MORRISON SLAMS DIGITAL HATE SPEECH
Scott Morrison has launched a push amongst G20 countries to regulate violent speech on social media, as politicians across the spectrum grapple with racist rhetoric and politics in the wake of Friday’s Christchurch shootings.
The Australian ($) reports that Morrison has informed Japan, the US, Indonesia and New Zealand about plans to discuss digital governance at this year’s world leaders’ meeting, and is considering new domestic fines for violent content ($). However The New Daily reports that Morrison’s office also threatened defamation against The Project’s Waleed Aly for citing several 2011 reports which alleged Morrison, then-shadow immigration minister, had signalled anti-Muslim public sentiments as potential electoral targets. One journalist, Lenore Taylor, has since stood by her sources.
NETHERLANDS SHOOTING
A suspect is in custody in the Dutch city of Utrecht following a tram shooting that left at least three people dead and five injured.
The Guardian reports that Utrecht police arrested 37-year-old Gökmen Tanis several hours after the incident. Local mayor Jan van Zanen has released a video statement saying policing “are not ruling out” a terrorist motive, while the BBC reports that a prosecutor believes the incident may have been motivated by “family reasons”.
‘UNRELIABLE’ DATA
The Coalition has touted the final copy of BAEconomics’ report into the major parties’ competing emissions targets, which alleges massive spikes in electricity prices and hits to economic growth and employment under Labor policies. However Labor and a range of energy analysts have dismissed the findings as unreliable.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, BAEconomics claims that Labor’s target of a 45% emissions cut by 2030 would lead to 336,000 fewer jobs, $128 wholesale energy prices and a far lower GDP growth than under the Coalition’s plan. However the report has been dismissed by energy experts speaking to SMH, Media Watch and RenewEconomy, and stands in contrast to projections from Frontier Economics.
[free_worm]
THEY REALLY SAID THAT?
I’m hardly going to take morals lectures from the extreme left who frankly are just as bad in this circumstance as people like Fraser Anning.
Peter Dutton
The man who intermittently sledges African-Australians and refugees equates Islamophobia with attempts to fight Islamophobia.
CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY
The call is coming from inside the house
“This attempt to safeguard ourselves from external voices of white supremacy, while well-intentioned, unfortunately missed the point. Positioning white ethno-nationalist violence as something that can be stopped from infiltrating us only masked the truth: these grifters weren’t seeking to import their white nationalism to Australia, they were coming to cash in on what they knew was already abundantly here.”
Across the Tasman and into a land of common sense and kindness
“I didn’t want the first article I wrote from Christchurch to be about the Australian terrorist accused of killing 50 men, women and children on Friday, but it was impossible not to think of him while making the same trip he would have taken across the Tasman.”
How the media turned far-right racist talking points mainstream
“As News Corp Australasia boss Michael Miller and Daily Telegraph editor Ben English celebrate their newspapers’ continued coverage of Friday’s Christchurch massacre, one thing they haven’t mentioned is the racist dog-whistling of the Australian media — including their publications — in recent years. Today, they are calling out the technology platforms that allowed the killer’s video to be streamed live, but they are unsurprisingly yet to reflect on whether their own reporting has played any part.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Jacinda Ardern says cabinet agrees New Zealand gun reform ‘in principle’
Tropical Cyclone Trevor forms off Far North Queensland coast as storms hit the south east
Political forces unite to reject far right and deny One Nation preferences
Labor will spend more than Coalition, but save more too, independent costings show
Easy money era fuelled global terror says Christchurch politician ($)
Suicide now ‘normal’ for Indigenous youth ($)
Exclusive: 7 U.S. military members identified as part of white nationalist group
Hundreds dead in Zimbabwe, Mozambique as Cyclone Idai leaves trail of destruction
THE COMMENTARIAT
Why Waleed Aly’s words stung the PM and what it means for the 2019 federal election — Samantha Maiden (The New Daily): “‘Is this Scott Morrison’s Tampa moment?’ was the question asked in headlines over summer as debate raged over asylum seekers’ medical evacuation. Could the Prime Minister transform Parliament’s act of compassion into an asylum seeker election? Now, we know the answer. There will be no Tampa 2.0 election in 2019.”
