Making a protection racket

DEMAND AND SUPPLY

The Morrison government gave $1.1 billion in personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts to Aspen Medical — which is now part of an international criminal probe into corruption and money laundering as ABC’s Four Corners reports. Aspen Medical actually had no experience in a deal this big — the deal was worth $500 million more than any other government supplier at the time, the broadcaster continues. Interestingly, Health Minister Greg Hunt also penned a letter of recommendation for Aspen Medical when the deal was being made — but the letter was open-endedly addressed, with no date on it, leaving its use ultimately up to the company to decide. Former Health Department secretary Stephen Duckett called it “dangerous” and “extraordinarily unusual” for a minister to do so. Aspen Medical had a combined loss of $7 million in 2018-2019, but profits skyrocketed to $420 million in the last two years.

From a medical endorsement to a medical smear — Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has been accused of twisting the words of former paediatric neurologist Monique Ryan’s elderly mother-in-law for political gain, The Age reports. Ryan, who is challenging the treasurer in the high-profile seat of Kooyong, says the 87-year-old family member was “misquoted” when Frydenberg told his campaign launch that she had approached him at a cafe and told him he had her vote. Beyond the pale, or all’s fair in love and politics? You be the judge.

It comes as the Coalition has pledged to give an additional 50,000 older Australians access to the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card in the latest election pitch, which would grant them cheaper healthcare and medication. The card is used by about half a million Australians over 67 who can’t get the age pension because they’re too asset-rich, ABC reports.

[free_worm]

BRINGING IT HOME

Some 10,000 Australians could go halvsies with a Labor government on a house under a new signature policy announced yesterday. Here’s how it’d work: a “shared-equity” scheme would see a Labor government buy 30-40% of a house with you, saving you up to $380,000 in expensive markets, ABC reports. All you’d need is a 2% deposit, AFR adds. A couple of catches: if you don’t buy the government out, they’d take some of the capital gains when you sell, and you’d have to earn less than $90,000 a year, or $120,000 combined if you’re a couple — but it’d be open to everyone without a house, not just first home buyers.

If it sounds a bit familiar, you might live in Victoria, SA, or WA — the states have similar schemes called Victoria’s Homebuyer Fund, SA’s HomeStart, and WA’s Keystart program which work pretty well. Or cast your mind back to February and you might remember this cracking analysis by The Grattan Institute which explored the idea more. It found it took seven years to save a 20% deposit in the 1990s — now it takes 12 years.

Low cost housing, cheaper medicine, a better care sector, and more manufacturing — those were the big promises from Labor Leader Anthony Albanese as he launched his election campaign in Perth yesterday, the AFR reports. And something is working — if you believe the polls that is — as SMH reports: we’re at the halfway mark of the election campaign and 54% of voters are siding with Labor (in the two-party preferred). Likewise in The Australian’s ($) Newspoll, 53% of the respondents voted Labor. In real-world terms, that means a loss of 10 seats for the Coalition — yikes. But the polls have been wrong before…

??? PROFIT

ExxonMobil’s Australian arm has confirmed a $1.57 billion profit after tax for the 2021 financial year and has declared it’ll start paying corporate tax again — for the first time in nearly a decade, mind, as The Australian ($) reports. The company’s Australian revenue jumped nearly a quarter to $12.1 billion because of high energy prices. But it is under frequent attack for being among the major energy players who manage to pay no corporate tax even though they claim deductions here for exploration and investments.

In some positive green news, a couple has taken a trip from Huonville, near Hobart, all the way to Sydney to attend a wedding for a total cost of $43.38 — made possible by their electric vehicle, Guardian Australia reports. It comes nearly three years after Scott Morrison warned that EVs would “end the weekend”, the Guardian adds pointedly.

