Australia reckons with Bourke Street Attack

AUSTRALIA RECKONS WITH BOURKE STREET ATTACK

Fallout from the Bourke Street attack continues today as information emerges on attacker Hassan Khalif Shire Ali’s history of mental illness, substance abuse, and, according to The Australian’s ($) report into Ali’s 2014 Facebook history, radicalised views.

The Herald-Sun ($) reports that Victorian premier Dan Andrews has since publicly supported the federal government’s policy of cancelling visas and deporting potential “extremists”, while state and federal governments and agencies are expected to consider enhanced early intervention and deradicalisation programs. A counterterrorism expert interviewed by The Age also argues that covert “shoot-to-injure” squads are needed to break the cycle of violence.

Finally, a number of Muslim organisations have criticised Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s response to the attack and rhetoric around “radical, violent, extremist Islam”, while Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has flagged new citizenship changes and called on Labor to support controversial encrypted messaging legislation.

GOVERNMENT TO SHIFT MIGRATION ISSUE TO STATES

The Coalition government is developing a plan to rewrite permanent migration levels according to lodged state and territory skilled migrant requirements and evidence of sufficient infrastructure.

The Australian ($) reports that the policy, spurred by calls from state governments such as NSW, would shift the onus from the federal government and create an aggregate national setting based on state and territory needs. This comes after the annual permanent intake under Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton slashed from a federal ceiling of 190,000 a year to just 162,000 last year, and drops as the Coalition falls another Newspoll point to trail Labor 45-55 ($).

WORLD LEADERS COMMEMORATE ARMISTICE

French President Emmanuel Macron has declared nationalism as a “betrayal of patriotism”, mere metres away from presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin at a WWI armistice commemoration in Paris.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Macron called on 70 world leaders, including Australian Governor-General Peter Cosgrove, to renew commitments to honour the dead and “place peace above all else”. For his part, Trump narrowly dodged a topless Ukrainean activist, and, by skipping an earlier visit to an American cemetery, the rain.

[free_worm]

THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

It stings when a pollie actually laughs at you. Like you want to be hated right. So many of you, and I just dont give a shit. #HoneyBadger

Andrew Laming

The Queensland Liberal-National Party MP hits back at a meme from Facebook page “The Simpsons against the Liberals”, in a war that has inexplicably gone on since 2016.

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

Foley departs, but will ensure allegations dominate all the way to the election
Bernard Keane

“But Foley’s scandal is just another entry in a long list of challenges for NSW Labor. Remember, this is a party that has never properly reformed itself since the rampant corruption of Obeid and Tripodi and Macdonald. The replacement of Foley by Michael Daley (as seems likely) won’t address the basic problem that NSW Labor remains unfit to govern the country’s most populous state.”

Fair dinkum fraud: the Morrison government is patriotic in words alone
Benjamin Clark

“Stone the flamin’ crows! Urgently seeking a rebrand, PM Scott Morrison is upping the ridgy-didge Aussie schtick, sculling a beer at the cricket in Canberra, eating meat pies in regional Queensland, and saying ‘fair dinkum’ enough times to irritate even the fair-dinkumest Aussie patriot. Morrison has form in bastardising slang, having overseen Tourism Australia’s ‘where the bloody hell are ya?’ campaign as Australia’s former tourism tsar.”

#BettyInBronze: inside the campaign to commemorate Betty Wilson
Kate O’Halloran

“Angela Pippos first met Betty Wilson at a Boxing Day Test function in 2007, three years before Wilson’s death. Pippos admits to then knowing nothing about the woman who was a star of Australian cricket in the 1940s and ’50s, but recalls being enamoured by her sense of humour and ‘unconventional’ story.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Taxpayers spend thousands for top legal figures to jet overseas to hear each other speak

An extra $8 million to encourage employers to report on gender equity

Woman to face court over alleged strawberry contamination

Australia and Japan to strengthen defence ties on Shinzo Abe’s historic Darwin visit ($)

California fires: Malibu residents fight fires to protect homes from deadly blaze

Beijing’s secret plot to infiltrate UN used Australian insider

Rohingya fears grow as refugees face forcible return to Myanmar

Far right threatens to upstage Polish independence centenary

THE COMMENTARIAT

Unfortunately, counter-terrorism has no quick fixes — Anthony Bergin (The Age): “There have been seven terrorist attacks and 18 disrupted attacks in Australia since 2005 and Melbourne has been the target of nearly half of these. Since 2005, police have arrested 41 people over alleged terrorist activity in Victoria, with 37 following Islamism, a radical political ideology, as distinct from Islam as a religion.”

Trust us with the economy ($) — Chris Bowen (The Australian): “Of all the negative consequences of the revolving door in personnel of the government and the policy dysfunction we have seen, the lack of a national energy policy is probably the most significant. It is clear the Liberal government is pathologically incapable of delivering an energy policy for Australia. It will be left to a Labor government to deliver one.”

Take the gag off those with sexual harassment stories — Kate Jenkins (Sydney Morning Herald): “In the last 12 months, there have been many sexual harassment cases that I have not commented on, lest this be perceived as bias with respect to the Australian Human Rights Commission’s complaint handling function. But I can comment on a common theme running through at least three of the high profile cases in 2018 – the shocking treatment of the women involved.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Canberra

• A 50th anniversary event will be held for the National Library of Australia.

• Regional Services Minister Bridget McKenzie, NBN Co reps and rural internet advocates will announce plan to provide regional Australians higher data allowances on their Sky Muster satellite plans.

• The National Workplace Sexual Harassment Inquiry will hold Canberra policy consultations.

• ACT Deputy Chief Minister Yvette Berry will launch the 2018 Schools Reconciliation Challenge exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia.

Melbourne

• The Victorian Council of Social Service will hold their 2018 Annual General Meeting at the Wheeler Centre, with speakers to include Minister for Families and Children, Youth Affairs, and Early Childhood Education Jenny Mikakos; Shadow Minister for Innovation, Energy and Resources, and Renewables David Southwick; and Victorian Greens leader Dr Samantha Ratnam.

• Amaze will host an “Act for Autism: Victorian State Election Forum” at the State Library of Victoria, with panellists to include Parliamentary Secretary for Carers and Volunteers Gabrielle Williams, Shadow Assistant Minister for Autism Spectrum Disorder Bernie Finn, Victorian Greens’ Dr Samantha Ratnam, and Reason Party leader Fiona Patten.

• Coburg-based SCRgroup will launch a digital drop off hub for recycled clothes, the Feelgood Hub, to inform users where their items will end up and help combat illegal dumping.

Sydney

• Recipients of the 2019 NSW Australian of the Year Awards will be announced.

• Deputy Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute James Laurenceson will launch ACRI report “Do the claims stack up? Australia talks China” at the University of Technology Sydney.

• The Refugee Action Coalition will host an “Eyewitness from Manus: the other refugee medical emergency” event, to detail research from a recent trip to the island.

Adelaide

• Poet and academic Tony Birch will present “On what terms can we speak?: Ethics, Connectivity and Climate Justice” for the 2018 Duguid Memorial Lecture at Flinders University.

Perth

• Secretary General of the International Federation on Ageing Dr Jane Barratt will present “Loneliness: The Silent Global Epidemic in an Ageing World” at the University of Western Australia.

Australia

• Planet Ark will launch the 22nd National Recycling Week.

• Today also marks the start of Innovation Week and Australian Food Safety Week.

Suntec City, Singapore

• Prime Minister Scott Morrison will attend the ASEAN summit, to run until Thursday November 15th.