How’ard can or not it’s to Google somebody? Former prime minister John Howard is right here to assist on a regular basis Australians save themselves “from the looming monetary threats” with a few free occasions on Wednesday. We surprise if Howard’s plan entails spending many years in Parliament underneath a pension system that nets you roughly 1 / 4 of 1,000,000 a 12 months and getting all of your journey paid for the remainder of your life? As a result of I’ve usually thought if I might implement that sort of passive earnings, it’d give me a little bit of respiratory area.
Much more eyebrow-raising is Howard’s co-host selection. He’s becoming a member of Pat Mesiti, whose bio on X (previously Twitter) describes him as an “earnings acceleration coach specialising in serving to individuals shift their mindsets to create extra wealth and dedicated to serving to increase 10,000 millionaires”.
However he’s most likely finest recognized for his historical past. Mesiti was convicted of assaulting his spouse in 2016, and previous to that, the Hillsong Church dumped as a minister the self-described former intercourse addict when he was caught partaking intercourse staff in 2001. His final brush with politics was his “prayers and pushback” occasions the place the COVID-19 sceptic cohort of Parliament obtained collectively: Senator Pauline Hanson, then United Australia Celebration chief Craig Kelly, then LNP MP George Christensen and Senator Alex Antic.
We’ll be fascinated to see how this coheres right into a concept of monetary safety.
The great guide We’ve by no means been extra sure our serial truth-dodging former PM Scott Morrison was being honest when he promised, in September of final 12 months, that his memoir could be “fairly in contrast to some other guide written by a main minister”. Nicely, the clumsily titled tome, Plans for Your Good: A Prime Minister’s Testimony of God’s Faithfulness, is now out there for pre-order.
Morrison is explicitly focusing on the profitable US evangelical market with this guide (value upwards of a billion a 12 months), although when it was first introduced our writer sources had been sceptical {that a} determine with Morrison’s, shall we embrace, restricted profile within the US would make a lot of ripple.
However he’s managed to get one US politician to recollect his title at the very least, with a foreword by former US vice-president Mike Pence. He’s an apparent selection, the person who all the time described himself as a “Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order” and managed for example quite a bit in regards to the state of all these appellations by spending 4 years between 2016 and 2020 gratefully accepting no matter humiliation Donald Trump threw his method.
Sandy Grant, co-founder of Hardie Grant, instructed Crikey final September that he doubted the guide would clear 100 copies within the US; I suppose now we’ll see.
Brittany on the mind It’s just about a textbook model of a Freudian slip: Western Australian Senator Linda Reynolds, whereas grilling public servants final week in her position as deputy chair of the joint committee of public accounts and audit inquiry into probity and ethics within the Australian public sector, reached for a popular culture reference, however it in some way obtained away from her:
… time after time after time on this committee, we hold getting departments coming ahead and simply saying, oops, sorry, you understand, we did it once more. You realize, like Brittany Higgins’ tune, you understand, oops, we did it once more. I’m so sorry. We’ll do higher subsequent time. However there’s little or no accountability for not delivering on outcomes.
Former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins, for anybody who requires the clarification, didn’t in actual fact launch the 2000 pop smash “Oops!… I did it once more” — that was Britney Spears. Most likely an comprehensible slip given how a lot of Reynold’s mind Higgins would have occupied in latest years. Apparently, the Hansard transcript from this session on March 12 isn’t but up — we’ll have an interest to see in the event that they clear that as much as account for Reynold’s apparent intention.
Portray town Redland Beneath the discover of a lot of the nation, a collection of Queensland native authorities elections have been enjoying out. And given one of many candidates for mayor is former Liberal MP Andrew Laming — who was searching for the highest job in Redland Metropolis Council within the state’s southeast — it can shock no-one to listen to issues obtained somewhat bizarre.
The state electoral fee was pressured to name for calm through the “extremely acrimonious” marketing campaign, claiming it had acquired an unprecedented variety of complaints about candidate behaviour; although it’s value mentioning no single candidate — neither Laming, nor Jos Mitchell, nor Cindy Corrie — or their representatives was singled out.
There have been confrontations between Laming and candidate Jos Mitchell each in individual and in court docket, and the fee required safety in any respect three Redland polling cubicles. Mitchell seems to have had the final giggle, with the newest depend (at time of writing) seeming to supply no path to victory for anybody however her.
Lest you assume Laming’s failure means we’ll be disadvantaged of vibrant mayor content material, The Courier-Mail has a helpful checklist of the newly elected mayors, which it tells us is anticipated to incorporate: “A former bankrupt, an alleged drink driver, a climate presenter who as soon as performed a witch, and a former neighbour of musician Keith City.”