Barnaby Joyce Nationals
(Image: AAP/Lukas Coch)

MAKING A JOYCE

Nationals Leader Barnaby Joyce says the Liberals can expect a net zero position today, but told Sky News it would make “no difference at all” to global temperatures. The position is just in the nick of time, it seems. Senior Nationals say there could be a swathe of resignations if the Liberals don’t wait for them on net zero, The Australian ($) reports. The Glasgow summit begins in just over a week. The exodus would plunge the government into disarray just months out from a federal election. Senator Bridget McKenzie warned it would get “ugly”, as The Canberra Times continues, but refused to say how many could walk.

But the private sector is getting on with it. Rio Tinto, BHP, Commonwealth Bank, CSIRO, Fortescue Metals, Mirvac Group, Brisbane Airport, AGL, and Ramsay Health Care have all pledged to slash their emissions, The Australian ($) reports. Rio Tinto says it will spend $10 billion on halving its global carbon footprint in the next decade, and Atlassian’s founder says he’ll invest and donate $1.5 billion for climate action, the SMH reports.

Sydneysiders can feel better about their commute, says the SMH, after the city’s train network has become the first in Australia to go green. The NSW government confirmed the transport system will now be powered with renewable energy from wind and solar.

[free_worm]

GLADYS AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY

It was a bombshell day in former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian’s ICAC probe, as The Conversation delves into. Her former boss, Mike Baird told the hearing he only found out last year that Berejiklian, then his 2IC and treasurer, was in a relationship with former MP Daryl Maguire. Baird said he was incredulous, and that it should have been disclosed, ABC continues, as the government considered a $5.5 million funding grant being pushed by Maguire.

It’s not been a great week for the NSW government really. The fact that one of its investment funds has hundreds of millions of dollars in countries including the Cayman Islands tax haven was made public, Guardian Australia reports. Labor shadow treasurer Daniel Mookhey found about 12% of the NSW Generations Fund’s $15 billion were in “so-called emerging markets”, sparking a review of the managed funds. The fund was set up by Dominic Perrottet in 2018 to repay state debt, which is set to be $171 billion by 2025.

In addition to this, Perrottet has been accused of watering down modern slavery legislation, the SMH reports. More than 10 faith leaders slammed the removal of a rule that big business must report the risk of slavery in their supply chains. A government spokesperson said it was in an effort to reduce “red tape”. Ten million children are exploited by global slave labour worldwide, Anti-Slavery says.

THE WEST WAY FORWARD

Booster jabs are on the way, the SMH reports. You’ll get a booster six months after your second dose, and the first in line will be aged care residents, quarantine workers, and frontline health workers. It comes as about 7.3 million doses of AstraZeneca in Australia have not been used, Guardian Australia says. Former AMA president Mukesh Haikerwal says it’s a waste. “It got a lot of bad reviews for no good reason,” he says.

They’re certainly not going to be taken up by WA, who are giving out just 12 AZ doses a week because of public perception, WAToday reports. The state has only double-dosed a little over half of its population — and WA Premier Mark McGowan has put his foot down, mandating vaccination for three-quarters of his state’s workforce, news.com.au reports. This move sparked a protest of about 300 people in Perth, footage showed, but McGowan said they’d come too far to throw it all away when borders open (still a ways away, however). WA has been staunch about borders in the name of protecting citizens, but ABC asks this morning: has it actually endangered them? Experts say the “maximum protection period” — the 10-week period when the vaccines are most effective — will wane for many by the time the doors open.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Egypt, 2021. It was the perfect crime, the thief thought. He had the getaway vehicle (his motorbike). His target was in sight, a phone held high by a man video-chatting. The man was standing on a bridge. The thief cruised along and snatched the phone right out of his target’s hands. Casually smoking his cigarette, the thief zipped away through Shubra Al-Khaimah, his prized loot safely nestled in his lap. He looked back to see if anyone was in pursuit. He took another drag of his cigarette, which bobbed in his mouth as he escaped.

The only problem? The target was well-known reporter Mahmoud Ragheb, who was broadcasting a video being watched by more than 20,000 people. People who were now looking directly at the thief’s face during his perfect getaway. The video has since racked up more than 6.2 million views, BBC reports. One viewer said they “died of laughter” when they realised what happened, while another said there was no need for the thief to check if anyone was following him — “the whole world is watching you”. The thief was arrested, and his relaxed demeanour has earned him the unofficial title of “the coolest thief in Egypt”, the broadcaster says.

Stay cool today folks.

SAY WHAT?

In footy terms, we are deep into the final quarter. And as everyone knows, the final minutes of the game are the most dangerous. It’s the time when you make mistakes. Our enemy, the pandemic, never stops — it doesn’t fatigue … so we can’t keep our eye off the ball. We have to keep working hard.

Roger Cook

A rather intense WA health minister got a little wrapped up in his footy metaphor while urging his state to get vaxxed. At least it’s a little bit more palatable than his NSW equivalent, Brad Hazzard, who has been very partial to a war analogy — including the fictional war in the popular series The Hunger Games — during the pandemic.

CRIKEY RECAP

It may not feel like it but green politics is winning

Oct 20, 2021

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Unlocked

“That’s the context in which we need to think about things like the National Party’s tortured four-hour partyroom meeting on net zero, their bleating like it was some sort of extraordinary demand on their soul, and Barnaby Joyce’s bleating that it wasn’t enough time to resolve an issue they’ve had eight years in government to do something about.

