UNEASY AS A, B, C
We swear we did not kowtow to Israeli lobbyists, ABC managing director David Anderson told staff, even though leaked messages appeared to show several lawyers claiming credit for Australian-Lebanese broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf getting the sack. Anderson said that ABC staff are supported to do their job with “impartiality and accuracy” and without “fear or favour”. The union house committee told the SMH the statement was disappointing, not least because Anderson ignored around 80 staff requesting a meeting. More than 200 ABC staff did tune into a Zoom last night, however, where they talked about a no-confidence vote for Anderson. Lattouf will be at Fair Work today opposite the ABC.
Meanwhile the Australian Jewish Association (AJA) president David Adler told Sky News Australia that the ABC is becoming a “radical direct activist organisation” because a journalist asked Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong if Australia would consider sanctioning Israel like we did Russia if the International Court of Justice orders provisional measures (like a ceasefire). Adler also claimed the ABC had “sanctioned” reporter Tom Joyner before, which a spokesperson called incorrect while asserting the Middle East correspondent’s right — job description, even — to ask a question of an Australian politician in the Middle East. Adler is referring to Joyner being spoken to after he called allegations of beheaded babies untrue in a leaked group chat. (In late November, a Washington Post ($) fact-check urged “caution” about alleging babies were beheaded because “details are still sparse”). Overnight Wong met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, Guardian Australia reports.
PM TIME
Chinese ambassador Xiao Qian says it was Japan, not China, who injured Australian divers with a sonar pulse in November, The Australian ($) reports, because if it was China the divers would be dead. It’s eerily similar to Russian President Vladimir Putin claiming he didn’t try and poison the opposition leader Alexei Navalny because it would’ve worked if he did, as The Guardian reported in 2020. Anyway — Xiao also said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese shouldn’t have congratulated Taiwan’s new president-elect William Lai because of our One-China policy. Albo rebuffed that, pointing out that Taiwan’s ruling political party hadn’t changed and adding more broadly that we’re allowed to disagree with China sometimes.
Albanese is in Tasmania at the moment backing the salmon industry, The Mercury reports, with the PM pointing out that 90% of our salmon comes from the state. He quipped it was perhaps Tassie’s second major export behind “Queens”, continuing that the state must be very proud of Denmark’s Queen Mary… even though she ditched her Australian citizenship literally decades ago, as Crikey’s Charlie Lewis pointed out. Meanwhile, conservative media continues to peddle the will-he-won’t-he story about the stage three tax cuts this morning, with The Daily Telegraph reporting about accusations of Albanese’s “sneaky” word games, The West ($) opining about whether he’ll “[break] a promise”, and news.com.au declaring the PM had “announced” the change as if the Coalition-era tax reform is a brand new story.
A WHIZZ AT WORK
Centrelink staff say they’re being timed while they take a whizz to improve the notoriously epic caller wait times, Guardian Australia reports. Speaking to the paper anonymously, they said “intrusive and stressful” management systems monitored them minute by minute, including when they went to the bathroom. The average wait time went from 18 minutes in 2022 to 32 minutes last year (I, like many readers, have waited much longer — indeed SBS reports the longest wait has been three hours and 53 minutes). Meanwhile Atlassian executive Annie Dean says workplaces will regret forcing their staff back into the office, the Brisbane Times reports, because it’s an “erosion of trust” and lowers productivity. The tech giant just passed 1,000 days with a scattered workforce.
Meanwhile Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas is urging federal Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke and the crossbench to rethink bargaining laws, The Age reports, because it’ll see unions drag out pay disputes. Burke did some heroic negotiation last year to secure crossbench support for the controversial industrial reform changes under glowering glares from Qantas and BHP, as The Australian ($) reported (it didn’t use the word “heroic” of course). Pallas says the “no less favourable test” (new terms have to be as good or better than existing agreements) will mean unions can take their time, which he claims is at odds with bargaining. Finally our eight most powerful industry super funds have just one woman among their top 10 paid executives, the AFR reports, which is ironic because industry super is pushing for more women in senior ranks of ASX 300 companies.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Some 40,000 dogs in a city in northern Italy are shaking like a greyhound right now after fed-up authorities ordered they must do a DNA test for a province-wide dog shit database, The Guardian reports. Polizia who spot a steaming deposit on the cobbled streets of the gorgeous city will promptly take a sample and return it to the lab for testing where scientists will cross-reference the database and then hunt down the hound in question to fine the owner. And it’s no small fine either — somewhere between €292 and €1,048, which in perhaps the most common Australian currency conversion method is up to three return flights to Bali.
Of course, the huffy Italians mostly ignored the order. They were told they had until December to take their pups to the veterinarian for the test, and just 11% have. After all, the test ain’t cheap — some €65 — and many owners sniff that they always clean up the crap as they go. Of course, the scheme is not without its limitations. What of the stray mutts, wind in their fur, living off the land and the occasional stale panettone, who are free to pop a squat wherever they please? What about the tourists and their snooty designer dogs, who would not be caught dead bent over with just a thin plastic bag separating their $150 manicure and fecal matter? A local pollie scoffed that Italian police are unlikely to enforce it anyway. They have many other things to do, she said, than this shit.
