ROLLING IN DOUGH
Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt paid former prime ministers Tony Abbott and Paul Keating for consulting, according to leaked documents — $8,000 a month for the former, $25,000 for the latter. He also paid King Charles — then-prince Charles — $182,000 in 2021, according to the documents that Nine newspapers saw, and boasted on a tape that he was “useful” to Charles because of Pratt’s “superpower”: wealth. In the tapes, he also alleges former US president Donald Trump told him about an US airstrike on Iranian-linked militants in Iraq, claiming Trump said: “I just bombed Iraq today and the president of Iraq called me up and said, ‘You just levelled my city.’ ” The former toddler-in-chief’s alleged reaction? “Okay, what are you going to do about it?” Pratt also says he paid “ ’bout a million bucks” to Rudy Giuliani, saying Trump’s lawyer was someone “I hope will be useful one day”. The papers note Pratt “hung up” when they called him about the scandalous tapes and documents.
Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Lebanon of counter-strikes of unimaginable magnitude if militant Muslim group Hezbollah joins the Hamas-Israel conflict, the ABC reports. This comes as the Israeli military said it had hit several Hezbollah targets on Saturday night. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has echoed Netanyahu’s words to Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati, informing him the Lebanese would suffer. Meanwhile Palestinian phones received an audio message telling them to move south of Wadi Gaza. If they don’t, the message said, they could “be identified as an accomplice in a terrorist organisation”. The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces killed six Palestinians in the West Bank yesterday, bringing the number of deaths there to 91 since October 7.
ADVANCE NOTICE
So what next for Advance Australia after it helped tank the Voice to Parliament? It’s going after Labor’s misinformation laws, dubbing “state-held ‘truth’ ” as “totalitarian and despotic”. The lobby group emailed supporters at the weekend about the bill, The Australian ($) reports. Among the rather chilling lines was director Matthew Sheahan saying that when politicians called something misinformation or disinformation, “they are really saying: ‘You are too stupid to make up your own mind.’ ”
Speaking of misleading statements — Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles misled people about controversial bail changes, the auditor-general found. The NT News ($) says her post saying that the laws would create “a new presumption against bail for people charged with a violent offence involving a weapon” was wrong because the changes didn’t apply to makeshift weapons such as broken bottles, so her use of “weapon” was too broad. Fyles then deleted the graphic. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s Facebook post that wrongly claimed Marcia Langton called No voters “racist” and “stupid”, however, remains live to this day.
Meanwhile, The Australian’s ($) Jenna Clarke and Sophie Elsworth want you to know opposition spokeswoman on legal matters Michaelia Cash did not straight up forget about former Liberal Ken Wyatt when she said Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was the first person with First Nations “lived experience” informing her party. It was “no mistake”, the reporters claim — Cash purposely scrubbed him from the conversation because he quit the party over its No stance on the Voice to Parliament. Cash takes “zero prisoners”, some random unnamed source told the Oz. Sure, Jan.
TRADING INSULTS
Our EU trade deal could be a “bad deal for every sector in Australian agriculture”, putting our farmers at a disadvantage to Canada and New Zealand or South America. That’s according to National Farmers’ Federation president Fiona Simson who told the ABC the “dud” deal could even send our commodities backwards. They are parting words as Simson steps down. One of the key worries is naming rights on things such as feta and prosecco, which the Europeans are much more strict about. Trade Minister Don Farrell is talking to negotiators at Osaka’s G7 this month. From farms to parks, and NSW Premier Chris Minns is cutting Sydney’s Moore Park Golf Course in half to create Sydney’s very own Central Park, news.com.au reports. Call me jaded but one would think messing with the playground of the harbour city’s rich and influential wouldn’t be a masterstroke. Up to 20 hectares will be repurposed, but the nine holes and club will remain unscathed.
Meanwhile residents at Wheatvale in south-east Queensland were told to brace for possible evacuation yesterday because of a cluster of bushfires, Brisbane Times ($) reports. Some six firefighting aircraft and 20 ground firefighting crews are battling blazes — if you live in the region, check out Queensland Fire and Emergency Services’ bushfire warnings page. It comes as the government is working on a universal emergency roaming system that’ll keep Australians connected during increasingly deadly natural disasters — no matter what their carrier is, The New Daily says. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said we need more mobile towers, but that’s only going to make a difference if the legislation is tweaked to make building them faster and cheaper.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
One day in class, Kuwaiti twin brothers Ameen and Ayman Almutawa, 7, looked at the increasingly blurry blackboard and then at each other with pint-sized confusion. Was the the classroom moving away from them? Shortly afterwards, an eye doctor told the boys the prognosis: Stargardt disease, which means you won’t be able to see very well in life. There is no cure. Fast-forward two decades and the 27-year-old brothers haven’t let impaired vision stop them from seeing the world. With dreams of becoming civil engineers, they moved here to study at the University of Queensland and immediately felt at ease. Back in Kuwait, Ameen says, their family always urged them to keep their vision issue quiet. “They were always hiding us.” But in Oz, “We chose ourselves.” And two identical cats, which they named Remi and Tigress.
When the bill for the final year of study came through — a cool $100,000 — they pressed pause on engineering and started applying for jobs. It was harder than they thought, but for every rejection, Ayman and Ameen would say to each other: that’s not the place for us. “We don’t want to be in a place that sees our vision as a liability because we work hard, we earn our way,” Ameen tells SBS. But then their landlord contacted them to say their place was going up for sale. They had no choice but to take Remi and Tigress to an animal shelter for temporary housing. Staff were so moved by their positive attitude despite their challenges that they jumped on Facebook. Can anyone help these “hard-working, strapping young men” with a home or a job, the post asked Townsville. The community rallied: a recruitment agency found work for Ayman and Ameen, and they’ve got a lead on a unit. Next week, when they get their beloved cats back, they’ll finally “have the whole family together”.
