From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …

We’re just trying to help, Malcolm, we swear. Last week, the travails of One Nation (soon to be ex-) Senator Malcolm Roberts were laid bare in the High Court, where he said that his email attempts to renounce his citizenship had gone to email addresses that no longer existed. The court heard that Roberts found an email address ending in .ukSydney that he found on a website called visahq.com.au. All of that sounds very legit and trustworthy and makes one realise how email scams pretending to be the tax office or Telstra are so successful at fleecing people. We wanted to give Roberts the benefit of the doubt though. But then a tipster did some work, looking to see if the domain “.ukSydney” had ever existed. Their search found that the domain definitely didn’t exist in either 2015 or 2016. We also sent an email to the same address — just to see whether there that would generate an automatic “undeliverable” reply. It did. Sorry, Malcolm.

Lowy blow. The Lowy Institute hosted the New York Times‘ columnist (and climate change sceptic) Bret Stephens this weekend to speak at their media award night, in a speech on “the dying art of disagreement”. Many readers will remember that the address was meant to be the first in a series named after the late Mark Colvin, but the name of the address was changed after objections were raised by Colvin’s wife.

Stephens acknowledged the controversy and said he was glad not to be uninvited, although he said the practice of uninviting speakers was a “depressing trend”:

“I’m aware of the controversy that has gone with my selection as your speaker. I respect the wishes of the Colvin family and join in honoring Mark Colvin’s memory as a courageous foreign correspondent and an extraordinary writer and broadcaster. And I’d particularly like to thank Michael Fullilove for not rescinding the invitation.”

The full speech is here.

Return to sender? A recurring fear for those that have not received their vote is that it might be lost in the post. And there has been no shortage of indications that is well founded. Stacks of surveys have been found, rain-damaged and abandoned, twice in Melbourne, once in Mona Vale, and now, apparently, in Brisbane. A reader has told us they found four marriage equality envelopes on the road while heading to work in South Brisbane on Friday and sent us through some pictures. And despite the apparent frequency with which surveys have gone missing, it’s apparently still not clear exactly what people should do in this circumstance; as the tipster mentioned, “now I have to figure out who I should hand them in to”.

Australian Bureau of Statistics deputy statistician Jonathan Palmer told news.com.au previously — “If you receive a survey form not addressed to you, do the right thing and just return it to sender. It’s illegal to open others’ mail, unless you have their express permission as a trusted person,” adding that people who have not received their ballot by September 25 should contact the ABS and let them know.

Suffering for one’s Bachelor of Arts. What is going on at Federation University? A tipster tells us that the Uni is “in the process of a massive restructure”, and that there are pushes for the abolition of the Bachelor of Arts, and failing that, a model that “abolishes philosophy, history, Japanese, literature, sociology, media studies, and indigenous studies … The university is in huge debt and is only continuing degrees which bring in money”. 

The Uni says no decision had been made yet — a Federation University spokesperson told Crikey that “like all Australian universities, Federation University Australia regularly reviews its degree programs to respond to shifts in higher education policy and to remain competitive domestically and internationally. There have been no decisions made regarding reducing specific majors or minors offered within the Bachelor of Arts.”

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