POWERPLAY

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has called for a major reset of the energy sector in an effort to lower prices. Recommendations in a major report released today including government-backed electricity generation and new regulations against market manipulation.

According to The Age, the consumer watchdog has targeted the steep rise in wholesale electricity price (up 130% from 2015 to 2017) and called on the government to provide the Australian Energy Regulator greater monitoring powers, and cap any further mergers or acquisitions. In a speech at the Queensland Media Club later today ($), Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is expected to respond and discuss the retail politics of bringing down prices.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

A three-day mission in Thailand’s Tham Luang caves has ended as Thai Navy SEAL divers brought the last of the 12 soccer players and their coach to safety. The ABC reports that people across Thailand and the world are celebrating after the head of the joint command centre, Narongsak Osatanakorn, announced they had “achieved mission impossible”. 

Once everyone has recovered, Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha will host a celebration for everyone involved in the international rescue effort, which included the British divers who discovered the trapped team, Adelaide’s cave-diving anaesthetist Richard Harris, and Thailand’s ex-SEAL diver Saman Gunan, who passed away during the mission last week.

REAL TROUBLE FOR REAL BODIES

Doctors have joined a protest against a Sydney exhibition featuring 20 “perfectly preserved human bodies” — which critics argue could be executed Chinese political prisoners — and accused NSW Health of breaking its own ethical rules in approving the display.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians has joined lawyers, academics, and human rights campaigners in opposing Real Bodies: The Exhibition. They have argued in letters to state and federal ministers the exhibition does not demonstrate respect for the person and, as the bodies from China lack identification and consent papers, breaches NSW Health’s internal ethical and professional standards. NSW Health deny the accusations.

[free_worm]

THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

Just returned from Cave 3. Mini-sub is ready if needed. It is made of rocket parts & named Wild Boar after kids’ soccer team. Leaving here in case it may be useful in the future. Thailand is so beautiful.

Elon Musk

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO delivers, personally and unprompted, a miniature submarine to the Wild Boar rescue mission, later described by rescue chief Narongsak Osatanakorn as “not practical with our mission”.

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

Department of Immigration
‘Authentically optimistic’: Pezzullo lays down the law to execsBernard Keane

“Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pezzullo has fired off an eccentric 1900-word letter to his senior executive service (SES) staff laying out his ‘general leadership philosophy’ and urging them to embrace it. ‘It is important that we are aligned in terms of how to lead,’ he tells his senior staff in a document forwarded to Crikey. “

Channel 7’s ‘African gang’ narrative reveals its complete contempt for the truthMaker Mayek

“Last weekend’s broadcast of Sunday Night, which reproduced the sensationalist reporting on the so-called ‘African gangs’ seen earlier in the year, was not only despicable but has left my community asking many questions.”

sunset twilight
Razer: I turned 50 under capitalism. It was pretty shit except for the food.Helen Razer

“This past weekend, I underwent the 50th of birthdays. I am pleased to report that (a) my aging body was not torn by a crowd into pieces then fed to a community of sharks and (b) I did remember to bring a notepad. For the Crikey reader yet to turn 50, soon to turn 50 or eager to compare a historical turn toward 50 with that occurring in 2018, I will recount the experience.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Strategy biggest ‘transformation to Aboriginal housing in a decade’

True Crime Australia: The 21st century murderer — and the girl whose death changed the internet ($)

MP accuses Vinnies CEO of using his position to push Labor line ($)

Mandatory child abuse reporting for Victorian childcare workers

Consortium to push for DEC purchase with or without NBL backing ($)

Police cracking down on venues after survey results reveal domestic violence offenders are having their last drinks at licensed premises ($)

Taste of the future: Australia’s southern states at 50% renewables

Albanese admits Coalition ‘stopped the boats’ and opposes detention time limit

Factional deal to put rebel in Shorten’s seat ($)

Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan sworn in as executive president, names son-in-law as finance minister

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Brisbane

  • Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will address the Queensland Media Club ahead of five crucial byelections on July 28, including for the seat of Longman, north of Brisbane.

