China returns fire in Trump trade war

TRADING BLOWS

The Chinese government has retaliated against Donald Trump’s latest shot in the trade war with $60 billion worth of new tariffs, ranging from 5-10% on US goods, to start Monday September 24.

The ABC reports that China’s tariffs will be triggered concurrently with Trump’s $200 billion package against Chinese goods. The US President had earlier warned that any such retaliation would lead to a further US$267 billion worth of tariffs, while China’s commerce ministry said simultaneous countermeasures were necessary to safeguard the country’s interests and the “global free trade order”.

On the local side of things, KPMG research published today in The Australian ($) finds that Trump’s tariffs would cost Australia about $2 billion in the first year and rise to a maximum of about $5 billion by the early 2020s.

NOT WITHOUT MY WATER

The federal government has waived a “water trigger” requirement for a proposed pipeline to extract billions of litres of central Queensland water for Adani’s proposed Carmichael coal mine.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the environmental department will only require “preliminary documentation” for the 110-kilometre pipeline, effectively expediting Adani’s plan to take 12.5 billion litres of water a year from central Queensland, however a spokesperson said “stand-alone proposals which involve only associated infrastructure, such as pipelines, are not captured by the water trigger because they do not directly involve the extraction of coal.” The news comes as Adani admits to an “administrative error” ($) following investigations into allegations of illegal bore drilling. 

HOW TO SAVE A LIFE

Public health group the Penington Institute will today call for naloxone kits to be made freely available to help prevent the 1100 people who die in Australia annually from opioid overdoses.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the death toll from Australia’s opioid epidemic, which arises largely from legal painkillers like oxycodone, morphine and fentanyl, now outstrips the height of heroin. However, the Penington Institute’s CEO John Ryan says naloxone has offered “a silver bullet” for overdoses, and, at a press conference today with Health Minister Greg Hunt, will call for the life-saving drug to be made freely available as a nasal spray, provided to friends and family of opioid users, and distributed through pharmacies, homeless services and prisons.

[free_worm]

THEY REALLY SAID THAT?

Re my SMH oped on schools: I owe all teachers an unreserved apology. My main point was to Q whether school as structured serves needs of modern society. Comment about teachers unfair & unwarranted. I benefited from many hardworking + great teachers, as do my daughters. Mea culpa.

Dave Sharma

The freshly minted Liberal candidate for Wentworth apologises for a suddenly popular Fairfax piece from June, in which he argued that new expectations around resource management mean teachers work “hours closer to three-quarters of a regular full-time job”.

CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY

The road not taken: reflections on the global financial crisisWayne Swan

“It’s one of the great ironies of recent history that possibly the biggest beneficiary of the economic policies I led as treasurer during the global financial crisis has been the Coalition. Why? Because Australia’s avoidance of recession gave the Coalition the ability to demonise deficit and debt, and camouflage their smash-and-grab assault on the social safety net. They never had to face the choice that Labor faced in 2008 and 2009 — between deficits or a recession with forecasts of 8.5% unemployment.”

Why the ‘activist CEO’ must have rituals of personal growthHelen Razer

“Consider that the ‘Activist CEO’ believes his job title just as well. Perhaps Cook, who championed marriage rights and human rights even as Congolese children were beaten and enslaved, as Chinese factory workers were lost to misery, believes it. And maybe Jeff Bezos, who declared this week that he would tackle homelessness believes it as well. He believes this inside every one of his five US estates. This CEO of Amazon, a company whose exploitation of actually homeless Scottish workers is known, believes himself to be a champion for the everyday worker, she who passes out from heat inside an Amazon warehouse.”

Calling all apostles: it’s time to make Australian political historyGuy Rundle

“Apparently there was no one there a decade or so ago when one of the 12 Apostles rock formations suddenly cracked, broke and collapsed into the sea. Imagine if you had been. You would not have believed your eyes, for a moment or two. Then, when you were convinced it was real, you would have been struck by the enigma of occurrence — something remains in a steady state for decades, and then there is ‘the event’, and the before and after of it are radically different. There was a rock standing tall, then there was not. Weird.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Bill Shorten to announce $400 million pitch to women on superannuation

Live exports: Reports cattle, sheep shipment imminent, sparking concern

Home Affairs avoids questions until tech boss mysteriously resigns

McCormack retreats on farm worker visas ($)

Strawberry needles: Elderly Maddington couple report sixth case of punnet sabotage

$4bn deal to avert Catholic and independent schools backlash ($)

Leak reveals Bill Shorten defied on TPP support ($)

Royal Hobart Hospital considers opening intensive chair unit amid overcrowding woes ($)

What did Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Stokes have to do with the Liberal leadership spill?

Coalition defends lobbying rules and denies ‘corporate takeover’ of democracy

If I were a Test cricketer: Koori carpenter Brendan Doggett’s rise ($)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Trade war will rage after Trump is gone ($) — Greg Sheridan (The Australian): “This US-China trade conflict has been brewing for a long time and it is not going away, even if Trump is a one-term president. For if Trump is beaten in two years by a left-wing populist Democrat, the successful challenger is not going to surf into the White House on the basis of a campaign, waged across the battleground states of the mid-west, for free trade with China.”

‘I’m not going to be silent’: plea to rethink care royal commission — Adele Ferguson (Sydney Morning Herald): “A key problem is the sector is regulated by the states, which have done a poor job of it. There’s no ombudsman, no mandatory accreditation system and no regulatory oversight of village finances or changes in operators. Nor is there any regulation of exit fees, which can be as high as 40 per cent of the sale price when a resident leaves. In 2007 a federal parliamentary inquiry recommended the Commonwealth step in and regulate the sector. Nothing happened.”

