Contemporary politics,local and international current affairs, science, music and extracts from the Queensland Newspaper "THE WORKER" documenting the proud history of the Labour Movement.
MAHATMA GANDHI ~ Truth never damages a cause that is just.
Donald
Trump’s promise to pardon supporters who attacked the US Capitol on
January 6 2021 was “the stuff of dictators”, Richard Nixon’s White House
counsel warned.
“If
I run and if I win,” he said, referring to the 2024 presidential
election, “we will treat those people from January 6 fairly. We will
treat them fairly. And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons
because they are being treated so unfairly.”
More
than 700 people have been charged in connection with the Capitol
attack, around which seven people died as Trump supporters tried to stop
certification of his election defeat, in service of his lie that it was
caused by electoral fraud.
Eleven members of
the far-right Oath Keepers militia have been charged with seditious
conspiracy. Trump himself was impeached for inciting the riot. Ten House
Republicans voted to impeach but Trump was acquitted when only seven
Republican senators found him guilty. That left him free to run for
office again.
John Dean, 83, was White House counsel from 1970 to 1973 before being disbarred and detained as a result of the Watergate scandal, which led to Nixon’s resignation in 1974. Dean responded to Trump on Twitter.
“This is beyond being a demagogue to the stuff of dictators,” he wrote.
“He is defying the rule of law. Failure to confront a tyrant only
encourages bad behaviour. If thinking Americans don’t understand what
Trump is doing and what the criminal justice system must do we are all
in big trouble!”
Trump was generous with
pardons in office, recipients including Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn,
both now targets of the House committee investigating January 6. On
Sunday morning, the New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu, widely seen as a
relative moderate in Trump’s Republican party, was asked if pardons
should be offered to Capitol rioters.
“Of course not,” he told CNN’s State of the Union. “Oh, my goodness. No.”
Even Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina senator and dogged Trump ally, said the former president was wrong.
“I
don’t want to send any signals that it was OK to defile the Capitol,”
he told CBS’s Face the Nation. “I want to deter what people did on
January 6, and those who did it, I hope they go to jail and get the book
thrown at them because they deserve it.”
But a moderate Republican senator, Susan Collins of Maine, indicated the hold Trump has on the party.
Appearing
on ABC’s This Week, she said Trump should not “have made that pledge to
do pardons. We should let the judicial process proceed.”
Collins
voted to convict Trump over the Capitol attack. But she would not say
that she would not support him if he ran for president again.
“Well
certainly it’s not likely given the many other qualified candidates
that we have, that have expressed interest in running,” she said. “So
it’s very unlikely.”
Trump dominates polling concerning potential Republican nominees for 2024.
Others deplored Trump’s words in Texas.
Richard Painter, a White House ethics counsel under George W Bush, said
the promise of pardons should, constitutionally speaking, stop Trump
running for a second White House term.
“This alone is giving aid or comfort to an insurrection within the meaning of the 14th amendment, section three,” Painter wrote. “Trump is DISQUALIFIED from public office.”
Trump
also complained about investigations of his business and political
affairs which have landed him legal jeopardy. On Sunday, Graham, whose
actions in support of Trump are being investigated by a district
attorney in Georgia, said he would cooperate if asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “Give me a call.”
But
he also complained about a supposed “effort here to use the law, I
think inappropriately. So I don’t know what they’re going to do in
Fulton county [Georgia]. I don’t know what the January 6 committee is
going to do. I expect those who defile the Capitol to be prosecuted. But
there’s a political movement using the law to try to knock Trump out of
running. And I, particularly, don’t like it or appreciate it.”
“If
these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or
illegal,” he said, “I hope we are going to have in this country the
biggest protests we have ever had in Washington DC, in New York, in
Atlanta and elsewhere, because our country and our elections are
corrupt.”
Prosecutors, he said, were “trying to
put me in jail. These prosecutors are vicious, horrible people. They’re
racists and they’re very sick. They’re mentally sick. They’re going
after me without any protection of my rights by the supreme court or
most other courts.”
Glenn Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor now a legal anaylst for NBC, said:
“Trump is not only encouraging his supporters to violence if he’s
arrest[ed], he’s also signaling that he’ll pardon them, just as he’ll
pardon the [January 6] insurrectionists.
“Will this finally move prosecutors to hold him accountable for his crimes?”
US
coalmining giant Peabody Energy has repeatedly submitted incorrect
greenhouse gas emissions reports to the Australian government, prompting
questions about the reliability of national climate data based on
company assessments.
The Clean Energy Regulator
found Peabody had a history of filing inaccurate reports required under
the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act due to calculation
errors, poor record-keeping and inconsistent data collection and
analysis.
The mistakes
were in both directions, leading to significant under- and
over-reporting of emissions from the underground Wambo coalmine in New
South Wales. The total error was large – when added up, out by more than
51% of the total emissions from the site – but the under- and
over-reporting largely cancelled each other out. It meant the submitted
total was 5.4% lower than what it should have been.
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Peabody
is the fifth-biggest coalminer in Australia, owning two thermal
coalmines (used for electricity generation) and five metallurgical
coalmines (for steelmaking). The company has agreed to hire an external
consultant to compile its emissions reports using industry best-practice
reporting methodologies, and to commission an independent auditor to
examine its mines and other facilities.
Annica
Schoo, the lead environmental investigator at the Australian
Conservation Foundation, said there were “more and more examples” of
companies submitting emissions data that did not stand up to scrutiny.
It follows Dutch scientists examining satellite imagery and finding the
amount of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, leaking from some Queensland
coalmines was greater than has been reported.
Schoo
said the company reports lodged with the regulator were used to help
fulfil Australia’s international obligations under several treaties,
including the Paris climate agreement, and as part of the government’s
annual projections of future emissions.
“The
accuracy of this data is critical to getting on top of the climate
crisis. The lack of care Peabody has shown is completely unacceptable,”
she said.
In
response to questions, the regulator said there were no broader
concerns about the accuracy of emissions data submitted to the
government, and ensuring the data was accurate was “an enduring
compliance and enforcement priority”. Emissions reports were reviewed
and assessed, and that assessments drew upon a range of information
sources, it said.
A
spokesperson for Peabody said the company understood the importance of
accurately capturing and reporting emissions and had “at all times
genuinely sought” to act in compliance with the act.
“The
reporting issues identified were completely unintentional and the
result of calculation errors, which we have taken immediate actions to
rectify,” they said.
“An independent expert
auditor has thoroughly reviewed our systems. We have already acted on
many of his recommendations and our processes will be regularly reviewed
to embed necessary improvements.”
Schoo said
the regulator had “done the right thing” by requiring Peabody to address
its emissions reporting but it was a concern that it was the first
compliance action of its type since the safeguard mechanism – which was
promised to prevent increases in industrial emissions but in practice often hasn’t – was introduced in 2016.
Richie Merzian, the climate and energy program director with the Australia Institute, said the “enforceable undertakings” agreed by Peabody following the reporting failures were an example of the regulator being “all bark and no bite”.
“We are left with rising emissions from Australia’s major polluters, enabled by loose reporting requirements,” he said.
What
is the cost to athletes and sports of accepting money from an
influential denier of global warming? And what is the cost to our
planet?
Gina
Rinehart with swimming greats Kieren Perkins and Dawn Fraser at the
2019 Australian Short Course Swimming Championships. Hancock Prospecting
has signed on as a major partner of the Australian Olympic Committee.
That is the question on the lips of many Australian athletes
following the announcement on Friday that Rinehart’s Hancock
Prospecting was becoming a major partner of the Australian Olympic
Committee (AOC) in a four-year deal. Just days after being appointed an
Officer of the Order of Australia for, among other things, her
distinguished service “to sport as a patron”,
Rinehart has increased her already considerable involvement with
Australian Olympic sport. But at a time of growing athlete activism
around climate action, the appropriateness of the AOC lending its social
licence to Rinehart and Hancock Prospecting is in doubt.
In
2020, the AOC became a signatory to the United Nations Sports for
Climate Action Framework. “We will certainly be advocating with our
stakeholders the importance of conserving vital resources, reducing and
recycling waste, promoting environmental stewardship and tackling global
warming,” an AOC spokesperson said last month, prior to the deal being
announced. Have they told Rinehart, who has called climate science “propaganda”?
In
recent years, the 67-year-old has poured money into Australian Olympic
sports. Her annual contribution across swimming, rowing, volleyball and
artistic (synchronised) swimming is estimated to exceed $10m,
even before Friday’s announcement (an AOC spokesperson refused to put a
dollar figure on the new deal). Hancock Prospecting billboards dominate
Australian swim meets, while Rowing Australia’s high performance centre
in Penrith is named after the iron ore miner. The sports often describe
Rinehart as their “patron” in official communications and have awards
and events in her honour.
The
billionaire’s choice of sports is noteworthy. Although swimming and
rowing are both major contributors to the Australia’s Olympic medal
tally, neither – nor volleyball or artistic swimming – is a commercial
heavyweight. Despite all four receiving federal government support to
varying extents (swimming is the best-funded, at over $9m this year), athletes do not typically enjoy the professional salaries commonplace in other elite sports.
Rinehart, whose wealth is estimated at $31bn, has sought to fill this gap. She provides at least $1.4m annually to rowing,
which goes to a weekly wage of $525 for the top 50 Australian rowers.
Rinehart has a similar arrangement with swimming, providing salary-style
funding for athletes across three tiers, with the highest-tier
receiving about $32,000 per year.
“I don’t say this lightly, but Gina Rinehart saved swimming,” veteran Cate Campbell told the Australian Financial Review
during last year’s Tokyo Olympics, where she won two gold medals. “Gina
Rinehart stepped in [after sponsors had withdrawn funding in 2012]. She
made funds available that went directly to athletes. This allowed many
athletes – myself included – to see that there was a future career in
swimming for us.”
