HOW’S YOUR FATHER?
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says it’s fine he organised an internship for his son Nathan at PwC because the 23-year-old is not a public figure, the SMH ($) reports. The AFR ($) broke the story that the then-opposition leader spoke to the big four’s Sean Gregory, whose scalp was claimed by the tax leaks scandal in June, and Nathan was later given a two-week internship in the economics and policy unit after going via HR. But it wasn’t open to the public, nor an established internship program, just a lucky break for Nathan. “He is a young person trying to make his way in the world,” Albanese insists, perhaps failing to see he was fathered by one of the most powerful politicians in the country at the time. Nathan also reportedly got a golden membership ticket into the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge — on both, Albanese says he complied with the disclosure rules for things that can be seen as a conflict of interest.
Speaking of the national spirit… disgruntled customers have lodged a billion-dollar class action because Qantas allegedly refused to give refunds during the pandemic, holding on to the money as a no-interest loan instead, The New Daily reports. Lawyer Andrew Paull says they’ll be going after refunds and compensation — “Call it interest,” he says — but Qantas denied everything, saying it had refunded more than $1 billion and had made the refund process “clear”. Hmm. Also in the news: a Queensland woman says she was charged $1000 to use $2500 worth of travel credits, and spent hours on the phone and more than 150 messages to get it back, not to mention a nudge from 7News. And a Victorian woman who Qantas charged twice says she worked on getting a $356 refund for 12 long months, Daily Mail Australia adds.
WHAT’S YOURS IS MINE
Invest in Queensland or we’ll take your mines, Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick has told BHP, as The Australian ($) reports. It comes after BHP said last month, verbatim, “We will not be investing in any further growth in Queensland” because of the state’s royalty regime, which is the highest-taxing royalty rate in the world (it’s 20% for prices above $175 a tonne; 30% above $225 a tonne; and 40% above $300 a tonne, as the AFR ($) explains). Dick warns the government will bin the leases of BHP’s seven mines if it or any other organisation “fails to meet their mining development obligation”. Can he really do that? Yep. The law states it’s legal if companies don’t “prepare, maintain and comply with development plans”. There are plenty of other mining companies that would gladly take these leases and invest in their own development, Dick says.
Meanwhile Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he probably had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from working as a Queensland cop from the age of 19, the ABC reports. Probably all police deal with some degree of PTSD, he added, and it stays with you, like when one suddenly recalls an abducted child case while hanging with your own kid at the park. Dutton told Kitchen Cabinet it has made him black and white about his views, adding he regrets calling the Fraser government’s decision to settle Lebanese refugees a mistake, as Guardian Australia reported. Speaking of “who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come”, as John Howard once famously declared, international students can say they want to live here without worrying it’ll damage their visa application chances, The Australian ($) reports. It used to mean an automatic no, but the Albanese government has reportedly changed it after Labor’s new policy platform stated it now “favours permanent over temporary migration”.
THE GAME IS UP
The University of Sydney’s gambling research centre has received a $600,000 cash injection from a body funded by MGM Resorts International, Caesars Foundation, Bally’s Corporation, Sands Inc, Wynn Resorts, Boyd Gaming Corporation, DraftKings, FanDuel, poker machine company IGT and more, Guardian Australia reports. Sportsbet also chips in dosh, as does Ladbrokes’ parent company. Independent MP Zoe Daniel says it threatens the uni’s reputation, and independent MP Monique Ryan points out it’s as bad as accepting big tobacco funding (side note: the Nationals is the last major party to accept donations from the tobacco industry). Give the money back, independent MP Andrew Wilkie urged Sydney Uni, adding: “The idea that such funding doesn’t discredit research is undiluted bullshit.”
Speaking of issues of integrity, the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency’s chairwoman was accused of receiving kickbacks from its chief financial officer by its chief executive, the NT News ($) reports. Federal Court documents relating to the not-for-profit legal service sacking CEO Priscilla Atkins revealed her accusation against chairwoman Colleen Rosas — she also alleged CFO Madhur Evans had entered into “significant” unauthorised transactions and accessed Atkins’ computer after hours. Yikes. And finally, employment in the healthcare sector is looking a lot more peachy, surging by 5000 newbies a month, which lifts the number of registered health professionals by 18% since the pandemic. But there are big gaps — there are just 1.2 GPs for every 1000 people in north-west Melbourne, The Age ($) reports.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Colin Walsh was one of a classroom of bored and acne-pocked Irish lads quarter-listening to a teacher’s final exams monologue when suddenly the room was silent. Sitting up from his comfortable slump, Walsh noticed a light flicker behind the teacher’s eyes as he surveyed the scrappy heads and startled faces. He levelled with the students. You’re about to leave school and head into the world. Think of it this way: your awareness is a small flame in a dark cave right now, but the flame will slowly grow brighter, illuminating the world. It will show you how vast this cave is, and how little you were seeing. A frightening concept, by any measure. Viewed another way, however, it’ll make you realise how much more space and opportunity is left for your flame to grow.
It was a “revelation to hear an adult address us like this”, Walsh, now an adult, remembers. As life ambles on, we’ll always be seeing more, “but with the expanding humility of knowing that insight can’t be exhausted”, he writes for The Guardian. Life isn’t about reaching firm conclusions, and if we can only open ourselves to the possibility that we might be wrong, we will see that there’s always more to learn. Since that day, Walsh says, he has tried to embrace curiosity about the mysteries of life and challenge the drummed-in perspectives — “pushing against the seductions of certainty and staying true to that idea of the flame in the cave”. “His words remind me to remain open to that which might further illuminate a darkness I don’t even realise I can’t see.”
Wishing you a bright Tuesday morning and beyond.
SAY WHAT?
I’d made that comment after speaking to friends in Melbourne because there were incidents where people had cars stolen or people going into restaurants and … creating havoc… It didn’t come from a place of hatred … It came from a place of seeing people suffering at the hands of crime and that’s what motivated me.
Peter Dutton
The opposition leader says he stands by his 2018 comments that linked crime to the South Sudanese population. The sensationalist “African gangs” reporting created widespread panic and fear in several Victorian communities. In 2019, 57 young African Australians were arrested in a police sweep. Most were later released without charge — “victims of post-election over-policing”, critics said.
CRIKEY RECAP
“Department of Defence staff accessed artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT’s servers thousands of times without department approval since the service was first launched, documents reveal. Defence has since restricted access to the web domain of ChatGPT’s owner, OpenAI, to prevent data or privacy breaches from its use.
“A freedom of information request lodged by Crikey found that Department of Defence devices (including computers and smartphones) had connected to webpages with the OpenAI.com domain 5630 times between December 1 2022 and June 30 2023. OpenAI.com hosts the company’s AI products, including ChatGPT, which first launched on November 30 2022; text-to-image generator DALLE-2; GPT-4; and OpenAI’s other webpages.”
“The Business Council of Australia (BCA) — the oligopolists responsible for high inflation, low investment, low productivity and low wages growth — has a vision for Australia: a nation in which business pays even less tax than currently, you pay more tax, workers have lower wages and worse conditions, and businesses get to do what they like regardless of the damage they inflict on the community.
“This vision runs for 220 pages and the media, be it The Sydney Morning Herald, News Corp or the business shills at The Australian Financial Review, not only won’t tell you what garbage it is, they’re lauding it as a significant contribution to economic policy that will make us all richer. For years, Crikey has been pointing out that the agenda of ‘economic reform’ from the BCA consists of demanding company tax cuts and industrial relations deregulation (sometimes ‘streamlining’, sometimes ‘flexibility’).”
“So, taking the long view, this is ultimately all about power. Not so much its sovereign exercise, but power for power’s sake on the part of one man and his ponderous pride: Albanese. Presumably lost on him is the unadulterated irony of his words. After all, if Labor’s ready embrace of AUKUS, the stage three tax cuts, the carbon credits scam and other transparency-reducing mechanisms, such as national cabinet, are any guide, fears rooted in the erasure of one’s legacy would hardly be animating the Coalition from the opposition benches.
