Bruce Lehrmann named as alleged rapist

SAY HIS NAME

Former Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann has been charged with two counts of rape in Toowoomba, Queensland, the ABC reports, separate from the infamous Parliament House allegation. (Lehrmann was accused of rape by former colleague Brittany Higgins but the case was abandoned out of fear for her health.) He was actually charged in December last year, but Queensland laws meant he had to remain anonymous. Those laws have since changed, as news.com.au reports, but there was the possibility it wouldn’t apply retroactively to him, and Lehrmann tried five times to ensure it didn’t. It did. His lawyers argued there was a serious “risk of harm” about being named, but Justice Peter Applegarth noted he had appeared in three TV interviews this year alone about the Higgins allegation (Seven’s Spotlight twice, when he said, “Let’s light some fires,” and Sky News Australia once, where he accused Higgins of a snowballing “white lie”). Applegarth said he hoped Seven had “paid him or the solicitor a lot of money … for the consequences it has had on this application, if nothing else”, as The Age ($) adds. Ice cold. Interestingly, Seven says it was one of the media companies that applied to the magistrates court to name him as soon as he was charged last year.

To another legal case now and Chen Zhou’s mother told The Australian ($) her son was a “very good boy” after he was charged with laundering proceeds of crime in the many millions. Chen was arrested with his partner Lu Jie, 28 — the pair appeared in court this week with several others, and police have restrained 14 properties worth a total of $50.4 million. Former immigration minister Gary Hardgrave, who appeared in several ads spruiking the Changjiang Currency Exchange as having “multiple layers of due diligence”, said he felt “shocked and duped” by the whole saga, as The Age ($) reports (he’s not accused of any wrongdoing though).

G-G GIG FOR LINDA BURNEY?

Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney could be our next governor-general in eight months when David Hurley’s tenure ends, Sky News Australia reports. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will put together a shortlist to give to King Charles (queue this anti-monarchist’s eye roll) but former speaker Bronwyn Bishop says she thinks Burney isn’t “well” enough for the job, something former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce echoed. Burney did have heart surgery a few years back, but this Worm writer would point out that hardly makes her a poor fit for the job.

To another female politician copping it now — and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan, who was the subject of a dismal nude-but-pixelated cartoon by the Herald Sun’s Mark Knight, received a call of support from Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. The latter told Guardian Australia she recalled a similar nude cartoon of her in 2015, as the Brisbane Times reported on at the time, calling it “demeaning to women”. To say the least. Knight also made international headlines when he drew tennis superstar Serena Williams throwing a tantrum during the US Open, which some compared to racist imagery from the past. The New York Times ($) noted at the time that it had tried to interview Knight but a spokeswoman for the Herald Sun said he was too busy.

CONFLICT/RESOLUTION

“Trust but verify” what China says and does, US President Joe Biden said ahead of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s trip to Beijing — the first Aussie prime minister to visit there since then-PM Malcolm Turnbull’s jaunt in 2016, The Australian ($) reports. Sky News Australia host Peta Credlin, who evidently may be able to see into the future, said Albanese’s trip may be “empty posturing” because he probably won’t ask about Uyghurs, Hong Kong freedoms or Taiwan. Let’s wait and see, shall we? Back in the US a moment, and Biden added that the “United States’ defence commitment to the Philippines is iron-clad” after Philippine vessels were targeted this week by the Chinese coastguard, as Reuters reports. We are committed to security in the Pacific, Biden said he told Chinese President Xi Jinping as the Brisbane Times ($) reports, because the US is a Pacific nation too.

Meanwhile, former Richmond player Bachar Houli is in hot water for sharing a pro-Palestine video called A Genocide is Occurring in Palestine that was originally posted by rugby star Sonny Bill Williams. The Herald Sun says the Richmond club called Houli and asked him to delete it, but he said no — then AFL commissioner Paul Bassat called him, and Jewish community member Paul Naphtali texted him. By Sunday evening, Houli had deleted it, and posted a statement saying he does not condone the killing of “any innocent people”. It comes as Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi slammed Labor and the Coalition for not condemning Israel’s “collective punishment and war crimes” against Palestinians, news.com.au reports. “Denying 2.3 million people of food, water, electricity, fuel is not defending yourself,” she said. SBS says our Arab and Muslim communities are similarly frustrated, with the Arab Council Australia boss Randa Kattan saying there’d been “no recognition of the massacres” of Palestinians. More than 3% of Australia’s population — roughly 815,000 people — are Muslim, the broadcaster notes.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

An Italian woman from south-western Lombardy had quite enough of her two 40-something bamboccioni mooching around the home. That’s an Italian word for “big babies” — it was coined by then-economy minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa in 2007 to refer to the kids who grow up but refuse to fly the coop. And this Pavia mamma had tried everything — initially insinuating to her sons that it might be time to move out, then asking them directly to consider moving out, then telling them it’s time to heave-ho, and finally outright ordering them out of her maledetta house! “But neither of them wanted to know,” she told the local rag La Provincia Pavese.