Following the successful
Tokyo 2020 campaign, Rinehart gifted earrings, designed by the magnate
herself and made by Australian jeweller Paspaley, to female athletes in
each of the sports she supports. Male athletes received Apple laptops.
“The ongoing generosity of Mrs Rinehart in support of these Olympic and
Paralympic teams is incredible,” Liberal senator Hollie Hughes told parliament in November,
updating the Senate on Rinehart’s post-Tokyo gifting spree. “So many
athletes are able to reach their dreams because of her support.”
Rinehart’s
annual funding is equivalent to about one-tenth of the Australian
Institute of Sport’s total high performance investment allocation this
financial year. Underscoring the significance of her involvement,
Rinehart-funded sports accounted for 11 of the nation’s 17 Olympic golds
in Tokyo and 26 of Australia’s total haul of 46 medals.
In a video published on Rinehart’s website,
Swimming Australia’s stars sung the praises of their benefactor
following the Games. “You have been our number one cheerleader every
step of the way,” Campbell said. Two-time bronze medallist in Tokyo,
Alex Graham, added: “Without your support, of course, none of it would
have been possible – and we are extremely grateful.” Other swimmers to
feature in the video included Bronte Campbell, Jess Hansen and Ellie
Cole.
Clear climate views
So
what? What does it matter if Australia’s richest citizen chooses to
splash her largesse on otherwise underfunded sports? If Australia’s
swimmers, rowers and volleyballers can train full time thanks to
Rinehart’s funding, and wear pearl earrings on nice occasions, all the
better? And surely a major funding boost for the AOC can only be a good
thing?
Alongside her sporting passions,
Rinehart has been outspoken in her views on climate change and continues
to support climate change denial. In 2018, it emerged in legal proceedings
that Hancock Prospecting had donated almost $5m to the Institute of
Public Affairs, a conservative thinktank that has consistently promoted
global warming scepticism. She also admitted to bringing prominent
climate change sceptics Lord Christopher Monckton and Prof Ian Plimer to
address students at a high school after learning that they had been
shown Al Gore’s climate film An Inconvenient Truth.
In a speech in November,
Rinehart described Australia’s official attendance at the Cop26 climate
summit in Glasgow as a “waste [of] taxpayers’ money” and mocked the
job-creating potential of renewable energy. “I know the miles of solar
panels will need wiping to be effective, and the millions of dead bats
and birds – lives claimed by wind power infrastructure – will need
collecting and burying,” she said. (While wind turbines do impact
wildlife, fossil fuel production – and domestic cats – kill far more birds.)
Rinehart is also an influential backer of the National party. She hosted deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce’s first fundraiser
following his return to the leadership, and has previously flown Joyce
to a wedding in India on a private jet. In 2017, Rinehart gave Joyce a
personal cheque for $40,000 at a gala dinner, although he returned the money following criticism. The Nationals, as is well known, are the major blockers of climate action in the governing Liberal-National coalition. Joyce is believed to have opposed the Morrison government’s net zero by 2050 target.
Australia’s Olympic team are farewelled by Gina Rinehart as they leave for the Tokyo Olympics. Photograph: Brian Cassey/AAP
All
of which sits uneasily with the growing climate activism of Australian
athletes and sports. The Campbell sisters are among the hundreds of
athletes to have joined the Cool Down initiative, championed by David
and Emma Pocock, which seeks to use sporting profile to promote climate
action. “If climate action was the Olympics, Australia isn’t winning
gold, we’re not making the finals, in fact, we don’t even qualify,” its website says.
In 2021, the Climate Council, a leading Australian climate NGO, published a report
on sport and climate change, titled Game, Set, Match: Calling Time on
Climate Inaction. Among the high-profile athletes to speak out following
the report’s release were Bronte Campbell, Australian cricket captain
Pat Cummins, surfer Adrian Buchan and AFLW star Sharni Layton.
“Australia’s
summer of sport is under threat from climate change,” Dr Martin Rice,
the Climate Council’s head of research, told Guardian Australia.
“Climate change, driven by the burning of coal, oil and gas, is
worsening extreme weather events and disrupting Australian sport. By
2040, heatwaves in Sydney and Melbourne could reach highs of 50C,
threatening the viability of summer sport as it is currently played.
“Sport
is a powerful force for climate solutions,” Rice continued. “When it
comes to sponsorship, professional and community sports should switch
from fossil fuel-backed companies to ones that invest in climate
solutions.”
Ongoing relationships
Rinehart is not alone in both sponsoring sport and resisting climate action. Oil and gas company Santos is a major sponsor of the Tour Down Under cycling
and the Wallabies, while Adani – which is currently developing the
Carmichael coalmine, expected to cause 200m tonnes of carbon dioxide
emissions – has its logo on the sleeve of the North Queensland Cowboys. Woodside, which in December signalled its intent to proceed with a gas development that will release 1.37bn tonnes of CO2, has been the Fremantle Dockers’ major sponsor for over a decade. Former Wallabies captain Pocock recently described fossil fuel sponsorship as “the new cigarette sponsorship.”
