Indigenous teen's fatal shooting declared death in custody

Good morning, early birds. NT Police is under investigation over the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old Warlpiri man, and the government will halve the concessional tax rate for major infrastructure projects. It’s the news you need to know, with Rachel Withers.

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THE COMMENTARIAT

Climate change makes bushfires worse. Denying the truth doesn’t change the facts – Richard Denniss (The Guardian): “Climate change makes bushfires worse. Even if we catch an arsonist who lights a fire, the fact is the fires they light will burn further and faster than they would have if the world had burned less coal, and the temperature was lower than we have made it. With the same amount of effort into managing fuel loads and cutting firebreaks, a fire lit by an arsonist will spread further today than it would have in past decades. The embers from hotter fires, moving across drier ground, can spark new fires further away from the firefront than they once did. And as climate change ramps up the intensity of bushfires in Australia, we will need to put in a lot more resources simply to hold the amount of fire damage constant over time. Experienced firefighters have tried to tell the prime minister, but he literally will not listen.”

Ignore the howls of anguish, the ABC has made the right call – Alan Attwood (The Age/Sydney Morning Herald): “Sydney’s Games were my last. Since then they’ve become more bloated, more costly, more of a burden on a host city. (A shout-out here to all the poor people in Rio.) The ABC has made the right call. But, some say, its radio coverage goes way back to Helsinki in 1952. When Australia didn’t have TV. Or the internet. Or Bruce McAvaney. He’ll be in Tokyo. It will be special. Not long ago, ABC radio covered Australian Open tennis matches. No longer. We move on. At Games time next year, ABC radio will endure. With Anything But Climbing.”

Albanese moves slowly, steadily to change ($) – Niki Savva (The Australian): “If there is one salutary, if perverse, lesson that comes through clearly from Labor’s review of why it lost when it should have romped in, it is this: often the greatest perceived strength, in this case unity, became its greatest weakness. Unity is prized, but it can be overrated, especially if it is weaponised to stifle legitimate debate. There is a difference between sabotage of a leader and constructive internal discussions that spill out into the public arena, that test the leader’s ideas or policies, which have the potential to lead them over a cliff. While Bill Shorten consulted allies during his long tenure, there was no serious questioning of the direction he set, publicly or privately, so they were all responsible for the disastrous policies and the narrative, such as it was.”

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