CASH ON DELIVERY
News Corp gave former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann $295,000 to end his defamation suit, Guardian Australia reports, meaning he’s made more than half a million dollars from media over a since-dropped rape charge, whether by settlement (ABC paid him $150,000, as the SMH ($) says) or by accommodation costs (Seven paid $104,000 for his northern beaches unit’s rent for an interview as Yahoo adds). Lehrmann was not named in the news.com.au story, nor in the ABC’s stream of Brittany Higgins’ National Press Club speech and nor on The Project. He has always denied her allegations and the case was discontinued out of fear for Higgins’ health.
Meanwhile former Liberal minister Linda Reynolds — who was once accused of calling Higgins “a lying cow” — has complained to the National Anti-Corruption Commission about Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus’ handling of Higgins’ compensation payout ($2.3 million less lawyers fees etc, bringing it to $1.9 million), The Australian ($) reports. As your Worm reported yesterday, three-quarters of complaints are thrown out. Meanwhile a former Department of Defence staffer said Higgins and Lehrmann were kissing at the nightclub before departing for Parliament House, the ABC reports, which flies in the face of his under-oath claim he had no physical contact with her. The court also heard he’d assisted Higgins at the pub after she fell over, and took her phone away in an apparent playful bid to stop her booking a ride home.
SOLIDARITY FOREVER
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham, Liberal National MP Andrew Wallace, Victorian Liberal MP Zoe McKenzie, and Victorian Labor MPs Josh Burns and Michelle Ananda-Rajah will go to Israel next week to meet families of Israelis taken hostage by Hamas, as well as the Palestinian Authority, The Age ($) reports. The Australian ($) adds Birmingham criticised Labor for not sending a minister since October 7 kicked the decades-long conflict into high gear, and spoke of Israel’s “inherent right to self-defence”. At least 16,015 Palestinians have been killed since then, according to Gaza Health Ministry figures, and 1,200 people were killed “in Hamas’ incursion into Israel”, according to Israeli tallies, as Reuters writes this morning.
Meanwhile the SMH told freelance writer Ariela Bard that Israel’s allegations that Hamas had conducted mass rape and child-killing were not fully proved, The Australian ($) reports, and asked her to edit her opinion article to add “alleged” or similar before they’d publish it. Bard said she was “confronted” with the amount of “evidence” — eyewitness accounts have been given to media outlets such as Associated Press and the BBC so far which “alarmed UN Women”. Israeli police are still investigating, however, hence the necessity of the word “alleged” in media coverage. Speaking of media — radio broadcaster Alan Jones has been accused of groping, assaulting and inappropriately touching young men in a report from the SMH’s Kate McClymont ($). He denied it via a lawyer, calling it “scandalous, grossly offensive and seriously defamatory”.
WRONG NUMBERS
Two people are in jail right now after Centrelink used an “incorrect” understanding of social security law to accuse them of claiming more than they’re owed, the watchdog says via Guardian Australia. Chilling stuff. The ombudsman is calling for Services Australia — which has since advised the director of public prosecutions about the two people’s custodial sentences — to waive a further 100,000 debts. Remarkably this is a separate issue to robodebt. Meanwhile there are 26 unemployed people for every entry-level job in Australia, a new Anglicare report has found, with 18 of those people having been outside the workforce for longer than a year. Guardian Australia notes that: “Since June 2022, Australia’s unemployment rate has hovered between a low of 3.4% and 3.7%, with under-employment sitting around 6.4%, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.”
And the government will dig deep for $25 billion in GST top-up payments and extra health and hospital funding for the states and territories as long as they agree to revamp and fund more of the NDIS, the AFR ($) reports. We need you, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, or else the $42 billion NDIS would not survive. Some $10.5 billion will go towards GST top-ups, The Australian ($) says, and national cabinet got a cap on their yearly contributions to the disability scheme (8%).
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
As the year winds down and the weather warms up, many Australians look forward to the most festive of months bringing holiday cheer. For council staff, there can truly be no more harrowing and ghastly time. Every year, faceless workers around the country are assigned the dreaded task of decorating a local tree, to be scrutinised by a community so judgmental you’d think they were continuing the cycle of trauma caused by watching Ian “Dicko” Dickson on Australian Idol. Take Adam Fitzroy, a resident of Forster on NSW’s mid-north coast, who was driving past the town’s biggest tree one evening when he stopped dead. “Pathetic,” he declared as the ABC reports. “An unthoughtful, rushed, ugly, non-Christmassy, rope light installation.” My stars. It’s not that bad — kind of cubist, really.
The council issued a rather hurt statement, saying it had tried its best over three days but was not “professional tree decorators”. Years back, a Chrissy company had come in to hang lights in three trees each December, but the rising costs meant it had become a council responsibility, whether it liked it or not. We’re more than happy for someone else to do it, the statement continued, offering up the lights as a donation. We will, Fitzroy declared. The self-described “vigilante elf” has formed a committee with more than 200 people and local businesses in the small seaside town to raise money for next year’s decorations. They better be bloody good then, disgruntled council staff might be privately thinking. Squabbles and short change — it must be Christmas.