  • Prime Minister Turnbull will then hold talks with Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and Solomon Islands Prime Minister Rick Houenipwela. 

  • Third and final State of Origin match at Suncorp Stadium.

Melbourne

  • A High Court hearing will tie off a number of citizenship cases for federal MPs and possible submissions on others.

  • Writer and inaugural Bruce McGuinness Research Fellow at Victoria University Tony Birch will deliver “I am writing about my own daughter, Winnie: our rights to our stories” at the Rai Gaita Wednesday Lectures. Crikey contributor Shakira Hussein will also deliver “Navigating the binary between speech and silence: Muslim women in post-9/11 Australia” next Wednesday, July 18.

  • Media call for new Australian tour of Mamma Mia! The Musical, to be followed by the premiere red carpet event.

Adelaide

  • The Murray-Darling Basin royal commission will continue public hearings.

  • The Independent Commissioner Against Corruption will hold a public hearing into SafeWork SA, with the Public Service Association of SA to appear.

  • Food South Australia will hold their 2018 industry summit, The Next BIG Thing.

  • Behind-the-scenes open day for a new innovation hub on top of the former Royal Adelaide Hospital. It will engage with new sectors such as artificial intelligence, cyber security, smart sensor networks, robotics, big data, defence and space research.

  • Rebekha Sharkie will hold a Mount Barker community forum with voters ahead of the July 28 byelection.

Port Hedland, WA

  • The 5th Annual Yule River On-Country Bush Meeting will discuss the June 2018 expiry of the 10-year National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing, amidst fears small isolated communities may be shut down.

Perth

  • Women in Media will hold an event, “Making Headlines: When will women in sport get equal media coverage?”, with ABC Grandstand’s Karen Tighe, WACA’s Christina Matthews, Seven West Media’s Steve Butler, and Australian and West Coast Fever netballer Nat Medhurst at the Subiaco Football Club.

  • Noongar woman Kerry-Ann Winmar will present at the South Perth Library and City of Vincent Library as part of NAIDOC week. Whadjuk Noongar and Eastern Arrernte artist Jade Dolman will also hold an art workshop at the City of Vincent Library.

Canberra

  • British author and environmental activist Mark Lynas will discuss “Seeds of Science: why we got it so wrong on GMOs” at the National Press Club.

Sydney

  • David Jones ambassador Jessica Gomes will join David Jones designer Johnny Schembri, and stylist Kimberly Gardner, for the company’s Spring Summer 18 Collections Launch.

  • Day one of ANSTO’s three-day Clean Water Hackathon.

  • Bayside Council will hold a weaving workshop as part of NAIDOC week. 

Darwin

  • The Top Dog Film Festival will feature a series of short films exploring the connection between humans and dogs for one night only.

  • Aboriginal Bush Traders & Injalak Arts will hold a series of food, storytelling, and art workshops and events as part of NAIDOC week.

Hobart

  • Department of Education Manager Lesley Richardson will discuss industry and youth engagement as part of the University of Tasmania’s Horizon Series.

THE COMMENTARIAT

Shocking double standard on display as US bullies on breastfeeding — Polly Dunning (Sydney Morning Herald): “The benefits of breastfeeding are well known, and breastfeeding rates are rising in the US and other wealthy countries around the world. So the news that emerged this week that the US decided not only to oppose a UN resolution to ‘protect, promote and support’ breastfeeding, but to actively attempt to bully other nations into withdrawing their support it is positively shocking.”

Remembering and remedying — Professor Heidi Norman (IndigenousX): “The last several months has seen a renewed focus on Aboriginal history: the Uluru Statement from the Heart called for ‘truth telling about our history’ and this year’s National Reconciliation week theme emphasised ‘Don’t Keep History A Mystery’; the theme for NAIDOC week – ‘Because of Her, We Can’ – draws attention to the particular role Indigenous women have played in the past and their influence in the present.”

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