But
Rinehart’s involvement is closer, more personal and now, following the
AOC deal, even more high-profile. She and her company are not just
engaging in a transactional commercial sponsorship, but buying an
intimate relationship with these sports and athletes. Her personal gifts
to Olympians is indicative of that atypical involvement. By directly
paying athlete wages, often bypassing the national sporting organisation
entirely, Rinehart has also secured an ongoing relationship less easily
replaced by traditional sponsorships.
Cate
Campbell, in her video message to Rinehart, noted that the billionaire
had personally travelled to Cairns to farewell the team before they
departed for Tokyo. “Seeing you waving us off as we took off to go and
take on the world in Tokyo gave us that little bit of extra motivation
that we needed to take on the best in the world,” said the four-time
Olympian. Rinehart has also reportedly become close with silver
medal-winning beach volleyballer Taliqua Clancy, who told The Australian newspaper
“Mrs Rinehart has been amazing ... and with her support our journey to
this point has been possible. We have missed her in Tokyo.”
Guardian
Australia sought comment from Swimming Australia, Rowing Australia,
Artistic Swimming Australia, Volleyball Australia and the Australian
Olympic Committee. The sports were asked whether their acceptance of
Rinehart’s support might inhibit athletes from pursuing climate
activism, whether the organisations had a position on climate action and
net zero, and why they had not signed up to the Cool Down
(organisational signatories include the AFL Players Association and
Professional Footballers Association, but no major sporting peak
bodies).
Gina Rinehart at the 2019 Australian Short Course Swimming Championships in Melbourne. Photograph: Sean Garnsworthy/AAP
A
spokesperson for Swimming Australia said that it does not currently
receive any direct financial support from Hancock Prospecting or
Rinehart. Hancock Prospecting was previously a significant sponsor of
Swimming Australia, including as a headline sponsor for major events
(the company’s signage was prominently poolside at the Olympic trials
earlier this year). Guardian Australia understands that the underlying
commercial agreement was not renewed. “Our athletes often voice their
opinions on issues they feel passionately about, including climate
action,” the spokesperson said.
The AOC
confirmed that, prior to Friday’s deal, neither it nor its foundation
had received any financial support from Rinehart or Hancock Prospecting.
However, in 2014, Rinehart was awarded the AOC’s Order of Merit. An AOC
spokesperson said: “We have no concerns [about athletes being
silenced]. Athletes with strongly held convictions on important issues
are entitled to express their views with the same freedom as any
individual.”
None of the other sporting
organisations replied to requests for comment. Guardian Australia also
unsuccessfully sought comment from Cate and Bronte Campbell via their
agent.
In
a statement published by the AOC following Friday’s announcement,
Rinehart said “our company has been a long-term supporter of the summer
Olympic sports of artistic swimming, rowing and volleyball for many
years, and specifically over 30 years for swimming. We are so proud to
help our great Olympians who are such inspirations, through their hard
work, most do not really know how hard they work, dedication, focus and
self-discipline, as they endeavour to represent our country to the best
of their ability. The traits these role models show in my view, are
important for us all, if we wish to succeed in life and business.”
Steadfast support
With the new AOC deal and the2032
Olympics confirmed for Brisbane, Rinehart’s involvement in Australian
sport is only likely to grow. The billionaire has been a conspicuous
presence at a number of events in Queensland celebrating the successful
bid. Rinehart made headlines
at an Olympic lunch in late November, where she appeared alongside the
likes of Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, for her presentation
complaining about the lack of facilities to moor her superyacht along
the Queensland coast.
“I am booked into Paris [2024 Olympics] for all four sports that I am involved in,” she told The Australian newspaper
following an Olympic-themed Property Council event last year. “I have
been asked to continue to Los Angeles [2028]. You never know I am an
elderly vintage but I rather hope I am around for 2032 as well.” She
confirmed that intent on Friday, expressing her desire to “continue this
all the way until and including Brisbane 2032”.
Athletes and officials from Australia’s team for the Tokyo Olympics are farewelled by Gina Rinehart at Cairns airport. Photograph: Brian Cassey/AAP
Rinehart
may be steadfast in her support for Australian Olympic sport. But
unless her position on climate action evolves, the sports and athletes
that accept her funding will face an increasingly acute dilemma. What is
the cost, to athletes and sports, of accepting money from an
influential denier of global warming? And what is the cost to our
planet?
Last winter, the iconic Manly beach had
been left battered following a major storm – the kind that now hits
with greater frequency and eroding force. On the disturbed sand stood
askew sponsorship banners for Hancock Prospecting, the mining company
owned by Rinehart, surrounding a beach volleyball court. The
juxtaposition was stark. Friday’s deal only underscores the dissonance.
When increasing heat impacts Summer Olympics and a lack of snow sours
Winter Games, the AOC will not be blameless.
Exclusive: ‘Shocked and concerned’ US government scientists say heat stress over Australia’s ocean jewel is unprecedented.
File
photo of coral bleaching. Scientists at the US National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration say the Great Barrier Reef headed into the
summer with more accumulated heat than ever before.
