WHO COMES HERE — AND WHY
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus have not corresponded with the US about Julian Assange for more than six months, according to a freedom of information request, that is. Former senator and transparency advocate Rex Patrick says FOIs to both offices about the Australian came up empty, despite the Albanese government’s announcement of a media freedom roundtable. Independent MP Monique Ryan says it stinks. She asked Albanese in Parliament last year about Assange, and his answer provided a “glimmer of hope” for Assange supporters, as Patrick wrote for Michael West Media. Ryan continued that Assange’s predicament was “a major threat to press freedom around the world” yet the evidence shows we’ve not asked about him in a long time. It comes as former British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, and US public intellectual Noam Chomsky all testified on Friday in Washington, DC, to call for US President Joe Biden to drop the charges against Assange, Democracy Now reports.
Meanwhile, a rather different case of someone hoping to enter our shores. US rapper Kanye West (who changed his name to Ye) should be barred from coming to Australia, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton told 3AW. It comes after West’s snap “wedding” to Melbourne architect Bianca Censori — the Herald Sun says he wants to meet her family. But West’s apparent unravelling in the past few months has seen him praise Adolf Hitler, spruik far-right conspiracies and insult Jewish people, among other things. The SMH reports the Executive Council of Australian Jewry has written to Immigration Minister Andrew Giles (who wouldn’t say if West had applied for an entry visa) saying the rapper has huge sway over people and he’d probably rant about anti-Semitism here too. We have blocked an anti-Semite before, a former immigration department official told the paper, but unlike West, that person was formally charged over a Holocaust denial. It comes as a man accused of killing 24-year-old Cairns woman Toyah Cordingley will be extradited from India to Australia to stand trial for her murder, the ABC reports.
THORPEDOING THE VOICE
Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe says an advisory body that has parliamentary power over it is a “joke”, The Australian ($) reports. It’s still not clear whether the Greens will support the Voice to Parliament (we should find out after the partyroom meeting in February), but Thorpe claims the “top-down” approach will mean grassroots voices wouldn’t be heard. Thorpe has long advocated for a treaty before — or maybe even instead of — the Voice (and, to be fair, we are centuries behind countries like Canada on that one), but it is unwittingly aligning her with conservative staunch No campaigners like Andrew Bolt. Bolt urged Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to oppose it on principle on Sky News, with the host saying he doesn’t know why the Liberals can’t say “no to racism”, an argument that requires Olympic-level mental gymnastics to understand, but anyway.
It comes as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has backed the NT government’s three-month ban on buying takeaway alcohol in Alice Springs on Mondays and Tuesdays (and it can be purchased only between 3pm and 7pm on other days). The NT’s Chief Minister Natasha Fyles also announced takeaways would be one transaction for each person each day, which comes after a surge in “alcohol-fuelled youth violence” in Alice Springs, as The Australian ($) puts it. It’s a tough one, Albo said — we need to treat people with respect; we can’t just steamroll in with sweeping restrictions. Indigenous elders are cautiously optimistic about Fyles’ and Albanese’s approach, Guardian Australia says, but urged people to listen to community leaders. Since bans on alcohol in Indigenous communities were lifted in July, property offences have jumped almost 60%, according to the NT cops.
LIMPING KANGAROO
The nosedive of our national spirit continues after the seventh Qantas plane in a week ran into trouble. An hour-long flight from Perth to Kalgoorlie was forced to land after a mechanical issue, news.com.au reports, and was ultimately delayed three hours, much to the chagrin of the 100 people on board. On Monday, an Adelaide-to-Perth flight was 45 minutes in when it turned around because of incomplete paperwork, and an Auckland-to-Sydney flight issued a mayday call (downgraded later) after an unsettling engine failure last week. Then there was a Qantas plane headed from Fiji to Sydney that turned around after crew noticed smoke in the cabin on Sunday. Cripes. But one former pilot waved it all away. Richard de Crespigny said things go wrong all the time, and “a lot of them are not that important”.
