Barack Obama (Image: AAP)

THANKS OBAMA

A Wurundjeri Elder has been stopped from performing a Welcome to Country and other traditional cultural protocols at Barack Obama’s Australia tour. The Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation put out a statement about its concerns after Aunty Joy Murphy was removed from proceedings by event organisers for being “too difficult”, the ABC reported. The 78-year-old was set to open Obama’s Wednesday night event in Melbourne as well as a business lunch on Thursday when she asked for “appropriate accommodations for a support person” and the opportunity to present the former US president with a gift “as is cultural practice”. Aunty Joy said she was shocked and distressed by the treatment.

There was less drama around Obama’s Sydney stop where the 61-year-old held court to talk about everything from artificial intelligence, international relations, economic justice and, of course, News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, said The Sydney Morning Herald. Obama called himself the “most recorded person in human history” by the end of his presidency, which made him the guinea pig for technologies like artificially generated video — also known as deepfakes — and other digital mischief. The tour could net the Obamas as much as $1 million with tickets starting at nearly $200 for the speeches, 9News reported. Thankfully for them, news.com.au covered how the family still managed to fit in a bit of sightseeing including climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge (unharnessed too! The benefits of being a VIP).

[free_worm]

AMBASSADOR DRAMA

Sweden has summoned the Russian ambassador after he threatened that the country and its neighbour Finland would become “legitimate targets” of “retaliatory measures” if they join NATO, DW reported. The comments, made by Viktor Tatarintsev in a long Facebook post, drew the ire of Sweden’s Foreign Affairs Minister Tobias Billström who declared it a “blatant attempt at influence”. The Nordic countries decided to join the Atlantic alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. Requiring ratification from all 30 current NATO members, Finland is set to join as soon as it gets the final OK from Türkiye, but Sweden’s application has run into opposition because of rocky diplomatic relations with Hungary and Türkiye, news.com.au wrote.

From one ambassador to another, China’s man in New Zealand Wang Xiaolong has popped off in an 11,300-word screed titled One Should Not Impose on Others What Himself Does Not Desire — Some Observations on Democracy sent to Kiwi MPs, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. No points for guessing who Wang’s talking about considering it was sent just before the United States’ virtual Summit for Democracy was about to kick off. The Chinese ambassador took aim at the Biden administration giving out report cards on human rights conditions around the world, and helpfully returned fire with a report from the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s own report The State of Democracy in the United States: 2022. You won’t be surprised to hear it’s not exactly a glowing review.

SO-SO SOCIAL MEDIA

Staff in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) have warned that banning apps like TikTok could hurt the country’s ties with China. The Australian got its hands on internal documents providing advice on how to respond to a Department of Home Affairs security review into social media that is expected to prompt a ban of the popular social video platform on government-owned devices. The boffins in PM&C briefed the Prime Minister’s Office that singling out the app could be a diplomatic risk and instead recommended an “agnostic” approach to the review. But as Crikey reported yesterday, if the federal government is concerned about the company’s Chinese ownership, then there are a bunch of other very popular apps that also have links to China that could be concerning for the same reasons.

Meanwhile, the US seems like it’s hurtling towards a full-blown ban on the app in the country, The Guardian reported. Doing so might be surprisingly popular: NPR has polling from respected pollster Marist that shows 57% of Americans support a ban on the app. Full credit to TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, though, for managing to block out the haters and continue full steam ahead with plans to launch a new app. The New York Times reported that the company is approaching influencers to coax them to join Lemon8, a new app that’s a cross between Instagram and Pinterest. Probably worth having a backup plan, I reckon!

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Every day, the US Treasury issues a daily report of financial transactions. Usually it’s a very boring list of money in and money out to the various departments and government bodies. One day last month, however, was a little bit more interesting. On February 28, 2023, the Treasury reported a deposit of $7 billion in its “estate and gift” taxes line item. That’s a lot. It’s the most in a day since 2005. Most days don’t crack $1 billion. 

After ruling out a reporting error or a backlog of returns filed on one day, QZ reported that the leading explanation is that one very rich person died and the $7 billion was the result of the deceased’s estate tax payment. The problem is: no one can figure out who died. The amount of money it would take to leave $7 billion would likely make the estate’s owner one of the 100 richest people in the world — and, generally, people tend to notice when they pass away. 

May you have as much success as a Rich Lister and the wisdom of someone who knows to keep that information to yourself!

SAY WHAT?

How many times has that happened today?

Senator Hollie Hughes

The Liberal Party senator was accused of racism by Lidia Thorpe when she interrupted the former Greens senator during a speech on the Safeguard Mechanism earlier this week. Thorpe was acknowledging traditional owners and custodians of the land of the Beetaloo Basin when the shadow assistant minister for climate and energy seemingly interjected with a sarcastic question. Hughes would then go on to call on Thorpe to withdraw her racism accusation.

CRIKEY RECAP

How Christopher Pyne’s ‘business council’ became a de facto government trade agency with the UAE

Mar 29, 2023

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Pyne is a South Australian and a former Coalition defence minister, which clearly informs the unbridled joy he has expressed about the deal signed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in San Diego earlier this month.

In late November 2020, then-prime minister Scott Morrison hurriedly departed a lengthy cabinet meeting, just concluded, to attend a special event. He had agreed to launch a venture called the Australia-UAE Business Council at the invitation of former cabinet colleague Pyne.

