RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION BILL SHELVED
The Coalition has shelved its contentious religious discrimination bill indefinitely, breaking an election promise once and for all, after Canberra’s leaky pipes revealed Prime Minister Scott Morrison tried and failed to sweeten the deal with the federal ICAC, as The Australian ($) reports — another broken promise.
The horse-trade offer wasn’t enough to stop five Liberal MPs deserting Morrison in the lower house to vote with Labor on protecting trans children from school expulsion — then, Senator Andrew Bragg said he was going to do likewise in the upper house, as the SMH reports, the last nail in the coffin for Morrison’s failed religious discrimination bill which got chopped up and sent to an inquiry instead.
So why has this dominated some of the last sitting days of parliament when the federal corruption watchdog remains waiting in the wings? Good question. Morrison tried to use ICAC as a chaser at Monday night’s partyroom meeting to get the votes for the religious discrimination bill, with one eye on Tasmania’s Bridget Archer, but MPs “erupted” with concern after he put forward the idea, the Oz ($) continues. Now, with just a week of sittings left before the budget (March 29) and the election campaign afterwards, as Guardian Australia writes, both of Morrison’s 2019 election promises appear dead in the water.
ONE JAB, TWO JAB, THREE JAB, LAW.
Fully vaccinated should mean three jabs — that was the official advice the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) gave to national cabinet yesterday, the AFR reports, but the independent body recommended not calling it “fully vaccinated” anymore, rather “up to date”, as Herald Sun ($) continues.
So what happens now? Well, state and territory leaders have the power to change their definition for the 16+ cohort. Aged care workers across the country will be required to get three jabs, but it’s up to the states and territories if they want to go further than that, The Age continues, like mandating three for hospitality workers, for example. But probably wait ’til March before making any changes, the ATAGI told leaders.
Victoria’s already requiring three jabs in healthcare and social service jobs, but those workers have got ’til mid-March to do so. Premier Dan Andrews also wants international arrivals to be triple-jabbed, as Herald Sun reports, but Queensland counterpart Annastacia Palaszczuk says they’re fine with just the two. The independent vaccine body is mulling over whether the vulnerable will need a fourth shot ahead of winter too, when some are warning of a second wave of Omicron, as news.com.au reports.
A CLIMATE OF CONCERN
Koalas are officially endangered, The New Daily reports, with Environment Minister Sussan Ley to confirm today they’d been downgraded in NSW, Queensland and ACT as per the Threatened Species Scientific Committee’s advice. An endangered listing means a species is at high risk of extinction in the short term. Ley will urge states to sign up to a $50 million national recovery plan, citing the Black Summer bushfires and ongoing habitat loss, The Brisbane Times continues.
In more positive news, AGL Energy says it may close two of the country’s biggest coal plants faster considering how cheap renewables are getting, The Australian ($) reports. Yesterday they said they’ll close one ahead of schedule in the Hunter Valley by 2030, and another in Victoria by 2040, but both could be closed even earlier, the AGL boss flagged. Both plants will actually become either hydrogen or battery energy hubs, according to AGL.
Also from the Oz ($) today is a remarkable story about the Australians trading solar — people can actually sell their solar energy back to the grid, meaning Pascal Rodrigue hasn’t paid an electricity bill in three years. He has this network of batteries that are intellectualised by an algorithm reading the weather and feeding the energy back into the grid when energy is in demand (like when everyone flips on their air conditioner on a hot day). Could solar be the new crypto?
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
A security guard turns up for his first day working at an art gallery in Yekaterinburg, Russia. It’s a whole lot of standing and staring, long stretches of nothing much, and he tries to pass the time as best as one can when one’s job is to, well, stand and stare. Eventually, his attention turns to a painting nearby aptly entitled “Three Figures”. It’s literally just that — three semicircles in beige, black and blue purporting to be the shoulders, and three partially shaded necks sitting on faces that the artist didn’t even draw any facial features on. So the security guard — allegedly, mind — doodles eyes onto the faces with a pen.
Shortly after, two visitors stroll the halls of the gallery considering the paintings. They are scandalised, nay outraged, when they notice someone had desecrated the Soviet-era painting with a couple of nicely-spaced cartoon eyes. The security guard has since been fired. At first, the cops were like, big deal, you got the pen off. But they’ve since relented and opened a criminal investigation. “His motives are still unknown but the administration believes it was some kind of a lapse in sanity,” the gallery’s boss says primly.
Hoping your smiles are abundant this Friday, and have a restful weekend ahead.
SAY WHAT?
We now see evidence, Mr Speaker, that the Chinese Communist party, the Chinese government, has also made a decision about who they’re going to back in the next federal election, Mr Speaker, and that is open and that is obvious, and they have picked this bloke [Anthony Albanese] as that candidate.
