Mind the gap

100-DAY SPRINT

We may have found a way to solve the gender pay gap, the government says. Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke says he’s super interested in the unions’ industry-wide bargaining idea for female-dominated industries (like aged care, childcare, cleaning or retail), as the SMH reports. And the wheels could be in motion already: the ACTU and the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia have just signed a deal that’ll support multi-level bargaining, The Australian ($) continues, which could set a precedent for the rest of the workforce. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has demanded “serious and rapid improvement” when it comes to women getting paid the same as men — today (60 days into the new financial year) marks how many extra days women have to work to receive the same average pay as men.

Albo will make the comments in a speech he’ll give at the National Press Club today, Guardian Australia reports, ahead of the much-anticipated jobs and skills summit this week. What does success look like? Albanese says everyone’s gotta get on the same page (or at least try to) so we can create a fairer economy, including business, unions, industry, government and community groups. He’ll reportedly say he is done with the “mess and chaos” of the former government — and the “wasted decade” before his leadership — and will embrace long-term changes instead of performative ones, The West ($) continues. There’ll be a Q&A at the end of Albo’s speech — can someone ask him why he met with Lachlan Murdoch last week, as the SMH reported?

Speaking of Albanese, he just passed a significant milestone: 100 days in office. So what has he achieved? Quite a bit actually, SBS’s Anna Henderson writes: “a royal commission into robodebt, backing for Ukraine against Russia, announcing an inquiry into the secret Morrison ministerial self-appointments, detailing a pitch for a referendum on Indigenous recognition and sharing his hopes for the skills summit that looms in the days ahead”. Toto has been taking it a little easier than him — though is bound to be indignant this morning after Albo posted a photo lovingly embracing another gorgeous little dog yesterday, captioned “Don’t tell Toto.” So much for transparent government.

[free_worm]

BILL OF HEALTH

The Victorian government will pay the bill for more than 10,000 aspiring nurses and midwives at university, 7News reports. The $270 million initiative was announced yesterday, where all domestic students enrolling in the degrees in 2023 and 2024 will get a scholarship of up to $16,500 to cover the cost. The idea is to encourage more students into the industry amid shortages, Premier Daniel Andrews says, putting it plainly: “We will pay their entire HECS debt.” It comes after the federal government announced a plan to train 500 First Nations health workers across Australia as part of efforts to close the gap, the ABC reports. It’ll see them get a Certificate III or IV qualification and give culturally appropriate care to First Nations communities.

Speaking of health — our COVID isolation period will probably be reduced from seven days to five this week, news.com.au reports. National cabinet is meeting on Wednesday and NSW is pushing for the slashed mandate. NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said last month that we’ve got to “get to a point where if you are sick you stay at home and if you are not sick you can go to work”. It follows the US slashing their isolation period to five days last year, and the UK binning all self-isolation rules in January. Australia is about to (or may have already?) hit a grim milestone, The Daily Telegraph ($) reports, with 10 million cases. We were at 9,976,582 cases as of August 26.

AT THE COALFACE

The Greens want to protect coal and gas workers, Guardian Australia reports. The minor party will move to legislate an energy transition authority that’ll create a plan for Australians in those coal and gas communities. Aside from the moral imperative to protect Aussies, Greens Senator Penny Allman–Payne said any meaningful climate push won’t work without an authority, as “Coalition climate scare campaigns” are surely on the way. Meanwhile a Senate committee examining the government’s 43% climate change bill will deliver its report this week. The bill will go before the Senate in September, and the government needs the Greens (plus an independent) to pass it. It comes after Resources Minister Madeleine King’s announcement of 10 new oil and gas sites for offshore exploration, something that the SMH described as sending “a shudder through the sprawling ecosystem of climate activists and scientists in Australia”.

