Russian soldier documentary did not breach ABC standards and was not propaganda, ombudsman finds
Amanda Meade
The international documentary about the Russia-Ukraine war which screened on Four Corners last week did not breach editorial standards and was not propaganda, the ABC ombudsman has found.
Ukraine’s War: The Other Side, an immersive film about Russian soldiers on the front line, received 235 complaints after it was criticised as propaganda by the Ukrainian ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko.
Made by British film-maker Sean Langan, the documentary offered a human perspective on life on the Russian frontline.
The ombudsman, Fiona Cameron, said she understood some of the sentiments expressed in the film would be confronting but the Langan film presented a “rarely seen microcosm of the war” and the film-maker’s presence on the front line was not an endorsement of Russian actions.
Key events
Labor MP Daniel Mulino used the last 90-second statement slot to try out a bit of stand up comedy.
He took the ‘bitch and fold’ technique and, like a true Gen Xer tied it to a British comedy character. In this case, Vicky Pollard:
Vicky Pollard is one of the great figures of modern British satire. You’ve all heard her’ yeah but no but yeah’, it’s actually far more clever than people give Vicky credit for because she indicates initial assent, ut then she gives us a wiggle room and doesn’t overcommit. That’s the back. No.
Well, the opposition is like the reverse Vicky Pollard.
But unlike Vicky, they don’t start with yes. Of course they start with no. So for the opposition. It’s no but yeah, but no.
This is the opposition’s attempt to start negative, but then claim that all along now we’re actually in favour of what is it what it is that actually works.
Let’s think of the tax cuts. What was their initial response to our revamped tax cuts? No. But when it came to the vote, what was it that year? No, but yeah.
Let’s think about real wages, a $1 increase in the minimum wage No, an increase of 50% for aged care workers. No. Closing loopholes double No. But when it came to they’re coming in every day and complaining that real wages aren’t high enough.
…At least Vicky Pollard is likable and relatable. When you hear the yeah from the opposition, it follows a whole series of noes. And it’s those noes that people should take into account when they’re thinking about how those opposite things and most importantly, how they act.
Daniel Hurst
Just prior to question time, the deputy leader of the Greens, Mehreen Faruqi, issued a statement saying: “There’s crickets from the Labor government as Israel blocks food aid from reaching Palestinians in Northern Gaza.”
That follows claims by the aid agency Unrwa said on Sunday that Israel had definitively barred it from making aid deliveries in northern Gaza, where the threat of famine was highest. The Unrwa head, Philippe Lazzarini, had said this move was “outrageous” and “makes it intentional to obstruct lifesaving assistance during a man made famine”.
The Israeli government has long said Unrwa cannot be part of the future in Gaza, and that international community should direct aid through other agencies.
Just over a week ago, when the Australian government reinstated funding to Unrwa, Penny Wong called on Israel to “allow more aid into Gaza now”. Israel denies blocking aid but our colleagues published this detailed guide over the weekend:
We are now just a few minutes out from the first QT for the week – and the third last one before the autumn break sees parliament adjourn until budget week.
Grab what you need.
Given the ‘dystopian future’ warning from Andrew Hastie (as one blog watcher pointed out, aren’t wind farms usually used as helping to depict a utopian society?) here is a photo gallery from 10 years ago, showing just how terrible the future could be.
Sarah Basford Canales
Opposition accuse Labor of gagging them on draft religious discrimination legislation
The opposition is accusing Labor of gagging them from sharing the details of its proposed changes to religious discrimination laws, describing the situation as “absurd” and “reaching a farcical level”.
The shadow attorney general, Michaelia Cash, has called on the Albanese government to release the two draft bills as soon as possible, saying the process shouldn’t play out behind closed doors.
It was revealed early last week the government had two draft legislation in tow. One would amend the Sex Discrimination Act, presumably to repeal a controversial passage – section 38 – that gives religious schools blanket exemptions to discriminate on the basis of sexual and gender diversity among other things.
A second bill would introduce protections against religious discrimination within Australia – a promise years in the making since the Turnbull government passed laws legalising same-sex marriage.
