GetUp! rides out the Covid pandemic
Exiting South Australian Liberal Nicolle Flint’semotional speech on Tuesday night slamming the tactics she says were rolled out against her by progressives ahead of the 2019 ballot made us wonder how the Paul Oosting-led GetUp! was faring amid the pandemic and towards the next federal election likely next year.
The retiring Member for Boothby was emotional as she outlined the stalking and harassment she had endured from her political opponents including GetUp!, which targeted her marginal seat during the last election.
But it seems Australia’s pandemic-driven 2020 recession didn’t stop financial support for activist organisations rolling into its coffers to help top-up GetUp!’s war chest.
Accounts show that last year the group made a profit of just under $1.3m, a big turnaround from a loss of almost $670,000 in 2019, which took in the May 2019 ballot.
Revenue flowed to the tune of $10m, $9.55m of which came from donations — decent for a non-election year.
That’s meant that GetUp! has been able to enter this financial year with a cash balance of $2.6m, from $1.7m previously.
So plenty for Oosting and his team of 70-plus staff — as well as GetUp!’s army of volunteers across Australia — to play with in the lead up to the next federal election.
Crown faces music
Get your popcorn ready.
Former Federal Court judge Ray Finkelstein will next Wednesday hold his first hearing of Victoria’s royal commission into the suitability of Crown Melbourne to hold a casino licence.
For avid followers of this genre of entertainment, the proceedings will be live streamed — a precedence set by Finkelstein’s northern contemporary, former NSW Supreme Court judge Patricia Bergin, in her gripping inquiry last year into the Helen Coonan-chaired Crown Resorts.
The damning findings relating to money laundering and Crown’s links to organised crime in Bergin’s 800-page report prompted Victorian Premier Dan Andrews to initiate the royal commission.
As set out in the terms of reference issued by Victorian Governor Linda Dessau last month, Finkelstein has scope to probe the Melbourne casino’s suitability to hold a licence, its compliance with the Casino Control Act, as well as whether changes are required to the state’s legislation.
Crown is Victoria’s biggest employer, while in Sydney the casino at its $2.4bn new resort at Barangaroo remains locked shut as the NSW gaming regulator considers the group’s future in the Harbour City.
No sign yet who will face questioning by Finkelstein’s inquiry first, but things are expected to move at pace towards the August 1 reporting deadline that Andrews has set for the commission to report.
We can’t wait.
Pret-a-Porter
Any hopes Attorney-General Christian Porter may have had for tensions to die down during his mental health leave are surely dwindling by the day, with the subject of just what duties he’ll have to delegate the latest cause for concern.
Just two weeks out from Porter’s slated return date of March 31, PM Scott Morrison has already vetoed any oversight of the ABC or the Federal Court given the defamation suit lodged against the national broadcaster and its journalist Louise Milligan on Monday.
But that may not be all the A-G will have to relinquish.
Quizzed by Labor member for Jagajaga Kate Thwaites on whether Porter would still have power over the Sex Discrimination Act, ScoMo replied he was seeking the advice of the second law officer of the Commonwealth and the government’s most senior independent lawyer, Solicitor- General Stephen Donaghue.
“Advice is being sought from the Solicitor-General in relation to the scope of the Attorney-General’s portfolio responsibilities in light of the defamation lawsuit. And once that advice is received, arrangements will be put in place that are consistent with it at the time of the A-Gs return,” he told Question Time.
Good thing Porter has plenty of people to help him pick up the slack.
While it is Michaelia Cash that has stepped in as acting
A-G in Porter’s absence, Donaghue, who’s been in the role since January 2017, has also had his duties bumped up as well — not least with all the calls for him to lead any potential independent inquiry.
Recently appointed deputy A-G Amanda Stoker also will likely pick up some of the slack, a trained lawyer who got her start at Minters and for a time was associate to then-High Court judge Ian Callinan.
And while there’s chopping and changing of duties for the A-G, so too is there in the department’s executive ranks.
Most recent secretary of the department, Chris Moraitis in December got the call up to lead the new investigative body, the office of the special investigator, in its assessment of the findings of alleged war crimes by Australian soldiers in the Defence Force Afghanistan Inquiry (reporting to the also on-leave Linda Reynolds, we note).
As such, deputy secretary of the department’s legal services and families group Iain Anderson is filling in as acting secretary, and in his place, Gregory Manning.
Quite the shuffling of the deckchairs, and it’s little wonder that the department’s recruitment spend is going through the roof.
In just the past month, the A-G’s department has committed to almost $1m, or $964,409 to be exact, in personnel recruitment contracts, across a range of east coast bidders.
Margin Call can’t help but wonder whether sizing up potential replacement A-G contenders within the ministerial ranks may be within their purview.
Nodding off
Is Question Time boring Gladys Liu to tears?
Or is the important business of representing the good people of Melbourne’s eastern suburbs keeping the Member for Chisholm up at night?
Either way Minister Communications Paul Fletcher could hardly keep Liu from nodding off in her House of Representatives seat just before 3pm yesterday as he addressed the serious matter of cyber-bullying and its impact on mental health, and in particular the devastating impact this can have on women.
Liu, who joined the parliament in May 2019, was seated behind Fletcher as he spoke, making no effort to hide the wide yawns (we counted three) that she was unable to stifle as QT drew to a close.
If Liu can’t stay awake, what hope do her constituents have?
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