Friday, November 29, 2019
Westpac double standard inspires crossbench revolt
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said an inadequate response to the Westpac scandal prompted her surprise blocking of the Morrison government’s crackdown on unions. Hanson, who with fellow One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts, unexpectedly voted with Labor, the Greens, and independent Jacqui Lambie against the reforms after the government had accepted her amendments to the bill, said the Prime Minister’s handling of the Westpac money-laundering scandal was “not good enough”. “Clean up the white-collar crime, go after the banking officials and prove to the people of Australia that you're here for everyone,” Hanson said. Labor and unions had made the Westpac comparison a key element of the campaign against the legislation. Attorney-General Christian Porter said the government intended to reintroduce it “at an appropriate time” in the future. “It's for Pauline Hanson to explain why she voted against a bill that met every requirement she sought through extensive consultation,” Porter said.
Medevac repeal: The defeat on unions comes ahead of the Morrison government attempt to win the crossbench over to its repeal of medical evacuation laws for asylum seekers. Lambie said she was willing to support the rollback provided one condition was met, which she would not discuss publicly. “There's a game of trust there between myself, the PM and Minister Dutton and I will not put that at risk,” she said on Thursday. Media reports tied the condition to resettling asylum seekers in offshore detention in New Zealand. In news related to medevac, the Federal Court has unanimously dismissed a federal government appeal against a ruling that the government must consider medical transfer applications from asylum seekers in Nauru who have been prevented from having teleconsultations with Australian doctors. The Nauruan government had imposed regulations keeping refugees from consulting with doctors registered overseas. The Human Rights Law Centre said the Federal Court’s unanimous ruling on Thursday highlights the government’s “bloody-mindedness”.
Labor blocks Taylor travel: Guardian Australia reports that Labor has denied Environment Minister Angus Taylor a parliamentary pair to attend energy and climate events in Europe next week, due to the police investigation into the origins of a doctored document he used to attack the lord mayor of Sydney. Meanwhile, The Age reports that Trade Minister Simon Birmingham intends to fight back against a French initiative to force Australia to adopt climate change targets in free-trade negotiations with the European Union. “We're completely committed to meeting our [Paris climate] targets and we've always met and exceeded our targets, but I think it would be unprecedented to see those type of provisions proposed in an agreement,” he said. The European Parliament on Thursday voted to formally declare a climate emergency, ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference starting in Madrid next week. In the United Kingdom election, Channel 4 held a leaders debate on climate change, with the absent Prime Minister Boris Johnson represented by a melting ice sculpture.
Verbeek death: Former Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek has died at the age of 63 after a years-long struggle with cancer. The Dutchman led Australia through qualification to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. In 2016 he took on his final role in the game, as the coach of Oman.
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This week
What led to Victoria’s extraordinary shutdown
The Andrews government cannot identify any legislation it needed to override, but experts say that is the point.When Daniel Andrews signed a declaration for a state of disaster in Victoria at 1.43pm on Sunday, it was a part of a final salvo in a battle to control a resurgent and invisible enemy.
Super funds transformed by Liberal ideology
The Morrison government’s superannuation changes risk turning the scheme into ‘privately funded unemployment insurance’.
Opening the Ghislaine Maxwell files
New files ordered released in the Ghislaine Maxwell case reveal the depth of her involvement in child sex-trafficking offences that implicate Prince Andrew, the former leader of the US senate and others.
Murray–Darling could need Reserve Bank-style regulator
As the ACCC hands down its interim report on the Murray–Darling water markets, one architect of the current system says a Reserve Bank-like body is needed to manage the rights.
Wiradyuri conceptual artist Amala Groom
For Amala Groom, making art is a collaboration between herself and her Wiradyuri ancestors. Drawing on her history and culture, as well as her legal training, she seeks to subvert the colonial project. “Colonialism affects all of us … To be change agents we have to be inclusive, and Aboriginal culture is inclusive.”
Policing as part of the national psyche
There are two striking aspects of Australia’s response to coronavirus: the first is that it’s being increasingly led as a police issue, and the second is that this is happening while the rest of the world works to reform and curtail police powers. As other democracies talk about abolition, we’re sending armed officers into housing blocks and calling it public health.
Morrison backtracks on WA border closure
Scott Morrison keeps misreading the mood of a nation gripped by fear. Nowhere is this more obvious than his now-abandoned legal case against state border closures – or, to be more precise, against the lockouts in the Labor-governed states of Western Australia and Queensland. The Liberal-governed states of Tasmania and South Australia escaped his censure.
It was quite something to tune in to the first episode of Bunter and Georgina Downer’s geopolitical podcast, where they discussed the recent AUSMIN meeting, the upcoming United States presidential election and the future of war. Father and daughter get along famously as they take us on a wide sweep through the trickiest global thickets, with memos about Condoleezza Rice’s determination to play golf, China’s dominance in the rare earth market, Joe Biden’s “flaky” interviews, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, fishing quotas in British waters and Russia’s anti-satellite rocket program.
Andrew Bolt has made a career finding vulnerable people and devising new ways of punishing them. When you consider this, his views on the elderly are not surprising, just inhumane. Bolt doesn’t want the old to die, but he believes we overstate the tragedy of their deaths. “Note: 40 per cent of aged-care home residents die within nine months. The average stay is just under three years,” he writes. “So Victoria’s bans are doing huge damage to – essentially – save aged-care residents from dying a few months earlier.” Quixotically, the column is titled “How to save Victoria from the coronavirus”.
Could Adani drop its Qld mine and head to NSW?
As fossil fuel prices collapse, there is growing speculation that Adani might throw in its Carmichael operation to buy BHP’s massive Mount Arthur thermal coalmine instead.
Pandemic and inequality keys to November poll
Presidential candidates adjust convention plans due to Covid-19. US death toll passes 158,000. Democrat Joe Biden has lead in latest polls.
As a dark comedy about self-absorbed millennial killers, Search Party focuses heavily on the lies that bind. In doing so, it also tells a lot of insightful truths.
Bill watches Joyce gather the kids for a photo. He’s seated on the front lawn, next to the overgrown bougainvillea, an oxygen tank by his side, tubes to his nose. He watches Joyce arrange the children – their adult daughters who both turned up in striped jumpers and jeans. The two of them are laughing about the coincidence. Ratty sneakers too, which can apparently be edited out on the computer. Would a dress have killed them? But he should be kind. Mel and Jennifer kissed him fondly, and Jennifer even slipped him a half-pouch of Drum. Luke, always the youngest child, is doing that funny thing where he picks up one of the small children and plays them like a guitar. It may be their last photo, although nobody is saying that.
The beverage director for Andrew McConnell’s restaurants recommends her current favourite drops.
In August 1981, MTV began its very first broadcast with which song?
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