On the money

PAY IT AIN’T SO

The guy blamed for independent Zali Steggall’s $100,000 donation bungle didn’t report a $25,000 payment from Alex Turnbull, son of former PM Malcolm Turnbull, to a separate campaign, the SMH reports this morning. Turnbull (Jr) had donated to former Liberal Julia Banks, who at the time was challenging Health Minister Greg Hunt’s Flinders seat, as ABC reported. The AEC issued a formal rebuke over the payment, which was reported two years after it was made. But Turnbull wasn’t worried, saying it was a case of forgotten paperwork and parties often amend their AEC disclosures. The financial controller blamed for the non-disclosure, Damien Hodgkinson, is now a key figure in the Climate 200 campaign.

This news comes as Climate 200 convenor Simon Holmes à Court says independent MPs and candidates who get funding from his group are free to make their own political decisions. He told the National Press Club the money they get from Climate 200 was no-strings-attached, The Australian ($) reports. Holmes à Court says candidates do need to show their commitment to climate action, gender equality, and government integrity to get the money, but shrugged off a question about which party he thinks aligns with that.

The comments come amid speculation independents could hold the balance of power in a hung Parliament, as The Australia Institute delved into. There’s already a record seven people on the crossbench, and several independents are challenging blue ribbon seats. Holmes revealed he’s so far raised $7 million from 10,000 donors, The New Daily reports — so who’s in the Climate 200 family? Well, Steggall in Warringah, Allegra Spender in Wentworth, Kylea Tink in North Sydney, Sophie Scamps in Mackellar, Zoe Daniel in Goldstein, Despi O’Connor in Flinders, and Monique Ryan in Josh Frydenberg’s seat of ­Kooyong.

[free_worm]

A BIT RICH

Rich men will get most of the tax breaks in 2024-25, Guardian Australia reports. It’s the finding of three analyses from the Australia Institute, the Greens, and the Australian Council of Social Service which looked into the stage-three tax cuts, as SMH explains (it’ll remove the 37 cents in the dollar tax bracket, lower the 32.5 cent bracket to 30 cents, and raise the top tax bracket to start at $200,000 compared with $180,000 now).

Sounds good right? If you make $50,000 a year you’ll save $2.40 a week. But if you make $200,000, you’ll save 73 times more — some $174 a week, Guardian Australia continues. Mostly the people in the top income brackets are men, so for every $1 tax cut a woman gets, a man gets $2. It’s not good optics considering Australia’s Gender Report Card was just released, showing Australian women earned on average $25,800 less than men in 2020-21. The construction industry is the worst, with a 30.6% gap, while finance saw a 29.5% gap, and science saw a 24.7% gap, Women’s Agenda reports.

But perhaps think twice before turning to the stock market — a world-renowned fund manager named Jeremy Grantham has warned the world is headed for a crash, ABC reports. He says the S&P 500 surged 25% last year while speculative stocks of 2020 were going down, a rare combination that also took place prior to 1929’s Great Depression, 1972’s decline, and 2000’s dot com bust, he says. Yikes. But he says there’s a good chance Australia will “come down in sympathy” i.e. a lot less and rally earlier.

FATAL SHARK ATTACK IN SYDNEY

Beaches from Clovelly to Botany Bay will be closed today in Sydney after a swimmer was “catastrophically” injured and killed by a shark at Little Bay yesterday afternoon, the SMH reports. It’s the first time someone has died from a shark attack in Sydney since the ’60s. A witness described the attack as “vertical”, and there wasn’t anything paramedics could do a spokesperson told the paper. The witness says he thought it was a great white shark, about 4.5m long. News.com.au have published a blurred version of the video.

Shark attacks in the eastern US and in Australia seem to be on the rise — almost doubling in the past 20 years, the BBC reports. Last year we saw 73 unprovoked attacks from sharks worldwide, news.com.au adds. But despite the Hollywood depictions, there’s no real evidence they hunt humans, with one expert saying they mostly ignore us. Of 530 species of shark, just three are thought to be the most dangerous to us — the great white shark, tiger shark, and bull shark.

So why do shark attacks happen? It could be La Nina’s rain flushing lots of nutrients into the sea, attracting seals, as BBC says, it could be a case of mistaken identity considering sharks have bad eyesight as CNN says, it could be climate change heating the ocean and pushing sharks into new waters, The Guardian says, or it could just be a random awful tragedy.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Luxury auction house Christie’s is known for showcasing some of the world’s most spectacular art. But it is no stranger to controversy — in 2020, it sold an assembled dinosaur skeleton named “Stan” for US$31.8 million, then last year it sold a digital image (known as an NFT) for US$69 million, prompting the artist to tweet — mind the language folks – “holy fuck”. The latest? A damaged dog house made of what looks like corrugated iron from Costa Rica. But the hole is no regular rusted out hole. It was caused by a meteorite.

Roky the German Shepherd was quietly snoozing in his home on the evening of April 23 in 2019 when a “shower of exotic stone meteorites loaded with organic compounds, crashed through his doghouse, barely missing him”. It left an 18cm hole in the 1.4m dog house, and Roky’s kennel was forever etched in scientific history. Christie’s has dressed the kennel up a bit, laying some astroturf beneath it and even adding a jaunty decorative dog bowl. The meteorite was named Aguas Zarcas after the nearest city (that’s the usual naming convention), and contains components that are — no joke — twice the age of our solar system. The auction house expects to sell it for up to US$300,000. As for Roky, he was a little startled but totally fine and has moved on to a new kennel — hopefully inside this time.

