Megabucks for MPs

A (TAX) CUT ABOVE THE REST

Federal politicians will personally save $18 million (!) in the stage three tax cuts, Guardian Australia reports. All 227 MPs and senators pocket at least $211,250 a year, and they’ll see a $9000 tax saving in the first year. They’ll also get a $2 million pay rise from 2024. It’s according to modelling from the parliamentary budget office via the Greens, who have been vocally opposed to the Coalition-era tax cuts. We need that money for childcare and putting dental on Medicare, the party says. Besides, look at the times we’re living through, with the skyrocketing cost of living and petrol prices due to climb when the fuel excise cut ends on Wednesday night. A quick reminder about the stage three cuts: the $120,000 to $180,000 tax bracket will disappear completely, and the top tax bracket will become $200,000. Every taxpayer earning less than that (down to $45,000) will be taxed 30%, not 32.5%.

So what exactly are the politicians doing to earn such a fat pay packet!? This week, a fair bit. We’ve got a cracking cheaper childcare bill going before the lower house on Wednesday — within it, childcare subsidies for all families earning up to half a million bucks a year, The Australian ($) reports, including plans for Indigenous kids to get 36 hours of subsidised childcare a fortnight. The childcare reforms were the centrepiece of Labor’s election campaign and could be a boon for productivity, allowing more parents to go back to work while plugging at least some of the labour shortages. Also, the long-awaited federal ICAC bill will be introduced by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus in the House of Reps on Tuesday (can you believe it?). Interestingly, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he’ll probably back Labor’s ICAC model. Dutton told ABC’s Four Corners that the Coalition has been working with Labor on a “bill that we can support”, no small task considering the Morrison-era model was all bark no bite. All will be revealed when we see Labor’s model on Tuesday.

[free_worm]

THE VOICE WILL BE HEARD

Nearly two-thirds of us (64%) are in favour of an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, according to a poll conducted for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. Most people want to see the Voice happen before the republic (45% compared with 27%, whereas the remainder were not sure). Incidentally, have you seen the new ad yet? Check it out here, courtesy of Guardian Australia. Yesterday, Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney confirmed the Voice would not weigh in on taxation or defence, The Australian ($) reports. It will instead offer an Indigenous view to lawmakers on “land rights legislation, native title, cultural water allocations, things like, for example, childcare,” Burney said. Support for the Voice was lowest in Queensland, the poll found, but not by much (59%).

Speaking of the Sunshine State, Greens MP Michael Berkman says his government should honour coal workers for their decades of keeping the “lights on”… by shutting down coal. It comes ahead of the state’s 10-year energy plan, The Courier-Mail ($) reports, which is due out soon. And shutting down coal in Queensland could be easier than one might think — the Queensland government owns the power stations, so it can ensure all workers are moved into a new job. Coal workers are owed a “fair go”, not more “fairy tales about burning coal forever”, Berkman says, otherwise they’ll quickly fall victim to the whims of an increasingly renewable market. It comes as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will sign a new “green economy agreement” this week that’ll streamline climate-friendly financing and technology development, the ABC adds.

A BREACH OF TRUST

Cybersecurity Minister Clare O’Neil will reveal sweeping reforms this week that will force businesses to tell banks about customer data breaches as the fallout from the massive Optus data breach continues, the AFR reports. The idea is to stem the loss of money stolen from people’s bank accounts after an attack — in this case, details including names, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, and passport and driver’s licence numbers have been stolen.

Optus chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin is in damage control as 9.8 million Australians grapple with the invasion of privacy. She’s meeting with the big bosses at Singtel today (it owns the telco) who flew in last week. So how did this happen? There’s a good explainer at Bank Info Security that’s worth reading — the author appears to have been in contact with the culprit of this hack, who wants a hefty ransom to keep the data private, as Guardian Australia reports. Victims are reeling — some haven’t been contacted by Optus yet, the SMH reports, and found out via the news. The telco says everyone should be on high alert for suspicious activity but hasn’t offered any recompense.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

