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| Good morning, early birds. A stellar line-up of international and local artists have helped raise $9.5 million for bushfire relief, and backpackers will be granted visa benefits if they help rebuild bushfire-affected communities. | |||||||||||||
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IN CONCERTCeleste Barber, John Farnham, Olivia Newton-John, Queen (performing their 1985 Live Aid set fronted by Adam Lambert) and many, many more artists have helped raise $9.5 million at Sydney’s Fire Fight Australia concert for bushfire relief, the ABC reports. Russell Crowe also popped up in a frankly terrific video about the impact of climate change. PLAYBACK: While a full video of the concert is yet to be uploaded, you can, and should, watch the English/Gamilaraay cover of You’re the Voice by Farnham, Newton-John, Brian May, Mitch Tambo and a group of volunteer firefighters. | |||||||||||||
JUST ADD BACKPACKERS!In a stranger attempt at support, backpackers will be granted new visa benefits if they help rebuild bushfire-affected communities, under an overhaul of the working holiday program, The Australian ($) reports. TALKING POINT: One wonders if the almost 50,000 failed asylum seekers that The Age reports are currently awaiting deportation will be granted the opportunity to apply. | |||||||||||||
CASES SPIKE ON QUARANTINED CRUISEAccording to the ABC, 70 more passengers and crew aboard Japan’s quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess have tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total to 355 or just under 10% of those on board. As both Australia and the US work on evacuating nationals stuck on the ship, The Guardian reports a group of Australian evacuees will leave quarantine on Christmas Island today following no reported cases of coronavirus. | |||||||||||||
RESPECT SMOKO'S AUTHORITYFirefighter and cult hero Paul Parker has told The Project — shortly after telling Scott Morrison mid-bushfire crisis “to go and get fucked from Nelligen” — he was dismissed from his volunteer captaincy at NSW’s Rural Fire Service for “allegations and foul language”. HOT TAKE: While the news got #IStandWithFiremanPaul trending, and Parker will never pay for another beer in his life, really, as Crikey contributor Ben Eltham noted on Twitter, is there anything more Australian than punishing someone for speaking out against authority? | |||||||||||||
THEY REALLY SAID THAT?
The Nationals leader answered a question Insiders’ David Speers absolutely did not ask (which, FYI, was actually about whether McCormack accepts IPCC emission trajectories). | |||||||||||||
CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY | |||||||||||||
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THE COMMENTARIATLabor exposed on climate, and Bandt not helping ($) — Nick Cater (The Australian): “Would Richard Marles welcome a new Australian coal-fired power station? The ABC’s David Speers asked the question of Labor’s deputy leader at least a dozen times last week before giving up and answering himself.” The High Court and the “aliens” power — Megan Davis (The Saturday Paper): “The decision by the High Court of Australia this week on the ‘aliens’ power cast my mind back to my work in 2011 on the prime minister’s expert panel on the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the Australian constitution.” Bring them back: It’s time the government brought IS wives to Australia — Michael Bachelard (The Sydney Morning Herald): “Well, at least we now have it clear. The Australian government is not prepared to accept Australian citizens, and those with a claim to citizenship, home from detention in Syria unless they can pay a people smuggler to help them escape.” | |||||||||||||
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