Craig Thomson pleads guilty to COVID fraud

TAKEN FOR GRANTED

Former Labor MP Craig Thompson got $25,000 in COVID small business grants for a café that no longer existed, the SMH ($) reports. He spent it on a credit card, private school fees, a car lease, home repayments and shopping, according to the court papers. Thompson pleaded guilty to two counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception yesterday — he’d claimed the two grants in 2020 and 2021 via the ABN of a Central Coast café he sold in 2018 that had closed permanently by 2020. The business had two full-time staff at the time, but Thompson put six on the form, the paper notes. Meanwhile at least 50 bureaucrats at the ex-Office of the Commonwealth Games are still being paid five months after the Victorian government dumped the event, according to the Herald Sun ($). They’re on gardening leave right now and could be paid into next year too.

It comes as more than half of members of the major political parties are paying their allowances back to their party as levies and fees, The West ($) reports, including WA Premier Roger Cook, Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti, Liberal leader Libby Mettam and Greens MP Brad Pettitt ($16,631). It’s not illegal, the paper says — it can be for an annual party membership or a levy to raise money for campaign activities. The Centre for Public Integrity’s Geoffrey Watson reckons it’s morally questionable, however, saying the idea a politician had to pay their earnings to a party makes it sound like they have to purchase their own endorsement.

THE TWO OF US

The government and opposition can work together, Coalition leader Peter Dutton said — look at the bill we passed that made it okay for the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission to force people to be examined or give up documents! It applies retrospectively, and the Green’s David Shoebridge told Guardian Australia the only reason he could think of would be that a decade’s worth of secret squirrel stuff had been found unlawful. This comes as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Dutton visit the Melbourne Holocaust Museum today as a bipartisan show of support for Jewish Australians experiencing anti-Semitism, The Australian ($) reports.

Meanwhile, the fallout continues from the hastily agreed to amendments for stateless offenders who have served their sentence. The SMH ($) reports that refugees without any convictions will have to wear tracking devices and obey a curfew — some have been living in the community for more than a year, one lawyer said. Guardian Australia reports that the government considered releasing the Rohingyan man known as NZYQ to avoid creating the legal precedent that kicked off this whole saga and led to the release of 93 others. We could use Migration Act powers to give him a visa, an email from a Home Affairs official seemed to indicate, to quell “litigation risk”. The email, which is heavily redacted, also confirms that we approached Five Eyes countries (NZ, Canada, the UK the US) to ask if they’d take him. They said it was impossible.

MONEY IS POWER

Endeavour Energy in NSW, Queensland’s Ergon and Victoria’s Citipower are among the big electricity providers that made $2 billion in super profits in a year, Guardian Australia reports. That’s somewhere between $80 and $400 out of your pocket, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis’ Simon Orme found (he’s former NSW Treasury, the paper notes). Turning the light on was already 4.2% more expensive last quarter, but it’s a fraction of the 18.6% it would’ve been without government kickbacks. It comes as Climate Minister Chris Bowen says countries such as India and China should pay their way for climate damage, though he didn’t name them. The big polluters were among countries considered “poor or developing” in 1992, as the AFR ($) reports, which exempted them from paying the same as others into the loss-and-damage fund. The world has changed a lot since then, Bowen says, and we need a new fund.

Speaking of the driving causes of climate change — service contractors will be exempt from Labor’s new workplace laws under a deal Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke struck with an industry body for Fortescue, Woodside, ExxonMobil and Chevron. It means Fair Work can’t make labour hire pay orders if a business is providing a service to its client — only when it’s providing workers, The Australian ($) explains. It’s the third time savvy Burke has found a way forward, after finding a middle ground with both gig platforms and the hospitality body. That’s bad news for groups representing BHP and Qantas, however, that want to torpedo the bill altogether.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Säg hej. A small concept that can save the world from loneliness. That’s according to a city in Sweden where there are just three precious hours of sunlight a day during these chilly winter months in the northern hemisphere, The Guardian reports. Forget everything you know about stranger danger, the local government urged locals, and say hello to each other on the street. It’s to provide a balm for the chilling social isolation winter brings, but it’s an idea with international appeal in a post-lockdown era where many people are still struggling with feelings of loneliness. There are a lot of reasons — among them that working from home gave us greater flexibility but fewer casual connections, and social distancing made us take a step back physically and mentally from our fellow person.

Want to give it a go? I’ve found the best time to say hello is before 8am. When you get your bum out that door for a walk in the morning, the hope and promise of the day seem to create a sense of connection between you and your fellow pavement pounders — even if it is a shared smugness for your spritely starts. I’m not saying it’s easy to say hi — but one can start with eye contact and a smile, or even a small head tilt, as a sort of friendliness gateway drug. People almost always say hello back, whether it’s from pure cheeriness or from sheer shock that some random stranger said hello. It does makes you feel a little happier, Swede Kallis Luleå has found so far. Plus former refugee Seyed Mohsen Hashemi added: “One hej can change a day for somebody.”