In the Sunshine State now and the Wangan and Jagalingou traditional owners have used Queensland human rights law to occupy Bravus’s Carmichael coalmine, in central Queensland. It’s an apparent first, the ABC reports, and “there appears to be little the mine can do about it”. The mining lease is held by Bravus, the Australian arm of Indian mining giant Adani — it says the “unauthorised camp on our mining lease is a clear breach of the relevant Queensland mining legislation”, but the First Nations people taking a stand were described as legal pioneers in invoking section 28 of the Queensland Human Rights Act, which recognises the cultural rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Queensland and their special connection to land and sea.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Folks, inflation’s soaring and the weather is chilly — if you’re ditching dining out to stay in and stay cozy, Adam Liaw wrote 25 awesome cooking tips for the SMH. Here’s a quick summary: make sure your pan is hot before adding oil so it doesn’t smoke, and don’t skimp on the oil — you can always leave it in the pan, he says, and it’s a tool for cooking as much as an ingredient. Always wash that pan when it’s hot, he says, otherwise scrubbing dried food will be a workout. Rest everything, not just steaks — from roast chickens (15-20 minutes) to salad dressings (10 minutes). Liaw says sometimes a side salad is best when it’s just leaves and dressing — simple and fresh. And we shouldn’t be afraid to season our cooking generously — after all, it’s what tickles our five tastes (salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami) the most. Speaking of umami — Vegemite will do in a pinch if you don’t have any stock.

Liaw says the key to restaurant-quality pasta is the “mantecatura” — all you have to do is save a few tablespoons of pasta water to mix into your sauce, creating a lovely thick coating. Marinades might seem like the key to tasty meat, but Liaw says they can often get in the way of a nice sear. “If you must marinate, go easy on the acid and sugar. Acids give meat a mushy texture and sugars will burn before meat properly sears,” he says. We should brown meat on medium heat, rather than high, to avoid that distinctly charred taste — and keep that wine for our glass when it comes to deglazing, as water works just as well. Save yourself some washing up by mixing meatballs, rissoles or dumpling fillings in the saucepan — the handle can keep everyone steady too. And finally, it might seem like an old wives tale, he says, but mixing in one direction actually does work — it “aligns protein filaments”. Who woulda thought!

Wishing you a little creativity in the kitchen and beyond today.

Worm readers, Crikey has launched a GoFundMe to help raise funds for our defence against billionaire Fox chairman Lachlan Murdoch. It has already raised $305,904 (as of 6.05am) and we are so chuffed. If you’d like to donate, click here — and if you have already, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

SAY WHAT?

Shaq has agreed to do some vids and to have a chat about the importance of bringing people together, and that’s really what the Voice to Parliament and constitutional recognition is about: lifting up our great country, providing a moment of which we can all be proud when Indigenous Australians are recognised in our constitution.

Anthony Albanese

Who had “Albo and Shaq work together on a pressing issue” on their bingo card? Anyone? The NBA legend — who is almost twice as tall as Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney — has lent some star power to the First Nations Voice campaign.

CRIKEY RECAP

Labor’s deafening silence on Murdoch meeting

Bernard Keane

Aug 26, 2022

75

“The prime minister and two of his most senior ministers are staying silent about a reported meeting on Wednesday with Lachlan Murdoch at News Corp’s Sydney offices. Neither Anthony Albanese, Richard Marles nor Penny Wong was prepared to even confirm that they travelled to Murdoch (who is currently suing Crikey) to meet with him and News Corp executives, after Kishor Napier-Raman and David Estcourt reported the meeting this morning for Nine newspapers.

“However, the office of Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has confirmed she did not attend and says it provided no input for the meeting. What’s interesting about Rowland’s non-attendance is that on the same day, Rowland issued a statement on AFL, which is seeking a new broadcasting deal, and the anti-siphoning scheme — a statement widely interpreted as a shot across the bow of Foxtel … “

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Kevin Rudd: Has Lachlan Murdoch bitten off more than he can chew?

Kevin Rudd

Aug 26, 2022

14

“This lawsuit has ‘made in America’ stamped all over it. It is about an American billionaire, his American business, and the crusade by an American president to overturn an American election that culminated in American citizens breaking into the American Congress to intimidate (and potentially execute) American public officials.

“These matters are of great public interest in America and have been discussed extensively there, where commentators have savaged the Murdochs in the baldest of terms. The debate has been fuelled by text messages confirming senior Fox employees were coordinating with Trump’s ‘stop the steal’ effort, and lawsuits by voting machine companies who were falsely accused of electoral fraud (Fox News is defending these lawsuits, citing ‘freedom of the press’).”