Hoping your light shines bright today, no matter what it looks like.
SAY WHAT?
I will not be apologising for upholding the law. I will not be apologising for pursuing the rule of law and I will not be apologising for acting … Do not interrupt! I will not be apologising … for acting in accordance with a High Court decision. Your question is an absurd one.
Mark Dreyfus
The attorney-general gave Sky News reporter Olivia Caisley a mouthful after she asked him for an apology for the people affected by reoffending former detainees, even though the government does not have the power to override the High Court per the separation of powers that most journalists learn about in first-year university.
CRIKEY RECAP
“Purcell sits on her couch, surrounded by a handful of framed, feminist slogans. Aimee, a member of her team, peruses an exhaustive archive of rescue dogs on a nearby laptop, presumably looking to secure the team’s next adoption.
“There’s something to be said for a politician who neatly places her experience as a woman into her legislative mission, noting all the ways in which her gender rubs up against the world around her. Purcell is ready to say just that: a second abortion ought not be a secret.”
“The irony of the culture wars providing the battleground for defamation battles is that it is not the ‘woke’ who are using defamation laws to pursue others for their statements.
“Instead, it is right-wing politicians who seem to be easily ‘triggered’ and who are resorting to the courts to seek legal remedy when they have the power of a parliamentary position to hit back at any criticism.”
“The demand by Zionists that anything possibly hurtful to many Jews be censored sits ill to many of us, when what has been happening in Gaza is of a level of violence rarely seen in recent times.
“Crucially, whatever one feels about potential justification for that violence, surely opens up the right of those opposing it to be forthright in their words. If you’re making the argument that the high-tech killing of thousands of civilians is ‘regrettable but justified’, people have a right to call you some fairly terrible things.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Israel army in most intense combat in Gaza war, no safe place to evacuate (Al Jazeera)
Taylor Swift named Time magazine’s person of the year (BBC)
Biden: ‘You have to find purpose beyond your pain’ (CNN)
Russia’s Putin meets Saudi crown prince in whirlwind Gulf visit (Reuters)
UK COVID inquiry: Scandal-prone Boris Johnson apologises for ‘pain’ and ‘loss’ of victims (euronews)
As expected, Bank of Canada holds interest rate steady at 5% (CBC)
THE COMMENTARIAT
It’s hunting season for Terminator Dutton as Albanese flounders — Niki Savva (The Age) ($): “The year began with Albanese government ministers describing Peter Dutton as their best asset. It is ending with the threat he could turn into their worst nightmare. A rejuvenated Dutton has — with considerable help from the government — succeeded in catastrophising every issue, creating a sense of chaos around Anthony Albanese. Brimming with confidence, Dutton now scoffs at suggestions he is running a two-term strategy to unseat Albanese, predicting he will reduce him to a one-termer.
“Dutton is starring in the Terminator sequel, fittingly subtitled “Judgment Day”, tutored by the original, Tony Abbott, living proof there is no such thing as an unelectable opposition leader. If Albanese doesn’t change, he will go down. It won’t matter how ugly Dutton’s style of politics — Labor’s focus groups cast him as thuggish — or what state the economy is in …The government has enabled and obliged Dutton by screwing up repeatedly — essentially by making the same mistake. It reacts too slowly to a problem, then responds either inadequately or incompetently.”
Safer, simpler financial advice to deliver the best outcomes for all — Stephen Jones (The AFR) ($): “Superannuation funds must play a greater role. We want to ensure that the superannuation system is as good at delivering income as it is as growing wealth. Funds should be reaching out to their members at important life stages and nudging them
to think about where they want to be in retirement and how they are tracking. They should also be providing them advice around investments decisions, retirement projections, and contribution and drawdown strategies, all while considering the household circumstances. Finally, we need to scale up the provision of advice across the financial sector.
“Because consumers should be able to access quality advice when thinking about their insurance needs, their credit needs and, yes, their retirement needs. We will do all of this while keeping the lessons of the Hayne royal commission front of mind. We won’t dilute the essential consumer protections that have been hard fought for. Advice provided by these institutions will be provided by a new class of financial adviser that must be qualified and will focus on simple issues. They will also not be able to receive a fee or a commission for their advice. Some have argued that the only way to achieve this is to dump the best interests duty. We disagree. Under our reforms, all advisers will be required to prioritise the needs of the client. Not their own, and not their employer.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)
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Business executive Jacqui Clarke will speak about her new book, Stop Worrying about Money, at Better Read Than Dead bookshop.
Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)
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Assistant Minister for Charities Andrew Leigh will deliver a statement to Parliament titled “Backing Charities and Building Community”.
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Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape will be at Parliament House.
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NDIS Minister Bill Shorten will address the National Press Club.
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