Scott Morrison Lismore flood
(Image: AAP/Dave Hunt)

GOING WITH THE FLOW

NSW Liberal Catherine Cusack has announced she’s resigning over the government’s patchy response to helping the NSW flood victims, ABC reports. Cusack says she’s “outraged” and “can’t defend” the fact that being a flood victim in a National Party-held seat “makes you more worthy than a flood victim who is in the [Labor-held] Richmond electorate”. She says the whole Northern Rivers should’ve been given funding, but flood-besieged Tweed, Byron, and Ballina Shires have been left out of the $2000 disaster payment, as news.com.au reports. It comes as one million Australian homes will be at risk of flooding in the next eight years (including in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Ballina), according to new modelling in The Brisbane Times. Plus, climate change-fuelled riverine flooding could cause $170 billion in property value losses by 2050.

Staying with NSW politics for a moment, the NSW government confirmed it will not be supporting One Nation MP Mark Latham’s “parental rights” bill, Guardian Australia reports, with Education Minister Sarah Mitchell saying it would lead to “targeted discrimination” at school. The bill would ban teachers from discussing gender diversity in classrooms and stop schools from supporting trans kids without parental consent. Mitchell pointed out that 72% of kids who are gender diverse have a diagnosed anxiety disorder, and nearly half of gender-diverse people have attempted suicide. So why on earth would we make it harder on them?

[free_worm]

EXTRAORDINARILY DISRESPECTFUL

Labor Leader Anthony Albanese has branded coverage in The Australian ($) about deceased senator Kimberley Kitching’s feud with so-called Labor “mean girls” as “extraordinarily disrespectful”. The paper, who implied the pop culture reference came from Kitching herself, named the women in question as senators Kristina Keneally, Penny Wong, and Katy Gallagher, The New Daily says. But Albanese says he has never heard males be described as “mean boys”, Guardian Australia reports. When probed about whether Labor did have a “mean” culture, he asked for a bit of respect as Kitching’s funeral had not yet taken place. The Oz’s ($) Sharri Markson was unperturbed, this morning digging up old news published in a book several years back that Wong supposedly once pointed out Kitching might be more worried about the climate crisis if she had children. One Nation’s Pauline Hanson told the paper Kitching “opened up to me”, while former MP Michael Danby called for a posthumous apology.

From politics to crime — The Australian ($) has been called a “national disgrace” for its coverage of the NT cop Zachary Rolfe’s acquittal over the shooting death of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker. Guardian Australia reports several high profile Indigenous reporters from Channel Ten, ABC, and IndigenousX have called the paper’s coverage “unethical, victim-blaming and insensitive”. Walker was described as “a very scary man” and an “unwanted baby”, while a one-hour doco showed extensive footage from the shooting, including his final moments. Speaking of Rolfe, as the NT News reports, the NT Police have cut ties with the Rotary Club of Darwin’s “Police Officer of the Year Award”, after the Rotary Club put Rolfe forward as a possible recipient while he was facing a murder charge. The club says they received hundreds of votes for Rolfe’s nomination and had a duty to put him to the commissioner.

SANCTIONS AND PEACE TALKS

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says we would not hesitate to sanction China if it comes to the rescue of Russia, the AFR reports. The PM says this could look like China supplying arms or bailing out Moscow financially — either would be an “abomination” that could prompt a swathe of sanctions from Australia, the US, and other allies. Labor Leader Anthony Albanese says he would back the sanctions, continuing it’s “important that democracies around the world take action”. It comes as questions were raised when a Chinese reporter became the only foreign journalist embedded with Russian troops during the Ukraine invasion, news.com.au reports. Also this morning, sources within the government have reportedly told the SMH we will be sanctioning two local Russian oligarchs that have so far evaded restrictions. A spokesman for Foreign Minister Marise Payne was a little more demure, telling the paper Payne was looking into it and noting the UK only sanctioned the pair in the last couple days.

Overseas now, some quick developments overnight, courtesy of the BBC’s live blog. Russia attacked a theatre in Mariupol where around 1100 civilians were sheltering, while 300,000 residents are stuck in the city without water, electricity, or gas as troops surround them. About 400 staff and patients are still being held inside a hospital, while 10 people waiting for bread in the northern city of Chernihiv were killed by Russian forces. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksyy is begging for a no-fly zone over Ukraine, while US President Joe Biden announced $800 million worth of military might for Ukraine. We are three devastating weeks into the Russian invasion — but a peace deal is close, according to both the Russian and Ukrainian sides, Al Jazeera reports.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

You say potato, I say tuber of gourd — that’s the view of the Guinness World Records, who gently told a New Zealand couple what they had dug up was not the largest potato ever found. Take a look at the photo of the thing — you’d think something responsible for chips, vodka and potato bake would look more attractive. Scientists tested a specimen and found it did not qualify as a potato. Colin and Donna Craig-Brown dug up the hefty lump in the garden of their Hamilton farm, and it tasted like a potato, though Colin can’t say he’s tasted a gourd tuber. “What can you say?” says Colin. “We can’t say we don’t believe you, because we gave them the DNA stuff.” Has science finally gone too far?

The couple even named their potato-wannabe Doug, but began using Dug instead, as a nod to his discovery. Dug weighs 7.8 kilograms, about the same as a small dog. He would’ve knocked the existing record — a 2011 potato discovered in Britain weighing about 5 kilograms — out of the park. But it wasn’t to be, and Dug is instead sitting in the freezer at Colin and Donna’s place. But it’s a happy ending anyway. The grandkids love to pop by to see him, and Colin himself says g’day to him when he pulls out some sausages from the cold. “He is the world’s biggest not-a-potato,” Colin says cheerfully.