Hoping a smile gets you through a tough situation today too.
SAY WHAT?
[The Voice was] doomed from the time the National Party and then the Liberal Party said they would oppose it and bipartisanship was lost. Mr Littleproud, Mr Dutton and the political parties they lead are responsible for this result.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, community leaders and organisations
An open letter also called Indigenous No campaigners Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Nyunggai Warren Mundine “front people” for the No lobby groups, adding: “Only the shameless could say there is no shame in this outcome.”
CRIKEY RECAP
“We’re a long way from the glorious fraternity of Whitlam Labor and the Ba’ath Party of Iraq after all. The party is run by a right-wing core that hates its own pallid left and the Greens far more than it hates anyone in the Coalition.
“It’s a cross-party grouping headed by Richard Marles at the moment, whose job is to enforce the US alliance and the national security state within Labor. It has links into the permanent defence establishment and the arms industry — via ASPI — to the Coalition, via the ridiculous ‘Wolverines’ group, the late Kimberley Kitching’s homeland, and to pro-Zionist advocates.”
“Rida Imad Almadhoon, a gentle nurse with an infectious laugh who worked at Al-Ahli Arab, messaged before the hospital destruction: ‘I am confined to the hospital where I currently work and I cannot go out to see my family or even return home if it has stayed. Whoever leaves his place carries his soul on his palm.’
“Suad Jameel Saleh Redwan, a skilled physiotherapist in rehabilitation and palliative care, messaged: ‘It’s very painful when our children hear strong bombs and we wonder whom we will lose. A mother’s eyes contain her children, and yet can lose them in the same second.’ Messages of fear and panic are giving way to exhaustion and a grave resignation. Gazans are writing their own eulogies.”
“Regardless of how one feels about the Voice to Parliament referendum result, there’s some highly informative data emerging from it. If we’re serious about closing the gap, we must learn from this information and address the prevailing attitudes and beliefs that made this result inevitable.
“On the quantitative side, it is abundantly clear that Indigenous people living in remote communities of the Northern Territory, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland voted overwhelmingly for the Voice. My analysis of Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) data suggests that 35 of 39 mobile voting booths in these communities chose Yes, at an average margin of 70%. Heat maps of voting geographic patterns support this.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
More than 100 incubator babies at risk due to Israel’s fuel cuts to Gaza: UN (Al Jazeera)
Iran says girl who collapsed on Tehran metro is ‘brain dead’ (BBC)
After Sidney Powell pleads guilty in Georgia case, Trump claims she was ‘never’ his attorney (CNN)
‘Bad and dangerous’: Argentina’s Trump on track to become president (The Guardian)
Video analysis shows Gaza hospital hit by failed rocket meant for Israel (The Wall Street Journal) ($)
Venezuelans vote in opposition primary clouded by uncertainty (Reuters)
Iran sentences 2 journalists — who covered Mahsa Amini’s death — for collaborating with the US (euronews)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Labor distracted by ideology, deserting aspirational Aussies — Angus Taylor (The Australian ($): “Despite the grim prognosis, these challenges can be overcome with the right agenda. First, avoid waste and unnecessary spending to take pressure off the Reserve Bank, interest rates and inflation. History tells us bouts of high interest rates and inflation are rarely solved by central banks alone. High commodity prices papering over the cracks of a big-spending government won’t cut it — Labor has spent an extra $188 billion, or more than $7,000 for every Australian, since coming to government.
“Nor is raising taxes the way forward. Higher taxes on incomes, franking credits and superannuation will only curb the growth necessary for sustainable medium-term budgets. Second, free up workplaces rather than stifling them with new regulation. You couldn’t pick a worse time to make industrial relations interventions that undermine the ability for worker and employer to come up with solutions that are good for both. Allowing workers and employers to come up with smart ways to increase incomes for both businesses and employees is a time-honoured means of driving productivity and growth. Third, encourage competition and productivity in markets for goods and services rather than falling for the siren call of crony capitalism.”
I’m a Palestinian citizen of Israel. Right now, that’s as complex as you could possibly imagine — Maria Rashed (The Guardian): “As an Arab citizen of Israel, I am deeply concerned about the national security ministry’s relaxation of gun laws for ordinary Israelis after the Hamas attacks, and the threats posed by extremist Jewish groups. Since October 7, 64 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, including a man and his son who were shot dead while attending a funeral. I vividly recall the horrifying scenes in May 2021, when the streets were like a civil war. No innocent civilian should die for their beliefs or opinions. Supporting Palestine does not equate to anti-Semitism — advocating for ending Israeli aggression against Palestine doesn’t imply forgetting the historical experiences and pain of the Jewish people.
“Today, Zionism’s goals come at the cost of Arab lives, leaving us feeling insecure, afraid to voice our opinions and hesitant to empathise with our suffering people. Reflecting on recent events, Israeli citizens have protested against their own government’s shift towards dictatorship. Being an Arab in Israel involves understanding the language and history of the ‘other side’. This phrasing highlights the oppressor-oppressed dynamic, with one side having one of the most powerful armies in the world and the other being a minority. Therefore, when discussing recent events, we cannot ignore the years of occupation and invasion, and how Israel has treated Arabs. This is not to justify Hamas’ actions but to provide context for Palestinians’ pain and suffering without protection.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Grata Fund founder Isabelle Reinecke will talk to Guardian Australia’s Lenore Taylor about the former’s new book, Courting Power, at Better Read Than Dead bookshop.
Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)
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The University of Queensland’s Peter Varghese, ABC’s Radio National’s Tom Switzer, and University of Chicago’s John Mearsheimer will discuss what Ukraine and Israel might mean for US-China relations at The Westin Brisbane