Peter Dutton
The defence minister says he didn’t make any allegations about the leader of the opposition being the preferred pick of China’s government when he claimed the leader of the opposition was the preferred pick of China’s government.
CRIKEY RECAP
The Oz publishes 31-year-old ‘exclusive’ on red Albo as Save Our ScoMo hits top gear
“The story pointer is a promise of fresh revelations about the opposition leader who ‘sharply criticised capitalism and family wealth as causes of social injustice’ and took aim at ‘incomes over $100,000’.
“It’s only when you click to the body of the story that you discover the source of Markson’s exclusive: Albanese had made the ‘previously unreported remarks’ in the early 1990s when he was assistant general secretary of NSW Labor. And those evil $100,000 a year income earners? Well that too was 1991, when the average Sydney house price was $184,000. More damning evidence?”
Fake, international Facebook accounts behind the Convoy to Canberra protests
“The one remaining alternative Facebook group for the protests has a single administrator: James Rhondes, of Ottawa, according to his Facebook account. This account also posted in a now-removed Facebook group for the Canadian protests, Google search results show.
“Searches using major search engines and social media platforms don’t show any other evidence of someone with that name living in Ottawa. The Facebook account, which appears to have existed since at least March 2021, has almost no posts or engagement on those posts.”
MAFS draws the crowds, but it’s racist rubbish
“The rubbish, racist comments Cody made about Selina should not have aired. It’s not the first time the producers have allowed him to be a grub about Selina. It was a serious misjudgement by Nine and the producers who have shown they have no understanding the damage implicit racism causes (comments like ‘I’m not a racist …’ from Cody are just that). Grubby TV from Nine.
“The night session of the games averaged 844,000, the evening 767,000, and the late 596,000. On the ABC, Hard Quiz with 803,000 and Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell with 707,000 were solid against MAFS and the games.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Libya: Tobruk parliament names new PM, fuelling division (Al Jazeera)
Johnson broke law over No 10 parties, says ex-PM Sir John Major (BBC)
Police arrest 122 [New Zealand] Parliament trespassers, warn removal ‘will take some time’ (Stuff)
New revelations betray depth of Trump’s post-election schemes (CNN)
Afghanistan, Myanmar rank worst in world democracy index as Australia keeps ninth place (SBS)
US inflation hits highest level in 40 years in January as prices rise 7.5% from 2021 (The Guardian)
Yemen civilian deaths double since UN monitors removed: NGO (Al Jazeera)
Protesters block major Canada-US border crossing in Manitoba (CBC)
Prince Charles tests positive for the coronavirus for the second time. (The New York Times)
Snoop Dogg acquires Death Row Records (BBC)
THE COMMENTARIAT
I grew up in a Christian school — and the religious discrimination bill must be scrapped to protect our children — Anthony N Castle (Guardian Australia): “Queer teenagers are five times more likely to have attempted suicide in their lifetimes and suicide is already the single biggest killer of young people in Australia. For queer young people in non-affirming religious schools, the government’s legislation will increase this risk. If some religious schools are harmful for the vulnerable, a suicide risk for children, how can our law empower that?
“If the religious discrimination bill can’t promise safety, then it should be abandoned. The fight to amend the legislation now moves to the Senate and it is time for the major parties to reject it, and to start discussing a comprehensive Human Rights Act that offers safety to all teachers and students. Our laws must protect us all equally, and no true religion discriminates.”
Investors deliver Frydenberg a proxy lesson — John Kehoe (The AFR): “The Senate overturning Josh Frydenberg’s short-lived investor reforms on proxy advice and superannuation fund disclosure delivers the Treasurer a valuable lesson on ramming heavy-handed regulation through the back door. Frydenberg never made a compelling case to impose all four regulations relating to proxy firms, who advise institutional investors on how to vote on executive remuneration, director appointments and other environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) matters …
“Yet institutional investors, including superannuation funds and other fund managers, are an important part of the business community and capitalist economy and hold company directors and executives to account for their use of shareholder funds. They are, after all, the owners of the capital, including on behalf of millions of Australian super fund members … Several of the proxy changes appeared to be solutions searching for a perceived or theoretical problem that the government and business failed to provide comprehensive, real-life evidence of.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Online
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Writer Laura Elvery is in conversation with author Fiona Robertson discussing the latter’s short story collection If You’re Happy.
Kaurna Country (also known as Adelaide)
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South Australian Department of Premier and Cabinet chief executive Nick Reade will speak about making government easier to do business with at a CEDA event at the Hilton.
Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)
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Franklin Women Founder Melina Georgousakis is among the speakers at the International Day of Women and Girls in Science panel discussion at the University of Canberra.
Yuggera Country (also known as Brisbane)
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Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge will be the principal celebrant when Martin Daubney will be installed as Australian Catholic University’s fifth Chancellor at an installation Mass.
