Following the leaders?

WAR OF WORDS

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet is reportedly backing Liberal candidate for Warringah Katherine Deves, who is under fire for anti-trans rhetoric including a claim that “half of all males with trans identities are sex offenders”. The Australian ($) reports this morning that Perrottet sent Prime Minister Scott Morrison a text at the weekend saying he supported Deves’ campaign to bar trans women from women’s sport — reportedly calling it the “right approach”. Deves has apologised in recent days after claiming that transgender children were “surgically mutilated” and comparing the treatment of anti-trans spokespeople to Nazi trials.

Perrottet’s reported support is somewhat at odds with his Treasurer Matt Kean, who called for Deves’ disendorsement over her “bigotry”, and federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who slammed Deves’ comments as “insensitive, in­appropriate, and unacceptable”. Interestingly, NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns told 2BG yesterday he thinks “young male adolescents” have a competitive advantage because of testosterone, The Daily Telegraph ($) reports. But is that true? Transgender athlete and researcher Joanna Harper says the equal playing field is a myth: every elite athlete has “advantages” (that’s why they’re elite), and besides, many trans athletes suppress their testosterone for 12 months before competing, SBS reports.

It comes as the Australian Christian Lobby is targeting Liberals — like Trent Zimmerman, Dave Sharma, and Bridget Archer — who crossed the floor over Morrison’s religious discrimination bill, Guardian Australia reports. The Lobby is papering electorates with a graphic of MPs driving a wrecking ball into religious schools, and some constituents say they’ve received automated calls about it. To jog your memory, the trio plus Katie Allen and Fiona Martin voted against the bill, which made it lawful to expel trans students from school.

[free_worm]

FIGURES, FEARS, AND FRUSTRATION

About two-thirds of all COVID-19 deaths in Australia have occurred this year, Guardian Australia reports. That means, in four months, our death toll from COVID-19 is already more than double what it was in 2020 and 2021 combined. OK — to the figures: so far 6786 people in Australia have died of COVID-19 since March 2020 when the pandemic began — and 4547 of them happened in 2022, according to government data. In WA, most of the COVID-related deaths are happening in aged care homes and palliative care, WA Today reports. Of more than 300,000 WA cases and 96 deaths since the start of the year, only 28 people were in intensive care. A spokesperson for WA Health says the average age of a person dying from COVID was 75 years old.

On Tuesday, aged care workers in WA joined their colleagues in Queensland and South Australia in voting to take industrial action — including strikes — over pay and conditions, The West ($) continues. Wages in aged care are around $23-$25 an hour — Labor Leader Anthony Albanese used his budget reply to promise a $2.5 billion aged-care package that would include a submission to get staff a pay rise, whereas Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he will back a pay rise if ordered to by the Fair Work Commission. Speaking of Albo — he’s officially kicking off Labor’s election campaign in Perth, the first time any party has launched a campaign in the west, The West ($) reports.

COLD HARD PACTS

The government is “deeply disappointed” that the Solomon Islands signed a security pact with China that could see a Chinese naval base less than 2000km off our coast, ABC reports. Minister for the Pacific Zed Seselja met with Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare last week to convince him it was a dangerous idea and urge him not to sign — to no avail. Foreign Minister Marise Payne says the deal is murky and puts the stability of the region at risk.

China is telling us to butt out and stop creating drama, and the Solomon Islands says it won’t let China build a military base there — but the US Department says the signed pact doesn’t rule PRC military deployment out, and Australia says the deal was negotiated and signed in secret, Guardian Australia continues. Indeed US Indo-Pacific chief Kurt Campbell will soon touch down in Honiara to lobby against the deal, the SMH continues. Stay tuned I guess.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

In 2015, American man Tom Turcich left his house for a walk — a walk he’s still on today, along with his furry companion, Savannah. The pair’s epic walking journey has crossed six continents, 37 countries and some 45,000km, making him one of just 10 people to have walked quite literally around the world (Savannah is the first dog to do so). Tom was 26 when he set off on his journey with just a sleeping bag, an extra pair of shoes, and a few essentials — he met Savannah, his rescue pooch, at a Texan shelter shortly after. Ever since, Tom and Savannah have been held up at knife-point in Panama, stuck for months under lockdown in Azerbaijan, and attended a wedding of new friends in Uzbekistan.

Utterly exhausted just outside a border town in Argentina, Tom says his legs suddenly gave out from beneath him. Savannah promptly came and sat next to him, and rather than panic, he had a sudden moment of gratitude for the journey. And he says the kindness of strangers has moved him too — truckers have stopped to give the pair oranges and water, and so many strangers have offered them accommodation. “It’s been an incredible experience, filled with a crazy amount of kindness,” Tom says. Now, he is just 885km from his hometown, where he and Savannah will end their trip. She’s been a terrific companion, he says, trotting along for the 38.6 kilometres they walk eight hours a day, “without complaint”. And, he adds, “her tail is always held high. She’s a true professional.”

Wishing you some adventure during your Wednesday, big or small.

SAY WHAT?

I’m not going to allow her to be silenced, I’m not going to allow her to be pushed aside as the pile on comes in to try and silence her. I will stand up with her, my team is standing up with her and we will make sure that she won’t be silenced.

Scott Morrison

The prime minister is standing by his captain’s pick for Warringah, Katherine Deves, despite her resurfaced claims that transgender children are “surgically mutilated and sterilised” and (incorrect) claims half of the men who transitioned were sex offenders. She has since apologised. Morrison says he will not allow her to be silenced, but one might argue that Deves’ views seek to sideline and silence the entire trans community.

