Coalition polling

BUNCH OF BANKERS

Members across the political, legal and financial sectors have slammed revelations over AMP and Commonwealth Bank (CBA) at the banking royal commission, with the once-unconcerned Treasurer Scott Morrison now floating potential jail time for financial planners found to have ripped off clients or misled the corporate regulator.

The Australian ($) reports how senior CBA executives admitted the bank would be a “gold medalist” in terms of charging fees for no service and had internal systems “so hopeless CBA had no idea what was going on in its business”. During the grilling, commissioner Kenneth Hayne slammed the executives for delivering non-answers.

Finally, former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Allan Fels has told The Sydney Morning Herald that, following both CBA’s and AMP’s revelations, the royal commission should consider separating the banks from their financial planning businesses entirely.

DOLE DEATH, TWO YEARS ON

The federal government’s “Work For The Dole” program has been slammed by lawyers, unions, and family members of a man killed on a Queensland site two years ago today.

BuzzFeed reports that the federal government still refuses to release a report into the death of 18-year-old Joshua Park-Fing, who was forced into working in unsafe conditions on a Queensland worksite two years ago. The ABC also reports that lawyers representing several other jobseekers injured on placement have called the program a “punitive” sham that needs to be shut down.

PILOT LAUDED

An American pilot has been lauded for her calm and deliberate response to an engine explosion that left one passenger dead after being partially sucked through a window opening.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports audio from the tragic Southwest Airlines flight to Dallas from New York reveals that pilot Tammie Jo Shults informed air traffic controllers of the incident in real time, safely landed the plane at Philadelphia Airport despite the window blow-out, and organised for medics to meet them as they landed.

THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

It makes you wonder if the $500m earmarked for renovating the Australian War Memorial would not be more wisely spent on a world class national Indigenous museum that honours a past unparalleled in human history? Surely, when we have the oldest continuous civilisation on Earth, is not such a major institution central to our understanding of ourselves as a people? Is it not necessary, and fundamental to us as a nation?

Richard Flanagan

The Australian author delivers an impassioned National Press Club speech and, among topics ranging from politics to eastearn European history to ANZAC Day racism, lists a handful of ideas that, all things considered, would be the very least we could do to recognise Indigenous Australia (see also: an advisory body to parliament).

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CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

AMP treated the corporate regulator with contempt — understandablyBernard Keane and Glenn Dyer

“In the government’s failed campaign against a royal commission, [Scott] Morrison and other ministers insisted that it was unnecessary because the Australian Securities and Investments Commission had the powers of a standing royal commission ‘and more’. We’ve barely got a couple of months into the hearings and a recommendation to expand ASIC’s powers is already being mooted — specifically, to enable ASIC to direct companies about how to compensate their victims when they pull stunts like AMP and the big four banks have.”

Is Channel Seven the right place for Andrew Denton’s new interview show?Margot Saville

“At a time of night when I should have been relaxing on the sofa, glass in hand, I found myself bolt upright in front of Andrew Denton’s new television program on Seven: Interview. For the first ten minutes of the show, I was in a blind panic; ‘Who are these women? Are they sisters? And why are they on television?’”

Look at the evidence — Greens’ pot plan makes a whole lot of senseGreg Barns

“Greens leader Richard Di Natale’s push to legalise cannabis makes sense at so many levels, not least of which is a correlated reduction in general crime rates which is highly likely to occur if weed is no longer sold on the black market.”

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Canberra

  • Acting Prime Minister and federal Nationals leader Michael McCormack will address the National Press Club.

  • The National Museum of Australia will launch “So That You Might Know Each Other: Faith and Culture in Islam,” an exhibition showcasing collections from the Vatican and United Arab Emirates.

Melbourne

  • Deputy Nationals Leader and Minister for Sport Bridget McKenzie will open a Werribee sport facility to support AFL programs run by North Melbourne.

  • Dozens of volunteers and guide dogs will stage a walk as part of a call for more access rights for vision-impaired people who require seeing eye dogs.

  • ACTU Secretary Sally McManus will speak on the benefits of a minimum wage increase at a presser.

  • Moderated by Victorian Multicultural Commission Chair Helen Kapalos, “Breaking News or Making News: A Forum on Race, Media and Public Debate” will facilitate dialogue between media, communities, advocates and researchers on enhanced community harmony and discussion of public issues. Panellists will include The Age editor Alex Lavelle; SBS reporter Sarah Abo, lawyer and social entrepreneur Zione Walker-Nethenda, and Vice President of the Islamic Council Victoria Adel Salman.

Sydney

  • Cosplayers and comic fans will celebrate “Action Comics #1000”, the original Superman series and first superhero comic ever to reach 1000 issues. Local artist Nicola Scott and colourist Annette Kwok will sign versions of their exclusive cover at the Kings Comics event.

Winton, Queensland

  • “Way Out West Fest” begins with the re-opening of the Waltzing Matilda Centre, after a fire destroyed the venue in 2015, and features performances from Jessica Mauboy, The Living End, Kip Moore (USA) and more.

Christchurch, New Zealand

  • Minister for Research, Science and Innovation Megan Woods will make an R&D announcement.

Australia / New York

  • ABC will air Leigh Sales’ New York interview with former FBI director James Comey.

THE COMMENTARIAT

Giving John Monash the ultimate honour is long overdue — Bill Shorten (Sydney Morning Herald): “Yes, elevating Monash would be an exception to the rule. But we are talking about an exceptional Australian. Of course there will be those who dismiss this idea as merely a symbolic move. But surely all of us can recognise the power of symbolism in commemorations: the sprig of rosemary, the sunrise badge, the poppy, the minute’s silence, the haunting echoes of the Last Post, the flicker of the eternal flame.”

Let’s banish the term ‘Arab world’. What does it mean anyway? — Neheda Barakat (The Guardian): “As a journalist covering international events, I have witnessed the narrative covering the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) recede to a thin crescent of one pan-ethnic group, primarily because they speak a dialect of Arabic. At the last count, 35 dialects of the Arabic language are spoken across the two regions.”

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