But Anthony Albanese has said the bills won’t go ahead unless the Coalition agrees to offer its support to pass them. And we don’t know exactly what the bills are proposing to change because the government won’t release them publicly until it gains that support.
Cash said the opposition has copies of the draft legislation but have been sworn to secrecy over them.
Mr Albanese went to the election talking about transparency, but his government has failed to live up to his promises. We have copies of the government’s draft legislation, but we are not allowed to distribute it. We are allowed to speak with stakeholders about the legislation, but to our surprise and alarm it seems that many groups simply don’t know what’s in it.”
Cash said the opposition is working on tweaks to the proposed changes that take “faith communities forward, and not backwards”.
Last Thursday, the Australian Law Reform Commission’s report into the potential pathways on changes to the law was publicly released. It recommended repealing the blanket exemptions but added faith groups and schools should be able to preference hiring employees in line with their beliefs, so long as it is proportionate, “reasonably necessary” and does not breach discrimination laws.
The (complaining about) wind farms revolution
Isn’t it wonderful (as Sarah Basford Canales reminded me) how little things change in Australia:
Joe Hockey has repeated his criticism of the aesthetics of windfarms, saying he finds them “quite appalling” and that they detract from the beauty of Australia’s landscapes.
Speaking at a Bloomberg summit in Sydney on Tuesday, the federal treasurer replied in the affirmative when asked if he would repeat comments made to radio host Alan Jones that he finds the wind turbines around Lake George “utterly offensive”.
According to Renew Economy, the treasurer told the Sydney summit: “Renewable energy is hugely important, it’s a part of the fabric of development of a diverse energy supply right around the world.
“We have some beautiful landscapes in Australia, and frankly, putting up those towers is just to me, quite appalling in those places.
Just wait until these people see a coal mine!
Andrew Hastie rails against wind farms
“Destructive, dangerous, ugly” – WA Liberal Andrew Hastie opens his 90-second statement with what sounds like a Monday when you run out of coffee, but no. It’s wind farms.
Last weeks so-called consultation in Mandurah was nothing short of a charade, a tiny attempt to pacify my community while advancing the corporate interests of wealthy activist investors.
Locals were even told by a representative of a massive energy company which stands to profit from this project, that my opposition is quote, ‘interfering with democracy’.
They don’t want the truth out there. That the stunning beauty of our coastline will be damaged and compromised and the massive wind farm make our ocean look like a scene out of a dystopian science fiction movie.
There are massive sunk costs with this wind farm which will be paid for by Australian families and businesses and it will increase our energy dependence on a foreign power.
We’re not a laboratory for Labor’s radical energy policies or the vested interests of crony capitalists. This is our home. It’s our region and we will protect it
Peter Hannam
On gas emissions and WA
For some context about the gas bill now being debated in federal parliament, it’s worth pointing out how Western Australian greenhouse emissions are going.
WA is one of the big gas states and it has not been very active in trying to cut its carbon pollution, as we noted here earlier today:
For a state with about 10% of the nation’s population, its emissions are about 17% of Australia’s total. And in stark contrast to other states and the ACT, WA hasn’t bothered to come up with an overall emissions reduction target.
Yes, it would like the power sector to reach 80% renewables but it’s not a legislated target – and presently (and currently), clean energy is only supplying about one-third of the state’s power.
That’s despite being blessed with sun, wind, space and a state-owned grid … much like Queensland, which has a 75% reduction goal on 2005 levels by 2035.
In other words, lift your game WA!
Anyway, the gas bill that Labor seems keen on will likely increase emissions in WA unless the extra fossil gas can be offset or sequestered. Don’t bet on early reductions soon.
Greens lose motion for debate on gas bill
And the division goes as expected and the Greens motion was lost.
The moves on to the main speeches for the Greens amendment, but it is pretty close to QT, which means that the house has to move to 90-second statements (the airing of the MP grievances/fate reports).
Greens set for defeat on gas debate motion in House
The House is dividing, but with Labor and the Coalition on a unity ticket here, the Greens motion will be defeated.
It’s not the end – there will be more pushback in the Senate – but if the Coalition continues its support, it will get through there without the need for the Greens or crossbench support as well, meaning the bill’s passage is pretty much a fait accompli.