Sending your dog a head scratch this morning.
SAY WHAT?
You wanna come here? Come here and say it to my face.
Novak Djokovic
Lord grant us the confidence of a spectator heckling the world no. 1 tennis player about his game at the Australian Open. He went on to beat Australian Alexei Popyrin in a tense four-set battle.
CRIKEY RECAP
“But looking at the app’s listing for the ‘business’, Will spotted something that he didn’t find as funny. Like many other businesses, Google Maps showed a ‘Popular times’ graph depicting how popular the location is using information provided by Google users who’ve agreed to let the app access their geolocation data. 9AM on Thursday was a busy time for Big Dumpers, according to Google Maps, but completely empty later in the day.
“What clicked in Will’s mind is that he had inadvertently created a public tracker of when people were in his share house — almost certainly without their knowledge. Will quickly voluntarily ‘closed’ his business on Google but the listing remained up afterwards.”
“It would be unwise to overstate that the Iowa victory generalises to the wider population. The Republican Party is now a cult. Any structural symmetry between itself and the Democratic Party — a sprawling organisation encompassing what would be six parties anywhere else — has gone.
“But that shift itself hides an asymmetry, as many of the ranks of the group polling calls ‘independents’ are really Republicans no longer registered as such (in that bizarre US process, where you register your party affiliation with the government). Those, and genuine swinging voter independents are really two groups. Many Republican independents will be persuaded to get their ass to the polls and vote for The Donald, come November.”
“Unfortunately, many [Aboriginal community-controlled health organisations (ACCHOs)] are fighting with one arm tied behind their back, forced to carry out urgent work with insufficient funding. Some are given piecemeal support to stem the tide, but few are being financed to provide the complex and diverse range of care required.
“Without this support, ACCHOs can’t provide vital prevention support to keep families safe and strong, which leads to better education outcomes and employment prospects, and in turn, helps break cycles of disadvantage … It’s too late for my siblings, but there remain many, many people just like them who don’t know where to go and need help.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
US redesignates Yemen’s Houthis as ‘global terrorists’ (Al Jazeera)
Pakistan condemns deadly Iranian missile strike on its territory (BBC)
Takeaways from first day of Trump’s defamation trial (CNN)
Karim Benzema sues French minister over Muslim Brotherhood claims (The Guardian)
German airports see delays and cancellations due to freezing temperatures (euronews)
Apple overtakes Samsung as top seller of smartphones (Reuters)
Chinese lab mapped deadly coronavirus two weeks before Beijing told the world, documents show (The Wall Street Journal) ($)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Team Biden needs a reset on Israel — Daniel Levy (The New York Times): “The first and most critical shift required is for the administration to embrace the need for a full cease-fire now. That demand cannot be one of rhetoric alone. The administration should condition the transfer of further military supplies on Israel ending the war and stopping the collective punishment of the Palestinian civilian population, and should create oversight mechanisms for the use of American weaponry that is already at Israel’s disposal. Ending Israel’s Gaza operation is also the surest way to avoid a regional war and the key to concluding negotiations for the release of hostages.
“Washington can also leverage the deliberations underway at the International Court of Justice, where South Africa has accused Israel of being in violation of its obligations as a signatory to the 1948 international genocide convention. Israel is demonstrably nervous about the proceedings and understands that an International Court of Justice ruling has heft; indeed, South Africa may have already done more to change the course of events than three months of American hand-wringing. The Biden administration does not need to support the South African claims, but it can and should commit to being guided by any findings of the court.”
The familiar roadblock facing Thanasi Kokkinakis — Marc McGowan (The SMH): “Kyrgios is a Wimbledon finalist, boasts three other grand slam quarter-final appearances, seven ATP Tour titles, wins over Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, and made it as high as No.13 in the rankings. Kokkinakis, on the other hand, captured his hometown Adelaide title in 2022 in the clear-cut highlight of his career but has never made it beyond the third round of a slam or been ranked better than 65. There were fits and spurts of his immense potential — top-10 wins over Federer, Milos Raonic and Andrey Rublev among them — but he has more often fallen short of expectations.
“The asterisk for several years, of course, was the horror, at-times barely believable run with injuries he endured, including shoulder, abdominal, pectoral, knee, elbow and ankle setbacks. A severe case of glandular fever wiped him out of the 2020 Australian Open … Kokkinakis has largely been free of injuries the past three years, coinciding with his decision to hire renowned strength and conditioning coach Jona Segal, and bring him on the road for chunks of the year. The biggest roadblock now, it seems, is Thanasi himself. Kyrgios is widely derided as an underachiever who happily admits he will never be a workhorse like, say, Nadal or his countryman Alex de Minaur.”
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WHAT’S ON TODAY
Muwinina Country (also known as Hobart)
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Naturopath Moira Bradfield Strydom will talk about the influences of peri-menopause and menopause on the genitourinary microbiome, held at Criterion House.
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