Scott Morrison’s leap of faith

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIER

Our first Pentecostal PM Scott Morrison says his book will be “quite unlike any other book written by a prime minister”, the SMH ($) reports. Plans for Your Good — A Prime Minister’s Testimony of God’s Faithfulness will be more “pastoral encouragement” than a political memoir, and marketed to Christians here and internationally. And quite the cash cow, one might assume — in the US, religious books made some $1.175 billion last year. Morrison is clinging on as the member for Cook, but has also signed with the Worldwide Speakers Group and spoken at a bunch of churches. He spoke yesterday to a Perth congregation where he warned about a “hostile” world, Guardian Australia reports, and told worshippers a mayoral candidate would favour church development approvals. “I can do that, you can’t do that,” he joked to her. Erm, okay.

To other religious matters in the news and a first-of-its-kind investigation ordered by Pope Francis has found former Broome bishop Christopher Saunders is allegedly “a sexual predator that seeks to prey upon vulnerable Aboriginal men and boys”, The West ($) reports. The Vatican investigation found he probably sexually assaulted four youths and groomed another 67 (!!!) Indigenous boys and men over 50 years, including during his time in Sydney. WA police looked into it before the Vatican but did not lay charges, as the ABC reports, and Saunders denies everything. Finally, Melbourne’s Catholic Archbishop Peter Comensoli wants to be able to say “euthanasia is not medical care” in online sermon streams without being caught by Labor’s new online misinformation bill, the SMH ($) reports.

HOT AND BOTHERED

Wake me up when September ends — Sydney is tipped to break a heat record this month, with four days forecast to exceed 30 degrees, the first tomorrow with a high of 34. In western Sydney, it’ll be five to six days, the ABC reports, and in alpine regions such as Thredbo, Mount Hotham and Mount Buller, the temp has been a whopping 18 degrees, ending the snow season early. Twenty schools on NSW’s south coast will shut today because of extreme heat, and a total fire ban for greater Sydney is in force. And it’s not just NSW — Brisbane’s mercury will climb to 35 degrees on Thursday, it’s hottest September day in six years. Meanwhile NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey says his state has “lost control” of energy because of the Coalition government agreeing to sell Eraring power station, which he called “among the worst decisions” a government has made in decades, The Australian ($) reports. Mookhey is set to reveal a $7.8 billion deficit for NSW today, the AFR ($) adds, but a four-year $3.6 billion surplus.

This comes as some Victorian families are paying a record $4,400 a year for gas and electricity, according to St Vincent de Paul Society’s latest tariff tracker report that the Herald Sun ($) reports on. Why? Wholesale prices mostly, plus the cost of poles and wires. The Andrews government has a concession card rebate for bills, but Vinnies says all Victorians should get the government relief payments they received earlier this year again as the winter bills arrive before Christmas. Meanwhile, Energy Minister Chris Bowen is “unhinged” for torpedoing Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s repeated call for nuclear — according to Dutton, that is. I only said nuclear should be part of the energy mix, Dutton whined via the AFR ($), despite Australia being the sunniest and one of the windiest places on earth and renewable energy never being cheaper. Folks, if we can’t work it out…

MUNDINE’S MUDDLED MOMENT

No campaigner Warren Mundine, who told ABC’s Insiders he supported treaties and changing the date of Australia Day, has told Sky News Australia he meant land use agreements. Mundine’s comments put him at odds with many of the No side’s arguments against the Voice, with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton confirming his government would not “enter into billions of dollars of treaty negotiations”, The Age ($) reports. Mundine said the referendum shouldn’t be “looking at Warren Mundine, or Noel Pearson, or Marcia Langton, because we’re doing quite well” but rather the people who are struggling. Yes, it’s almost as if Indigenous people on the ground should have a Voice to Parliament to communicate their issues to policymakers in Canberra.

Meanwhile, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says she is a “vessel” for Indigenous people who have been “ignored by mainstream politics and media” including Labor, the Greens and the teals. And those people on the ground are “the voices this bloody Voice to Parliament will ignore”, Price claims — a nonsensical statement, considering the Voice will have 24 Indigenous members. They’ll come from all states, the ACT and NT, and the Torres Strait, and there’ll be five Indigenous members from remote areas in the NT, WA, SA, Queensland and NSW. All would be elected by their communities. But it seems Price, a first-term senator who makes a base salary of $211,250, reckons she’s got it. When One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and mining billionaire Gina Rinehart are big fans, as The Monthly reports, one might raise an eyebrow, however.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Doug Hendrie is fine with your dog coming to the pub, as long as he can bring his rats too. He writes for The Age ($) that Melbourne is now overrun with pet dogs — a veritable rainbow of woodledoodlespoodles with pre-war names like Artie and Olive sewn to their neat little harnesses have become as commonplace as a pot of Melbourne Bitter in the trendy city’s many “wooftop bars” and “barkeries”. Okay, Hendrie made that second one up, but it totally sounds real. Cue the City of Yarra issuing a note advising publicans that dogs really shouldn’t be in places that serve grub — the council has “no intention of putting them in the dog house”, it read, but dogs are just too germy alongside our burgers. No fewer than 9,000 indignant people signed a protest petition in a mere matter of days.

