YES MINISTER, NO MINISTER
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has demoted former PM Scott Morrison’s allies Stuart Robert and Alex Hawke in a ministerial shakeup. Robert, former employment minister, is assistant Treasury spokesman, ABC reports, while Hawke, a former immigration minister, has no opposition ministry role at all. Hawke made headlines for the wrong reasons after he dashed Novak “no-vax” Djokovic’s hopes of winning a 10th Australian Open, BBC reports, after the tennis star was booted twice from the country. But more recently Hawke also attracted the ire of the NSW Liberals, who accused him of holding up preselections by not making himself available to vet candidates, as Guardian Australia reports. As a result, some Liberals were only chosen for seats weeks out from the election.
There are 10 women in Dutton’s shadow cabinet of 24 — among them, Morrison’s pick Anne Ruston has taken health and aged care, while former journo Sarah Henderson has taken communications. There are also six Nationals in the shadow cabinet, up from five in the Morrison ministry, while three female Nationals were promoted, Guardian Australia reports. Two particularly interesting appointments — Queenslander Ted O’Brien was promoted to opposition spokesperson for climate change and energy (he’s never served in ministry and is a big supporter of nuclear energy, as The Conversation writes) and NSW’s Julian Leeser as opposition attorney-general and spokesperson for Indigenous affairs (he’s a supporter of an Indigenous Voice with a basis in the constitution, which could help further the cause). Marise Payne didn’t want a place in the shadow cabinet, according to Dutton, but agreed to be secretary.
A SHOT IN THE ARM
In the biggest health boost ever, NSW will hire 10,148 nurses, doctors, and other staff for the state’s hospitals over the next four years, SMH reports. More than two-thirds (7674) will sign on in the first year, the government adds. It’ll be a welcome announcement for the besieged sector, between understaffing and the pandemic’s surging demand — but how will it be divided up? On a needs basis, considering staffing and patient demand across the state, the government says. Meanwhile, the ambulance service got a boost the commissioner said was three decades in the making, the paper reports: 1850 more paramedics, 210 support staff, 52 nurses, and eight doctors. It means NSW will have the most paramedics in the country, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet says.
Meanwhile, just 2.69 million people of the 23 million registered for the government’s My Health Record database actually used it in 2020-21, a new report shows. More than $2 billion was spent on the system since its launch in 2012, but Guardian Australia reports less than 2% of people in emergency departments have their records accessed by a nurse or doctor. Why? Clinicians say it’s hard to upload to or access — things like consultations, emergency department visits, hospital discharges, pathology, and diagnostic testing are missing from many records. Speaking of sluggish government systems — around 15,000 Queenslanders are still waiting to hear whether their hefty hotel quarantine bills will be waived, leaving many in the lurch. Indeed one woman said she waited five long months just to see her bill after leaving quarantine, The Courier-Mail ($) reports. “I often thought this added to my stress-related fainting after exiting quarantine,” she told the paper.
CALL FOR REFERENDUM
WA Senator Patrick Dodson says a referendum on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament should be Australia’s top priority, The West ($) reports. He’s the new Special Envoy for Reconciliation and the Implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and he said he’s confident Australians would vote to recognise Indigenous peoples in our constitution. Dodson, the “father of reconciliation” said he was pleased Liberal leader Peter Dutton acknowledged his mistake in not attending the Apology to the Stolen Generation in 2008. So what is the Voice to Parliament? It would be an advisory body of Indigenous peoples that could give their views to MPs on policy and legislation that affects them. It’s less than other nations — like Canada — have, but progress all the same. Dodson also said that, while he recognises the anger and frustration, changing the date of Australia Day is not a “key priority”.
