ALBO TARGETS DUTTON’S TURF
Is election season already upon us? Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has hinted the federal government gained’t go to the polls once more till Might 2025, however already the newspapers are brimming with election information. The Australian ($) stories Albanese plans to guide a raid deep into Liberal territory in Queensland, focusing on Longman, Leichhardt, Brisbane, Bonner and Forde in a “Queensland blitz that will even focus stress on Peter Dutton’s seat of Dickson”.
“Our major vote is simply too low, now we have to select that up. Dutton is all about identification politics, shouting on the clouds. He falls quick on financial coverage and hasn’t obtained a top quality staff round him. We’re assured however we positively have to win seats,” an unnamed Labor supply instructed the paper.
Excessive off his occasion’s success in getting Coalition help for its new tax cuts, Albanese is heading to Victoria immediately the place one other contest looms: the Dunkley by-election. Guardian Australia stories voters in Dunkley backed the tax cuts by greater than two-to-one, based on a brand new ballot that additionally reveals Labor has help from 52% of respondents, in comparison with the Liberals’ 48%.
There’s one other by-election on the best way, within the NSW seat of Cook dinner, after ex-prime minister Scott Morrison introduced his retirement. The Sydney Morning Herald ($) stories the Liberal occasion committee liable for vetting potential candidates has pushed again a vital assembly by per week, to March 4, to keep away from it taking place on a parliamentary sitting night time.
ZELENSKYY FIRES GENERAL
In Ukraine, the place struggle nonetheless rages, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has fired his high army commander. CNN referred to as the dismissal of Common Valerii Zaluzhnyi a part of “the largest army shakeup because the begin of Russia’s full-scale invasion nearly two years in the past”.
Tensions between the overall and the president had emerged after the failure of a Ukrainian counteroffensive final yr amid ammunition shortages and the stalling of assist from the US. Zelenskyy was reportedly not proud of a November essay in The Economist ($) journal, the place the overall argued the struggle was at a stalemate and that “there’ll probably be no deep and exquisite breakthrough” with out nice technological advances. The president reportedly felt that kind of message solely benefited Russia.
Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram forward of the announcement he and Zaluzhnyi had “mentioned what sort of renewal the armed forces of Ukraine want”, including: “The time for such renewal is now”.
Ukranian land forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi will take excessive job.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
A 3-year-old tot named Ethan stood in entrance of a brightly lit claw machine in Queensland’s Capalaba Park Buying Centre, staring longingly inside. It was like a fever dream — a glass field full of plush clouds of pastel-coloured mushy toys positively falling over one another, simply ready to be delivered into the grubby mitts of a child identical to him. Ethan’s younger thoughts was rapidly made up — when dad Timothy appeared the opposite method, the toddler scrambled into the claw machine’s prize shute and virtually into the sunshine, rising in what a toddler’s mind might solely assume was heaven itself. Then Timothy circled, as ABC stories.
Any panic the daddy fleetingly felt rapidly dissolved into laughter when he noticed Ethan was having “the time of his life”. However how was he imagined to get him out? He rang the corporate, who dutifully requested whether or not his cash was caught inside. No, he responded, simply my baby. Timothy messaged his dad to ask for recommendation, who responded tongue-in-cheek whether or not he had sufficient $2 cash to win him again. Sighing, Timothy referred to as the cops. The sight was a primary for senior constable Stuart Energy, who’d been a police officer for 11 years. Encouraging little Ethan to maneuver to the again and canopy his eyes, Energy cracked the glass and scooped the gleeful toddler out. “Don’t fear dad, I gained’t do it once more,” Ethan assured Timothy.
People, I hope you don’t thoughts a briefer-than-usual Worm immediately. I’m on a airplane proper now as I’m shifting house to Australia after three great years of dwelling in Canada. I’m trying ahead to spending time with my much-loved household and throwing myself headfirst into early-morning swims at lovely Bondi Seaside. Drop me a be aware in the event you’d like — eelsworthy@crikey.com.au
Hoping you go for it immediately, and have a restful weekend.
SAY WHAT?
Everybody begins off as a leftie, then wakes up in some unspecified time in the future, after you begin both making a living and dealing, making an attempt to run a enterprise, making an attempt to purchase a house and you then realise what crap concepts all of them are and you then go to the suitable.
Holly Valance
The Neighbours star turned popstar turned British billionaire’s spouse was interviewed by Christopher Hope of GB Information on the launch of temporary former UK PM Liz Truss’ new conservative motion “PopCon”.
CRIKEY RECAP
“Peter Dutton has obtained his media cheerleaders, and even decided gallery fence-sitters, excited by the thought he’ll go to the following election with a tax reform plan. Maybe it’s an indication of the sheer desperation led to by the latest bout of taxreformitis, however a couple of obscure phrases by the opposition chief have been ample to raise him as the brand new champion of fiscal change — with out, after all, too many questions on what his plans will contain or value.
“One can think about an identical mid-term dedication by a Labor opposition to give you a tax reform bundle would have already got seen a concerted marketing campaign for it to rule out dying duties, taxing the household house, doubling the GST, making boomers pay even a barely extra equitable tax contribution and different outrages. That’s simply the same old double requirements of political protection although.”
