The prime minister describes cash handouts as ‘cheap politics’

HOME AND AWAY

Money handouts to assist with the price of dwelling are little greater than “low cost politics and vastly costly economics”, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will say right this moment in a speech seen by The Australian ($). He says untargeted spending is the “short-term” method that bought us into this case — Treasurer Jim Chalmers will reportedly add that family funds (utilizing the tax receipt windfall) would’ve added half a per cent to our inflation within the subsequent yr alone. Yesterday the Reserve Financial institution forecast inflation would climb to eight% by December (up from 7.75%) whereas lifting the money price to a nine-year excessive (2.85%). And don’t assume we received’t do it once more, RBA governor Philip Lowe warned. Till our underlying inflation (it’s 6.1% proper now) halves to between 2-3%, rates of interest will proceed to rise. (Our underlying inflation is our inflation excluding the gadgets with the biggest value surge and falls, as Guardian Australia explains.) It means we may see price hikes into 2023, information.com.au provides.

And because the rate of interest climbs, the value of homes is tumbling on the quickest price for the reason that 2008 world monetary disaster, the ABC reviews, which is both an amazing factor or a crap factor, relying on whether or not you’re part of Australia’s landed gentry. You may get a mean home in Adelaide for about $703,000, in Brisbane $818,000 (that’s down 6.2% since peaking in June), in Canberra $991,000, in Darwin $588,000, in Hobart $755,000, in Melbourne $924,000 (that’s down 6.4% because it peaked in February), in Perth $584,000, and in Sydney $1.3 million (that’s down 10.2% since January’s peak). So what does yesterday’s 0.25% rise seem like in actual numbers for householders? When you have a $500,000 mortgage, it went up $74 a month, as per RateCity information. On a $750,000 mortgage, you’re forking out $112 extra a month, and on $1 million mortgage $149 extra a month. Certainly the overall additional dosh householders are paying since Could is $760, $1140 and $1520 for these above loans, respectively. Cripes.

COP THAT

Counter-terrorism police have visited the house of an environmental activist forward of a Sydney protest, Guardian Australia reviews, considered one of 30 individuals who have been visited by cops up to now week forward of the Worldwide Mining and Assets Convention. Brisbane-based Alister Ferguson, who’s on bail after he allegedly took half in a protest with Blockade Australia earlier this yr, posted a video of Queensland cops saying they had been there on the request of NSW police. They had been plain-clothed however armed with semi-automatic handguns, Guardian Australia provides. Ferguson says he had no intention of attending the protest, and advised the paper that in 30 years of environmental activism, his arrest and expenses earlier this yr had been the primary of its sort. In the meantime the NSW police watchdog is reopening an investigation into the previous high cop Mick Fuller’s undeclared racehorse shares, the ABC reviews. The broadcaster revealed in February that Fuller had probably breached the NSW authorities’s anti-corruption guidelines and the police code of conduct — Fuller’s horses had been owned partly by “senior police, sporting identities, media bosses and businessmen, together with two males who grew to become suspects in legal investigations”, the ABC lists. Initially, the Regulation Enforcement Conduct Fee (LECC) cleared Fuller, discovering “no substance” to the allegations — however the brand new inspector, Bruce McClintock, reckons it wants a re-evaluation.

In Victoria now and the data commissioner has acquired a document variety of complaints about Victoria Police’s large delays in responding to freedom of knowledge (FOI) requests, The Age ($) reviews. A brand new report reveals delays had risen from 27 weeks in March to 34 weeks — greater than eight months — in September, regardless that each FOI is meant to be accomplished inside a month. It’s the results of a employees scarcity, the commissioner discovered, although the act wants reviewing too. It comes as one in seven WA cops are working greater than 50 hours per week, The West ($) reviews, amid a dwindling workforce creating an surroundings of extra time, the union boss stated. The current census additionally discovered one in 10 detectives in WA are battling long-term psychological well being points.

NUCLEAR FAMILY

Overseas Affairs Minister Penny Wong will signal a cope with Thailand right this moment to counter human trafficking, the SMH reviews. She’ll meet with Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and comply with a brand new coaching centre to cope with trafficking, which is able to “develop a cadre of extremely certified and competent authorities officers”, Wong says. She flew to Thailand on Tuesday after assembly with the Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of the previous British protectorate, on Monday, and she or he’s headed to Brunei subsequent, Sky Information reviews. Wong’s pretty profitable tour of South-East Asia since Could has seen her go to eight international locations to this point.