Also this morning, Defence Minister Peter Dutton’s natural disaster fundraiser has been a wild success — according to him, that is. He’s filled his marginal seat with flyers spruiking the GoFundMe which saw $29,000 in donations, as The Brisbane Times reports, but critics pointed out he’s one of the most senior ministers in the government and has unique powers to act in a situation like a multi-state flood emergency.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

It’s 1970 and Michael James Brody Jr has just purchased every seat on a plane so he and his new wife could fly home from their Jamaican honeymoon alone. Brody, 21, was the bright-eyed heir to a margarine fortune, and so elated by life and love, vowed right there on the tarmac to give away his $25 million fortune. His life practically fell apart under the intense limelight, doubt was cast that he even had that much, and he died just three years later — but some 130,000 handwritten letters requesting a part of the jackpot had poured in in the meantime, providing a vivid insight into the lives and times of folks in the ’70s. “They are part message in a bottle, part voyeuristic parlour game, part potential bonanza for historians,” The New York Times’ Jennifer Schuessler writes — a little life between the lines of each letter.

Some contain stories of trials and tribulations, the desperate underside of the Age of Aquarius, though others were from children, who had scribbled polite requests for money to buy toys, help with school, and start a hard-rock radio station or an off-the-grid newspaper in Alaska. One mother and daughter duo had both written in unbeknownst to each other, while a 24-year-old had asked for money to “go to an island and make love” like Brody had. Incredibly, even KISS’s future guitarist Paul Stanley wrote in, though the documentary-makers haven’t found that one — yet. Even though it began with one story: a slightly unhinged and ultimately doomed millionaire in love, it wasn’t one story, in the end, the documentary’s director Keith Maitland says. “It was a million stories”.

Wishing you a spring in your step this morning folks.

SAY WHAT?

That’s his way. That’s his character. Whenever Australia needs a solution, he offers only smirk and mirrors.

Anthony Albanese

The Labor leader stuck the boot into Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the weekend, saying the PM had neglected Australians and shirked responsibilities time and time again.

CRIKEY RECAP

Albanese unveils old-school Labor platform in a stark choice with the Coalition

Bernard Keane

May 01, 2022

13

“Despite the attendance of Paul Keating, and plenty of invocations of Bob Hawke, the Labor of the Hawke-Keating years was little in evidence at Labor’s election campaign launch. Anthony Albanese presented a platform heavy on manufacturing, nation-building, better pay and conditions and an expansion of the concept of universal care to aged care and childcare.

“This was old-school Labor stuff, much of which could have been heard in the 1970s — but with two crucial modern twists … Commencing his launch with a commitment on Indigenous reconciliation, recognition and treaty reflected that, while economically old-school, this wasn’t the 20th century Labor Party on display.”

---

Is a desperate Morrison about to go to war with the Reserve Bank?

Bernard Keane and Glenn Dyer

Apr 29, 2022

35

“The government is desperate to avoid a rate rise at Tuesday’s RBA board meeting, which will confirm that millions of Australian families face the nightmare scenario of plunging real wages and higher mortgage repayments as a result of the Coalition’s economic management.

“Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, in a subtle but explicit (and unprecedented) attempt to sway the RBA board — all of whom have been appointed by the government — is now arguing that the RBA has previously said it wouldn’t lift rates until wages growth rises significantly … But Frydenberg is being disingenuous.”

---

Anti-vaxxers who raised $330,000 for flood relief have gone dark after a charity watchdog began investigating

Cam Wilson

Apr 29, 2022

13

“At the beginning of March, Aussie Helping Hands promised to raise money to support those affected by flooding in New South Wales and Queensland. Run by three people who’d promoted anti-vaccine and conspiracy rhetoric, the group used misinformation about the Red Cross and other established charity groups to solicit donations while promising full transparency.

