Care for kids: David Pocock

CARING AND SHARING

Independent Senator David Pocock has used his first private member’s bill to propose we force the government to consider the health and well-being of young people when making fossil fuel project decisions, Guardian Australia reports. The duty of care would become law in our Climate Change Act and apply to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, the Infrastructure Australia Act and the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Act. It was tested in the Federal Court in 2021 when some kids and a nun sued then-environment minister Sussan “What environmental report?” Ley. They won, but it was overturned. Anjali Sharma, now a young adult who wrote stirringly for Crikey in May, was one of them — she approached Pocock’s office. It comes as the Electric Vehicle Council has accused Victoria of having the worst electric vehicle policy in Australia, the Herald Sun reports, noting the binning of electric vehicle subsidies and continuing road taxes for EV owners.

Meanwhile the powerbroking Greens are set to oppose a piddly tax on the gas industry in the Senate. Nick McKim says the Albanese government’s proposed $2.4 billion tax is “not good enough” and shows “how much power the gas cartel wields over a compliant Labor Party”. It’s a 90% cap on the deductions big gas can offset under the PRRT, as The Australian ($) explains, but new documents show Treasury wanted a more lucrative model that would tax the gas further along when its value was higher. The war-profiteering industry, as the AFR ($) reported, stomped its feet and pouted, so the $2.4 billion over four years model was announced in the budget. Reader, it’s peanuts any way you look at it — $600 million a year from an industry that was valued at $93 billion last year, or as McKim put it earlier this year via Crikey: “Labor is raising more from student debt than gas giants.”

NO MONEY FOR JAM

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton confirmed the Coalition would oppose the $40-a-fortnight JobSeeker increase announced in the May budget, The Australian ($) reports, and will instead push for people on welfare to be able to make $300 without losing the payment (it’s $150 at the moment). Dutton announced the Coalition’s first major economic policy in May — without costings, the paper notes — and the government retorted it would see 50,000 people suddenly become eligible for JobSeeker overnight. Data shows “156,250 JobSeeker recipients had received income support for more than a decade,150,265 for between five and 10 years, 224,575 between two and five years, 73,845 for one to two years and 238,455 for less than a year”, the paper says.

It comes as Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth announced the rate would actually rise by $56 a fortnight because of indexation (2.2%). Props to Rishworth for not chucking a Liberal predecessor Anne Ruston and boasting about it being “the largest increase since 2013” — indexation is the law. It comes as the Reserve Bank prepares to meet tomorrow to decide whether to raise the cash rate again. It’s surged from 0.1% to 4.1% since May last year, but in news that will come as a relief for homeowners, financial markets say the chance of an interest rate rise is less than one-in-10. The inflation rate easing to a lower-than-expected 6% is part of the reason, an expert told the SMH ($), as well as retail sales declining 0.8% in June.

WE’RE ALL EYES

American spooks will work at the Defence Department’s spy agency in Canberra, the AFR ($) reports, which one expert says shows how worried everyone is about Beijing. Australia’s Defence Intelligence Organisation will get a new department in 2024 called the Combined Intelligence Centre, where US Defence Intelligence Agency officials will work alongside their Aussie counterparts, “deepening the sharing of intelligence” between us, Defence Minister Richard Marles said. It’s the result of AUSMIN, where Beijing was criticised for “excessive maritime claims” causing tension in the region. Meanwhile the Australian Defence Force has 108 evangelical chaplains, each representing just 15 members, Guardian Australia reports. But 80% of new recruits say they aren’t religious.

In other defence news, and the four air crew missing after Friday night’s MRH-90 Taipan helicopter crash were named as Joseph Laycock, Daniel Lyon, Maxwell Nugent and Alexander Naggs. Experts via the SMH ($) say they probably did not survive; the government has launched an investigation into the cause. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was a reminder there are no “safe or easy days” for those serving. Back to US diplomacy a moment and news on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange — Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said we can’t intervene in his appeal application in the UK, Reuters reports, and we don’t know anything about it. She was speaking alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who pointed out the Australian journalist’s “alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of our country”. It seems Labor MP Julian Hill’s statements last week that the US probably won’t drop the charges and a plea might be Assange’s best bet were on the money.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

A small British town called Goole is at cultural civil war over two buildings that resemble salt and pepper receptacles. Or is it pepper and salt? One is a skinny, rather phallic structure made of red brick, as The Guardian shows, while the other is more rotund, almost taking style cues from a colosseum, and made of white stone. Dark equals pepper, white equals salt — right? Not so fast, local Fraser Barrett says — for reasons unclear, he’s been photographing the odd couple buildings practically every day for 12 solid years and posting the pics to his 1018 followers on Twitter — take a look. The photos are oddly haunting — all identical, except for the changing weather. Anyway, Barrett says he always assumed the salt was the darker, slimmer one.

