HEAR THE VOICES
The Liberals are too distracted by the Voice to Parliament, outgoing home affairs spokeswoman Karen Andrews told the SMH ($), and should focus on the fact people can’t pay their mortgage or rent. (Students, for instance, now have $13 left a day to live on as youth allowance has fallen behind steep rent rises, Guardian Australia reports.) Andrews says she does not support the Voice, specifically objecting to the wording of enshrining the body in the constitution, as The New Daily reports, but unlike Opposition Leader Peter Dutton won’t campaign for No, so read into that what you will… Compare that with Dutton’s new Indigenous Australians spokesperson Jacinta Nampijinpa Price who is loudly anti-Voice. She says it’ll see a rise in people falsely claiming to be Indigenous, The Australian ($) reports, her first broadside after her promotion.
Despite everyone from the ABC to Sky News Australia calling a successful Voice referendum the end of Dutton’s opposition leadership, Andrews is certain he’ll take the Coalition to the next election (he was elected unopposed in the partyroom, she points out). But the Liberals aren’t happy with him right now, one anonymous MP told the SMH. Dutton is not listening to his partyroom, the MP said, and the balance of this reshuffle isn’t right (the Nationals’ shadow cabinet representation went from six to seven, and NSW lost a seat at the table). The Liberals are haemorrhaging MPs at the moment — Julian Leeser, Ken Wyatt, Andrews and probably Scott Morrison soon too. Oh, and that thing Dutton said about telling Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about incidences of NT children returning to the homes of their abusers? Just kidding, Dutton said, as Guardian Australia reports.
Hey folks, a story that broke as this Worm went to press: voting machine maker Dominion and Fox News have settled their defamation case, CNN reports.
FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PROTEST
Protesters gathered around Randwick City Council’s meeting last night objecting to its decision to fly the Israeli flag for the country’s 75th anniversary of independence, The New Daily reports. Inside councillors were discussing whether to overturn the decision, but decided not to. Protesters were angry and dismayed, citing allegations of human rights abuses by Israel against Palestinians by what Palestinian Professor Yahya Shehabi called “the most right-wing government in Israel’s history”. Meanwhile, four Labor councillors have walked out of a Shellharbour Council meeting during a debate over relaunching the annual Australia Day breakfast — costing $70,000 — at Lake Illawarra, The Daily Telegraph ($) reports. Councillor Rob Petreski said it should be put to the Australia Day Committee and the Aboriginal Advisory Committee first, but after a failed dissent motion he was one of four who left without being excused.
To other protest news now and 100 Buddhists are protesting against comedian Lewis Spears’ “disgusting” jokes that referenced how the Dalai Lama controversially asked a young boy to suck his tongue. The Herald Sun quoted the protest organiser as saying Spears had “made fun of our most special spiritual leader”. Another went further, saying Spears had “taken a knife to the heart of our spirituality”. Here are the jokes, if you dare. Meanwhile, Crikey reports climate protesters threw orange powder paint at the World Snooker Championship in the UK, declaring “new oil and gas will snooker us”. It comes just days after a group of climate protesters in Newcastle started shovelling coal off a train in a story that made it all the way to the BBC. Some 50 people were arrested. The United Nations and the International Energy Agency have repeatedly said the world must stop opening coal and gas projects to have a shot in hell of avoiding a total climate meltdown. As The Conversation reports, Australia has 116 coal and gas projects in the pipeline right now, folks.
WHAT’S YOUR BUDGET?
JobSeeker will not be increased to about $480 a week, Treasurer Jim Chalmers says, even though that would barely get you a rental property in any capital city. Increasing the welfare by 38% was a core recommendation from Chalmers’ Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee — in dollar figures it would go from its current rate of $693.10 to $957.60 a fortnight — but The Australian ($) reports it won’t be part of our May budget. Oh, and the Coalition’s stage-three tax cuts for middle- to high-income earners are here to stay, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says, even though many have called a tax cut needless, including some in those tax brackets. So what is the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee? It was part of the deal independent Senator David Pocock brokered in return for his support for Labor’s workplace reforms last year. He told the paper it’s astounding the government can find the money for inland rail blowouts and submarines but can’t do more for Aussie kids living in poverty.