Social media has obligation to stop spread of hate ($) — Bill Shorten (The Herald Sun): “We have to wonder why it is that when it comes to making a dollar, the social media giants know everything about their users. But when it comes to detecting, preventing and discouraging hatred, they quickly turn into Pontius Pilate and wash their hands of the whole affair.”
Jacinda Ardern just proved typically ‘feminine’ behaviour is powerful — Jamila Rizvi (Future Women/The Sydney Morning Herald): “Donald Trump telephoned a grieving Jacinda Ardern in the aftermath of New Zealand’s largest ever mass murder. The President asked what the United States could do and received an answer he can’t have been expecting. ‘Sympathy and love for all Muslim communities,’ the Prime Minister told him.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Melbourne
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Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor, Toyota Australia and ARENA will announce a multi-million-dollar project at Toyota’s former manufacturing site in Altona.
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A further directions hearing will be held into the death of Tanya Day with the inquiry’s scope, date and witnesses to be clarified.
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CEDA’s chief economist Jarrod Ball will speak at forum event “Sustainable budgets: underwriting Australia’s social compact”.
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Journalist Michelle Grattan and former Liberal leader John Hewson will speak at The Fifth Estate’s “Federal Election 2019” edition at the Wheeler Centre.
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A rally against Islamophobia in Australian politics and Fraser Anning will be held outside the State Library of Victoria.
Sydney
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News Corps will begin its three-day annual pitch to major advertisers, “Come Together”, at the ICC Sydney Convention Centre. A protest against Islamophobic and white nationalist coverage will be held outside tomorrow’s event.
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TPG Telecom executives will discuss the company’s half-year results at a briefing with analysts.
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The UTS Centre for Local Government will host postgraduate research forum “Emerging Trends in Local Government”.
Canberra
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The New Zealand High Commission, ACT Government and ANU New Zealand club will host a vigil to commemorate the victims of the Christchurch attack.
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Australian Finance Group will host panel event “The Future of Mortgage Lending in Australia” with Shadow Assistant Treasurer Dr. Andrew Leigh and others.
Hobart
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The state Liberal Party will reintroduce anti-protest laws, which were once thrown out as unconstitutional in 2017, as state parliament resumes for the year.
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Director of The Australia Institute Ben Oquist and senior energy advisor Simon Holmes à Court will speak at Agri-Energy Alliance’s inaugural conference “Power to the Paddock”.
Adelaide
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Scott Morrison, Cities Minister Alan Tudge, Technology Minister Karen Andrews, SA Premier Steven Marshall and Adelaide Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor will sign a $551 million City Deal set to include technologies such as smart parking, CCTV and an Indigenous business hub.
Darwin
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The Northern Territory Library will host Treasures Talk series event “Indigenous Languages in the Northern Territory”.
Perth
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Attorney-General Christian Porter will launch Australia’s first national plan to combat elder abuse at an event hosted by Age Discrimination Commissioner Kay Patterson.
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WA Minister for Regional Development Alannah MacTiernan and Ambassador of the European Union to Australia Dr. Michael Pulch will speak at a West Australian European Business Association event.
Bendigo, Victoria
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Day one of two-day national dairy conference “Herd ’19: Delivering Change”.
Gladstone, Queensland
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An inquest will begin into the trawler FV Cassandra, which sank in April 2016 resulting in the deaths of two men. The second week will explore the fate of the six men who died on the FV Dianne, which sank in October 2017.
Victoria
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The inquiry into Labor’s franking credits policy will hold public hearings in Malvern and Brighton, today, with hearings scheduled for Mount Martha and Torquay tomorrow.
Australia
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Bill Shorten will pledge $11.9 million for a new national tele-medicine network aimed at regional and rural stroke victims.
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