STEADY AS A ROCKLIFF
The only Liberal premier, Tasmania’s Jeremy Rockliff, doesn’t give a toss that Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and his frontbenchers will oppose the Voice to Parliament — Rockliff has told The Australian ($) he will campaign “vigorously” for the Yes side. Dutton formally announced yesterday he’d back constitutional recognition for Indigenous peoples, but was against the constitutionally enshrined Voice (advisory body). And it’s not just Rockcliff breaking ranks with the country’s most senior Liberal — other state Coalition leaders (in opposition), such as WA Liberal Leader Libby Mettam and WA Nationals Leader Shane Love, told the paper it’s Yes all the way for them. In Queensland, LNP Leader David Crisafulli says he has an open mind about the Voice, as does Victoria’s Liberal Leader John Pesutto. Federal Liberal outlier Bridget Archer (a backbencher) told the ABC she’ll campaign for Yes and wanted nothing to do with Dutton’s position.
So what’s Dutton’s gripe? He claimed the “Canberra Voice” would not solve issues on the ground for Indigenous communities. The Uluru Statement’s Pat Anderson doesn’t get it. In 12 years, there’s been seven processes and 10 reports, she told Guardian Australia, with First Nations peoples at the grassroots working tirelessly on the Voice, not to mention three separate referendum working groups. Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney agreed, saying “over a thousand First Nations people across the country” had worked on the Statement, which informed the Voice. What now? We’ll still have a referendum — Dutton said he’d wave it through, as the SMH ($) reports — but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese admits it’ll be tougher to get a majority yes without bipartisan support. If it does anyway, it’s fair to say Dutton’s opposition leadership will be on the line.
BRUCE FORCE
Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann is suing the ABC over its coverage of rape allegations made by his former colleague Brittany Higgins, the SMH ($) reports. The rape charge against him was dropped out of fear for Higgins’ mental health. He’s already taking Ten, news.com.au and journalists Lisa Wilkinson and Samantha Maiden to court over defamation — well, he wants to, but Justice Michael Lee hasn’t decided yet whether the one-year limitation period can be extended (the interviews are two years old). The paper says it’s not clear yet whether Lehrmann would need the period extended for his defamation case against the ABC too.
Meanwhile, the guy who created ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence writer some kids are using to write essays, is facing a possible defamation suit, Crikey reports. The chatbot described a Melbourne mayor named Brian Hood — a whistleblower on the foreign bribery of agents at a banknote printing biz owned by the RBA — as one of the scandal’s perpetrators. Hood, who felt “numb” and “angry” about the mischaracterisation, sent a legal notice to OpenAI but it didn’t respond. Could this first-of-its-kind defamation case be successful? Anyone’s guess, but there is a disclaimer that said ChatGPT can produce inaccurate info. Crikey couldn’t reproduce the possibly defamatory result in ChatGPT.
HILLSONG FOR THEIR SUPPER
Hillsong had agreed to pay founder Brian Houston and his wife Bobbie as much as $400,000 total a year in retirement, The Courier-Mail ($) reports. The base is $200,000, with $50,000 each for vehicles and $100,000 to “travel to churches internationally that includes airfares and accommodation” as well as money for health and medical cover. The total will index according to inflation, so it’ll increase. Houston quit the church last March after he was arrested for drink driving in Newport Beach, California — he didn’t show up to his arraignment hearing in a US court yesterday morning. But the retirement payday ain’t the only gold Houston is getting his hands on — he gets hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax-free honorariums for speaking at churches run by his pastor friends, as Crikey’s David Hardaker revealed last month.
