Scott Morrison church religious discrimination bill
(Image: AAP/Sam Mooy)

KILL BILL: VOL. 1

The religious discrimination bill narrowly passed the House of Representatives at 4am after 10 hours of debate, the SMH reports. But in a win for Labor, five Liberals crossed the floor just before 5am this morning against amendments that make it legal to expel trans students — but not gay students (they were Bridget Archer, Trent Zimmerman, Fiona Martin, Katie Allen, and Dave Sharma, as ABC reports). Labor’s statement of belief amendment tied, so Speaker Andrew Wallace voted to defeat the challenge. On the vote for the bill itself, outspoken Liberal MP Bridget Archer was a lone figure crossing the floor. Zimmerman, who called this week one of his “most difficult weeks”, abstained.

So what happens now? It’ll go to the Senate where Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese will go head to head over amendments. Last night’s vote forced Liberals to show their hand on where they stand, as SMH’s David Crowe explains.

So what are Labor’s demands? Well, the party wants to bin the part of the Sex Discrimination Act that says it’s legal for religious schools to discriminate against gay and transgender kids (Liberal MPs Dave Sharma, Warren Entsch, and Katie Allen are all unhappy with it too), as The Australian ($) reports. In an effort to make the hot potato issue — trans kids protection — more palatable, Morrison says he’s asked the Australian Law Reform Commissioner to bring forward a review of impacts on trans students and teachers from 12 to six months, the SMH continues. Labor also want the statement of belief changed — at the moment it has the power to override state laws on discrimination to allow people to say whatever, as long as it’s in line with their “religious beliefs”. Former opposition leader Bill Shorten overnight shared a chilling documented example, ABC continues, where a person was told, they “deserve to suffer from their disability for what they have done in a previous life”.

[free_worm]

RENEW HOPE

New data shows coal-fired power is at its lowest level since records began in Australia, powering just 62.8% of electricity, Guardian Australia reports. And last year saw a new green record, with a whopping 31.4% of our electricity being from renewable sources, The Age continues, while gas fell to its lowest level in 15 years, according to the Climate Council. Renewable energy was actually up to 32.2% in the WA grid (which is separate). In the last few years we’ve been smashing the national renewable energy target out of the park, which was 23% from solar, wind and hydro plants by 2020 — that’s in big part thanks to our groovy state-based renewable schemes.

So why is gas down, considering Prime Minister Scott Morrison is — rather embarrassingly — spruiking the fossil fuel? Well — money. Solar and wind are now way cheaper, as Forbes explains. It seems Morrison is falling behind public opinion on coal too — he told Glasgow’s summit coal jobs would continue for decades, but news.com.au reports this morning 70% of folks living near big coal-burning stations in NSW and Victoria say coal-fired power states should be shut down in the next 10 years (as long as retraining is part of the picture).

First details are in about Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s 5.4-gigawatt wind and solar farm in Pilbara after the plans were released to the public for the first time, WA Today reports. There’ll be 340 wind turbines and heaps of solar panels over 25km, another step towards Fortescue’s goal of net zero in its mining operations by 2030. Twiggy’s move will no doubt set the green example for other commercial-scale operations, showing renewables are powerful and potent.

LEGEND OF THE FALL

Global COVID cases have plummeted 17% in one week, according to the World Health Organisation. It includes a 50% drop in the US, as The New Daily reports, and global deaths declined by 7%. Omicron makes up nearly 97% of cases, the WHO says, with the other 3% being Delta, and that could be why we’re seeing the decline — as well as the powerful effect of widespread vaccination. Omicron appears to be very viral but burn out quickly, as The Scientist looks into, judging from countries like South Africa. Cases in the US are still going nuts, with 1.87 million cases reported last week alone, but that’s half of the cases reported the week before in the country.

Guardian Australia reports this morning that postcodes with larger Indigenous and poorer populations copped most of the COVID fines last year during Delta’s grip. Data from the Redfern Legal Centre showed Walgett, Brewarrina and Wilcannia had the most fines per capita during the outbreak — while Liverpool and Mount Druitt both saw more than $1 million in fines. Compare that to Bondi, which got $83,000 in fines.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

It’s 1950 and “fluttery old lady” Anne Neill is pottering around her suburban Adelaide home. She was a widow aged in her 50s, having lost her husband in later life due to long-term health complications from his time at war. She busied her days working at a peace organisation, trying to give a little back and heal her loss. But while she worked there, her life took an incredible turn, as ABC tells it. She took what looked like some communist propaganda to the SA attorney-general, and soon after, ASIO came knocking.

Suddenly Neill was plunged into a life as an undercover agent. She joined — and spied on — communist organisations like the Union of Australian Women before joining the Communist Party in 1951. The white-haired lady was a secret Sparrow, but the party found her inconspicuous and charming. Longterm communist Beryl Miller, now 94, described Neill as “motherly” and “spoke softly”. But in nightfall, Neill wrote hundreds of security reports for ASIO, working so hard that she was asked by the agency to take it easy. She replied, “No, communists don’t take holidays”. Neill’s spy days even took her all the way to Moscow — the first time an ASIO agent had ever done so. Even though Miller has been a communist for 70 years, she says she has a grudging respect for Neill, who died in 1986. “She worked very hard and was a woman who did a job for her cause. That you can’t deny,” Miller admits.

Wishing you a little thrill today, folks.

SAY WHAT?

I didn’t want his sympathy as a father. I wanted him to use his power as prime minister.

