All eyes on EY

EY WORKS A DOUBLE SHIFT

Big four consultancy firm EY worked for Santos at the same time as it was advising the NSW government on a policy that greenlit a major gas project the company was hoping to develop in the state, Guardian Australia reports. The problem, state Natural Resources Minister Courtney Houssos told the outlet, was that EY didn’t disclose it was working for both parties: “The revelation of another potential undisclosed conflict of interest under the former government adds to a systematic pattern of behaviour which only serves to undermine confidence in the development of public policy.”

But EY says there’s a simple reason it didn’t make a disclosure of its work for Santos at the time it began advising NSW on the Narrabri gas project — in the view of the firm, there was no real or perceived conflict of interest. “There is no overlap between the services EY provided to the NSW government and the firm’s external assurance work for Santos,” a spokesperson said. “Any suggestion of a conflict of interest, or that EY advocated for Santos, is inaccurate.”

The Narrabri gas project, planned for a part of NSW’s Pilliga National Park, “is expected to supply NSW homes, small businesses, major industries and electricity generators with up to 50% of the state’s natural gas needs, bringing significant economic benefits to Narrabri and the surrounding region”, Santos says on its website, where the Narrabri plan is listed under “upstream projects”.

The local traditional Gomeroi owners have opposed the $3.5 billion project, filing an appeal in the Federal Court after the National Native Title Tribunal permitted Santos to go ahead with the project in December. That appeal will be heard today, in Queensland, with two more hearings scheduled for Thursday and Friday.

SETTING UP HOUSE

National cabinet will debate the housing crisis in Brisbane next week, and leaders hope to strike a deal to strengthen renters’ rights across the country, The Sydney Morning Herald  ($) reports. If Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gets his way, there will be a deal that “sets uniform principles to protect renters with the expectation it would be up to each state and territory to decide the rules under their own laws”, the front-page story says. It comes as Albanese’s housing future fund continues to stall in the Senate, where the Greens oppose it because they reckon it doesn’t go far enough on new homes, and where the Coalition opposes it because it feels it will saddle the government with too much debt.

Another goal of national cabinet discussions will be committing to planning laws that would make it easier to build 1 million homes over five years, beginning in 2024. It remains to be seen whether such a deal would placate the Greens, and whether a failed fund would trigger a double-dissolution election.

Another question occurs to the Worm: could Scott Morrison have known when he launched the national cabinet in 2020 as a COVID crisis forum for the leaders of the Commonwealth, states and territories, that it would end up becoming a Labor-dominated assembly where discussions are heavily influenced by the political power of the Greens?

SAY WHAT?

That is a conspiracy in search of a theory.

Anthony Albanese

The prime minister accused LNP MP Colin Boyce of asking an “absolutely nonsense” question in Parliament yesterday, after the Queenslander wondered whether the Uluru Statement from the Heart was actually 26 pages long, not one. Boyce pointed to a lengthy statement, “as released by the National Indigenous Australians Agency in response to a freedom-of-information request”, and claimed Albanese was being deceptive. The truth — as a visit to the Uluru Statement’s website will reveal — is that the statement fits on a single page.

CRIKEY RECAP

A cartoon, Anzac day, a diary scheduler: the public service can’t go to the toilet without using consultants

BERNARD KEANE

“Bureaucrats even tasked PwC with telling them how Anzac Day should be commemorated. In 2018, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs gave the firm $200,000 to ‘deliver an evaluation of the Centenary of Anzac Program and facilitate the development of a strategic plan to guide future commemorative activities’.

“No wonder public sector agencies prefer to keep the detail of their use of consultants as restricted as possible. To do otherwise would be to admit an addiction — one that big firms profit from immensely.”

The 1967 referendum offers a cautionary tale for the Voice to Parliament campaigns

ANDREW MARKUS

This year’s referendum is not the first time constitutional provisions for First Nations peoples have been proposed. What lessons can be learnt from 1967?

“The referendum, held on May 27 1967, was the most successful in Australia’s history, passed with 90.77% in support. In Victoria, 95% voted in favour, with the lowest proportions in Western Australia (81%), South Australia (86%) and Queensland (89%).

“Despite the resounding vote, the government recognised no need for change. To give the appearance of doing something, a three-man Council for Aboriginal Affairs was established. A new reforming zeal, empowered by the referendum result, was to await the election of the Whitlam Labor government in December 1972. Much has now changed, but consideration of 1967 is cautionary.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Russia hits Ukraine residential block, killing seven, then strikes again as emergency workers arrive (Kyiv Post)

Mourners in Ireland pay their respects as Sinéad O’Connor buried (Associated Press)

Ron DeSantis replaces campaign manager as 2024 bid struggles (The New York Times) ($)

Russia’s Wagner group taking advantage of Niger instability following coup, US says (BBC)

Coalition set to go nuclear in 2025 energy policy (The Australian) ($)

Donald Trump election grand jury back at work in federal courthouse (NBC News)

Could El Salvador’s gang crackdown spread across Latin America? (Al Jazeera)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Looming insurance crisis could make the GFC ‘look like a picnic’ — Shane Wright (SMH) ($): “The economy would come to a standstill without insurance. Without it, people could have their livelihoods and assets wiped away in an instant. Whole industries and communities would cease to exist, at huge cost to society.

“For the system to work, insurers need pools of customers, spread out in different areas to cover the occasional disaster or accident. But if customers can’t afford to pay their insurance premiums, or the cost and number of those disasters grows faster than premiums, the whole business model collapses.”

Why there’s no quick fix for housing crisis — Dimitri Burshtein (The Australian) ($): “When it comes to housing affordability in Australia — to borrow from a former White House adviser — it’s all about the economy, stupid.

“There is, sadly, little doubt that too many Australians, particularly the young and vulnerable, are experiencing housing price and rental stress. But when it comes to causes and solutions, what’s more likely: that the laws of economics have been suspended for the country’s property market or that bad public policy has stimulated high housing price inflation?”

Mistakes, leaks and missed opportunities — the Sofronoff inquiry represents a failure in the pursuit of justice — Geoffrey Watson (Guardian Australia): “I do not know the Director of Public Prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, but I do know he is a human being. There is no doubt that Drumgold made mistakes — he admits as much. And some of those mistakes were serious.

“He has done the right thing and resigned. I strongly suspect he was not suited to the job of the DPP, which is necessarily political. Maybe he found himself in an unfamiliar environment for which he was not experienced. I do not see an ogre — I see a good man who identified too closely with a cause and lost objectivity. We have all made that kind of mistake — or, at least, I know I have.”