Coles, Woolworths top of the food chain

GROSS PROFIT

Coles and Woolworths are making way more money than their British counterparts Tesco and Sainsbury, Guardian Australia has found, as Australia struggles through a cost-of-living crisis. Profitability is up 5.3% at Coles and 5.9% at Woolworths compared with 3.8% at Tesco and 3% at Sainsbury’s. The paper found that 72% of people are buying less as a result, and added profit margins are “a likely inflation trigger”. So why is our duopoly doing better? Because it’s a duopoly — there’s a lot more competition elsewhere, one expert says. It comes as inflation has fallen to 6% (down from 7% in the March quarter). Treasurer Jim Chalmers says it’s good news, as the ABC reports, but there’s still a long way to go.

It’s even better news out west — Perth’s inflation rate dropped to 4.9%, the lowest of Australia’s capital cities, the WA government says. It’s not so sunny in the Sunshine State, however — Brisbane’s inflation rate was 6.3%, health was up 6.7%, rent up 8.9%  and insurance 17.1%, according to The Courier-Mail. Cripes. It comes as the Victorian government is considering scrapping the first-home owner’s grant, The Age ($) reports, a $10,000 contribution to first-home buyers of newly built homes that are worth up to $750,000. It isn’t working, according to Infrastructure Victoria’s boss, and the Productivity Commission agrees the scheme should come to an end. Some 11,381 people were given grants worth $123.6 million to June 30.

RAISING A STINK

Woodside Energy has threatened to sue two climate activists — including Joana Partyka from the Disrupt Burrup Hub — for financial damages, the ABC reports, after its office was stink-bombed. The fossil fuel giant’s lawyers wrote to them to demand the names of the others, but the activists said they were not snitches. Partyka says it’s an “excessive attempt to silence and intimidate peaceful climate protesters” — the gas was non-toxic and non-flammable. Meanwhile NSW Premier Chris Minns is asking the mining industry whether he should extend the coal price cap — which expires next July — in an effort to keep electricity bills down. Power stations pay a maximum of $125 a tonne, Guardian Australia reports, and there’s also a $12-a-gigajoule price cap on gas. The federal government extended the gas cap but says the coal cap was up to NSW (and Queensland).

It comes as the power caps, as well as the Albanese government’s $3 billion energy bill relief package, protected the east coast from the second-highest wholesale price increase, as the Australian Energy Market Operator revealed the cost of generating electricity soared by a third (31%) in the three months to June. The Australian ($) reports all eyes are on renewables, however, as Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen says it’s going to be hard to get 82% of our power from greener sources by 2030. “We’re several years behind; we should have started five years ago, maybe 10,” he told the Australian Business Council in Japan. “The second-best time to start is today.” Ain’t that the truth: extreme heatwaves are smashing records in Europe, China recorded 52.2 degrees last week, Florida’s ocean is like a hot tub, and Canada has already experienced record-smashing bushfires with two months of summer left.

LAMING ON THE RACK

Former Liberal MP Andrew Laming has been told to repay $8128 for taxpayer-funded travel by MP expenses watchdog the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA), Guardian Australia reports. The paper FOI’d documents that showed it included a 25% penalty — ouch. But Laming was like, stop bullying me, this is a witch-hunt! The IPEA had already come at him in 2019 for $10,000 for earlier trips to Hobart, Melbourne and Brisbane that he billed the taxpayer for. Then last year it told Laming to prove his trips to Sydney and Melbourne were mostly work-related because he was photographed at a sporting event in Melbourne. He refused, saying let’s see if the ombudsman agrees with your 2019 bill first.

Meanwhile, more bad press for the Liberals. Nine newspapers’ ($) latest revelation is that the senior doctor on Nauru said: “Nauru does not want to see an exodus of detainees, for whom the Australian government pays very handsomely.” It’s in relation to the controversial medevacs off the island — Chris Jones says his manager warned him he had a choice between keeping all patients on Nauru or sending ill asylum seekers and refugees to Australia for proper treatment, potentially resulting in him losing his job. The paper recalls the mood at the time — then-home affairs minister Peter Dutton infamously said “a single act of compassion” could see people smuggling begin again, as news.com.au reported. Jones wrote to his local member, Stuart Robert, with his fear the policy would see a kid die on his watch, but Robert responded that he couldn’t help because he supported Operation Sovereign Borders.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

ET phone home! Alien life was found at alleged crash sites, a former US government official has told UFO hearings overnight, raising some eyebrows — and not for the first time. David Grusch, who worked at the US Department of Defense until this year, said he learnt of the “non-human biologics” from “extensive interviews with high-level intelligence officials”, as The Guardian blogged. Grusch, who was the head of unexplained anomalous phenomena (UAP) analysis, also said the government had UFO parts, based on his interviews with 40 witnesses over four years. He reckons the Pentagon gathered and tried to rebuild UFOs for decades, but the Pentagon denied the program existed.