Meanwhile in the NT, the number of children entering detention has grown by 200% in two years — there were 100 kids locked up in May, meaning the detention rate is three times higher than anywhere else in Australia, The NT News reports. Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency principal lawyer David Woodroffe says more strict changes to bail laws were seeing more Indigenous kids on bail who would’ve been diverted away from the justice system. And yet the NT government maintains it will be tough on young offenders — indeed last year the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre got a $2.5 million grant, as SBS reports.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Guardian Australia has rather brashly declared, “You either love reality television, or you secretly love it”. The veracity of that statement is debatable, but there’s no doubt the “real world” (and I use the term very loosely) gets views. Guardian Australia looked back at the 10 most memorable reality TV moments, and it’s quite a list. There’s the time “game on molls” was etched into the national vernacular in 2006 apropos of Big Brother contestant Anna Lind-Hansen, or when The Bachelor’s producers decided to put two contestants in what they imagined would be a “romantic” chocolate bath (but ended up being “less picturesque fairytale, more … soaking in a giant vat resembling faecal matter”). What about when One Nation’s Pauline Hanson had a stint on Dancing With the Stars in 2004 — incredibly, she had just served 11 weeks of a three-year jail sentence for electoral fraud, and the show’s judges had the audience applaud for her acquittal.
There was also the time Merlin Luck taped his mouth shut upon his exit from the Big Brother House and held a sign up that read “FREE TH REFUGEES” (an “E” had fallen off). Although it received some booing at the time, it was undeniably a great way to get the nation’s attention on the issue, and he continued to advocate in the years afterwards. Perhaps one of the most cringeworthy moments of reality TV was when Sarah Murdoch announced the winner of Australia’s Next Top Model in 2010. Celebratory fanfare followed until Murdoch, clutching her head, told the audience there’d been a mistake. She’d announced the runner up Kelsey Martinovich’s name by accident. Martinovich actually took it like a champ — immediately consoling Murdoch over the error and hugging the shellshocked winner. Fortunately, both girls went on to have great careers.
Wishing you the dignity and grace of Martinovich for your Monday morning.
SAY WHAT?
I think he must be bored, because we’ve learnt to live with the coronavirus so he’s not as relevant as he used to be. We’re trying to get on with our lives after losing two years of our lives. So Dr Swan has come in off the long run up and he’s bowled another frightening fear campaign about COVID.
Ben Fordham
2GB’s controversial breakfast host slammed ABC’s Norman Swan after he correctly pointed out it was the worst year of the pandemic yet — Fordham called Swan the public broadcaster’s “resident COVID bogeyman” who wanted to “take us back to the bad old days”. Some 6000 Australians have died from COVID this year.
CRIKEY RECAP
Readers pick Crikey’s political book of the year: Belittle Women, a misogynistic novel featuring low men in high places
Last week we asked Crikey readers to suggest some book titles to help out publishers so they can slap a heading on these tomes and get them on the shelves. And Crikey readers delivered, with a whole host of great selections coming through. So how did we choose the winner? It was a purely democratic process, in keeping with the government of the past nine years.
“We promised some key voters a car park or two. Made some captains’ picks. Started a rumour that one of the potential winners was a “Moslem”. Got an influx of donations from some fossil fuel giants that didn’t impact our decision at all. Even Christian Porter REDACTED and REDACTED a REDACTED — a move that Stuart Robert just loved. Then, deciding this whole ‘transparency’ thing was all a bit of a kangaroo court, we just asked Jen and the girls what they thought.”
A bluffer’s guide to living in the age of Albo
“[The Department of Social Services] did make some efforts to undertake some form of evaluation. There was data collected for internal monitoring, but its value was limited because there were no targets or performance indicators developed. When DSS did develop performance indicators, one of them wasn’t properly measurable. A second attempt to evaluate the trial, by the University of Adelaide — whose researchers warned DSS of methodology problems — was 18 months late, didn’t fix problems identified in the first evaluation, and was never used in any policy development or advice.
