A FRINGE COSTS CASH
Shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash appeared on a Sky News segment where the Voice to Parliament was compared with apartheid. Former Liberal senator Cory Bernardi drew the comparison in a preamble to his interview with Cash; while she spoke, the banner on the bottom of the screen read “The Voice will create an apartheid state”. Sure, Cash didn’t make the comparison herself (and said later that she didn’t endorse it), but Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus told Guardian Australia this is the Liberals’ schtick — openly associating themselves, or “flirting” as the paper put it, with the “far-right fringe” about the Voice. Dreyfus urged Cash and Liberals to see that the Voice will unite the country and aims to address systemic inequalities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
From flirting to fetishes: former senator and transparency crusader Rex Patrick says he’s discovered Scott Morrison’s secret “fetish”: Patrick FOI’d the minutes of national cabinets during the pandemic over a year ago, as he writes for Michael West Media, and after an epic battle that went all the way to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), a judge found the meeting wasn’t legally a cabinet and ordered the release of the documents. But Morrison’s department still refused, as Patrick tells it. After another AAT battle, Patrick finally got the minutes — check ’em out. They’re a hugely interesting insight into the way we handled the national emergency, including how and when “extraordinary restraints on the liberty of Australians were imposed”.
ROYAL WAVE
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese — a republican — says he will publicly swear allegiance to King Charles III at Saturday’s coronation, the SMH ($) reports today. But the PM did not answer when British showman Piers Morgan asked him (yes, the pair sat down for an interview — no idea why) whether he would encourage Australians to pledge allegiance to the new king. You might’ve heard that for the first time citizens of Commonwealth countries will be invited to take part in the pledge from their homes, to raise “a chorus of millions of voices” proudly and grandly supporting “their undoubted king, defender of all”. It’s been met with a, erm, less than warm reception at home and abroad. At a recent Celtic’s football game, legions of fans in the stadium were filmed chanting “You can shove your coronation up your arse” to the tune of She’ll Be Coming ’Round the Mountain. You can’t deny it’s catchy.
Meanwhile, Charles is wondering whether Aussies even like him, according to The Australian ($). Apparently, the king’s people were prepping him for Albanese to extend a formal invitation to Australia and Charles replied: “But will I be welcome?” If the paper could, I’m sure it would pause for the audience’s “awww”. It continues that Charles’ interaction with “blunt and direct” Aussie schoolkids when he studied here as a teenager may have made him wary of us. One might speculate Albanese appointing the first assistant minister for the republic (Matt Thistlethwaite) last June, as the ABC reported, would’ve done more to deter the king than bullies from his childhood. So far, Thistlethwaite’s focus has been on assisting in the other portfolios under his purview — defence and veterans’ affairs — after Albanese said Queen Elizabeth’s death wasn’t the time to talk republic.
POCOCK’S RUFFLED FEATHERS
Nearly 1800 people, including family, lobbyists, the media and visitors, have 24-hour access to Parliament House — including the offices of all ministers — with passes sponsored by parliamentarians, the SMH ($) reports. So who are all these people, and who’s letting them in? Independent David Pocock’s questions exactly: he’ll present a letter co-signed with crossbenchers urging officials in the upper and lower house to ’fess up the names, including one unknown pollie who has greenlit 55 of them.
Pocock is also in the news this morning for saying the Coalition’s $50 JobSeeker rise was more generous than Labor’s mooted 55-plus budget proposal, Guardian Australia reports. The Morrison government lifted JobSeeker by $50 a fortnight after COVID, as 9News reported at the time, and Pocock says the Albanese government is risking being even less generous than Scott Morrison. How? Let the paper run you through the numbers: 1.2 million on JobSeeker in 2021; 1.4 million on JobSeeker in 2023. If the government raises it only for people aged 55 and older, 685,000 will miss out. Dismal.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
There’s something deeply unsettling about politicians’ sensuality. Malcolm Turnbull’s so-called “bonk ban” coming amid beetroot-faced Barnaby Joyce’s extramarital affair with a younger staffer (they’re married now) was bad enough. But many terminally online folks will have the words “I … softly kiss your neck and whisper ‘G’day mate’” burned into their brains forever, like some sort of horrible political branding iron scar. So when France’s Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire released his novel — complete with “toe-curling sexual descriptions”, as Guardian Australia put it — hours before credit ratings agency Fitch downgraded crisis-hit France’s debt worthiness, it was the cringe felt around the country.
