PLAYING THE LONG GAME?
Melbourne’s lockdown will probably be extended beyond Thursday, The Age reports, after the state recorded 20 cases yesterday, almost double Monday’s total. In determining the end date for the lockdown, sources told the paper, authorities are watching the number of cases that are infectious in the community. A high number means the chains of transmission are not being traced.
A quarter of yesterday’s cases were in isolation while infectious — but that’s an improvement on Monday’s results, in which almost all of the 11 cases were infectious in the community. But, Adrian Esterman from the University of South Australia said, the government is probably looking to avoid a repeat of lockdown number five, when the state lifted restrictions “about a week too early”. The Herald Sun says the extension will be announced today, with the lockdown to reportedly continue into at least early next week. But Health Minister Martin Foley said yesterday it’s a day-by-day developing situation.
It comes as a Melbourne man remains stuck in NSW after he travelled for his father’s funeral, Guardian Australia reports. Before he left, he was told three times by the Victorian government that he could return, but hasn’t received permission yet. The man, who said he’s yet to properly grieve the loss of his father, said a government employee “forgot to hit send on an email” and he has cancelled three flights since.
[free_worm]
KEEPING AT BAY
NSW health minister Brad Hazzard has held back from commenting on reports that a man who travelled to Byron Bay to shop expensive real estate while infectious hadn’t checked in anywhere — but did say “what worries me is no matter what legal orders or requirements are in place, you can’t legislate against stupidity, arrogance, and entitlement”, as ABC reports.
The SMH reports the Byron Shire mayor claims the man, who travelled with his now-infected teenage children, “didn’t believe in COVID”, leaving the locked down coastal community reeling. Premier Gladys Berejiklian yesterday again shrugged off calls for a ring of steel restricting travel, saying it wouldn’t work against the highly viral Delta strain. But her Victorian counterpart, Dan Andrews, says that’s exactly what helped them squash Delta last time, as The Daily Mail reports.
In its seventh week of lockdown, NSW has recorded a new high in cases — 356 — and three new deaths — two men in their 70s and 80s, and a woman in her 80s. CHO Kerry Chant said she remained worried about Sydney’s Canterbury-Bankstown, where 71 of the cases were recorded, Guardian Australia reports.
THE PENTECOST OF BUSINESS
The Wall Street Journal ($) reporter who broke the story on Prime Minister Scott Morrison requesting an invitation for Hillsong co-founder Brian Houston at a White House dinner has revealed more about her story. This week, Houston was charged with failing to report child sex abuse, after the 2015 Royal Commission heard his father, former pastor Frank Houston admitted in 1999 that he sexually abused a child several decades prior. Reporter Vivian Salama said the White House rejected repeated requests from Morrison, who she understood to be “quite pushy”, ABC reports. “My source said, ‘We [the White House] want no part in that’,” Salama continued, saying they thought Brian Houston had come too close to scandal.
Morrison isn’t the first Liberal politician to be involved with the Pentecostal megachurch. In the early millennium, former PM John Howard and former treasurer Peter Costello attended ceremonies, as the SMH reported in 2004. Morrison thanked Brian Houston during his 2008 maiden speech in Parliament and addressed the church’s conference in July 2019, Guardian Australia reports. At the time, one of Frank’s victims, Brett Sengstock, said he “couldn’t believe” the PM would appear with someone who was “under investigation by the NSW police for concealing the crimes of his father”. But the public broadcaster says it is not suggesting Morrison knew of the police investigation at the time of the 2019 White House dinner.
In other Pentecostal news, more than half a million dollars in JobKeeper money went to Margaret Court’s church, Victory Life Centre — though the church’s revenue decreased by just 0.72%, Guardian Australia says. The payment was made just weeks after the church said the blood of Jesus would protect parishioners from COVID-19.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
An incredible tale of friendship beyond barriers has been published in Guardian Australia. Gabriella Pasztor met Natsumi in a Perth kindergarten 25 years ago, despite neither speaking a lick of English. Gabriella, from Hungary, and Natsumi, from Japan, nodded, pointed, and smiled their way to a close friendship and found sanctuary in each other, even if they weren’t able to say the words (it’s quite the delicate departure from my own story, where I tore over to Natalie on the first day of school and demanded she be my best friend). Anyway — a year of friendship endured between Gabriella and Natsumi before both moved interstate and lost touch.
Gabriella went on to become a teacher for migrants, refugees, and international students. She said she thought of Natsumi whenever she taught Japanese students and often wondered where her childhood best friend had ended up (several searches for her had proved fruitless). Gabriella turned to social media and, on a whim, began cold-messaging people named Natsumi. Finally, one replied, asking if she was “Gabi from Perth”. “Seeing her again for the first time — more than 25 years since our last meeting — was incredible. But there was one huge difference: this time, we could speak to each other in English, fluently,” Gabriella says. “We can’t wait to catch up face-to-face again once borders are open. We have no intention of delaying our next catch-up another 25 years!”
Hoping life finds a way to surprise and delight you today.
THEY REALLY SAID THAT?
Some people will catch [COVID-19]. Some people will tragically die from it. That’s inevitable and we have to accept it. What we should never accept is a systematic removal of our freedoms based on a zero risk health advice from a bunch of unelected medical bureaucrats. Open society back up. Restore our freedoms. End this madness.
George Christensen
The backbencher downplayed the seriousness of COVID-19, saying masks and lockdowns did not work. He was roundly condemned in Federal Parliament for his misinformation — including by Scott Morrison. In June, the Netherlands scrapped most of their restrictions, and the country’s daily cases jumped eightfold, from 500 to more than 10,000 cases a day. The Dutch PM said he was wrong to do so, and regretted his decision.
