ALL WORK, NO PAY
Gig work is a “cancer” on the economy, Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke says. He’ll reportedly make the comments in a speech today, the SMH reports, saying that companies like Uber, Deliveroo, Menulog and DoorDash drive down wages, and the model is spreading into aged care, the NDIS, and industries such as security. So what is gig work? It’s a type of employment where workers are contractors to a company (like Uber drivers, for instance), Fair Work explains, meaning they get no right to minimum wage, no protection from unfair dismissal, no super, no worker’s compensation and no paid leave. The newspaper cites a 2020 survey that showed some delivery drivers make $10 an hour. Dismal. So why work there? Flexibility, mostly — people such as students, retirees, parents and small business types need work to fit around their other commitments, DoorDash Australia’s boss says.
Speaking of Burke, he’s keen to consider multi-employer bargaining — where unions represent employees of several employers to get pay rises across workplaces, as Guardian Australia explains. He told ABC’s 7.30 last night that wages have been kept “deliberately low” for a decade, and he “deliberately” wants to get them moving again. It comes as Qantas posted a loss of $860 million last financial year yesterday, meaning since CEO Alan Joyce took the reins in 2009, losses are nearly $3 billion, Michael West Media calculates. Yet Joyce has pocketed $104 million in salaries since then, including a $3.7 million bonus. We also learnt that revenue jumped 54% in the 2021-22 financial year. Meanwhile, Qantas engineers walked off the job yesterday over its refusal to give them a 3%-per-annum wage increase, the ABC reports. On flight cancellations and lost luggage, Joyce told Sky News yesterday that “the competition is just as bad” but he wants to do better by his customers. Aside from the 20% price hike, that is, as The Australian ($) adds.
COCAINE BUSTED
A whopping 40% of cocaine contains no cocaine, Guardian Australia reports. A government-backed Canberra service looked at 58 samples of the stuff in August — it found ingredients such as sugar, talc and the cutting agent dimethyl sulfone. Interestingly, once people learnt of the contents of their sample, 18 of them ditched it. It’s not the first time we’ve taken a look at how the sausage is made — you may remember extremely controversial short-term pill testing trials at the festival Groovin’ The Moo, as The Daily Mail reported. It comes as federal police say they seized enough fentanyl for five million doses (!) this week, the country’s largest shipment. Fentanyl is a fast-acting synthetic opioid, ABC explains — it’s made in a lab, not from the poppy plant. It’s supposed to be used for chronic pain, but it’s highly addictive, and when added to cocaine can be fatal.
From illicit drugs to life-saving vaccines and Novak “no vax” Djokovic will sit out the US Open because he is still not vaccinated for COVID-19. It means the Wimbledon champ will not compete for his 22nd Grand Slam singles title — the CDC say all non-citizens must be vaccinated to board a flight to the US. He’s had COVID twice, the SMH says, and told the BBC in February he “was never against vaccination” (he’s had childhood vaccines too). “But I’ve always supported the freedom to choose what you put in your body.” It comes as the World Health Organization announced one million people have died from COVID this year (6.4 million since the pandemic began), Global News reports, a “tragic milestone”. Only 10 countries have less than 10% vaccination coverage, and most are in the depths of a humanitarian emergency, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
A RORTING CHANCE
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will release the details of an investigation into former PM Scott Morrison’s five extra ministries today, Guardian Australia reports. It says Morrison had the power to give grants through Home Affairs’ $187 million safer communities program — though to be fair there’s no evidence he used that power. Guardian Australia continues that Morrison’s secret ministries have caused a “renewed scrutiny of Morrison’s centralisation of power” — and comes as Opposition Leader Peter Dutton labelled the robodebt royal commission a “witch-hunt” yesterday, saying Albanese clearly saw “political advantage” in an inquiry targeted at Morrison.
