Clive Palmer takes No for an answer

CLIVE’S CASH SPLASH

Billionaire miner Clive Palmer is throwing $2 million into the No camp, The Australian ($) reports, with advertising in the final week to blitz swing states Tasmania and South Australia. The paper notes the United Australia Party founder is renowned for securing “one seat in Parliament after spending $117 million at the 2022 federal election”. Interestingly, state-by-state poll analysis shows Tasmania and Victoria have the most Yes voters, Guardian Australia says, and Western Australia and Queensland have the least. Meanwhile, a Lowitja Institute report has found the claim $40 billion is spent on Indigenous folks is wrong, despite what singer Kamahl and Sky News host Peta Credlin say. Some 86% of the funding goes to “indirect government services” such as schools, hospitals, aged care facilities and prisons, Lowitja chairman Selwyn Button, who is also a PwC Australia partner, says.

Bronwyn “$5k-chopper-to-Liberal-fundraiser” Bishop says Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has what it takes to be a future prime minister of Australia, Sky News reports, because the opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman has “stamina and wisdom”. Presumably that’s excluding the time Price said colonisation has been good for Indigenous peoples, as the SMH ($) reports, but anyway. Price would need to switch from the Senate to the lower house for a shot, just like Bishop. “I do know her mother,” she added for some reason. The ABC has a cracking story this morning about what Australia can learn from New Zealand’s treaty, Te Tiriti O Waitangi, signed in 1840. It was basically ignored for 160 years, Minister for Māori Crown Relations Kelvin Davis says, partly because the translation was so different. Māori never ceded sovereignty to the Crown in their version. These days, however, the Waitangi Tribunal upholds the treaty — it’s a monitoring body that gives advice to the government, which it can ignore or implement. It’s seen progress including reparations paid and Māori becoming an official language of NZ.

PEZZULLO’S SMOKING GUN

Disgraced Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo connected British American Tobacco with one of his department’s customs officials, Nine newspapers ($) report, perhaps at the request of pal Chris Fry who was the tobacco giant’s lobbyist. The paper says big tobacco wanted the government to crack down on illegal tobacco. Not only that, the paper continues — Pezzullo had private meetings with PwC about plans to privatise the quarantine system during the pandemic. Speaking of the embattled Big Four, the PwC leak of government secrets is a scandal that could have hit other countries too, Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill and Greens Senator Barbara Pocock say. PwC says, via Guardian Australia, that an internal investigation found there wasn’t any evidence that confidential information was used by partners outside Australia for commercial gain, but O’Neill was sceptical because it wasn’t the finding of an independent process.

Meanwhile former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has been threatened with jail if he doesn’t front up to a Senate inquiry, The Australian ($) reports. Inquiry chair Bridget McKenzie says a summons will be served on Joyce as soon as he returns to Australia — she says the lower house “jailed someone in the 1950s who refused the summons”, adding: “Let’s hope we don’t get there.” Yikes. Meanwhile there was a gotcha moment at the inquiry yesterday when McKenzie innocently asked how long it takes to paint a plane, as the ABC reports. Newly minted CEO Vanessa Hudson walked right into it, saying 24 hours (for a decal), prompting the rat-smelling senator to ask: “So what date did Qantas agree to participate in the Yes campaign for the prime minister’s Voice referendum?” Hudson took it on notice.

BOYS’ CLUB

Police are investigating an Instagram photo posted by a Queensland police officer that appears to show disgraced soldier Ben Roberts-Smith and former NT cop Zachary Rolfe relaxing at Bali’s Finns Beach Club. Rolfe appeared to say, “Just a couple of cops/murderers and war criminals Havin [sic] a lovely afternoon in the sun,” news.com.au reports. Give me strength. Rolfe was charged with the manslaughter of an Indigenous teen he shot three times, but was ultimately found not guilty. Meanwhile Tasmanian Attorney-General Elise Archer is in hot water too after text messages appear to show her calling Premier Jeremy Rockliff “gutless” and describing his predecessor Peter Gutwein’s “glass jaw”, The Australian ($) reports. She is also facing an independent inquiry into allegations of “bullying and belittling” behaviour, the paper notes.

This comes as former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews had a “nuclear”-level explosion at MPs as the room was factionally divided over deputy Jacinta Allan getting the job, The Age ($) reports. The paper spoke to 12 MPs from both factions who said it was one of the most heated meetings they’ve ever had — “He went completely berserk,” one MP said. So why the drama? Andrews wanted Allan — they’re part of the Socialist Left faction, but with Tim Pallas as deputy, that meant the left would hold both slots. So Transport Minister Ben Carroll wanted to challenge, a messy, months-long process that would’ve seen a branch ballot. In the end, Carroll got deputy, and everyone was happy — sorta.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

A two-year-old girl named Thea was playing with her two best buds in the garden — a rottweiler named Buddy and an English springer named Harley. It was dusk, and getting a little chilly in Faithorn, Michigan, so Thea’s uncle told the barefoot toddler it was time to to head inside for the evening. Like any kid who’s been told playtime is done for the day, and who faces an early bedtime while the adults get to stay up, Thea was not convinced. Not long after, Thea’s uncle and her mother Brook realised the house was quiet. A little too quiet. They searched high and low but the little girl was nowhere to be seen. Immediately, Brook called the cops, who launched a full-scale search complete with drones, search-and-rescue and canine teams. In the hubbub, no-one noticed a small detail: the dogs were gone too.

