WA AND ACT BURN

As much of Australia prepares for another heatwave, the ABC reports that fire authorities have called for residents to evacuate rural communities in Perth’s south, with a Mundijong fire expected to burn for days and a smoke alert issued for parts of the city. Elsewhere, Canberra’s “most serious fire since 2003” has been downgraded to ‘watch and act’, after burning through more than 8,000 hectares of the Orroral Valley, The Daily Telegraph ($) reports.

Meanwhile, the Productivity Commission will today release annual costings of state fire services spending — which The Age reports Victoria tops at $1.8 billion — and Scott Morrison will use his first National Press Club address of the year to flag stronger federal powers to call in the defence force for national disasters, The Australian ($) reports.

For the latest updates, visit Emergency WA and ACT Emergency Services Agency.

A SMOKING GUN?

An ABC report published yesterday has revealed new sports rort details: namely, Sports Australia’s direct complaint of political interference to Bridget McKenzie; the rankings of failed clubs; and her office’s colour-coded grant applications spreadsheet, along with metadata implicating Liberal operative and future director of the National Party, Jonathan Hawkes.

Today, The New Daily has revealed McKenzie charged taxpayers thousands of dollars for an unscheduled and undeclared private jet charter from Adelaide to Perth for a shooters expo in October 2018; and The Age reports McKenzie personally chipped in $1 to round up a $199,999 federal grant to a marginal Queensland seat’s football club less than two months before the election.

Notably, before the ABC’s latest coverage, The Australian ($) reported party ally Michael McCormack was refusing to guarantee McKenzie’s current position.

BETTINA'S QUALIFICATIONS ARDNT UP TO SNUFF

An investigation by New Matilda has found News Corp columnist, men’s rights advocate and controversial recipient of an Order of Australia Bettina Arndt isn’t a doctor or a psychologist… despite being consistently referred to as such by the media and politicians, and dubbed a “clinical psychologist” on the back cover of her book The Sex Diaries.

Arndt, whose OAM for “services to gender equity through advocacy for men” has been slammed by Rosie Batty and sexual abuse survivors, says she is not “remotely interested” in presenting as a psychologist and has come out clean from multiple investigations by authorities. However, New Matilda has extensively chronicled uncorrected misidentifications, which range from in The Australian and the ABC, to at Senate Estimates in October 2018.