It comes after Wong abstained from voting on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on the UN in New York, The Spectator reviews, in a tentative signal of progress after we voted no for the previous 5 years. It’s a landmark treaty that bans creating, testing, stockpiling, utilizing or threatening to make use of nuclear weapons — Wong says we stay dedicated to “the worldwide non-proliferation and disarmament regime”, as Guardian Australia reviews, so why did we abstain reasonably than vote sure? It could possibly be as a result of we see it as fruitless — not one of the nuclear weapon states has signed, and it may breach the US alliance obligations as a result of we depend on US nuclear forces to discourage any nuclear assault on Australia. To date 91 international locations have signed the treaty, however the US, Russia and China are all modernising their arsenals proper now.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

Eager golfers know the rule. You must play the ball the place it lands. Wherever it lands. And should you’re teeing off on Christmas Island, you understand which means wherever the hundreds of thousands of migrating crabs occur to maneuver your ball to on their method by means of. As much as 100 million attractive pink crustaceans have formally begun their spring backpacking journey throughout the little island to the ocean, which is simply 135 sq. kilometres in dimension (!!), as NZ Herald reviews. It occurs yearly because the moist season hits — someway, extremely, the crabs sync up with the cycle of the moon to work out when to go. All of it begins with the feminine crabs, who may give beginning to as much as 100,000 bubs every (ouch). The newborn crabs arrive on the island measuring a puny 5mm, in order that they largely go unnoticed. They mattress themselves down on the forest ground till they’re grown — as soon as the moon crescents, it’s time to move to the ocean to spawn themselves.

This Christmas Island crab pilgrimage is definitely the biggest of its sort on earth, the native tourism board says — certainly revered environmentalist Sir David Attenborough described it as one of many best TV experiences in his prolonged profession (take a look at his awe-inspiring phase right here). And the island has gone out of its approach to accommodate the little clawfoot bathers, even developing tunnels and bridges particularly for them to journey, together with throughout considered one of Christmas Island’s busiest roads. Residents are used to highway closures and site visitors detours round this time of yr as a sea of scuttling pink critters transfer as one in entrance of their eyes. And the tourism board is evident in its instruction to golfers: “Gamers should deal with the crabs as they might some other hazard. They can’t transfer them.” That normally means an extended stroll down the seaside to seek out your ball.

Wishing you a little bit surprise and awe about all of it right this moment.

SAY WHAT?

The expansion in banknote demand was largely pushed by the upper denominations, highlighting a need to carry money for precautionary or store-of-wealth functions. Money is more and more getting used for such functions reasonably than for transactions.

The Reserve Financial institution of Australia

That’s a flowery method of claiming individuals are burying money of their backyards forward of a looming recession. About two billion banknotes are in circulation after the RBA acquired fewer than regular in 2021-22, in response to the central financial institution’s newest annual report.

‘The good leveller’: Ukraine’s drones a game-changer in fashionable conflict

“So what in regards to the drones that made it by means of? Primarily based on open-source intelligence evaluation, the seaborne fighters are believed to be unmanned floor vessels (USVs) — much like the canoe-like contraptions that washed up close to Crimea in September. These come outfitted with a jet ski engine on the again, a Starlink satellite tv for pc terminal for distant management, a thermal imaging digital camera, and contacts on the entrance to activate a detonator.

“[Travis] Reddy’s learn is that somebody’s remotely piloting it, ‘in search of the targets of alternative’, finding a goal, homing in, getting shut sufficient, then detonating. From the sky, it was in all probability a ‘suicide’ drone that flies a ‘one-way mission’. These are the scale of a Coke can and function very similar to a flying hand grenade, that means the explosives are embedded into the gadget. When it detonates, the drone goes down with it.”

‘Medicalise the whole lot’: how progressives are implementing neoliberalism on well being

“That is the deepest underpinning of each public well being professional and each well being tutorial, most of whom would in all probability regard themselves as progressives preventing towards predatory, exploitive capitalism: they’re serving a neoliberal agenda. Don’t eat an excessive amount of, don’t drink an excessive amount of, keep wholesome, maximise your financial capability and your function as a producer and shopper, for the great of the financial system. It’s financial puritanism.

“Besides the grim fact is that so many people eat an excessive amount of, or drink an excessive amount of, or take leisure medication, or discover different issues to devour to numb ourselves, as a result of we discover late-stage capitalism so insupportable, as a result of we discover the calls for to be an ideal employee and shopper and citizen and associate and dad or mum and youngster an excessive amount of, as a result of we are able to’t see the purpose as a result of the fabric and psychological advantages of all which can be illusory and transient.”

7 tweets that map a really lengthy few days in Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover

“It hasn’t even been per week since Elon Musk acquired Twitter and already there have been high-profile layoffs, main platform adjustments flagged and lots of influential accounts divided over whether or not they are going to keep or go away. Right here’s what you might need missed over the previous 5 days as advised by a handful of tweets.