The council’s letter was obviously written by a non-dog owner, Hendrie sniffed — you know, one of them. A person with a cold dead heart who has never felt the loving squelch of a wet nose on their leg. Forget parents glazing over with love when their kids hit those Mariah Carey notes in public, he writes — dog owners are incapable of anything more than a fond smile as George the golden retriever buries his nose in some poor person’s bum crack. And Hendrie is fine with that — really. He just reserves the right to bring Bubba and River, his kids’ pet rats, to food and drink establishments too. He gets plenty of scowls from waiters, but he hasn’t been kicked out yet. “It made me realise that society is now basically a group of people who can annoy the shit out of each other without resorting to violence,” he muses philosophically. “There’s something to be said for that.”

Hoping the smiles come easily today, folks.

SAY WHAT?

After I stepped down as prime minister, [I was asked] to come and say a few words and I felt it was such a time for this.

Scott Morrison

That’s a weird way to say you lost the 2022 federal election to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Morrison was speaking at WA’s Encounter City Church in support of a mayor’s reelection — billed as a “special guest preacher”.

CRIKEY RECAP

Australia — where pointing out racism is now worse than racism itself

BERNARD KEANE

“Marcia Langton didn’t even call anyone racist. The operatives of News Corp — a foreign-owned media company interfering in an Australian electoral process — lied that she did. For that she was pilloried. Then it emerged that she had stated that the arguments of the No campaign ultimately break down into racism — which they do, if you consider the myth of terra nullius, the official erasure of First Peoples, as fitting the bill.

“But she was pilloried for that, too, not because she was wrong, but because, well, it was politically incorrect — quite literally. It was seen as a gift to the No campaign, akin to Hillary Clinton describing Trump voters as ‘deplorable’. To observe that the No campaign was founded or otherwise tainted by racism is to antagonise No voters (not to mention being that horrible thing, ‘divisive’) and reduce the chances of convincing them to change their minds.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

The cheapest, and most expensive, days to book your flights (SBS)

Hunter Biden sues IRS for breaching his privacy rights over tax affairs (The Guardian)

Minister says Canada’s largest grocery chains have agreed to ‘work’ on stabilising food prices (CBC)

Taiwan’s defence ministry urges Beijing to stop ‘military harassment’ after 103 Chinese warplanes fly near island (CNN)

US, Iran swap prisoners in deal involving $6bn transfer (Reuters)

Ukraine files WTO case against Poland, Hungary and Slovakia over their unilateral grain bans (euronews)

THE COMMENTARIAT

A powerful oil cartel controls the price you pay at the petrol pump, but its influence could wane — Nassim Khadem (ABC): “Recently when I stood at the petrol pump watching the price to fill my tank with unleaded petrol soar above $80, I wondered how much the men who operate the world’s oil cartel understand the impact they are having on people’s lives. That ‘cartel’, as some describe it, is OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries). It was first formed in 1960 in Baghdad, Iraq, as a challenge to Western dominance. Five countries — Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela — restructured the global system of oil production in favour of oil-producing states and away from an oligopoly of dominant Anglo-American oil firms known as the Seven Sisters.

“They wanted to bring stability to the world oil market by coordinating energy policies and ensuring a fair price for their exported oil. OPEC now has 13 members led by Saudi Arabia, and predominantly based in the Middle East, North and West Africa, and South America. In 2016 when the world was getting worried about America’s influence over the oil market, OPEC signed an agreement with 10 other oil-producing countries, including Russia, creating what’s called OPEC+. Together these 23 countries produce 40% of the world’s oil. They meet every month to decide on production targets. Because OPEC can control prices — by cutting production and reducing supply — it’s been described as a powerful cartel. And it is making no secret of the fact that it is trying to extend its influence.”

China secures its fringes by force. Australia should do it by invitation — Peter Hartcher (the SMH) ($): “China’s government has a big advantage over Australia in winning the loyalty of foreign leaders — bribes. We know from opposition members in the Solomons, for example, that Chinese officials offered bagfuls of cash to MPs in return for their support. But Australia’s advantage trumps it. Beijing can offer bribes to Pacific leaders, but Australia can offer a future to Pacific peoples. In democratic nations like those of the Pacific, the people’s will triumphs over a corrupt leader’s personal agenda. And consider the way Beijing seeks to secure its South China Sea perimeter — by bullying the nations of South-East Asia. By contrast, Australia has the opportunity to secure its Pacific perimeter by invitation …

“Pacific island leaders are enthusiastic about the Pacific engagement visa, although they’d like the initial 3,000 quota to be enlarged over time. But the risk now is that it doesn’t happen at all. The snag? The Coalition. While it supports the [visa] itself, the Coalition is opposed to the means of allocating the 3,000 annual visas. It objects to the government’s plan to decide recipients on the basis of an annual lottery or random ballot. New Zealand and the US use a lottery for similar schemes, and for the same reason — to use points or any other targeted system would contribute to brain drain from Pacific states. As Fiji’s Prasad has said: ‘Any other approach used by Australia would raise suspicion in the region.’ ”

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Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)

• Minister for Women and Finance Katy Gallagher will talk about her ministerial priorities as they relate to the ICT industry at the Hotel Realm.