Dutton drops the nuclear bomb

PETER PANS BUDGET

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says “any sensible government must consider small ­modular nuclear as part of the ­energy mix”, even though nuclear power is banned in every state and territory, small nuclear power plants create long-living radioactive waste, and we are quite literally one of the sunniest and windiest countries on earth with enough renewable energy to power resources to power our country 500 times over. The nuclear argument gets dusted off and wheeled out every five years or so, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said last year, and “we have this economic analysis of whether nuclear power stacks up and every time it’s rejected”, as the AFR ($) reported.

Also in his budget reply, Dutton said the Coalition would wave through “the government’s $3.5 billion expansion of Medicare bulk-billing, $2.7 billion Commonwealth rent assistance boost, $11.3 billion wage rise for aged-care workers, cheaper medicines, and higher welfare payments for over-55s and single parents”, as The Australian ($) lists, and will probably support the $2.4 billion petroleum resource rent tax hike, which Crikey explains is mere peanuts. He also said we should raise the income threshold for JobSeeker — about 75% of recipients don’t work, and he thinks letting people earn more before their payment decreases might empower more of them to work. Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and all that. Dutton disagrees with the JobSeeker rise of $40 a fortnight, but Labor doesn’t need the Coalition to pass that anyway — just the votes of the Greens and crossbench, as Guardian Australia reports.

FROM RICHES TO RICHES

If you earn $100,000, you’re going to be $172 worse off compared with 2019 by the stage three tax cuts, the SMH ($) reports, because of bracket creep. That’s according to ANU’s Centre for Social Research and Methods, which found the bottom 20% of households will be $390 better off in 2024-25, those earning between $40,000 and $75,000 will be $30 better off, and the top 20% will be $3580 (!) better off. But everyone is going to be better off this year, it found, because of the combination of the stage three cuts and this week’s welfare measures in the budget. Still, the AFR ($) adds, the average amount of tax paid by Australians will hit a record $16,880 this year even discounting for inflation.

One guy who’s definitely going to be better off is 2GB’s Ray Hadley, who is reportedly about to sign a $9 million deal with Nine Radio to stay on the airwaves until 2026, The Australian ($) reports. Hadley was also in the news overnight for slamming a couple who told ABC they rely on Centrelink payments and a job at a service station to survive, as The Daily Mail reports. One of the pair is a carer for their daughter who has autism. Speaking of big bucks — one of the world’s biggest defence contractors tried to bill the Australian government $54,875 for Christmas cards and decorations, Guardian Australia reports, as well as $1470 for gym memberships. All were thankfully rebuffed. The claims were revealed in an Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) report looking into the frigates being built for the navy in Adelaide.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

A report that said we should scrap a law that lets us keep convicted terrorists in detention after they finish their sentence has finally been made public, the ABC reports. But it was too late for Abdul Nacer Benbrika, the first to be detained after his sentence was up and who lost a High Court challenge to the validity of the law. So what are these tools? They’re known as “VERA-2R” and “Radar”, and they’re supposed to measure the threat of recidivism in terrorist activity. The former has been used 14 times. In 2020, ANU academic Emily Corner wrote a scathing report that cast doubt on whether the tools even work, and handed it to the Department of Home Affairs, but the department repeatedly dug its heels in about releasing the report. Until now. Greens Senator David Shoebridge said it was “remarkable” any court had ever accepted the VERA-2R as evidence.

To WA now and Premier Mark McGowan has called the behaviour of children in Banksia Hill prison, many of whom are Indigenous, a “form of terrorism”, The New Daily reports. It follows another riot at the detention centre, controlled when armed officers were sent in to contain the kids (aged 10-17). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner June Oscar doesn’t get it — these are children, she said, who have experienced “so much early life trauma”. McGowan reckons that reasoning is just an excuse. In 2017, a report showed the use of spit hoods, solitary confinement, alleged sexual assault, and soaring rates of self-harm and attempted suicide at Banksia, and there’s a class action with more than 500 kids and adults in it right now, Guardian Australia adds.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Melbourne woman Rebecca Millar was dutifully preparing her daughter’s lunch at the end of 2022 when the little girl asked if she could have more in her lunchbox. It turned out Millar’s daughter had noticed other kids in her class sitting idly by as the others chowed down at lunchtime, so she had been sharing her food around — even though it left her pretty hungry at the end of the school day. Millar knew she had to do something for these kids. She lives with a disability — rheumatoid arthritis — and said she knows firsthand how a smidge of help feels enormous to someone in need. So she started sending her daughter to school with an extra lunchbox of food — just “bits and pieces so they had more to share around with those kids who weren’t able to bring lunch”, Millar told SBS.