But Chalmers was ready for the bad press, it seems. He said the cost of aged care will rise by nearly a quarter (23%) to $29.6 billion, the AFR ($) reports, and that’s before a pay rise for workers — costing another $1.9 billion. The JobSeeker increase would cost $24 billion, but is it really right to put the old against the poor? Shrug. Chalmers says we can expect energy bill price relief, and possibly a rise in the single-parent payment. Speaking of the treasurer, he said the Reserve Bank of Australia and governor Philip Lowe need to “change the way that they go about things” including interest rate changes, Guardian Australia reports. The rate has been raised 10 times in 11 months, but inflation is yet to tumble.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Murphy really wanted to be a dad. Like, really wanted to be one. The bald eagle, who lives at the World Bird Sanctuary in Montana, figured he’d sit atop this egg to incubate it and patiently await the day it would crack open to reveal his very own squeaking baby chick. Except, well… it was a rock. The keepers “did not have the heart” to break it to Murphy that the rock would not hatch, as The New York Times ($) tells it, nor take his little egg-rock away as he fussed paternally over it. They had put a sign up to mollify concerned onlookers that he was fine, not in distress per se, but admittedly probably a little forlorn. That’s when fate stepped (flew?) in. A teeny orphaned eaglet arrived at the sanctuary earlier this month, with a soft grey plumage and a needy temperament. The little guy had fallen from a tree during a storm, and had no one.
Initially keepers at the sanctuary were a little worried. After all, Murphy had only ever looked after a rock. And it’s not like they hadn’t given him a shot at a family. They’d introduced him to a couple of eagle bachelorettes, but Murphy wasn’t interested (perhaps another male would’ve done the trick?). Oh heck, the keepers decided, let’s give him a shot at fatherhood. And he’s doing great! He’s “responding to the chick’s peeps, and protecting it”, the paper reports. Everyone was sure when Murphy and the eaglet were given dinner one evening. Murphy, who got a large fish, tore his to pieces to offer it to the eaglet — even though the eaglet had its own smaller meal already. It’s clear, the sanctuary’s boss Dawn said, that Murphy was “doing very well learning how to be a first-time dad”.
Hoping you feel cared for today.
SAY WHAT?
I write this as captain of Melbourne Grammar School. I write this as someone who is gay, a fact about myself which I cannot change. I also write this as someone confused — surely ‘modelling Christian living’ is not well exemplified in the practice of exclusion or discrimination?
Daniel Cash
The teen has written an impassioned op-ed about the Presbyterian Church of Australia declaring its right to refuse school leadership opportunities to students based on sexuality or premarital sexual activity. The church said gay students “would not be able to give appropriate Christian leadership in a Christian school which requires modelling Christian living”.
CRIKEY RECAP
Was Justin Trudeau right to cast Anthony Albanese as a ‘progressive’?
“Similar conclusions ensue when the same lens is applied to Labor’s refusal to raise the Medicare rebate or pause the annual indexing of student debt, its intransigence on policies that overwhelmingly favour the wealthy, such as negative gearing and franking credits and, not least, its otherwise inexplicable decision to postpone substantial reform to the perennial funding inequities besetting the nation’s public school system.
“In other words, it’s plain the political faultlines emblematic of the former Coalition government between those who ‘have a go’ and those relegated to less fortunate circumstances by virtue of the lottery of birth endure in many spheres of government decision-making, even if the divisive language of the past has been erased.”
‘Purest star in the Murdoch firmament’: Miranda Devine does us ‘proud’
“It’s easy to forget, given her unswerving loyalty to News Corp talking points, but Devine was a columnist at then-Fairfax papers for many years, which is where she argued ‘it is not arsonists who should be hanging from lampposts but greenies’ after Black Saturday, almost like she was auditioning for her next role.