“A lot has been manufactured from the federal government’s determination to alter the stage three tax cuts, offering an even bigger tax break for almost all of Australians on the expense of a smaller portion of individuals incomes greater than $180,000. Initially pummelled within the media as a backflip on Labor’s promise whereas in opposition that they wouldn’t contact the cuts, first launched in 2019, the modifications have since discovered broad public help, as proven by quite a few polls, together with Guardian Important, Newspoll and one from The Australia Institute.
“A lot was manufactured from the political technique concerned within the modifications, in addition to what was described by The Australian’s Dennis Shanahan as a “breach of religion [that] might show to be politically deadly”, however little or no was made within the nationwide media of the particular impression of the coverage. Crikey sat down with a senior member of the press gallery, who requested to stay nameless, to interrupt down the optics of ‘the wedge’, what the time period truly means, and whether or not it issues in any respect.”
“The move price fell below 70% after the Coalition modified the citizenship check in 2020 and has remained at an identical stage below Labor. Senior opposition politicians say a fall in move charges on Australia’s citizenship check is the fault of the Albanese authorities as a result of it has did not champion Australian values. The declare is deceptive. The large drop in move charges occurred after the previous Morrison authorities added a bit on Australian values to the citizenship check in November 2020.
“The move price since Labor took workplace in Might 2022 is sort of equivalent to the move price through the Coalition’s closing months in workplace. The declare was made in a Coalition media launch by opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan on January 10, 2024. The media launch mentioned the citizenship check move price averaged 79.3% for the final 5 years of the Coalition authorities (2017 to 2021 inclusive) and fell to 65% within the first 15 months of Anthony Albanese’s Labor authorities (June 2022 to August 2023).”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Paramilitary commander killed in Baghdad drone strike: Reviews (Al Jazeera)
Prince William grateful for public’s messages of help (BBC)
Jagmeet Singh threatens penalties if Liberals miss March 1 pharmacare deadline (CBC)
Senate blocks bipartisan $118bn invoice on US-Mexico border and Ukraine (The Guardian)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Insurance coverage inquiry reveals considered one of Australia’s biggest paradoxes — Waleed Aly (SMH) ($): “Wherever you look in politics currently, there appears to be the spectacle of politicians forcing businesspeople to take a seat in entrance of them, and the TV cameras, whereas the politicians yell at them. They may very well be bankers, or airline executives or Mark Zuckerberg: regardless of the trade, regardless of the particulars, the tone and the strikes are at all times the identical. How might you? Will you now apologise? What number of lives have to be ruined for the sake of your greed? Headlines are written, embarrassing exchanges are reproduced on-line and within the night information, after which the businesspeople return to making a living.
“I don’t imply to sound unduly dismissive. To some extent, this spectacle is precisely accurately. The purpose of politics is to characterize the pursuits of the individuals, as distinct from, say, the pursuits of enterprise. Politicians ought to interrogate enterprise when one thing is amiss, and the truth that you may really feel the nation cheering the politicians on, prepared them to get caught in much more, solely underscores the purpose that they’re, at the least in that second, our representatives. This spectacle shouldn’t be all about catharsis, though catharsis issues nonetheless.”
Why we should hold Papua New Guinea in our nook … and vice versa — Ben Packham (The Australian) ($): “When Pacific island leaders go to Beijing, China plies them with self-serving agreements and grand shows of its energy. It’s a vastly totally different story once they come to Australia.
“Papua New Guinea’s James Marape was welcomed to the Home of Representatives on Thursday with heat and sincerity, and he spoke with real affection for Australia. He talked of Kokoda, rugby league, the shared ancestry of the Torres Strait individuals, and his nation’s reverence for Gough Whitlam for granting PNG its independence. China can’t compete with any of that.
“Sadly, the PNG relationship is one Australia hasn’t at all times nurtured sufficiently through the years. Certainly, Marape’s reception was a far cry from the Howard authorities’s therapy lower than 20 years in the past of PNG’s founding father, Sir Michael Somare, who was denied an apology after being compelled to take away his footwear for a safety verify. Occasions have modified, and for the higher.”
Can the Albanese authorities present muscle in Indigenous coverage? One check is coming subsequent week — Michelle Grattan (The Dialog): “When Anthony Albanese is requested what his authorities’s Indigenous affairs coverage is after the referendum’s failure, his response boils right down to: watch this house. On Tuesday the federal government will current its newest implementation plan for Closing The Hole, when it brings down its annual report on the progress (or lack of) in the direction of the a number of targets.
“Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney says Tuesday’s assertion will ‘decide to new actions that concentrate on making a sensible distinction’. Albanese instructed the ABC this week: ‘The precedence [is] very a lot on employment. How can we take the [Community Development Program] — which is basically a work-for-the-dole program — and make it actual, so it creates actual jobs with actual expertise for Indigenous Australians?’
“Historical past and proof inform us incrementalism shouldn’t be sufficient to make an enormous distinction to the parlous situation of Aboriginal individuals in distant Australia. Equally, ambitions to rework how choices are made and delivered have thus far proved past governments.”
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Whadjuk Noongar Nation (also called Perth)
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WA Minister for Finance, Commerce & Girls’s Pursuits Sue Ellery will converse on the State of the Future lunch at Crown Perth.
Yuggera and Turrbal Nation (also called Brisbane)
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Writer Sharlene Allsopp will speak about her new ebook, The Nice Undoing, at Avid Reader bookshop.