PALESTINIAN BABY KILLED BY TEAR GAS
Palestinians have begun funerals for protesters killed by the Israeli Defence Force, as the death toll hits 60 following the death of an eight-month-old baby by tear gas.
The ABC reports that, as people in Gaza both commemorate Nakba Day and begin to bury their dead, Israeli forces have once again taken up positions for a final day of protests. Updates continue to emerge following Israel’s actions, including the US blocking a possible UN investigation into the use of live ammunition against protesters; condemnation from other countries such as the UK, France and Turkey; and IDF since claiming that they killed 24 “terrorists”. Israeli citizens are protesting against Israel’s lethal use of force outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s residence.
Closer to home, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has blamed Hamas for “pushing” protesters to the Gaza border “where they are very likely to be shot at as Israel seeks to defend itself” ($), but has curiously kept mum on the people actually doing the killing.
EVERYONE’S A SUSPECT
New analysis of the Coalition’s proposed foreign interference laws has found the legislation to be so sweeping and poorly drafted that thousands of civilians, including academics, authors and book publishers, would have to register as agents of other countries.
According to The Australian ($), legal academic Anne Twomey has found that the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Bill to be so broad it would require thousands of people with no real foreign influence to register with the government. For example, she says that foreign-owned book publishers such as Oxford University Press would have to sign up for publishing anything intended to influence debates around science, the environment, society, law, or politics. But presumably, publishers would still get free rein with, uh, maths? Uncontroversial, non-theoretical maths?
DONUT QUESTION MY AUTHORITY
South Australia’s new Emergency Services Minister Corey Wingard has doubled-down on a call for Opposition MPs to ask his office for permission to visit local firefighters, in a story that has, sadly, become known as “donutgate”.
The Advertiser ($) reports that Wingard, after admonishing freshman Labor MP Blair Boyer for delivering Krispy Kremes as a gift for international firefighters’ day, was ridiculed during Question Time yesterday but maintains that rival MPs need his written permission before meeting with brigades. While Premier Steven Marshall has since dismissed Labor’s obsession with the otherwise ridiculous “donutgate”, Boyer has claimed similar previous events point to a more serious “pattern, which is this government doing everything it can to keep me out of the seat and stop me engaging with my community”.
[free_worm]
THEY REALLY SAID THAT?
MT: So, the police would be able to come up to you and say: ‘Hello,’ you know, ‘who are you sir? Can I see your ID?’
NM: On what grounds?
MT: Just, they’ll be able to do that.
Malcolm Turnbull and Neil Mitchell
The Australian Prime Minister delivers an articulate, if vaguely bored, justification for granting police the power to demand ID papers at airports.
CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY
“Julie Bishop’s department has closely monitored the deaths of Palestinians at the hands of Israeli forces during protests in Gaza in the last month, even predicting causalities before they occurred, while the government has, until today, maintained a public silence on the escalating violence.”
“After allocating half a billion dollars — without justification — in national security spending in the budget, the government today ramped up its security theatrics with an unprecedented attack on basic civil rights. The Prime Minister and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton announced that federal police would be given the power to demand identification documents from anyone in an airport.”
“Fifty years ago this month, many millions of workers, students, and others uncategorised by history, came together to ‘shit the bed’. Such was the view of Charles de Gaulle, a man whose French presidency survived a general strike, and one whose talent for diminishing opposition survives to the present. By the end of May 1968, the General had amassed great support through his representation of protest: those who spoke were at once incontinent children to be pitied and ‘tyrants’ to be feared.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Budget 2018: Labor vows bigger surpluses to tackle debt ($)
Julie Bishop defends record on China after former ambassador’s call for her to be sacked
Chief Minister Michael Gunner wants Darwin CBD cash as part of Cities Deal ($)
SA Health overhauling its blood test IT system after delays in tests ($)
Our untarnished natural wonder emerges after deluge ($)
Turnbull government ‘knew for years’ about network rorts, letters show
Airport ID checks ‘authoritarian’ and won’t improve safety: critics
More of the Great Australian Bight opened to oil and gas
WA Government claims it has no liability in wrongful taser case because police acted maliciously
Tom Wolfe, Bonfire of the Vanities author, dies aged 87
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Canberra
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Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen will deliver a post-budget address to the National Press Club.
Sydney
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Delivery riders and the Transport Workers Union national secretary will speak at a press conference ahead of their appearance at an annual wage review at the Fair Work Commission.
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For the first time in 150 years the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust will unveil the Sub Base Platypus as a waterfront public space.
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Minister for Human Services and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Digital Transformation Michael Keenan will launch the eGovernment Conference at day two of CeBIT Australia 2018.
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Cast rehearsal for the Priscilla Queen of the Desert musical, ahead of opening night tomorrow.
Brisbane
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Day one of the three-day Myriad festival, set to host hundreds of entrepreneurs, investors and innovators from across Silicon Valley and the world. Organisations will range from Google, NASA, CIA, Twitter, SpaceX, Spotify and more.
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XXXX workers will strike for the seventh time in as many weeks.
Melbourne
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An estimates hearing into the Victorian budget will hear from Emergency Services and Education Minister James Merlino and Planning Minister Richard Wynne.
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Manufacturing specialist Titomic will unveil the world’s largest 3D metal printer at its fully automated factory.
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Navy sailors, Victoria Police and MFB firefighters will go head-to-head in a football tournament to raise funds for Beyondblue.
Perth
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State Emergency Management Committee chair Ron Edwards and executive officer Malcolm Cronstedt will speak at an inquiry into protection of crowded places in WA from terrorist acts.
Launceston, Tasmania
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Short-listed Mars One candidate Josh Richards will speak to media at the National Trust Tasmania Office. Selected from over 200,000 Mars One applicants, he is currently one of 100 astronaut candidates short-listed for a one way mission to Mars in 2031.
Australia
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75th anniversary of the Dam Busters raids on German dams, conducted by the RAF’s 617 Squadron and many Australian aircrew from May 16-17, 1943.
Jerusalem, Israel
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Former Victorian principal and alleged child abuser Malka Leifer is expected to appear at a Jerusalem court for an extradition hearing.
THE COMMENTARIAT
Every child has the right to be safe. Will you speak up with me? — Maylene Slater-Burns (IndigenousX/The Guardian): “Upon the delivery of the federal budget last week, it is clear that change for our people is not a priority for the federal government – but the government of the day has never scared me into thinking change is impossible. I, in tune with how I was raised by my family in Naarm, believe that real change happens from within community, by community and for community.”
‘Rich whingers’ not as hard done by as Morrison would have you think — Ross Gittins (The Sydney Morning Herald): “Politicians and their spin doctors are always trying to divert our attention from some embarrassing stuff-up, but it’s come to something when a treasurer produces a budget as tricksy as Scott Morrison’s effort last week. His description of his three-step, seven-year tax cut, why it’s needed, and what it would achieve, were all calculated to mislead. Each part of his claim that it would bring about ‘lower, fairer and simpler’ taxes is open to dispute.”
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