Boys will be boys

A BIT OF SOFT CORRUPTION

Attorney-General Christian Porter will lead a review into the community sports grants scandal despite the program netting his own electorate nearly one million dollars.

Porter’s announcement follows revelations by the ABC that Scott Morrison’s local soccer club boasted about essential funding for a project weeks before the grants were announced. Morrison, whose office was involved in the rort itself, continues to stand by Bridget McKenzie.

Elsewhere, Energy Minister Angus Taylor’s office has largely refused an FOI over the City of Sydney scandal; Brendan Nelson has been appointed president of Boeing Australia, just weeks after making headlines for stepping down as controversial Australian War Memorial director; and George Christensen has paid back $2,100 after an audit found he misused travel expenses on trips to the Philippines. Peter Slipper is yet to comment.

A WEALTH CHASM

New Oxfam research has found the richest 250,000 Australians have more than double the wealth of the bottom 12.5 million combined.

Ahead of today’s World Economic Forum in Switzerland — and over 25 years since Newstart was meaningfully raised — Oxfam attributes the wealth gap to “greater financial return placed on money and assets (capital) than on work”, as well as corporate tax avoidance, tax breaks for asset owners, stagnant wages, insufficient public spending and a winding back of Australia’s progressive taxation system.

Notably, a new Bank of International Settlements report argues climate change could trigger the next global financial crisis and that the RBA may need to buy up coal mines and power stations to save the economy.

AID GROUPS JOIN FORCES

Oxfam, World Vision, Plan International and Save the Children will today join forces to highlight the impact of climate change on human rights. The group will shine a spotlight on fire-ravaged Australia, flash flood-prone Indonesia and drought-stricken southern Africa.

The group’s campaign for stronger domestic emissions targets comes as Scott Morrison insists the Coalition is perfectly happy with his climate policy.