Temperatures over the Great Barrier Reef
in December were the highest on record with “alarming” levels of heat
that have put the ocean jewel on the verge of another mass bleaching of
corals, according to analysis from US government scientists seen by
Guardian Australia.
On Friday the Morrison government announced $1bn for reef conservation
over the next nine years if it wins the next election – a pledge
branded by some as a cynical attempt to stop the reef being placed on
the world heritage “in danger” list at a meeting in July.
Conservationists
and scientists mostly welcomed the pledge, but many said the government
needed to greatly improve its greenhouse gas emissions targets and stop
supporting fossil fuel projects.
In the three
months leading up to 14 December, an analysis from scientists at the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) says heat stress
over the corals reached a level “unprecedented in the satellite record”
for that time of year.
According
to the analysis, temperatures were so hot that between mid-November and
mid-December, the minimum temperatures over more than 80% of the reef
were higher for that period than previous maximums.
Dr
William Skirving, of Noaa’s Coral Reef Watch, said his team “were
surprised, shocked and concerned” when the analysis, covering each year
from 1985, was completed.
“There’s never been
heat stress like that in our records. It’s completely out of character
and speaks to the fact that the minimum temperatures were higher than
the previous maximums. This is almost certainly a climate change signal.
“Being a scientist in this field in this day and age is sometimes a bit nightmarish. Sometimes I wish I knew a little bit less.”
As greenhouse gas emissions accumulate in the atmosphere, the world’s oceans are getting hotter, and scientists say coral bleaching will become more frequent in the short term, whatever happens to emissions.
The 2,300km reef has seen five mass bleaching events – in 1998, 2002, 2016, 2017 and 2020 – all caused by rising ocean temperatures driven by global heating.
According
to the Noaa analysis, which has not been peer reviewed but has been
accepted to a scientific journal, the reef headed into the summer with
“more accumulated heat than ever before”.
Average
water temperatures in mid-December were at least 0.5C hotter than the
corresponding period for any previous summer when the reef bleached.
The peak period for heat stress tends to be in late February and March.
Corals
get most of their food and colour from the algae that live within them.
But if temperatures get too high, the algae separates and leaves the
animal bleached white.
Corals can recover from mild bleaching but are weaker, more susceptible to disease and reproduce less in the following years.
Dr
Mark Read, the assistant director of reef protection at the Great
Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, said: “The impact is considered
minor at this point, however we are watching conditions closely,
recognising the heat accumulation in the system.”
There
were reports of heat-stressed corals and some bleaching from offshore
reefs between Cooktown and Mackay and inshore reefs near Townsville.
“The
risk of broad-scale coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef is
reliant on weather conditions over the next couple of weeks,” he said.
Extended periods of cloud cover, rainfall and wind could all help reduce temperatures, he said.
The
Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Shane Kennedy said monsoonal
conditions could deliver cloud and rain in the coming week, but this
could clear south of Cairns in the coming days.
Associate
Prof Tracy Ainsworth, a coral biologist at the University of New South
Wales, said cloud cover could reduce the extra stress on corals from
sunlight.
“It’s sad we’re in a position where we’re hoping for conditions that minimise coral mortality.”
Prof Jodie Rummer, a Townsville-based marine biologist, said some corals were bleaching at Magnetic Island, near Townsville.
“I’m
concerned for the reef and this funding pledge feels a bit like a
last-ditch effort [to stop the reef being listed as in danger],” she
said.
Scott Morrison views the reef from a glass bottom boat during a visit to the Great Barrier Reef. Photograph: Brian Cassey/AAP
On Friday the prime minister, Scott Morrison,
was in Cairns to announce the funding which, if his government was
re-elected, would target projects across water quality, pollution,
illegal fishing and outbreaks of coral-eating starfish.
Reef
health monitoring, habitat restoration and scientific research into
making corals and habitats more resilient would also be funded.
The world heritage committee is due to decide in July whether to place the reef on its “in danger” list.
Unesco
science advisers recommended the listing last year, and the $1bn pledge
comes just days before a 1 February deadline for the government to send
a progress report to Unesco.
Associate
professor Mike Van Keulen, the chair of marine science at Murdoch
University, described the Coalition’s pledge as “a cynical token
action”.
Conservation groups have long called
for extra funding to improve water conditions over the reef, which
experts say can improve the health of corals and give them a better
chance of surviving as temperatures rise.
Richard
Leck, the head of oceans at WWF-Australia, said the pledge was
“positive news for our national icon” and would keep funding at broadly
their current levels.
“Progress on reducing
water pollution has fallen behind the government’s targets to protect
the reef, so it’s vital that this investment is applied in a way that
markedly improves water quality.”
But he said it “needs to be complimented by real action on climate to drive down emissions this decade”.
Dr Anita Cosgrove, a Queensland campaigner with the Wilderness Society, said the package was “insufficient to overcome the breadth of challenges”.
The
Australian Academy of Science president, John Shine, said global
heating threatened the reef’s “extraordinary variety of habitats and
species”.
The
Australian Marine Conservation Society water quality expert, Jaimi
Webster, said funding to address water pollution and illegal fishing was
welcome, but insufficient.
