Australian growth to fall to decade-low

NOT-SO-SMOOTH SAILING

The International Monetary Fund predicts global growth will fall to a decade low ($), with the Australian economy tipped to grow slower than that of Greece. The latest World Economic Outlook has cut the 2019 Australian forecast to just 1.7%, down from a predicted 2.1% and well below the government and RBA’s forecasts of around 2.25% ($), The Australian reports.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has admitted that the country faces economic “headwinds”, pointing to the government’s efforts to boost the economy through tax cuts and infrastructure. RBA board meeting minutes released on Tuesday noted there “had not yet been evidence” of a lift in household spending since the tax cuts, Nine reports.

MORE AFGHAN FILES

The ABC has obtained more than 90 files from Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission, supporting allegations that Australian soldiers unlawfully killed an unarmed farmer and his child, as reported in the ABC’s 2017 Afghan Files series.

The ABC had previously reported that farmer Bismillah Jan Azadi and his 6-year-old son were in bed when they were shot dead by SAS troops in a 2013 raid, but the soldiers were cleared by a military investigation based on the claim Bismillah had been armed. Newly leaked human rights reports now determine that Bismillah was an unarmed civilian, and was found “under the blanket” under which he and his son were sleeping.

The publication of the original Afghan Files were the subject of police raids against the ABC earlier this year.

JOHNSON COMPROMISES

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is on the brink of securing a Brexit deal after making major concessions to the EU over the Irish border, The Guardian reports.

The negotiating teams have agreed in principle to putting a customs border down the Irish Sea, putting Northern Ireland “de jure in the UK’s customs territory but de facto in the European Union’s”, a diplomatic source has revealed. Johnson will need to win-over hardline Tory Brexiters with the new arrangement, one previously rejected by Theresa May as a deal that no British prime minister could accept. It comes after the EU set a midnight deadline for Johnson to concede or be left with nothing to take to parliament.

[free_worm]

THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

The national Right doesn’t leak.

Tony Burke

The Labor Right figure tells a meeting of his faction that his faction doesn’t leak — a comment immediately leaked to the press ($).

READ ALL ABOUT IT

‘Simple mathematical fact’: Report finds lack of jobs for unemployed

RSPCA NSW says it underpaid 41 employees by more than $120,000 in ‘unfortunate error’

Health Minister Greg Hunt promises to speed up drug subsidy approvals

NSW Government will declare drought-stricken towns ‘critical’ under new plan ($)

Alcohol industry resisting proposed pregnancy warning labels

Berejiklian remains opposed to pill testing despite Coroner’s findings

Major Christian organisation offers to conduct pill testing on church grounds

Trump asks Turkey for ceasefire and orders sanctions as violence escalates

Japan typhoon Hagibis death toll rises to 66 as hopes for missing dwindle

Ex-party boss Jamie Clements fighting ALP over legal bills ($)

‘Unprecedented’: Coalition’s religious discrimination bill condemned by state and territory commissions

‘We should respond to the science’: Labor declares climate change emergency but delays 2030 target

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

It’s official. Australia has no idea what it’s doing on China. 

Michael Sainsbury

Oct 15, 2019

16

“In a rare moment of clarity, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton put the case against China last week: ‘Our issue, as I’ve said before, is not with the Chinese people, not with the amazing Chinese diaspora community that we have here in Australia. My issue is with the Communist Party of China and their policies to the extent that they’re inconsistent with our own values.’ He is right. But why isn’t his government following this line? Australia’s ratification of a trade deal with Hong Kong will lend support and legitimacy to an administration that has trashed ‘one country, two systems’ and is clearly controlled by an increasingly thuggish government in Beijing.”

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Don’t call him by his name: Australian media and the Christchurch shooter

Charlie Lewis

Oct 15, 2019

4

“Following the Las Vegas shooting, Emeritus Professor Paul Mullen — who has also interviewed the perpetrators of the Port Arthur and Hoddle Street massacres — told Crikey that notoriety was a driver for mass shooters, who are following a “script” they see in the coverage of previous mass shootings. Only one in 10 actually has a serious mental health issue, he said. But the approach undertaken by GQ is extremely rare; the Christchurch shooter has had his face plastered on the front pages of The Advertiser, The Weekend West, The Daily Telegraph, The Courier-Mail and the Herald Sun. His name has been used in The Australian, The Guardian, across the Nine papers and in Crikey.”

