NOVEMBER 3, 2018

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Welcome to the best of Crikey for the week,

It’s hard to imagine a trial more custom-made to grab the attention of our media than the case between Geoffrey Rush, one of the country’s best known actors and Nation Wide News. Actress Eryn-Jean Norvill gave testimony this week, and as Michael Bradley wrote for us, her story will be subsumed by the great wreckage of this case, and our legal system’s broader failures on MeToo.

Elsewhere, we looked at the twelve men and women who stand to gain from the suppression of the Witness K trials. Scott Ludlam took a broad look at the asylum seeker tipping-point, while we probed the government’s claims they have been quietly transferring children from Nauru for weeks off the back of their own policies.

As ever, we’re keen to hear what you think. Write to us at boss at crikey dot com dot au.

And tomorrow, keep your eyes peeled for a brand new Crikey newsletter from the idiosyncratic mind of Helen Razer: For Your Information. Each week, Helen will dissect a topic of global, local or sometimes no significance — from universal basic income to anti-ageing creams. For Your Information will be delivered to all current subscribers.

Have a great weekend,

Anonymous
Whistleblower

So… who is actually leading the country right now?

BERNARD KEANE 3 minute read

The prime ministership looks a little crowded with Scott Morrison sharing it with Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott.

The government is lying about how and why it is taking children off Nauru

KISHOR NAPIER-RAMAN and CHARLIE LEWIS 3 minute read

Scott Morrison has taken credit for the transfer of sick children off Nauru in accordance with existing policy — the truth is his government has fought relentlessly to stop it from happening.

Rush trial will leave behind nothing but wreckage

MICHAEL BRADLEY 3 minute read

Even once the judge reaches a verdict, we will learn precisely nothing of value.

Meet the Timor-Leste 12 who could benefit from the Witness K cover-up

BERNARD KEANE 4 minute read

The government is desperate to hide its prosecution of Witness K and Bernard Collaery. But who will benefit from a cover-up?

Are Australia’s courts a bastion of educational elitism?

KISHOR NAPIER-RAMAN 3 minute read

With the vast majority of the judiciary coming from elite private schools, do the decisions of Australia's courts really reflect everyday Australians?

Is this Australia’s refugee tipping point?

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... you’d want to be well careful before declaring a change in the winds, but events of the last few weeks are cause not just for hope but for a surge of effort. This is obviously not because Scott Morrison — or whoever Labor’s spokesperson is — has had an attack of conscience. It’s because the enduring campaign for change is really starting to bite electorally.

Somewhere up ahead, there is a tipping point where suddenly political advantage comes from demonstrating humanity rather than working to extinguish it. At that point, change will happen fast. — Scott Ludlam

There are spreading hairline cracks in the obscene armour of Australia’s migration policy, cracks that weren’t there a month ago.

Could the Daily Mail be sued for breach of copyright?

EMILY WATKINS 4 minute read

A plagiarism test case could be in the offing for the Daily Mail Australia but there's no consensus this would be good for journalism.

We are spending our vast anti-terrorism budget on the wrong people

CHARLIE LEWIS 4 minute read

The question of how we respond to radicalisation and terrorist attacks from white supremacists is increasingly relevant.

AFR’s Young Rich List full of very dull and attractive ciphers

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I can’t be the only povo who regularly looks inside the AFR for truth. I can’t be the only AFR reader who finds its special rich lists a little, I don’t know, off brand? I am sure there are individuals with glorious portfolios, high net worth and reserves that rival Tim Cook’s petty cash drawer who think it cheap, dishonest and full of lucky thickos who definitely won’t reappear next year.

Next year, some of the expensively spray-tanned youngies in last Friday’s Under 40 Rich List will have cashed in their filial bonds. — Helen Razer

The Young Rich List is recommended every year to any person briefly comforted by the thought that it doesn’t take brains, ingenuity or a clue to make a pile of money. It just takes money.

Seven follows SBS and Nine with another new food channel

EMILY WATKINS and GLENN DYER 3 minute read

Seven signed a deal with the Food Network to create 7Food, creating yet another free-to-air food and cooking channel.

Subdued CPI result gives interest rate hawks pause for thought

GLENN DYER 3 minute read

Modest rises in housing costs, including rents, utilities and property rates, and a fall in child care out-of-pocket expenses, saw a subdued rise in the CPI this quarter, said the ABS.

VCE students run amok, but you would too

HELEN RAZER 4 minute read

Exams are torture. Being teenaged is torture. Who wouldn't seek a bit of relief from that?

Insurgent Greens are the real threat to Labor in Victoria

WILLIAM BOWE 3 minute read

With the Liberals down and out, the Greens represent the real challenge for Labor at the November 24 state election.

How newsworthy is the end of the world?

EMILY WATKINS 2 minute read

Not very, according to Fairfax, News Corp and the ABC.

Does temple vandalism show the failure of hate crime law in Australia?

KISHOR NAPIER-RAMAN 4 minute read

Lack of data coupled with an ad hoc legal framework that varies from state to state means hate crimes are rarely pursued in Australia.

This global wave of fascism was decades in the making

GUY RUNDLE 4 minute read

The election of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil has marked a new stage in recent years' rock-slide towards fascism.

Cricket boss: ‘in these hard times for cricket, it’s important to remember that I did nothing wrong’

BEN POBJIE 3 minute read

Cricket Australia chairman David Peever lays out some hard truths about how the crisis engulfing Australian cricket is someone else's fault.