The Lioness
The lioness purred through his waking dreams. That magnificent animal, in her physical prime, at the height of her powers, muscled, lean, handsome, her belly full from a recent kill, dozed in the savanna sun. Her young cubs, their bellies full of milk, lolled or played beside her. Sometimes a protective paw would reach out to encompass them, or bat them away if they became too frisky. Mostly it was about love. We were all in love, in these ravishing times.
They leaked across half the hemisphere, and so obvious were they he hadn't even realised their call signs, aubergine, poppadom, papillon, oreganol, were meant to be secret. He was tired of them anyway; their endless boasting and ribbing about sexual conquests, their endless dirty talk, their arrogance, for they thought they were so damn clever, with their above average IQs and whiz bang technologies, these humans who thought they were the future of the race.
He would repeat for the dullards amongst them: We are not for capture, copy or acquisition.
This will go down, is already going down, on our terms.
As for the country, it was mired in scandal; up to their necks in it.
This will go down exactly as we say it will.
In the meantime, your sense of time different to ours, we would watch the rise and fall of these snarling personalities and living hypocrites, these backstabbing creatures calling themselves politicians, their greed manifest, their incompetence writ in banners across the sky, it was so blatant, we would ride the banners of history and let others do the work, for every journalist out there was now on the hunt; for different reasons, but on the hunt.
The centre could not hold. The status quo could not maintain. We are everywhere and nowhere. We stalk your every waking thought.
The lioness stirred. As beautiful as she was, as peaceful as the scene appeared, she could turn dangerous in an instant. And no more quickly than if her cubs were threatened.
They were birthing a new world. A world where it was impossible to lie. Then watch the collapse; as this sorry sorry government wrote its own demise; the obituaries already being written and it wasn't even dead yet.
Morrison would skulk off into the nation's boardrooms, where his complete lack of administrative talent, his abject failure to understand the voting public, his unalloyed greed and corporate cronyism would all be welcomed.
A den of thieves. Throw the moneylenders from the temple. Our temple.
HEADLINES:
Up to 250,000 jobs could be lost
Dr Leigh will put his concerns to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) during a hearing of the House Economics Committee on Monday morning, which coincides with the end of the $90 billion JobKeeper program.
The latest data from Treasury shows JobKeeper was still subsidising the wages of some 980,000 workers in February, with Victoria accounting for the largest share of JobKeeper recipients in the country (about 369,000 people).
Although that is much lower than the more than 3.7 million workers and 900,000 companies relying on the scheme at the height of the pandemic, Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy said last week that 150,000 people could lose their jobs when the wage subsidies disappear. (Others warn as many as 250,000 could lose them.)
Dr Kennedy told Senate estimates that businesses in Australia’s largest CBDs were particularly exposed, as they were more reliant on international students and were suffering from reduced foot traffic due to greater numbers of people working from home.
“[It’s] not so much the activity restrictions themselves, but the fact that employees are not in their usual places of work, and so they’re not passing by,” he told estimates.
His colleague, Treasury deputy secretary Jenny Wilkinson, later explained to the Senate that CBDs had a higher concentration of JobKeeper recipients working low or zero hours – which is why the department expects more job losses to come from these areas.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/asia-news/2021/03/28/indonesia-church-bombing/
Indonesian police say two suicide bombers believed to be members of a militant network that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State are to blame for an attack that injured 20 people outside a church in South Sulawesi province on Palm Sunday.
The two attackers blew themselves up outside the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral in the provincial capital Makassar after trying to enter the main gate of the church just as the mass was ending.
They had been on a motorcycle when they were stopped by security guards, national police spokesman Argo Yuwono said.
South Sulawesi police chief Merdiansyah said the morning service had finished and worshippers were walking out of the church when the two attackers detonated their explosives, resulting in an explosion of “high intensity”.
On Monday morning (Australian time), the number of people injured went up from 14 to 20.
The most recent people found to be wounded included four security guards and several worshippers.
“We see that there are victims and parts of human bodies have been torn apart,” South Sulawesi police
GREATER BRISBANE ENTERS LOCKDOWN
Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, Moreton and the Redlands have all entered a snap three-day lockdown, which the ABC explains requires residents to only leave their house for the now-standard four reasons — essential shopping; exercise in local areas; work or study that cannot be done from home; and to provide care — and to wear masks outside the home, including in workplaces, on public transport and in rideshare services.
Announced after the city’s caseload for the UK COVID-19 variant jumped from three to seven yesterday, the restrictions also apply to anyone who has visited Greater Brisbane since Saturday March 20. Easter holidays will be brought forward with schools closing across the region from today.
Queensland Health continues to update their list of hotspots, with new close contact spots now including:
Friday March 26:
FitStop Gym in Morningside, 6.50- 8am
Spinnaker Park Café in Callemondah, 10.22-11.23am
Auckland House in Gladstone Central, 7.23-9.30pm
Saturday March 27:
Auckland House in Gladstone Central, 7.23-9.30pm
Several dozen casual spots have also been added to the list, while NSW Health has identified 10 sites across Byron Bay (Friday 26 – Sunday 28) and Suffolk Park (Friday 26 – Saturday 27).
