Princess Charlotte gets promoted, RBA boss says sorry
All the news that's fit to mint.
All the news that's fit to mint.
What's happening in (The) Oz:
💸 Head of central bank, who earns $1 million a year, says sorry his advice is making us poorer
✋🏼 Nats to mute The Voice
👑 Princess Charlotte cuts Prince Edward's grass, set to land cushy new gig
🙅🏻♂️ Scott Morrison to get an official telling off for taking on five secret jobs
🏳️🌈 Single sex lesbian and gay gatherings not ok in Tasmania
🍫 Chocolates to come in paper from next year
It's Tuesday. Welcome to this stubborn chin hair of a day.
Let's get it like this actor - who made a (short lived) career out of wooing gorgeous older women - got it.
Philip Lowe just made Justin Bieber sound sincere
The Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia - a man who has a base salary of more than $900,000 - has said sorry to people who are now riddled with a lot of debt since they took out a mortgage after listening to his and the central bank's esteemed advice.
Which was: "[We] will not increase the cash rate until actual inflation is sustainably within the 2 to 3% target range. The central scenario for the economy is that this condition will not be met before 2024. Meeting this condition will require the labour market to be tight enough to generate wages growth that is materially higher than it is currently," Lowe said back in October 2021.
On Monday, Lowe sat before a Senate Estimates hearing and was asked whether he had anything to say to people who bought houses during the past two years on the understanding interest rates wouldn't jump til 2024.
"I’m sorry that people listened to what we’d said and acted on that, and now find themselves in a position they don’t want to be in. At the time, we thought it was the right thing to do," Lowe continued.
It's more of a "sorry you were offended" instead of a mea culpa from the RBA governor whose decisions may have encouraged, or at least, emboldened people to delve into the property market and are now paying close to $1000 more per month in mortgage repayments.
"That’s a failure on our part, we didn’t communicate the caveats clearly enough. The community heard 2024, they didn’t hear the conditionality, that’s partly our fault," he said.
The Nats abandon The Voice
After another disastrous poll endured by its coalition partner - the Liberal party - the National Party have decided to come out united, and defiant, on one issue so their supporters and the wider public know they are a party of action.
Or in this specific case, inaction.
As the Nats don't want a bar of The Voice.
Country Liberal Party Senator Jacinta Price was a driving force behind guiding the Nationals towards their position against The Voice to parliament.
She said on Monday the decision in the party room was unanimous.
“It was a whole party process that we decided to do as a party to understand both sides of the argument, we believe in being well-informed before making a decision and coming to a position” Price said after Nats leader David Littleproud made the call at a press conference.
“It was something that we all did together as a party”.
Price will now be apart of a committee leading the party’s No campaign, following conversations with Indigenous people around the country.
“I've been in conversations with indigenous Australians across the country about this and with people who are feeling like they are not being heard throughout the debate so far it will be about amplifying their voices.”
In regards to funding, Price has called for the government to equally bank roll both a yes and no campaign.
The response from the government has been one of shock.
WA Senator and special envoy to help deliver the Uluru Statement from The Heart, Pat Dodson, said he was "taken aback" as last week he spoke to Senator Price "and said I would like to talk to her. That hasn't happened," he said.
“I was more taken aback by the fact that I had made a statement in the Chamber last week that set out some of the key agreed principles between the working group that has been set up under the minister of about twenty Aboriginal leaders from across Australia and guidance about what the principles that will govern the voice's existence and provide independent advice to the Parliament and government.
"It is about principle, it is about a set of words going into the Constitution that basically say there ought to be a voice for the First Nations people.
"It should be able to comment on any matter that is going to affect them and it will be legislated by the parliament and go through the normal processes, as you see and I see every day of the week, in the Parliament".
Following Price’s swipes at Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney’s appearance during a recent tour of Indigenous communities, claiming she was "dripping in Gucci", Dodson said the comments were a "cheap shot" from the Nats.
"I would hope that the Nationals would really reconsider the cheapness of this approach, because it does them no good really," he said.
The Nats, according to Littleproud, oppose the Voice as: "We don’t believe it will genuinely close the gap."
Gaps in life expectancy, education and health outcomes for Indigenous Australians the Nats - as the Coalition government - could have worked on closing during their last nine years in power.
"Given their record of failure in Government to close the gap, we will not be lectured by the Nationals on the best ways to improve outcomes for First Nations people,” Uluru Dialogues spokesperson Geoffrey Scott said.
READ MORE: The Nationals will not support an Indigenous Voice to Parliament
The Nat's new position follows reports the Queensland branches of the Liberal party also do not support the Voice and will encourage Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to not support the referendum.
The issue will be discussed inside the Libs and Nats joint party room meeting in Canberra on Tuesday.
Is the King playing favourites?
Princess Charlotte will overtake her Uncle Edward - again.
The 7-year-old royal is now third in line to the throne and will, according to reports, become the new Duchess of Edinburgh - a title formerly held by her late "Gammie", Queen Elizabeth II.