If you are bemused, shocked or offended, you may be in the younger half of the population, the Goole Civic Society’s Margaret Hicks-Clarke says. She claimed they didn’t have modern pepper grinders when she was a youngster. Pepper grinders were originally invented by Peugeot of France in 1842, and Victorian-era pepper mills did kind of look like the white building. Hicks-Clarke simply had to get to the bottom of it — the society is commemorating the buildings in a mini salt and pepper set for the table, and the salt hole is typically singular compared with the several for pepper. When consulted, two-thirds of the scandalised town voted for the colour-coordinated logic, but local MP Andrew Percy had a rather diplomatic take: “I haven’t the foggiest which one is which and never have, but in today’s world I don’t suppose it matters. They can be whatever they want and be happy being either a salt cellar, a pepper pot or both.” A seasoned politician.

Hoping the coffee is hot this morning.

SAY WHAT?

I did want to just check something … I am pretty sure before I heard Kochie say he loves Bump’s … season 3. Did anyone mishear that? Because I am pretty sure I did. Anyway, those are the headlines tomorrow morning.

Karl Stefanovic

The Today Show host made a cocaine joke about his rival David Koch, who earlier said he’d enjoyed the Stan series Bumps, to an audience response of crickets. Logies host Sam Pang later said it sank so bad “Oceangate are offering expeditions to visit it.”

CRIKEY RECAP

Politics in WA has suddenly got very interesting

WILLIAM BOWE

“At the heart of the government’s problems are Aboriginal heritage laws passed in response to Rio Tinto’s destruction of ancient rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in 2020, which came into effect at the start of the month. The difficulties Labor has always faced with land rights and native title issues are finding a new dimension in the social media age, with reporting on tree planting events being held to ransom by Indigenous leaders taking on a life of its own.

“The evident success of referendum opponents in tying the issue to the Indigenous Voice suggests an upset win for Yes later this year will have to be accomplished without help from WA. The deeper question for Labor is whether the bloodletting will end there. Quite apart from what it says about the Cook government’s prospects, the poll offers the suggestion that a state that has moved on from COVID will now revert to its electoral type …”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Senegal’s opposition leader charged with plotting insurrection (Al Jazeera)

Banks vote to limit accounting of emissions in bond and stock sales (Reuters)

At least 44 killed in blast at political rally in Pakistan (The Guardian)

France warns attacks on its interests in Niger will not be tolerated (euronews)

Evacuation order issued for parts of Osoyoos as growing wildfire crosses Canada-US border (CBC)

Zelenskyy after Moscow drone attack: war coming back to Russia (BBC)

THE COMMENTARIAT

What Oppenheimer doesn’t tell you about the Trinity test — Tina Cordova (The New York Times) ($): “The area of southern New Mexico where the Trinity test occurred was not, contrary to the popular account, an uninhabited, desolate expanse of land. There were more than 13,000 New Mexicans living within a 50-mile radius. Many of those children, women and men were not warned before or after the test. Eyewitnesses have told me they believed they were experiencing the end of the world. They didn’t reflect on the Bhagavad Gita, as Oppenheimer said he did. Many simply dropped to their knees and recited the Hail Mary in Spanish. For days after, they said, ash fell from the sky, contaminated with 10 pounds of plutonium.

“A 2010 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that after the test, radiation levels near some homes in the area reached ‘almost 10,000 times what is currently allowed in public areas’. That fallout has had devastating health consequences. While I know of no one who lost their life during the test, the organisation I co-founded has documented many instances of families in New Mexico with four and five generations of cancers since the bomb was detonated. My own family is typical: I am the fourth generation in my family to have had cancer since 1945. My 23-year-old niece has just been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She is a college student studying art. Now her life, too, has been upended. Despite this, New Mexicans who may have been exposed to radioactive fallout from Trinity have never been eligible for compensation …”

Sam Pang almost saved the Logies, then came the Daryl and Sonia train wreck — Karl Quinn (The SMH) ($): “In a night full of cross-promotional stunts from new broadcaster Seven, the most egregious was saved till last. It was already 11.30pm when 71-year-old Dancing With the Stars host Daryl Somers was wheeled out to present the night’s crowning achievement, the Gold Logie. In a bit designed more to test the patience of anyone still watching than to deliver laughs, Somers attempted to stage a mock auction among the seven nominees, none of whom seemed much up for the stunt. Finally, and somewhat inevitably, Sonia Kruger — host of three shows on Seven — was announced as the most popular personality on Australian television.

“Taking to the stage she aimed for humour but landed wide of the mark by quoting a conversation with an agent who had allegedly told her: ‘I think people are a little over Hamish [Blake].’ She added that the man had told her: ‘Frankly I am hoping that he will leave the agency, so I can concentrate all of my efforts on you, Sonia.’ Fellow nominee, and last year’s winner, Blake spoke for anyone still watching when the camera caught the look of utter disbelief on his face. It was a train wreck ending to a ceremony that was customarily long, occasionally aimless, and had delivered some very strange results. And yet, until then, the decision to return to a single host for the first time since 2011 had mostly paid off.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Online

• The Productivity Commission’s Michael Brennan, Romlie Mokak and Natalie Siegel-Brown will talk about the Closing the Gap agreement in a webinar.

Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)

• The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Riley and the American Enterprise Institute’s Naomi Schaefer Riley will speak about American politics and public discourse at the Centre for Independent Studies.

• Author Tristan Bancks will talk about his new book, Scar Town, at Glee Books.