Morning mail: 'Humanitarian emergency' unfolding on Nauru, AMA president says
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Version 0 of 1. Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 20 September. Top stories The Australian Medical Association’s president has urged Scott Morrison to take urgent action to remove families and children from Nauru, preferably to the Australian mainland, to safeguard their physical and mental health. In a letter seen by Guardian Australia, Dr Tony Bartone says the medical profession is “demanding a change of policy” in recognition that the situation on Nauru is now “a humanitarian emergency requiring urgent intervention”. As well as urging the new prime minister to change the policy he presided over as an immigration minister, the AMA president has asked Morrison to facilitate access to Nauru for a delegation of Australian doctors to assess the health and wellbeing of people in detention. “As a suburban Melbourne GP for more than 30 years, and a grassroots Australian with strong community connections and Christian values, I passionately believe we can and must do more to look after the health of these people, many of whom have fled war, conflict, or persecution,” Bartone wrote. Labor and the Greens will attempt to move a motion of no confidence against Peter Dutton after the tabling of a Senate report finding he misled the parliament in relation to the au pair controversy. The Labor-dominated Senate committee concluded that the home affairs minister “had a clear personal connection and existing relationship with the intended employer of the au pair in the Brisbane case”. Dutton was asked in parliament in March if he could rule out any personal connection or other relationship between intended employer of either au pair, to which he replied: “The answer is yes.” He has dismissed the Senate report as “political”. The federal government says a $2-a-week boost to Newstart allowance will help unemployed Australians keep up with increases in their living costs, but people on the payment say the increase is laughable. On Thursday the base rate of Newstart will rise by $2.20 – or about 30c a day – to $275.10 a week. In a statement last week announcing that the payments were increasing, the social services minister, Paul Fletcher, said they were indexed to “help people keep up with increases in living costs”. But Kylie Ruxton, who has been living on Newstart for months, said: “What am I supposed to do with that? I’ll buy a loaf of bread.” Ruxton, who lives alone in Bendigo, said the increase would not help her keep up with the rise in her expenses, particularly groceries. Donald Trump says it would be “very hard” to imagine that anything happened between his supreme court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused him of sexual assault decades ago. Trump said Ford “deserves” to be heard and that he hopes she will share her story at a high-stakes hearing scheduled for Monday, which was thrown into doubt when her lawyers demanded an FBI investigation before an appearance on Capitol Hill. Republicans have rejected the request. The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, has said that Theresa May’s Chequers proposals for dealing with the Irish border and future trade relations after Brexit will need to be “reworked and further negotiated”, in a sign of how far the UK and EU are from resolving the most fraught issues in their divorce talks. Tusk said the talks were entering a decisive phase and that “various scenarios” were still possible – a clear hint that no-deal remained a possibility if no acceptable resolution to the negotiations could be reached. Colombia is desperate to shed its reputation as a nation dogged by the drug trade, but new figures from the UN show that it continues to break records for producing cocaine. A record estimated 1,379 tons of cocaine last year were produced last year – up 31% on 2016. Authorities are now testing a program to fumigate coca crops with the controversial herbicide glyphosate using unmanned drones. Sport Almost five months to the day since England sensationally beat Australia to claim netball gold at the Commonwealth Games, the Diamonds team exacted their revenge, seeing off the Roses 52-47 in Newcastle to take the lead in the Quad Series. Tigers, Magpies, Eagles or Demons? Justin Robertson’s guide to the AFL preliminary finals gives you everything you need to know about the final four. “The final four are the AFL’s most prolific scoring teams in 2018 which should thrill even the nonpartisan supporter,” Robertson writes. “What more could you ask for?” Thinking time Our Life on the breadline series continues this week with Amethyst DeWilde writing about a life lived in poverty. Since her last instalment she has juggled with medical and vet bills, struggled to spend $3.50 on a Fathers’ Day present for her dad, and felt about as low as you can go. But then small acts of kindness occur and, as she writes, this is one of the true gifts of living in poverty. As the strawberry needle sabotage scare widens across Australia, supermarkets are pulling punnets from their shelves while farmers are dumping their harvests in fields. Health officials are advising consumers to take extreme caution with any purchased fruit, but if you’d rather not throw strawberries out, there are plenty of ways to use them up – from crushing them up for face masks to brewing strawberry wine. The model Natasha Poly is a fan of a vitamin C-rich strawberry facial treatment, while entrepreneurial Australian farmers are already turning their hand to strawberry beer. If you’d rather stick to the kitchen, we’ve rounded up eight easy and delicious recipes for finely chopped strawberries. Guardian Australia’s government accountability reporter, Christopher Knaus, and political editor, Katharine Murphy, discuss the Transparency Project, which aims to shine a little light on the shadowy world of Australian political lobbying. In the special podcast, Knaus explains what he uncovered in his investigations for the series, and Murphy reflects on the changing nature of lobbying she has seen in her time in the press gallery. They talk about the problems with the system, including the loophole for those who simply choose not to define themselves as lobbyists for accountability purposes. Media roundup The Australian Financial Review splashes with a warning from Kevin Rudd, who says Beijing won’t bow to Washington in the escalating trade war and the conflict is a “slippery slope” towards a cold war that could result in military action. Labor MPs caught up in the red shirts scandal will avoid being formally interviewed by Victorian police, the Age reports. Instead, they are being asked to answer a questionnaire about the rort, in a move lawyers have labelled “extremely unorthodox”. And the ABC talks to “genetic detectives” who are studying poached ivory to track it back to its home country, which could allow prosecutors to tie shipments to their senders. Coming up Legislation is expected to be introduced to parliament to toughen penalties for food tampering. Victoria’s parliament will sit for its final day before the 24 November state election. Supporting the Guardian We’d like to acknowledge our generous supporters who enable us to keep reporting on the critical stories. If you value what we do and would like to help, please make a contribution or become a supporter today. Thank you. Sign up If you would like to receive the Guardian Australia morning mail to your email inbox every weekday, sign up here. |