BoM’s billion-dollar IT spend

DOLLARS AND SENSE

It cost the Bureau of Meteorology nearly a billion dollars over four years to do a computer upgrade, the CEO told staff last year, before telling Senate estimates on Tuesday that he couldn’t reveal the project’s cost. Guardian Australia reports Andrew Johnson mentioned the cost of the aptly named Robust upgrade in an Australia Day awards video, calling it a “huge amount of money especially for a little agency like us”. Indeed. A spokesperson said neither staff nor Senate estimates had the final figure because of “commercial sensitivities”. Meanwhile, the typical household’s transport costs rose by about 13% in 2023, AAP via Guardian Australia reports. Cripes. It was due to high costs for new cars, high interest rates on loans, and higher insurance premiums, the Australian Automobile Association’s latest Transport Affordability Index found.

It comes as the ACT government apologised to former defence minister Linda Reynolds and paid her “substantial” damages over allegations from former director of public prosecutions Shane Drumgold that the senator engaged in “disturbing conduct,” The Australian ($) reports. The defamation suit was centred on a letter Drumgold wrote to ACT Chief Police Officer Neil Gaughan in 2022 about alleged political interference in former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann’s rape trial (Lehrmann denied the allegation and the charge was dropped out of fear for Brittany Higgins‘ health). The Oz claims Drumgold gave the letter to Guardian Australia, though this appears to be inaccurate; the latter’s story says reporter Christopher Knaus accessed it via freedom of information laws. The Australian also called the settlement “the fifth successful legal action” from Reynolds — she settled with journalist Aaron Patrick and his publisher HarperCollins over book claims last April, but I can’t think of any others. Reynolds is suing Brittany Higgins and her partner David Sharaz, but there’s been no win there as of yet, as The West ($) says. Reynolds did, however, apologise for calling Higgins a “lying cow” and paid her legal costs.

WATCH AND LEARN

ASIO boss Mike Burgess says the AFP is conducting a review into the arrest of a 13-year-old boy on two terror charges after a court found undercover cops encouraged him “towards racial hatred, distrust of police and violent extremism, encouraging the child’s fixation on ISIS”. His parents originally approached Victoria Police for help with his “fixation”, as Guardian Australia put it, but then operatives started talking to the kid online, teaching him new terminology, and allowing him to talk about “his fantasy world”, the magistrate said. Burgess told the paper it was “incredibly difficult” dealing with child suspects and insisted ASIO and the AFP “do not radicalise people”. The child was given a permanent stay on the charges.

It comes as China was revealed as the country behind ASIO’s so-called A-Team, the SMH reports, specifically a division of China’s Ministry of State Security. Burgess wouldn’t be pressed to reveal the ex-politician he accused of selling out Australia after Opposition Leader Peter Dutton claimed it was a NSW Labor figure, but said there were foreign spy operations targeting all parties and added via the ABC that the pollie was in government at the time. Meanwhile, the Herald Sun reports a former counter-terrorism employee at Victoria Police named Cristal Micallef looked at the family violence and criminal history records of more than a dozen targets — including school peers and her extended family. She got a two-year good behaviour bond, but one anonymous victim told the paper the “significant consequences” affected people and children’s lives. Western Victoria MP Jacinta Ermacora said the police database — called LEAP — doesn’t send an alert when unauthorised material is accessed.

MEDIA GOSS

Is our news about to disappear from Facebook and Instagram again? Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones will begin efforts to get Meta to pay media organisations for content this week per our News Media Bargaining Code, but AFR reports the social media giant already said it won’t renew deals (Google, on the other hand, agreed to). “Meta’s decision could cost local publishers about $70 million a year and end dozens of jobs once existing contracts expire this year,” the paper notes. Chilling. News Corp boss Michael Miller agreed, The Australian ($) says, urging the Albanese government to step in and protect the deals worth more than $250 million a year to Australian news publishers. So why is Meta bailing? It says people don’t read news on Facebook, but of course, the tech giant also doesn’t want more copycat countries to demand compensation for content — like Canada.

Meanwhile, the SMH ($) notes The Australian has lost several staff lately, including arts correspondent Matthew Westwood who’d worked there since 1990. Neither the paper nor Westwood would say why. Cricket writer Peter Lalor also left but received more of a “glowing tribute”. The paper also notes News Corp chair Lachlan Murdoch was in Las Vegas for the NRL’s opening “Sin City” games, alongside chief executive Robert Thomson, Foxtel boss Patrick Delany, and “Murdoch’s fellow nepo billionaire” James Packer. Lol. Finally, Brisbane Broncos player Ezra Mam made a “formal complaint” about an alleged racial comment by Roosters player Spencer Leniu during the Vegas game, ABC reports, which was to be dealt with after the final whistle. Mam is of Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander descent. Leniu said it was “fun and games on the field”.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Like any bored teenager in an age before smartphones, Guardian Australia’s Rosamund Brennan spent many Saturdays wandering moodily around the Perth shopping centre Carillon City in the noughties. She’d window-shop under the fluorescent lights, eat cheap sushi in its ’80s foodcourt, and generally mooch around as busy shoppers toting bags and toddlers bustled by. Walking down the escalator into the food court now, she sees a sea of inky black water flooding the floor, with lush green water-dwelling foliage growing in what she describes as a “sprawling brackish wetland”. People often gasp, Annika Kristensen said — she’s the visual arts curator at Perth Festival who commissioned artist Linda Tegg to re-wild the shopping centre’s ground floor, in fitting with the Perth Festival’s theme — ngaangk, or “sun”.

