Who knew what, and when?

DID SCOTTY KNOW?

Note: this story discusses sexual assault.

According to news.com.au, Scott Morrison’s claim that no one in his office knew about Brittany Higgins’ alleged rape has been undermined by newly-released text messages revealing one of his staffers was “mortified” by the story and pledged to bring the allegations to the prime minister’s chief of staff.

The April 3, 2019 text came 11 days after the alleged incident and, reportedly, were due to a friend’s connection with the Prime Minister’s Office after Higgins confided she had received “jack-shit” support from the Liberal party.

The news comes after The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Defence Minister Linda Reynolds delivered an apology to Parliament alleging she did not pass on details of the allegations to Morrison out of concern for Higgins’ welfare and privacy.

Today, Guardian Australia also reports the security incident report from the Department of Parliamentary Services was initially withheld from the Australian Federal Police, despite multiple requests and only ultimately handed over after inquiries were escalated.

Separately, journalist Peter van Onselen yesterday alleged that Morrison’s office was backgrounding reporters in an effort to smear Higgins’ partner as holding a grudge against the government, with Finance Minister Simon Birmingham later claiming the prime minster would have “no tolerance” for the behaviour.

PS: In state fallout, The Age reports that the Victorian Parliament will adopt new punishments for politicians found guilty of unacceptable behaviour, and one proposal could see MPs fined or sacked for serious cases of bullying or harassment.

1800RESPECT: 1800 737 732.

UPLIFTING NEWS

The global pandemic has potentially forced the Australian government to lift the welfare payment rate for the first time in 26 years, with The Australian ($) reporting that cabinet’s expenditure review committee is expected to meet this afternoon to finalise a package that would permanently lift JobSeeker after the diluted coronavirus supplement ends entirely on March 31.

A “favoured” option would be to combine all existing income support, supplementary and subsidy programs into one payment, while The Age reported earlier this week the government was also kicking around a modified proposal by the Blueprint Institute to create a two-tiered “unemployment insurance” scheme that could offer newly-unemployed people five times as much as the long-term unemployed.

While it is unclear what the final rate might be, there’s not quite as much political pressure to lift it above poverty lines as there could be — currently JobSeeker sits at $565 a fortnight; poverty is defined as $1100 per the Henderson rate or $816 by ANU — with Labor supporting a lift but refusing to name a figure out of an apparent fear of putting a target on its back AKA being an opposition party.

NET LOSS

Finally, Facebook has begun restoring some health and safety Australian pages, such as the Bureau of Meteorology, accidentally included in yesterday’s purge of Australian media — which, good; there are flood warnings in north Queensland, and it’s fire season on this particular continent — however the ABC reports the company’s head of policy in the Asia-Pacific, Simon Milner, has blamed the wording of the Morrison government’s proposed law, not a failure of their algorithm, for the pre-legislative action.

Rightly or wrongly, Milner is correct that the legislation captures sources other than media outlets or journalists; as Crikey’s Bernard Keane explains, the bargaining code defines news as “issues or events that are relevant in engaging Australians in public debate and in informing democratic decision-making; or current issues or events of public significance for Australians at a local, regional or national level”.

Today, and perhaps unsurprisingly given the new laws were designed to benefit them, both News Corp ($) and Nine mastheads have published damning editorials of Facebook, while the latter notes Scott Morrison has brought the issue to the attention of Indian counterpart Narendra Modi — who is busy crushing a farmers’ revolution and arresting 20-something-activists — in a bid to shore up global support.

Still, as authors of Digital News Report: Australia 2020 explained at The Conversation yesterday, the actual victims of the purge are likely to be regional, elderly news consumers.