Gavan McFadzean, of
the Australian Conservation Foundation, said: “A government that is
fair dinkum about protecting the Great Barrier Reef would urgently phase
out coal, oil and gas – and would not continue to subsidise the growth
of fossil fuel industries – to give the reef a chance to survive.”
The
Queensland Conservation Council director, Dave Copeman, also said the
government’s support for fossil fuel projects was putting the reef under
threat.
Labor’s deputy leader, Richard Marles, questioned whether the Morrison government would follow through on its $1bn pledge.
“This
is a prime minister who throughout his time in office has completely
failed to take any meaningful action on climate change,” he said, adding
“you cannot take action on the reef without being serious on climate
change, and Scott Morrison is not”.
The Greens
senator for Queensland, Larissa Waters, said: “A belated cash splash on
the Great Barrier Reef is a joke from a government that has
turbo-charged the climate crisis imperilling the reef by giving billions
to fossil fuels and backing new coal and gas.”
Morrison’s
pledge was also criticised by one of his own backbenchers. The
Queensland Liberal National party senator Gerard Rennick told the ABC it
was “unnecessary funding” that was only aimed at “appeasing the United
Nations”.
Colleagues
say Labor leader Anthony Albanese is currently in the best mental and
rhetorical shape of his leadership. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Is
Albanese ready to be prime minister? And, if he is, can he win? On the
the road with the stubborn, headstrong and sentimental Labor leader
We
know the story ended differently. The Labor leader lived, but sustained
serious injuries. Recovery took time and protracted medical attention –
more than he confessed to at the time.
We
are starting here because some of Albanese’s close colleagues say that
accident picked him up and set him down in a different place. The
reminder that life is short was a prompt from the universe: if you want
to be prime minister, then best not to die wondering.
Back at the time of the collision, Scott Morrison
was airborne on an approval rating north of 60%. With the prime
minister in the ascendancy, there were harbingers of internal mischief
on the Labor side. One colleague says the crash triggered more than a
“life is precious” epiphany – it got the dander up. That trauma
disrupted Albanese’s mental cycling between fight or flight.
Some
context might explain this. Albanese is from the human school of
politicians. He hasn’t cauterised his emotions to survive. He has normal
responses to pressure, expectation and risk. Flight in this context was
the Labor leader visualising the worst-case scenario: after a career
spanning the best part of three decades, failing to beat Morrison, an
opponent Albanese neither likes nor respects. There are easier paths in
life than visualising that particular career coda in full technicolour
on the back of your eyeballs at 3am.
But the
car crash, and the physical and mental reset afterwards, settled things.
Henceforth no flight. It would be fight. The colleague says after that
accident “it became: I am going to show all of you people.” This small
inflection, the sprinkle of grit in the anecdote, the sense of bugger
all of you, I’m going for it, feels truer to me. Less authorised
history, or pre-campaign myth making.
As we
drive between Moruya and Mogo on the south coast of New South Wales this
week, I pursue Albanese’s own account of the impact of the accident.
Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
He
ponders the question briefly before saying the crash wasn’t “a
lightbulb moment”. Nothing is ever that simple. He insists his core
strategy to try to unseat Morrison was already locked and loaded, and he
was already on a self-improvement path.
But he says the collision sharpened his thinking.
“It made me more determined.”
‘I feel a great responsibility’
As
we enter the federal election year, there are two questions to ask
about Labor. The first is: does Albanese want to win? Is he
battle-ready? The second is: can Labor win? Is there a viable pathway to
victory when the election rout in 2019 fattened the government’s
margins – particularly in Queensland, the state that generally
determines the national government?
Dealing
with each in turn, colleagues say Albanese is currently in the best
mental and rhetorical shape of his leadership. But they also say there
is still a way to go. Polls tell us there’s a chunk of voters who have
no fixed view about the Labor leader. Out and about in the civilian
world beyond politics and the media, I hear the persistent refrain that
Albanese is not visible enough. Covid creates its own hierarchy of
visibility – premiers first, Morrison next and Albanese after that. The
lack of bandwidth makes it tough to introduce yourself to people who
don’t know who you are.
But the fierce competition for attention has given the Labor leader time to attend to project optimisation. As Morrison lost altitude over the past 12 months, mired in controversy over the vaccination “strollout”, battling the Brittany Higgins furore and the consequences of the Delta wave, Albanese lost more than 10kgs.
Bit
by bit, as weeks ebbed into months, the wardrobe got sharper. New
suits. Old favourites tailored to fit. He waffled less. He also took the
hardest decision of his leadership: what Labor would do about climate policy.
What
is happening substantively is always more important than parsing a
makeover. But in Albanese’s case, project optimisation is the most
visible manifestation of his hunger for the win. Albanese’s new glasses
aren’t in the least bit interesting. The fact he’s actually agreed to
wear them is.
Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
If
you know Albanese, it’s hard to imagine how on earth he consented to
the optimisation. Some ambitious politicians enter public life wanting
to know how to be the product. This cohort bends into optimal shape
without a moment’s hesitation. But Albanese can be stubborn, headstrong
and sentimental. He’s an old dog for a hard road, not a soul-selling
cynic, or a political ingenue in search of a svengali.
As he told the National Press Club this week,
his first political campaign was at the age of 12. He won it. He’s
already been the chief tactician in a minority parliament, and a
confidante of two prime ministers. He’s already risen to the rank of
deputy prime minister. Then there’s the person. Albanese, being human,
is a ball of contradictions. He’s Labor, master of an institution, a
relentless networker – and a lone wolf. He’s both everywhere, and one
step removed. His temperament is both soft and spiky. This complexity is
a barrier to malleability.
His default
position on zhooshing would be: stop bothering me with this cosmetic
bollocks, I know how to win. Trying to tweak him would be fraught for
any backroom attempting it. “I’m not manageable,” he offers from the
front seat of the car. This is a humblebrag, obviously. But it’s true in
the way he means it. What he’s saying is none of this would be
happening if he wasn’tabsolutely convinced the
metamorphosis matters, to the voters, to the colleagues. Perhaps to
himself. Perhaps, fundamentally, this is a test of self-discipline, or
resolve.
Albanese
and Labor are trying for an image change of sorts – ‘project
optimisation’ – but without exposing themselves to claims of
inauthenticity. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Putting
himself firmly in the driver’s seat of project optimisation is also
important from an explanatory perspective. If Labor is seeking to beat
Morrison by telling voters Albanese is the real deal, it’s best not to
subject him to the full Queer Eye treatment.
If
he looks like he’s been done over by a migratory flock of advertising
gurus and image consultants, then Labor is lurching towards a repeat
episode of “Real Julia” – an abject disaster. It would reinforce the
claim Morrison intends to hammer over the coming months. Albanese isn’t
authentic – he’s a left-wing machine man, Bernie Sanders in a better
wardrobe, this socialist will confiscate your property and smother your
aspirations. Labor is a risk.
Albanese presents
self-improvement as an enduring trait rather than a new affectation,
part of his personal continuum. Tom Uren, his political mentor and father figure,
told him to learn something new, and grow as a person, every day. Right
now he’s learning how to comport himself like an alternative prime
minister. His team is helping, but Albanese says there’s no outside
advice. “Have I had any speech therapies or what have you? Absolutely
not. I’m conscious, for example, about saying Aust-ray-lia. I’m
conscious about that. But that’s me.”
After he
makes a major speech, he watches back to consider what he could have
done better. His inner sanctum includes people he trusts enough to ask
for scaffolding – whether it’s a candid performance review, or the
wordless prompt of a staffer positioned behind a television camera to
give him an line cue.
‘I
feel a great responsibility to get Labor across the line because I
think the country needs a Labor government,’ says Albanese. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
“People
know what I need,” he says. “Tim Gartrell (chief of staff) was my first
campaign director in 1996. Jeff Singleton (deputy chief of staff) has
worked for me for 20 years. Alex Sanchez (senior economics adviser) was
in my tute at Sydney University. Jenny Mason (senior adviser) was on
Sydney University’s student representative council with me and Paul
Fletcher in 1993. There are people who are lifelong supporters, who get
me, who know me, and that gives me comfort.”
I
mention a fascinating profile I read a few years back about Barack
Obama. It lingered in my mind because it shared steps Obama had taken to
simplify mundane choices so he could focus on the complexities of
campaigning and holding office. Reducing his wardrobe to only two suit
colours was one example. Does he have a version of this? Albanese says
he’s organised in his life to the point where people suspect he’s
obsessive. He thinks more and says: “I never put anything off that can
be done immediately.” There are two new suits. Not ten. “I wear less
different colours. It’s simpler when there’s not much time – white,
light blue or dark blue shirts, largely, but not always.”
Simplifying and streamlining also extends to articulating his core motivations. He can enunciate those in two sentences.
“I appreciate the incredible privilege and honour that I have of leading the Labor party. I feel a great responsibility to get Labor across the line because I think the country needs a Labor government.”
Anthony Albanese and member for Gilmore Fiona Phillips on the streets in Mogo. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Can Labor win?
Albanese
is doing a street walk in Mogo, in the electorate of Gilmore. It’s a
Labor-held seat, but it’s in play. High-profile state Liberal Andrew
Constance will try to snatch it.
As we weave in
and out of the shops chosen by the advancers – that old campaign
standard – I find myself wondering whether the major parties should
simplify things for them and for us by producing the coming election on a
sound stage at Fox Studios, with green screen and a reality show cast
recruited from marginal seats. It would be no more artificial than this.
But then John James, a retired concreter in a blue chesty Bonds singlet
with a Rabbitohs tattoo on his arm, wanders into Albanese’s campaign
practice lap, piercing my whimsy.
Given
Albanese often says his mum raised him with three great faiths, the
Catholic church, the Labor party and South Sydney Football Club, the
arrival of James – who feels more accidental than staged – is a good
omen. Albanese looks delighted. The two men have an amiable yack before
the caravan rolls into an adjacent hairdresser.
