DEMOCRACY IS ‘FRAGILE’
Democracy is “fragile”, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has told The Australian ($). He was speaking about the “horrifying” hammer attack on US Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, and he added that “much of the debate in politics generally has got far worse” during his time in Parliament. And it’s not limited to Canberra — Albo says social media users, sometimes anonymous, say things online that “they would never say face to face”. The escalation can be extraordinary, he says. On the other hand, young people considering going into politics have to worry about “what’s on their social media feed from 30 years ago” becoming a gotcha! moment. Albanese says we’re going to “end up with no one who has ever done anything interesting participating” in politics. Albanese’s comments about Pelosi come as US President Joe Biden will say today that candidates are running “for governor, for Congress, for attorney-general, for secretary of state” who don’t believe the election result, The New Daily adds, calling it a “path to chaos” in the US.
Meanwhile, Treasurer Jim Chalmers had his own tête-à-tête last night with the ABC’s Stan Grant (and the hundreds of thousands who tuned in to Q+A). Here’s what we learnt: we probably won’t go into recession in Australia, Chalmers says, but Europe and the UK will and that’ll hurt us a bit. Our energy bills are definitely going to get worse (by up to 56% according to the budget), he admits, but a government plan to lower them should be here before Christmas, as Guardian Australia continues. To get prices down, Chalmers is mulling a few options: something tax-y, some sort of subsidies to people or companies, and some sort of regulation. And a Voice to Parliament is our first priority, he stressed, though us becoming a republic is next. Oh, and Chalmers wants an Aussie on our $5 note now Queen Elizabeth is gone and Charles is king. The RBA is talking to the government about it.
CRACKS IN THE TAX
Here is a list of some of the companies that paid no income tax — zero dollars — to the Australian Tax Office last financial year, as per data collated by environmental expert Michael Mazengarb: AGL Energy, Woodside, Shell Energy, Santos, Chevron, BP, Glencore, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips. Ampol also didn’t pay any tax, and its gross income was more than $20 billion (delve into the ATO data here). The Australia Institute’s Polly Hemming noticed Santos running paid ads on Linkedin with well-designed graphics announcing it was “committed to tax transparency and paying our way”, and humble-bragging that it paid “A$528 million (including royalties and payroll tax)*”. What’s that wee little asterisk there, you may wonder? In small print: “Santos was still writing off losses from previous years in 2021, so had no Australian income tax liability.” Ah. Interestingly, Crikey’s Bernard Keane reports, it’s the big miners and banks that paid their way — BHP paid $10 billion (22% of its taxable income), Rio Tinto $6.2 billion (or 28% of its taxable income), Fortescue $5.8 billion (30%), CommBank $3.1 billion (29%) and Westpac $2.3 billion (30%).
Federal Industry Minister Ed Husic has slammed oil and gas companies for creating a “glut of greed problem”, the SMH reports, to which the boss of the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association (APPEA) called little more than “name-calling and sledging”. Yeah, prices are bad here, Samantha McCulloch says, but it’s worse overseas, about $6 more a gigajoule. It comes as natural gas prices have plunged in Europe by more than 70% below the record high in August, The New York Times reports. They’re still at a historic high, but extra supply has helped drive the price down, which brings us back to Husic’s point. Meanwhile, the UK subsidiary of Glencore has just been ordered to pay a record £281 million (about A$500 million) by a UK court because it bribed officials in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea and South Sudan. The Guardian reports Glencore employees actually flew cash bribes in on private jets, according to the UK fraud office.
CHEAP SHOTS
Former North Melbourne coach Dani Laidley is suing Victoria Police after she was photographed at Geelong racecourse last year and humiliated as a result, The Age reports. Laidley alleged a cop took her photo, and the images and transphobic comments were circulated on social media by Victoria Police. She’s pursuing injury and damages, but the police said it would be “vehemently defending the allegations”. The paper notes it’s the second time the former North Melbourne coach and player has taken legal action against Victoria Police after she was secretly photographed. Laidley said in November last year: “It goes to show you how much education is still required to allow transgender people to live their lives without barriers.”