Sending you a hug today. And if you feel like it, say hi to me — eelsworthy@crikey.com.au

SAY WHAT?

Well, Scott Morrison didn’t go away during the time when he was needed — that was over a period of COVID.

Peter Dutton

Aside from the fact Morrison made international headlines for a holiday in Hawaii while Australia burned through its worst bushfire season, he also hit the headlines for visiting several quaint UK towns to trace his family history while the rest of Australia was forbidden from leaving the country.

CRIKEY RECAP

Who is Helen Toner? Meet the 30-something Australian OpenAI board member who voted out Sam Altman

CAM WILSON

“After finishing her VCE, Toner achieved the top possible university admission score of 99.95 and was recognised with a scholarship to the University of Melbourne. One activity she was involved in during her time at university was United Nations Youth Australia (UNYA). A fellow participant remembers Toner as being ‘nice, sweet and smart’.

“Another described her to Crikey as highly intelligent and ambitious — and very aware of it: ‘Anyone who was at UNYA is de facto ambitious. She knew quite early she was headed for the big leagues’. It was during her time there that Toner was introduced to effective altruism, a 21st-century philosophical movement that became influential (and increasingly controversial) in tech circles …”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Hamas ‘approaching Gaza truce agreement’ with Israel, says leader Haniyeh (Al Jazeera)

N Korea claims to launch spy satellite, says S Korea (BBC)

Canada’s inflation rate cools to 3.1% but the cost of living keeps going up (CBC)

OpenAI investors considering suing the board after CEO’s abrupt firing (Reuters)

The jet set: 200 celebrities’ aircraft have flown for combined total of 11 years since 2022 (The Guardian)

Lost interview reveals Banksy’s real name [Robbie] (news.com.au)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Albanese position on China discussion becoming untenable — Greg Sheridan (The Australian) ($): “There are only two possibilities on the Albanese/Xi encounter. Either the PM did not raise the naval issue with Xi, in which case the much ballyhooed new dialogue with Beijing is all but worthless, as we are apparently not allowed to raise issues where the Chinese military attacks our personnel. Alternatively, Albanese did raise the naval incident with Xi, but is so scared of the Chinese president’s possible reaction that he won’t say so publicly. If that is the case, the PM is extending a deference to Xi far beyond that extended to the pope, the late queen of England or indeed the US president. Even where a discussion is broadly not for reporting, it is perfectly in order to list the things you raised with them even if, for the sake of confidentiality, you don’t detail how they replied.

“Albanese had already listed numerous things he and Xi did discuss in their informal but allegedly extended conversations at APEC. The Albanese government has taken to making up non-existent and preposterous protocol rules — we don’t say what we raised with foreign leaders, we don’t talk about domestic matters overseas, we don’t mention National Security Committee meetings of cabinet, no multiple-part questions at press conferences. Similarly it is simultaneously disgraceful and, because so tawdry and obvious, politically ineffective that Canberra kept the Chinese naval incident secret until just after Albanese had finished his last APEC press conference. This is just about as cynical as you can get in manipulating information.”

The Kennedys still personify the thrill and chill of America — Nick Bryant (The SMH) ($) : “Despite a long history of controversial views — or perhaps because of them — one poll suggested he would get 22% of the vote in a three-way match-up with Biden and Donald Trump, an unusually strong showing for an independent candidate. As Robert Kennedy Jr’s popularity reminds us, the fringe has now gone mainstream. Posthumously, JFK’s son, John F Kennedy Jr, who was killed in a plane crash in 1999, has also been dragooned into political combat. One of the wackier theories promoted by QAnon supporters is that John Jr faked his own death, and intended to dramatically reappear so that he could become Donald Trump’s running mate in next year’s election.

“Two years ago, on the 58th anniversary of JFK’s assassination, QAnon diehards even gathered on the famed grassy knoll in Dallas where the president was shot dead on November 22, 1963, fully expecting John Jr to reappear. Some even believe that John Jr is ‘Q’ himself. An irony is that, on the day of his death, President Kennedy intended to explore some of these themes during a speech at the Dallas Trade Mart, where his motorcade was heading. Railing against ‘ignorance and misinformation”, his prepared text warned of ‘voices preaching doctrines wholly unrelated to reality’, and of a worrying rise in anti-government sentiment among conspiracy theorists.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)

• Former senator Amanda Stoker, former Queensland premier Campbell Newman, lawyer Dan Ryan and pollster Graham Young will talk about the report on the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship at the Australian Institute for Progress.

Whadjuk Noongar Country (also known as Perth)

• WA Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson will speak about the state health outlook at the Hyatt Regency Perth.