Off with our heads

SORRY NOT SORRY

ABC chair Ita Buttrose is sorry if some people were disappointed by the broadcaster’s coronation coverage, The Australian ($) reports, in an apology to the Australian Monarchist League that chair Eric Abetz calls “exceptionally hollow”. Buttrose wrote that the coverage didn’t breach editorial guidelines, The Age ($) continues, and the ABC ombudsman found Indigenous perspectives were newsworthy. Some pro-monarchy viewers were miffed the coverage included a 45-minute chat about colonisation and Indigenous matters between former Q+A host Stan Grant, Indigenous activist Teela Reid and Australian Republic Movement’s Craig Foster, as well as lone monarchist Liberal MP Julian Leeser. Former PM Tony Abbott was invited but said no, the Oz continues, and Buttrose said he wasn’t the only one — a bunch of conservatives rejected the panel invitation. “The Australian Monarchist League was not approached,” Abetz sniffed.

It comes as Indigenous leader Noel Pearson says people like Acting Opposition Leader Sussan Ley saying we need more detail on the Voice to Parliament is a “furphy” and “disingenuous”, Guardian Australia reports. MPs are the ones who’ll design the details after the referendum and they know it, Pearson pointed out, standing alongside Leeser. Bizarrely, when ABC’s Insiders’ David Speers asked Ley about how the opposition’s alternative Voice would work, she said the detail would be worked out later because it requires “debate” and “conversations”. Meanwhile, art academic Professor Brenda Croft told The Australian ($) she was booted from a government probe into APY Arts Centre Collective’s alleged retouching of Indigenous works by white people because she’s “not the right type of Aborigine” in that she’s known for not kowtowing to anyone. Croft says she was asked to be the key arts adviser on the panel but was told by SA Arts Minister Andrea Michaels on Friday she was “not the right fit”, with Croft adding the review was “toothless” because it can only make recommendations.

DROP IN THE OCEAN

Home Affairs’ main contractors — Broadspectrum, Canstruct and Paladin — reportedly paid millions of taxpayer dollars to powerful Pacific Island politicians including Nauruan MP David Adeang so our offshore processing could continue on Nauru, mostly while Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was at the helm. The SMH ($) reports the AFP and Austrac are probing the payments, and added it could be referred to the corruption watchdog, the National Anti-Corruption Commission. Among the payments was Queensland company Canstruct’s “millions” to Nauru’s then-president to deliver water after being greenlit by Home Affairs. But the paper is careful to qualify that it’s not calling the payments bribes. Still, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil says the allegations are “extremely serious”.

To other foreign affairs now and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says AUKUS and our position on Palestine are not up for discussion, The Australian ($) reports. Labor is preparing for the ALP national conference next month, and a Victorian Labor source reckons a motion will be moved that we “suspend any further involvement in the AUKUS pact, including the development of nuclear-powered submarines”. At the Victorian ALP conference a similar anti-AUKUS motion was pulled from the agenda, the paper says. The updated national platform also calls for Australia to “recognise Palestine as a state”. It comes as Portugal’s Parliament formally recognised the 1948 Palestine Nakba at the weekend, which was seen as a “true expression of Portugal’s solidarity with the plight of the Palestinian people”, the Middle East Monitor reports.

RENT CAP IN HAND

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is reportedly working on a plan that would forbid landlords from raising the rent more than once every two years, and would cap the increase. The AFR ($) reports the plan may also include a tax on hotel stays and short-term rentals, including Airbnbs, of up to $5 a booking. Ray White’s Dan White argues it would strangle supply further — but one might counter that at least renters in homes would have more housing security. It comes as rents are growing at their fastest pace in 15 years, the Brisbane Times ($) reports, a 2.1% jump in the June quarter. Rent in Sydney is already up 4.8% in a year, and 3.1% in Melbourne over the same period, while 82% of renters are in “rental stress” — spending more than a third of their income on a roof.

To job security, and casual workers who work full-time hours and yet go without a consistent salary and sick and annual leave will get a pathway to permanent work under Labor reforms, Guardian Australia reports. It’s a “loophole” that needs to be closed, Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke says, and he plans to do so by changing the definition of casual work. He doubts the nation’s 850,000 casual workers will all want to be permanent under the proposed changes — it’s about providing the option, he says. Plus it protects businesses in that casuals can claim compensation for unpaid leave if Fair Work ruled them full-timers, Burke added via The Australian ($).

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Pre-Barney, Rachel Shabi was a “fool”, she writes for The Guardian. She’s always liked dogs well enough, finding herself smiling as they frantically sprinted around the park, enthusiastically sniffed butts, and lavishly rolled in the dirt as if it was banknotes on a game show. So when she realised she’d been clocking some serious midwinter hours on the lounge, she figured what the hell and signed up to a dog-borrowing website. Enter Barney, a local pooch who after one innocuous walk changed Shabi’s life forever. She was “smitten by the sheer dogginess of this dog” as he moved through the world with curiosity, inelegance and unbridled joy. Their walks became a weekly affair, with any trouble smoothed over in the same way Shabi would fix things with a fellow human: food bribes — in this case, mostly chicken treats and liver pâté.