Hoping you see the light side of life today.

SAY WHAT?

Are you in the red corner of the boxing ring, a businessman and Twitter user; and Putin, in blue, a world politician and strategist, who inspires awe in the West and in the US? Vladimir Vladimirovich will look unsportsmanlike when he beats the hell out of you, a much weaker opponent. Therefore, you’ll need to pump up those muscles in order to change from the gentle Elona into the brutal Elon you need to be.

Ramzan Kadyrov

The head of the Chechen Republic (and Putin ally) appears angered by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s brazen challenge to Putin to face off in one-to-one combat. The stakes? Ukraine. Musk retorted to the Chechen leader that if Putin is “afraid to fight” him, he’ll only use his left hand, then promptly changed his Twitter name to “Elona Musk”. Kadyrov has been accused of a swathe of human rights abuses.

CRIKEY RECAP

A sad and sudden death, but did factional bullying really kill Kimberley Kitching?

Mar 16, 2022

58

“With the federal party taking over the Victorian branch, and an open hunting season on Somyurek and Shorten-aligned state MPs, how could she not have seen what was coming? Had she started to believe her own PR spin — that the former low-level factional warrior, down in the dirty business of using a healthcare union as an operating base, was now a champion of human rights without a political past?

“This was the image Kitching cultivated, assisted by those around her, and above all by those basically aligned with the Labor right in the press who were happy to wipe away any history of factional skulduggery.”

Oligarchs with ties to resources sector left off government sanctions list

Mar 16, 2022

26

Unlocked

“Deripaska, who is described as ‘Putin’s favourite industrialist’ and reportedly has ties to organised crime, made a fortune in the aluminium industry during the volatile post-Soviet years. That fortune has links with Australia. Russian company Rusal, one of the world’s largest aluminium companies, has a 20% stake in Queensland Alumina Limited, outside of Gladstone, in joint venture with Rio Tinto over the project …

“Vekselberg-controlled Lamesa Holdings has a 16% stake in Falcon Oil and Gas, which is engaged in a joint venture with Origin Energy over exploration in the Beetaloo Basin. He also sits on Falcon’s board.”

How the Russia boycott has upended corporate activism

Mar 16, 2022

6

“With Putin threatening to void intellectual property protection for patent holders registered in countries which Russia deems to be ‘unfriendly’, and threatening to seize assets of commercial organisations which leave Russia, which company will be the first to blink?

“For multinational giants such as McDonald’s and Starbucks, which have shut down Russian stores but are still paying local staff, when and how does the boycott end? It’s a critical executive decision with enormous financial and political implications for many organisations… and getting it wrong could trigger a genuine reputational crisis.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

‘Close the sky over Ukraine’: Zelenskyy pleads to US Congress (Al Jazeera)

A groggy [US] senate approves making daylight saving time permanent (The New York Times)

Johnson meets Saudi, UAE leaders as Ukraine war roils oil prices (Al Jazeera)

Japan hit by strong quake cutting power to millions (BBC)

Widespread abuses since Myanmar coup may amount to war crimes, says UN report (The Guardian)

Russia’s state TV hit by stream of resignations (BBC)

Federal government to end pre-arrival COVID testing for travellers entering Canada (CBC)

France may offer Corsica ‘autonomy’ as it struggles to quell protests (The Guardian)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Fire deaths illustrate terrible consequences of unfair housing system — Jack de Groot (The SMH): “The deaths of at least three people in a horrific fire at a Newtown boarding house on Tuesday illustrate the terrible consequences that can result from a lack of housing choice. Many older-style boarding houses are places of last resort. The men residing at the Newtown house would likely have had no other accommodation option. A boarding house would have been all they could afford, because there is not enough social and affordable housing in Sydney or in NSW.

“A person living in the substandard conditions often found in boarding houses is experiencing a form of homelessness, and people who experience homelessness typically live far shorter lives than people who have safe, secure homes. Poverty also is linked to poorer health, worse access to health services, malnutrition from having to choose between rent and food, and exposure to risks from living in substandard accommodation. There are 50,000 applicants — representing more than 100,000 people — on the waiting list for social housing in NSW. They can wait 10 years or more for a home, particularly if they are in Sydney or one of the bigger population centres.”

Overseer Anthony Albanese needs to call in HR — John Ferguson (The Australian) ($): “The links in this are complex, but in one way or another attacks on the three have in real and potential terms further undermined former Labor leader Bill Shorten. Which has the twin impact of helping Albanese shore up his leadership. This is not to accuse Albanese of political bastardry but to simply state the fact that Shorten’s strength has been weakened and Albanese is numerically stronger.

“The months’ long, very public moves to kill Carr’s career would not be tolerated in any normal workplace. Carr has been a senator for nearly 30 years, a powerbroker for longer. He deserves internal respect. Yet his reward from Albanese’s party is to trash and humiliate him over many months, including providing an unworkable potential replacement in the form of lawyer Josh Bornstein. I don’t agree with Carr’s attacks on the Murdoch empire or some other policy initiatives but I do know how much of a soldier he has been for the ALP.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

The Latest Headlines

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Kulin Nation Country (also known as Melbourne)

  • Victorian Energy, Environment and Climate Change Minister Lily D’Ambrosio will speak at the Wind Industry Forum 2022 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)

  • Hawke-era cabinet minister Gareth Evans will be in conversation with political journalist Michelle Grattan about Evans’ new essay, Good International Citizenship. The Case for Decency.

  • ABC’s Stephen Dziedzic, China Matters’ Linda Jakobson, and ANU’s Hugh White will discuss the dire implications of the Taiwan situation at ANU’s China in the World Lotus Theatre.

Yuggera Country (also known as Brisbane)