Rinehart bangs the iron: Billionaire mining magnate and Hancock Prospecting chair Gina Rinehart has (once more) lashed the idea of internet zero as “unobtainable and costly”, saying it is going to “negatively affect our lifestyle for generations to come back”.
“Why not let those that wish to cut back their emissions accomplish that, and who need net-zero efforts, be those who pay for them? Whereas Australia as a substitute follows the lead of USA and different nations who put their residents first,” Rinehart mentioned.
Totally uncoincidentally, Gina’s feedback observe Hancock Prospecting’s joint approval alongside Rio Tinto for a $2.5 billion Pilbara iron ore enlargement, dubbed Hope Downs 2.
Web zero does certainly look considerably unachievable if one continues to open large iron mines.
The place’s thy Guardian angel: Guardian Australia stays with no political editor, now greater than three months after Karen Middleton resigned from the position in March and regardless of there having been a federal election within the interim.
Middleton resigned after taking a number of months of medical go away, with the go away coinciding with counterclaims of office misconduct between Middleton and Paul Karp, the paper’s former chief political correspondent. Karp now works at The Australian Monetary Overview as NSW political correspondent.
Choices to interchange Middleton with somebody of comparable gravitas are few and much between. Middleton is a press gallery veteran of over three a long time and authored a biography of Anthony Albanese in 2016. Rumours have flown round newsrooms of candidates within the body to take the job, with figures from a number of state-based and impartial publications having been raised with Crikey.
Katharine Murphy — Guardian Australia’s former political editor, who jumped ship to work for the prime minister (and whom Karen Middleton changed) — has additionally reportedly now give up as Anthony Albanese’s press secretary.
Liberal hacking: Late final evening, the Liberals began rolling out the primary plank of Opposition Chief Sussan Ley’s social gathering rebuild, executing a daring digital technique to… oh wait, no, the social gathering’s official Fb and Instagram accounts simply obtained hacked.
As Leo Puglisi from 6 Information noticed, it appears like a set of Fb tales from the Liberals begin spruiking boob jobs:
In the meantime, Crikey’s Worm editor Wealthy James was handled to a pimple popper teaser on the Libs’ Instagram tales (click on right here to see it, in case you’re sport). Yum.
Banners ban ‘ban’: Australia’s eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant spoke on the Nationwide Press Membership earlier this week about her plans for youths’ on-line security, together with her position in implementing the teenager social media ban.
Regardless of initially abstaining and solely later supporting the federal government’s ban, Grant was soldier when she spoke about Australia being the primary on the earth to make the leap on a coverage like this: “It’s a daring transfer, sure, however each large change begins with somebody prepared to take that first step,” she mentioned.
There was one second that bumped a bit for us. The teenager social media ban isn’t a “ban”, she corrected a journalist. “We’re referring to this as a social media delay. Not a ban. You realize, a ban suggests a complete prohibition.”
Humorous you must say that, as a result of Crikey remembers when the prime minister, evaluating alcohol to social media, mentioned that “we ban alcohol for below 18s”. Shouldn’t he have mentioned delay? We additionally notice that one other certainly one of Anthony Albanese’s transcripts for a radio interview the place he spoke in regards to the — ehem — delay was filed as being in regards to the “social media ban”.
If solely the US had one thing Israel needed: Incensed at Israel and Iran after the ceasefire he helped mediate instantly collapsed, Donald Trump was lately decreased to the language of the snooker corridor. “Israel, as quickly as we made the deal, they got here out and so they dropped a load of bombs,” he mentioned. “We mainly have two nations which have been combating so lengthy and so exhausting that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.”
If solely Trump, grasp dealmaker that he’s, might discover some sort of leverage over his troublesome ally. However like each US president over the previous 30 years, he can’t appear to discover a single bargaining chip with which to affect the behaviour of… a rustic that has cumulatively acquired a whole lot of billions of {dollars} in US help.
The final time a US president observed that they had some proper to place situations on that cash was George H.W. Bush. In 1991, he withheld mortgage ensures to Israel till he was happy the cash borrowed wouldn’t go towards increasing Israeli settlements within the Palestinian territories. Lo and behold, it obtained outcomes.
However then, within the lead-up to the 1992 election, presumptive Democratic candidate Invoice Clinton constantly attacked Bush for having “pressured Israel relentlessly to make one-sided concessions” and promised that “as president, I’ll put an finish to this”. Keep in mind, that was simply over the enlargement of settlements, one thing that doesn’t warrant a phrase of disapproval below the present administration.