Wednesday, February 12, 2020
Wyatt bemoans failure to close gap
Indigenous Affairs Minister Ken Wyatt has acknowledged failures to meet targets to address Indigenous childhood mortality, life expectancy, school attendance and employment, as detailed in the 2020 Closing the Gap report to be released today. Wyatt told The Age an Indigenous child mortality rate at twice the rate for non-Indigenous kids of 141 per 100,000 “shouldn't be occurring in a first-world nation”, and that a new community-led approach was needed. Only two of seven targets are on track: those for early childhood education and Year 12 attainment. The report is in danger of being overshadowed by Liberal infighting over a proposed referendum on Indigenous recognition in the constitution. The news comes as Aboriginal man Brendan Thoms was released from immigration detention on Tuesday after the High Court ruled that Indigenous Australians cannot be deported.
Coronavirus response: World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned a vaccine for coronavirus, now officially known as COVID-19, may not be available for another 18 months. Speaking at a conference of hundreds of health experts in Geneva, he said countries needed to be “as aggressive as possible” and view the virus as “public enemy number one”. The news comes as Australians left behind in the locked-down area of Wuhan say the Australian Government did not notify them of evacuation flights, despite having registered details with Australian consular officials in China. “Now they told us there won't be a third flight for evacuation,” said Shirley Xiang. “It is very unfair that the government decided to not evacuate my children.”
Emissions rising: Industrial greenhouse gas emissions in Australia have risen 60 per cent in 15 years, according to a new report by energy analysis firm Reputex. The report found emissions in sectors covered by the Coalition’s “safeguard mechanism” rose from 89 million tonnes in 2005 to 142 million tonnes in 2019, and were projected to reach 187 million tonnes by 2030. The news comes as incoming Resources Minister Keith Pitt says Australia will need to increase coal, gas and uranium exports to pay for essential services.
Nationals expenses: The office of Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack, planned to allow MPs to bill taxpayers for flights and accommodation for the 100th anniversary dinner of the Nationals, according to a text message leaked to The Courier-Mail ($). A party-room meeting had been scheduled to coincide with the event at a five-star Melbourne hotel, which would have allowed MPs to deduct expenses. Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday urged McCormack’s office to get advice from the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority.
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This week
Morrison ruling by ‘Henry VIII’ clauses
New concerns surround the government’s increased use of legislative powers to bypass the parliament and create laws that cannot be amended or overturned. The federal government has embedded special powers in new Covid-19 laws to make unilateral changes to non-pandemic-related legislation, using what are known as ‘Henry VIII clauses’ – named for the unchecked power they involve.
Cold War: ‘Grey zone’ to define relations with China
A strategic defence update highlights ‘coercive tactics’ that skirt the threshold of armed conflict but justify a huge weapons build-up by Australia.
Young people with disabilities still living in aged care
Of the thousands of young people with disabilities living in aged-care facilities, only a few hundred have been moved into the community since the NDIS rollout began in 2013.
The flaws in the COVIDSafe app
When the COVIDSafe contact tracing app launched, tech-savvy experts went looking for flaws. It didn’t take long to find them.
Actor Toby Schmitz’s live wire
For actor Toby Schmitz, there’s nothing like the exhilaration of being on stage, but for the past week he’s replicated some of that feeling in a series of live-streamed performances of Will Eno’s Thom Pain. He speaks about playing Hamlet, the vitality of theatre and keeping his ‘art spark’ alight in the Covid-19 lockdown. “The audience is the final director that teaches you things you would never have thought of. You know, if one person moves their leg it may mean nothing, but if four people do, then you’ve lost them somehow.”
Relocate the Captain Cook statue
What Cook represents, his continuing legacy in First Nations peoples’ dispossession and social injustice, perpetuates suffering. Public spaces such as Hyde Park should be welcoming to all. For this reason, and those further outlined below, the statue of Cook should no longer be displayed in the park, but conserved in a public museum.
Unfailingly, since World War II, the voters in the New South Wales seat of Eden-Monaro have picked the mood of the nation at every federal election. Well, almost every election – 2016 and 2019 were the exceptions. Today those of the seat’s 114,000 registered electors who haven’t voted pre-poll will play the part of political weathervane, if not their more traditional role of bellwether.
Where’s Kathy Jackson when you need her during a pandemic? It’s a cry Gadfly hears frequently as he gallivants around a boarded-up nation, so it’s timely to present a handy updated guide to events. Kathy was the national secretary of the Health Services Union of Australia, the outfit that represents a massive number of people who work in and around hospitals and nursing homes. As far back as August 2015, the Federal Court found Jackson had misappropriated union funds and ordered her to repay $1.4 million. Regrettably, she had been declared bankrupt two months earlier.
The facts of the case are unfathomable, when you lay them out: the real prospect a journalist could be charged for reporting on credible allegations of war crimes committed by Australian troops. But this is where things now stand, with the Australian Federal Police sending a brief of evidence to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, detailing a case against ABC journalist Dan Oakes for his reporting on the “Afghan Files”.
Govt tight-lipped on ACCC Murray–Darling Basin water report
Submissions to the ACCC’s inquiry into water trading in the Murray–Darling Basin reveal significant concerns about the possibility of market manipulation.
New law marks end of ‘old Hong Kong ’
Beijing imposes security law on Hong Kong. Donald Trump queried on Russian bounty plot against US troops. Fiji wants billionaires to visit ‘Bula bubble ’. Advertisers boycott Facebook over hate speech and content inciting violence.
22nd Biennale of Sydney: NIRIN
Focusing on the perspectives of First Nations artists from Australia and around the world, the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, NIRIN, invites audiences to fight for greater justice and equality. It’s a triumph.
I still have the dog my mother loved. See that lavender heeler, roan, smiling and straining in the rear-view. See her chasing after my mother, at least a kilometre from home. See that dog flatten herself out as she stretches to reach metal – low and fast and long. See my mother as she tries not to see it, any of it, from the driver’s seat of my older sister’s off-white Commodore. My mother, maybe she’s wearing vanilla oil, a second-hand silk shirt and her favourite cheap Priceline foundation, Crème Caramel. The V8 my mother left in once held my sister in Coles car parks at the edge of town: cheap whiskey, a boy called Bundy, petrol-station condoms. Now it’s being pushed into sixth by my mother’s butter-soft suede loafer, somewhere.
Hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup
For Jenna McCormick, a defection from AFLW to soccer was all about wearing the national colours. Now, as Australia and New Zealand win the right to host the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023, the green and gold icing is really on the cake.
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