Crikey Worm: One Nation’s latest electoral scandal

ONE NATION, MANY CONTROVERSIES

Former One Nation and current Independent Senator Brian Burston has accused his former party of breaking its own constitution in a rush to register unpaid members ahead of the NSW 2019 election.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, internal emails demonstrate One Nation struggled to gather the 750 members required to register one year ahead of the March 23 election. Burston has now claimed that, because a large number did not meet One Nation’s own requirement to be paying members, the party should never have been registered. The party has since rejected these accusations, which follow a litany of electoral breaches in Queensland and — if you include the plane incident — Victoria ($). 

SKY’S THE LIMIT

Sky News has apologised to Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young and suspended a producer after broadcasting “appalling comments” made by Liberal Democrats Senator David Leyonhjelm and subsequently highlighting them via an on-screen strap.

The Australian ($) reports that, during a discussion with Outsiders hosts Rowan Dean and Ross Cameron, Sky News published “Leyonhjelm: Sarah Hanson-Young is known for liking men. The rumours about her in parliament are well known” along the bottom of the screen. Sky’s decision to throw a fill-in female producer under the bus has reportedly angered staff at the network.

SURVEY SAYS…

Grant Denyer has won Australian television’s top prize, the Gold Logie for Most Popular Television Personality, despite his show Family Feud being recently cancelled. The ABC reports that Denyer made sure to thank comedian Tom Gleeson, who initiated a bizarre campaign to get Denyer the award.

Other winners at the Gold Coast event included Hugo Weaving (Outstanding Actor, Seven Types Of Ambiguity), Pamela Rabe (Outstanding Actress, Wentworth) and Dilruk Jayasinha (Graham Kennedy Award for Most Outstanding Newcomer, CRAM!/Utopia).

Presenting the Graham Kennedy Award, Bert Newton controversially called himself an “old poof”, and made some comments about Kennedy and Don Lane “mentoring” young talent “behind closed doors”. The jokes have been criticised in light of the Me Too movement.

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THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

Although we’d all agree it’s good manners to pronounce foreign words as carefully as you can, there’s a line beyond which you just sound like a show-off.

Claire Harvey

The Daily Telegraph ($) makes the unusual journalistic decision to advocate for ignorance, in response to the Lucy Zelic controversy.

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

Collaery prosecution targets ABC but strangely misses News CorpBernard Keane

“At a time when the government has launched a full-scale war on the ABC over its journalism, the decision of the government’s hand-picked Director of Public Prosecutions — former Trade Union Royal Commission counsel Sarah McNaughton — to charge Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery for talking to the ABC raises serious questions about the agenda behind the prosecution.”

Rundle: America’s political roller coaster isn’t slowing down anytime soonGuy Rundle

“Highs and lows and thrills and spills for progressives in the US at the moment. In the Democratic primaries ahead of the mid-term elections, the left swept a whole series of positions, the most high-profile being the New York state 14th district, covering Queens and the Bronx, where veteran machine Democrat Joe Crowley, lined up as next House speaker, was knocked off by a 28 year-old socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.”

Razer: the struggle of maintaining the rage in a place as dull as Fed SquareHelen Razer

“I do not take exception to Federation Square, and this is despite some good effort. It’s a proud Melbourne custom to stay angry at the city’s largest acts of architecture and we would hardly know ourselves if we failed to resent, say, Crown Casino together. But, there’s something about that square that deadens this tradition. You enter the place just once and you think, ‘Yeah. That’ll do.’ We suffer a paralysis of rage.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Revealed: $39m cost of defending Australia’s tobacco plain packaging laws

Tougher fines, prison terms for cannabis offences in SA as state government declares ‘war on drugs’ ($)

Dreamworld chief resigns after damning evidence at inquest

Heavy rain, damaging winds on the cards for Perth and the South West

Sleeping on trains now last resort for homeless battling winter ($)

Locals and visitors blown away by the Territory’s fireworks ($)

Australia’s high electricity prices the ‘new normal’, report says

Brisbane leads country in stopping coffee cups from going into landfill

Tasmania’s economic growth runs up against ageing population ($)

Newspoll: Coalition closes gap on Labor ($)

Coal to reclaim mantle as nation’s top export earner ($)

‘Pretty unethical’ – Funeral insurance in royal commission’s spotlight

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Darwin

• The banking royal commission will examine its final farming case before looking at financial issues affecting Indigenous Australians.

Melbourne

• The Victorian of the Year 2018 will be announced at Melbourne Town Hall.

• The Energy Security Board and the Project Team will hold a public forum to discuss design of the National Energy Guarantee.

• Day two of the World Malaria Conference, which opened yesterday and runs until Thursday.

• Former Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb will deliver the annual Australian Mining Industry lecture.

Sydney

• Opening of the 26th Colloquium on Pensions and Retirement Research — an international conference featuring a range of academic, government and industry representatives to discuss discussing research along the theme of “Pensions, Retirement and Inequality”.

Perth

• First full week of events for the Social Impact Festival 2018, set to run until July 31.

Adelaide

• Independent Commissioner Against Corruption will hear the first evidence as part of its inquiry into the operation of SafeWork SA.

Canberra

• Lieutenant General Angus Campbell will hand over command of the Australian Army to the incoming Chief of Army Lieutenant General Rick Burr as part of a parade in Russell.

Brisbane

• Brisbane Powerhouse will hold the World Press Photo Exhibition 2018, set to run until July 22.

Australia

• Liberty Victoria’s Rights Advocacy Project will release their latest report, States of Refuge, which examines how well states and territories provide people seeking asylum and refugees with access to health, housing and education.

London, England

• First day of Wimbledon.

Europe

• Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove will tour Europe from July 2-6, including official visits to Italy and Vatican City, to meet the Pope; Belgium; France, for both business and commemorations of the centenary of Hamel; Spain; and Portugal.

THE COMMENTARIAT

Memo Canberra: it’s not taxes, it’s wages, stupid — Ross Gittins (Sydney Morning Herald): “With the season of peak political bulldust already upon us, and the media holding a microphone to all the self-serving and often stupid arguments the politicians are having with each other, here’s a tip: if you want sense about our economic problems and their solutions, turn down the pollies’ blathering and turn up the considered contributions from the econocrats.”

The marginalisation of free speech — Daniel James (IndigenousX): “Freedom of speech and freedom of the press has always been a double-edged sword for Aboriginal people. At its worst, the media perpetuates racist stereotypes that continue the Australian tradition of oppressing Aboriginal people throughout the centuries, of this nature, there are just too many examples to cite. At its best, the freedom inherent in our national discourse has exposed abuse of children in detention, seen men imprisoned for the manslaughter and aggravated sexual assault of Lynette Daly and, via Indigenous voices on social media, has opened up a serious dialogue on true reconciliation.”

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