“After a really public six-month ‘will he, received’t he’ saga, the billionaire and Tesla CEO formally took management of Twitter on Thursday October 27 2022 in a US$44 billion deal. He introduced the takeover in a tweet claiming ‘the chook is freed’ — no capitalisation or punctuation, please — and altered his Twitter bio to ‘Chief Twit’. The tweet has 2.5 million likes to this point.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Brazil’s Bolsonaro to just accept election loss in speech to nation, says minister (Reuters)

Centre-left authorities hangs in steadiness as Denmark goes to the polls (EuroNews)

Italy’s right-wing authorities to criminalise raves (BBC)

Saudi Arabia, US on excessive alert after warning of imminent Iranian assault (The Wall Road Journal) ($)

Armenian PM Pashinyan in Iran after assembly with Putin, Aliyev (Al Jazeera)

Early turnout in Israel’s elections seems to be highest in 23 years (The New York Instances)

Sandbags on the prepared as [NZ] west coast braces for half a metre of rain in 24 hours (Stuff)

House Workplace is placing 2.6m EU residents prone to elimination, court docket hears (The Guardian)

Taylor Swift makes historical past as she takes over your complete US high 10 (BBC)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Rishi Sunak’s solely been in workplace for a number of days – and the errors are already piling up — Polly Toynbee (The Guardian): “His first nice blunder, knowingly achieved, was appointing Suella Braverman residence secretary. What can he have been pondering? What Keir Starmer referred to as a ‘grubby deal’ boomeranged again inside days. She will probably be nothing however bother, together with her unravelling account of her leak to right-wing allies. Her adamant pledge to chop web immigration to an unimaginable ‘tens of 1000’s’ shuns details: greater than 270,000 folks arrived within the yr to March 2022, primarily with visas, whereas folks arriving in small boats are a small however — because of the media — disproportionately seen minority … However she will probably be gone and forgotten quickly. Sunak’s dreadful error in refusing to attend COP27 is a much more critical act of political and ethical stupidity. The insouciant vanity of telling Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron that he’s busy, as if that they had no ‘urgent home points’, ignores how a lot he wants them.

“He squanders the residual goodwill of the COP26 management, the one remaining shard of the UK’s diminished repute, battered since Brexit by Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. Banning the king from COP27 seems clumsy. Information that Sunak may make a U-turn sprint to Egypt having learnt that Johnson could go seems panicky. If he solely stays for a quick grip-and-grin, that too will offend. His downgrading of the local weather disaster and elimination of Alok Sharma from the cupboard is not only disgraceful, however politically clumsy: he’s been warned that the correct in Australia misplaced energy after failing to take enough motion on the local weather disaster. Whereas Sunak opposes onshore wind, with tax breaks for oil exploration, Labour’s inexperienced prosperity plan and Nice British Power firm to put money into renewables is proving common and has been spontaneously talked about in focus teams.”

If strolling residence from college together with his mates is the ‘mistaken place’, the place is the correct place? — Brooke Boney (WA At this time): “Sure, folks ought to be taking to the streets. Sure, folks ought to be demanding justice. However when a grown man can allegedly beat a black youngster to demise and the response from legislation enforcers is that this youngster was within the ‘mistaken place, mistaken time’, whereas he was WALKING HOME FROM SCHOOL WITH HIS FRIENDS, then the place is the correct place? When is the correct time? What number of editorials from Stan Grant, from Tony Armstrong, from any one of many unbelievable Black journalists, audio system or teachers is it going to take so that you can see us for who we’re, to see our youngsters for who they could possibly be? If a Black youngster can’t stroll residence from college with out worry then this isn’t a civil society. That is lawlessness. That is barbaric. That is shameful.

“There’s nothing that may come from this that looks like justice. There’s no aid or lesson that may be taught after one thing so horrific. As a result of there it’s for everybody to see and for many to disregard. Combating or resisting a system that enables this to occur is like swimming towards the tide. As somebody who’s eternally hopeful, it hurts to say this, but it surely feels futile. What am I imagined to say to younger folks after I go and discuss to them in colleges? You may volunteer on the native radio station and supply to mow folks’s lawns however there’s nonetheless an opportunity you possibly can allegedly be mistaken for a legal and bludgeoned to demise on the way in which residence from college since you’re within the mistaken place on the mistaken time? How can we rationalise that?”

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WHAT’S ON TODAY

Ngunnawal Nation (often known as Canberra)

Whadjuk Noongar Nation (often known as Perth)

• WA Minister for Regional Improvement, Agriculture and Meals, and Hydrogen Trade Alannah MacTiernan will discuss making a extra sustainable and diversified financial system within the Collie area, at a breakfast held by CEDA.

Kulin Nation Nation (often known as Melbourne)

• Writers, performers, and artists together with Maxine Beneba Clarke, Lionel Fogarty, Chloé Hayden, Missy Higgins. Eryn Jean Norvill, Anne Summers, and Clare Bowditch will open the Spring Fling, at Melbourne City Corridor.

Eora Nation Nation (often known as Sydney)

• Journalist Paddy Manning will chat about his new ebook, The Successor, at Glee Books.