It comes as Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke will front court alongside the Transport Workers’ Union, Guardian Australia reports. The union is battling Qantas as it tries to overturn a ruling that found the airline illegally outsourced 1700 ground-handlers’ jobs. Burke filed a notice of appearance on January 16 to intervene in the case. Qantas has long argued the decision was all about the money, saving it about $100 million annually, but pundits say it’s about more than that. It’s about the rights of workers, in an era of industrial reform from the government. “This is a matter that will affect many Australians into the future,” Labor Senator Tony Sheldon said.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
What is it about the lure of a queue? As soon as one sees three or more people standing in a line (that seems to be some sort of magic number) some deeply bedded sense of curiosity is piqued in the human brain. “Why are they waiting? How long have they been waiting? How long will they keep waiting?” The New York Times’ Dodai Stewart asks urgently. “And most urgent: what do they know that I don’t?” The power of the queue is so potent that you can even hire people to line up at your shop or café just to make sure passersby slow down to see what the fuss is about. Recently Stewart set out to discover why so many people in the Big Apple are standing in a line. It’s kind of at odds with big city life, where folks are constantly and unerringly late for a very important date, and even more curious in the dead of winter. “Whatever it is, it must be important enough to risk the pain of numb toes,” she says.
At 7am in Brooklyn, it’s a line-up for croissants, which won’t shock anyone familiar with Melbourne’s Lune Croissanterie. One frank queuer told Stewart, “I’m French,” as if that settles it. In NoHo, it’s a queue for a cream-filled round croissant (I’m detecting a pattern here) that costs the equivalent of $13.50 (!). When a harried worker emerged to warn that the creamy filling was made with pork gelatin, at least five “stylish young women” stalked off from the line. In SoHo, less happy line-waiters. One guy told Stewart he couldn’t even pronounce the name of the shop, and after they finally got a chance to browse, some items were too cool to even include a price tag. “I hated being in there,” one despondent former queuer said. In the East Village, folks were lining up for cancellation tickets for a show starring Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe (no, not the nude-next-to-a-horse one). But a surprisingly tender moment unfolded when one person quietly admitted to Stewart: “I enjoy a line,” continuing that, “I almost always meet people.”
Hoping you appreciate the journey and the destination today.
Just a heads up that there’ll be no Worm tomorrow, folks. Warmly wishing you a reflective day.
SAY WHAT?
Weight will change but evil people will remain evil. I am here, fighting for all those out there being abused, fat shamed … I can’t change the world but I am going to continue speaking up, calling this behaviour out, using my platform for something good and to support other people out there and to give others a voice and try to make others feel less alone and scared.
Jelena Dokic
The former Australian tennis champ and Australian Open commentator says she can’t believe the “insane” insults hurled at her lately, including that she was a “whale”, “tubby”, and that she “needed to cut back on the snacks”. Dokic posted some of the vitriol online, adding: “Kindness and being a good person matters … size shouldn’t matter.”
CRIKEY RECAP
Should we abolish Australia Day awards?
“In years gone by, as Crikey has reported, senior honours were handed to friends of the Coalition government at a dizzying rate. Our trawl through the awards made to politicians in the Australia Day and Queen’s birthday honours of 2019 and 2020 showed that out of a total of 62 honours 42 went to Liberal or National party figures while 20 went to ALP and independents.
“This means two-thirds of all gongs went to conservative parliamentarians. There was a large difference in the distribution, too. In the most prestigious categories, the AC and the AO, Liberal and National party grandees received 14 of 18 awards.”
‘This is about protecting art’: why this climate protester spray-painted a McCubbin painting
“She was arrested on-site at the Art Gallery of Western Australia and charged with ‘criminal damage or destruction of property’. As well as tagging the piece in bright yellow, Partyka glued her hands to the gallery’s walls while Ballardong Noongar man Desmond Blurton rolled out an Aboriginal flag, made an Acknowledgement of Country, and detailed the destruction of historical and cultural First Nations heritage at the hands of Woodside.
