LIBS OFFER NO PARTY FAVOURS
The Liberals should not use quotas to get more female MPs into federal Parliament, according to a review of the party’s dismal May election result, the SMH reports. Out of 48 Liberal MPs, just nine are women (19%), down from 13 in the Morrison ministry. Compare that with Labor’s 77 MPs, of whom 35 are women (45%). Labor has had quotas in winnable seats since the mid-’90s, but I guess that’s just a coincidence. Former party director Brian Loughnane and Liberal Senator Jane Hume led the review, which reportedly recommends targets, not quotas. Ironically it comes after the federal Liberals urged their Victorian counterparts to work on attracting female voters, Guardian Australia reports, after the party returned its lowest primary vote since the 1952 state election. Hume actually told the ABC yesterday that it was important to improve “representation within the party” but called quotas a “blunt solution”. Uhuh.
Meanwhile former PM Scott Morrison and former foreign affairs minister Marise Payne will appear before the robodebt royal commission, the SMH reports. It’s according to a source close to the commission, the paper says, who claimed the pair will be “compelled” to front the hearings. Morrison will appear in the second two-week block of hearings, which begin on December 5, it adds. It comes as Morrison will be formally censured today by the House of Reps over his hoarding of five portfolios without telling all the ministers he was doing so. Yesterday the former PM thanked his Coalition colleagues for not supporting the censure motion, as the ABC reports, although at least one Liberal MP, Bridget Archer, will break ranks with her party on it. The Tasmanian, who crossed the floor in support of a federal integrity commission in 2021 (which just passed the Senate!) as well as the religious discrimination bill and the 43% reduction in emissions target, said it would be “extreme hypocrisy” for her to do anything else.
CLASH OF VOICES
Nationals MP Andrew Gee has broken ranks with his party in confirming he will support the Indigenous Voice to Parliament as a “long-time supporter” of the concept, Guardian Australia reports, and the WA Nationals Leader, Mia Davies, confirmed her state party’s support, too. It comes after federal Nationals Leader David Littleproud announced his party would oppose the First Nations constitutional recognition, while Liberal Leader Peter Dutton said his party hadn’t decided yet. Country Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has long been opposed to the Voice, as Sky News reports. She says it’s “not racist to disagree” with the proposal, and argues it would “divide us along the lines of race”.
Even if one doesn’t agree with her, Price, a former Alice Springs deputy mayor, made some points worth listening to… which were let down by a personal attack on Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney this week. While criticising the Voice, Price claimed Burney wore Gucci on a visit to a remote community — for dramatic effect, one assumes. Burney’s team said she does not own, nor did she wear, any products from the luxury brand. Littleproud was like, gah, Price went too far, as the Daily Mail reports, saying he thought her comments were not “helpful”. So what would the Voice achieve? ABC’s 7.30 spoke to an Indigenous principal, health program manager, and entrepreneur about their thoughts — all were cautiously optimistic about the representation and trickle-down effect for First Nations peoples, although all wanted more information. Burney has confirmed no public money will be used in either the yes or no campaign.
TAKING A STAND
The Albanese government is thinking about limiting how much China can invest in Australia’s $20 billion critical mineral industry for national security reasons, The Australian ($) reports. It follows Canada’s government ordering Chinese companies to give up shares in lithium for a carefully worded “national interest” reason, Reuters adds. China has a near-monopoly on the minerals used for renewable energy products like electric vehicles and batteries used in fighter planes, as well as mobile phones, and there are fears a conflict between Beijing and Taiwan would see the world cut off from the things it needs to decarbonise. Meanwhile protests are raging in China over the government’s snap lockdowns — the ABC spoke to several protesters who shared chilling insights into the saga. One man, who spent more than 70 days inside his home this year because of lockdowns, told the broadcaster he saw police beating people on the side of the road.
Back home now and the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) could suspend the Nursing Federation (ANF) WA’s union registration after thousands of its members went on strike last week over pay and conditions disputes, WA Today reports. The government won’t budge on its offer of a yearly 3% rise, a $1200 mentoring allowance for some nurses, and a one-off $3000 cost-of-living payment, so hordes of overworked WA healthcare staff walked out on Friday, with some gathering at Parliament House before marching to the health minister’s office at nearby Dumas House. The IRC said the strike was unlawful — now it’s summoned ANF secretary Janet Reah and legal services director Belinda Burke to tell them why the union should get to keep its registration.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Pro surfer Matt Formston was just five when his dad first pushed him into the chilly surf at Narrabeen in Sydney. He “learnt to feel the wave”, he remembers, using “sound and feel” to paddle out the back. The first time he stood up on a surfboard, he fell flat on his face. But the determined kid wasn’t going to let anything stop him from paddling out again — surfing felt like walking, like something innate, he tells Guardian Australia. Formston has since won four world championships and a bunch of national surfing titles, surfing truly monstrous swells up and down our east coast. His next stop is Nazaré in Portugal, home to some of the most enormous — and terrifying — waves in the world. Formston’s many impressive achievements are even more astounding when one learns that he is completely blind.
It’s hard to imagine taking on the ocean without the use of sight, but Formston compares it with surfing at dusk, when hordes of surfers will stick around if the swell’s good. For fun, Formston recently paddled out with Layne Beachley while she was wearing goggles that obscured her vision. She marvelled to him that she had this curious sense of lift on the waves, like she was floating. Formston says it requires one to be in a state of flow with the ocean: “I’m just feeling it as I go — I’m completely connected”. It’s kind of beautiful, he adds. He still wipes out a lot, he admits, “but that’s part and parcel of being a blind surfer”. He’s hoping that taking on Portugal will embolden others who feel held back — “If I can surf Nazaré, it shows that anything is possible for people with disability,” he says. Like so many things in life, he continues, sometimes you’ve just got to go for it. “You either get out there and give it a crack or sit in your room and don’t do it.”