Meanwhile, a review ordered by Industry Minister Ed Husic has cleared the Morrison government of rorting industry grants, the ABC reports. A total of 68 grants were announced under the $1.3 billion modern manufacturing initiative program between the start of March and May 17 — and considering Morrison secretly held the powers of the industry portfolio when 17 of the grants were announced, it was worth a second look. But all is well; decisions were supported by an independent committee and satisfied guidelines.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
In Canada’s capital, Ottawa, stands the stately Fairmont Château Laurier, a sprawling 61,000-square-metre luxury hotel in the classic French Gothic Revival châteauesque style that looks proudly east towards the nation’s Parliament. And inside, hung regally on the wall, is “The Roaring Lion”, a portrait photograph of a rather reluctant Winston Churchill, photographed in 1941 by a photographer named Yousuf Karsh. Churchill had just given a rousing wartime speech to Canada’s Parliament, and his face is half hidden in shadow, the weight of the world upon it, his eyes holding a penetrating gaze with the viewer. Perhaps he was troubled by war, but mostly he was glowering that Karsh had just snatched a cigar from his mouth. Karsh had been holding an ashtray out, as BBC tells it, waiting for Churchill to finish chomping “vigorously” at his cigar. “Then I stepped toward him and, without premeditation, but ever respectfully, I said ‘forgive me sir’ and plucked the cigar from his mouth.”
But on Friday a staff member admiring the photograph made un petit observation: the photograph’s frame no longer matched the other frames in the room. That’s when hotel general manager Geneviève Dumas’ heart sank: the original had been covertly swapped out for a dupe, a classic art heist. But when? It had been hanging there since 1998 (Karsh lived at the Château Laurier and operated a studio there from 1972-92). The hotel says it was taken last winter (Australian summer), something it concluded after the public began sending in hundreds of photographs they’d snapped the last time they visited. Some showed the original frame and, dismally, some showed the new one.
Some experts are confident the portrait will make its way back to the wall of the Château Laurier eventually, but Michel Prévost, president of La Société d’histoire de l’Outaouais, is more morose. Sounding very French, he says: “As a historian, I can speak about the past. I cannot speak about the future.” To which I respond, via Walt Whitman: “Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost, No birth, identity, form — no object of the world. Nor life, nor force, nor any visible thing; appearance must not foil, nor shifted sphere confuse thy brain. Ample are time and space — ample the fields of nature.” After all, photography negatives exist.
Hoping you find something you thought was lost today, and have a restful weekend ahead.
SAY WHAT?
I always thought the time for morning teas was after you’ve won the war, because I’m pretty sure in other countries at the moment they’re not having woke morning teas; they’re getting on with how they can protect and defend their country. And we do live in an uncertain time. It’s uncomfortable to talk about, but that’s the reality of a president like President Xi, it’s the reality of a president like President Putin.
Peter Dutton
Why are we making English breakfast with a dash of sugar and a spot of milk when we should be quadrupling our troop numbers and hiring nerds to hack into the Uber Eats accounts of dictators, or something. Dutton made the comment in an interview with 2GB’s Ray Hadley.
CRIKEY RECAP
Murdoch inquiry set in motion as Zoe Daniel acts on media concentration
“A judicial inquiry into media concentration and the Murdoch media empire in Australia could be a reality with independent member for Goldstein Zoe Daniel confirming she’ll bring a motion to Parliament following Lachlan Murdoch’s decision to sue Crikey.
“With the government rebuffing calls for a royal commission into Murdoch media, a judicial enquiry could be the first time Australia’s media concentration is scrutinised by Parliament — and could even compel members of the Murdoch family to appear.”
Andrew Bolt wouldn’t have sued Crikey
“On his Sky News show last night, News Corp veteran Andrew Bolt addressed his employer’s lawsuit against Crikey (he calls us a ‘far-left internet gossip magazine, quite scurrilous at times’) during an interview with The Australian’s media writer Sophie Elsworth. And while it would be too much to ask that they wouldn’t report on Murdoch’s statement of claim as though it were literal fact, rather than a collection of allegations, Bolt did at least give an indication that the lawsuit may not have been the best idea …
“Bolt has been sued in the past, for defamation and most notoriously for breaching the Racial Discrimination Act, so he has an insight into Crikey‘s current experience. But he’s never sued anyone else in the media — as far we know he’s never even threatened it. Seems his stance on defamation is a bit closer to Murdoch senior than Murdoch junior?”
Why the nation needs to break up News Corp — and how News Corp has shown us the way
“The case for curbing the power of News Corp in Australia can be told with a few simple facts. It controls around two-thirds of the nation’s newspapers. It is the nation’s dominant subscription television platform. It owns a quarter of the nation’s top 20 news sites. Other media outlets, especially the notionally independent ABC, readily follow its editorial lead each day. That alone justifies its break-up.
