Good morning, this is Mike Ticher bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 1 August.
Top stories
The federal government has bowed to pressure over My Health Record, confirming late on Tuesday night the legislation will be amended so no record can be released to police or government agencies without a court order. GPs and social services groups had called for changes to the data system to ensure it could be used only for medical purposes.
The prime minister had signalled the government would make “refinements” to the scheme, and Tuesday’s statement from the health minister, Greg Hunt, confirmed privacy protections would be added after “constructive discussions” with the Australian Medical Association and the college of general practitioners. “The Digital Health Agency’s policy is clear and categorical – no documents have been released in more than six years and no documents will be released without a court order,” Hunt said. “This will be enshrined in legislation. This change to the My Health Record Act will therefore remove any ambiguity on this matter.”
Facebook has removed 32 pages and accounts it believes may have been part of a Kremlin-backed attempt to influence the US midterm elections. The social network said it had detected “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” possibly linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian-based group with ties to the Kremlin. “It’s clear whoever set up these accounts went to much greater lengths to obscure their identities than the Internet Research Agency did in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election,” said Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg. The company’s head of cybersecurity said it didn’t have enough technical evidence to “state definitively” who was behind the pages, but they showed similar activity to known IRA accounts.
Barnaby Joyce has threatened to pull his support for the government’s national energy guarantee if it places emissions targets on the agriculture sector. The former National party leader told Sky News on Tuesday evening it was “nutcase stuff” that the 26% target for pollution in the electricity sector under the Neg would increase pressure on other sectors, including agriculture, if Australia was to comply with its international climate change commitment. Joyce railed against green groups and “well-intentioned, well-paid people in Giorgio Armani suits” who he said were leaving a bill for taxpayers. The Neg has also come under further pressure from the states, with Queensland joining Victoria in raising concerns about the process for approving it.
The “unstable and outmoded” distinction between university higher education and vocational courses in Australia would be abolished under a bold plan for a complete federal takeover of tertiary education proposed by advisory firm KPMG. The blueprint, released on Wednesday, proposes spending up to $2.4bn more a year to create a standardised national system of accredited courses and to restore the demand-driven system so that places in all forms of tertiary education could be uncapped. If adopted, the KPMG proposal would effectively reverse recent changes including the Coalition’s two-year freeze on commonwealth grants for university places and restrictions on student loans for vocational education.
A hybrid between a melon-headed whale and a rough-toothed dolphin has been seen for the first time in the ocean off Hawaii, but scientists have warned against calling it a “wholphin”. Despite its name, the melon-headed whale is technically a dolphin. “Calling it something like a wholphin doesn’t make any sense,” said Robin Baird, a Hawaii research biologist. “I think calling it a wholphin just confuses the situation more than it already is.” The animal spotted in August 2017 appears to be the first record of a hybrid involving either species.
Sport
The British sailor Tony Bullimore, who survived four days in the freezing ocean when his yacht capsized off Australia in 1997, has died at the age of 79. Bullimore became world famous after his extraordinary rescue, when he found an air pocket in the boat’s hull before being rescued by the frigate HMAS Adelaide.
The Western Bulldogs legend Bob Murphy says writing has given him a new path since his retirement from the AFL. “I loved [football], but I was restless in it,” he tells Kate O’Halloran. “When I started writing it gave me a sense of balance. It might sound pretentious but I like the discipline of it: not everyone can do it. As fun as it is sitting on a panel show talking football, you’re just talking shit ... I like that [writing] is treated like a craft.”
Thinking time
Australian leaders often stress the importance of the Anzus treaty between Australia and the United States, claiming it was better than nothing. But that’s a flawed assessment, writes Henry Reynolds. “A weak treaty like Anzus was, in fact, worse than no treaty at all. And there was no way to remedy the vast disproportion of power between the parties ... It meant that the Americans could always take the Australians for granted.”
Del Africa has been in a US jail for 40 years, since his photograph became one of the standout images of the 1970s black liberation struggle. He tells Ed Pilkington how he came to be standing on a Philadelphia sidewalk on 8 August 1978, half-naked and surrounded by angry police. In an attempt to evict his black revolutionary group, Move, hundreds of officers had stormed the building, pummelling it with water cannons and gunfire. In the maelstrom a police officer was killed. Janine Africa, now 62, was 22 at the time. She and other members of the group, also still in jail, remain committed to their beliefs. “When I think about what this system has done to me and my family, it makes me even more committed,” Africa says.
“Banter”, the catch-all excuse for terrible behaviour, has again been invoked in the UK as the spark for two horrific incidents. In Spain a group of tourists on a stag party allegedly paid a homeless man €100 to have the name of the stag tattooed on his face. And in the town of Bury St Edmunds, a group of teenage boys allegedly spat at a 49-year-old disabled woman, pelted her with eggs and covered her in flour before posing for triumphant selfies. There is an emptiness driving these sadistic stories that reveals a wider power imbalance, and reflects the boredom of the perpetrators’ lives as well as the vulnerability of the victims, writes Oscar Rickett.
What’s he done now?
Donald Trump has gone on a sprawling Twitter rampage overnight, turning on the billionaire Koch brothers, whose network has financed rightwing campaigns across the US, calling them “globalists”, a “total joke” and “highly overrated”. The US president also threatened a government shutdown over border security (“a very small price to pay for a safe and Prosperous America”), questioned the wisdom of allowing 3D printing of guns (which his administration has helped make available), predicted the media will be gone in seven years (“when I am no longer in office”) and wrapped up with a random shout-out to Rush Limbaugh (“a great guy who truly gets it!”).
Media roundup
The Age and Sydney Morning Herald report that independent schools have written a “blistering letter” to Malcolm Turnbull warning him not to strike a separate deal with the Catholic sector, raising the stakes again in the education funding wars.
The Daily Telegraph and other News Corp papers say the Labor MP Emma Husar, who is under investigation over bullying allegations, took a taxpayer-funded trip with a western Sydney police officer to watch Bruno Mars play in Queensland.
And the Herald-Sun gives its front page to a sad picture of the golfer Jarrod Lyle, who has announced that he is stopping active cancer treatment and returning to Australia “for his final fight” at the age of 36.
Coming up
The Senate inquiry into Australian content on broadcast, radio and streaming services will hold hearings in Sydney on Wednesday.
The deputy leader of the National party, Bridget McKenzie, will speak at the National Press Club on “shooting for success”.
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