CRIKEY RECAP
Australia fiddles while the world burns… another lost decade
“But Australia remains among the climate denialists with its 2030 target — a meagre 26-28% on 2005 greenhouse gas levels, and we won’t come close to meeting that, however much Scott Morrison lies that we will. Far more dramatic action is required from one of the world’s most carbon-addicted economies — at least the 45% cut that Labor took to the 2019 election and has now abandoned.
“We’re now left with the task of dramatically curbing emissions in a single decade, with the attendant economic and political consequences. In another world, we could have been looking at a full decade of the operation of the Gillard government’s efficient and effective carbon pricing mechanism that began reducing emissions with minimal impact on consumers and business. Instead we’ve wasted a decade as fossil fuel interests and the people they own in the Coalition, Labor, the union movement and the media have stymied action.”
The speech Scott Morrison didn’t give in response to the IPCC report
“So today I’m announcing new targets that I will be presenting at the Glasgow Climate Change Conference in late October. There’s been a lot of focus on Australia reaching net zero emissions and of course our preference has been to accomplish that by 2050, if possible. However, it’s clear that more urgent action is needed and so accordingly I will be committing Australia to a target of 48% emissions reductions by 2030, on 2005 levels.
“Now, we will do this with technology, not taxes. And we have the technological tools to accomplish this transition now. Renewable energy plus storage is now the cheapest form of electricity production, be they battery storage or pumped hydro. We’ll be committing an extra $10 billion over the next 10 years to support private investment in renewables to take Australia to 60% renewable energy by 2030.”
We’re going gangbusters (PS: you’re fired) — News Corp cuts jobs amid surging profits
“Why are you sacking so many staff when your company is booming? At least News Corp’s 2020 bloodbath had an obvious driver: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sales and ad revenues. Hundreds of jobs were lost across the company in that purge, about 100 papers closed and positions simply vanished — not to mention the hundreds of jobs that were blown up at Foxtel.
“According to an email memo quoted in Nine media yesterday The Australian will lose 10 positions, six from NSW and four from Victoria, Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph will lose two positions, and the company’s news network will lose three. Ten jobs will go from the regional and community divisions, including in Geelong, Hobart, regional Queensland, northern NSW and South Australia.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Cuomo resigns amid scandals, ending decade-long run in disgrace (The New York Times)
Did the Tokyo Olympics drive Japan’s COVID-19 surge? (Al Jazeera)
Australian sharemarket surges to fresh record high yet again, tech stocks the top performers (The Australian) ($)
China issues warnings to officials as COVID-19 cases rise to seven-month high (ABC)
WA weighs putting climate target into law (The New Daily)
Anger over questions on sexual orientation and gender being left out of census (news.com.au)
Italy forecast to swelter in temperatures up to 48 degrees Celsius (The New Daily)
Taliban seizes seventh Afghan provincial capital in five days (Al Jazeera)
Virginia Giuffre: Prince Andrew accuser files civil case in US (BBC)
Facebook bans Reignite Democracy Australia, suspends anti-vaccination boss for spreading misinformation (The Herald Sun) ($)
Why do American grocery stores still have an ethnic aisle? (The New York Times)
Greta Thunberg says global warming’s ‘worst consequences’ can be avoided (ABC)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Setting fire to the politics of global warming — Graham Llyod (The Australian) ($): “The issue is how to treat the developed and developing world differently but fairly and still cut total emissions. Scott Morrison touched on it on Tuesday when he said we could not ignore the fact the developing world accounted for two-thirds of global emissions and those emissions were rising. The difficult part is that advanced economies have developed over a long time, principally on the basis of fossil fuel industries.
“And, as Morrison says, ‘It’s a very fair argument that the developing world makes, which says “why should our economic futures be denied when advanced economies around the world have been able to go forward on that basis of their energy economies over a long period of time?”‘ This is the issue that has stalled global progress on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, which continue to grow as increases from developing economies swamp cuts from the developed world.”
With the release of a terrifying IPCC report, Australia must face its wilful political blindness on climate — Mark Kenny (The Australian) ($): “Ever wonder why an Australian political class steeped in short-termism is so animated about 2050 — a date way beyond the horizons of those currently in power? Partly it is because if an economy is to genuinely commit to emitting net-zero carbon by 2050, the hard work of adjustment needs to commence immediately. But mostly it is that 2050 has become a useful distraction from the here-and-now.
“And it is on this faux battleground that Prime Minister Scott Morrison has excelled in restricting not just his own rhetorical manoeuvrings, but increasingly, those of his opponents. Indeed, Morrison has achieved a remarkable double by simultaneously reducing 2050 to mere symbol, while also framing it as the only battleground on which the climate contest can be fought. This way, he either wins, or he doesn’t lose, because the stakes are rendered so distant and so low as to not affect voting preferences appreciably.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Australia
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The Centre for Social Impact will host a webinar on how telehealth can better support refugees and migrants.
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Activist Chanel Contos will host a webinar about understanding consent in schools for the Australia Institute.
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ACCIONA Geotech CEO Bede Noonan, Grattan Institute’s Marion Terrill, McConnell Dowell independent director Chris Lock, and Infralegal principal Owen Hayford will take part in a Grattan Institute panel to discuss major transport projects.
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Writers Laura Jean Mckay and Ingrid Horrocks will be in conversation about Horrocks’ new book, Where We Swim.
Nipaluna Country (also known as Hobart)
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Former Greens leader Bob Brown will launch a strategy to control feral deer following a report addressing their impact on Tasmania’s landscape.
Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)
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Indigenous affairs journalist Dan Bourchier will host a panel on how to communicate with First Nations People, with Department of the Prime Minister’s Dana Robertson, Department of Health and Kamilaroi/Gomeroi woman Michelle Steele, Indigenous business owner and Dhawawal woman Danika Davis, and isentia’s Kylie Dunstan.
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