“But as Crikey reported at the time, Aussie Helping Hands provided neither proof of the donations raised nor amounts spent, other than a handful of social media testimonials … A spokesperson for Queensland Office of Fair Trading told Crikey that it is actively investigating Aussie Helping Hands, along with other charitable flood-relief appeals, but has not ordered any action under the Collections Act 1966.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Taliban supreme leader makes rare appearance to mark Eid al-Fitr (Al Jazeera)

More than 50 freed as UN confirms Mariupol steelworks evacuation (The Guardian)

She promised to empower women. Will Honduras’s president succeed? (The New York Times)

Germany takes Italy to UN court over Nazi-era compensation claims (BBC)

Number of Canadians living to 100 hit a record high, new census figures show (CBC)

Family of Hotel Rwanda hero launches $400m lawsuit over his alleged abduction (The Guardian)

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events on day 67 (Al Jazeera)

[NZ] Border reopens to international visitors from visa-waiver countries (NZ Herald)

Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan return to Neighbours (BBC)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Key issue for voters: How Labor and Coalition compare on the economy — Steven Hamilton (The SMH): “I was impressed by the eagerness with which the treasurer jettisoned some of the Liberals’ old sacred cows, opting sacrilegiously for massive fiscal support. It was no doubt galling for Labor supporters to watch the Liberals do all the things they had relentlessly criticised Labor for, but the country was far the better for it. We avoided the labour-market scarring experienced in other places and at other times, where large swathes of workers have been locked out of the job market for good. Worker-firm links were maintained. Hundreds of thousands of workers transitioned off JobSeeker and back into work. And we have been left with the lowest unemployment in half a century.

“So what about that opposition? Their childcare policy — while not my preferred mechanism — is credible and endorsed by the Grattan Institute, improving work incentives for mothers in particular. And their climate policy — while I take issue with some of it — includes a market mechanism to reduce industry emissions at minimum economic cost. They have even made an attempt to fund some of their promises, proposing a decent plan to raise taxes on multinationals and to cut spending on contractors and consultants, which combined roughly offsets the cost of their aged care policy. And their promise to conduct a waste audit is sorely needed given the proliferation of rats and mice under this government.”

It smells like sex out there -– and we seem determined to ignore it — Nell Frizzell (The Guardian): “Britain right now smells like sex. As you stand outside the post office, looking through your bag for a mask, you are bathed in the smell of fornication. As you take your aunt Elsie for a quick stroll to the hairdressers, the air drips with coitus. While lining up outside nursery to pick up your child, your nose is full of the smell of bonking. The sweet, vaguely piscine, sometimes acrid smell of shagging is hanging heavy everywhere — and we seem determined to ignore it.

“At least, most of us. While poems are written about the nodding heads of daffodils, and Instagram stories are awash with swaying oceans of bluebells, most people seem rather less inclined to admit that — to paraphrase that famous Mitchell and Webb sketch — every park in England smells like semen. That walking your dog is, for a few weeks in May, the nasal equivalent of squelching through a bordello. It is quite an impressive act of dissociation to be standing beside, say, a hawthorn bush at the No 3 bus stop, as a sexually active adult, and not immediately turn to the person beside you to say, ‘Wow, this pavement really smells like fucking!’ And yet we do. You might notice the odd quivering nostril, catch a conspiratorial smile, but you’re unlikely to meet a stranger who acknowledges that the air beyond their chin smells like nookie.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Online

• Media Centre for Education Research Australia CEO Shannon Schedlich will speak with Australian education experts from Deakin, Southern Cross, Curtin, Sydney Uni, and more ahead of the upcoming NAPLAN testing.

• Epidemiologists Tony Blakely and Catherine Bennett, and Glaxo Smith Kline’s Patrick Desbiens will discuss how the pandemic has changed priorities in health care, in an event held by CEDA.

Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)

• Futurist Anders Sorman–Nilsson and NSW Digital and Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello will speak at the future.nsw conference.

• Queensland University of Technology’s Toby Walsh will speak to AI startup founder Bonnie Shaw about the ethical issues we face in a future dominated by AI. You can catch this one online.

Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)

• The Australia Institute’s Richard Denniss will speak about federal spending amid stalled economic growth and an upcoming election at The Wheeler Centre.