The royal press corps report King Charles will bestow the title on Charlotte as a tribute to the late monarch and said King Charles hasn’t allotted the dukedom of Edinburgh to his brother, Prince Edward, because he wants to save the title for his granddaughter.
The Queen became the Duchess of Edinburgh after her wedding to Prince Philip, who was the Duke of Edinburgh from 1947 until his death in April 2021.
Prince Edward, 58, was expected to inherit the title from his father, which was withheld following his death last year.
However he's been appointed to the inner, inner sanctum where he can act on behalf of the King should Charles be unavailable. His ascension means he'll replace Princes Andrew and Harry who are not longer senior working royals.
Palace officials have said no decisions have been made regarding who would inherit the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh mantles.
Here's hoping Charlotte repeating her catch cry (and firs ever public words) to her older family members.
Good luck tonight @Lionesses, we’re all cheering for you! pic.twitter.com/ATsLg6QHIF
— The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) July 31, 2022
Paging Scott Morrison
Please report to the naughty corner.
The former Prime Minister will be officially censured in parliament this week for secretly appointing himself to five additional ministries during the height of the pandemic.
READ MORE: Damning report into Scott Morrison's secret ministries
During Question Time on Monday, Morrison stared at his lap and tapped away on his iPad (probably working on another statement to be published to his Facebook page) while sitting on the opposition backbench as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese labelled the previous government a“cult of secrecy and a culture of cover-up”.
Albanese confirmed the (new) government will adopt all six recommendations of an inquiry into Morrison’s secret jobs.
They will also move to legislate a requirement to publicly announce the appointment of ministers.
"I’ve already instructed the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to ensure that there is proper transparency should any appointments be made," Albanese said.
"The actions of the former prime minister were extraordinary, they were unprecedented, and they were wrong. They exposed a cult of secrecy and a culture of cover-up, which arrogantly dismissed scrutiny as inconvenience. And members of the former government and current opposition enabled this culture."
Morrison's former cabinet colleagues said they will support the legislation that'll increase transparency but stopped short of confirming they'll smash his publicly in the parliament.
Paul Fletcher - who is the manager of opposition business - said on Monday the censure motion is a "political stunt" by Labor.
"The proper purpose of a censure motion under the standing orders is to bring a minister to account to the parliament," he said.
"It’s not to be used as some kind of political payback exercise."
Fletcher said not only was it "unusual" to bring a censure motion against a backbencher and Morrison's actions did not breach the constitution or any laws.
BUT.
Fletcher did concede there were some "sensible recommendations" in the report handed down by former High Court of Australia justice Virginia Bell last week.
"Recommending that there be legislation to require the publication in the government gazette or similar when a minister is appointed, that's perfectly sensible," he said. "We will look at the legislation when it comes forward, but I imagine we've said pretty clearly we would likely to support that."
Morrison refused to engage with the inquiry, instead referred Justice Bell to his previous comments on the matter.
After the report was handed down on Friday he responded on social media.
Drag race ends in Tassie
A state tribunal has rejected the right of same-sex attracted people to hold social functions that exclude transgender people.
Launceston lesbian activist Jessica Hoyle had sought an exemption from Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Act to run female-only “drag-king” shows and other lesbian only events in Tassie.
The exemption was at first denied by Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Sarah Bolt back in July 2021.
Hoyle then opted to appeal in the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
That failed too.
The tribunal rejected it, finding the desire for female-only lesbian events was insufficient justification for an exemption.
“While the applicants may not wish to comply with the Act and find aspects of its application to transgender and transsexual women irksome, particularly in the context of the event they would like to hold, that is not a sufficient justification,” ruled tribunal member Kate Cuthbertson.
Cuthbertson SC said arguments by Hoyle claiming “patterns of criminality and nefarious motivations” for transwomen attending female-only events were “not supported by empirical research or compelling evidence”.
Hoyle told The Australian she was disappointed in the decision and would fight on, even willing to go all the way to the High Court as she believed same-sex attracted females should be able to exclude “people with penises” from social events.
“This decision erases the rights of women and freedom of association for lesbians,” Hoyle said.
The new sustainable frontier...
Will be chocolate bars.
From April next year Mars and Snickers will be wrapped in paper in a bid by parent company, Mars Wrigley, to pivot all packaging to be recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.
This noble transitions comes in light of Australia's recycling sector copping more heat than climate change right now due to some odd practices.
The Australian reported on Monday that one of the nation’s largest recycling companies has been accused of secretly dumping more than 260 tonnes of plastics into landfill and has been storing and stockpiling waste since 2019.
READ MORE: Huge recycling company accused of dumping plastic in landfill
Prompting Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to suggest an investigation by corporate rubbish watchdogs could be incoming.
Meghan Markle’s favourite face gym is opening in Australia, Greta Thunberg publishes Andrew Tate’s contact details
All the news that's fit to mint.
Emily Ratajkowski joins the competitive world of online dating, Nick Kyrgios quits at the last minute
All the news that's fit to mint.