“Ditto with News Corp’s surrender to the inevitable. And the UK government’s shift. And China’s commitment to being an ‘ecological civilisation’. Thirty years after the climate-change-oriented movement began, 50 years after the ecology movement, and 60 years after Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was published, the conception of a bounded earth-system, of which all else is sub-system, has become dominant.”

‘Gladys wants it’: how premier’s key staffer described gun club plan to public servants

Oct 20, 2021

6

“Baird told ICAC that he was ‘incredulous’ when he found out Berejiklian and former Maguire had been in a ‘close personal relationship’ for several years. Baird, who handed over the premiership to Berejiklian in 2017, said the relationship should have been disclosed publicly as it represented a potential conflict of interest …

“He added that Berejiklian, then state treasurer, should not have participated in any decisions regarding Maguire’s electorate and absented herself from all relevant meetings. Baird’s feelings towards Maguire are not hard to guess. He says Maguire had been ‘aggressive’ in his approach to requests for funding, and ‘abusive in his conduct towards members of staff [and] public servants’.”

Holding the country ransom while owning mining shares — guess who?

Oct 20, 2021

15

Unlocked

“Five of the Nationals’ 21 MPs and senators own shares in fossil-fuel companies. Analysis of the parliamentary register of interest sheds more light on the deep ties between the Liberals’ junior Coalition partner and the mining sector, from shareholdings, to trips funded by fossil-fuel companies.

“The register, which MPs and senators must update throughout their term, discloses their properties, investments, membership of organisations, and anything else that may create a conflict of interest. And it shows that while the Nationals continue to stand in the way of a net zero emissions by 2050 target, many in their partyroom have a financial interest in the continued strength of the resources sector.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Bolsonaro should be charged with crimes against humanity, COVID inquiry finds (The Guardian)

World on track to blow past 1.5C warming target, pump out double the amount of fossil fuels (SBS)

Taliban commander who launched bombings in Kabul is now a police chief in charge of security (The Wall Street Journal)

Floods, landslides kill more than 150 in India and Nepal (Al Jazeera)

Bitcoin surges to new record above $66,000 (CNN)

Facebook is planning to rebrand the company with a new name (The Verge)

Russia hosts Taliban, calls for inclusive Afghan government (Al Jazeera)

Capitol riot: Lawmakers vote to hold Steve Bannon in contempt (BBC)

In a first, surgeons attached a pig kidney to a human — and it worked (The New York Times)

Syria war: Deadly bomb blasts hit military bus in Damascus (BBC)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Vision, ambition and a solid plan to power the nation — Anthony Albanese (The Australian) ($): “The Snowy was a visionary project conceived by Ben Chifley’s Labor government. When Chifley produced legislation in 1949, the conservatives, led by Robert Menzies, voted against it. Menzies, the father of the Liberal Party, refused to attend the launch. Fortunately, when he became prime minister Menzies accepted the project’s nation-building value, put aside politics and got to work. But his initial folly typified a weakness of the Liberal and National parties: their preference for politics over action.

“Short-termism explains why the current Coalition government dismantled the former Labor government’s plan for a 21st-century, fibre-based National Broadband Network and replaced it with a second-rate system based on 19th-century copper technology. It’s why it has spent a decade talking down climate action for political gain, ignoring opportun­ities for jobs and economic growth that come from investing in cheap, renewable energy. And it is why, after more than eight years in office, Scott Morrison has failed to articulate a long-term vision for the future of this country.”

My teenage daughter is done with childhood. Now comes the test of letting go — Andie Fox (Guardian Australia) “Few things have surprised me about motherhood quite as much as the speed at which the work of all the holding and carrying shifts to the work of letting go. The holding, which began with the weight of a baby growing inside me and once born, only seemed to require more of my body, has been experienced as an uncompromising call to care. And while that caring has been largely instinctual and more rewarding than expected, I had not understood the assumptions I was busy making about its limits and who would set them.

“I have always been comfortable with the idea that my children will eventually move away from me but I had assumed it would happen slowly and somewhat later. In my head I had worked backwards from the number 18, give or take a year either side, when in reality the first signs of my daughter’s separation happened much earlier. And so it was a shock to see that at 15, my daughter’s desire for family holidays had expired.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

The Latest Headlines

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Australia

  • Former NZ prime minister and administrator of the UN development program Helen Clark will speak at the Health and Human Rights in the Climate Crisis conference, held online.

  • Australian Industry Greenhouse Network’s Susie Smith, Chevron’s Arthur Lee, and APPEA’s Damian Dwyer will unpack the Glasgow climate change conference, held online.

  • University of Melbourne’s Michael Wesley and foreign correspondent Aarti Betigeri will speak at India Rising?, a webinar hosted by the Australia Institute.

  • Author Antoni Jach will discuss his new book, Travelling Companions, held online.

Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)

  • Extinction Rebellion has organised a parade of white-painted prams pushed by mourners to represent the loss of life that climate change could cause.

Larrakia Country (also known as Darwin)

  • Territory Families, Housing and Community Services’ Emma White will speak at a Women’s Leadership Network about how to be influential in business.