“Duly, in 2010 she was the beneficiary of the hereditary principle at News Corp — her father was longtime News vet Frank Devine — she joined the crowded ranks of outrage merchants at The Daily Telegraph, where she fit seamlessly into the climate sceptic, anti-marriage equality, anti-PC, George Pell-defending commentator ranks, who would rise, in unison, to curse lefty groupthink.”
Assange campaign escalates pressure after Wong pressed on jailed reporter in Russia
“The government faces renewed pressure to advance its efforts to free Assange as US authorities dig in their heels to secure the release of Gershkovich, the first American journalist to be detained in Russia on spying charges since the Cold War.
“Gershkovich was taken by Russian authorities in the city of Yekaterinburg, which sits roughly 1800 kilometres east of Moscow, on March 29, and has since been held in Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison where he awaits trial, set to begin on May 29, and which could deliver a 20-year sentence. He was visited by US consular officials for the first time since his arrest on Monday, and has drawn support from politicians across the US, including Biden …”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Egypt agreed to supply arms to Ukraine after US talks: Report (Al Jazeera)
Could Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin replace Vladimir Putin as Russia’s next president? (euronews)
Trudeau’s Jamaica vacation shows ‘lack of judgment,’ opposition leaders say (CBC)
Russian judge rejects WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich’s detention appeal (The Guardian)
After American’s killing in Syria, FBI builds war crimes case against top officials (The New York Times)
THE COMMENTARIAT
So many clashing voices, so little of worth achieved — Nyunggai Warren Mundine (The Australian) ($): “The report outlines the structure of the Voice to Parliament as existing on three levels. Regional voices choose members of the national voice. And there are local voices that suddenly occur in the document without any introduction or explanation. I’m still not sure who the local voices will be or their function. Perhaps they will somehow make up the regional voices, but it’s not clear how this will happen, except to say they will be constructed around a process and principles.
“It will be a long journey to get there. The process involves formal commitments from governments that translate into expected legislative processes at the state and territory, and also local government, levels. Those of you who thought that some Commonwealth legislation after the referendum was the end of it, think again. What’s proposed isn’t just legislation to establish a national voice. It is a ‘whole of government’ coordination and collaboration with local and regional voices that will involve even more legislation.”
India is now the world’s most populous nation. It’s time we got to know it better — Matt Wade (The SMH) ($): “Business links and trade between the two countries have lagged the rapid improvement in diplomatic and strategic ties. India was Australia’s sixth-largest trading partner in 2021-22, one behind the relative minnow Singapore. That year, a single commodity — coal — accounted for almost 70% of the value of Australian exports to India. Despite recent tensions between Beijing and Canberra, the value of Australian exports to China was five times more than to India.
“Patterns of investment provide a telling indicator. Australians tend to invest in nations where they have a high level of understanding and trust. In 2021, about half of all Australian overseas investment was in two very familiar locations — the US and the UK. India didn’t even figure in the top 20 destinations for Australian foreign investment that year, despite its mammoth scale and strong growth outlook. This underscores the need for Australia to develop a much better understanding of India.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Online
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UNSW’s Artificial Intelligence Institute’s Toby Walsh, Stop Killer Robots campaign’s Matilda Byrne and journalist Quentin Dempster will speak about war powers reform in a webinar.
Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)
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Resources and Northern Australia Minister Madeleine King will speak about the future of the resources sector at an event held by CEDA.
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Author Kate Legge will launch her new book, Infidelity and Other Affairs, at Avid Reader bookshop.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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The Lowy Institute’s Jennifer Hsu and Ryan Neelam, journalist Samuel Yang and the Australia-China Young Professionals Initiative’s Lucy Du will chat about the findings of the 2023 “Being Chinese in Australia: Public Opinion in Chinese Communities” survey, at the institute.
