Sam Kerr’s slur stirs ‘reverse racism’ row

HURT FEELINGS

The allegation that Matildas captain Sam Kerr called a British police officer a “stupid white bastard” has seen a flood of takes. Conservative commentator Caleb Bond wrote for the Herald Sun the decision to charge her with “hurting a policeman’s feelings” was madness, adding it would be among the least offensive things he’d been called. Writing for Crikey, lawyer Michael Bradley said there was legal precedent that being called white isn’t a term of abuse nor a descriptor of any ethnic, national or racial group, after a woman called a prison officer a “fucking white piece of shit” some years back. Former Socceroo Craig Foster urged Football Australia to strip Kerr of her captaincy if the allegation is proven, saying all racism should be dealt with equally, but an academic told the SMH racism is “prejudice plus institutional power” and Kerr’s alleged slur didn’t fit the bill. Canadian sports activist Shireen Ahmed put it more directly: “A white policeman from London does not have the same systemic power of a racialized lesbian from Australia. Power dynamics, anyone?”

Meanwhile, gambling companies are making “big money off some of the poorest people”, Liya-dhälinymirr Djambarrpuyngu man and independent MP Yingiya Mark Guyula told Guardian Australia, and the NT government had a clear conflict of interest. Almost all of the nation’s online gambling companies are licensed in the NT because of low tax rates, making it a $50 billion industry. While the NT government got feedback from all 28 gambling companies for its proposed Racing and Wagering Bill 2024, it didn’t speak to “regulators, gambling researchers, academics, treatment centres or financial counsellors” the paper notes, nor consult with any Indigenous elders or community leaders. It spoke to one gambling support group, however — Amity Services. Its former CEO told the paper she “strongly believed” the consultation should’ve been wider.

NOT-SO-PRIVATE SECTOR

Australian media companies could get compensation from Meta because it’s using news content to train its AI, researchers told Guardian Australia. The tech giant said it wouldn’t pay for news content anymore under the news media bargaining code because news was less than 3% of Facebook usage. Meta said it had used “publicly available online sources” to train its Llama 2 model in an accompanying paper (when approached, Meta wouldn’t confirm whether that meant online news). News Corp has already said it is negotiating about AI training data, but other news outlets have blocked AI from scanning their sites. Meanwhile, Assistant Trade Minister Tim Ayres told Sky News Australia Meta needed to “reconsider their position” in refusing to sign more content deals, saying the government won’t be “stood over”. Nor will Meta, it seems — it pulled news from Canada’s Facebook nine months ago in a similar standoff with the Trudeau government, and clickbait grew like a weed. SMH columnist Waleed Aly suggested we hit Meta where it hurts by outlawing the harvesting of our data.

To more companies on the hook now and Minister for Finance and Women Katy Gallagher says big businesses seeking Commonwealth contracts will be asked to prove how they’re improving the gender pay gap and a lack of women in senior roles, the SMH reports. The government spends $70 billion on procurement, she said, and women need a better slice of that pie. The government will use the Workplace Gender Equality Agency data as a framework — it looked at 5,000 companies. Meanwhile, the opposition wants Labor to exclude workers with big retirement savings in the new policy to pay super on parental leave, AFR reports. Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley said the Coalition supported the policy, but wouldn’t hand over a “blank cheque”.

VALE

The 22-year-old son of a former AFL player has been charged with the murder of Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy, The Age reports, though a court suppressed his name. Police allege he attacked the 51-year-old woman on February 4, the same day she disappeared while on a run. It wasn’t a hit-and-run, the police added per the ABC, and they don’t think the man was known to Murphy. The search for her body continues. Meanwhile, former Rudd-era defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon’s son Jack has died following a parachuting incident at Sydney’s Richmond RAAF base, the ABC reports. Defence launched a formal investigation, while the former politician said his family takes some comfort knowing the lance corporal “died serving his nation”, describing his son as “skilled and courageous”.

Speaking of Defence, minister and Deputy PM Richard Marles agreed that some families of veteran suicide will be left “unheard” because Labor didn’t extend the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, the ABC reports. Marles said they need to “get moving” and establish “some momentum” after more than two years. Minister for Defence Personnel and Veterans’ Affairs Matt Keogh pointed out the Albanese government passed legislation to hold several hearings at the same time, which at least maximised the volume of “lived experience” the royal commission heard. Its final report and recommendations will be handed down in early September.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

With fear, death, restrictions and fights over toilet paper unfolding during the pandemic, doctor Catherine Barrett felt close to tears most days. Walking through her lobby one day, she noticed a box of tissues next to a note from a neighbour that said “Please take if needed”. Barrett was moved, and decided to start a Facebook group called the Kindness Pandemic. Half a million people have joined the group since, sharing stories of kind acts they hear of or witness. When Lisa McDonald was caring for her dying mother, she was wondering how to bring light during the dark time. Recalling her mother’s love for the Disney film Bambi, McDonald posted to the Kindness Pandemic to see if anyone had a baby deer on hand. It was a long shot, but then two people from something called Barn Buddies responded.