When a group of semi-nocturnal cleaners clocked on at Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam one evening in June, they were given somewhat of a peculiar instruction. There was to be no vacuum cleaning and absolutely no feather dusting throughout the museum for the next few months. Crucially, spider webs (usually public enemy number one in the cleaning profession) must be left untouched, as The Guardian tells it. If any creepy crawlies overheard the directive, they would’ve been overjoyed, if not a little unnerved. The Rijksmuseum has been hosting a sprawling exhibition celebrating insects, and in no small way either — one wall running alongside a staircase is covered in jumbo model ants clustering all over each other, each larger than a human head. Leaving their real-life counterparts to run wild wasn’t exactly part of the plan, assistant curator Julia Kantelberg says, but one of the artists suggested it. We’re already cohabitating with the creepy crawlies, Tomás Saraceno had implored her to see. It’s this exhibition in action.

It wasn’t exactly easy for Kantelberg to walk around the museum and observe the spider webs growing in size and number. But it has made her look at them differently. And that’s the idea of the exhibition — it encourages folks to consider how attitudes towards bugs and other critters have changed. For instance, in the Middle Ages, lizards, insects and spiders all meant death and the devil in European history. But after the invention of the microscope, scientists have observed the “beauty and ingenuity of these small animals,” Kantelberg says. Saraceno’s artwork is a sculpture made of fine silk spun by four spiders that are native to his home of Berlin. But he’s kind of uncomfortable with the credit being his. “I find it more and more difficult to say it is my sculpture,” he says, perhaps in light of the unpaid (?) spider labour.

It’s great to be back with you after my week away. Wishing you a fresh look at something on your Monday morning, too.

SAY WHAT?

It’s not for me to commentate on polls. What I will say is that the next election will be a very close election.

Dominic Perrottet

Can the Coalition survive the NSW state election, or will Labor take the reins in the nation’s most populous state next March? The premier acknowledged it’s anyone’s game at the moment — particularly considering the at-times unpopular pandemic restrictions, John Barilaro’s New York job saga, and the state government’s slow reaction to the floods.

CRIKEY RECAP

1 in 3 Australians could be caught in Optus cyberattack and they have no recourse

Cam Wilson

Sep 23, 2022

26

“This is an enormous number of people who’ve had important and — crucially — very difficult to change details exposed. If those affected were their own Australian state, they’d be the second in population behind New South Wales. Previous large hacks at Canva and Ubiquiti (which both affected tens of millions of people) were for global companies, whereas Optus is an Australian company with predominantly Australian customers …

“Optus has advised customers to have ‘heightened awareness’ across their accounts and to refer to information provided by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and Moneysmart. Essentially, it’s on each of the 7 million individuals affected to protect themselves against the harm that may come from Optus’ management of their sensitive data. Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favour!”

 

---

Hawthorn racism allegations are harrowing, but AFL’s investigation is wide of the mark

Adam Schwab

Sep 23, 2022

16

“While the allegations are traumatic and deeply concerning, they are also just that: allegations. Moreover, the allegations themselves relate to incidents that occurred several years ago and the victims appear to have endured significant mental anguish over that period. That doesn’t in any way mean they shouldn’t be believed (there are very legitimate reasons why the allegations have not been made sooner), but they are all factors that are considered by an independent, preferably legally trained investigator.

“The concern here is that the horrific allegations have been made public at this time — before they have been properly investigated (the situation is similarly concerning to the infamous ‘darkest day in sport’ press conference). For the sake of both the victims and the perpetrators, the allegations should have remained completely confidential until they were properly investigated. At this stage, the Hawthorn staff at the centre of the claims don’t know the full allegations, nor who made the allegations.”

---

OK, so now can we talk about a republic?

Leslie Cannold

Sep 23, 2022

40

“Firstly, instead of focusing on the risks of becoming a republic, Australia should worry more about the risks of not becoming one. How pathetic it will be a decade from now, when the 14 other constitutional monarchies have blazed a trail to full independence and we are the cheese standing alone, the only country left in the British realm?