For four heart-wrenching hours, people scoured the woods near the family home — it seemed the logical place for a wandering tot. A family friend was cruising one of the trails on a four-wheeler when a distinct bark boomed in the dark. It was Buddy, who continued to bark, almost as if the dog wanted the guy to follow him. Putting some scepticism aside, he did. Just a short way off the trail was little Thea, sound asleep using big-eared spaniel Harley’s stomach as a nice soft pillow. Who are you, Harley’s little growl seemed to say, as the guy approached. Nothing but nothing is going to hurt my girl. When the adventurous trio were returned home, all in perfect health, Brook was beside herself with joy. “She has those dogs wrapped around her finger,” she told CNN.

Hoping you find something you feared was lost, and have a restful weekend.

SAY WHAT?

The racist No campaign is dangerous in so many ways and it has made it okay for neo-Nazis to go out onto the streets of Melbourne — and it’s important for this country to send a message to them by writing Yes in the upcoming referendum.

Tarneen Onus Browne

The Indigenous Melbourne activist was a hard No, but has changed her position after watching the rise of far-right extremists opposed to the Voice.

CRIKEY RECAP

The unsurprising rise of Jacinta Allan, a ‘political animal’

MAEVE MCGREGOR

“Allan, then 25, made history as the youngest woman to be elected to the Victorian Parliament. By the time of the next election, which Labor won in a landslide, she flirted with history again, having secured a seat in cabinet as minister for employment and youth affairs …

“To that end, some might point to her inaugural speech, where she cracked convention by unloading on the former Kennett government. Or her decision in 2018 to direct the state’s trains operators to remove Sky News from railway stations after the broadcasters’ much-criticised decision to platform white supremacist Blair Cottrell.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Republicans open Biden impeachment inquiry with focus on family business (Reuters)

Historic move as Macron offers Corsica autonomy ‘without disengagement from the state’ (euronews)

Ontario prepares to go big on nuclear, with demand for electricity poised to soar (CBC)

Emirati and Egyptian central banks agree to currency swap deal (Al Jazeera)

Musk ditches X’s election integrity team ahead of key votes around world (The Guardian)

THE COMMENTARIAT

To claw back power, the Libs need to stop being a hot mess — Phillip Coorey (The AFR) ($): “With that looming as a contest between Labor retaining majority government or being reduced to a minority, every seat everywhere is precious. More so if the ALP fails to make inroads in Queensland, where it holds just five of the state’s 30 seats, and drops one or two in WA following its atypically strong showing there in 2022. At a caucus meeting in May, Albanese presented a mud map of Liberal seats Labor would target in 2025. These included the Perth seats of Canning and Moore, which is rather ambitious given Labor is already at such a high watermark in the west. Nothing wrong with ambition, though.

“Further east, the prime minister nominated Menzies in Melbourne, Banks in Sydney, Bass and Braddon in Tasmania, and Sturt in SA. The latter, previously held by Christopher Pyne, is now held by fellow moderate James Stevens by a very tight two-party-preferred lead of 50.5%. SA is hardly a swing state. It has just 10 seats, of which six are Labor and mostly safe, three Liberal, two of which are safe, while independent Rebekha Sharkie has an iron grip on Mayo. After decades of trying, Labor pinched Boothby from the Liberals at the last election. It is confident of holding that and now has its sights on Sturt. Lavishing attention on the state is part of that strategy.”

In the second half of this term Albanese will need to concentrate on delivery — Michelle Grattan (The Conversation): “The COVID era is behind us — except that Bureau of Statistics figures out this week put COVID as third among leading causes of death in 2022, behind heart disease and dementia. (In 2020, it ranked 38th; in 2021, 33rd.) That makes it all the more unfortunate Albanese has excluded, in the formal terms of reference for his COVID inquiry, the unilateral actions of state governments. The changing of the guard in Victorian and WA Labor, the Queensland government’s troubles and the challenges for the Albanese government are morale boosters for the Liberals.

“But the Liberals are a shambles in Victoria and a tiny rump in WA, so there are no early recoveries in those states. Queensland provides their bright spot at state level. Federally, the best the Dutton opposition probably could hope for at the next election would be to push Labor into minority government. Albanese could never aspire to Bob Hawke’s “messiah” status. But after the 2022 election he soared high, elevated in part by people’s relief the Morrison government was gone; in political terms, the country seemed to have emerged from a black hole into the sunlight. The Labor government launched into intense activity, including a plethora of reviews, and promised a better style of politics. The pace of activity continues, but inevitably political reality has set in.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Muwinina Country (also known as Hobart)

• Singer-songwriter Paul Kelly and Yes23 co-chair Rachel Perkins will talk about the Voice to Parliament at a song-and-story event called October 14, Let’s Talk About It in The Hanging Garden.