When a breakfast club at the school finished up in 2023, Millar realised some of these kids were going the entire day without eating a thing. “This was when everything escalated,” she said. So she launched a “no questions asked” food box, filled with corn chips, popcorn, Easy Mac, seaweed snacks, fruit, pizza crusts, fava beans, cheese, the works. There are even lovingly prepared, batch-cooked homemade meals in there. Now about seven kids pop by her house to pick up the food for their friends and families. Millar also keeps a box of period supplies in her bathroom, free for whichever kid dares to dart in there. But it’s getting harder — Millar said her grocery bill had jumped $120 a week in the past three months amid soaring inflation. If you want to donate to help stock her “no questions asked” food box, please click here.

Wishing you some of the kindness of Rebecca Millar, and a restful weekend.

SAY WHAT?

Of course [Russian President Vladimir Putin’s] smart. They want you to say he’s a stupid person. He’s not a stupid person and he’s very cunning. Putin made a bad mistake in my opinion. His mistake was going in. He would have never gone in if I was president.

Donald Trump

Trump said he would meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin and solve the war in Ukraine “in one day, 24 hours”, but he wouldn’t say who he thinks should prevail between the two nations. “Very fine people on both sides” again, Trump?

CRIKEY RECAP

Now it’s de-Joyced, Qantas should be returned to the people

TOM BALLARD

“So what we’re left with is a privatised essential service operating as a quasi-monopoly that can always be assured of being bailed out by the taxpayer when times are tough. But when things are going well, it makes sure to funnel away the rewards from the public and workers and into the gobs of the capitalist class. It’s a rort, and Joyce’s departure is as good a time as any to bring it to an end. If Qantas truly is the ‘national carrier’, then it should be re-nationalised.

“Under public ownership and exposed to greater democratic accountability, Qantas could rededicate itself to providing a crucial service to Australians, as opposed to blindly chasing profits at all costs. With the Australian people as its major shareholder, the airline could once again become a model employer …”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Pakistan top court orders immediate release of ex-PM Imran Khan (Al Jazeera)

Zelenskyy vows to give Russia an ‘unpleasant surprise’ in Ukrainian counteroffensive (euronews)

Türkiye’s elections: what are the key alliances promising? (Al Jazeera)

Migrant detentions at US-Mexico border hit record highs as Title 42 ends (Reuters)

Fox News sued for defamation by ex-government disinformation chief (The Guardian)

Quebec’s new Airbnb legislation could be a model for Canada — and help ease the housing crisis (CBC)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Why is everyone buying truckzillas that are too big for our streets?  — Julian O’Shea (the SMH) ($): “Part of the problem is the shape of the vehicles. While they might feel like they sit nice and high with good visibility, the boxy front grille (which primarily exist to make the vehicles look ‘tough’) actually creates huge blind spots. A news crew put this to the test. They lined up a group of kids in front of a Ford F-150 until they were visible from the driver’s seat. It wasn’t until the 11th child joined the row that a ponytail and the top of their head could be seen. These deadly blind spots have led to numerous tragedies where children have inadvertently been driven over in their own driveways.

“After decades of work in improving road safety in our country, there’s a real chance that these vehicles will undo a lot of this progress. They’re not designed for Australian streets, which are generally narrower and have more cyclist and pedestrian interactions than their natural habitat in America. Having just returned from a trip to the US and seen how common these vehicles are, I’m not surprised that pedestrian deaths in America are now at a 40-year-high — a public health crisis we should work to avoid. The square shape and huge mass of these suburban tanks means that when they are involved in an accident, it’s much more likely to be a deadly one. In fact, one study found kids are eight times more likely to die when hit by a SUV compared with a normal passenger car.

”The manufactured panic over Biden’s age — Charles M Blow (The New York Times) ($): “This brings me to the coverage of Biden’s age. It’s true that if he’s reelected, Biden would be the oldest president we’ve ever had. But he was already the oldest president the first time he was elected. What changed? I’d argue that the biggest change wasn’t the simple passage of time, but the decision of some Republican leaders to focus like a laser on Biden’s age as the factor weighing against him. In an April interview, the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley said it was unlikely Biden would ‘make it’ through a second term. In this year’s Republican response to the State of the Union address, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas noted that she’s half Biden’s age.

“Some observers contend that voting for Biden is essentially voting for Vice-President Kamala Harris to be president, because Biden may not last another term. For Republicans, that notion offers the added benefit of allowing them to campaign against the trifecta of their disdain — a liberal who’s a minority and a woman. Which brings us back to the web of influence: campaigns elevate an issue, pollsters and journalists ask whether the issue is having an effect on a race, stories are written about that effect and as a result of the coverage, the effect is often intensified. That is the chain of custody for a political attack, but far too often that connection and context isn’t made clear. It’s often presented as if these types of concerns just spring forth in voters’ minds and aren’t influenced by campaigns and news coverage.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)

• Victoria University of Wellington’s Jon Fraenkel will speak about Fiji’s 2022 election, FijiFirst’s defeat and what’s ahead, in a talk at the Hedley Bull Theatre 2, ANU.

• Myanmar’s National Unity Government’s Human Rights Minister HE Aung Myo Min will speak about human rights in Myanmar, in a talk at Lecture Theatre 1, ANU.