“Secondly, the rule about not being able to talk about things at the precise moment they are on the agenda is bullshit, and nothing to which any self-respecting academic, journalist or commentator should pay attention. The most challenging aspect of having a national conversation is getting the issue on the agenda. Anyone who tries to shut you up at precisely the moment when this hurdle has been surmounted does not care about your issue.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Thirty Palestinian prisoners held in Israel launch hunger strike (Al Jazeera)

Lavrov pledges ‘full protection’ to any areas annexed by Russia (Reuters)

Pink Floyd founder cancels Poland concerts after Ukraine war remarks (EuroNews)

South-western Newfoundland grapples with catastrophic aftermath of Fiona (CBC)

Indonesians wait for UK farm jobs after paying deposits of up to £2500 (The Guardian)

Why Japan is angry about a state funeral for an assassinated leader (The New York Times)

‘Very unusual’: CIA unveils model of al-Qaeda leader’s hideout at revamped museum (SBS)

Democrats are warming to a Biden 2024 campaign. They’re just not sure if he’ll run. (CNN)

Italy votes as far-right Meloni looks for victory (BBC)

THE COMMENTARIAT

I have grave fears for the health of handwriting — Sean Kelly (The SMH): “Last week I watched what will certainly be the most elaborate ritual I see in my life — the queen’s funeral. Despite the pomp, or because of it, I was most struck by its similarity to other funerals, the same two things at its centre: the person who had lived and the reminder of the solid fact of death. Mourners and ceremony were spread across the country, but my mind kept returning to the one small person at their centre, a woman, dead now, who had once worn that small purple crown that lay atop the box that now contained her.

“Next to that crown were flowers, and nestled among them was a plain white card, on which King Charles had written, ‘In loving and devoted memory — Charles R’. During the service, a spider ran across the top of the white card. Both the handwriting and the spider seemed out of place, incongruously unregimented: two protesting signs of life in a formal ceremony marking death. Something of these blurrings — between life and death, between personality and impersonality — was captured with typical brilliance in a short description several years ago by the novelist Hilary Mantel. Upon seeing the queen at a reception, Mantel stared; the queen turned, ‘as if she had been jabbed in the shoulder’, and met Mantel’s eye with a look of ‘hurt bewilderment’. For a moment, the queen ‘had turned back from a figurehead into the young woman she was, before monarchy froze her and made her a thing’. This is what death does too, of course: makes each of us a thing.”

Do not bring your ‘whole self’ to work — Pamela Paul (The New York Times): “For those lucky enough to have worked from home over the past two and a half years or seven years or whatever it was, it’s back to the office time. We are finally RTO and IRL, at least until the next wave hits. And some people can’t wait. But for those less excited, reluctant to face the creepy supervisor they’ve been avoiding, the department suck-up they’ve been Slacking about, the portion of the job they’ve been faking, here’s a nifty tip for easing the transition: do not ‘bring your whole self’ to work. That’s right! Defy the latest catchphrase of human resources and leave a good portion of you back home. Maybe it’s the part of you that’s grown overly attached to athleisure. The side that needs to talk about candy (guilty).

“It could be the getting-married part of you still agonising over whether a destination wedding is morally defensible in These Times. Leave those things behind and I promise: no one in your workplace will miss them. And remember, it works both ways. Anyone worth sharing a flex desk with is not someone you want to see every last ounce of either. They, too, can reserve their aches, grievances, flimsy excuses and noisy opinions for the roommate, the pandemic puppy and the houseplants …The problem is for many people, it’s no more comfortable dragging the whole kit and caboodle into the workplace than it is showing up every day on a relentless basis. Nor is it necessarily productive. Not everyone wants their romantic life, their politics, their values or their identity viewed by their colleagues as pertinent to their performance. For some people, a private life is actually best when it’s private.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)

• Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government Victor Dominello will be at a Canterbury Bankstown Chamber of Commerce networking event at Bankstown RSL Club.

Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)

• Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury Andrew Leigh will chat about his new essay, “Fair Game. Lessons from Sport for a Fairer Society & a Stronger Economy, at the Australian National University.

Kaurna Country (also known as Adelaide)

• Academics, activists and artists will come together for the 2022 Gender, Sex and Sexualities Conference under the theme of “(in)accessibility”.