The mobile petting farm travelled nearly three hours to Melbourne to bring the doe-eyed deer to the bedside of dear old Phyllis, and the photo of the 82-year-old awe-struck woman stroking its calm face personifies pure “love and kindness”, McDonald said. My own mother, Catherine Farragher, often tells me “what we focus on expands” and it can mean two things: looking for the negative fills our world with it, while looking for the positive does the opposite. Cynics might call it ignorance, but we only get one “precious and wild life” as Mary Oliver says, and we owe it to ourselves to feel wonder, joy, and awe as much as we can. That’s what I hope to bring to you in this section in some small way each weekday. As Albus Dumbledore once said: “Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

Hoping you don’t forget that, and have a restful weekend.

SAY WHAT?

No.

Chris Minns

The NSW premier’s response was short and sharp when asked whether he thought it was racist to call someone a “stupid white bastard” as Matildas captain Sam Kerr is alleged to have said to a British police officer. WA Premier Roger Cook agreed, saying he didn’t find the phrase racist.

CRIKEY RECAP

In (partial) defence of Janet Albrechtsen

BERNARD KEANE

“The problem is not with Albrechtsen, engaged in doing her job, so much as her employer. News Corp was — and is — engaged in a campaign of merciless character assassination of Brittany Higgins. It is devoted to the task of exemplary punishment of her for the damage she inflicted on the Liberal party — along with Liberal MPs and senators who continue to pursue her.

“Will News Corp, or the Coalition, ever be satisfied that they have inflicted enough damage on Higgins? Or on anyone involved in the prosecution of Lehrmann (for, we must remember, a sexual assault he has always denied)? It seems not, despite the extensive evidence of the gruesome toll the News Corp campaign, and relentless litigation, has taken on Higgins.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Parents to have super paid on parental leave in move set to benefit 180,000 families a year (SBS)

Sweden officially joins NATO alliance, ending decades of neutrality (Al Jazeera)

Hamas delegation leaves Gaza truce talks in Cairo without deal (BBC)

Single dose of LSD provides immediate and lasting relief from anxiety, study says (CNN)

Eyebrows raised as Viktor Orbán to visit Donald Trump in Florida (The Guardian)

Bald eagle nest found in Toronto for 1st time in recorded history, conservation authority says (CBC)

Cancer-causing chemical found in Clinique, Clearasil acne treatments, US lab reports
(Reuters)

Europe’s centre-right party clears path for von der Leyen’s re-election, despite some objection (euronews)

In State of the Union, Biden will cheer the economy and draw a contrast with Trump
(The New York Times) ($)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that the following mentions a deceased person.

Course of our history shaped by ‘a leader’s leader’ — Anthony Albanese (The Australian) ($): “And as the world watched on, Lowitja O’Donoghue stood at the forefront of a new relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia — an opportunity extended to all of us to accept and celebrate the world’s oldest continuous living culture as a fundamental part of who we are as a nation. It is a journey we are still on, building on every moment of hard-won progress. It isn’t a journey we travel in a straight line, but with every step forward we remember it was so often O’Donoghue who led the way. She was proud of being first. She was determined to not be last.

“When O’Donoghue opened a door, she held it open for all who followed. She made history but her focus was on giving people a future. She wanted to be the first of many. In the words of her biographer, Stuart Rintoul: ‘I asked her why she had lived the life she lived. She looked at me and said: Because I loved my people.’ Through her time in this world, O’Donoghue walked tall, and the power of her example made us all walk that little bit taller as well. Now she walks in another place. Yet, thanks to all that she did, she will always be here. In all her warmth and all her strength, a great rock standing forever at the river’s bend.”

Kerr calling a cop a ‘white bastard’ isn’t reverse racism — precedent proves it — Michael Bradley (Crikey): “From what I can work out, the charge against her comes under section 4A of the UK Public Order Act, which makes it an offence when a person, with intent, uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, causing another person harassment, alarm or distress. The prosecution appears to be claiming that Kerr’s offence was aggravated by ‘racial hostility’, meaning that she was either motivated by, or demonstrated, hostility towards the police officer based on his membership of a racial group. The aggravating factor, if established, points to a more severe sentence. Kerr’s defence will be that her actions lacked any such intent. If her public persona is at all reflective of who she really is, that sounds pretty right. Rationally, the idea of wasting a four-day criminal trial on this incident seems ludicrous.

“But let’s get directly to the heart of the matter. It is no defence to a charge of racial vilification to point to the literal truth of the racist words you’ve said. Use ‘brown’ or ‘yellow’ as a personal descriptor and, yep, that’s racist. So does the same apply to ‘white’? As one conservative commentator insisted, if you’re okay with what Kerr said, ‘You need to genuinely be okay with a white guy calling someone a ‘stupid black bastard’ … and you might be, but you need to be consistent.’ Well, white man, no, you don’t. There’s legal precedent for why you are talking about two unrelated things, which only reflects the simple truth that really gets your goat: reverse racism is not a thing.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Online

• ANU’s Hugh White and the Australia Institute’s Emma Shortis will talk about Australian Foreign Affairs’ latest edition Dead in the Water: The AUKUS Delusion in a webinar.

Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)

• Treasurer Jim Chalmers will launch Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury Andrew Leigh’s book, The Shortest History of Economics, at Griffith University.