RETURN TO SPENDER?
A fourth COVID-19 vaccine is reportedly set to be approved by the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, according to The Australian ($), as Prime Minister Scott Morrison pledges $2 billion over the next decade so Moderna can produce up to 100 million mRNA jabs a year in Victoria, news.com.au adds. It’s the latest revelation about the mysterious $16 billion war chest, as AFR reports. Considering our population is just 25.7 million, that seems a heck of a lot of jabs — but Health Minister Greg Hunt says it’ll centre us as a “globally leading precision medicine sector”, quite the turnaround considering our sluggish vaccine “strollout” left the government red-faced when it hit global headlines, as BBC reports. It comes as cases are surging again. Queensland’s cases jumped 61% in the past week, while Victoria reported 10,000 more cases in 24 hours, the Oz ($) adds.
As we head towards the end of March, less than eight weeks out from the election, it’s an eyewatering spendathon as predicted — Defence Minister Peter Dutton will detail today $875 million for 234 defence projects across the country, while Morrison has also announced $5.4 billion to build a dam in far north Queensland that’s been talked about for a quarter of a century, the AFR reports — though didn’t consult his own advisory board, Guardian Australia says this morning. His deputy Barnaby Joyce is about to announce $400 million for a freight route from the top of Queensland to the NSW border. That’s in addition to a $480 million NBN upgrade and a $678 million commitment to the Outback Way road, the paper adds. Phew. Amid declining popularity ($), it brings new meaning to the phrase “throw money at the problem”.
Indeed Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has spent, rather than saved windfall revenues from booming commodities, placing us further into deficit, according to Macroeconomics chief economist Stephen Anthony. It comes as Frydenberg claims wages will increase by 3% in the next financial year (up from his earlier forecast of 2.75%), which would be the fastest growth since 2013’s Gillard government, the SMH reports. The paper says it’ll be a central part of next week’s budget, but also plainly states that “both the Reserve Bank and the federal Treasury have constantly overestimated the growth in wages since 2012, regularly forecasting a lift in wages that has never materialised”. Ah.
CLIMATE OF CONCERN
Australian energy giant Woodside reportedly buried a report that went against its claim increasing gas production in Australia would reduce emissions, WA Today reports. The CSIRO found their claim would only work if a higher carbon price was introduced. A heavy-hitter investor group called Climate Action 100 got wind of the report — it represents some $65 trillion in 33 markets in pushing for more climate action — and the local head promised to put it in front of Asian investors.
It comes as Australia’s fossil fuel pipeline has grown again — Santos is about to expand after the country’s second-largest oil reserve discovery in the past five years, AFR reports. It means the $2.7 billion oil and gas project off WA called “Dorado” will almost certainly go ahead, the paper says. Last year, the International Energy Agency warned that, for the world to have a 50:50 chance of halting global warming at 1.5 degrees, no new fossil fuel projects should be developed.
BYE BYE BARTY
World number one Ash Barty will hang up her racket after the 25-year-old shocked the tennis world and beyond with her retirement yesterday. She made the announcement in a quirky Instagram video with her friend Casey Dellacqua, saying she felt spent and just knew in her heart it was time. Barty is going out on a high note — she’s a three-time major singles champion, having just won the Australian Open, as ABC writes. So what’s next? Barty says she wants to explore “so many dreams” that don’t take her overseas or away from family.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says her big wins at Wimbledon and the Australian Open shows what one can achieve when you “really apply yourself”, SMH reports, while Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley described her as a “once in a lifetime” player. Tennis great Pat Rafter says he gets it — “she wants to have a life”, and Barty’s idol Evonne Goolagong Cawley says she’s super excited to see what’s next for Barty.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
There’s been an incredible new discovery about how our celestial neighbourhood, the Milky Way, came to be. Scientists looked at nearly a quarter of a million stars (a fraction of the 100-400 billion in our galaxy) and were shocked to realise we had been getting it wrong ($). We always thought our ghostly halo which is home to a swathe of stars — the outer suburbs, if you like — came first. That’s because halo stars are much older than the ones towards the middle. Plus, halo stars don’t rotate around us, they just sort of hang out there, and have done since 11.2 billion years ago, when we smashed into a smaller galaxy called Gaia Enceladus.
But scientists have discovered it was the inner disc — the thicker component at the core of our galaxy, with a swathe of spinning stars — that came first. In fact, it was already there when we merged with Gaia Enceladus. So why is this important? Well, working out the age of stars can reveal the secrets of the formation of our universe, bringing us closer to understanding the beginning of all things, our true origin. As one astronomer put it: “We’re lucky, because the stars are like fossils that help us study the galaxy’s past”.
Wishing you the magic of wonder today, folks.
SAY WHAT?
To cut a long story short, this party has a problem with nepotism, with using and burning people, and with misusing your donations. There is no functional structure within the party, and no way to resolve issues before it becomes a blow out.
