ALBO TARGETS DUTTON’S TURF
Is election season already upon us? Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has hinted the government won’t go to the polls again until May 2025, but already the newspapers are brimming with election news. The Australian ($) reports Albanese plans to lead a raid deep into Liberal territory in Queensland, targeting Longman, Leichhardt, Brisbane, Bonner and Forde in a “Queensland blitz that will also focus pressure on Peter Dutton’s seat of Dickson”.
“Our primary vote is too low, we have to pick that up. Dutton is all about identity politics, shouting at the clouds. He falls short on economic policy and hasn’t got a quality team around him. We’re confident but we definitely need to win seats,” an unnamed Labor source told the paper.
High off his party’s success in getting Coalition support for its new tax cuts, Albanese is heading to Victoria today where another contest looms: the Dunkley by-election. Guardian Australia reports voters in Dunkley backed the tax cuts by more than two-to-one, according to a new poll that also shows Labor has support from 52% of respondents, compared to the Liberals’ 48%.
There’s another by-election on the way, in the NSW seat of Cook, after ex-prime minister Scott Morrison announced his retirement. The Sydney Morning Herald ($) reports the Liberal party committee responsible for vetting prospective candidates has pushed back a crucial meeting by a week, to March 4, to avoid it happening on a parliamentary sitting night.
ZELENSKYY FIRES GENERAL
In Ukraine, where war still rages, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has fired his top military commander. CNN called the dismissal of General Valerii Zaluzhnyi part of “the biggest military shakeup since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion almost two years ago”.
Tensions between the general and the president had emerged after the failure of a Ukrainian counteroffensive last year amid ammunition shortages and the stalling of aid from the US. Zelenskyy was reportedly not happy with a November essay in The Economist ($) magazine, where the general argued the war was at a stalemate and that “there will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough” without great technological advances. The president reportedly felt that type of message only benefited Russia.
Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram ahead of the announcement he and Zaluzhnyi had “discussed what kind of renewal the armed forces of Ukraine need”, adding: “The time for such renewal is now”.
Ukranian land forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi will take over the top job.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
A three-year-old tot named Ethan stood in front of a brightly lit claw machine in Queensland’s Capalaba Park Shopping Centre, staring longingly inside. It was like a fever dream — a glass box filled with plush clouds of pastel-coloured soft toys positively falling over each other, just waiting to be delivered into the grubby mitts of a kid just like him. Ethan’s young mind was quickly made up — when dad Timothy looked the other way, the toddler scrambled into the claw machine’s prize shute and practically into the light, emerging in what a child’s brain could only assume was heaven itself. Then Timothy turned around, as ABC reports.
Any panic the father fleetingly felt quickly dissolved into laughter when he saw Ethan was having “the time of his life”. But how was he supposed to get him out? He rang the company, who dutifully asked whether his money was stuck inside. No, he responded, just my child. Timothy messaged his dad to ask for advice, who responded tongue-in-cheek whether he had enough $2 coins to win him back. Sighing, Timothy called the cops. The sight was a first for senior constable Stuart Power, who’d been a police officer for 11 years. Encouraging little Ethan to move to the back and cover his eyes, Power cracked the glass and scooped the gleeful toddler out. “Don’t worry dad, I won’t do it again,” Ethan assured Timothy.
Folks, I hope you don’t mind a briefer-than-usual Worm today. I’m on a plane right now as I’m moving home to Australia after three wonderful years of living in Canada. I’m looking forward to spending time with my much-loved family and throwing myself headfirst into early-morning swims at beautiful Bondi Beach. Drop me a note if you’d like — eelsworthy@crikey.com.au
Hoping you go for it today, and have a restful weekend.
SAY WHAT?
Everyone starts off as a leftie, then wakes up at some point, after you start either making money and working, trying to run a business, trying to buy a home and then you realise what crap ideas they all are and then you go to the right.
Holly Valance
The Neighbours star turned popstar turned British billionaire’s wife was interviewed by Christopher Hope of GB News at the launch of brief former UK PM Liz Truss’ new conservative movement “PopCon”.
CRIKEY RECAP
“Peter Dutton has got his media cheerleaders, and even determined gallery fence-sitters, excited by the idea he will go to the next election with a tax reform plan. Perhaps it’s a sign of the sheer desperation brought about by the most recent bout of taxreformitis, but a few vague words by the opposition leader have been sufficient to elevate him as the new champion of fiscal change — without, of course, too many questions about what his plans will involve or cost.
“One can imagine a similar mid-term commitment by a Labor opposition to come up with a tax reform package would already have seen a concerted campaign for it to rule out death duties, taxing the family home, doubling the GST, making boomers pay even a slightly more equitable tax contribution and other outrages. That’s just the usual double standards of political coverage though.”
“Much has been made of the government’s decision to change the stage three tax cuts, providing a bigger tax break for the majority of Australians at the expense of a smaller portion of people earning more than $180,000. Initially pummelled in the media as a backflip on Labor’s promise while in opposition that they wouldn’t touch the cuts, first introduced in 2019, the changes have since found broad public support, as shown by a number of polls, including Guardian Essential, Newspoll and one from The Australia Institute.
