NAB national australia bank sign
(Image: AAP/David Mariuz)

Don’t bank on it Crikey has long followed the issue of financial discrimination against sex workers — a seemingly arbitrary practice which puts individuals at serious risk. In response to criticism over the practice, a spokesperson for NAB has previously said the bank was meeting requirements under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act.

That means they should have nothing to worry about with those recent FinCEN revelations, right? These reports showed banks across the globe effectively laundered trillions of dollars for criminal organisations. And, well, it turns out that NAB facilitated around $2.2 million in these money laundering payments.

Left right out of the argument The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has confirmed what we’ve long suspected: far-right violence is one of the biggest and fastest growing threats in Australia.

On Tuesday, deputy director general of intelligence service delivery Heather Cook told a parliamentary inquiry that up to 40% of ASIO’s counter-terrorism cases involve far-right violent extremism. This is up from 10-15% before 2016. The increase follows similar recent findings from UK and US intelligence agencies.

Last time ASIO had the temerity to point this threat out, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton sprouted from the ground to shut them down with a politically illiterate attack on “left-wing lunatics” (he counted Islamic terrorists under that banner, which probably tells you all you need to know).

Let’s see if Dutton, who’s been notably quiet this year and is rumoured to be getting a new gig in the next cabinet re-shuffle, makes a similar intervention this time.

A form of nonsense If the upcoming removal of increased JobSeeker support — which had been unchanged in real terms for 25 years pre-pandemic — wasn’t enough to convince you of the utter contempt the government shows welfare recipients, a glance at Centrelink’s relationship assessment form may do it.

The form features invasive questioning about whether people have a sexual relationship with their housemates and whether they share a bathroom: