Daley faces spill prospect following NSW loss

DALEY FACES SPILL

NSW Labor MPs are reportedly planning a spill against leader Michael Daley following “the worst final week in living memory” and a 1.1% swing against his party at Saturday’s state election.

The ABC reports that, while federal powerbrokers are keen to delay a spill until after the May election, party insiders believe Daley will face off with former leadership rival shadow Water Minister Chris Minns and possibly shadow Transport Minister Jodi McKay. Returning Premier Gladys Berejiklian is now expected to announce a major cabinet reshuffle and head a majority government, with the Coalition currently leading two (and only requiring one) in-doubt seats in East Hills, Dubbo and Lismore.

However, with the Coalition currently facing a five-seat deficit in the divided Legislative Council, and with only four in-doubt seats remaining, it faces dealing with Labor, the Greens, Shooters, Fisher and Farmers and/or One Nation to pass legislation.

PEACE OFFERING

PM Scott Morrison and Nationals leader Michael McCormack are reportedly working on a “peace deal” over coal-fired power with renegade Nationals members, as a regional NSW backlash costs the Nationals two seats and prompts the resignation ($) of water minister Niall Blair.

Amid reignited threats from Barnaby Joyce and Queensland Nationals, The Australian Financial Review ($) reports that Morrison and McCormack have led inter-party talks with a view to cabinet signing off a resolution over coal on Tuesday. As the party grapples with the loss of Barwon and Murray to the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers, SBS reports that, following personal backlash over the Murray Darling fish kills, Blair informed state leader John Barilaro of his decision to vacate the water portfolio “some months ago”.

ONE CYCLONE DOWN…

Western Australia’s Pilbara coast is currently being pummelled by Cyclone Veronica’s winds and torrential rain, while Cyclone Trevor has passed through the Northern Territory with no reported loss of life thanks to evacuation efforts.

According to the ABC, the Bureau of Meteorology reports that Veronica’s size and slow speed means that it could be felt from 24-36 hours after starting to crossing the Pilbara coast yesterday morning.

Elsewhere, Brigadier Matt Pearse told the ABC that the ADF’s evacuation efforts in NT and coordination with BoM “certainly helped to save life”. However, the claim that FIFO workers and non-Indigenous evacuees are being housed in Darwin hotels while Indigenous people are sheltered in tents at football fields has forced Chief Minister Michael Gunner to deny the existence of segregated shelters.

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THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

I bags the Legislative Council x-bench seat furtherest from Mark Latham.

David Shoebridge

The Greens MLC welcomes a new colleague ahead of their eight-year working relationship.

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

While New Zealand heals, Australia’s culture war rolls on

Kishor Napier-Raman

Mar 25, 2019

26

“Yesterday’s funeral prayers for Haji-Daoud Nabi, the 71-year-old Afghan refugee who died trying to protect others at the Masjid Al Noor last Friday, were briefly interrupted by a loud roar. Members of the Mongrel Mob, one of New Zealand’s biggest bikie gangs, had arrived to pay their respects. A man in a suit, one of the mob’s leaders, emerged from a black limousine, flanked by several tattooed men on motorbikes, and was ushered right to the front of the funeral line next to Nabi’s family, eventually helping to carry the coffin.”

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Suicide among First Nations youth is at crisis point

Natalie Cromb

Mar 25, 2019

4

“We have had, as a community of First Nations, a devastating number of child suicides that demonstrate how sorrowful our children are at the state of this country and their future within it. This bleak and seemingly hopeless state is exacerbated during the early part of each year and it is absolutely essential that the space be created for our youth to speak and have their needs met through not only our community support, but policy to address the factors giving rise to this despair.”

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ACMA rules Sunday Night’s ‘African gangs’ beat-up was inaccurate

Emily Watkins

Mar 25, 2019

8

“Seven’s Sunday Night program breached its licence accuracy requirement in a report about Melbourne’s ‘African gangs’, the broadcasting regulator has ruled. The report was widely criticised when it was broadcast (including in Crikey, twice) for stoking public panic about criminal Sudanese gangs running wild in Victoria. The Australian Communications and Media Authority yesterday ruled that while the report did not breach rules against inciting hatred on the basis of race, it did breach the rule against broadcasting inaccurate statements.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

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Pension bill falling as super grows ($)

New ABC chairman has history calling out ‘problems’ with multiculturalism

Thai voters back former military ruler in shock election result

Brexit: Ministers tipped to replace Theresa May rally round

Macron calls out the army to combat latest ‘yellow vest’ protests

Viking Sky cruise ship passengers describe ‘chaos’ as vessel founders in stormy seas off Norway

THE COMMENTARIAT

Christchurch shooting showed US how dangerous ‘white power’ has become — Nicole Hemmer (Sydney Morning Herald): “Last week Radovan Karadzic was finally sentenced for his role in the barbaric ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian War in the 1990s. The sentencing came less than a week after the massacre in Christchurch and while it may seem like these two stories have little to do with one another, they are both part of the global white-power movement that has turned Karadzic into a hero for white-power terrorists across the world.”

Humiliating defeat exposes Labor’s policies exhaustion ($) — Nick Cater (The Australian): “The cry for better schools and hospitals, recited like a sacred utterance by budding Labor premiers for decades, was never going to make Michael Daley premier. How could it, when the Coalition has spent or committed $18 billion to health?”

Coal became a dirty word in NSW poll, but wind and solar face uncertainty — Giles Parkinson (RenewEconomy): “The state seems destined to return to its previous moniker of the State of Uncertainty. It stands with WA as the only state or territory without a specific renewables target, yet it is faced with perhaps the most dramatic transition of all, thanks to the age of its coal generation fleet – most of which is due for retirement over the next 12-12 years.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

PRACTICE BY GUY RUNDLE

Practice distils Guy Rundle’s best writing on politics, culture, class and more. In it, he roves the campaign trails of Obama and Trump, Rudd and Abbott; rides the Greyhound around a desolate America; bails up Bob Katter and Pauline Hanson; and excavates the deeper meanings of everything from Nirvana to Anzac Day.

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Canberra

• Senior ICC prosecutor Helen Brady will present “The International Criminal Court at 20 years: activities, successes and challenges ahead” at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Sydney

• The Sydney Arts Management Advisory Group will host “Catching the eye of Government: Getting your arts group noticed” with shadow Arts Minister Tony Burke and co-director of artist run company 505 Kerri Glasscock.

• High Court Justice Michelle Gordon will launch Issue 42(1) of The University of New South Wales Law Journal.

• Shadow Minister for Energy and Climate Change Mark Butler will discuss Labor policies at the Toowoon Bay Surf Life Saving Club.

Melbourne

• Scott Morrison will announce $30 million in funding for the Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery at St Vincent’s Hospital.

• ANU Press, the Federal Court of Australia and ANU’s Centre for International and Public Law will launch the free anthology The Court As Archive.

Brisbane

• The Australian Youth Climate Coalition will host campaign event “ClimateElection Kickstart” at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Hobart

• After launching yesterday, the National Rural Health Conference will run until Wednesday March 27th.

• Labor MP Julie Collins, Independent MP Andrew Wilkie and Liberal candidate Dean Young will speak at a National Seniors Australia election forum.

• Australian Antarctic Program researchers will return to Hobart after conducting seismic studies on the largest glacier in East Antarctica, revealing for the first time a network of lakes beneath the ice.

Townsville, Queensland

• The Insurance Council of Australia will hold the second of two insurance forums for flood victims.