WORK WORK WORK
Prime Minister Scott Morrison will reportedly promise 1.3 million jobs over five years, an only slightly inflated echo of what Treasurer Josh Frydenberg already promised in December (1 million in four years), the SMH reports. The paper continues that it also rings of Morrison’s January 2019 pledge to create 1.25 million jobs over five years and make Australia net debt-free by 2030, as ABC reports, which we aren’t exactly on track for — so far we’ve seen only 513,000 new jobs in three years and our eyewatering debt will be almost 30% of GDP by 2030. And yet Albo hasn’t got it right either, AFR reports this morning. It says Labor leader Anthony Albanese claims that workforce casualisation is on the up and up are wrong, citing ABS data showing the share of casual employment was 22.8% in February — down 1.3% since the same time last year.
It’s a new day for Albanese who will continue his jaunt through Tasmania with a promise to put online appointments for mental health back on Medicare in the regions. In December, the Morrison government cut a scheme that allowed regional Australians to bulk-bill psychiatry consultations, as Crikey reports, but Albo wants to bring it back — pledging $31.3 million over four years to cover nearly half a million consultations. No doubt Morrison will dine out on Albanese’s cash and unemployment rate gaffe yesterday for days — maybe weeks — but he’s hardly the first to misspeak on the campaign trail, The Australian ($) says. In 2006, Kim Beazley confused US presidential adviser Karl Rove with Rove McManus when he was extending sympathies over McManus’ late wife Belinda Emmett. Yikes. In 2014, Joe Hockey told ABC the “poorest people” in Australia either don’t have cars or drive far. Wowza. Indeed in 2019, Morrison said “ni hao” to a woman who responded, “I’m Korean,” the Oz ($) says.
MORRISON BACKS TRANS SPORTS BAN
Scott Morrison has backed a ban that would stop transwomen from competing in women’s sports, The Australian ($) reports. He endorsed Liberal Warringah candidate Katherine Deves’ mission to rule the community out of sports, with the PM saying “she’s standing up for something really important”. Deves, the co-founder of the Save Women’s Sport organisation, is actually one of Morrison’s 12 hand-picked candidates amid the factional stoush within the NSW Liberal Party, and is running against independent MP Zali Steggall in former PM Tony Abbott’s seat of Warringah.
Morrison also backed Tasmanian Liberal senator Claire Chandler, who advanced private member’s legislation that would give sporting groups permission to exclude transgender people from single-sex sports. The bill seeks to amend the Sex Discrimination Act to “clarify” that such a thing would not be discriminatory, Guardian Australia reports. Equality Australia, a national LGBTIQA+ advocacy group, says it’s dangerous to use the trans community as a “political football”, ABC reports. Besides, there are more than 850,000 LGBTIQA+ voters, representing about 5% of the 17 million people enrolled to vote — so “commit to governing for all Australians”, the advocacy group urged leaders.
A BUMP IN THE ROAD
The Northern Land Council says the AEC should do more to enrol people in Indigenous communities, The New Daily reports. The council is calling for the automatic enrolment policy to capture 30% of eligible residents who remain not on the roll. “Any policy that diminishes the democratic rights of one group of citizens diminishes the rights of everyone,” a representative says.
Staying in the NT, some $32.2 million in taxpayer funds has gone into the Northern Territory’s road to nowhere, the NT News reports. The NT government poured money into upgrading Gunn Point Road to help boost Darwin’s $1.45 billion Project Sea Dragon — it was supposed to be the world’s largest prawn farm, but Seafarms admitted it was not really worth it anymore. NT bureaucrats who reportedly raised the alarm about the project getting funding so early would be feeling vindicated — NT pledged $56 million, the Commonwealth $63.45 million, and the WA government $15 million before the prawn project stalled. At least the road looks good.
Meanwhile there is anxiety over a controversial plan to extend irrigated agriculture in the Top End’s tropical savannah, Guardian Australia reports. Here’s what happened: in February, the NT government released 67,500 hectares of land for the farming industry to grow fruit, nuts, and cotton, even though a 2019 government feasibility study found only a tiny bit was viable for that use. Much of the area is threaded with rivers teeming with rich understudied biodiversity, and environmentalists say it sets a dangerous precedent for water extraction. It’s also home to several Indigenous sacred sites, and environmentalists say there’s not even a public business case yet.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
It was a multi-million dollar heist that captivated a nation, the biggest in Canadian history, a job some compare to 1978’s Lufthansa heist. It was 2012 when a French-Canadian man Michel Gauvreau began a routine annual inventory. He discovered empty barrel after empty barrel, 10,000 in total. Thieves had made off with some 12.5% of the entire world’s reserve, with a street value of an incredible $18 million. The loot in question? Maple syrup. It became known as the Great Maple Syrup Heist, and it baffled Quebec investigators. What type of sick bastard would steal maple syrup, they wondered, and how the heck would they transport all that sticky stuff anyway?
Police spared no expense, interrogating some 300 people and doling out 40 search warrants. Quebec’s syrup cartel — the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers — was livid. The cartel controls 72% of the world’s maple syrup, and yet it had been pinched from right under its nose. In 2016, a man named Richard Vallières was found guilty of the egregious crime against pancakes, having trafficked some 9500 barrels of syrup. He was sentenced to eight years in the big house. Fast forward to now and Canada’s highest court has ordered him to pay a $9.1 million fine too — about the same amount Vallières made when he sold the hot maple syrup on the black market. So why’d he do it? Simple, he told the parole board: revenge. The cartel had gone mad with power, he said, and him flooding the market with stolen syrup saw the high unit price plummet.
Wishing you a sweet Tuesday morning, folks.
SAY WHAT?
The national unemployment rate at the moment is… I think it’s five point… four… sorry, I’m not sure what it is.