To another photography story now and Queensland Transport Minister Mark Bailey has been told to delete a meme that showed a Halloween costume for “Queensland’s worst attorney-general” alongside a photo of Deputy Opposition Leader Jarrod Bleijie. The photo of Bleijie was snapped during Parliament, Brisbane Times reports, and you’re not allowed to use those photos for anything other than factual representation (who knew?). Bailey was like, fine, I’ll delete it, but this is an “antiquated residual rule” in the era of social media. He implied Bleijie was the source of the complaint about the meme. The pair have long had bad blood — the costume was posted to mark the 6.5-year anniversary of Bleijie quite literally wearing a stuffed rat on his shoulder to question time (as he asked the then police minister about whether he shot rats). Someone must’ve sent screengrabs — Bleijie blocked Bailey in early October, “a fact Bailey also shared in a post”, the paper noted. Staying in Queensland, a citizen wrote to Brisbane lord mayor Adrian Schrinner asking to call him “the Schrindog”. He checked Urban Dictionary for the definition, which was “definitely not a cat” and wrote back, yeah, you can call me that, as The Courier Mail reports, signing off “Adrian (The Schrindog)”.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Would you strip nude, starkers, naked as the day you were born, in the name of art? World-famous photographer Spencer Tunick is looking for at least 2000 Aussies to get nude for a photograph on an as-yet-unannounced beach on November 24. It’s nakedness for a good cause — Tunick wants to raise awareness about the importance of getting our skin checked. He loves coming here. “I’m honoured to visit and engage with my Australian friends again. Everyone is just so eager to get their kit off,” he tells 9News. What can we say, the breeze is good. Last time he was here in 2010, about 5500 turned up on a cold morning in March to pose starkers in front of the Sydney Opera House. Consider this your reminder to book in a skin check today, folks.
Meanwhile, the art world is reeling from another rather exposed moment — a painting has been hanging upside down for 75 years in major art galleries including in New York’s MoMA, a curator has declared. The work is an abstract painting of New York City, as The Guardian reports, by Dutch artist Piet Mondrian in 1945. Curator Susanne Meyer-Büser took one look at the colourful painting, now hanging in North Rhine-Westphalia in Düsseldorf, and announced: “I am 100% certain the picture is the wrong way around.” How did this happen? Some sloppy unbothered transit worker? A gallerina without any vision? In any case, it will not be turned the right way up. The tape is loose, and gravity would pull it from the other direction, the art world has declared. As with Tunick’s photographs, nothing to see here.
Hoping you feel unencumbered by the rules today, folks, and have a restful weekend.
SAY WHAT?
Then prime minister Scott Morrison was alone, really, among democratic leaders in not calling [the January 6 Capitol riot] out; in the UK, France, Germany, Canada, it was called out and it should have been.
Anthony Albanese
The PM slammed his predecessor as a global pariah in not condemning former US president Donald Trump for inspiring the riots on Washington’s Capitol Hill, filled with supporters who believed the presidential election had been stolen.
CRIKEY RECAP
‘I don’t have a problem’: ruing his fate, Hillsong’s Brian Houston seeks to set the record straight
“Houston’s brief address, down the barrel of a camera, was largely an explanation for past actions, with a dose of self-pity mixed with a cri de coeur for the loss of old friendships he and Bobbie had suffered since things went south with the Hillsong Church earlier this year.
“Houston’s Facebook appearance also coincided with a directions hearing this morning in a Sydney Magistrate’s Court where Houston faces charges that he concealed information on child sexual abuse committed by his late father, Frank. Brian Houston has previously strenuously denied the police case against him. He formally entered a not guilty plea in March.”
Cassius Turvey’s death has touched the nation, but will anything change?
“All I could think about was that kid. Somewhere between one and two years old, his jumper a knot of white and green and gold pearls. He never stopped. That teetering gait, bouncing through the crowds, followed an apologetic but quietly amused woman.
“He talked and squealed throughout, pawing at invisible playmates and toys in the air, his eyes lively and restless as candle flames, a small shock of concentrated life. The man lifting him to his shoulders kept silent himself, his smile was subdued, but never once told the kid to be quiet.”
News Corp and fossil fuel giants top the list for not paying tax, ATO report shows
“Coal giant Glencore — currently being prosecuted in the UK for paying massive bribes — paid zero tax on more than $2.8 billion in taxable income, off more than $16 billion in revenue. This was the first time in recent years the multinational has paid no tax, after paying nearly $600 million in 2019-20.