“Much was made of the political strategy involved in the changes, as well as what was described by The Australian’s Dennis Shanahan as a “breach of faith [that] could prove to be politically fatal”, but very little was made in the national media of the actual impact of the policy. Crikey sat down with a senior member of the press gallery, who requested to remain anonymous, to break down the optics of ‘the wedge’, what the term actually means, and whether it matters at all.”
“The pass rate fell under 70% after the Coalition changed the citizenship test in 2020 and has remained at a similar level under Labor. Senior opposition politicians say a fall in pass rates on Australia’s citizenship test is the fault of the Albanese government because it has failed to champion Australian values. The claim is misleading. The big drop in pass rates happened after the former Morrison government added a section on Australian values to the citizenship test in November 2020.
“The pass rate since Labor took office in May 2022 is almost identical to the pass rate during the Coalition’s final months in office. The claim was made in a Coalition media release by opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan on January 10, 2024. The media release said the citizenship test pass rate averaged 79.3% for the last five years of the Coalition government (2017 to 2021 inclusive) and fell to 65% in the first 15 months of Anthony Albanese’s Labor government (June 2022 to August 2023).”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Paramilitary commander killed in Baghdad drone strike: Reports (Al Jazeera)
Prince William grateful for public’s messages of support (BBC)
Jagmeet Singh threatens consequences if Liberals miss March 1 pharmacare deadline (CBC)
Senate blocks bipartisan $118bn bill on US-Mexico border and Ukraine (The Guardian)
Chinese firm behind ‘news’ websites pushes pro-Beijing content globally, researchers find (Reuters)
French actress Judith Godrèche files rape complaint against famed director [Benoît Jacquot] (euronews)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Insurance inquiry reveals one of Australia’s greatest paradoxes — Waleed Aly (SMH) ($): “Wherever you look in politics lately, there seems to be the spectacle of politicians forcing businesspeople to sit in front of them, and the TV cameras, while the politicians yell at them. They could be bankers, or airline executives or Mark Zuckerberg: whatever the industry, whatever the details, the tone and the moves are always the same. How could you? Will you now apologise? How many lives must be ruined for the sake of your greed? Headlines are written, embarrassing exchanges are reproduced online and in the evening news, and then the businesspeople go back to making money.
“I don’t mean to sound unduly dismissive. To some extent, this spectacle is exactly as it should be. The point of politics is to represent the interests of the people, as distinct from, say, the interests of business. Politicians should interrogate business when something is amiss, and the fact that you can feel the nation cheering the politicians on, willing them to get stuck in even more, only underscores the point that they are, at least in that moment, our representatives. This spectacle should not be all about catharsis, although catharsis matters nonetheless.”
Why we must keep Papua New Guinea in our corner … and vice versa — Ben Packham (The Australian) ($): “When Pacific island leaders go to Beijing, China plies them with self-serving agreements and grand displays of its power. It’s a vastly different story when they come to Australia.
“Papua New Guinea’s James Marape was welcomed to the House of Representatives on Thursday with warmth and sincerity, and he spoke with genuine affection for Australia. He talked of Kokoda, rugby league, the shared ancestry of the Torres Strait people, and his nation’s reverence for Gough Whitlam for granting PNG its independence. China can’t compete with any of that.
“Sadly, the PNG relationship is one Australia hasn’t always nurtured sufficiently over the years. Indeed, Marape’s reception was a far cry from the Howard government’s treatment less than 20 years ago of PNG’s founding father, Sir Michael Somare, who was denied an apology after being forced to remove his shoes for a security check. Times have changed, and for the better.”
Can the Albanese government show muscle in Indigenous policy? One test is coming next week — Michelle Grattan (The Conversation): “When Anthony Albanese is asked what his government’s Indigenous affairs policy is after the referendum’s failure, his response boils down to: watch this space. On Tuesday the government will present its latest implementation plan for Closing The Gap, when it brings down its annual report on the progress (or lack of) towards the multiple targets.
“Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney says Tuesday’s statement will ‘commit to new actions that focus on making a practical difference’. Albanese told the ABC this week: ‘The priority [is] very much on employment. How do we take the [Community Development Program] — which is essentially a work-for-the-dole program — and make it real, so it creates real jobs with real skills for Indigenous Australians?’
“History and evidence tell us incrementalism is not enough to make a big difference to the parlous condition of Aboriginal people in remote Australia. Equally, ambitions to transform how decisions are made and delivered have so far proved beyond governments.”
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Whadjuk Noongar Country (also known as Perth)
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WA Minister for Finance, Commerce & Women’s Interests Sue Ellery will speak at the State of the Future lunch at Crown Perth.
Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)
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Author Sharlene Allsopp will talk about her new book, The Great Undoing, at Avid Reader bookshop.