The book is a fictional story about pianist Vladimir Horowitz, who two brothers travel to Cuba to see, though chapter 11 includes a rather, erm, vivid sex scene with a character named Julia. Put it this way, as French Huffington Post wrote: “Bruno Le Maire has written about an anus and no one was ready for this.” One of Julia’s lines actually reads, “I’ve never been this dilated,” which prompted French protesters to co-opt the line in their riotous May Day protests. Historian Olivier Varlan tweeted that the government should introduce a psychological hotline for people who’d stumbled across the “erotic” chapter by accident, but Le Maire’s colleague Labour Minister Olivier Dussopt said it “shows that there are feelings … behind the suits of the ministers”. May I suggest they stay there?
Wishing you far better focus today than the French economy minister.
SAY WHAT?
Just finished an exclusive interview with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who’s flown to London for the coronation. We discussed everything from the Monarchy/Royals to China, Biden, Trump, cancel culture, gender, Ashes & Dame Edna.
Piers Morgan
The PM was photographed smiling next to the British commentator overnight. Morgan is famous for a lot of things, among them heading up the tabloid Daily Mirror when the phone hacking scandal went down, and receiving no fewer than 57,000 audience complaints on Good Morning Britain for saying he didn’t believe Meghan, Duchess of Sussex when she said she had felt suicidal.
Correction: this item has been updated to reflect that Rupert Murdoch did not own the Daily Mirror.
CRIKEY RECAP
“Barring some incredible surprise, rusted-ons of both orders will have to make a post-budget decision. Are they going to continue as either loyalists, or loyal opposition, or admit that Labor must now be opposed, from the left, on the ground? That demands the harder task of either building the Greens — if it doesn’t become a party that normies find impossible to support — or other, smaller left parties, or starting to build networks on the Indi model in Labor seats.
“That latter process wouldn’t be as hard as it sounds, in certain seats anyway. The reason is the distinct single-member, exhaustive preference system, which acts like a sort of political semi-conductor. Usually it ensures that energy stays with the dominant major party in the seat. But if you can get support above a certain level, then the energy flows away from that party and towards you. You simply have to hit the switch level.”
“Albanese confirms he is to attend the million-dollar wedding of radio personality Kyle Sandilands. Sandilands — whose history includes suggesting Magda Szubanski lose weight via a stint in a ‘concentration camp’ and the jocular interrogation of an underage rape victim — had told his listeners that the flowers alone at his nuptials would cost around $150,000. Convicted drug smuggler Simon Main and former Kings Cross nightclub owner John Ibrahim were among the bridal party, helpfully flanking Sandilands in pictures that could be added to any coverage of Albanese’s attendance.
” ‘Well, I’m not in charge of the invite list,’ Albanese says. ‘I’ll say this: a bloke who at one stage was homeless, living on the streets of Sydney, and has grown into someone who is a significant public figure, is a part of what is an Australian success story. So I was invited to the wedding, I said I’d go, and I keep my commitments, including to Kyle Sandilands’. By happy coincidence, Sandilands’ breakfast show is one of the highest-rated in the country.”
“CitizenGO has courted controversy in the past for its campaigns, methods and links to Russia. The organisation regularly campaigns against LGBTQIA+ causes, from supporting an anti-gay law in Russia in 2013 to calling for a boycott of Cadbury Creme Eggs because an ad featured a same-sex couple. The organisation has been accused of paying people to spread misinformation and of running ‘smear campaigns’ that led to the temporary closure of Kenyan family planning clinics.