The council, co-chaired by Pyne, looks in every respect as though it is an Australian government entity. Yet the appearance is deceptive. It is in fact a business entity owned by Pyne’s company, GC Advisory Pty Ltd.

Coverage of the Nashville mass shooting is the kind that leads to more mass shootings

Mar 29, 2023

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For years academics and public health officials have called on the media to not name perpetrators of mass shootings nor show their image if avoidable, to avoid portraying the shooter as “heroic, romanticised, a victim or a tortured soul”, to avoid images of the shooter with “weapons or dressed in military-style clothing”, to avoid speculating about motive, or implying that any one thing led the shooting to happen.

The Nashville shooting — especially the release of CCTV and police bodycam footage of the incident — has given the media ample material with which to ignore every single plea made by these experts. The SMH story has several images of the shooter during the incident aiming their assault rifle, descriptions of their “dramatic” final moments, and speculation about whether the shooter’s sexual identity and “resentment” at the school in question acted as a motive.

But it is far from the only publication to ignore the practice experts have been pleading for. News.com.au prominently features the bodycam footage, images of the shooter armed and stalking the halls of the school, and screencaps of their Instagram messages. The Australian ran the bodycam footage but featured no prominent images of the shooter, while the ABC named the shooter but made no use of the footage, nor did it run any images of them, featuring instead images of the victims.

‘Take a good hard look at its own record’: probe into Labor’s ‘broken’ FOI system welcomed

Mar 29, 2023

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The Senate will establish an inquiry into the delays that plague the [freedom of information] system, and the waning resourcing that led to [commissioner Leo] Hardiman’s resignation less than a year into the job, after the Coalition and the crossbench united to wedge Labor on transparency.

Independent MP for Warringah Zali Steggall said it was hypocritical of the government to vote against the inquiry, when it centred so much of its criticism of the former Coalition government around secrecy.

It will also investigate broader delays in the review of appeals with the information commissioner, the resourcing allocated to responding to FOI applications and reviews, and “the creation of a statutory timeframe for completion of reviews”.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

ACTU pushes 7pc wage increase for award workers (Australian Financial Review)

Albanese government’s $1bn deal Asteria and Murena sea mines ‘top priority’ (The Australian)

Charlie Teo unable to secure letter of support from Australian, NZ colleagues, hearing told (The Sydney Morning Herald)

I didn’t conspire to murder John Setka, says estranged wife Emma Walters (The Australian)

Eyelid skin cancers cause ‘huge burden’ on health system, surgeons urge sun safety (ABC)

Biden invokes Defense Production Act for printed circuit board production (Reuters)

Judge rejects Trump’s privilege claims over Pence testimony in Jan. 6 probe (ABC News)

Russian whose child drew anti-war image gets jail term but flees (Al Jazeera)

Police using ‘excessive force’ at France protests, rights groups say (The Washington Post)

Sam Bankman-Fried allegedly bribed one Chinese official with $40 million (NBC News)

US opens investigation into Tesla seat belts coming loose (Associated Press)

Elon Musk and top AI researchers call for pause on ‘giant AI experiments’ (The Verge)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Voting No to voice doesn’t mean you reject human rights — Lorraine Finlay (The Australian): My message is simple. You can believe passionately in human rights, equality and the importance of reconciliation and decide — based on your belief in the importance of those principles — to vote no. A constitutional referendum is always an occasion of significance. During the coming months I would encourage all Australians to think carefully about this proposal and what it will mean. But, even more important, I would encourage all Australians to ensure that our conversations about the voice are conducted in good faith and that different views are respected. Every Australian must be free to make up their own mind about voting yes or no.

I was the first Australian to be kidnapped in the Iraq war — John Martinkus (The Sydney Morning Herald): The last day I was working in Iraq I was followed from my hotel. You notice these things, but I didn’t realise I was to be kidnapped. After 24 hours my translator and I convinced the kidnappers that I didn’t work for the Americans and I wasn’t a threat. The fact I was unarmed proved my case as did my translator’s excellent memory of those we had interviewed and how they were senior to these guys in the insurgency. No money was paid and no military operation necessary. The simple fact I had tried to report on the torture of one of the insurgent’s fathers at the prison in Abu Ghraib was enough to stop us being beheaded.

JobKeeper was a big call to make. They got it right — Steve Hamilton (Australian Financial Review): Rigorous economic research has demonstrated it saved almost a million jobs directly — but even this fails to capture many broader benefits to the economy. Cast against America’s far less successful small business support program, which in hindsight has been said to be subject to widespread fraud and abuse, the criticisms of JobKeeper fade into insignificance. The dividend of these economic supports collectively was among the lowest death rates in the world, all while achieving among the highest rates of economic activity, and a job market that rebounded faster than just about any other. Our performance was as good as one could possibly have hoped for in those early days. While I was highly critical at times of the Morrison government, in hindsight I view its management of the economic side of the pandemic as a tremendous achievement worthy of our gratitude. A proud legacy for any treasurer or prime minister.

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Yuggera Country (also known as Brisbane)

  • John Howard launches his new book A Sense of Balance in conversation with Centre of Independent Studies executive director Tom Switzer.

Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)

  • Authors Frank Bongiorno and Chris Wallace discuss their recent political history books in Politically Speaking.

Woi Wurrung Country (also known as Melbourne)