In a way, the two environments couldn’t be more dichotomous — one a gleaming, artificially lit representation of mass consumerism, the other the raw earthy landscape where all living things gain sustenance. And that’s the central idea — Noongar people, the Traditional Owners of Perth, once used the land as a place of nourishment (with a much lighter footprint than us, one might note) and Tegg worked with Balladong Whadjuk woman and medicinal plant expert Vivienne Hansen to use plants that would’ve grown in the area before the British arrived, like kondil (she-oak, which resembles pine needles) and taaruk (old man’s beard, a wispy climbing plant). Eventually, Andrew Forrest’s Fiveight is going to do a multimillion-dollar redevelopment of the shopping centre and probably bulldoze the whole thing. But for now, this artistic wetland shows how the sun can always find its way back in, Kristensen says.

Hoping you feel the grass beneath your toes today.

SAY WHAT?

If you live in Frankston and you’ve got a problem with Victorian women being assaulted by foreign criminals, vote against Labor. If you do not want to see Australian women being assaulted by foreign criminals, vote against Labor. Send Labor a message.

Sussan Ley

The deputy Liberal leader insists she has no regrets about a tweet that appeared to reference a later-retracted assault charge about a man released from indefinite detention. The backlash was swift, with double the amount of comments to likes, commonly known as getting ratioed. Labor won Dunkley’s seat on the weekend anyway.

CRIKEY RECAP

Aldi has stopped growing, right when we need it most

JASON MURPHY

“If Aldi’s German HQ calls for an end to expansion and a cap on capital spending, and decides to spend several years reaping fat profits from its ultra-popular Australian operation, that is its call to make. It is a private business and it need not justify itself to anyone.

“Nevertheless, the lack of competitive zeal in a time when Woolworths and Coles are cranking up margins is disappointing for those who hoped Aldi would scare the living daylights out of our big two. Over the six months to June 30 last year, Aldi sales rose by a reported 10%. That is a combination of inflation and increased sales. Not a bad result when you’re opening hardly any new stores.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Israeli air raid on Rafah kills 14 Palestinians, many of them children (Al Jazeera)

Eurovision 2024: Israel agrees to October Rain lyrics change (BBC)

Shehbaz Sharif elected as prime minister of Pakistan (The Guardian)

Israel said to boycott Cairo ceasefire talks over hostage list (Reuters)

Yemen’s Houthis say they will continue sinking British ships (Reuters)

Russia likely suffered at least 355,000 casualties in Ukraine war — UK MoD (euronews)

Majority of Biden’s 2020 voters now say he’s too old to be effective (The New York Times) ($)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Shocked? Spy revelation no surprise to those paying attention — Nick McKenzie (The SMH): “Seasoned politicians and journalists, or indeed anyone who can use Google, should be well aware of the plethora of open-source cases involving former Australian political figures being openly cultivated by Chinese government agents of influence. This includes those tempted by the lure of donations and post-political careers, or who have taken tasty pay cheques from companies owned by figures linked closely to the Chinese state for seemingly piddly tasks. Indeed, there were so many suspects that many journalists didn’t know who to start calling when trying to get an ex-politician to identify themselves as the unnamed traitor that Joe Hockey and Peter Dutton believed should have been outed.

“Burgess’ unnamed politician isn’t a shocking aberration needing to be named and shamed. It is merely a historical case study to illustrate just how close the MSS has at times got to reshaping parts of our democracy thanks to the greed, ego, stupidity or naivety of a small but still troubling number of ex-political figures. Alex Turnbull, the son of former PM Malcolm, made this point perfectly (although perhaps without realising it) when he proffered that he may have been targeted by this unnamed politician’s plotting. Sorry Alex. It wasn’t you. But the fact that, for a few days, many thought it could have been (Turnbull claimed he was approached by possible Chinese spies), highlights the way in which agents of the MSS and its sister entity, the United Front Work Department, work.”

Does Dunkley tell Peter Dutton he should give more attention to the former Liberal heartland? — Michelle Grattan (The Conversation): “[A convincing economic plan], it might be said, requires content and salesmanship. The Liberals are presently lacking in both. Expectations are now being raised about Peter Dutton’s budget reply — will it contain some serious and major policy? Whether policy comes then, or around then, the opposition surely cannot delay much longer telling people what it would do in some key areas. Anthony Albanese’s small target approach worked when the Coalition and especially its PM were seriously on the nose. But it’s quite likely the public will still be relatively patient towards the Albanese government next year.

“Dutton intends soon to announce a reshuffle of his frontbench, filling the vacancies of shadow assistant treasurer and shadow cabinet secretary (left by the departures of Stuart Robert and Marise Payne), and making some other minor changes. The reshuffle is long overdue. But it will not address core problems Dutton has with his weak frontbench. His shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor is not up to the job when that job is to match and better Treasurer Jim Chalmers. And Dutton’s deputy, Sussan Ley, has become shrill and displays poor judgement, as shown by her inflammatory social media post last week saying, ‘If you do not want to see Australian women being assaulted by foreign criminals, vote against Labor’. But both Taylor and Ley are effectively locked into their positions, and Dutton is the loser.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)

• Philippines President Ferdinand R Marcos Jr will speak to the Lowy Institute on the sidelines of the ASEAN–Australia Special Summit.

Eora Nation Country (also known as Sydney)

• The Social Policy Group’s Carla Wilshire will talk about her new book, Time to Reboot: Feminism in the Algorithm Age, at Better Read Than Dead bookshop.

Yuggera and Turrbal Country (also known as Brisbane)

• Writer Minney Richani will speak about her new book, Amongst The Grapevines, at Avid Reader bookshop.