“When the trial was expanded in 2018, the legislation implementing it specifically required that evaluations of the trial be themselves subject to independent review, which would be tabled in Parliament — thereby giving the impression there would be some rigour to the evaluation process. Even though its contract with Adelaide Uni indicated there’d be an independent review, and even after the DSS executive approved a review in February last year, DSS simply decided to ignore the legislation …”
Dear minister for health, here’s an agenda for change from someone in the system
“We simply must invest more in promoting health and tackling ‘upstream’ risk factors. We have a pedigree. Australia led the world in reducing tobacco use — a globally recognised great public health success despite a determined campaign from vested interests. We need strong leadership like that to meet emerging health challenges.
“I’m sure you know that the most powerful determinants of health (and disease) are social and economic. Inequality is especially harmful. It reduces everyone’s health, not just those at the bottom. The government — your government — has the levers controlling many of the factors affecting our health: education, tax, housing, social services and welfare. I therefore hope you will promote health in all policies across the relevant portfolios and through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG).”
THE COMMENTARIAT
Reinventing Tanya: The one discordant note in Albanese’s reshuffle — Deborah Snow (The SMH): “Keen eyes noticed she’d also been stripped of the women’s portfolio, another of her responsibilities in opposition, which has been handed to finance minister and close Albanese ally Katy Gallagher. Jason Clare, one of the party’s stars during the election campaign, has emerged with the prize of education. Was this a demotion for Plibersek? A number of those inside Labor — as well as the federal press gallery — are seeing it that way.
“Consider a few facts for context. After Albanese, Plibersek is the second longest-serving federal parliamentarian in the 30-strong cabinet and outer ministry. (He first got elected in 1996, she in 1998). She served as deputy leader through six long years of opposition — one of the toughest jobs in politics. She’s been a trailblazer for women in the party and is consistently one of its best performing and most recognised frontbenchers. It might have been a more generous look, given this history, to have let her remain in the portfolio she was expecting to occupy.”
Your kids are not doomed — Ezra Klein (The New York Times): “Over the past few years, I’ve been asked one question more than any other. It comes up at speeches, at dinners, in conversation. It’s the most popular query when I open my podcast to suggestions, time and again. It comes in two forms. The first: Should I have kids, given the climate crisis they will face? The second: Should I have kids, knowing they will contribute to the climate crisis the world faces?
“And it’s not just me. A 2020 Morning Consult poll found that a quarter of adults without children say climate change is part of the reason they didn’t have children. A Morgan Stanley analysis found that the decision ‘to not have children owing to fears over climate change is growing and impacting fertility rates quicker than any preceding trend in the field of fertility decline.’ But one thing I’ve noticed, after years of reporting on climate change: The people who have devoted their lives to combating climate change keep having children. I hear them playing in the background of our calls. I see them when we Zoom. And so I began asking them why.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
In Africa, a Putin-backed group that’s far more than a war machine (The New York Times)
Monkeypox: Cases outside Africa rise to 780 in three weeks (BBC)
Queen Elizabeth II makes surprise appearance on palace balcony to cap off jubilee (CNN)
How mountaineers used early GPS on Canada’s tallest peak (CBC)
Rafael Nadal, looking unbeatable, wins 14th French Open title (The New York Times)
Dozens killed in fire at Bangladesh container depot (Al Jazeera)
Gun reform legislation makes progress in Senate (The Wall Street Journal) ($)
Nigeria Owo church attack: Gunmen kill Catholic worshippers in Ondo (BBC)
Putin warns of hitting ‘new targets’ if Kyiv gets new missiles (Al Jazeera)
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)
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ACT Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment Sophie Lewis, Emergency Management Australia’s Joe Buffone, and Australian Climate Service’s Vicki Woodburn are among the speakers at the Fire & Climate 2022 Conference.
Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)
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The Centre for Sustainable Communities’ Katharine McKinnon will speak about what it means to live a good life at the Ann Harding Conference Centre.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Elected representatives will speak at the Parliament Unpacked panel, held at the Parliament of NSW.
Yuggera Country (also known as Brisbane)
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Poet Sarah Holland Batt will chat about her new collection of poems, The Jaguar, at Avid Reader bookshop. You can also catch this one online.