Kirsty O’Sullivan
The Liberal Democrat staffer has sent a quick email to around 42,000 members and supporters of the political party to resign in spectacular fashion, accusing the Lib Dems of dodgy donation handling, leaving her out of pocket for 80-hour workweeks, and having a big women problem. The party counts former Queensland premier Campbell Newman, Victorian state MP David Limbrick, and Senate candidate John Ruddick among its members.
CRIKEY RECAP
‘No meaningful inquiry’ into rape allegations against Hillsong pastor
“A high-ranking Hillsong pastor who allegedly raped a junior female staff member while conducting an extramarital affair was subsequently promoted to a position of more authority in the church, despite Hillsong’s leadership knowing of the affair. The revelation is contained in an internal Hillsong investigation obtained by Crikey.
“The investigation, conducted by Hillsong lawyers in the United States and finalised at the beginning of last year, probed allegations from the young woman that she had not consented to sex with the senior pastor, Reed Bogard, at their initial encounter. Bogard was married at the time.”
‘How do we move forward?’: edited transcript of Hillsong’s March 18 all-staff meeting
“Last week Crikey reported exclusively on allegations levelled at Hillsong’s figurehead and stood-aside global pastor, Brian Houston. Hillsong later issued its statement on what was said at the all-staff meeting but it omitted important details. To give you the full picture, Crikey is publishing a transcript of the audio recording which was leaked to us. It has been edited to remove extraneous material.
“‘And so it was decided that she would be paid a couple of months’ salary for what had happened to her. And so that is what happened in that scenario. Then Pastor Brian said: ‘I want to pay that personally, because I don’t think it’s fair on the church to pay that salary because it was my indiscretion.’ So he personally paid that back.’”
EXCLUSIVE: Brian Houston resigns from Hillsong Church in wake of allegations
“The incidents occurred in 2013 and 2019 and involve allegations that Houston behaved inappropriately towards female members of the church. It is understood that Houston, whose father Frank founded Hillsong, submitted his resignation at 4am this morning prior to a meeting of the church’s Australian board.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Ukraine war: Why is Russia encouraging foreign fighters to join? (Al Jazeera)
Trying to solve a COVID mystery: Africa’s low death rates (The New York Times)
Poland expels ’45 Russian spies pretending to be diplomats’ (Al Jazeera)
‘He wants to’: Vladimir Putin plans to attend G20 summit in Bali (SBS)
Afghanistan girls’ tears over chaotic Taliban schools U-turn (BBC)
Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine works safely in young children, company says (The Wall Street Journal) ($)
China finds flight recorder from plane crash as rain hinders search (The New York Times)
Air New Zealand launches 17-hour flight to New York City (CNN)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Zelensky doesn’t know the end of his story. Churchill didn’t either. — Andrew Marr (The New York Times): “And yet, fundamentally, Mr Zelensky’s implied comparison still retains an essential truth that will reverberate for a long time to come. Both men were leading countries at a desperate low point. Both were in physical danger themselves; Churchill would clamber onto the roofs of Whitehall buildings to watch German bombing raids advance across his capital. Less than a year after he spoke to the Commons, its chamber was destroyed by German bombs. Kyiv is under Russian bombardment and the president, who refuses to escape, has reportedly been targeted by a Chechen assassination squad.
“Both men are wordsmiths, with a background in written (Churchill) or broadcast (Zelensky) political entertainment, who deploy drama to inspire and stiffen the resistance of their people. We are relearning how much words and individual leadership still invigorate wider political audiences, across Western Europe and the United States. Mr Zelensky’s buoyant optimism, expressed day after day as he sits in his fatigues, has been a unifying and moralizing factor in the war. His calm, his understated ordinariness, is a daily rebuke to Mr Putin’s smear that Ukraine is led by drug addicts and neo-Nazis.”
The damaging gap in stopping sexual assaults on campus — Angela Taft and Leesa Hooker (The SMH): “Australian universities have a problem with sexual assault. The Universities Australia’s National Student Safety Survey released on Wednesday makes that clear. 16% of students reported sexual harassment and 4.5% reported sexual assault since starting university …
“Professor Charlene Senn, chair in Sexual Violence at the University of Windsor in Canada, told a presentation at the United Nations in April last year that the bulk of sexual harm at universities is against women perpetrated by heterosexual men, and that the highest incidence of sexual assault is experienced by young women in their first two years of study … To our knowledge, this is the only research project being undertaken in Australia into whether an intervention program reduces sexual assault long term at universities. There is clearly willingness by the higher education sector, and government, to tackle this issue.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Online
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NSW Chief Economist Stephen Walters, Grattan Institute Transport and Cities Program’s Marion Terrill, ANZ’s Felicity Emmett, and UNSW City Futures Research Centre’s Hal Pawson will discuss the declining rate of homeownership.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Minister for Enterprise, Investment and Trade, Minister for Sport and Tourism Stuart Ayres, and Victorian Minister for Energy, Environment & Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio are among the speakers at the Australian Hydrogen Forum 2022.
Yuggera Country (also known as Brisbane)
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Author Julianne Schultz will discuss her new book, The Idea of Australia, at Avid Reader bookshop. You can also catch this one online.