CRIKEY RECAP

Katherine Deves wasn’t chosen in spite of her views on trans people. She was chosen because of them

Cam Wilson

Apr 19, 2022

37

“The question remains: why was Deves selected? She does not have a long history in the party. At the end of 2020, she said she’d voted for every party and was “politically homeless”. In March the NSW Liberals’ executive committee gave her an exemption from rules requiring candidates to have been party members for at least six months …

“Ultimately, Deves was picked after moderate frontrunner Jane Buncle dropped out and was chosen over conservative-backed candidate Lincoln Parker. (Bet they wish Gladys Berejiklian had changed her mind now, huh?) … When it comes down to it, it’s clear Deves’ advocacy played a central role in her being chosen to stand for their party’s formerly blue-ribbon seat. Her abhorrent views on transgender Australians are a feature, not a bug.”

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The Liberal Party wants us to ‘look at the facts’. But just whose facts?

Alan Austin

Apr 19, 2022

20

“For country comparisons, economists use annual GDP growth, which is recorded for all advanced economies four times a year. We have the numbers for the 2021 December quarter for the 59 very highly developed countries listed by the UN’s Development Program (UNDP). These include all OECD members and most International Monetary Fund advanced economies. Australia’s modest 4.2% annual GDP growth ranks 43rd out of those 59 economies. Nowhere near leading the world.

“The UK, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Singapore, Estonia, Poland, Hungary and Greece are all above 6%. Ireland, Israel, Malta, Chile, Slovenia, Croatia, Turkey and others are above 9%. The fine print in the Liberal chart says ‘Dec 2019 to Dec 2021’. Hmmm. So it picked an odd two-year time interval for which there is no readily available global database. Why?”

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When numbers don’t tell the full story: an economist’s mea culpa

Jason Murphy

Apr 19, 2022

9

“Last week I wrote a story about JobSeeker. It was an attempt to analyse some data, but now I realise it was a bad take. I apologise for that and am writing this as a clarification … High socio-economic areas saw a rise in JobSeeker recipients equal to low socio-economic areas.

“I found this to be surprising because the socio-economic data measures disadvantage. The rules that made getting on JobSeeker during the pandemic easier have expired. So discovering that JobSeeker payments remain elevated in areas of socio-economic advantage was unexpected. An unexpected fact usually contains a grain of insight. My job was to find the insight. I failed.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Russian forces seize Kreminna in eastern Ukraine, says governor (Al Jazeera)

Myanmar’s health system is in collapse, ‘obliterated’ by the regime (The New York Times)

Catalan president calls for investigation as spyware targets pro-independence leaders (The Guardian)

Sweden riots over Quran burning: What is happening? (Al Jazeera)

Auckland young people ‘out of control’ as ram-raids ramp up across city (Stuff)

US judge throws out Biden mask mandate for planes and trains (BBC)

Macron allies warn victory not certain as poll lead over Le Pen grows (The Guardian)

At least one killed as police open fire at Sri Lanka protesters (Al Jazeera)

Crypto stocks perform worse than cryptocurrencies (The Wall Street Journal) ($)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Anti-trans rhetoric is nothing but a shameless grab for relevance — Dale Sheridan (The SMH): “The sad reality is that on most occasions when a trans person obtains a public platform, it has to be used to call out hate and fear. I feel sick to my stomach as I write these words as I brace for the onslaught of more hate as a result of my visibility. How do I even participate in a conversation where my mere existence is framed in so much prejudice? Saving women’s sport from the dangerous and disgusting trans woman – how do I even respond to this with any sort of logic?

“A question I’m often asked is: why are people attacking the trans community? I wish I knew. I often wonder how insecure someone must be for the existence of another person to trigger such discomfort and outrage. I struggle to rationalise the tirade of abuse I’ve received on occasions – once just walking to work and another occasion shopping at my local supermarket. This discomfort could explain the attempts of various laws and policies around the world seeking to ban the trans community from a range of daily settings: bathrooms, healthcare, sports and schools. They’re a blatant tool to limit and prevent our participation in the community.”

This economic model tipped the last 2 elections — and it’s now pointing to a Coalition win — Peter Martin (The Conversation): “In the latest edition of the Australian Economic Review, University of Queensland economist Hamish Greenop-Roberts applied the Cameron and Crosby model to the past four elections, the one Labor won in 2010 and the ones the Coalition won in 2013, 2016 and 2019. He found it picked the result three times out of four, putting it on a par with the polls and betting odds, which also got the result right three times out of four.

“The crucial difference is the economic model got the results right in each of the past two elections — something the others conspicuously failed to do. Asked this week what the economic model would predict for the current election, Greenop-Roberts notes that on one hand, unemployment is much lower than it was at start of this government’s term (and far lower than was expected), which the model says should help it get re-elected. On the other hand, inflation is unusually high, which the model says would hurt.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Online

• Labor spokesperson for Cities, Urban Infrastructure and Multicultural Affairs Andrew Giles will speak to the Property Council’s Ken Morrison about opening borders, attracting skilled migrants, and rejuvenating CBDs in a webinar.

• Rescheduled from yesterday, Guardian Australia’s Katharine Murphy and Essential Media’s Pete Lewis will unpack the fortnight’s political news in a webinar for The Australia Institute.

Yuggera Country (also known as Brisbane)

• Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese will face off in the first leaders’ debate of the 2022 federal election.

• Author Lison Mage will speak about her book, Act Before You overThink. Catch this one online too.

Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)

• Authors Bruce Pascoe and Bill Gammage will discuss agricultural and land care practises of First Nations people at The Wheeler Centre.