Oh, the humanities!

FEE SHAKEUP

Education Minister Dan Tehan will today announce plans to double the cost of studying humanities, cut fees for quote-unquote “job-relevant” courses, and fund an extra 39,000 places by 2023.

Continuing the sector’s proud trend towards commodification, the ABC and The Age report that fees for law and commerce subjects would jump by 28%, humanities would join them in the highest price band, while prices will fall for nursing, psychology, English, languages, teaching, agriculture, maths, science, health, environmental science and architecture.

ALSO, THERE ARE NO JOBS: Following news that almost one million Australians are officially unemployed, The Age reports that JobKeeper will undergo some kind of revamp and potentially survive past September, while JobSeeker may not, in fact, go back to the below-poverty rate of $40 a day.

IT’S BEEN LIKE 4 DAYS, ADEM, LET IT GO

In the latest fallout from the Adem Somyurek scandal:

• The Australian ($) has released more texts from Labor MP Anthony Byrne, including one showing that the former Somyurek ally planned to meet a reporter to “destroy a guys (sic) career”
• Somyurek has told reporters outside his house that, “everything I know now about branch work, Anthony taught me” (The Canberra Times)
• Victorian unions including the CFMMEU and the plumbers’ union have hit out at plans for Labor’s national executive committee to decide state preselection, and have not ruled out legal action if negotiations for a compromise deal fail (The Age)
• The federal shadow cabinet has adopted a communication strategy from Anthony Albanese that would force all MPs to request permission from the opposition leader’s office before speaking to the media until after the Eden-Monaro byelection (The Australian $).

Somyurek has also told The Herald Sun ($) he’s looking forward to bringing court action against people involved in recording him, as if that wasn’t already kind of clear.

PS: In their latest expense expose, The Guardian reports that Eric Abetz billed taxpayers to attend a 2018 gala mining industry event he argues was in the interests of his electorate.

AUSTRALIA HELPS WATER DOWN UN ANTI-RACISM INQUIRY

According to The Australian ($), the Morrison government has worked as something of a proxy for the Trump administration in helping water down a UN Human Rights Council inquiry into America’s police brutality and racism following the killing of George Floyd.

The UNHRC — which the US quit over an inquiry into Israel’s May 2018 Gaza massacre — have reportedly shifted to a motion acknowledging Floyd’s death and calling for the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights to simply examine global racism; ironically, as explained by the Oz, Australia argued that the UN should not be given a mandate to investigate a “free, open country”.

CAN’T WIN ‘EM ALL, DONALD: As the ABC reports, the Supreme Court has rejected a bid by Trump to end protections for 650,000 immigrants who arrived as undocumented children — aka Obama’s “Dreamers” — just days after the court banned discrimination against LGBTIQ workers.

[free_worm]

STATE VIRUS WATCH: SEE YOU IN THE NT ON JULY 17

• As the ABC reports, Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner yesterday announced plans to end mandatory quarantine for interstate visitors from Friday July 17, after the territory’s last recorded case recovered on May 21
• In another packed day for the state, the Queensland government yesterday announced:
  • $2.6 million in infrastructure funding for 32 racing clubs across the state
  • The passage of deregulatory laws covering financial reporting obligations for state co-operatives and not-for-profits
  • That aged care residents can have two visitors at a time, including children, for as often and as long as they like
  • The government will not increase the state’s WorkCover premium rate, with the average premium to be maintained at $1.20 per $100 of wages paid for 2020-2021
  • That boarding school students will be able to return to school next term.
• The South Australian government unveiled a plan to lift restrictions on school activities from June 29, including for school assemblies, class photos, intrastate camps and excursions, etc
• The NSW government announced updates to their Planning System Acceleration Program, including a $500 million plan to rejuvenate Western Sydney housing and town centres and three new primary schools in Blacktown, Wagga Wagga and Camden
• Finally, Tasmania announced that aged care residents can have up to two visitors per day from Monday, June 22, and that works to upgrade the King Island Hospital have restarted following the lifting of travel restrictions to the island.

THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

[On being told by Speaker Tony Smith to withdraw an imputation]: Mr Speaker, I was not impugning a motive to the Leader of the Opposition. Mr Speaker, I was referring to the word ‘corruption’ which was used by the Member for Holt, to explain the investigation underway. That’s what I was referring to and going on, Mr Speaker, to explain in my answer… [goes on like this for a bit]… But Mr Speaker to assist you, and to respect your ruling…

Scott Morrison

The prime minister is very, very okay with being handed a ruling by the Speaker of the House of Representatives — and a Liberal MP that’s clearly no one’s stooge.

CRIKEY RECAP

Ann Marie Smith’s death triggered a taskforce. Why hasn’t David Harris’? 

Amber Schultz

Jun 18, 2020

4

“An urgent state government review into the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), prompted by the death of South Australian woman Ann Marie Smith, has found huge gaps in the system.

“The final report is expected to include details on the death of David Harris, Crikey has been told, who died last year in NSW after being cut off from multiple disability support services.”

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Six-trillion-dollar man: Trump is the worst economic manager in US history

Alan Austin

Jun 17, 2020

9

“The trajectory towards ‘worst ever’ was set well before the COVID-19 virus devastated the world. Deterioration was evident soon after Trump’s tax cuts took effect in early 2018. This has been masked by an extraordinarily successful campaign of mendacious tweets claiming the economy is ‘best ever’ and ‘world’s greatest’.”

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After travelling the world, COVID-19 is sowing chaos in India

Michael Sainsbury

Jun 18, 2020

4

“First Wuhan, then Bergamo, followed by New York and London. Now India’s financial hub of Mumbai has become the latest metropolitan epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Mumbai has become the poster child of the virus’ toll in India, though many other parts of the country are now feeling its weight. Indian infections have passed 325,000, and in the past week cases have spiked in the capital Delhi. Between them the two cities are home to nearly 40 million people.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Banks plan bigger payouts to end fee scandal ($)

Age editor Alex Lavelle departs less than a week after staff voiced discontent

Reserve Bank considered asking private firms to hide data about slumping property prices

NSW warned of $7 billion infrastructure shortfall

Victoria to get extra federal seat, NT and WA to lose one each

Ministers fume over Virgin salvage plans ($)

Claims major projects are being delayed by environmental ‘lawfare’ dismissed in new research

Unions reject PM’s work rule fix for job carnage ($)

Minister met with alcohol lobby before pregnancy warning label sent back for review

‘Completely counterproductive’: Employers warn minimum wage rise could cost nearly $5 billion

THE COMMENTARIAT

Lack of reconciliation remains our crowning failure — Waleed Aly (The Sydney Morning Herald): “History’s a funny thing. It gives the impression of being fixed, chiselled into monuments and memorials, but it really exists as a matter of storytelling. What ends up mattering most is who gets to tell what stories, and what value the rest of us choose to give them. That’s why the string of vandalised statues of colonial figures we’re seeing (with the occasional demand they be torn down) seems to elicit such a different official response than the physical destruction of ancient, sacred Indigenous sites by mining companies across the country does.”

Labor party’s dirty linen on display at bad time for Anthony Albanese — Michelle Grattan (The Conversation): “The notion that Nine’s 60 Minutes revelations about the appalling shenanigans of Victorian Labor power broker Adem Somyurek were a total surprise to ALP insiders deserves a horse laugh. As one federal source says, anyone with any knowledge of the party’s factions knew this character ran the right in Victoria, based on branch stacks. It was one of those things treated as — well — normal.”

‘Democracy is dead’, MPs declare, as politicians ‘bought and sold’ — Asher Moses (Voice of Action): “The Coalition government and Labor opposition are teaming up to weaken political donations and environmental protection laws while also reducing the ability of the crossbench to hold the major parties to account. The deal to restrict the number of motions per crossbench senator to one per week has united the independents and minor parties from the Greens to One Nation, who believe it is a blatant attempt to reduce scrutiny.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Canberra

• Education Minister Dan Tehan will present “Job-Ready Graduates” at the National Press Club.

Sydney

• The NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS) will present their 2020 annual humanitarian awards.

Melbourne

• As Refugee Week 2020 wraps up, rallies will be held at the State Library of Victoria — as well as other sites across the country — demanding the end of seven-years’ worth of indefinite detention for former/current offshore detainees.

Australia

• The Fair Work Commission will broadcast the handing down of the Annual Wage Review 2019–20 decision on their website.