Canavan’s bragging ignores the inconvenient facts, more from the troubled Deadly Questions campaign and K-Rudd has to struggle with being the least well known person in the room.

From the Crikey grapevine, the latest tips and rumours …

Coal it what you want. Minister for coal — alright, technically it’s Industry, Innovation and Science — Senator Matt Canavan has never been onerously beholden to facts. And he certainly wasn’t going to start in a press release on Tuesday, where he boasted of an irrepressible boom time for his beloved coal: 

Australia’s resource and energy export figures are on track to set a new record of $226 billion in 2017-18 — and go even higher this year — according to an in-depth government report released today. Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Matt Canavan said strong demand and prices for iron ore, coal and liquid natural gas (LNG) in particular were pushing total exports from the sector to the new records.

‘The prediction is that the 2018-19 figure will be $12 billion higher at $238 billion, with continuing strong demand for high-quality Australian coal seeing coal regain its traditional position as our single most valuable resource export,’ Minister Canavan said.

Cop that, greenie naysayers! Oddly enough, though, there was more to the report, which Canavan didn’t feel the need to bray about on Twitter: 

The value of Australia’s resource and energy exports is projected to decline in 2018–19 and 2019–20, falling back to $216 billion. The main driver is expected to be a decline in the iron price, as new low-cost supply enters the market and demand growth moderates — a result of declining steel production in China. The forecast fall in both metallurgical and thermal coal prices from recent highs will also weigh on export earnings. Demand growth is expected to slow for coal, and low-cost supply will return to metallurgical coal markets after numerous disruptions.

Not a word of the imminent decline (which seems relevant) in Canavan’s statement. 

Dead simple questions. Victorian government campaign Deadly Questions has a laudable aim of bridging cultural divides and encouraging curiosity and understanding. However, it has already faced some issues in the weeks since its launch — the Advertising Standards Bureau found two of their Billboards could breach the code of ethics in relation to discrimination and vilification; and some users seem to have criticised the site for not addressing practical questions around policy and funding. 

Another thing we noticed when we checked out the Facebook page is that some deaf users have asked about the accessibility of the Facebook page, noting that not all the videos had captions — they were directed to the website, where “you can find all our videos with closed captions.” 

 

We followed that advice, but found that the videos appear to use automatically generated subtitles which mangle many of the words being said — particularly words such as Wurundjeri (which the captions deliver as the indecipherable “were undry” ) or Koori (“courier”), which, if you’re communicating about Aboriginal cultures, you’d really want to get right. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Premier and Cabinet assured us the problem was now sorted: “After the launch of the website we were alerted to some issues with the closed captions. We have encountered some technical issues in a small number of the 60 videos on the site which meant for these couple of videos the solution took longer than we would have liked. We recognise our obligations to always provide accessible communications, and can confirm that these issues have now been resolved.”  

Rudd-ing shoulders with celebs. Washington Post associate editor Lally Weymouth’s annual Southampton summer party was just crammed with luminaries from the world of media and politics. To name just a few — according to Politico —  filmmaker Steven Spielberg, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat and Journalist Carl Bernstein. Apparently, among this glittering crowd, was our former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Ms Tips presumes he spent the evening cornering beloved character actor Bob Balaban and  famous-friend-haver Gayle King to tell them about Wayne Swan’s deficient grasp of economic policy. 

PageUp claims yet more potential victims. We’ve heard another public sector agency has had to contact job applicants with the news that their information might have been compromised thanks to the hack of third-party service provider, PageUp; a tipster got this from SA Health: 

… SA Health utilises a third-party service provider, PageUp, to facilitate its recruitment. Regrettably, PageUp has advised that they believe that unauthorised access to their systems has likely occurred…

PageUp cannot confirm exactly what information has been accessed and if any of SA Health’s data has been affected. However, PageUp are confident that the most critical data categories including uploaded resumes were not affected in this incident. We have assessed the risks and believe that there is sufficient risk and that you should be notified of this incident.

PageUp has informed us that the kinds of information potentially accessed include:

• names 
• street and email addresses 
• phone numbers 
• passwords, however passwords were encrypted. 

We also received an email for an applicant to the Reserve Bank of Australia, confirming the RBA is contacting people regarding PageUp too. 

 

Heard anything that might interest Crikey? Send your tips to boss@crikey.com.au, use our guaranteed anonymous form or other ways to leak to us securely.