Anthony Albanese
The Labor Leader was left red-faced when he drew a blank about the cash rate (0.1%) and unemployment rate (4% as of February) yesterday. Albanese later admitted the errors, saying he’s “human” and “accepts responsibility”, continuing that owning our bungles is “what leaders do”. He had an unlikely supporter in former Liberal PM John Howard (who also misstated the cash rate back in 2007) who said: so Albanese forgot it, “All right. So what?”. It follows Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s own gotcha! moment earlier this year when he couldn’t say the price of milk, petrol, or RATs.
CRIKEY RECAP
Labor gaffes kick off election campaign, but Coalition weaknesses still exposed
“But Albo’s miss could prove costly under the constant media glare of the campaign, particularly with the Coalition hammering the opposition leader on his ‘never having held a Treasury portfolio’ and relentlessly trying to frame Labor as incompetent on handling of the economy.
“In light of another Newspoll showing a slight drop in Labor’s primary vote, it’s another sign that despite the opposition’s strong position, there’s still plenty of time ’til election day. Unforced errors like this one over the six-week stretch might be a struggling government’s best hope at holding on.”
Long campaign key to Morrison’s govern-from-opposition strategy
“But Scott Morrison isn’t in government. Or at least, he won’t campaign as the government. He’ll enjoy all the benefits of being in government — being called ‘prime minister’, controlling the country’s finances so he can pork-barrel key seats — but as in 2019 he’ll be campaigning as opposition leader against Labor.
“In 2019 Morrison campaigned as though it was Labor that was in government and needed its policies scrutinised, while he gave up any pretence that he was actually governing. He offered no agenda or vision, merely a series of scare campaigns about Labor policies and a daggy dad persona designed to appeal to disengaged voters.”
Independent Senator Rex Patrick lays out integrity platform calling for greater political transparency
“Patrick’s list starts with a serious federal integrity commission — now off the agenda of the Coalition — that would hold public hearings. He also wants a legislated code of conduct for MPs and senators, backed by a parliamentary ethics commissioner empowered to provide advice to individual MPs and the Parliament as a whole on the implementation and compliance with the code of conduct and any other ethical questions that relate to the duties and responsibilities of parliamentarians.
“Patrick also wants publication of ministerial diaries, with diaries and appointment lists to be regularly tabled in Parliament (with only national security exemptions), as well as a lobbyist register for every lobbyist with access to Parliament House, along with which parliamentarian has sponsored their parliamentary pass.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Sweden’s ruling party launches debate on NATO membership (Al Jazeera)
Macron to face Le Pen for President as French gravitate toward extremes (The New York Times)
Elon Musk will not join Twitter board, says boss (BBC)
Black Power members allowed to work as security guards, [NZ] tribunal rules (Stuff)
Pakistan assembly elects Shehbaz Sharif as new prime minister (The Guardian)
Zelenskyy: Tens of thousands killed in besieged Mariupol (Al Jazeera)
Mexico president López Obrador wins recall referendum amid low turnout (The Guardian)
Etsy sellers strike as site ramps up to battle Amazon (The Wall Street Journal) ($)
Russia has defaulted on its foreign debt, says S&P (CNN)
Biden to announce new gun regulation and name ATF nominee (CNN)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Racism in Australia is about the structures that ensure non-white people don’t get a fair go — Antoinette Lattouf (Guardian Australia): “This is because our government, media and courts are dominated and run by white people, despite the fact an estimated 24% of Australians are Indigenous or non-European (not Anglo, European or white). The term “ethnocracy” was coined by the Israeli geographer Oren Yiftachel to explain regimes which claim to be democratic, but are clearly ruled by a particular ethnic group.
“It was first used to describe the substantial power imbalance between Jews and Palestinians as well as the ethnically based laws in the Israel-occupied West Bank. In an ethnocracy, a single ethnic or religious grouping dominates and uses this power to maintain the control and oppression of others. Those who don’t fit the mould are excluded. Since Federation in 1901, Australia was designed to ensure people of British descent would be able to create a society populated by individuals as much like themselves as possible. Back then, policies and laws were explicitly racist, like assimilation for Indigenous people and the White Australia Policy. Today, the language has changed yet many of the same pillars of power are still intact.”
Nation’s sour mood belies our many riches — Greg Sheridan (The Australian) ($): “So why are we sour? Partly, people are feeling cost rises. But I think underneath there is a formless sense that something in our national circumstances is wrong. For a start, we have apparently put a permanent end to economic reform that lifts productivity. COVID, Ukraine and a raft of other factors mean commodity prices have soared. So we are wealthy just like other commodity exporters. John Howard left us with so much money in the bank, and such a good credit rating, that we can live for a while longer on the credit card. As Adam Smith put it, “there’s a great deal of ruin in a nation”, meaning it takes a long time to impoverish a wealthy society.
“There’s an unease, too, that we’ve spent $300b and more on COVID largesse and got nothing of consequence for it; certainly no new defence capability. At some level we are inchoately aware that we are sailing on a sea of contradictions. Our wealth comes from commodities and is still disproportionately dependent on China. Yet we now face, because of China, as Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton frequently remind us, the most dangerous and uncertain strategic environment since World War II. Yet we are doing nothing of consequence about this.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)
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Labor MP Andrew Leigh and Liberal MP Kacey Lam-Evans will have a lively debate about key policies ahead of the May election at the East Hotel.
Yuggera Country (also known as Brisbane)
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Authors Matthew Ricketson and Patrick Mullins will speak about their book, Who Needs the ABC? why taking it for granted is no longer an option at Avid Reader bookshop. You can catch this one online.
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Former treasurer and former Australian ambassador to the US Joe Hockey will launch his new book Diplomatic: A Washington Memoir at the Centre for Independent Studies. You can also catch this one online.