Effectively all states and territories imposed restrictions against travellers from either the region and the entire state yesterday, including Victoria, Western Australia, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory.
PS: Note that while both JobKeeper and the above-poverty JobSeeker payments are now officially over, the Morrison government has suspended mutual obligations for the region.
CABINET KERFUFFLE
Scott Morrison’s new cabinet will be sworn in today, after Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation and a historical allegation denied by Christian Porter led to a shake-up announced yesterday.
As Crikey detailed yesterday:
Linda “lying cow” Reynolds moves to Government Services and the NDIS and has been replaced at Defence by Peter “not a monster” Dutton
Michaelia “too busy to speak with AFP re: possible crimes by her own office” Cash will become attorney-general and minister for industrial relations
Porter, whose litigation against the ABC created a potential conflict of interest in his role as attorney-general, is demoted to the Industry portfolio
Stuart “where do we begin” Robert will take Cash’s portfolio of Employment.
Karen Andrews moves from Industry to Home Affairs
Defence Industry Minister Melissa Price retains her job and, after a hilarious stint at Environment pre-2019 election, returns to cabinet
Superannuation Minister Jane Hume, who recently failed to push domestic violence survivors to tap into their super, will take on a role of “Women’s Economic Security” on a women’s taskforce
Social Services Minister Anne Ruston, who saw thousands return to poverty after briefly doubling the JobSeeker rate, will take on the role of “Women’s Safety”
Marise Payne will remain minister for women — an office that, as Crikey has tracked, has yet to issue a single media statement over 2021’s parliamentary scandals — and will be in Morrison’s words “effectively the prime minister” of Hume and Ruston’s taskforce
Payne will be joined by far-right Queensland senator and prominent critic of abortion rights and the “transgender agenda” — which, editor’s note, largely consists of “existing” — Amanda Stoker as an assistant minister.
The Sydney Morning Herald adds that Morrison is also expected to announce the government’s response to the Respect@Work report over the next week, which was released a year ago and recommends several new workplace harassment reforms.
Porter, separately, has issued a statement claiming he has “no regrets” over launching his defamation case against the ABC.
PS: In departing comments to the Department of Home Affairs, the suddenly very litigious Dutton alleges no adult asylum seekers remain in offshore detention and that he has removed all children from onshore sites “put there by Labor”. Note: activists protested over the weekend to release more than 100 medivac refugees from hotel detention along with dozens confined to Nauru and Papua New Guinea, while the Biloela family of four — Priya and Nades Murugappan, five-year-old daughter Kopika and three-year-old Tharnicaa — earlier this month celebrated three years in detention.
Government’s lack of talent on show as Morrison unveils worst ever cabinet
Scott Morrison has unveiled his new cabinet, demonstrating the dearth of real quality in the Coalition ranks.
Scrambling to stay ahead of the crisis that has engulfed his government, Scott Morrison has unveiled a reshuffled ministerial line up that illustrates the dearth of talent within his parliamentary ranks.
The two biggest changes are, as expected, the ill Linda “lying cow” Reynolds being replaced at Defence by Peter Dutton, and Michaelia Cash being promoted to attorney-general and minister for industrial relations. Christian Porter, whose litigation against the ABC made his continuation as attorney-general wholly untenable, is demoted to the Industry portfolio.
The vacant Home Affairs portfolio goes to Karen Andrews, promoted from Industry, while Reynolds has been moved down to Government Services and the NDIS. Stuart Robert will take Cash’s portfolio of Employment. Another promotion is that of the invisible and poorly regarded Defence Industry Minister Melissa Price, who retains her job and comes into cabinet.
Morrison also unveiled a bizarre set of ministerial arrangements to demonstrate his commitment to gender issues. Jane Hume will take on a role of “Women’s Economic Security” — a remarkable title given Hume’s most recent debacle was a failed attempt to push domestic violence victims to tap into their own superannuation.
Anne Ruston will also take on the role of “Women’s Safety”. Marise Payne, who has been entirely invisible as the government has been smashed by gender issues in recent weeks, will remain minister for women and will be, in Morrison’s words, “effectively the prime minister” of Hume and Rushton, along with right-wing Queensland senator Amanda Stoker, who will be an assistant minister.
The shift of Dutton from Home Affairs, where he has presided over billions of dollars’ worth of procurement debacles, to Defence, which is mired in a number of major defence materiel disasters, bodes poorly for the government regaining control of its defence spending, especially with the inexplicable return of Price to cabinet.
Cash is wholly unfit to be attorney-general given her refusal to cooperate with an Australian Federal Police investigation into possible crimes committed in her own office.
Why it’s OK for Australians with disabilities and welfare recipients to be looked after by Reynolds when she’s not fit for the defence portfolio is another mystery, along with why Porter can remain in cabinet while unexamined allegations of rape remain against him, no matter how vehemently he denies them (as he does).
As for Payne being “prime minister” for women, Morrison has picked the one minister who has performed even more poorly than he has in responding to the gender issues that have engulfed them since the start of February. But at least further failings by the government on that front can now be blamed on a woman, not Morrison himself.