Five wasted years — Daniel James (IndigenousX): “The area that has continued to be the most challenging for governments of all persuasions is that of Indigenous affairs. Spanning the scope of education, health, housing, justice, employment, land management constitutional reform and national identity. The lack of policy ambition and commitment to change by the successive regimes is resulting in stagnated outcomes.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Canberra

• The Coalition will likely bring on debate for the Ensuring Integrity Bill in the Senate.

• Three joint standing committees will examine the current regulation of Australian migration agents, domestic passenger screenings, and Commonwealth financial statements (based on the Auditor-General’s report “Audits of the Financial Statements of Australian Government Entities for the Period Ended 30 June 2017”).

• The Royal Australian College College of General Practitioners will launches its second annual “General Practice: Health of the Nation” report, providing a full health check up on Australians primary health system. Speakers will include the RACGP President Dr Bastian Seidel, Health Minister Greg Hunt and the Shadow Health Minister Catherine King.

• Australian War Memorial director Brendan Nelson will speak at the National Press Club.

• Health Minister Greg Hunt will launch the Penington Institute’s new report, “Saving Lives: Australian Naloxone Access Model”, along with Penington Institute CEO John Ryan.

• Co-founder of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Dr Sue Wareham will speak at a Beyond Uranium Canberra banquet event, along with ACT Greens’ Indra Esguerra and Unions ACT’s Alex White.

• Author Johann Hari will speak as part of the 2018 Canberra Drug Policy Series.

Melbourne

• The financial services royal commission will finish an IAG add-on insurance case study before hearing from two consumers who made insurance claims with Youi, as part of an investigation into how insurers have handled claims after natural disasters.

• The Citizens for Melbourne group will protest against plans to put an Apple store in Melbourne’s Federation Square. Speakers will include National Trust Australia Vic chief executive Simon Ambrose, Melbourne City Greens councillor Rohan Leppert, Ratio Consultants chief executive Colleen Peterson and Citizens for Melbourne president Tania Davidge.

• The Wheeler Centre will host “Acting Out: Art that Changes the World”, a forum event featuring guerrilla artist and founder of the New York-based Center for Artistic Activism Steve Lambert, disability and LGBTIQ rights activist Jax Jacki Brown, and gender transcendent cabaret singer Mama Alto.

• The Federation of Community Legal Centres Victoria will hold a one day summit “Transforming Democracy: Claiming Our Power”, to feature Black Lives Matter and U.S. Transgender Law Centre organiser Raquel Willis.

• Launch of the weekly “Hawker 88 Night Market” at Queen Victoria Markets, to run until October 24th.

• Seven Seeds Roastery will host the 2018 Australian AeroPress Championship.

Sydney

• Former NSW Premier and Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr will speak at an in-conversation UNSW Labor Club event with journalist Geraldine Doogue.

• Chatswood Vetfriends will launch the “Outback Pet Project” to raise food for working dogs.

• Northern Beaches Police Area Command will hold a “Meet the boss” event with Superintendent Dave Darcy.

• Digital artist and entrepreneur Ben Gunsberger will speak as part of an in-conversation series at The Studio.

• Founder of the Resilience Project Hugh van Cuylenburg will host a public lecture.

Hobart

• A blueberry rust report is expected to be tabled in parliament.

Charters Towers, Queensland

• Hundreds of people are expected to gather to honour the memories of the almost 1500 workers who have died in the state’s mines.

Brisbane

• QUT Faculty of Law will hold a “Human Rights in Queensland (and beyond)” forum, to feature a keynote speech from Dean and Anthony Mason Professor of Law at the University of NSW George Williams and a panel speeches with Director of Human Rights for QLD Campaign Aimee McVeigh, Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Legal Service QLD Shane Duffy, Micah Projects’ Karyn Walsh, QLD Privacy Commissioner Phil Green, Member for Toohey Peter Russo MP, and Founding Director of LGBTI Legal Service Matilda Alexander.

• Co-creators and writers of ABC TV series Harrow Leigh McGrath and Stephen M Irwin will speak at an Australian Writers’ Guild event.

• State Library of Queensland will host “Business Studio lunch box forum: Getting your brand in the media spotlight” with LGBTIQ wedding entrepreneur Tara Baker.

Adelaide

• Members of South Australian Labor will join a protest against housing trust rent increases for low income tenants out the front of Parliament House.

• Flinders University’s Tully Barnett and Heather Robinson will present “The Value of Culture: Rethinking value for cultural organisations”, a discussion of research into the cultural sector, at State Library of South Australia.

• Day one of the Adelaide Nursing School’s three-day “Research Conversazione”.

• Honorary Visiting Research Fellow Earth Sciences at the University of Adelaide Dr Victor Gostin will present “Rocks from Space: Acraman Asteroid Impact on the Earth’s Evolution” for a UoA Cultural Conversation.

Perth

• Animal ecologist and conservation biologist Dr Denis Saunders will present “Agriculture and conservation: an oxymoron or a necessity?” for the 2018 Keith Roby Memorial Lecture at Murdoch University.

• Author Rachael Johns will speak on “The Books that Made Me” at the City of Perth Library.

Darwin

• The Northern Territory Library will host a “Curator’s Cut” screening of How the West was Lost, a documentary detailing the 1946 protest of Indigenous stockmen in the Pilbara, and discussion from activist and historian Jan Richardson.

Rio di Janeiro, Brazil

• 40-year-old Macelo Santoro is due to face court after being arrested in July by local police investigating the death of Sydney woman Cecilia Hadid.

Wellington, New Zealand

• Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will speak on the 125th anniversary of New Zealand becoming the first country in the world to give women the vote, with the government to make a pay equity announcement later in the day.