Misbehaving MPs could have pay docked

JUDGMENT DAY

Badly behaved politicians should lose up to 5% of their salary, according to a draft document from a cross-party parliamentary group that Nine newspapers got hold of. It proposed a new body that would investigate allegations and dole out punishments including docking their pay or suspending them. Alcohol itself wouldn’t be a breach of the code, but the document says it couldn’t be used as an excuse. However — a majority of lower and upper house pollies would need to greenlight the standards committee, the paper notes, and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said in February the government knows it’ll be a battle. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission is slated to start in October, three years after the Kate Jenkins report into Parliament’s toxic workplace.

Meanwhile Justice Michael Lee will reconvene former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation trial today to hear new evidence from former Seven producer Taylor Auerbach, The Australian ($) says. Quick background per the SMH if you zoned out of the news across the long weekend: On Sunday, Network Ten filed an application to call new evidence in Lehrmann’s suit against it and Lisa Wilkinson over their interview with Brittany Higgins. Lee will decide today whether Ten can reopen its case, which would likely see lawyers call Auerbach (he was part of the team that secured an interview with Lehrmann for Seven). The Oz’s Stephen Rice reckons Auerbach’s affidavit might also put Lehrmann “back in the witness box” and could even lead to contempt allegations against him. But the paper says the verdict is still listed for Thursday right now.

ON DE FENCE

The UK and US could send nuclear waste to Australia under our AUKUS deal, the Australian Conservation Foundation’s Dave Sweeney told a parliamentary inquiry. It’s exploring Labor’s draft Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety Bill, as Guardian Australia reports, which proposed facilities that could store or dispose of radioactive waste from AUKUS submarines — defined as either an Australian or a UK/US one, the Defence Department’s domestic nuclear policy branch assistant director general Kim Moy confirmed. Basically, we’d be in prime position to become a poison portal, Sweeney claimed, though Defence Minister Richard Marles has before vowed it won’t happen. In any case, one expert told the inquiry we need a plan to store the nuclear waste from the subs for as long as 100,000 years — and so far, no-one in AUKUS has quite worked it out.

Meanwhile Perth is “the country’s hottest property market” thanks to our aforementioned $368 billion friendship bracelet with our allies, the AFR reports, because migrants are predicting defence contracts will make rent surge, particularly near Rockingham and the Garden Island naval base. The government will tip $8 billion into the HMAS Stirling so it can store the subs, forecast to create 3,000 jobs. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in Ipswich today to spruik the biggest defence deal in Australian history, The Courier-Mail reports — the creation of 100 high-tech armoured vehicles, known as “Boxer vehicles“, for Germany under a $1 billion contract. Export deals are good for us, Albo says, because it ensures we can afford equipment and platforms for our own soldiers, sailors and aircrew.

HEALTH OF A NATION

Disability advocates were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements during consultations about the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), the SMH reports, something that shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash says is happening at a “disturbing” frequency under Labor. (Is it? The paper notes Senator Jacqui Lambie claimed in 2022 that Scott Morrison threatened her with jail over a New Zealand asylum seeker deal, while banks signed NDAs about a levy in 2018 and gambling groups did so in 2017). Independent David Pocock says generally we see better governance and community engagement with open consultation, while Greens disability spokesman Jordon Steele-John said disability advocates should be able to speak to each other about draft legislation.

Meanwhile ABC reports we’re about to get an autism strategy for 200,000 Australians with the diagnosis — the government is seeking consultation on a “coordinated, national approach” on social inclusion; economic inclusion; diagnosis, services, and support; and health and mental health. We’ll probably be taking cues from SA, which appointed the country’s first assistant minister for autism in Emily Bourke. Meanwhile more than half the Australian population will pay more for health insurance from yesterday, Sky News Australia reports, after Health Minister Mark Butler confirmed the industry average would rise by 3.03% (it’s a pretty rough guide: HBF jumped 3.95%, Bupa up 3.61% and Medibank is up 3.31%). Still, he says, this year’s annual increase was way below the annual rise in wages and inflation.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

A woman was driving along a road in northwest England last Wednesday when she suddenly slammed on the brake. Was that a hedgehog, she wondered, pulling over to take a closer look. Poor love, she thought, as she approached the little thing. It was more like a hoglet than a full-grown one, and she figured she couldn’t just leave it there. So she pulled a cardboard box from her boot and carefully slid it inside. When she returned home, she added a small serving of cat food before placing the box in a warm, dark place for the night. When she peeked inside in the morning, she noticed it had remained in the same spot in the corner of the box. Oh little hoglet, she prayed, please be okay.