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You’re already paying a congestion tax — a bad one

Bernard Keane

Oct 15, 2019

17

“But rego and excise aren’t the only tax that motorists pay. The dirty secret of opponents of congestion pricing schemes like the Victorian and NSW governments is that every urban motorist already pays a congestion tax, in the form of their time. Every second you spend stuck in your car, queued up along with thousands of other motorists, is a second you could have spent doing something better — like being at work, or being with your family or friends, doing what you’d prefer to be doing. Instead, you spend it crawling along and cursing the idiot in front of you.”

THE COMMENTARIAT

Politicians too poor at their jobs to fix poverty – Ross Gittins (The Age/Sydney Morning Herald): “You could be forgiven for not knowing this is anti-poverty week. The poor, as we know, are always with us – which is great because it means we can focus on our own problems and worry about the poor’s problems later. We can fight to protect our tax breaks, then get around to wondering about how easy we’d find it to be living on $280 a week from the Pollyanna-named Newstart allowance.  But it’s not just our natural tendency to let our own problems loom larger than other people’s. It’s also that, as property prices make our cities ever more stratified, we so rarely meet people from the poorer parts of town. We find it hard to imagine how hard they find it to make ends meet, and to lift themselves out of the hole they’ve fallen into.”

It’s preservation versus pennies for rocks of ages like Uluru ($) – Chris Wooley (The Australian): “I had the chance to climb Uluru when I was last filming there, but the local custodians had asked us to film only near the base and we respected their wishes. This nation­ has taken so much from our original people, to indulge what might be considered a romanti­c superstition seemed the least we could do. I don’t believe in virgin birth, transubstantiation, resurrection, angels or life after death, but I would never deliberately profane a site sacred to those who do. And there is always a chance that I am wrong about religion. When I die, how confounding it might be to meet the Rainbow Serpent.”

Without encryption, we will lose all privacy. This is our new battleground – Edward Snowden (The Guardian): “In every country of the world, the security of computers keeps the lights on, the shelves stocked, the dams closed, and transportation running. For more than half a decade, the vulnerability of our computers and computer networks has been ranked the number one risk in the US Intelligence Community’s Worldwide Threat Assessment – that’s higher than terrorism, higher than war. Your bank balance, the local hospital’s equipment, and the 2020 US presidential election, among many, many other things, all depend on computer safety. And yet, in the midst of the greatest computer security crisis in history, the US government, along with the governments of the UK and Australia, is attempting to undermine the only method that currently exists for reliably protecting the world’s information: encryption. Should they succeed in their quest to undermine encryption, our public infrastructure and private lives will be rendered permanently unsafe.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

National

• Thousands of commuter bike riders will ride to work as part of Bicycle Network’s 27th National Ride2Work Day.

• The Council of Ambulance Authorities will hold World Restart A Heart Day, aiming to educate members of the public about CPR and AEDs to stem the death toll from sudden cardiac arrest.

• Truck drivers will hold a nationwide protest about what they claim are safety issues in the supply chain of Aldi supermarkets.

Canberra

• Social Services Minister Anne Ruston and NDIS Minister Stuart Robert will address a national carers week breakfast, along with Labor’s Bill Shorten.

• The Museum of Australian Democracy will launch a report examining the growing trust divide between politicians and the people they serve.

• The Home Affairs department will appear before an inquiry into regional migration, run by the joint standing committee on migration.

• CSIRO and Geoscience Australia will appear before a nuclear energy inquiry, run by the Standing Committee on the Environment and Energy.

• An official portrait of Nova Peris, the first Aboriginal woman to become a federal parliamentarian and senator, will be unveiled at Parliament House.

• GetUp director Paul Oosting will speak at the National Press Club.

• Employment Minister Michaelia Cash and Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick will both speak at the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia annual conference.

Melbourne

• The Aged care royal commission will hold a public hearing about the aged care workforce.

• Hearings will continue in industrial dispute between Metro Trains and the Australian Rail, Tram and Bus Union.

Sydney

• Women’s Health will hold its annual Women in Sport Awards.

• The Commonwealth Bank of Australia will hold its AGM.

Adelaide

• Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Lander will hold a press conference following the release of an annual report on public administration.

• The Ku Arts Symposium will bring together Aboriginal artists, art centres and industry professionals to share stories and present on their recent projects and exhibitions.

Darwin

• The Northern Territory Library will screen a curator’s cut of The Overlanders, part of its “Curator’s Cut” film series, screening rare films from the library collection.

Hobart

• MAS National will host a Hobart launch for the Inspiring Women in Business Collective.