Enough is enough, the 75-year-old decided. I need my space! So she took her two grown boys to court. Judge Simona Caterbi, the woman implored, these sons of mine don’t even help around the home. I’m doing all the cooking, and all the cleaning, and I’m covering all of the household expenses. They don’t lift a finger. Caterbi was like, girl, I get it. Sure, there’s an argument to be made from the boys that parents have an obligation to provide for their kids, she said, but not when the kids are in their 40s! Bamboccioni indeed! She pounded her gavel — men, you have until December 18 to pack your bags and go — consider this an eviction notice. Now that’s a frosty Christmas table…

Hoping you take s stand today, and have a restful weekend.

SAY WHAT?

It’s all downhill from here, my darling.

Anthony Albanese

The PM told his partner Jodie Haydon the bar had been raised for date night after the pair dined with US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden at the White House.

CRIKEY RECAP

Australian spies are surveilling PornHub, Fortnite and Tinder

CAM WILSON

“Last month the government’s tender website, AusTender, published a contract between the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) and ShadowDragon Holdings, LLC. The contract runs for two years and is valued at $563,040.

“ShadowDragon Holdings is an American company that sells software collecting ‘open source intelligence software, unique datasets and training’ to organisations, including the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency as well as state police forces in New York and Michigan.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

At least 27 killed after Hurricane Otis slams into Mexico’s Acapulco (Al Jazeera)

Ukraine war: Russians likely targeted Khmelnytsky nuclear plant — Zelensky (BBC)

Before and after satellite images show destruction in Gaza (CNN)

Maine police search for army reservist suspected of shooting dead 18 people (Reuters)

Armenia’s Pashinyan hopes peace deal with Azerbaijan will be signed ‘in the coming months’ (euronews)

Sudanese paramilitary group says it has seized country’s second-largest city (The Guardian)

THE COMMENTARIAT

What happens to us doesn’t happen to white models. So I’m boycotting fashion week — Nyaluak Leth (The SMH) ($): “It routinely feels like the Australian modelling industry is only interested in Black models when it comes to ticking the diversity box on the runway, at a time when the international gaze is fixed on Australian fashion. In the immediate aftermath of Black Lives Matter, many models were busier than we’d ever been before. The fashion industry expected us to share our pain and trauma because it was trending, not because there was a genuine appetite for understanding and change. Soon after, though, it was business as usual and the work dried up.

“As a South Sudanese woman with nearly a decade of experience in the Australian fashion industry, I have witnessed and endured a litany of discrimination and racism. These indignities manifest in various forms, from being tagged by major brands on social media as another Black model, to hair stylists who actively avoid hair textures like mine, make-up artists who don’t carry darker foundation shades in their kits, and photographers who struggle with the technical nuances of lighting darker skin. Then there are the microaggressions and unconscious bias. The throwaway comments or insults disguised as jokes about our skin or the shapes of our bodies. In 2021, I modelled for the ‘A – Z’ campaign for a well-known beauty brand in Australia. Despite there being 26 letters in the alphabet, I was the only Black model used. And my face featured alongside the N letter.”

Selective outrage exposes ignorance, contempt for Israel — Claire Lehmann (The Australian) ($): “This was but a single episode in the Syrian civil war — the deadliest conflict seen this century. The war has claimed more than 200,000 lives and displaced more than 10 million people since it began over 10 years ago. The Action Group for Palestinians in Syria estimates 5,522 Palestinians have died in the conflict since 2011. For reasons not readily apparent, the pro-Palestinian movement in the West remained largely silent when it came to this tragedy. There were no solidarity marches in Sydney or Melbourne for Yarmouk. Despite the deliberate targeting of civilians with chemical weapons, there were no large-scale protests against Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

“Of course, selective outrage over human rights abuses is nothing new. Focusing on one tragedy over another is a perennial limitation of human nature. And what conflicts we do focus on can, at times, be hard to foretell. In 2017, the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar received little attention in the Western media. Today, the world’s attention is fixated on the Israel-Hamas war. Meanwhile, the civil war in Sudan deepens, and Armenians in Azerbaijan face a growing catastrophe. In the Middle East, the UN estimates 150,000 people have died so far in the Yemeni civil war, with a further 227,000 perishing from associated famine. Human rights groups claim one million Uyghurs are interned in Xinjiang’s reeducation camps. Many have reportedly faced torture and forced sterilisation. But none of these ongoing tragedies attracts significant solidarity movements in the West.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)

• Author Patch Kolan will talk about his new book, Dusklight Falling, at Better Read Than Dead bookshop.

Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)

• Author Chris Hammer will talk about his new book, The Seven, at Avid Reader bookshop.

Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)

• Assistant Minister for Treasury Andrew Leigh will speak about multinational tax in a speech to the Australia Institute’s Revenue Summit at Parliament House.