Wishing you a considerably more relaxed time today, folks.

SAY WHAT?

We’ve got another Manchurian Candidate.

Scott Morrison

The PM withdrew the insult — which is often used to describe someone as a puppet acting on behalf of an enemy power — after condemnation from Labor. The below-the-belt comment was referring to deputy Labor leader Richard Marles, who in 2019 made a speech at the Beijing Foreign Studies University. Marles told Morrison he had undermined the dignity of the house.

CRIKEY RECAP

Shock Chinese plot! Coalition, News Corp collaborated with Xi to influence Australia

Bernard Keane

Feb 16, 2022

31

“The primary architect of the plot was former prime minister Tony Abbott, who posed as a hardline anti-communist while engaging in extensive secret negotiations with the Xi Jinping regime to extend Chinese economic intervention in Australia.

“It was dubbed the ‘China–Australia Free Trade Agreement’ (ChAFTA), and information about the negotiations was withheld from the public until 2015, when Abbott, without consultation with Parliament or the community, signed Australia to a deal allowing Chinese investment and labour into Australia unchecked.”

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Pot kettle black? Leaks, backgrounding and briefings backfire for the government

Amber Schultz

Feb 16, 2022

19

“The fact that [Rachelle] Miller still hasn’t seen the report relating directly to her relationship and her allegations — and has no idea whether she ever will — while details of it are being leaked to journalists is galling. [Labor Senator Katy] Gallagher called for Miller to be provided with a copy of the report before the Channel 10 segment aired.

“Miller declined to participate in the inquiry, saying the government had not listened to her concerns, wouldn’t negotiate the terms of reference, and wouldn’t investigate specific allegations.”

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‘I Back Zach’: online drive to make NT cop Zachary Rolfe Australia’s Kyle Rittenhouse

Cam Wilson

Feb 16, 2022

Unlocked

“The I Support Constable Zach Rolfe page has frequently shared negative news reports about NT police leadership and politicians — two targets blamed by the page for having abandoned Rolfe or for having ulterior motivations for his arrest …

“Some latched on to Rolfe’s superior, Sergeant Julie Frost, as responsible for him being placed in the situation and have called for her sacking or to even face charges. One post seen by Crikey shows a group coordinating to nominate Rolfe for the 2021 NT Police Officer of the Year award.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

700 BHP miners face axe for refusing jab (The Australian) ($)

Eight million Yemenis could lose aid next month as war rages (Al Jazeera)

P.J. O’Rourke, Conservative Political Satirist, Dies at 74 (The New York Times)

Burkina Faso coup leader Damiba inaugurated as president (Al Jazeera)

Last Fukushima town to reopen welcomes back its first residents (The Guardian)

Two years after 4-year-old was reported missing, police find her alive under staircase (CNN)

COVID: Hong Kong’s hospitals overwhelmed amid spike in cases (BBC)

Russia is continuing to build up forces near Ukraine, NATO chief says (The Wall Street Journal) ($)

‘Trespassed’ from [New Zealand] Parliament’s lawn: a firsthand account (Stuff)

BioNTech to start vaccine production in Africa (BBC)

THE COMMENTARIAT

PM right on China, wrong on Labor — Greg Sheridan (The Australian) ($): “Marles is a perfectly patriotic Australian. Overall, the Albanese opposition, like the Bill Shorten opposition before it, has stood with the government in support of the US alliance, and against Beijing’s increasingly aggressive posturing. There was a period where Labor was inclined to blame the government for the difficulties in the Australia-China relationship. Marles made some comments like this and I criticised him for them. They were an error of judgment, not an indication of weakness on national security. Nor did Marles refrain from criticising Beijing.

“In any event, Labor quickly corrected itself as Beijing’s actions became ever more unreasonable. Labor has supported the government in every substantial position it has taken on the South China Sea, on resisting economic coercion, on democracy in Hong Kong, human rights in Xinjiang and on the recently announced AUKUS deal, under which Australia will eventually get nuclear-powered submarines. For Labor to embrace nuclear-powered submarines is a significant, perhaps historic, change. Anthony Albanese deserves some credit for this.”

World-first research confirms Australia’s forests became catastrophic fire risk after British invasion — Michela Mariani, Michael-Shawn Fletcher, Simon Connor (The Conversation): “Australia’s forests now carry far more flammable fuel than before British invasion, our research shows, revealing the catastrophic risk created by non-Indigenous bushfire management approaches. Contemporary approaches to forest management in Australia are based on suppression — extinguishing bushfires once they’ve started, or seeking to prevent them through hazard-reduction burning.

“This differs from the approach of Indigenous Australians who’ve developed sophisticated relationships with fire over tens of thousands of years. They minimise bushfire risk through frequent low-intensity burning — in contrast to the current scenario of random, high-intensity fires. Our research, released today, provides what we believe is the first quantitative evidence that forests and woodlands across southeast Australia contained fewer shrubs and more grass before colonisation. This suggests Indigenous fire management holds the key to a safer, more sustainable future on our flammable continent.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Online

• Anyone interested in learning more about the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) can attend this online community forum where IBAC investigators explain how they oversee the integrity of Victorian police.

• Writer Cass Moriarty is in conversation with author Dinuka McKenzie to discuss the latter’s debut crime novel, The Torrent.

Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)

• Author Terry Leahy will discuss his book, The Politics of Permaculture, at The New International Bookshop.