Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 24 September.
Top stories
More than one in four Australian federal ministers have gone on to work for a lobbyist firm, peak body or other special interest since 1990, a major new study has found. The Grattan Institute report, which investigated whether powerful interests were using lobbying, gifts, donations and special access to distort the democratic process, found Australia’s policymaking process was vulnerable to being hijacked by vested interests at the expense of the public. “Indeed, many of the ‘risk factors’ for policy capture – financial dependence, cosy relationships and lack of transparency in dealings between special interests and parliamentarians – are present in our system,” the report says.
The Grattan Institute tracked the career of 191 ministers and assistant ministers who have left parliament since 1990 and found about 28% ended up in lobbyist firms, peak bodies, big business or consulting firms. The report says Australians’ faith in their government is waning, and that the perception of corruption is increasingly widespread. It argues that the protections built into Australia’s political system to uphold integrity are either weak or waning. Investigative journalism is declining, the public service is being weakened and politicised, and a shrinking membership base in major parties is making them less representative and open to branch stacking.
Julie Bishop has warned that the Australian public views politicians as worse behaved than schoolchildren, blaming question time’s combative culture and also citing the Liberal leadership change as a cause for confusion about Australia’s direction. The former deputy Liberal leader made the comments to Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes last night, in a program in which another Turnbull ally – Craig Laundy – said calls for politicians to harden up and ignore bullying behaviour were “absolute rubbish”. Bishop said “it would make a difference” if parliament had a roughly 50-50 gender balance. “I believe that targets are an appropriate mechanism. It’s not the only mechanism but I have seen it work elsewhere.”
Bishop said that since the spill she has “had many calls from my counterpart foreign ministers who are very politely asking why I am no longer the foreign minister and what happened to the prime minister ... There have been some rather unkind comments about Australia being the Italy of the South Pacific and the coup capital of the world”.
Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused US supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, will testify before Congress on Thursday “despite actual threats to safety and life”. “Dr Ford believes it is important for senators to hear directly from her about the sexual assault committed against her,” a statement from Ford’s lawyers read. A number of other witnesses to the alleged assault would not be called, but Kavanaugh, who has denied the allegations, is expected to appear. Donald Trump, himself accused by at least 16 women of sexual misconduct, has offered his full support to Kavanaugh. In a series of Twitter posts on Friday, he described the judge as a “fine man, with an impeccable reputation” and attacked Ford’s credibility, asking: “Why didn’t someone call the FBI 36 years ago?”
Labor has promised it will ban childcare centres from offering inducements to lure parents into enrolling their children after reports of giveaways including iPads and $1,000 cash payments. The shadow early childhood education minister, Amanda Rishworth, will make an announcement on Monday, arguing that banning inducements will help protect parents from entering childcare arrangements that do not suit their children’s needs. There have been media reports of providers offering $1,000 cash, iPads and holidays on the Gold Coast in exchange for children being enrolled for a certain number of hours per fortnight.
The Coalition has increased its two-party-preferred vote by 2% in the latest Newspoll, a first step for Scott Morrison to pare back Labor’s election-winning lead in the wake of the Liberal leadership spill. One month after Morrison emerged the winner in a poisonous three-way leadership contest, the Newspoll, published on Monday, found the Liberal party has boosted its primary vote by 3% to 36% and now sits behind Labor 46% to 54% in two-party-preferred terms. The result represents a 4.4% swing to Labor since the 2016 election, which would lead to the government losing up to 20 seats if replicated in a general election, but is the first positive movement towards the Coalition since Morrison took over. The result is identical to the 54-46 two-party-preferred result recorded in the most recent Guardian Essential poll, which also showed Morrison leading Bill Shorten as preferred prime minister.
Sport
The AFL is set for grand final we’ll talk about for a long time. Collingwood were the underdogs on Friday night but outplayed Richmond, and West Coast laid waste to Melbourne in the other preliminary final. Only Wayne Carey now tops the Magpies’ 211cm Texan Mason Cox for most contested marks in a final.
If the NRL gods are kind, Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater will play in the grand final. But that’s the stuff of fairytales. Slater is out of contention for Melbourne Storm unless the game’s judiciary overturns or downgrades a charge, while Cronk of the Roosters could be out injured. Both tales involve shoulders. And both could see champion players watching Sunday’s grand final from sideline seats.
Thinking time
Since the start of this year, the power structure within News Corp has tilted towards Lachlan Murdoch. The empire it seems, will be his. So what will News Corp be like under Rupert Murdoch’s oldest son? Lachlan, 47, remains something of an enigma – he seldom speaks in public or grants interviews, despite running a major media company. The fourth part of our series on News Corp in Australia focuses on the forces likely to shape the Murdoch news empire post-Rupert.
Is Yayoi Kusama the world’s favourite artist? After spending the past four decades in a psychiatric hospital, her name written out of art history, Kusama became an art-world phenomenon in the age of the selfie with more than 5 million people queuing to see her exhibits. The 89-year-old Japanese artist has had large-scale solo shows of her work in Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Seoul, Taiwan and Chile, as well as major touring exhibitions in the US and Europe. So how did she do it?
“I’d rather die.” For many – particularly in light of the horror stories that have led to a royal commission – that’s a common reaction to any suggestion about going into aged care. But is there a new approach to this stage of life that offers alternatives and possibly even something to look forward to? Dr Mike Rungie from the Global Centre for Modern Ageing in Adelaide, says: “Research tells us that older Australians are increasingly rejecting services and types of care that underline their deficiencies and ignores the fact that while you might be 95, you feel like you are still 75.”
Media roundup
The Age reports that a second threatening letter has been sent to the SAS headquarters in Perth, warning them not to co-operate with an investigations into allegations of misconduct and war crimes by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. Federal police are investigating the latest threat. The Daily Telegraph reports that more than 200 registered child sex offenders are “missing” in NSW, having provided false addresses and information to police. The ABC travels to Whyalla in South Australia, a town that was on the brink of collapse before its steel workers agreed to take a 10% pay cut to save it. The full story airs on Australian Story tonight.
Coming up
Australian film-maker James Ricketson will give a media conference this morning in Sydney after being deported from Cambodia yesterday. Ricketson had been convicted of spying and sentenced to jail, but was pardoned and deported instead.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau will release the final report into the fatal aircraft accident that occurred at Essendon airport in Victoria on 21 February 2017, in which five people were killed.
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