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Royal commission must go deep into the who, how and why of the brutal robodebt

Bernard Keane

Aug 26, 2022

45

“The hundreds of thousands of victims of this illegal scheme, and particularly the families who lost loved ones as a result of its pitiless application, deserve nothing less than seeing the bureaucrats who from the comfort of their Canberra offices directed this process explain themselves. They deserve to see the ministers who crowed about the scheme, used private information to attack critics through the media, and who were indifferent to the massive suffering they caused, face aggressive questioning.

“But the royal commission won’t be anything more than a cathartic exercise unless it properly explores how a major government department, and the ministers in charge of it, delivered such a shocking outcome — a failed scheme costing at least $1.2 billion, found to be illegal for exactly the reasons that critics claimed it was illegal for.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Free period products to be rolled out across WA’s public secondary schools (ABC)

‘Hostile environment’: Turkey says Greek missiles locked on jet (Al Jazeera)

Why NASA is going back to the moon (The New York Times)

Three off-duty Dutch commandos shot outside hotel in Indianapolis (BBC)

Thousands evacuated in India before implosion of giant skyscrapers (CNN)

US warships sail Taiwan Strait, defying Chinese pressure (The New York Times)

Ukraine on edge as Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, region’s towns shelled (Reuters)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Labor is sending mixed messages on energy – and some of it sounds like climate denial — Adam Morton (Guardian Australia): “It was on display last week when the Resources Minister, Madeleine King, announced the release of new areas along the Australian coast for the oil and gas industry to explore and potentially exploit. This wasn’t a surprise – sites for offshore petroleum exploration are released annually, and work on the current batch was under way before the May election – but the underlying message from King’s media statement was that nothing has changed since Labor replaced the pro-fossil fuel Coalition. King claimed the new exploration areas would ‘play an important role in securing future energy supplies’ and the petroleum sector was ‘vital for the economy and meeting the energy needs of Australians’. The traditional line about gas playing a ‘key role as a transition fuel’ also got a run.

“It is, of course, true that Australian households and businesses use gas for heating, cooking and some electricity generation and high-temperature industrial processes. The message from King is that she sees no need to drive change away from that. We should break down what we are talking about here. Gas is a fossil fuel, with higher greenhouse gas emissions than is often claimed. Australia already has several contentious new gas fields proposed for development. The Climate Council estimates 28% of the country’s land mass is covered by gas exploration permits or applications for gas exploration.”

Jobs summit goal to build pathway of opportunity — Jim Chalmers (The Australian) ($): “We can see this playing out at a national level. A pincer-like problem has developed that is holding back the capacity of the economy and the potential of our people …  These are some of the challenges we need to confront later this week at the summit. We’ve already got plans we’re implementing – such as 20,000 new university places for disadvantaged people, and fee-free TAFE — but we don’t pretend to have a solution to every problem. We don’t have all the answers — to pretend otherwise would be arrogance, and it’s that sort of arrogance that has helped create the circumstances our economy is now in.

“The summit is part of our ambition to bring Australians together, take them into our confidence about the growing economic challenges, and unleash a national conversation about the best way forward. That the summit is even being held is a marker of success; for the first time in a long time, different groups of people are prepared to lay down their arms and look for some common ground — to agree wherever they can, and disagree respectfully where they must. No one is going to walk out of Parliament House on Friday afternoon with everything they want. And none of the challenges we tackle over those two days will be completely solved by the end. But it marks a new beginning — a fresh approach to problem-solving that our country desperately needs.”

HOLD THE FRONT PAGE

WHAT’S ON TODAY

Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will address the National Press Club about building a better future for the nation.

Muwinina Country (also known as Hobart)

• Assistant Minister for Charities Andrew Leigh will host a “Building Community” town hall meeting with Tasmanian charities at Hobart’s Town Hall this morning.

Yuggera Country (also known as Brisbane)

• Climate scientist Joelle Gergis will discuss her book, Humanity’s Moment: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope, at Avid Reader bookshop. You can also catch this one online.