It’s not like she’s thinking about adopting her own — aside from not having a lot of space, she’s not ready for the commitment. Besides, borrowing dogs is so perfect for her. “It is non-transactional, community-spirited and imbued with the Marxist spirit of ‘from each according to his ability’”, Shabi writes, adding wryly that “borrowing dogs is actually a form of socialism”. And it has proved to be a kind of balm for loneliness too. She feels a small swell of pride at the trust and responsibility on her shoulders, not to mention humbled by Barney’s no-questions-barked love for her. Thinking about the experience, she says there is actually a lot to learn from a dog’s joy for the small things, whether it be “time in nature, a belly rub or a tasty treat”. It’s a reminder that there is so much life for the taking, and it can start with a simple stroll around the block.

Hoping you notice the finer things in life today.

SAY WHAT?

I was young and inexperienced and I found myself involved in a situation that was way beyond me. There were heated words during my attempts to go separate ways that I sincerely regret. It was an ugly and undignified parting of ways.

Taylor Martin

The NSW Liberal has excused himself from the partyroom after a woman lodged a formal complaint about text messages he’d sent her. The Liberals, who are keen to shake off a “women problem” reputation, have launched an independent investigation.

CRIKEY RECAP

A No vote will be Australia’s Trump moment

BERNARD KEANE

“For No voters — other than the overtly racist, who are content with existing levels of Indigenous disadvantage — where will that leave them after the defeat of the referendum, after they’ve cathartically expressed their anger about a political and economic system they resent, after they’ve chosen the transgressive option and stuck one up the elites, the progressives, the woke?

“With a constitution that pretends no-one was here when the British invaded, and no hope of rectifying that for a generation. With existing Indigenous disadvantage firmly entrenched. And certainly no closer to a treaty or a recognition of dispossession — if anything, defeat will delay a treaty even further into the future.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Cambodia PM Hun Sen’s party claims ‘landslide’ in flawed election (Al Jazeera)

Rhodes wildfire forces thousands of evacuations, tourists flee (Reuters)

Pence says he’s ‘not yet convinced’ Trump’s actions on January 6 were criminal (CNN)

Israel’s Netanyahu goes to hospital for pacemaker. He says he will push ahead with judicial overhaul (euronews)

Iran authorities ban film festival over poster of actor without hijab (The Guardian)

Search continues for 4 missing people as Nova Scotia grapples with flooding fallout (CBC)

THE COMMENTARIAT

My toddler is constantly misgendered. It may be the best thing for him — Hannah Vanderheide (The Age) ($): “My son is two. He has naturally taken to ball sports, outside play and, oddly, garbage bins — all traditionally masculine pursuits. (Well, maybe not the bins.) I dress him in clothes bought mainly from the boys section and, beyond his curly mane, nothing about him discernibly signifies ‘girl’. Of course, I’m not bothered by which pronouns people use when referring to him. At this stage, my son’s gender is largely a classification that he’s been assigned. He has no real connection to what it means to be a boy — this is something he will develop as he grows, based on the stories of gender playing out in front of him.

“Growing up in Australia, I was swimming in traditional gender norms from day one. I was painfully aware that, as a girl, my appearance was central to determining my value, and I had male friends for whom dance or art was out of the question, lest they be labelled a ‘pussy’. Now, each time someone compliments my little one’s soft, pretty face, or assigns him terms we generally reserve for describing little girls — such as ‘sweetie’ or ‘darling’ — a small part of me hopes he will internalise these qualities. I’m not sure about many things as a mum, but I am absolutely set on raising a kind and gentle person.”

Australia needs to get cracking on an east coast submarine base — Michael Shoebridge (The Australian) ($): “But until a decision is made about which east coast harbour is the one to host the AUKUS subs, no investment or planning decisions can be made for Brisbane port, Port Kembla or Newcastle port with confidence, because the federal government may overturn them and resume the facilities and land involved. It’s understandable that no federal government wants to inflict a campaigning problem on to local MPs and candidates by raising the issue of a base coming to an electorate near them, but the three-year electoral cycle will simply drive further delays if it is left to dictate how and when a base decision is made.

“Our US ally will be observing the delay to a decision on the new base with concern and wanting to know what is happening. Some polite questioning from US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken at this week’s AUSMIN consultations is very likely. Understanding the sensitivities involved and the long lead times for construction, without clear plans from Australian ministers, they will begin to question why a US president, their administration, the Pentagon and the US Congress should continue to fast-track its own work to provide Australia with nuclear submarines when its Australian partner seems to lack the seriousness of purpose to deliver a core part of the bargain.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Whadjuk Noongar Country (also known as Perth)

• One Nation’s Pauline Hanson will speak at an event about the Voice to Parliament at Leederville Oval.

Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)

• Author Lamisse Hamouda will talk about her new book, The Shape of Dust, at Better Read Than Dead bookshop.

• Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Tony Burke will speak to the Sydney Institute members at King & Wood Mallesons.

Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)

• Community members Steve Capelin and Tim Quinn will speak about the Voice to Parliament at Avid Reader bookshop.