“Partyka did not dispute the charges but told Crikey she rejected the characterisation of the action as defacing art. The 1889 painting was protected by perspex and came out unscathed.”
The Lewinsky scandal, Clinton’s worst failing, ushered in an ugly era of US politics
“These days, two of the legs of Clinton’s policy stool have broken off. Big government is back, thanks in large part to the pandemic and its spending agenda which is hard to shake, and free trade has been reshaped into a narrower policy of ‘friend shoring’ and a kind of creative protectionism. Industry policy is definitely in vogue these days.
“Perhaps one of the key things in Clinton’s legacy is something acknowledged but seldom adopted by his successors: his best on ground communication skills …Of course, the Clinton years were stained by the Lewinsky scandal. An affair with a White House intern — seen as a matter of lying and not so much a gross abuse of power in a workplace relationship that couldn’t be more imbalanced …”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Colombia shifts strategy in drug war away from coca eradication (Al Jazeera)
Ukraine purges officials and governors in biggest shake-up of war (Reuters)
Campaigners criticise Japan firm selling whale meat from vending machines (The Guardian)
At least seven dead in California’s second mass shooting in three days (The Washington Post) ($)
Jacinda Ardern makes one final journey as PM, Hipkins, Sepuloni prepare for first day in the job (NZ Herald)
Tanks for Ukraine: Polish PM urges German bravery on Leopard 2 decision (BBC)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Is Australia Day the only thing on the calendar past its use-by date — Nick Bryant (The SMH) ($): “To my English eyes, choosing January 26 as Australia Day has not only seemed hard-hearted but bizarre, for the simple reason it marks the moment of British colonisation when the Union flag was first hoisted over Sydney Cove. This should be a problematic anniversary for post-colonial Britain, still more so for modern, multicultural Australia. Even in 1935, when all the states first decided to celebrate Australia Day, it should already have been regarded as a historical anachronism in a fledging Federation looking to assert itself on its own terms.
“Coming to live in Sydney for the first time more than a decade ago after being posted for a number of years in Delhi made this public holiday even more incongruous. In India, January 26 is Constitution Day, the anniversary of when the country’s foundational charter came into effect, reaffirming its independence from the British Raj. Axiomatically, any national day that alienates, offends and traumatises a significant portion of a country’s population is not a national day. That January 26, and its murderous and often genocidal colonial aftermath, continues to cause so much anguish to the descendants of the original custodians of the land is reason alone to banish it. ”
China in decline a greater danger to the global order — Dave Sharma (The Australian) ($): “When it comes to national power, demography might not be everything, but in the long run it’s almost everything. China’s untrammelled rise as a major economic and strategic power has been the main structural driver of the global order these past three decades, reshaping trading patterns, diplomatic alliances and the centre of world gravity. China’s rise has been driven by economic reform and opening, but also by favourable demography — a growing and urbanising working-age population.
“But as recent Chinese census data reveals, this demographic tailwind has now gone into reverse. China’s population fell in 2022, for the first time since 1961, dropping by 850,000 to 1.41 billion. This is no statistical blip. It reflects a steady drop in China’s birth rate, prompted at first by the introduction of the one-child policy in 1980, and since driven by higher household incomes and the accompanying tendency toward smaller families and having children later. Steps to relax the one-child policy, by raising the limit to two in 2016 and then three in 2021, and state incentives to have more children, have failed to reverse this trend. China’s fertility rate is now 1.18 children per female, lower than many Western countries and lower even than Japan. This matters globally for three reasons.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Ngunnawal Country (also known as Canberra)
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Associate professor at the Centre for Social Sciences, Southern University of Science and Technology Jinghong Zhang will speak at a seminar exploring Gongfu tea’s impact on traditional and cosmopolitan consumption in everyday China, held at the ANU.
