COOKING UP A STORM
Two 17-year-old climate activists — Emma Heyink and Tom Power — have accused WA Premier Roger Cook of defaming them by alleging the pair had issued a “direct threat” to the children of Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill, Guardian Australia reports. The teenagers were part of a Disrupt Burrup Hub protest last Wednesday where they and a third person urged Woodside’s chair Richard Goyder and O’Neill to think of the harm new oil and gas will do to each of their (adult) offspring, referring to the kids by name. The activists issued a concerns notice to Cook, the first step in a defamation suit, seeking an apology, retraction and $1 in legal costs. It comes as our largest energy generator, AGL, got one of six permits allowing it to explore building an offshore wind farm near Victoria, The Age reports. The farm could light 1.4 million Victorian homes, or 17% of the state’s yearly electricity needs.
Meanwhile, Pogust Goodhead has opened a Sydney office and has warned companies it will be gladly representing cases that hold them accountable for “environmental crimes”, The Australian ($) reports. The law firm is famously representing more than 700,000 people in a class action against BHP about the 2015 Mariana dam disaster in Brazil, as Reuters reports. Predictably, opposition legal affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash blamed Labor, saying it eggs on litigation funders and class action law firms. It comes as over a month’s worth of rain (100mm) will likely fall on Sydney by Sunday night, news.com.au reports, thanks to an odd weather occurrence where high pressure on land is preventing the weather systems that move rain on. Melbourne will be drier and can expect partly cloudy skies and 17-18 degree days.
WARRING WORDS
A 15-year-old kid allegedly sent messages to an encrypted group chat called “Plans” saying “I want to attack Jews here”, the ABC reports. He’s one of four teens accused of planning a terrorist attack — but his silk Ahmed Dib countered that his client was just a kid “venting something wrong, deranged” without working out details or plans. Meanwhile, students are camping out at university campuses with about 50 at the University of Melbourne and several at Monash University in Clayton, The Age reports, urging universities to “cut ties with weapons manufacturers, and condemn Israel’s war in Gaza”. The students say the community is donating “so much … every kind of cuisine” to the point where they had to give excess bread and fruit to a homeless shelter. They’re working with a Jewish organisation to do a Shabbat dinner on Friday.
Meanwhile, a protester has come under fire for reportedly saying “Hamas deserves our unconditional support”, according to The Australian ($), not because of its “strategy” but because of decades of oppression. Beatrice Tucker was speaking to ABC Drive Canberra with fellow protester Luke Harrison when they both went on to say that they did not condemn Hamas, but Harrison (who the ABC notes is Jewish) withdrew it in a statement afterwards, saying he hadn’t thought the question through. Both are part of the ANU student association, which condemned the comments and said they didn’t represent the group. Meanwhile, NSW public servant unionists are calling for the Minns government to ditch contracts with computing giant Hewlett Packard (HP) because it provides computers for Israel, The Daily Telegraph reports. Reportedly Greens MP Jenny Leong is headed to a forum to discuss it.
HEY BIG SPENDER
More than half of the people who head up Victorian universities are on salaries totalling more than a million dollars, Guardian Australia reports. Six of the eight vice-chancellors got pay rises last year too, even though five universities posted annual deficits blaming the pandemic. Education Minister Jason Clare said “we’re acting” on salary transparency. The paper also notes wage theft in the university sector is estimated at $170 million. It comes as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s $925 million pledge for domestic violence action has been compared to one submarine periscope by satire paper The Betoota Advocate (Albo did say there’s more to come, however). The paper notes the $386 billion pledged for the AUKUS submarine deal — one also might note the government announced it would (jointly with Queensland) spend almost the same ($940 million) on an attempt to build the world’s first commercial quantum computer.
Meanwhile, Albanese has offered to increase Commonwealth spending for hospitals by 13.5%, The Australian ($) reports, meaning federal funding would surge by about $4 billion in 2024-25. The government wants to double the 6.5% funding cap in the first year, and is offering 8% for the next four years — the idea is to hike the overall federal contributions from 40% to 45% in the next decade. Finally, most Queenslanders won’t pay “a single cent” for electricity from July, The Courier Mail reports, as Sunshine State Premier Steven Miles doubled the state’s power rebate to $1,000. The rebate, applying to every bill, will cost $2.5 billion and be funded by coal royalties, Miles says. Cool.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
A 19-year-old named Keegan Payne was hanging out with his sister and a friend with a fishing line in the water around midnight, joking and laughing as they shot the breeze. Their necks were warm from the day’s sun — the mercury is still climbing to the mid-30s this week in Katherine, NT, well into autumn. Suddenly Payne’s line pulled, and so did his heartstrings — he’d caught something. Thus began the age-old dance between a fisherman and his catch. Payne concentrated, finding the perfect balance of strength and precision — too much yanking and you risk unlatching the hook, not enough and the fish might free itself, powered by the inherent survival instinct of all living things.
Winding his line in, Payne ended up flinging the fish onto the bank of the Katherine River to cheers. I think I’ve got a barramundi, he mused, peering at the 67-centimetre fish. Wait, his sister piped up, is that the million-dollar tag?! The trio stared — could it be true? The NT Government runs this fishing competition, now in its ninth season, called Million Dollar Fish. Payne had entered the last couple of years but hadn’t really been thinking about catching the winning fish — until now. Holding his breath, he dialled the hotline at 1am, as the NT News tells it. Cut to Darwin Waterfront Peninsula Lawns the next morning, when the Chief Minister Eva Lawler herself choppered in with a jumbo cheque for Payne. A million-dollar cheque. It’s life-changing, a tearful Payne said. He’s part of a family of eight, and “This is more money than we could ever ask for”.
