Seeing red over $1.5m in Liberal pork

LIBERAL DARK ARTS

In its dying weeks, the Morrison government announced at least $1.56 million in grants without vetting them. It was part of the controversial $265 million Safer Communities program — which the Australian National Audit Office has slammed for opaqueness — and the grants went to targeted Labor-held seats. Three of the grants are not listed as approved by the Department of Home Affairs, The Age ($) says, and yet they were announced by the Liberals. What were they for? Security systems for a Buddhist temple in Berwick, Melbourne (8.9% Labor margin), security systems for the Gurudwara Sikh temple in Geelong (10.3% Labor), and security systems for women’s counselling centre Glen for Women (1.5% Labor). None of the three seats flipped blue.

Meanwhile the identities of six Liberal members — including three Sydney councillors — who were booted from the party amid branch-stacking allegations have been revealed, The Daily Telegraph ($) reports. Among them are Georges River councillors Sam Elmir and Nick Smerdely and Canterbury-Bankstown councillor Jess Nguyen — the paper says Elmir is a former NSW Liberal state executive member and Smerdely works as a staffer for Liberal upper house member Peter Poulos. The paper says the allegations relate to claims that more than 100 members were signed up with fake email addresses — often with no knowledge that they had unwittingly joined the Liberals, as Guardian Australia reported. The NSW Electoral Commission is looking into it.

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GOING FOR BROKE

About 800,000 homeowners are hurtling towards a $16,500 “repayment cliff” as record low fixed-rate loans reset this year, the SMH ($) reports. Variable rate loans have been climbing in line with the nine consecutive rate increases over the past nine months, but the fixed rates were locked in during 2020 and 2021’s 0.1% cash rate era. Until now. An economist told the paper your average $600,000 loan would have to pay $16,500 more in interest over 12 months. Yikes. Together with the three more interest rate rises that pundits are predicting — ultimately taking the current rate of 3.35% to 4.1% by August — we can expect a $20 billion hole in our economy that could wipe a full percentage point from the country’s economic growth. What does this mean? Basically, a recession is looking even more likely.

Meanwhile, don’t look at us, Canberra says. Minister for Early Childhood Education and Youth Anne Aly said nothing politicians say is going to make it better for people struggling with the cost of living. Aly sympathised with a questioner on ABC’s Q+A who told the panel she was faced with an extra $500 a week after her fixed-rate loan resets. But the MP wouldn’t say whether it was time for RBA governor Philip Lowe to go — many are fuming because Lowe said rates wouldn’t rise until 2024, something he has apologised for. He faces Senate estimates tomorrow. It comes as 7News reports western Sydney suburbs Lakemba, Wiley Park and Fairfield West, and Melbourne suburbs Flemington, Kensington and Caulfield East, were home to people experiencing the highest level of mortgage stress (meaning they spend more than a third of the household income on their mortgage). And yet Australia is now home to 11 more billionaires than in 2020, SBS reports. What’s wrong with this picture?

KEEPING THE FAITH

Should religious schools be allowed to preference teachers who are of the same religion over other candidates who aren’t? A group of 30 leaders from the Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths have written to Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus about this reform from the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) that says principals shouldn’t be allowed to elevate their own when recruiting — unless the religion is genuinely a part of the role. But in filling roles for maths, science, history and English, The Australian ($) says, such preferencing of religious folk would be unlawful.

Meanwhile, The King’s School has been ordered to “immediately cease” construction of the headmaster’s plunge pool — and have you ever heard a more private school sentence? The Department of Education launched an audit last year to probe whether there was a misuse of taxpayer money going on after parents complained about the pool planned for the headmaster’s residence. The state’s oldest private school charges up to $41,460 a year for each kid, the SMH ($) reports. The department was like, bin the project immediately — “financial assistance is provided to the school by the minister”, it pointed out.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Vale Luv, the sulphur-crested female cockatoo that was given to Bundanoon grandfather John Gale when he was just eight years old. The bird was Gale’s constant companion through his childhood, his marriage to Heather, and into his twilight years when their children had their own children — some 54 years. Gale says the feisty bird had scrutinised Heather before ultimately giving her his blessing, and it was just as well: Heather had to be accepted by Luv before they were married. “It was a package deal,” Gale tells the ABC seriously. Luv was considered a well-loved local around the small regional NSW community, often spotted shooting the breeze with the guys at the Wingello Cricket Club where she became something of an unofficial mascot.

There was just something about Luv, Gale says. She seemed to have this intuition, like she’d come to understand him in the way a little creature scarcely can during five decades. Gale admits he doesn’t actually know how old Luv was — she could’ve been 10 or 20 when they met. He had been hoping to pass the cockatoo down to one of his kids, but in recent weeks it became clear it wasn’t to be. Luv hadn’t been doing very well, and the day came when the vet gently told Gale, “You’re going to have to let her go.” Gale, who works in palliative care, tenderly cared for his Luv until the end. She wasn’t talking or sitting up anymore. “I’d just be with her and she’d constantly try to get close to me,” he says. As he says — sometimes there’s just this connection between two beings. And it endures until the end.

Hoping you feel connected to those around you today.

SAY WHAT?

Taxpayers’ money shouldn’t be used to fund campaigns that are potentially biased, harmful and full of misinformation. I think the public would prefer their money go to core issues like health and housing.

Jacqui Lambie

Whether she was talking about the Yes or No campaign is anyone’s guess. The Senate crossbencher is yet to announce her position on the Voice to Parliament but says it shouldn’t be funded by the public purse.