Hoping you feel brave today too.
SAY WHAT?
[Linda Burney] might be able to take a private jet out into a remote community, dripping with Gucci, and tell people in the dirt what’s good for them — but they are in the dark, and they have been in the dark.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price
While slamming the Indigenous Voice to Parliament proposal, the NT Country Liberal senator criticised the Indigenous Australians minister for being out of touch. Burney’s camp said she doesn’t own any Gucci products, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said when people get that personal, it shows “they do not have an argument of substance”.
CRIKEY RECAP
A monument to the tragedy of Jeff Kennett
“Labor’s extremely comfortable victory in Saturday’s Victorian election means that Dan Andrews might be immortalised in bronze some time in the next four years, a phrase which we assume is whispered in Peta Credlin’s ear by her most terrifying sleep paralysis demons …
“But surely no one could be more upset about all this than former premier and Crikey‘s estranged granddad Jeff Kennett. Kennett has been one of Andrews’ most strident critics throughout the COVID era. Who can forget, among many, many other of the nigh on incomprehensible warnings in August last year …”
Is the end of Home and Away getting closer each day?
“Seven’s night from Nine, the ABC and SBS. Home and Away’s final 90-minute ep attracted 714,000 — that should worry Seven as Home and Away has gone flat in the back half of the year, but the finale’s numbers helped Seven win the night after its 6-7pm news slayed Nine (1.441 million average for Seven’s news hour, just 955,000 for Nine).
“Media Watch’s promotion to 8.30pm, with Four Corners on hols, got a very favourable reaction: 814,000 national viewers. Dare the ABC make the change permanent in 2023? Viewers seem to be happy. Serbia and Cameroon — a battle royale, a great, great game — drew 486,000 viewers nationally.”
To resurrect themselves, the Victorian Liberals must remember what ‘liberalism’ means, for a start
“A state that could have been won for the Liberal Party as a natural party of government with a mix of liberal-conservative economic policies and a steadied, very moderate progressivism is instead owned by Labor with the rainbow bulldozer formula.
“Labor privatises everything not nailed down (and much that is); fills the economic demand gap with vast public works, subcontracted to private mega-corps that get property development rights in exchange; and combines repressive police laws with social liberal policies such as assisted dying and renaming yourself Sparkle Unicorn on your birth certificate.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Less than half of England and Wales population Christian, census 2021 shows (BBC)
UK summons Chinese ambassador after arrest of BBC journalist (Al Jazeera)
‘Racist’ interview with Pope Francis causes fury in Russia (The Guardian)
Migrants survive sitting on rudder as ship arrives in Spain’s Canary Islands (EuroNews)
Jewish allies call Trump’s dinner with anti-Semites a breaking point (The New York Times)
‘Exposed to horrendous things’: young people in UK speak out against evangelical church (The Guardian)
India asked by sanctions-hit Russia for parts for key sectors (Reuters)
FIFA opens disciplinary case against Croatia for fan taunts of Canadian goalkeeper Milan Borjan (CBC)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Cut-price Teslas: salary packaging of electric vehicles set to surge — John Collett (The Age): “Under the change, FBT will not be applied to EVs that have a purchase price of less than $84,916. Plug-in hybrids up to the same purchase price will also be FBT exempt, but only up to April 1 2025. The change will widen the appeal of packaging EVs for workers whose employers offer salary packaging of cars, as the tax had previously made it not worthwhile to package expensive cars.
“Cars are packaged through a novated lease, which is a three-way contract between the employee, the employer and a specialist salary packaging company, which also arranges the finance. The most popular term for a novated lease is between three and five years. At the end of the lease, the employee either leases the same vehicle again or upgrades to a new car with another lease. Employees who retire or leave their employer before the end of the lease, or whose lease ends, pay the ‘residual’, which is the final lump sum payment, to take full possession of the car.”
Pearson’s tragic tirade slurs the Voice — Amanda Stoker (The AFR): “I can hardly think of a more insulting way to describe this smart, capable, Aboriginal woman [Jacinta Nampijinpa Price], who has spoken and acted with consistency and sincerity on this important issue (and many others) since well before she became a senator. Indeed, it seems like Pearson may be prepared to metaphorically ‘punch down on other blacks’ who disagree with him …
“Yet Pearson constructed the Nationals’ view as ‘completely inconsistent with the history of the National Party members’ respectful engagement with the idea of a Voice’. Implicit in his conclusion is the view that one cannot be respectful unless they ultimately agree with him. In truth, the most respectful thing an elected representative can do is engage with the community they represent, consider the views of lobbyists like Pearson, listen to the membership of the party to which they belong, and then, considering that research, make the best policy decision of which their conscience and intellect is capable.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Online
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Australian National University’s Hugh White, former China correspondent Michael Sainsbury, and journalist Quentin Dempster will explore China’s geopolitical tensions with us and others, in a webinar.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Journalist Margot Saville will launch the fourth book in The Crikey Read series, The Teal Revolution, where she explores the independent uprising in the federal election and where to next. This will be held at Glee Books.
Yuggera Country (also known as Brisbane)
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Former ABC Landline producer Kerry Lonergan and author Sally Warriner will chat about the latter’s memoir, Not Just the Wife of the General Manager, at Avid Reader bookshop.
Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)
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Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins will speak to the National Press Club.
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Guardian Australia’s Katharine Murphy will speak about her Quarterly Essay, Lone Wolf: Albanese and the new politics, held at ANU.