Staying in the US a moment and just a quick update on the arrest of former US president Donald Trump — his vice-president Mike Pence says he’ll appear before a special grand jury hearing testimony about Trump’s attempt to unpick the 2022 election result, The Guardian reports. Pence could appeal the subpoena, but he’s chosen not to. Not hard to see why right now (though Trump reportedly supporting calls for Pence to be hanged probably didn’t breed loyalty). Interestingly, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has come out swinging for Trump, saying he does not agree with the criminal charges and calling them political. Trump continues to whine on social media, calling on the US government to “defund” the Department of Justice and the FBI. But that has real consequences — sources told NBC the judge overseeing the hush money case, Juan Merchan, and his family have received “dozens” of threats via phone calls, emails and letters.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
A 50-year-old masseuse named Michelle Lee is rowing in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and two large sharks are trailing her. The menacing pair have been following for weeks, but Lee isn’t worried. She’s instead filled with a deep sense of awe for the beastly escort. What a privilege, she says, to experience “Mother Nature in all her runway-ready, take-me-as-I-am, natural beauty,” Lee told the ABC. She was halfway through an attempt to become the first woman to row the Pacific solo, having set off from Mexico on August 8 in an eight-metre fibre boat fitted with paddles. Lee, who has no professional rowing experience, rowed in six-hour blocks, kept company by the marine life that popped up in the endlessly expansive water encasing her (one time a baby shark even leapt onto the boat to say hi). “When I was out there in the middle of nowhere, completely isolated, I was never lonely,” Lee marvelled.
Her satellite phone came in handy too, via which she had “long, long chats” with her loved ones. But there were plenty of tough moments on the journey. At one point, Lee found herself in the middle of the torrid cyclone Gabrielle, which slammed New Zealand’s north island. It wasn’t the last — she passed through three other cyclones and five hurricanes during the 237-day trip (fortunately she had some guidance from famed meteorologist Roger “Clouds” Badham). Yesterday, when the vibrant Great Barrier Reef started twinkling beneath her and she heard the elated sounds of horns from her support team onshore, Lee sat back and realised her work was done. When asked what she would say to people mulling over their own challenge, big or small, it was a simple answer: “Say yes [and] work the details out later.”
Hoping you feel a little of Lee’s awe for the natural world today, and have a restful long weekend folks. The Worm will be back in your inbox on Tuesday morning.
SAY WHAT?
I cannot determine what will define my time in this place, but I do hope I’ve demonstrated something else entirely. You can be anxious, sensitive, kind, and wear your heart on your sleeve. You can be a mother, or not. You can be an ex-Mormon, or not. You can be a nerd, a crier, a hugger. You can be all of these things.
Jacinda Ardern
The former New Zealand PM, who is retiring from politics, told Parliament she had a message to all the nerds, the anxious folks and the mothers out there: you can be a leader, and you can do it your own way. There were plenty of tears in the room as she thanked everyone and left for the last time.
CRIKEY RECAP
Contestants on Australia’s new survival reality TV show can only hunt dinner off an approved menu
“Dropped deep in the Tasmanian wilderness in the middle of winter, contestants on the new SBS TV series Alone Australia are given a sole remit to live on their lonesome for as long as they see fit (or the show deems them unfit).
“They must do what they can to satiate hunger, thirst and the elements, but raw survival does not mean a free-for-all on flora and fauna. What each of the 10 contestants can take, kill, and eat is governed by Tasmanian environmental laws and First Nations cultural codes.”
Crikey given more time to update defence against Lachlan Murdoch as judge loses patience
“The updated defence could include personal correspondence between the Murdoch family over Fox News’ coverage of election fraud claims, recently revealed in a separate case brought against Fox Corporation in the US by Dominion Voting Systems …
“Michael Hodge KC, acting for Private Media, told the Federal Court on Tuesday he was unsure why correspondence revealed in the Dominion filings wasn’t captured during the discovery process of this case. He said Murdoch could be ‘culpable’ for not stopping Fox News’ broadcast of theories its leadership thought to be false.”
