Erin Patterson faces life in prison at today’s sentencing
ERIN PATTERSON TO BE SENTENCED
Convicted triple-murderer Erin Patterson is set to be sentenced at Victoria’s Supreme Court this morning.
Guardian Australia reports the hearing will be broadcast live, with a 10-second delay, in a historic first for the state.
Justice Christopher Beale is scheduled to deliver the sentence from 9.30am, with the hearing expected to last around half an hour. “Given the intense public interest in the case, the broadcast will provide an opportunity to inform the public of the reasons for sentence promptly and completely,” Beale said.
The AAP highlights the sentencing comes “more than two years after she [Patterson] served a death cap mushroom-laced lunch that killed three people and drew international attention”.
The prosecution is pushing for a jail sentence of life without parole, the newswire reports, while the defence has “urged Justice Christopher Beale to show her mercy and give her a chance to be released back into the community”.
Guardian Australia flags that Patterson will have until October 6 to appeal against conviction, sentencing or both.
COALITION GOES TO WAR WITH ITSELF
Last month Crikey’s editor-in-chief Sophie Black and politics editor Bernard Keane joined readers’ editor Crystal Andrews on our new weekly podcast Cut Through to discuss how we will be covering the 48th Parliament, considering Labor’s enormous majority and the Coalition being decimated at the federal election. If you haven’t listened to it yet, it’s worth your time.
The reason I bring it up this morning is because, despite its relative irrelevance at the moment, the Coalition has been doing a fantastic job lately of demanding to be covered — for all the wrong reasons. We’re obviously all aware of the chaos and endless conflicting messaging/ideology that has been coming out of opposition since May, but the latest episode is giving the net-zero shitshow a run for its money.
Yesterday, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price took to social media to accuse her Liberal colleague Alex Hawke of “cowardly and inappropriate” conduct against her staff. Unsurprisingly, that news dominated coverage over the weekend and still finds itself prominently placed this morning.
As the ABC puts it, Price’s “extraordinary swipe at a senior colleague” comes amid “a deepening internal row over her inflammatory remarks about Indian Australians”. You will recall last week Price claimed the government was accepting “large numbers” of Indian migrants into Australia to bolster Labor’s vote (my colleague Bernard Keane wrote about the fallout here).
While Coalition leader Sussan Ley was in damage control mode on Sunday, appearing on Insiders and taking a tour through Sydney’s Little India, Price was on social media adding another layer of chaos to the whole thing.
“Andrew Clennell reported on Sky News Sunday Agenda that Alex Hawke contacted me following my comments on the ABC last Wednesday afternoon — that we had a conversation,” Prince posted yesterday.
“Let me be absolutely clear: Alex Hawke did not call me, text me, or WhatsApp me at that point. What actually happened is that Alex Hawke first rang my office — not my direct number — the following morning, on Thursday.
“After claiming he couldn’t reach me, he chose instead to berate one of my staff. He even pressed my staff that if I did not comply with his requests, I may end up like another female member of the Coalition — who I won’t name.
“Later that day, I sent him a WhatsApp message to call out his cowardly and inappropriate conduct. Only after that message did Alex Hawke and I speak on Thursday evening.
“If people want to talk about a so-called ‘woman problem’ in the Liberal Party, then it’s this: we don’t stand up for women when they are mistreated by our own colleagues.”
Hawke told Guardian Australia in response that he had spoken to Price after she appeared on the ABC, and “when we spoke, later that evening, I advised Jacinta that what she had been told was not correct and I rang both to speak with her and to get some media or video from her for distribution. That was all I rang about”. The site says he also said in a statement on Sunday that he “accepted” Price’s explanation of “how her comments have been misinterpreted and subsequently weaponised by Labor”.
In her social media post, Price added that she had “sought to correct and clarify my [Indian migrant] comments after the ABC interview. But I’ve also been disappointed by some media reporting which has been agenda-driven and wrenched my comments from context”.
Publications have claimed the unnamed female member of the Coalition mentioned in Price’s post is allegedly Jane Hume, whose claims about Chinese “spies” volunteering for Labor during the election campaign caused significant backlash.
The ABC reports “it is understood Mr Hawke was one of several Liberals who tried to convince Senator Nampijinpa Price to apologise and nip the story in the bud.” The national broadcaster also cites a Liberal source as claiming Price’s attack on Hawke was part of a broader factional war to gain control of the NSW branch of the party.
The Nine papers highlight Ley declined three times during her Insiders interview to apologise on Price’s behalf for the comments last week.
The report says Price’s office did not respond to the papers’ question over whether her complaints about Hawke had been reported to the party or the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission.
Meanwhile, shadow immigration minister Paul Scarr told Sky News on Sunday he had spoken to Price and that there had been “great hurt” in the Indian Australian community.
CLEAN ENERGY ‘PROSPERITY’ AND DOUBTS OVER RATES
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will tell the Business Council of Australia today that a shift to clean energy could result in an “era of growth and prosperity” with businesses leading the charge, the AAP reports this morning.
“The global shift to clean energy is the biggest economic transformation since the industrial revolution and it is a profound economic opportunity for Australia,” Albanese is expected to say.
“If we act now, if we get it right, we can set our nation up for a new era of growth and prosperity, one built on our strengths as a high-skill, fair-wage economy.”
The newswire adds the PM will claim the private sector will play a pivotal role in reaching emissions targets and growing the economy in the process.
