Scott Morrison

VALUES JUDGEMENT

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced a desire to enact “preventative regulation and legislation” to ensure religious schools can hire and fire staff according to their personal beliefs.

In an interview with Sky News’ Paul Murray Live, Morrison acknowledged the lack of any discriminatory laws in existence, and said “I send my kids to a Christian school. I think that Christian school should be able to ensure that they can provide education consistent with the Christian faith and teachings … I don’t think that school should be told who they can and can’t employ.”

Morrison, who scrapped the National Energy Guarantee but will reportedly top up the emissions reduction fund, also maintained in-principle support for the Paris agreement over concerns for Australia’s relations in the Pacific.

WAGE OF REASON

Research from the Melbourne Institute has found that wages have grown faster than the cost of living over the past decade, rising 31% over a 22% growth in inflation, and delivering an increase in overall living standards.

According to The Australian ($), Professor Mark Wooden will release research at the Melbourne Institute Economic and Social Outlook Conference next month outlining that, while the consumer and wage price increase coincided early this year, there has not been an extended period of time where wages grew slower than living costs for more than two decades now.

The news comes as the The Sydney Morning Herald releases analysis into long-term unemployment in Australia, and follows the release of a Deloitte Access Economics report that found, at a federal cost of $3.3 billion a year, a Newstart increase of $75 a week would lead to a boost in spending, lift overall wages, and create more than 10,000 jobs.

HADLEY, ENOUGH

2GB shock jock Ray Hadley has been forced to apologise to former Long Bay Prison officer Demmi Zeschke for incorrectly suggesting she had sex with an inmate.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Hadley alleged in July that the 22-year-old guard had sex with convicted drunk-driver killer Jarad Smith and resigned to be with him personally. Following a legal letter from Zeschke seeking clarification, Hadley apologised on air yesterday, announcing that whatever relationship existed was not sexual and did not impact her decision to resign.

Similar letters were also reportedly sent to News Corp papers, Nine News and the Daily Mail, following the publication of similar stories.

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THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

Bullying, betrayal and backstabbing have been the hallmarks of one of my state Liberal colleagues, Gareth Ward, over the past six and a half years.

Ann Sudmalis

The departing Liberal MP uses parliamentary privilege to let loose after announcing she will not recontest her New South Wales seat of Gilmore.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Indigenous woman died from treatable sepsis after hospital sent her home, court told

Twenty-five year low: Liberals could be left with just five women in the House of Representatives

Treasurer’s staff scrambles for aged-care fund details ($)

Choking risk for people with disabilities denied NDIS funding

Roman Quaedvlieg’s younger partner accused of lying to investigators ($)

Michael Photios’ business partner joins Tony Abbott snub ($)

Aboriginal people will have greater access to Koori courts after win

SA footy commission handballs extra man call to tribunal as Rooster Aidan Tropiano revealed as 19th player on the field ($)

Almost a million opt out of My Health Record

Roxane Gay to face off with feminism critic in upcoming Australian tour

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

Morrison is right on aged care funding: reports of cuts are fictionBernard Keane

“Let’s hit the nail on the head early on a key claim that is already being widely circulated about the aged care sector. It’s one that is likely to continue to be spread despite the government’s efforts to get ahead of Four Corners tonight with a preemptive royal commission. And it’s completely wrong: this government did not cut $1.2 billion from aged care funding.”

Will increasing digital subscriptions really save newspapers?Emily Watkins

“In News Corp’s annual report, released last month, the company published its digital subscription number for each newspaper for the first time. And the numbers weren’t too bad. The Australian, for example, boosted its digital subscriptions by 53% in 2017/18, and it’s not a coincidence that last year News Corp’s national broadsheet returned to profit as its digital subs rose.

What does the Wagners’ defamation action mean for the Nine-Fairfax merger?Glenn Dyer

“No one will be more interested in last week’s defamation verdict against Alan Jones, 2GB and 4BC than Nine Entertainment — the company that is about to buy control of Jones’ ultimate employer, Fairfax Media, which controls just over 54% of Macquarie Media.”

THE COMMENTARIAT

Royal commission helps free PM from Turnbull fallout ($) — Dennis Shanahan (The Australian): “Scott Morrison has changed the national political conversation just a bit in his favour but Liberal infighting and Labor’s refusal to cede any ground still dog the Prime Minister’s valiant efforts to ‘move on’ after a month of Coalition ­disasters.”

Taylor launches extraordinary and ill-informed attack against wind and solar — Giles Parkinson (RenewEconomy): “The fact that the right-wingers Jones and Kenny hold such extreme and ill-informed views about climate and energy is well known, and not of great consequence. But the fact that the country’s energy minister goes on to their programs and agrees with them, despite all the evidence to the contrary, is deeply troubling – for investors and consumers.”