Trump’s rambling Mar-a-Lago speech post-perp walk — and the roads that led us here
“So how did we get here? Crikey looks back at an unprecedented day in US political history, and at all the roads that led us here (and quite a few that should have). May 2017: Trump sacks the head of the FBI, James Comey. The move is so unexpected that news of the sacking appears on TV screens behind Comey while he is giving a speech.
“Comey and the FBI had been investigating links between the Trump campaign team and the Russian government. Indeed, the sacking comes only days after Comey had asked then-attorney-general Jeff Sessions to provide additional resources to pursue the investigation. It is further alleged that Trump had asked Comey to ‘let go’ the earlier investigation into Russian influence on the US election.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Turkey closes airspace to Iraq’s Sulaimaniyah, cites [Kurdistan Workers’ Party] presence (Al Jazeera)
Zelenskiy indicates Ukraine could pull out of Bakhmut if Russians close in (Reuters)
Finland’s Sanna Marin to quit as party leader following election defeat (EuroNews)
Russian defector sheds light on Putin paranoia and his secret train network (The Guardian)
Italy’s former PM Silvio Berlusconi in intensive care (Al Jazeera)
Breakdown of the charges and evidence presented against Trump (CNN)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Liberals peddle the same snake oil as republican debate — Phillip Coorey (AFR) ($): “If the referendum gets up, Dutton loses and Albanese wins. Dutton’s leadership would be in dire straits, If it fails, as history suggests it will, Dutton chalks up a win, and he’s back in the game. That’s the rationale anyway. Albanese will try to hang any loss around his opponent’s neck. In taking the position, the Coalition has rendered the referendum even more confusing than it already is. Not even Coalition MPs who supported the position could explain it afterwards.
“In short, the Liberals will adhere to the position the party held when in government, but never bothered implementing: that there be constitutional recognition of Indigenous people, but not the Voice. Instead, a regional and local Voice — not a national Voice — would be legislated. At the same time, the Coalition will continue with the Kabuki theatre of participating in a parliamentary inquiry into the actual proposal being put by the government, which will include going through the pretence of trying to amend it. If the public was confused about the Voice before Wednesday, it will be flummoxed now. That’s not Dutton’s concern.”
For something so hollow, the royal family is astonishingly expensive — Polly Toynbee (The Guardian): “The Borbones of Spain cost a mere £7.4 million a year, while we pay our Windsors a very pricey £86 million. And that’s before we add in the roughly £40 million a year in revenues from their Duchy estates — adding up to £1.2 billion over the years. That’s not much really, monarchists may claim. Out of £1 trillion in annual government spending, the royals’ consumption of taxpayers’ money is a mere bagatelle, a fleabite. If that’s what the royals think, you might wonder why they are so exceptionally secretive about anything touching on their wealth and incomes. Why are the wills of even obscure royals locked away from the public gaze? It may be because they think that most of their subjects would consider their incomes vast.
“How big? Just £1 million of the king’s income would buy five AgeUK day centres, reopening ones shut by austerity. Or it could train 250 early years educators for nurseries, says the Early Years Alliance. Just one of his millions would pay for 25,000 GP appointments, says the King’s Fund. The annual public funding for the royals would pay for 30 hours of childcare a week for almost 13,000 three- and four-year-olds for a year, says the IFS. The king is paid more than the cost of all London’s street lighting. That £1.2 billion from the Duchies would pay for 30,000 nurses for a year. Money spent on the monarchy seems a lot or a little depending on whether you think one king is worth more than 4000 teachers.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Author Rae Cairns will chat about her new book, Dying to Know, at Better Read Than Dead bookshop.
Muwinina Country (also known as Hobart)
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UTAS’s Greg Lehman and Adel Yousif, and University of New England’s Hamish Maxwell-Stewart will all compare the impact of colonisation on Tasmania and Palestine in a talk at Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts.
Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)
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Former president of the Victorian Court of Appeal Chris Maxwell will give the Melbourne University Law Review annual lecture 2023 on thinking philosophically about law, at Melbourne Law School.
