MP CHARGED OVER ALLEGED SEXUAL ABUSE
NSW MP Gareth Ward has been charged with the alleged sexual abuse of a 17-year-old boy and a 27-year-old man in separate incidents dating from 2013 and 2015 respectively, the ABC reports. Ward has released a statement saying he is innocent of the charges. The charges include three counts of assault with act of indecency, and one count each of sexual intercourse without consent and common assault. The former Liberal frontbencher moved to the crossbench in May 2021, after confirming he was being investigated by the police. Ward had been serving as minister for families, communities and disability services.
Premier Dominic Perrottet called for Ward to resign from Parliament, and indicated that if Ward does not resign voluntarily, he may move a motion seeking his expulsion, Guardian Australia reports. The resignation or expulsion of Ward would trigger yet another byelection, which could spell danger for the minority government which currently relies on crossbench support, including Ward’s vote, as The Sydney Morning Herald reports. If the potential byelection is anything like the last one in Bega, there could be further trouble brewing for Perrottet.
It wasn’t the only political arrest that took place yesterday. As The Sydney Morning Herald reports, former federal Labor MP Craig Thomson was arrested on Tuesday afternoon for allegedly breaching an apprehended violence order. According to The Australian, the apprehended violence order in question had been made earlier the same day, during a morning court appearance where Thomson pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to harass, menace and offend, in relation to emails he sent to his estranged wife.
TRIAL AND TRIBULATIONS
The dramatic events of Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial against The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times continued yesterday, with his former lover taking to the stand, The New Daily reports. The woman told the court how the Victoria Cross recipient allegedly punched her in the face, had her followed, made threats and took naked pictures of her while she slept. Roberts-Smith was in an extra-marital relationship with the woman in 2017 and 2018.
As the ABC reports, the assault allegations were previously published by the aforementioned papers, with these claims alongside the suggestion he committed war crimes and murder in Afghanistan forming the basis of the suit. The shocking testimony detailed their tumultuous relationship, including claims of direct threats, with the witness saying Roberts-Smith told her “if you do anything stupid, or turn on me, I’ll burn your house down and it might not be you that gets hurt, but people that you love and care about”, The Age reports.
A STAR IS WARNED
After explosive allegations of propping up money laundering, Star casino is facing an inquiry this week by the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority, the ABC reports. Yesterday the inquiry heard evidence from a 2018 KPMG report that explicitly warned Star’s risk assessment for identifying potential terrorism financing and money laundering was deficient. The report’s author described the issues with the mechanisms as “very serious”, finding Star did not have a legally required plan to prevent terrorism financing, the Herald Sun reports. But apparently when Star chief executive Matt Bekier was told of the findings, the independent experts from KPMG endured a “berating” from him.
Bekier was described as “hostile” and “in a sulk” over the report, which he thought was “wrong”. Also reported in the Australian Financial Review, the inquiry further heard that Star incorrectly claimed the report was subject to legal privilege in an attempt to hide the report from financial crime authority AUSTRAC. As The Canberra Times reports, today the inquiry will turn its attention to the junket operators who bring high rollers into the casino, and are potentially complicit in skirting anti-money-laundering laws.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Amidst the barrage of devastating stories of loss and destruction stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, today there is a rare good news story. As the ABC reports, 7-year-old Amelia Anisovych went viral earlier this month when she sang “Let It Go” in a Ukrainian bomb shelter. The emotional video showed the youngster singing her heart out as others taking shelter underground no doubt enjoyed the distraction from the conflict taking place outside. Her rendition of the Frozen hit song earned praise from the movie’s stars including Idina Menzel and Josh Gadd.
After six nights in the shelter and eventually making it out of Ukraine, Anisovych has taken to the stage at the Together with Ukraine charity concert in Poland. She opened the show with a moving performance of the Ukrainian national anthem, which, roughly translated, includes lines like “Our enemies will vanish like dew in the sun” and “We’ll lay down our souls and bodies to attain our freedom”. The crowd of 10,000 were completely silent for the duration.
May you find some light in the darkness today, too.
SAY WHAT?