“In 2021, it was reported that CitizenGO received large donations from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ‘right arm for operations of political interference in Europe’ Konstantin Malofeev, despite the organisation claiming it is only funded by small donations from the public. While not very active in Australia in the past, CitizenGO has previously featured Australia-focused petitions like ‘Mandate Religion Question in 2026 Census’ …”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Sudan’s warring sides ‘agree seven-day ceasefire’ (Al Jazeera)
COVID whistleblower returns home to Wuhan after jail (BBC)
Hollywood writers strike over pay in streaming TV ‘gig economy’ (Reuters)
Chatbot ‘journalists’ found running almost 50 AI-generated content farms (The Guardian)
Russia lost 20,000 troops in five months, claims US (The Guardian)
Labour outside Cabinet minister Meka Whaitiri jumps to Māori Party in shock move (NZ Herald)
China is preventing tens of thousands of people from leaving the country, new report shows (SBS)
THE COMMENTARIAT
It’s crucial for press freedom that whistleblowers are protected, not punished — Kieran Pender, Peter Greste and Bill Browne (The Age) ($): “Since taking office almost a year ago, the Albanese government has taken positive steps to reverse the tide. The Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus KC has dropped the prosecution of whistleblower Bernard Collaery, committed to overhauling whistleblowing and secrecy laws and, in February, convened a press freedom summit. These moves should be commended. But there is one area of glaring inaction. Two whistleblowers remain on trial: Richard Boyle, who blew the whistle to the ABC and this masthead about wrongdoing at the tax office; and David McBride, who went to the ABC to expose alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.
“Protection for journalists’ sources is a vital component of press freedom. Together, the media and their sources bring transparency and accountability. Without whistleblowing, public interest journalism is often not possible; and wrongdoing remains hidden. Which is why it is absolutely crucial for press freedom in Australia that whistleblowers are protected, not punished … The attorney-general has the legal authority to end these prosecutions, just as he discontinued the case against Collaery, the lawyer for ex-spy Witness K, who was accused along with his client of exposing Australia’s unconscionable conduct towards Timor-Leste. These cases are equally exceptional.
Labor is fiddling with its promise to leave franking credits alone — Andrew Bragg (The Australian) ($): “Secondly, Labor has blocked the release of up-to-date budget costings to justify this change. Labor has claimed that these changes boost the budget by $10 million per year. To date, no modelling or detailed costings have been released that supports Labor’s claim. When I asked the Parliamentary Budget Office to cost Labor’s policy, it sought details from Treasury on the methodology used to cost the measure. The Treasury refused to disclose its modelling or methodology. During the Senate Economics Committee’s hearings into these changes, we heard that the purported $10 million saving is a guess. The hearings heard evidence that these measures could lead to a $1 billion to $2 billion loss in tax revenue per annum.
“… Moreover, Labor is making these changes despite a 2015 ATO tax alert drawing attention to this very issue. It is unclear what problem this bill is seeking to address. In a 2021 report, the ATO found that these funding arrangements no longer pose a significant risk in terms of disclosure. The tinkering will impact Australian companies, but will have a bigger impact on all Australians. It will have an immediate and disproportionate impact on retirees. Ultimately, Australia will suffer from lower levels of investment into private companies and a less dynamic economy and society. Labor wants to kill the system of dividend imputation in Australia but it wants to do it in the dark. So much for transparency and integrity.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Whadjuk Noongar Country (also known as Perth)
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The Reserve Bank of Australia’s Marion Kohler will speak about the country’s economic outlook in a talk at The Westin.
Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)
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The Grattan Institute’s Danielle Wood, RBA Capital Markets’ Su-Lin Ong, and EY Oceania’s Cherelle Murphy will chat about next week’s budget on a panel at the National Press Club.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Author Nicole Madigan will speak about her new book, Obsession, at Better Read Than Dead bookshop.