However, It did admit in 2021 that there were more than 140 UFO encounters it couldn’t explain — (only it prefers to call them UAPs). The Wall Street Journal’s Byron Tau tweeted (X’d?) the weirdest one was the “Tic Tac” — a smooth, white oblong that zoomed across the water at high speed, but which didn’t appear to have any flight control surfaces or means of propulsion, a fighter pilot told Reuters. “It behaved in ways … that defy known material science and physics,” Tau added spookily. Grusch had also mentioned a “football-field size” alien craft before, but wouldn’t say much when pressed about that in the hearing overnight. Democrat Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was like, where should we look then? He told her he’d tell her in a “a closed environment”. The truth is in there, it seems.

Wishing you some intrigue in your Thursday.

SAY WHAT?

My position as private citizen Julie Bishop and as chancellor Bishop and chairman is to support the Yes case for I believe that many Indigenous people whom I respect greatly have put a lot of thought into this and they believe that it is a step in the right direction.

Julie Bishop

The long-time former deputy Liberal leader has sent a loud and clear message to her old party — even if she tried not to — that everyone should get on board with the Voice to Parliament.

CRIKEY RECAP

The Voice’s ‘liberal doom loop’ problem 

MAEVE MCGREGOR

“These people, it bears emphasising, wouldn’t necessarily consider themselves racist, and nor would they oppose diversity or Indigenous reconciliation. On the contrary, at least to their thinking, it merely strains faith to conceive the Voice as something which doesn’t philosophically run contrary to liberalism’s promise of equal rights for all.

“And it’s therein the true genius of Dutton’s sophistry on the Voice lies. By mawkishly evoking a common civic creed and monopolising the universalism of basic human rights — but skilfully ignoring the discrete rights of Indigenous peoples under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Australia has supported since 2009 — the No campaign has refashioned the Voice as something that promises to derail history’s bend towards justice.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Seawater temperatures in Florida at hot tub levels, experts warn (BBC)

‘Like a blowtorch’: Mediterranean on fire as blazes spread across nine countries (The Guardian)

Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor, who topped charts in the ’90s, dies aged 56 (ABC)

Fed poised to hike rates as markets anticipate inflation endgame (Reuters)

North Korea backs Moscow’s invasion, as US sends spy drones (euronews)

Niger’s Bazoum says presidential guards moved against him (Al Jazeera)

Trudeau overhauls his cabinet, drops 7 ministers and shuffles most portfolios (CBC)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Australia must confront four megatrends that are causing rapid global disruption — Julie Bishop (The Guardian): “The second megatrend we now face are relative shifts in geopolitical power. And there are two ways that these really matter for Australia. The first is the growing rivalry between the US and China, and the second is challenges to the international rules-based order. For the first time in Australia’s history, our major trading partner is not also our major defence and security partner. In fact, our major trading partner is increasingly in open disagreement with our major defender and security ally. We are one of the few countries to maintain a significant trade supply with China and we have felt the brunt of its displeasure when our respective worldviews collide.

“Our relationship with the US continues to deepen through AUKUS, and while we don’t always agree with the US on trade policy, we can manage the differences. The issue of Taiwan also looms, and especially the spectre of war. I believe Australia and other like-minded partners can play a role in moderating these tensions so they don’t lead to a ladder of escalation, where the last step is military conflict over Taiwan. Within this second megatrend is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, not in itself a megatrend but if other aggressors took comfort from it, it could be. The extent to which Russia’s example influences other territorial or other border disputes remains to be seen. But surely the disaster in Ukraine is a lesson for all.”

Maori experience offers crucial lessons on ‘top down’ Indigenous Voice to Parliament model — Matthew Hooton (The Australian) ($): “Maori have had a guaranteed voice in New Zealand’s Parliament since 1867, choosing between voting in Maori or general electorates. The Maori seats initially addressed the problem of Maori land being collectively owned under a property-based franchise. Mostly held by Labour, the seats historically helped National by removing a chunk of Labour voters from general rolls. Under proportional representation, they assure Maori representation without affecting which major party governs. National periodically calls for their abolition, but half-heartedly. New Zealand’s constitution is unwritten but, after 156 years, it surely includes the Maori seats.

“The consensus is they’ll remain until Maori say otherwise. Similarly voice-like is New Zealand’s Maori Council, legislated for by National in 1962 with Labour’s support. With 48 members, it’s the peak organisation for 16 district Maori councils and 120-plus Maori committees, seeking and then voicing consensus to the government and courts. In 1975, Labour established the quasi-judicial Waitangi Tribunal to examine contemporary breaches of 1840’s Treaty of Waitangi, with National’s support. Ten years later, Labour allowed the tribunal to consider injustices back to 1840. National was opposed, with a then-youthful National MP Winston Peters leading its attack. Yet National kept the 1840 rule and outperforms Labour in settling claims. The courts also have helped Maori aspirations, simply by applying ordinary statute and common law. It’s not one-way. The Supreme Court unanimously rejected Maori claims the government couldn’t sell minority stakes in state-owned hydro-electricity generators.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)

• Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research’s Professor Andrew Campbell will address the National Press Club.

Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)

• Author Anna Funder will speak about her new book, Wifedom, at Avid Reader bookshop.

Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)

• Assistant Minister for Charities Andrew Leigh will speak about transparency in the charity sector at Corrs Chambers Westgarth.