The National Bonus Network

CASTING A WIDER NET

According to The Guardian, Communications Minister Paul Fletcher will today announce that NBN Co will borrow $3.5 billion from private debt markets to fund national broadband upgrades including “taking fibre deeper into neighbourhoods serviced by fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) technology”.

The National Press Club announcement forms something of an about-face for the Coalition, which abandoned Labor’s fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) model in favour of a technology mix including some existing copper networks — see: Turnbull vs Rudd 2019 — but Fletcher will defend the move as the party “committing to more fibre when it makes economic sense to do so”.

Simultaneously, The Age reports that NBN Co is set to pay millions in bonuses to senior management, including its chief executive on $2.6 million-a-year Stephen Rue, despite plans to cut hundreds of staff and the Morrison government’s public sector pay crackdown.

PS: In other belated federal news, The Australian ($) reports that the Morrison government is considering bringing forward $700 million in university research funding — for 2020-21, and deducted from a planned $2.1 billion package in 2024-25 — after deliberately excluding the sector from JobKeeper (save for private and, apparently, American universities).

FLAW AND ORDER

According to The Australian ($) the Victorian Greens, and Reason Party leader Fiona Patten have signalled they will push for amendments to the Andrews government’s latest police bill, which, on top of multiple new measures, empowers authorised officers to detain potential spreaders without court oversight.

The news comes after a group of 18 legal figures slammed the move in an open letter to Dan Andrews.

On a separate legal front, The Age reports that lawyers defending the Andrews government against its curfew challenge are considering withholding key documents related to the September 14 extension ahead of a 2pm deadline today.

PS: Speaking of arbitrary detention, The Guardian reports that the Morrison government continues to detain a Sri Lankan refugee after 11 years, despite a ruling that he’s owed protection.

Elsewhere, The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Chinese government is pushing 500,000 Tibetans into labour camps, while the mother of Julian Assange’s children, Stella Morris, is seeking Australian citizenship for their sons and has called on Scott Morrison to promise they can return safely if the WikiLeaks founder escapes US extradition.

TROJAN HORSE MET WITH SCEPTICISM

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Angus Taylor’s plan to use the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and Australian Renewable Energy Agency to fund carbon capture and storage faces opposition from Labor and the Greens, meaning he would need the support of One Nation and at least one more of the three other crossbenchers.

The potential senate veto comes as Malcolm Turnbull dismisses elements of the “gas-led recovery” as “crazy” because it assumes a cheaper gas price even when costs for renewables and battery storage continue to fall. Turnbull, it should be said, tried the exact same carbon capture and storage trick in 2017, which just kind of fell away with the NEG.

Elsewhere, The Guardian reports that Labor’s draft policy platform commits to the “responsible” and “environmentally sustainable” development of gas, but at least reads the room and acknowledges renewable energy as “central to our economic future”.

THE MITTS ARE OFF

Finally, the ABC reports that former presidential candidate and Republican senator Mitt Romney has promised to support Donald Trump’s bid to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the two months before the federal election, and potentially lock in a 6-3 Republican held Supreme Court.