Hoping you get a stroke of luck today too.
SAY WHAT?
A horrible day for all of us … and quite unexpected.
Tim Jordan
The ashen-faced Bonza CEO told staff the airline was going under, many of whom didn’t find the news unexpected as they had already learnt about it via media reports. Other staff thoroughly unsurprised by the news told news.com.au they had not received meals or paid breaks for a while.
CRIKEY RECAP
“It has not helped that its owner, US-based 777 Partners — which also owns soccer clubs (it’s currently trying to buy Everton) — is in all sorts of trouble, having been accused of breaching contracts, failing to pay debts and acting fraudulently.
“But lack of access to the expensive and choc-a-bloc Sydney Airport also proved problematic, said industry insiders who spoke to Crikey. Each airport can charge its own landing fees and manage its take-off and landing slots, another failure of privatisation.”
“Hubbl took over Streamotion in February as the brand responsible for Foxtel’s various streaming services, which include sports service Kayo, entertainment service Binge, and news service Flash.
“It came as the company geared up to launch its own physical streaming product, launched to an almost-inescapable advertising blitz featuring the likes of comedy duo Hamish and Andy. Crikey asked Hubbl whether there were any further steps possible for the company to take to protect users and whether they were undertaken.”
“The ABC’s Andrew Greene — the country’s best and most sceptical defence journalist — had specifically pushed Burgess on whether it was India last November, without result, but it seems some official was happy to brief a US newspaper about it.
“He also noted that Singapore, South Korea and Israel had been identified along with India as countries with spies active in Australia. Armed with his own information, Greene broke the story locally yesterday. Nine and The Australian took some hours to rewrite the Washington Post yarn, without mentioning the ABC story, but you’ll have to look long and hard on their sites to find the resulting stories.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Thousands protest as Georgia Parliament advances controversial ‘foreign influence’ bill (Al Jazeera)
Russia flaunts Western military hardware captured in war in Ukraine (BBC)
Violence flares at UCLA, as police end protests at New York’s Columbia (Reuters)
ChatGPT’s chatbot rival Claude to be introduced on iPhone (The Guardian)
Warsaw synagogue hit with apparent firebomb attack (euronews)
Greene says she will demand vote next week on removing Johnson (The New York Times) ($)
Fed says inflation progress has stalled and extends wait-and-see rate stance [on cash rate] (The Wall Street Journal) ($)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Biden is not winning. His campaign should stop acting like it is — Ross Douthat (The New York Times): “But here we are entering May, with just six months before the election, and the basic dynamic that inspired the original discussion/freakout is still with us. Biden’s mini-surge was, well, miniature. He’s still slightly behind in national polling, and he still trails Trump in the swing states that won the Electoral College for the Democrats last time — Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The gap is narrow: Depending on your preferred polling average and what you make of Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s polling numbers, Biden probably needs to make up just a few points to pull ahead — maybe three points, maybe four. But it’s also quite consistent; since last fall, both candidates are bouncing around within a very narrow range.
“The Democratic response to this consistency blends unwarranted confidence with unwarranted fatalism. On the one hand, there’s the belief that Trump’s lead is unsustainable — because he has a ceiling and can’t get past 50% (but does that matter in a race with several well-known third-party candidates?), because voters aren’t paying close attention yet (but don’t they already know both of the candidates quite well?), because polls don’t matter until after the convention (in April 2020 Biden led the FiveThirtyEight polling average by about five points; he won the popular vote in the fall by 4.4%), because Trump’s trials haven’t yet had their effect (but what if he’s acquitted?).”
Vote for my friend Sadiq Khan. Don’t let toxic, incompetent Tory rule ruin our capital
— Keir Starmer (The Guardian): “I have known Sadiq for many years, and I am proud to call him a friend and a colleague. He is someone driven by the principle of giving people the same opportunities he had, which allowed him to go from a council estate in Tooting to leading our capital. During his tenure, Sadiq has transformed the mayoralty from a laughing stock to showing leadership. Every pupil in every London state primary school now receives a free school meal. The capital’s air is cleaner to breathe. The Hopper bus fare — allowing unlimited journeys within one hour for one price — the Superloop express bus routes and the Elizabeth Line have all been delivered. Overall housing completions recently hit their highest level in London since the 1930s and more new council homes are being built now than at any time since the 1970s.
“And 330,000 good jobs have been created through City Hall initiatives. This is the power of Labour in government. And let us not forget that Sadiq has managed all of this in the teeth of a Tory government; just imagine what could be achieved working with a Labour one. It is worth remembering that since the return of London’s government at the turn of the century, we have only had four years of a Labour mayor working with a Labour prime minister. But in that time, Crossrail was agreed, the Olympics were secured and massive numbers of social homes were built. Now, a new era of renewal is within reach. And if Labour succeeds in winning elections in our capital and our country, a Labour government will support Sadiq to put up to 1,300 more police officers on London’s streets, build at least 40,000 new council homes, create 150,000 well-paid, high-skilled jobs for Londoners and end rough sleeping for good.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Online
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Bupa’s Kate Breheny, Metro Trains’ Tim Drinkall, Yarra Valley Water’s Amy Singe, CLA Solutions’ Marcele De Sanctis will speak about hybrid work in a webinar for CEDA.
Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)
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Authors Annie de Monchaux, Jane Tara, and Trish Bolton will speak at Avid Reader bookshop.