But worse, the nature of that dominant role in Australia’s already highly concentrated media environment is toxic. It openly supports one political party, by the admission of its most senior and experienced political commentator. It is ‘an absolute threat to our democracy’, according to former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull … Even James Murdoch has lamented ‘the ongoing [climate] denial among the news outlets in Australia given obvious evidence to the contrary’.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Russian-held Ukrainian nuclear plant regains power link after cut amid nearby clashes (Reuters)
Hosts of far-right media outlet Counterspin reportedly arrested and charged (Stuff)
NATO chief tours Arctic defences as Canada comes under pressure to guard the far north (CBC)
Sean Hannity and other Fox stars face depositions in defamation suit (The New York Times)
Pakistan court grants interim bail to former PM Imran Khan (Al Jazeera)
Putin orders 10% boost in Russian troop numbers (BBC)
Peloton’s quarterly loss tops $1.2 billion as bike, treadmill sales plunge (The Wall Street Journal) ($)
Solomon Islands is threatening to ban foreign journalists. Here’s why (SBS)
Unvaccinated Novak Djokovic withdraws from US Open (CNN)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Why another Morrison inquiry? If it’s to humiliate Labor’s enemies, it would be political brutalism — Waleed Aly (The SMH): “But the advice also told us that it would be dead simple to stop this happening again, and explained exactly how you’d do it. Stephen Donaghue QC suggests five solutions in the space of five short paragraphs, the most robust of which would be simply to legislate that all ministerial appointments must be published. No doubt he could draft that legislation for you in an afternoon if you asked him to. Which raises a question: why not ask him to? It’s strange that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wants the inquiry to tell us how to stop a repeat of this lamentable episode — as he explained this week — when he’s already been told exactly how.
“And since no one in the opposition thinks Morrison’s actions were acceptable, there seems a very good chance they’d support the relevant legislation, giving a clear bipartisan statement against this kind of governmental secrecy. Even Morrison might vote for it! And if not, his politically friendless status would be confirmed in bold type. So what exactly is the point of the inquiry? Albanese makes the point that the solicitor-general’s advice is based only on known facts, and that an inquiry might unearth more facts. But what facts could possibly change the solicitor-general’s advice? The only thing Donaghue acknowledges he doesn’t know is whether Morrison specifically ordered his ministerial appointments to remain secret.”
Emily Maitlis is finally free to say what needed saying: the BBC has lost its nerve — Gabby Hinsliff (The Guardian): “Why has our national broadcaster lost its nerve? The government’s threat to remove the licence fee, a sword of Damocles now constantly hanging over its head, is the most obvious answer. Another might be the installation of Richard Sharp, a pro-Brexit Tory donor, as chair. Maitlis, however, took aim at what she called an “active Conservative party agent” on the BBC board — a reference to Robbie Gibb, the smoothest of smooth operators, who has moved seamlessly between politics and journalism all his life. (Having initially worked for the then Conservative shadow minister Francis Maude, Gibb moved to the BBC, then became Theresa May’s head of communications, before returning controversially to the BBC, where he wields significant influence over journalistic output.)
“Yet the BBC’s troubles go well beyond any one individual. The corporation is buffeted by forces it cannot seem to grip; a chilly commercial climate, a post-truth political culture where even categorical denials from No 10 can no longer be believed, but also rising tensions with some staff who see neutrality as uncomfortably close to complicity in the current climate. The basic journalistic principle of divorcing your own feelings from the story sits increasingly uneasily with a younger generation of reporters, and perhaps also viewers, raised to “call out” what they believe to be wrong and to prize authenticity.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)
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Victoria’s Opposition Leader Matthew Guy and his senior leadership team will be at a business breakfast held at Zinc, where Guy will outline plans and policies ahead of November’s election.
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The Torch’s Susannah Day, Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership’s Vanessa Pigrum, the Australian Ballet’s Ty King-Wall, and the University of Melbourne’s Caitlin Vincent will speak at Good Work: Conversations with and about the arts.
Larrakia Country (also known as Darwin)
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Gurundji (also known as Freedom Day Festival) will kick off at Kalkaringi/Kalkarindji (or Wave Hill) with concerts, sport, country tours and talks and musical performances.