Aged care needs more than a royal commission ($) — Dr Jessica Borbasi (The Daily Telegraph): “While the standard of aged care must be improved and properly regulated, what is really required is monumental shift in the way both the health and aged care systems approach ageing and treat older Australians. By 2021, 4 million Australians will be aged 65 years and older. By the time they are 85 years of age, 62 per cent of women and almost 50 per cent of men will require residential aged care.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

The Latest Headlines

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Canberra

  • Senate committees will hold inquiries into the Great Barrier Reef 2050 Partnership Program, set to feature Great Barrier Reef Foundation chairman Dr John Schubert; and accessibility and quality of mental health services in rural and remote Australia. A joint committee will also hold a hearing into Constitutional Recognition relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

  • Hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners are expected to gather at Parliament House to raise concerns over the ongoing medical genocide against prisoners of conscience in China.

  • Docent in legal theory from the University of Helsinki Julen Etxabe will speak on “The travelling and the troubled language of human rights” at the ANU College of Law.

Melbourne

  • Roy Morgan will hold a breakfast event for their latest State of the Nation report, to focus on wealth, debt and the key areas of economic risk and stress facing Australians.

  • The financial services royal commission will continue looking at Allianz’s misleading website ads for insurance, before examining add-on car insurance sold by IAG.

  • Victorian parliament will begin their final sitting week ahead of the November 24 state election.

  • Olympian Matt Welsh will join Kidsafe Australia to launch the sixth annual ‘Safe Barriers Save Lives’ backyard pool safety campaign, which aims to prevent toddler drownings and will feature a video with former AFL player and coach Rodney Eade.

  • Lord Mayor Sally Capp will speak in-conversation at a Rotary Central Melbourne event.

  • Protesters will target QBE for investing in and insuring projects for coal, oil and gas companies.

  • Authors Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff will record The Garret live in conversation with host Astrid Edwards at the State Library of Victoria.

  • Melbourne University will hold conference event “3GPP Insights on Global Mobile Telecommunications”.

Sydney

  • State parliament will debate RSL NSW reforms.

  • The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association will protest outside NSW parliament over the urgent need for nurse-to-patient ratios in public hospitals. The union says Labor, the Greens and Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party have all pledged support.

  • Former NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli will host a Gonski Institute for Education event “How will we support and value the profession?: Responses to Gonski 2.0 from research, policy and practice” with local education representatives.

  • UNSW Business School will host forum event “Accelerate 2018 – Digital Leadership and your future at work”.

  • Spanton Media Group will host the The Business of Bars Conference.

Adelaide

  • The Dementia Awareness Month Roadshow will includes speeches from Consultant in Geriatric Medicine at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Dr Faizal Ibrahim and Dementia Australia Ambassador Sue Pieters-Hawke.

  • Research associate and curator at University of Adelaide’s Architecture Museum Dr Julie Collins will present “Stories, Statistics and Sanatoria: Tuberculosis in SA” at the History Trust of South Australia.

  • 2018 STEM Educator of the Year Dr Justin Chalker will speak on his invention, a polymer used to soak up crude oil and diesel spills, in “Laying waste to pollution” at Flinders at Victoria Square.

Perth

  • Ahead of the release of the WA fracking inquiry report, scientists will speak at a press conference to discuss an open letter signed by more than 50 experts urging the WA government to ban fracking in the state,

  • Professor of Psychology at the University of Canberra Debra Rickwood will present “Young people’s mental health – the what, why and how of supporting young people with mental health problems” for the University of Western Australia’s 2018 Robin Winkler Lecture.

  • The National Disability Insurance Agency’s Strategic Advisor on Mental Health Gerry Naugtin will host an interactive NDIS forum.

Brisbane

  • Retired Queensland Supreme Court judge Alan Wilson QC will chair a climate law panel featuring president of the Land Court of Queensland Fleur Kingham, judge Michael Rackemann of the Planning and Environment Court of Queensland, Justice Nicola Pain of the Land and Environment Court of NSW, and solicitors from Environmental Defenders Office (Qld) Inc.

  • Entrepreneur and former Head of Strategic Development for Virgin Start Up Ian Mason will present as part of a QUT Creative Industries seminar series.

  • Australia China Business Council President and former politician John Brumby will address an ACBC Queensland event.

Hobart

  • The Drug Education Network will launch three new AOD educational resources: Drivers Dice, More Options for Managing Pain, and Mocktails + Mastery.

  • Midwife and historical fiction author Sue Cox will speak at a Kingston Library “Books Uncovered” event.

  • The Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts will host “Fanciful Fans: The story of Lily Allport’s paintings on silk”, a seminar event from former curator and author of Miss Lily: a portrait of Curzona Allport Marian Jameson and local artist and graphic designer Penny Carey-Wells.