia was told the NACC had decided not to proceed with an investigation.
It’s not clear exactly when the AFP was contacted. The AFP told Crikey in April it was not aware of the matter.
When the story first broke, people with insight into Tourism Australia said people in the agency and the wider tourism industry were ‘shocked’ after rumours began circulating following an all-staff meeting on December 7. At that meeting, it’s understood the firing of one of the people involved was announced and staff were reminded of their obligations under agency policies.”
“Robodebt was an outrage, designed, perpetrated, sustained and concealed by a succession of Coalition government ministers and willing public servants, the point of which — as has so often been said — was its cruelty. It targeted the most vulnerable, and punished them for that sin. It was and will remain the ultimate expression of Scott Morrison’s ethos.
It wasn’t just evil, of course; it was illegal, from the beginning, and they knew it. For the NACC to have all that in its hands, toss it around for a while and then say thanks, but no, no interest here, is breathtaking in the context of both how bad robodebt was and how much expectation there had been for consequences.”
“Australia can achieve much greater emissions reductions than 43% of 2005 levels by 2030. We can decarbonise our electricity and transport sectors, invest heavily in electrification, and genuinely commit to reducing carbon pollution in line with reducing emissions by at least 75% in the same time frame. Yet our target remains woefully inadequate.
The Paris Agreement is an example of international cooperation, yet Australia’s approach is anything but. The 43% target excludes all emissions from the burning of fossil fuels mined in Australia and exported elsewhere, despite Australia being the third largest exporter of fossil fuels. In the eyes of our government, responsibilities end at our borders, with little regard for what happens once these fossil fuels are no longer in our possession. How can we in good faith wash our hands of any responsibility for such emissions, while patting ourselves on the back for reaching our targets?”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Supreme Court maintains broad access to abortion pill (The New York Times) ($)
Zelenskyy hails ‘historic’ 10-year Ukraine-US security agreement (BBC)
ECJ fines Hungary with €200 million over ‘extremely serious’ breach of EU asylum law (euronews)
Forcibly displaced population doubles to 120 million over the past 10 years (Al Jazeera)
Famine watchdog projects 756,000 Sudanese face starvation in coming months (Reuters)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Robo-debt wasn’t fair or legal. Because of a loophole we’ll never know if it was also corrupt — Waleed Aly (The Age): “The very basis of the NACC’s decision is that its investigation would have been of no real consequence, that it has no worthwhile contribution to make. It cannot punish anyone directly, and is unlikely to unearth any facts the royal commission hasn’t already. It also notes that other bodies which can impose sanctions — such as the Public Sector Commission — are already running investigations. Accordingly, it reasons, there is no point having multiple bodies running basically the same investigation …
Understandably, victims and their families feel betrayed. ‘There’s no pathway to justice,’ were the words of one. No doubt I would feel the same way, but accountability certainly remains possible. The PSC has the power to fine, demote or sack public servants who breach their duties, and seven people have already been found guilty of that, with their sanctions still to come. To seek some harsher punishment is to enter the realm of the criminal law — and the royal commission has referred people for potential criminal prosecution, though whom and for what, we don’t know. Either way, it’s simply not the NACC’s role to mete out that brand of justice, and our constitution makes it plain that it shouldn’t be.”
It’s not been easy to be a teal of late, but Dutton’s climate gamble may have given them a new start — Brett Worthington (The ABC): “The general consensus has been that as long as the teals can get reelected, the Coalition faces a problematic path to power. Dutton has a different theory. He disputes that the teals are disaffected Liberals. In the extreme he openly dubs them as Greens, or in kinder moments as Labor-backing stooges.
The opposition leader is taking a gamble that people are more worried about paying their bills than solving the climate crisis. It’s high-stakes poker, in which he hopes his plan can flush out the teals and win back Liberal votes in those once safe seats. Simon Holmes a Court, the businessman and activist behind the group that financially backed the teals in the last election, sees it differently. He told RN Breakfast that Dutton is ‘nailing his colours to the mast’ on emissions and making Climate 200’s job that much easier.”