Holding the box at the desk of the Lower Moss Wood Nature Reserve and Wildlife Hospital in Cheshire on Thursday morning, she relayed the story to the surprised staff. The vet, Janet Kotze, told The Independent that she dashed out, looked inside the box, and then turned to the worried woman to deliver the difficult news. That’s a pom-pom from the top of a beanie, Kotze told her. Oh my goodness, replied the woman, described as in her sixties or seventies. Although it was fairly obvious, the lady “did everything so well”, the vet continued, and quite clearly had “a heart of gold”. The vet’s staff posted about it on social media, saying the humorously sweet saga showed that “kindness knows no bounds, even when it’s to a faux furry friend”. Oh her goodness indeed.

Hoping you feel as cared for as that pom-pom today.

SAY WHAT?

Mate, you are so full of it. That is absolutely ridiculous. You are absolutely making this up. No-one believes Labor’s tough on borders.

Liberal Senator Hollie Hughes

Labor’s asylum policy is almost identical to the Coalition’s — there is bipartisan support for Operation Sovereign Borders which sees boat turnbacks, offshore detention, and a guarantee no-one who came here by boat since 2013 will live here.

CRIKEY RECAP

Australia deserves a better left populist than Max Chandler-Mather

BENJAMIN CLARK

“But his communications nous unfortunately overcompensates for glaring patchiness and unsophistication on policy matters, particularly so in his chosen portfolio of housing. And when challenged, he doubles down on his worst impulses.

“This threatens to undermine his positive contributions, raising the salience of housing issues only to divert the righteous rage of young renters into dead ends. Take his performance on the ABC’s Q+A this week. Chandler–Mather stated categorically that the planning system has almost no impact on housing affordability.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Israeli Parliament passes law paving the way for Al Jazeera closure (Al Jazeera)

Turkish local elections: opposition stuns Erdogan with historic victory (BBC)

Israeli troops end Al-Shifa hospital raid, leaving behind bodies and trail of destruction
(CNN)

‘Havana syndrome’ linked to Russian unit, media investigation suggests (The Guardian)

[Canada’s] federal government commits to creation of national school food program (CBC)

Iran alerted Russia to security threat before Moscow attack (Reuters)

Germany legalises limited amounts of marijuana (euronews)

The church of Trump: how he’s infusing Christianity into his movement (The New York Times) ($)

Google pledges to destroy browsing data to settle ‘incognito’ lawsuit (The Wall Street Journal) ($)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Labor move beyond chaos to be a dysfunctional rabble — Michaelia Cash (The West Australian) ($): “The government’s urgent migration legislation introduced without notice last Tuesday shows the complete and utter mess Labor has created in the immigration portfolio. The Coalition voted for the rushed and unexamined legislation to be sent to a Senate committee inquiry so the Parliament can be sure what exactly this bill will achieve. The rushed and botched way this government is going about doing its job in immigration risks unintended consequences. The greatest fear is that everything Labor is doing risks the unintended consequence of putting people back on boats. That is the last thing any Australian should want to see. Remarkably, Labor has not learnt from its past mistakes on border protection and immigration detention and continues to deliver chaos.

“The Coalition wants to do everything we can to support this Labor government to do the job that it is failing to do in keeping Australians safe. Both the Department of Home Affairs and subsequently the hapless Minister for Home Affairs Clare O’Neil were not able to explain why this legislation needed to be rushed through the Parliament. The total lack of transparency was breathtaking. This Labor government just can’t get anything right when it comes to immigration detention. Some extremely alarming evidence was subsequently given to the special Senate inquiry late last week. The Department of Home Affairs admitted that 73 of the 152 people the Albanese government released from immigration detention are not wearing ankle bracelets.”

Deliberate twisting of facts for political gain is a scourge on modern media — Chris Mitchell (The Australian) ($): “Journalism’s Orwellian future is already here: some reporters, governments and big tech companies deliberately use fact checking and anti-disinformation laws to enforce false narratives. In Australia, the ABC is the worst example, but globally the trend follows the financial success that mainstream media organisations such as The New York Times have had in building audiences who want to read journalism that damages former US president Donald Trump. Parts of the US media — the NYT, Washington Post, MSNBC — are effectively working hand-in-hand with Democrats’ state legal authorities to try to use the law to destroy Trump’s chances at the November presidential election. It’s a tweak of the intelligence tactics the media used to pump up the Russiagate hoax against Trump’s presidency.

“Polling suggests the US public is seeing through these efforts to use the courts and journalism rather than the ballot box to defeat Trump. For those not on social media platform X, it was fascinating to see many senior Australian journalists react to dishonest efforts to pretend Trump on March 18 had threatened ‘blood on the streets’ if he did not win the November election. Anyone who checked Trump’s speech would know he was talking about the future of the US car industry as he addressed a March 18 rally in Dayton, Ohio … An ABC apology to entrepreneur Dick Smith this week proved its fact check unit is just as ready as US media to twist its reporting to hurt conservative political causes.”

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WHAT’S ON TODAY

Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)

• Net Zero Economy Authority’s chair Greg Combet will speak to the National Press Club.