Good girl
Ben Roberts-Smith (allegedly)
The Victoria Cross recipient’s former lover, only identified as person 17, told the court that this was Roberts-Smith’s response when she agreed that she couldn’t remember the events of the previous night, including an alleged assault. Roberts-Smith is pursuing a defamation case against The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times over allegedly defamatory statements they published accusing him of war crimes and assault.
CRIKEY RECAP
At the funeral of Kimberley Kitching — a senator, a daughter, a wife and perhaps much more
“Make no mistake about it, this was a historical moment, one brought on by freak tragedy, that flung together a whole lot of separate elements in our culture: the widening split between elite and mass, the dying factions of Labor, the rotting away of our mainstream media and the spectralisation of the public sphere.
“Yes, this was a woman who could have gone very far, even if her current renown has been utterly exaggerated. Yes, she could have made it to cabinet, could have been a PM contender.”
The other Kitching truth the press gallery won’t talk about: she was a product of our hollowed-out democracy
“Where Kitching stands out, however, is an example of how hollowed-out our major parties are. For much of the past 50 years, the narrative around political party membership has been one of constant decline from the mid-century period of genuine mass membership. But in the past two decades, the inexorable decline of membership has morphed into the rise of factional players and powerbrokers.
“Such figures have always existed, of course — but being a factional heavyweight in a party with large memberships and powerful unions is very different from being one in a party of double-digit branch memberships and unions that can’t muster 10% of the workforce.”
Rudd guy tipped for key seat as Labor again looks to do a ‘Keneally’. No wonder the locals are unhappy
“Charlton looks like an excellent prospective candidate on paper — he was an economics advisor to Rudd, before founding his own consultancy company AlphaBeta, and remains an occasional media columnist — local Labor people worried he wouldn’t be relatable to voters in a diverse, working-class electorate.
“Critics of Labor’s decision warned it had parallels to the situation in Fowler, another highly multicultural Western Sydney electorate, where Labor installed Senator Kristina Keneally in order to move her to the lower house and solve an annoying factional headache.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
China Eastern Airlines crash: families await grim news as rescuers sift through wreckage (The Guardian)
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny found guilty of fraud, state media reports (CNN)
Mystery solved: New Zealand backpacker who died 48 years ago identified by family (NZ Herald)
NSW bushfires inquiry hears haunting last words of Johns River victim Julie Fletcher (ABC)
How Ukraine’s outgunned air force is beating back Russian jets (New York Times)
Koch Industries, built on oil, bets big on US batteries (The Wall Street Journal) ($)
Has Russia’s offensive really ‘stalled on all fronts’ in Ukraine? (Al Jazeera)
Motorists face road-user charges in the future as electric vehicles drive down fuel excise revenue (The Australian) ($)
Why Mariupol is so important to Russia’s plan (BBC)
Red tape slashed in PAYG budget overhaul (The Australian Financial Review)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Why India is not joining the new cold war — Kadira Pethiyagoda (The Australian Financial Review): “Much Western media commentary has focused on India’s burgeoning ties with the US and its allies, including Australia, in ideological terms, for example ‘an alliance of democracies’. The schism over Ukraine, however, has revealed that India, its government, media and public do not view the global moral landscape in the same way as their Western counterparts. And, importantly, that hard strategic and economic interests also underpin any Indian co-operation with the West against China.”
Government can’t buy its way out of trouble with the budget — Paul Kelly (The Australian) ($): “The truth is Australia’s short-term recovery conceals long-run dilemmas. Our fiscal problem is that the economy is strong but the budget, beyond the short term, is vulnerable. As a country Australia is changing. The pandemic’s legacy is a public opinion demanding more from government, expecting more and willing to punish governments that cannot meet its demands. Forget austerity — neither Liberal nor Labor has the slightest interest in that agenda.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Ngunnawal/ Ngambri (also known as Canberra
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The Air and Space Power Conference continues at the National Convention Centre, where experts and leaders from military, academic, and aerospace industry will tackle the challenges presented by space as a military domain.
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Craig Foster, former Socceroo and human rights activist, will address the national press club in a speech titled “Human Rights, Democracy and Global Citizenry — Recovering Australia’s Humanity & Place in the World: 2021 ANU Australia and the World Lecture”.
Online
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Former Australian Defence Force chief Chris Barrie AC will speak at a webinar hosted by the Australia Institute on responses to climate-change-related natural disasters.
