RAFAH TRAGEDY
An Israeli airstrike in Rafah has killed at least 45 people, including women and children, in one of Israel’s deadliest attacks since October 7, The Guardian reports. The Israel Defense Forces said it was attempting a precision strike on senior Hamas militants when fires ripped through makeshift tent accommodation. Shocking images of “charred and dismembered children” have prompted international outrage; French President Emmanuel Macron posted on X that “There are no safe areas in Rafah for Palestinian civilians. I call for full respect for international law and an immediate ceasefire.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted the strike was a mistake, saying in Parliament that “something unfortunately went tragically wrong”. Thirty-six thousand Palestinians have been killed by Israel so far, according to the local health ministry.
It comes as several Liberals including Dave Sharma, Warren Entsch and Andrew Wallace have been criticised by Labor MPs for attending an event by controversial right-wing group the Australian Jewish Association (AJA), Nine newspapers report. The event included a screening of the film Whose Land? — produced and directed by Hugh Kitson and narrated by Colonel Richard Kemp — which purports to reveal that “the ‘Palestinian’ claim to any part of the land has no historical basis at all”.
Meanwhile, Papua New Guinea’s disaster agency estimates that “more than 2,000 people” could be buried under metres of earth after a tragic landslide, reports the ABC. The National Disaster Centre gave the new number in a letter to the UN, which had originally estimated possible deaths at more than 670. The challenges of coordinating an emergency response in the remote highlands of the region have prompted the UN to call a virtual meeting of international governments on Tuesday to organise the relief effort.
$1M SEVERANCE
Nine CEO Mike Sneesby gave former Nine news director Darren Wick a nearly $1 million severance, The Australian reports, despite allegedly sexually harassing up to a dozen women at the organisation. Wick left Nine in March, though it only became known his departure followed a complaint from a female staffer when reported on last week by the Oz. The payout — more than Wick’s entire annual salary — was reportedly not signed off by the Nine board or chairman Peter Costello, with a spokesperson saying “it was handled within our governance processes”. Sneesby said in an email to staff sent prior to the payout revelation that “more work needs to be done to ensure we have a safe and inclusive workplace throughout Nine”.
Meanwhile, the federal government’s “rapid review” on violence against women will begin in Sydney today, the ABC reports. The review, which will cost $1.3 million, will be led by domestic, family and sexual violence commissioner Micaela Cronin. It comes as frontline workers and peak bodies say they have “reached saturation point on consultation” and simply need more funding. Also in the ABC today, police in South Australia are reporting that domestic violence is partly responsible for an almost 70% spike in reported murders over the past year. Domestic violence reports in the state have increased by 14% over the past year, with 1,111 reports in March alone.
SAY WHAT?
We are a racist country, let’s face it. We always have been and it’s very depressing.
Laura Tingle
The ABC’s chief political correspondent for the 7.30 program tells it like it is to former ABC Insiders host Barrie Cassidy at a Sydney Writers’ Festival event over the weekend.
CRIKEY RECAP
“The choice to reconsider the religious question follows Census21, a 2021 campaign by several secular organisations that featured figures such as comedians Adam Spencer and Tim Minchin encouraging respondents to mark ‘no religion’ if they no longer had any faith in that year’s census.
Testing took place after a review and consultation process of that year’s results, during which the ABS received almost 200 submissions from groups and people who felt the religion question produced what’s called ‘acquiescence bias’. But Catholic Church leaders began lobbying the Albanese government to reject the ABS’ proposed changes after concerned parties received the proposed layout of the religion question in February, writing to the bureau and the prime minister, as well as launching a media campaign in the Murdoch press.”
“The company-wide adoption of the more aggressive Sydney tabloid style of The Daily Telegraph has driven away the mid-market audience once locked up by mastheads like The Courier-Mail and the Herald-Sun (or at least its predecessor, the Sun News-Pictorial). Meanwhile, the news-lite audience — trained by cable news and talk-back radio to gulp down whatever’s put before them — has slid into outright news avoidance.
The traditional consumers still engaged in news overwhelmingly lean to the left. The result? Subscriptions have plateaued, with Nine’s lightly paywalled mastheads The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald leading in readership ahead of News Corps’ more restrictively paywalled metro outlets.”
“If the likes of David Speers, The Australian and Labor have a problem with people who don’t back a two-state solution, here’s a good place to start. As Crikey pointed out when Benjamin Netanyahu visited Australia in 2017, the Israeli prime minister doesn’t believe in one. When asked about a two-state solution, the alleged war criminal and corruption defendant replied that he’d prefer ‘not to deal with labels but with substance … if Israel is not there to ensure security, then that state very quickly will become another bastion of radical Islam … we have to ensure that Israel has the overriding security control of all the territories, all the territories.’
And of course we know that Netanyahu has worked assiduously to prevent a two-state solution during his lengthy time as PM, using a vast expansion of illegal settlements on Palestinian land to create ‘facts on the ground’ that will prevent any meaningful Palestinian state. Indeed, his efforts to support Hamas to undermine a two-state solution were a key factor in that depraved terror group’s capacity to launch such a horrific attack on Israel on October 7. Netanyahu’s relentless opposition to a two-state solution is widely and uncontroversially acknowledged in more grown-up countries than Australia.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
The unlikely women fighting for abortion rights (The New York Times) ($)
Force Russia to make peace, Zelenskyy urges West (BBC)
Could Germany’s new left-wing conservative party seduce AfD’s voters in European elections? (euronews)
What to know about Mexico’s 2024 presidential election (Al Jazeera)
How China, Russia are trying to disrupt US’ military edge in outer space (The Times of India)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Charisma deficit unlikely to stop Keir Starmer from being Britain’s next PM — Troy Bramston (The Australian): “At 61, Starmer is not a youthful leader. Nor is he a political veteran with years of ministerial experience, like many Labour predecessors. He was elected to the House of Commons only in 2015. Before that he was a lawyer, with a focus on human rights, and Director of Public Prosecutions. He was named after Keir Hardie — the Scottish trade unionist and a founder of the Labour Party — and, unusually for a Labour leader, knighted before he was in Parliament.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will argue that at a time of challenge at home with the economy struggling and cost-of-living concerns the main issue for voters — and fears over immigration and refugees, coupled with uncertainty in the Asia-Pacific and conflict in the Middle East and Europe — now is not the time to change, especially as Starmer is untested and untried.”
Aussie John’s $200m mansion sale pinpoints critical problem with real estate market — Michael West (Michael West Media): “So it is that we are seeing a ‘mansion flipping epidemic’ of wealthy people selling their ‘family homes’ after a few years to lock in large tax-free profits. This could easily be capped. Of course, it makes no sense in terms of policy as real estate is a fairly non-productive asset. If capital were diverted elsewhere to equity or business investment it would create more jobs and more growth …
Taxing the family home is political poison. Because the minute any reasonable proposition was plonked on the table, some lobby group and their PR people would be out of the blocks with a campaign in Murdoch media or Nine showing an old couple on Zimmer frames looking beleaguered, saying, ‘we bought our home for 25k back in 1952 and now they want to tax us out of our nursing home…’”