The Greens’ Griffith MP, Max Chandler-Mather, has also spoken against the urgency of the gas bill the government is trying to get through the house without debate (the Coalition is in agreement here).
MCM tells the house:
Now, if the government claims that are this won’t do what the Greens are claiming, well then let it go through a committee process.
Let the experts come in, let’s actually properly scrutinise this, not trying to rush it through on a day when we’re already experiencing a massive climate catastrophe.
And it should be alarming to members of the public that stuff like this can happen without the proper scrutiny without the proper debate, but the government isn’t even willing to stand up and defend their own bill.
They tried to claim ‘well, there’s nothing to see here. Nothing’s changing. Don’t worry, we’re not really doing anything’.
Well, if that’s the case, why move the bill at all? But that’s the thing, right?
[If this bill won’t] change anything –well, if that’s the case, don’t change it. Because the reality is, is what this does, is at the behest of gas corporations like Santos is giving them more power to bulldoze over the top of First Nations students and those Australians who are trying their very best to stop the madness between the major parties who are in the middle of a climate catastrophe being caused by coal and gas, what they are doing is trying to open more of.
Future generations will remember this, they’ll look back at moments like this, and they think ‘what were you doing?’
This government should be ashamed that it is has fallen to the Greens to try and stop this madness.
Bandt calls Labor ‘climate con artists’ over ‘rushed’ gas bill
There is an increasing tension between the Labor government and the teal crossbench on issues like environment, transparency, economic and social issues.
The government is making it clear it wants to negotiate with the Coalition on a lot of these issues as part of the ‘middle of the road’ approach the Albanese government takes. Negotiating with a progressive Senate would mean going further than this government is comfortable with when it comes to these policy areas.
Why? Because politically, it leaves them open to attack from the Coalition, in an election year, that the government is a Labor-Greens alliance. And in some areas, this is still seen as an election killer.
(Which ignores that in other areas and demographics, it is a vote winner – but our politics hasn’t caught up on the duality of this yet. Both things can be true.)
The Green’s leader, Adam Bandt is becoming increasingly frustrated at the Greens being frozen out on these policies. On the attempt to rush the gas bill through the house, Bandt said:
Rather than let that [review] process finish and come back to us with a full package, about what you environment was in consultation provisions might look like, rather than do that, they’ve said, in the meantime, ‘no. What we want to do is slip this bill through, with no speakers from the Labor backbench having the guts to come up and even speak to it’.
And the Liberals offering the only speaker in support of it to say ‘this is great. It’s exactly the legislation that we want to pass this through. Quickly, please, please Parliament don’t notice it don’t scrutinise it. So that we can rewrite those consultation provisions and take away people’s rights. And hopefully no one will notice’.
Well the Greens have noticed, the crossbenchers have noticed. First Nations organisations have noticed, the environment groups have noticed, the climate groups have noticed that Labor are climate con artists trying to rush through a bill a week before Easter to remove First Nations’ right[s], while working with the climate deniers in the Coalition to fast-track gas projects.
Well we are here to call you out. You don’t even have the guts to come and speak to this bill, at the very least defer [it] ‘til you’re done your consultations
Daniel Hurst
Australia has not technically exported ‘weapons’ to Israel, but it has permitted defence-related exports
Just a small point of explanation on my previous two posts: it is true that the government has repeatedly stated that Australia has not exported “weapons” to Israel for at least the past five years.
One reason it continues to be a point of debate is that Defence has also confirmed that it has issued more than 320 permits for Israel-bound defence exports since 1 January 2017.
Defence has repeatedly stated that this can include dual-use items (the government says such permits are “required for a broad range of goods and technologies such as software, radios or chemicals that have legitimate civilian and commercial applications”).
A major issue is that Defence has refused to be more specific about what it has approved. Some exporters have also marked their exports to Israel under the “arms and ammunition” category in official export figures.
More transparency would enable a more factually informed debate.
Bandt attempts motion on gas projects in House of Representatives
Over in the House, the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, is trying to suspend standing orders to discuss a motion on offshore gas projects.
You can read Paul Karp’s analysis about what is going on with Labor and the gas bill (as well as some other issues) here:
