Australia Institute Live: Albanese government condemns planned neo-Nazi march, ATO whistleblower Richard Boyle spared jail time. As it happened.

Hey guess what Australia? It’s 50 years on from the establishment of the Henderson Poverty Line (the measure of income people need to live above poverty) we still don’t have official poverty measures!

Cool, right?

Half a century on from when we handed down all the research to find that living in poverty is bad for people’s health, future and the overall productivity and equality, we still haven’t addressed it. AMAZING!

The Brotherhood of St Laurence held an event at parliament house to mark the 50th anniversary of the Henderson Poverty Inquiry and wants the government to establish some official poverty measures.

Like lifting people out of it, for instance.

Despite increased focus on cost of living and inequality, Australia remains one of the few countries in the world without official national poverty measures. Over 150 countries, including Canada, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom, already have official measures in place and report on them regularly. 

The Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee established by the Federal Government has recommended Australia adopt official poverty measures – a monetary and multidimensional measure – to better guide national understanding of poverty and efforts to reduce it. 

“Fifty years on, we have the tools and the data. What we need now is action,” said Dr Travers McLeod, Executive Director of BSL. “This is a chance to align with international best practice and show we are serious about tackling poverty in all its forms. Australia’s economic compass is incomplete without official poverty measures.” 

To support this goal, BSL and the Melbourne Institute have worked together to demonstrate the value of a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for Australia. Using the internationally recognised framework led by Professor Sabina Alkire and Professor James Foster, an MPI captures the multiple, overlapping challenges that shape poverty, such as health, housing, education, and employment. 

The Antipoverty Centre have also been pushing for the government to officially recognise poverty by raising welfare to above the Henderson poverty line. We know it can be done – we did it during the pandemic, lifting thousands of people out of poverty overnight. And the benefits were enormous – not just for health and wellbeing (which are very important measures in their own right) but also for the economy and productivity.

Of Australia’s 37 public universities, 26 take money from fossil fuel companies, according to new research by The Australia Institute. Fossil fuelled research centres include The University of Queensland’s Centre for Natural Gas, The Monash Energy Institute, and the University of South Australia’s Future Industries Institute. Such close links between universities and fossil fuel companies undermine the independence of universities and risk greenwashing the activities of companies profiting from climate change.

These cosy relationships are the reason that some student groups, including Stop Woodside Monash, are calling for universities to divest from fossil fuels. The tobacco industry provides a good precedent for the move. In 1994, 30% of universities accepted research funding from the tobacco industry, much of which was used to fund studies about the impacts of smoking. But by 2002 most of Australia’s universities has adopted policies that banned the acceptance of money from the tobacco industry, which put an end to this obvious conflict of interest. When will universities do the same with the fossil fuel industry?

Off the back of the economic roundtable, the government has announced it will be looking at abolishing a number of what it is calling ‘nuisance tariffs’. It has a list of about 500, on top of the 457 tariff cuts last year.

With this reform, we’ll have removed around 1000 tariffs over two years and streamlined approximately $23 billion worth of trade, saving Australian businesses $157 million in compliance costs annually.

It means the Albanese Government has slashed more tariffs than any government in two decades.

These nuisance tariffs risk doing more harm than good.  

From today, Treasury will consult on the proposed list of almost 500 additional tariffs to be abolished by the government.

Submissions will be open on the Treasury website until 10 December and a full and final list of agreed tariffs for removal will be published in the next Budget.

Examples of products include:

• Tyres with annual imports worth nearly $4 billion, raise less than $80,000 in revenue per year. Abolition will save business over $32 million in compliance costs each year.
• Televisions with annual imports worth over $1.4 billion, raise less than $43,000 in revenue per year. Abolition will save business over $13 million in compliance costs each year.
• Wine glasses with annual imports worth over $42 million, raise less than $28,000 in revenue per year. Abolition will save business over $375,000 in compliance costs each year.
• Air conditioners with annual imports worth over $58 million, raise less than $100,000 in revenue per year. Abolition will save business over $504,000 in compliance costs each year.

We spoke about the right to protest a little earlier – and here is one of the reasons why it needs to be protected.

Here is the bill the Victorian Liberals have offered up to the parliament:

The Bill provides for the registration and authorisation of public protests, confers legal protection for participants in authorised protests, establishes a regime for prohibition and exclusion orders, prohibits the wearing of face coverings at protests (other than for religious purposes), and makes consequential amendments to the Summary Offences Act 1966.

In summary, the Bill:
a. Introduces a registration and authorisation scheme for public protests, enabling the Chief Commissioner of Police and the Supreme Court to approve, refuse, or impose conditions on protests;
b. Allows for prohibition orders to prevent organisers from conducting protests likely to cause serious disruption, endanger public safety, or require unreasonable police resources
c. Establishes exclusion orders restricting individuals from entering specified public places for protest purposes where they have repeatedly been subject to “move on” directions;
d. Prohibits wearing face coverings at protests except for religious reasons, with police powers to direct removal of such coverings; and
e. Amends the Summary Offences Act 1966 to remove certain provisions relating to “move on” powers.
Human Rights Issues

The AFR is reporting the meeting Richard Marles held with Pete Hegseth, which the US denies was a meeting has “paid off” although no-one is allowed to have the details.

So the defence minister flew to the United States to meet with the Trump administration about the latest conditions on Aukus (as well as working out some sticking points about the builds on the Australian side) and the Trump administration says the meeting wasn’t a meeting, but apparently there was an agreement, but despite spending $1.6bn on this already, we are not allowed to know.

That is a problem. Why? Because one of the sticking points is whether Australia has control over whether these submarines are deployed in the event the US decides to go to war with China. Which I don’t know – seems a big fricking deal? If another country commits us to war?

Am I having a stroke? Why is this not a bigger issue?

One of the reasons defence gets away with sooooo much – the giant spends, the cost blow outs, the delays, the lack of deliverables etc – is that it is never actually tested. Australia hasn’t had to defend itself, so none of it has had any consequences. So instead we concentrate on cutting the funding to things that we know have positive outcomes – the NDIS, welfare, public services – so defence can continue to have an unlimited budget where it delivers nothing – and now we are also being told we can’t know what the government has agreed to.

UNBELIEVABLE.

The Workwear Guy, after being alerted to the Midwinter Ball’s existence by Crikey’s Daanyal Saeed in previous years, has weighed in once again on the men’s outfits.

We love to see men succeed in women dominated fields. For those not terminally online, the Workwear Guy has an incomparable knowledge of tailoring and men’s clothes and uses it to educate people on how they can improve their outfits.

Richard Marles has gone to Washington. The KPI? Success in getting a meeting with JD Vance (Dep PM meets VP) and Pete Hegseth (Def Min meets Def Sec).

The message is that fawning to the two most outstanding fawners in the Trump administration pays off. Another billion to the US submaring constructors, and an implicit “deal” to support the US whenever they might want to use “our” submarines?

Marles needs some deep interrogation when he returns.

It won’t happen, of course.

Oh look – the US ambassador to Denmark has been called in after allegations people with connections to Donald Trump have been attempting covert influence operations in Greenland.

You may remember the US take over of Greenland is one of Trump’s batshit ideas in a long run of batshit ideas that dominated headlines (and jokes) for a bit and then cooled off. But the Danish national broadcaster has reported that there have been attempts to influence people on behalf of the US in Greenland.

As AAP reports:

Denmark’s foreign minister has summoned the top US diplomat in the Nordic nation for talks after the national broadcaster reported at least three people with connections to President Donald Trump have been carrying out covert influence operations in Greenland.

In a lengthy written statement, the US State Department confirmed the deputy chief of mission in Copenhagen, Mark Stroh, had met with Danish foreign ministry officials.

It declined to comment “on the actions of private US citizens in Greenland.”

The department said Stroh had “a productive conversation and reaffirmed the strong ties among the government of Greenland, the United States, and Denmark.”

It said the US values its relationships with both Denmark, a NATO ally, and Greenland and noted that Trump and his top aides had all said they respect “the right of the people of Greenland to determine their own future.”

“We continue to foster engagement and co-operation with Denmark and Greenland to support increased security and prosperity for our nations,” it said.

Stroh is the second American diplomat to be summoned by a European NATO ally this week as the Trump administration shakes up its approach to foreign policy. France had called US Ambassador Charles Kushner to its foreign ministry after he sent a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron alleging the country did not do enough to combat anti-Semitism.

The White House did not offer an immediate comment on Denmark’s summons.

Trump has repeatedly said he seeks US jurisdiction over Greenland, a vast, semi-autonomous territory of Denmark. He has not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island.

Denmark and Greenland have said the island is not for sale and condemned reports of the US gathering intelligence there.

Public broadcaster DR said Danish government and security sources that it didn’t name, as well as unidentified sources in Greenland and the US, believe that at least three American nationals with connections to Trump have been carrying out covert influence operations in the territory.

One of those people allegedly compiled a list of US-friendly Greenlanders, collected names of people opposed to Trump and got locals to point out cases that could be used to cast Denmark in a bad light in American media, the broadcaster reported. Two others have tried to nurture contacts with politicians, businesspeople and locals, according to the report.

DR said its story was based on information from a total of eight sources, who believe the goal is to weaken relations with Denmark from within Greenlandic society.

The broadcaster said it had been unable to clarify whether the Americans were working at their own initiative or on orders from someone else. It said it knows their names but chose not to publish them to protect its sources.

The Associated Press could not independently confirm the report.

“We are aware that foreign actors continue to show an interest in Greenland and its position in the Kingdom of Denmark,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said in a statement.

“It is therefore not surprising if we experience outside attempts to influence the future of the Kingdom in the time ahead.”

“Any attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the Kingdom will of course be unacceptable.”

Australians like to think that we live in a very equal society – where because of Medicare, unlike in the USA, wherever you live you can expect the same level of healthcare.  Unfortunately, the data shows the lie to this belief.

Healthcare should be universal, but your postcode has a big impact on life expectancy. People who live in inner metropolitan electorates (the inner parts of Australia’s capital cities) live almost a year (0.8) longer than people in outer metropolitan electorates (the edges of Australia’s capital cities).

But life expectancy falls even more for people who live in electorates outside the capital cities. In electorates where the majority of people live in major regional cities life expectancy falls by more than a year (1.1) compared with outer metro electorates. In rural electorates the results are even worse. Almost half a year (0.4) lower than provincial electorates.

This means that those in inner metro electorates can expect to live on average 2.3 years longer than their fellow Australians in rural electorates.

Independent senator David Pocock is about to hold the first of two press conferences he has scheduled this morning.

The first is on the need for gambling reform.

The second will be on Gaza.

We will bring you bits from both.