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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Charlotte Graham-McLay

Morning Mail: Wilkinson comments exploited to oppose voice, gas project backers revealed, Ashes on a knife edge

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price speaks to the media
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has called Lisa Wilkinson a ‘woke celebrity and voice activist’. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Good morning, everyone. The Coalition senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price emailed her supporters asking if they’d heard about the attack on her from Lisa Wilkinson, who she called a “woke celebrity and voice activist” – in an effort to raise an “urgent” $130,000 fund for the campaign against an Indigenous voice to parliament. And documents obtained by Guardian Australia show how lobbyists secured political support for a controversial fossil fuel project.

Plus: 20 minutes of brilliance from Australia’s bowlers have left the first Ashes Test on a knife edge, and a new analysis reveals how much households can save in each state by switching off the gas supply.

Australia

A storm builds over the Ichthy’s onshore gas processing facility on Middle Arm in Darwin Harbour
A storm builds over the Ichthy’s onshore gas processing facility on Middle Arm in Darwin Harbour. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
  • Middle Arm | Documents obtained by Guardian Australia reveal the key players behind a vast Australian fossil fuel expansion in Northern Territory.

  • Indigenous voice | The no campaign is fundraising off the back of comments made by The Project host Lisa Wilkinson about the shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, in a leaked recording of conversations with Brittany Higgins.

  • Energy switch | Getting households off gas for heating and cooking would cut energy bills and is vital for Australia to hit net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050, a new analysis finds.

  • Housing crisis | The Greens senator Nick McKim will introduce a private member’s bill which seeks to allow the commonwealth to work with states and territories in a similar way to the energy market intervention and freeze rent increases for two years, cap increases thereafter and ban no-grounds evictions.

  • Youth justice | More than 60% of the workforce at the troubled Cleveland youth detention centre in north Queensland quit during the past three years. That was the same time the state enacted laws designed to lock up more children.

World

Tory party members at a Christmas party, drinking and dancing at the height of the Covid lockdown
Tory party members at a Christmas party, drinking and dancing at the height of the Covid lockdown. Photograph: The Mirror

Full Story

Patrick O’Callaghan on the road to Lightning Ridge during a trip to visit his clients
Patrick O’Callaghan on the road to Lightning Ridge during a trip to visit his clients. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

The Australian towns losing free legal assistance

In a cost-of-living crisis, demand for free legal help is soaring – but community legal centres are being forced to cut staff and turn people away, as government funding fails to keep up. Nino Bucci speaks to Jane Lee about the crisis in the legal assistance sector.

In-depth

A woman working late on a computer at her home
‘We’d only talk to people through a screen.’ Photograph: SimonSkafar/Getty Images/iStockphoto

The decline of the daily commute has been good for most but entering the workforce without ever working in an office can be challenging for young workers – one US survey found 82% of generation Z had never worked full-time in an in-person office environment.

“I feel there’s a secret sauce that everyone knows about … that I just don’t get,” says Farhana Ismail of Melbourne, who landed her first professional job in March 2021, after her industry had moved mostly online. “I feel like I’ve missed out by starting my career this way.”

Not the news

A selection of tasting menu dishes
A selection of tasting menu dishes. Photograph: PR

Few things divide opinion in the restaurant world like the tasting menu – a mode of dining that got a bad name when it became too serious and expensive, writes Tony Naylor. Now such menus are shorter, cheaper, more inviting – and they’re making a comeback, Naylor says: buffeted by soaring energy, food and staff costs, chef-owners have begun to re-examine the financial stability that tasting menus offer.

The world of sport

England’s Moeen Ali bowls to Australia’s Alex Carey during day three of the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston
England’s Moeen Ali bowls to Australia’s Alex Carey during day three of the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston. Photograph: Rui Vieira/AP

Media roundup

The Australian reports that SAS troops will face unprecedented battle-camera scrutiny to expose misconduct and rebut false claims against them. The Sydney Morning Herald explains how the city’s most toxic river is returning to life after decades of abuse. NT News has pictures from the Darwin Supercars, which attracted “revheads from all corners of the country”.

What’s happening today

  • State visit | Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei will meet Anthony Albanese.

  • Timor-Leste | There will be a public hearing on the defence cooperation agreement between Australia and the Timor-Leste.

  • White Island | A judgment is expected for the family of a man who died amid the Whakaari White Island volcano eruption in New Zealand, and others, against their cruise ship company.

Sign up

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Brain teaser

And finally, here are the Guardian’s crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.

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