“Bluescope Steel, a serial non-payer (it last paid tax in 2017) and beneficiary of government largesse, paid no tax on more than $600 million in taxable income. Another regular non-payer, Alumina Ltd, similarly paid no tax on nearly $350 million. Fossil fuel giant and major climate culprit Woodside claimed to have made only $157 million off $6.7 billion in revenue and paid no tax.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Mexico succession puts scientist on path to be first woman president (Reuters)
Annual inflation in Turkey reaches record 25-year high of 85.5% (EuroNews)
UK has ‘no plans’ to move Israel embassy to Jerusalem: PM office (Al Jazeera)
Imran Khan, ex-prime minister of Pakistan, is shot [in leg] at rally (The New York Times)
Immigration officials say [Canadian] Pelosi attacker was in US illegally (CNN)
Canada orders China to divest from country’s mining companies (The Guardian)
[Benjamin] Netanyahu set to seal victory, returning him to power within weeks (The New York Times)
Bank of England raises key interest rate by 0.75 point [from 2.25% to 3%] (The Wall Street Journal)
THE COMMENTARIAT
If we went to war, our ammo would not last a week — Alan Dupont (The Australian) ($): “Our vulnerability to supply-chain disruptions and the weakness of our defence industrial base could be fatal in a time of rising conflict and heightened geopolitical risk. On the opportunity side a robust, export-generating defence industry can help provide the jobs and smart skills that Anthony Albanese says he wants. An urgent task is to ramp up our stocks of munitions and consider co-production with allies beyond the remit of the newly established Australian Missile Corporation, which appears to have run into bureaucratic and technology transfer headwinds. High-intensity conflict of the kind we are witnessing daily in Ukraine is essentially industrial warfare. The country, or alliance, that can deliver the biggest punch and outlast adversaries in a protracted war will be victorious.
“Right now, that isn’t Australia or our principal allies. US annual production of 155mm artillery shells would last only two weeks at Ukraine rates of expenditure. In a recent simulated wargame based on Ukraine, Britain ran out of ammunition after eight days. Australian stocks are unlikely to last even that long … We are already competitive in many areas of design, innovation, advanced manufacturing and R&D. Radars, military vehicles, additive manufacturing, quantum computing and small satellites are representative. But pockets of excellence and niche capabilities aren’t enough. The answer is to scale up and join up, emulating South Korea’s approach.”
After the loss of a dear friend I am angry I caved in to the social pressure to not take as many photos — Isabelle Oderberg (The Guardian): “But more and more, especially when I’m out with friends, I’ve tried my best to put down my phone, because I don’t want to seem rude or invasive. But now I am angry. I am so angry that I caved to the pressure of trying not to take as many photos and ‘live in the moment’. A few weeks ago, we lost a dear, beloved friend. He was far too young to leave us, and it was an earth-shattering shock. As we tried to process his death, I started looking for photos. I pored over the album of polaroids that guests took at our wedding. The photos from my husband’s bucks’ night. The sparse snaps of a big fishing trip my husband planned with my brother. Not one photo of him at any of these things exist.
“One photo I did find was of him at my son’s birthday party, sneaked in just before the pandemic lockdowns started in Melbourne. I was so happy when I found it, his arm lovingly placed around his beloved fiancé. But here’s the irony: he was wearing a Hulk costume, complete with mask, and I couldn’t see his beautiful face. Life is short, blah blah blah. But, really, it is. And losing this friend has been a reminder that life is also painfully fragile. Oh, don’t worry. I can hear you naysayers: ‘But what if I don’t want my photo taken! What if I don’t want to be plastered all over social media?’ I’m not talking about social media. I’m talking about photos just for you. Photos you can put in your vault (or better yet in virtual storage) until you need them one day. I hope you never do, but you might.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Yuggera Country (also known as Brisbane)
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Poet Janaka Malwatta will discuss his new anthology, blackbirds don’t mate with starlings, at Avid Reader bookshop. You can also catch this online.
Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)
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Expert foodies Nornie Bero, Alice Zaslavsky, and host Jaclyn Crupi will chat about cultural and personal influences in the culinary world over a seasonal lunch prepared with Indigenous Australian ingredients, held at Big Esso.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Musicians Guy Strazz and Mark Johns will perform as part of Glebe Music Festival, held at Glee Books.