CRIKEY RECAP

News Corp’s profit dip and dwindling subscriptions reveal trouble in Australia

Christopher Warren

Feb 13, 2023

41

“Expect those cost cuts to drive the continuing shift in the internal balance of power in the Australian arm. Before the pivot to subscriptions, the tabloids held the power, while The Australian was a largely loss-leading luxury. Now it’s the other way around.

“Although the company doesn’t release masthead-by-masthead figures, about a third of News’ total subscriptions are thought to be for the Oz. Expect the bulk of the impending cuts to be borne by local news, further turning the city tabloids into franchises of the company’s national tabloid product. News Corp has also foreshadowed rises in the cover price of the print papers.”

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The next pandemic: ultra-massive utes

Jason Murphy

Feb 13, 2023

118

“There’s no policy trying to reverse the surge to bigger and bigger cars. All there are are limits on the maximum height (4.3 metres), width (2.5 metres) and weight (4.5 tonnes, loaded) of a vehicle before it counts as a heavy vehicle and needs a special registration and licence.

“So there’s nothing to stop them from getting taller, wider and longer except the dimensions of shopping centre car parks. Expect new shopping centres to have much bigger car spaces. There is no public debate on the topic of whether we should be supersizing our cars, and no public policy measures, so the outcomes here are consumer-led.”

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Sky News Australia clarifies its anti-masker ‘doctor’ isn’t the medical kind

Charlie Lewis

Feb 13, 2023

31

“Panellist Rowan Dean does introduce Sherwood as a ‘naturopathic doctor’, but James Morrow calls him ‘doctor’ throughout and asks Sherwood’s ‘medical opinion’ on the effect masks have on the immune system. So it’s not surprising someone at Sky really wants the distinction between ‘actual doctor’ and ‘naturopathic doctor’ made clear — as do a lot of medical regulators, incidentally.

“The segment features a chyron caption reading ‘Mask Madness: based on so-called science’. Which is pretty funny … So, where did they find Sherwood? Presumably the Outsiders team knew they had to get him on once they saw his powerful performance at an anti-mask event in Grand Rapids in 2021.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Moldovan president warns of Russian agent infiltration (Al Jazeera)

China says US balloons breached airspace at least 10 times (BBC)

Ruling out aliens? Senior US general says not ruling out anything yet (Reuters)

‘Pro-Putin agitator’: Ukraine slams former Italy PM Berlusconi after new anti-Zelenskyy remarks (EuroNews)

Israel to authorise nine ‘wild’ West Bank settlements (The Guardian)

Evacuation for hundreds of Bay of Plenty homes in Ōpōtiki, Whakatāne (Stuff)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Worst and strangest speech of Penny Wong’s life — Greg Sheridan (The Australian) ($): “Identity politics damages or destroys everything it touches, even, amazingly, foreign policy. Globally, centre-left parties succeed or fail to the extent they ignore, or at least pay only minimum lip service to, this most destructive dynamic in cultural politics. Identity politics holds that people are defined by, indeed imprisoned in, group characteristics such as race, gender, sexual orientation or sometimes national history, rather than by their own moral and intellectual choices. It pits group against group and engenders endless sterile conflict. It rewards confected victimhood, endlessly seeking out new villains to demonise, or old villains to demonise in new ways.

“The London speech was a radical departure and frankly weird. It earned negative reviews in the British press and called to mind an antique Australian cultural cringe. The second half of the speech was OK, though Wong succumbed to quoting her previous speeches, but the intellectual structure was bizarre, presenting Indo-Pacific diplomacy as a question of the colonial powers — to wit, Britain — needing to come clean about their past. She made a plea that regional nations be treated as equals, presumably by former colonial powers like Britain. I would say the speech was 60 years out of date. When it resulted in British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly promising Britain would always treat Australia as an equal, I wondered if I’d been thrown back into The Adventures of Barry McKenzie.”

All hail Rihanna for turning a Super Bowl performance into the greatest pregnancy reveal yet — Morwenna Ferrier (The Guardian): “Even before she had switched into a puffer coat with built-in gloves by Alaia, it had become more than a half-time performance. Here was a woman, returning to work for the first time since having a baby, somehow converting this moment into a tightly controlled but highly visible moment, while putting paid to the difficult second pregnancy reveal. In forcing her audience to confront her physical reality, Rihanna went past making a fashion statement. She took ownership of her body, and she did it in real time.

“It’s alien to us in the UK, but the Super Bowl is as much a lucrative billboard for brands as it is a sporting event. One fast-fashion brand paid $14m for two adverts to be aired during the event. Rihanna knows this too. Halfway through her performance, she knowingly blotted her nose with Invisimatte Instant Setting & Blotting Powder by her beauty brand, Fenty. The Daily Mail called her ‘shameless’. Everyone else called her a pregnant businesswoman … Rihanna knows how to use clothing as a way to remind us who has control over her body. We learnt that from how she ‘announced’ her first pregnancy, stood on a snow-flecked street wearing a vintage Chanel puffer coat, jewelled belly chain and an entirely exposed bump.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Yuggera Country (also known as Brisbane)

• Author John Harrison will speak about his new book, Sonata for Flute and Electric Drill, at Avid Reader bookshop.

Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)

• Minister for Home Affairs and Cyber Security Clare O’Neil will deliver a speech about foreign interference in Australia, at ANU Acton.