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Climate change fires up Q&A panel
As Scott Morrison prepared for his appearance at Joe Biden’s climate summit late on Thursday evening, politicians and leaders sat down to discuss Australia’s carbon policy on ABC TV’s Q&A, reports News Corp’s Jess Malcolm.
A fiery debate ensued when host Hamish McDonald was joined by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, Resources, Water and Northern Australia Minister Keith Pitt, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, political adviser Andrew Liveris and journalist Narelda Jacobs.
Scott Morrison’s speech to the Business Council of Australia Awards on Monday night kicked the debate off when a questioner asked why he had argued that the transition to net-zero emissions in Australia “will not be achieved in the cafes, dinner parties and wine bars of our inner cities”.
Malcolm Turnbull accuses resources minister Keith Pitt of living in ‘coal-hugging bubble’
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has clashed with a former member of his ministry, Keith Pitt, accusing the resources and water minister of living in a “coal-hugging bubble” in a heated episode of ABC’s Q+A, reports The Guardian Australia‘s Josh Taylor.
As the audience was filing into the Q+A studio, US president Joe Biden announced the United States would cut its emissions by at least 50% by 2030. While the world appears to be moving ahead on climate change, the former Liberal prime minister said climate change in Australia, in particular, had become stuck as an issue of identity politics for rightwing politics, the Murdoch media and the fossil fuel lobby.
Pitt defended the comments from the prime minister, Scott Morrison, that net-zero carbon emissions would not be achieved in “inner city wine bars” by pointing out the reliance of people in regional areas on industries such as mining and agriculture, to which Turnbull responded Pitt was setting regional Australians up for failure.
Greens lash Q&A panellist for ‘appalling behaviour’
The Greens have taken aim at the host of ABC’s Q&A and a panellist on Thursday night’s show who has been accused of mocking and patronising Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, reports news.com.au.
There was particularly spirited debate between Hanson-Young and fellow panellist Andrew Liveris, the former chief executive of the Dow Chemical Company and current board member of the Saudi Aramco petrol and natural gas company.
At one point, Hanson-Young called out Liveris for being “patronising” as he was answering a question about his support for Australia’s commitment to fossil fuels.
“Let me teach you a new term: fossil feed stock,” Mr Liveris said.
“Fossil feed stock is all of your modern life. If you want to live a modern life, you need a fossil feed stock. You can’t get carbon any other way.
“If you want a chemistry lesson,” he added, referring to the other panellists, “I’ll help you out the back.”
“You’re so patronising, seriously,” Hanson-Young interjected. Liveris denied that he was.
“I’m not the one shaking my finger at people, mate,” she shot back.
AFR issues an apology for false claims made by columnists about ISignthis boss
The boss of fintech company ISignthis, John Karantzis, has received an out-of-court financial settlement and apology from The Australian Financial Review for suggesting he was involved in money laundering, reports AFR‘s Sophie Elsworth.
It’s the second dispute that has left the AFR out of pocket over recent columns written by high-profile columnist Joe Aston. In February the AFR was ordered to pay costs after a defamation over Aston columns action brought by Dr Elaine Stead, after being ordered to pay damages in January. Costs alone were reported to be more than $1 million.
Nine Entertainment Co, which owns the AFR, published two articles written by Aston and Myriam Robin, “Etherstack pump straight from iSignthis playbook” and “More alternative facts from iSignthis boss John Karantzis” on July 2 and 7 last year, with both referring to Karantzis and money laundering.
Con accused Peter Foster channels Paul Keating on Nine ethics
Alleged cryptocurrency conman Peter Foster used a brief appearance at a Sydney court to announce he had launched legal proceedings against the Nine Network, accusing it of displaying the “ethics of an alley cat”, reports News Corp’s Kieran Gair.
Foster, 58, who is accused of defrauding a Hong Kong pilot of almost $2m, was being filmed by 60 Minutes when Queensland police crash-tackled him on a Port Douglas beach as he walked his dogs in August last year.
He faces 16 charges, including five counts of publishing false and misleading material to obtain advantage and 10 counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception.
Entertainment
Netflix, Disney and Amazon’s streaming wars heat up overseas
Tech companies and Hollywood studios are increasingly looking to expand their streaming services abroad by spending more money on developing local content geared to the billions of potential overseas subscribers as the U.S. market becomes saturated, reports The Wall Street Journal‘s R.T Watson.
Following the lead of Netflix Inc., companies such as Walt Disney Co. and Amazon.com Inc. are pulling away from the production and distribution model of old, in which Hollywood shipped its movies and TV shows abroad, with the content dubbed or subtitled for the local market. Now, with a direct line to consumers through global streaming platforms, these companies are investing billions of dollars to make culturally specific, local-language content to woo subscribers.
The number of streaming subscriptions world-wide exceeded 1.1 billion last year, up from fewer than 400 million subscriptions in 2016, according to the Motion Picture Association. The growth was driven by Netflix’s overseas expansion, Disney’s launch of its Disney+ service and a pandemic that kept many people at home.
HBO Max Gains Traction in a Crowded Field
AT&T added 2.7 million new customers to HBO and HBO Max in the first quarter, a boost for the company’s new streaming effort in an increasingly crowded field, reports the New York Times‘s Edmund Lee.
In its report on the year’s first quarter, AT&T stopped disclosing the number of active HBO Max users, obscuring how many people are actually tuned into the new streaming service.
Over all, AT&T counted 44.1 million subscribers to HBO and HBO Max in the United States at the end of March, a gain of 2.7 million from the previous quarter. Before it stopped breaking out the HBO Max subscriptions, in December, it said it had 41.5 million subscribers: 17.1 million for the streaming service, 20 million for HBO on cable and the rest from hotels or other deals.
Radio
GOLD FM breakfast host Christian O’Connell revealed the sledge his daughter copped about him
Leading radio host Christian O’Connell has titled his new book after the sledge his daughter received at school, reports News Corp’s Jackie Epstein.
The popular Brit, host of GOLD FM breakfast, will in June release the book about his journey to Melbourne, titled No One Listens To Your Dad’s Show.
“The title comes from literally after a survey day, when we’d gone down in the ratings, some little 13 year-old says to my daughter: No one listens to your dad’s radio show.
“I wrote it down straight away, it’s so funny, I thought if I ever do a book that’s what I’ll call it.