Brittany Higgins

The former Liberal staffer had a real mic drop moment when she revealed to the National Press Club yesterday how she received Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s controversial comments that he had to consider what it would be like if the rape allegation affected him personally before taking it seriously. Higgins got a standing ovation, but Government Services Minister Linda Reynolds, Social Services Minister Anne Ruston, and Liberal Senator Jane Hume stayed in their seats.

CRIKEY RECAP

Carr crashes into ‘psycho’ text — but did he defame Peter Dutton? We sought an opinion

Feb 09, 2022

4

Unlocked

“And truth is the only defence Carr would have available, if sued. He’d have to prove that Dutton was van Onselen’s source. Which would be difficult, since according to what he’s been saying, Carr doesn’t have any direct proof of that; rather, he’s picked it up second- or third-hand from someone in the media. Awkward.

“Still, I come back to the challenge Dutton would face: establishing that he’s been defamed. In addition, the defamation law now includes a hurdle for plaintiffs which Dutton didn’t have to contend with when he sued Shane Bazzi over the six-word tweet.”

Labor should take Morrison’s spiteful religious discrimination bill and bin it

Feb 09, 2022

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“But the failure to take up big fights, particularly those that motivate Labor’s base, is a missed opportunity. In fact, Labor’s failure to cultivate political capital in opposition threatens to undermine any Albanese government’s capacity to deliver on the great challenges of our time.

“On economics, the retreat from boldness has been stark. Albanese baffled the newly unemployed in 2020 when, after the union movement and common sense demanded the implementation of JobKeeper, he attempted to outflank the Liberals by complaining it was wasteful to pay some workers more than they had been earning before lockdown.”

Platitudes and weak words slammed by Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame in their National Press Club address

Feb 09, 2022

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“Tame spoke next, her arm wrapped in a sling following a biking accident. She too went hard on Morrison, dropping a bombshell on the government’s attempts to silence her …

“Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was ‘too busy’ to attend or even watch the women’s speeches on TV. ‘It’s going to be a busy week. I don’t get the opportunity to listen to all these speeches, but I’ll certainly ensure I am aware of what they’ve said,’ he said.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Madagascar death toll from Cyclone Batsirai rises to 80 (Al Jazeera)

Dropping indoor mask mandate, New York joins blue states easing COVID rules (The New York Times)

UN court orders Uganda to pay $325m in reparations to DR Congo (Al Jazeera)

Can bitcoin be sustainable? Inside the Norwegian mine that also dries wood (The Guardian)

SpaceX loses 40 satellites to geomagnetic storm a day after launch (BBC)

$68 for mittens? Team Canada fans cry foul over Lululemon prices for official Olympic gear (CBC)

Biden tells LGBTQ children ‘you are loved and accepted just as you are’ after Florida advances ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill (CNN)

Toyota, Honda strike pessimistic note about 2022 car supply (The Wall Street Journal)

How the Dutch created Europe’s first free-speech zone more than 400 years ago (Quillette)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Prime Minister, your religious discrimination bill puts teen lives at risk — Theo Boltman (The Age): “Dear Mr Morrison, My name is Theo Boltman. I am 16 years old, in Year 11, I am transgender non-binary, I am Jewish, and I go to a Jewish high school. I woke up to my 7.30am alarm on Tuesday, February 8 and flipped through my newsfeed to find the recent developments in the religious discrimination bill by your coalition. I was overwhelmed, angry, and a bit teary. Your decision to endanger the lives of thousands of religiously identifying transgender teenagers is both blatantly transphobic and exposes your lies.

“When you tweeted you believed that ‘all Australians should be free from discrimination based on their identity’ were you really referring to all Australians, or only the ones who vote for you? Establishing a connection between my Jewish and transgender identities has been a difficult and never-ending journey. According to Genesis, ‘in the image of God he created them; male and female’. Grappling with the idea that God loves me as a Jewish person but that I was not created in their image as a non-binary person is a mind-twister.”

COVID vaccines deserve our trust — but big pharma doesn’t — Laura Spinney (The Guardian): “It is also worth pointing out that, even if COVID has created some vaccine billionaires, vaccine development is not generally lucrative. Until COVID, big pharma was deserting the field because the profit margins were so slight — with the result that we still lack vaccines for some major killers, including HIV. But even if the industry pulled off a coup this time, in collaboration with academia, it needs to get its house in order or we risk seeing even higher levels of vaccine hesitancy in the next pandemic.

“After all, many people put their trust in opioids, and that didn’t work out so well. Some companies developing COVID vaccines, such as AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, have been censured for bad practices in the past. Is it really surprising that surveys show it is the least trusted industry? It is true social media has done us a disservice and our social contract was fraying before COVID came along. But it’s also true that, if anti-vaxxers and their enablers are ready to stop at nothing in pursuit of fat profits, they have an excellent role model in big pharma. If governments, industry and physicians acknowledge this needs to change, at long last, then this crisis won’t have gone to waste.”

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WHAT’S ON TODAY

Online

  • Griffith Review Editor Ashley Hay is in conversation with author Bri Lee and youth educator Catherine Keenan about early childhood education system.

  • The Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy & Defence Dialogue’s Southeast Asia Symposium will host a webinar about how Australia can put an integrated approach to foreign policy into practice.

Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)

  • Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis will speak to the National Press Club about “The rules-based world order under attack: The cases of Ukraine and Taiwan”.

Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)

  • Families of prisoners and groups are holding a protest outside the office of Corrective Services NSW about COVID-19 cases in the state’s prison.

Whadjuk Noongar Country (also known as Perth)

  • Auspire — Australia Day Council WA is holding an Aboriginal Cultural Awareness Workshop which will share Aboriginal culture, values, and belief systems.