“On the contrary, what we have before us is a Labor leadership bent on erasing its own party’s rich history. Not only its achievements with respect to China and, more broadly, Asia over recent decades, but so too its principled anti-nuclear and anti-war positions. Albanese calls it supreme pragmatism. Others might call it a betrayal of time-honoured beliefs and values. What’s left is power unspooled from any purpose and overriding vision except to remain in office.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Hawaii says 850 missing after Maui wildfires ahead of Biden visit (Al Jazeera)
‘Cruel, calculated’ [neonatal nurse] Lucy Letby to spend rest of life in prison (BBC)
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says F-16s make him ‘confident’ that Russia will lose the war (Reuters)
Trudeau denounces Meta’s news block as fires force evacuations (CBC)
‘They say they’re not racist’: how far-right extremism seeped into Portugal’s mainstream politics (euronews)
Elon Musk admits X ‘may fail’ after glitch deletes Twitter photos (The Guardian)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Productivity slump demands an ambitious investment agenda — Jim Chalmers (The Australian) ($): “The IGR identifies the key areas we can make the biggest productivity gains in the next 40 years, including economic dynamism and competition; investing in new data and digital innovations such as cloud computing, AI and machine learning; investing in a better-skilled and more adaptable workforce, and embracing the net-zero transformation. We have a big, broad and ambitious productivity agenda that is focused on five key pillars. First, we are building dynamism and resilience in our economy, including through refreshing and renewing our economic institutions, promoting innovation and boosting competition, including in the payments system. Second, we are investing in data and digital infrastructure including Digital ID and the National Broadband Network, helping more businesses adopt new digital technologies and investing in the quantum and artificial intelligence sectors.
“Third, we are building a more skilled and adaptable workforce through reinvigorating foundation skills, improving access to tertiary education, and establishing a universities accord and a new national skills agreement. Fourth, we are creating a more sustainable and productive care economy that delivers high-quality services and supports well-paid jobs. This is supported by our investments in health and aged care, the NDIS, early education and care, and investments in infrastructure platforms that can support more efficient and quality essential services. And lastly, we are powering the net-zero transformation by investing more than $40 billion in cleaner, cheaper energy — including $4 billion in the May budget to help transform Australia into a renewable energy superpower.”
The real reason housing supply isn’t keeping up with demand — Nicole Gurran (The SMH) ($): “Our real supply problem is that Australia is now almost entirely dependent on the private market to deliver new homes. The proportion of homes built by the public sector has fallen from well over 10% in the mid-1980s to about 2% today. This means major residential projects proceed when prices are buoyant or rising, and finance cheap and flowing, but drops off when conditions shift. We lack an alternative, affordable and non-profit housing sector of sufficient capacity to guarantee ongoing countercyclical construction. The Commonwealth, states and local governments could take steps to correct this problem. The first step would be to restore funding to grow the social and affordable housing sector. The federal government’s mooted housing Australia future fund would help if significantly expanded. Better still would be to further increase direct investment through the annual national housing and homelessness agreement between the Commonwealth, states and territories.
“Other ways to increase housing include fully mobilising surplus state and local government land for affordable housing and rebooting government land development agencies, restoring their mandate to moderate the market by delivering affordable land and housing sites at scale. The NSW government’s recently announced plan to deliver 50% social, affordable and Aboriginal housing in redeveloping Sydney’s Waterloo estate exemplifies this approach. Government demand side grants and incentives, such as the Commonwealth’s forthcoming home guarantee scheme, could be tied to new construction. Infrastructure investment and rezoning for higher-density housing could be linked to affordable housing requirements, supporting mixed-tenure projects. These might range from affordable rental or ownership schemes to cooperatives or deliberative developments, where aspiring owners pool funds to design, develop, and finance their own medium-density projects.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Online
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Germany’s Foreign Affairs Minister Annalena Baerbock will speak in a webinar for the Lowy Institute.
Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)
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Writer Viki Cramer will talk about her book, The Memory of Trees, at Avid Reader bookshop.
Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)
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Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition’s Thomas Mayo and singer-songwriter Shane Howard will perform at the 2023 Ngunnawal Lecture at Old Parliament House.