The government is set to unveil its emissions reduction target for 2035 in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, news.com.au reports “cash-strapped mortgage holders may not be getting any further interest-rate relief because of better-than-expected economic data”.
The report is based on comments by ANZ on Friday. The bank’s head of Australian economics Adam Boyton declared: “If evidence of consumer spending momentum continues and weakness does not emerge in the CPI or labour market data, the RBA may assess the cash rate as broadly neutral with no further cuts needed.”
As CNBC recalls, last week it was revealed that Australia’s GDP grew 1.8% year over year and 0.6% on a quarter-over-quarter basis.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
We mentioned a while ago that Darth Vader’s lightsaber was going up for sale at a Los Angeles auction.
Well that auction has taken place, and the Star Wars prop ended up selling for an impressive US$3.6 million (A$5.5 million) last week, the BBC reports.
The piece of memorabilia, used in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, was the highest-priced Star Wars item ever sold at auction, auctioneers Propstore said.
“To see a Star Wars lightsaber — the symbol of one of cinema’s greatest sagas — become the highest-valued piece of the franchise ever sold at auction is incredibly special,” Propstore chief operating officer Brandon Alinger said.
Also sold at the auction were a bullwhip, belt and holster from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and a Platform 9 3/4 sign used in several of the original Harry Potter films, the BBC adds.
Say What?
On September 6, the Canadian frigate ‘Quebec’ and the Australian destroyer ‘Brisbane’ transited the Taiwan Strait, causing trouble and provoking.
Senior Colonel Shi Yi
The spokesperson for the Eastern Theatre Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army was speaking after the ships sailed the Taiwan Strait. Australia’s Department of Defence dismissed the statements from China, saying the “routine transit” was “in accordance with international law”.
CRIKEY RECAP
Labor’s Trumpian lies about robodebt are at the heart of its assault on freedom of information
This is not only a bad bill, but a bad bill backed by bullshit from a government that has clearly had its big election win go to its head. Australia’s big media companies, the ABC and SBS have previously joined together to run an aggressive Australia’s Right To Know campaign to oppose government attacks on media freedom and lack of transparency. Such a campaign is required again to fight an immensely retrograde bill that would be the biggest attack on transparency in a generation, but even in the short period since the last campaign, the media’s resources for such a campaign have shrunk.
Freedom of information laws aren’t merely for the media or activists. They’re used by lawyers for clients pursued by governments, citizens caught up in outrages like robodebt, and non-government MPs as a way of cutting through the spin that ministers deploy to evade scrutiny. They are for everyone to use — and as savvy, politically engaged people, Crikey readers are the perfect citizens to use the FOI laws, before they’re neutered by Labor, to have a look inside the operations of government. We’ll have more to say about that in a new campaign starting on Monday.
How to report on neo-Nazis without giving them what they want
Last Sunday’s March for Australia anti-immigration protests saw the most significant far-right escalation in years. Australia’s biggest neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Network (NSN), led thousands in a march down Bourke Street in Melbourne; allegedly attacked Indigenous protesters at Camp Sovereignty, unprovoked; and days later, its leader Thomas Sewell gatecrashed Victorian Premier Jacinta Allen’s press conference.
These are simultaneously newsworthy events and part of the deliberate “media-baiting” strategy neo-Nazis use to raise their profile and recruit new members. Experts and advocacy groups warn that there is a fine line between critically reporting on neo-Nazis and amplifying their message — a line crossed repeatedly in the past week.
As top AUKUS official joins Palantir, ethics watchdog warns of lobbying ‘risks’
The United Kingdom’s former director general for AUKUS has scored a top job with controversial tech firm Palantir.
The senior Ministry of Defence alumnus, Damian Parmenter, sought advice from a UK ethics watchdog before joining Palantir. In advice written in June and made public earlier this week, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments warned there were several “risks” inherent in the new gig.
Among them is Parmenter’s potential access to a rolodex of top AUKUS officials, “especially in the US and Australia”, according to the committee.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Fear and fire: Major government contractor, NRL sponsor accused of intimidation campaign (The Age) ($)
What fatal shark attack means for net removal trial on Sydney beaches (AFR) ($)
Punches thrown between Palestine, Israel protesters at Bondi Beach (The Sydney Morning Herald) ($)
Nearly 900 people arrested at Westminster protest in support of banned group Palestine Action (The Standard)
Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has resigned (ABC)
‘Bad policy’: How sky-high tobacco taxes sparked a $5bn black market inferno (The Australian) ($)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Albanese scoffed at Morrison’s secrecy. Then he copied it — Tom Crowley (ABC): A cynic might wonder why a hostile foreign power would waste its time applying for heavily-redacted PDFs of email chains, given the cyber surveillance capabilities we hear so much about.
But really this is a distraction — more troubling is the PM’s refusal to be transparent even about his reasons for reducing transparency.
It’s the kind of doublespeak and deflection that have become unfortunate hallmarks of a leader who set himself the high bar of “changing the way that politics operates in this country” but has more and more come to ape the style of his predecessor.
The division exposed by the March for Australia was a test for our politicians. They failed it — and put the nation last — Zoe Daniel (Guardian Australia): Predictably, debate over last weekend’s so-called “March for Australia” degenerated into a slanging match between the nation’s three major political parties in the chambers of parliament.
Situation normal.
In the usual tone-deaf response to social division, the parliament again set the example that’s being followed on the streets — when we disagree, we yell at each other. Because unfortunately, political point-scoring is paramount. The future of the nation comes second.
