Thursday 1 July 2021

ClimateChange: The NSW government gazette reports that energy companies will be required to pay money into the Climate Change Fund as follows: Ausgrid, $133 million, Endeavour Energy, $86 million and Essential Energy $56 million. This is yet just another 'tax' that inflates our electricity prices.

COVID: Lockdown continues across multiple cities in Australia whilst the Prime Minister has created a furore by advising that under 40-year olds can have AstraZeneca vaccine if they wish. Labor state Premiers have accused the PM of not following health advice. The PM's team instead says that health advice has not changed and that Phizer is the preferred vaccine for under 40s where it is available. Either way, it seems unconscionable to say on one hand that AstraZeneca is going to be withdrawn in October because of the blood clot risk, only to then promote it to under 40s who reportedly have an even higher risk of clotting.

Again, the question of equality before the law has been raised as the Qld Premier points out that most of the 20,000 exemptions to the Australian closed borders were for business and not returning Australians. There needs to be transparency in the decisions that are being made to grant exemptions and clarity around the criteria. The principle of open justice requires that not only are administrative decisions just but that they need to be seen as just.

Election Campaign (Opinion): Who knows when the Federal election will be called. Originally, the ALP had seemed to think it would be early rather than later and commenced what appeared to be an unofficial election campaign in Qld, coincidentally (?) timed with the release of sexual assault allegations relating to parliament. It seems that the ALP election campaign is targetted at smearing the government with sexual allegations rather than fighting it on policy grounds. Is it any accident that since the visit to Qld there has been Britney Higgins, Grace Tame, the allegations against Christian Porter, and not only the allegations but the ongoing resurrecting of the same issues in papers such as the Guardian and on the ABC which seem to be dedicated to ensuring ongoing air time. It appears that this is going to be a very dirty election campaign that is only likely to get worse.

Christian Porter: The press frenzy continues unabated. Additionally, Victor Kline has announced that he is going to pursue a private criminal prosecution of Porter. Kline says, on Twitter, that his legal team includes Mark Higgins, Vania Holt, Erick Zhang and Susan Campbell.

Overseas

Bill Cosby: Bill Cosby's sexual assault conviction has been vacated and any further prosecution barred. The key issue seems to be that when the allegations were first raised the police chose not to prosecute. Cosby then allegedly made a deal with the prosecutors to testify in the civil change in exchange for immunity from criminal prosecution. However, a new prosecutor came along and decided to charge Cosby anyway.

Hong Kong: Honk Kong police reportedly re-arrested Chow Hang-Tung after revoking her bail on the eve of the anniversary of the city's handover to China (news.rthk.hk)

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