Back
out on the street, James asks us whether he is going to be on
television. In the ensuing back and forth with the stragglers, the
concreter volunteers that he feels sorry for Morrison. Why sorry, we
wonder? The prime minister has had the bushfires to deal with, then the
pandemic. The retiree says everyone is whingeing, but pandemics and
bushfires aren’t Morrison’s fault. What about Albanese, one reporter
asks? A side step follows. “Mate, I don’t follow politics that much,” he
says. “I’m not into it, I don’t argue about it, I don’t go to church, I
don’t follow politics, I mind my own business and stay happy.”
Anthony Albanese meets fellow South Sydney fan John James in Mogo, sharing an amiable fistbump. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Now
obviously this is just one person, vox popped on one main street, in
one Australian region. We haven’t just cracked the secret code that
predicts the federal election outcome. But the cameo is memorable.
Sticking with my sound stage whimsy, James looks like he’s just wandered
out of a separate casting call for the quiet Australians. He’s exactly the voter Morrison actively recruits.
In
2019, the year he beat Bill Shorten, the prime minister charted his
pathway to victory just two hours up the road at the Shoalhaven Heads
Hotel. He spent a break decanting the feelings of his quiet Australians
over fish and chips. Without committing himself, our retiree in Mogo has
just articulated an apologia for the devil you know. If James
represents a default view of disengaged voters who decide election
outcomes – poor old PM – not really his fault right – bloody hell people are hard to please – Morrison’s pitch will work. Labor could easily fall short.
Morrison
has lost a lot of lustre during the past 12 months, particularly in the
closing months of last year, and voters are cranky after freedom summer
became the Omicron summer. The Coalition’s base is split about
vaccines, mandates, and handouts. That, and the unforced errors, makes
it hard for Morrison to recline comfortably into incumbency and campaign
on his record during the pandemic. He will pivot to the economy and
risk.
For his part, Albanese has spent the
summer traipsing through cane fields and speaking to tourism operators
up and down the Queensland coast. The atmosphere for Labor north of the
Tweed feels less negative. One government MP characterises the major
party arm-wrestle in the state as “alive, but tight”. He says: “We’d
lose if the election was now, but it’s not now. It’s down the track, so
it’s still there to be won.”
To secure majority government, Labor will need to pick up seats in Queensland – hence Albanese’s travel itinerary. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Courtesy
of the rout in 2019, the Coalition has insurance. It enjoys a
substantial buffer in the state. Most government-held seats are held by
large margins. When you look at the electoral map, a truism quickly
emerges – to secure majority government, Labor needs to pick up seats in
Queensland, and given most elections aren’t landslides, all the gains
will be hardscrabble. Labor could easily lose the election in
Queensland, which explains Albanese’s travel itinerary.
Rather
than spreading finite resources too thinly, Labor is targeting three
Coalition-held seats in Queensland: Longman (3% margin), Flynn (8.7%)
and Leichhardt (4.2%). Brisbane (4.9%) is also in the mix. Strategists
are crossing their fingers Clive Palmer makes good on a threat to
preference against sitting members. The LNP is worried about that
eventuality. Given Labor holds such a small amount of territory in
Queensland, an orchestrated up yours to incumbents could help.
Looking at the national picture,
Labor hopes to pick up three seats in Western Australia. (Strategists
familiar with the terrain think two is more realistic). Eyes are also on
Boothby in South Australia (marginal, but always hard), the northern
Tasmanian seats of Bass and Braddon (always volatile), and Chisholm in
Victoria. Some think Casey could be in the mix given the retirement of
Liberal and former House speaker Tony Smith. New South Wales – where the
party machines are currently stretched by a run of state byelections –
is looking like a mixed bag for both sides. Labor could lose Gilmore,
for example, but pick up the Sydney seat of Reid. The National party is
hunting Labor-held seats in the Hunter Valley. Labor would like to make
gains on the Central Coast.
The pathway to
minority government, or to victory, requires a lot of things to go
right. It assumes that a national pitch resonates at a time when
Australia’s politics have assumed a pre-federation sensibility because
of the ascendancy of the premiers. It also assumes voters are interested
in a conversation about the future when managing here and now feels
hard enough. Of course if voters are sick of Morrison and the Coalition,
if the prime minister’s time is up, then the minute seat-by-seat
calculations I’ve just shared falls away because a swing takes him out.
Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
I
ask Albanese, assuming this is a hardscrabble rather than an “it’s
time” election, whether there is any possible pathway to victory if
Labor can’t win additional seats in Queensland. I struggle to see one.
“We will get gains in Queensland,” he says. With those big government
margins? “Longman isn’t a big margin,” he says. “Flynn is a big margin,
but I am confident about Flynn. We’ll try in Leichhardt. Brisbane, I
think, is a real goer.
“There’s a potential
tipping point here for Morrison. But it is always a challenge for Labor
to form government. We’ve formed government from opposition three times
since the second world war.
“It’s a mountain to climb, but I’m determined to climb it.”
