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Daily Mail
a day ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
The huge problem with Australia's so-called First Nations Ambassador - and it's not just the massive travel bill that's raising eyebrows
By any reasonable measure, the numbers are absurd. Australia's so-called First Nations Ambassador, Justin Mohamed, has seemingly managed to spend more time airborne than in any substantive engagement likely to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians. In just two years, Mohamed has clocked up 261 travel days (an entire working year) at a cost of more than $730,000 to taxpayers. Add to that a contract worth just shy of $1million over two and a half years, and the obvious question arises: what exactly has he achieved? This isn't some isolated administrative extravagance, by the way. It's emblematic of the broader drift and performative politics that characterise the Albanese government. And they claim they want to cut spending and fix the budget! We've seen this movie before. Airbus Albo, as the Opposition dubbed him, doesn't mind taxpayer-funded travel perks, not least his well-documented preference for Qantas upgrades and photo ops abroad. So it's hardly surprising that a pet foreign policy project dressed up as First Nations engagement would follow the same globe-trotting script. But here's the problem: while Mohamed racks up hotel points and business-class miles to destinations like New York, Geneva, Paris, Dubai and Hawaii, the supposed mission to 'implement a First Nations approach to foreign policy' remains nebulous at best. Even within DFAT, the exact objectives and outcomes of the role appear to shift depending on the press release spinning a defence. First it was about supporting the Voice, until the Voice referendum failed. Then it was about regional engagement and economic diplomacy. Now, it's part of some vague effort to counter China 's influence in the Pacific. If it all sounds like policy on the run, that's because it is. And you're paying for it. Of his 46 taxpayer-funded trips, just five were to Pacific Islands. In contrast, Mohamed spent more than twice as long in the United States alone. That's not regional engagement, it's tourism with talking points. When Daily Mail Australia previously revealed that a single two-week trip to Kansas City and Washington DC cost taxpayers over $75,000, it raised eyebrows. But even that wasn't the whole picture. FOI documents showed his team has burned through nearly $400,000 on travel, separate from his own expenses. And yet there's still no public explanation (let alone evidence) of what measurable benefit this travelling roadshow has delivered for the Indigenous communities the ambassador is supposed to represent. This matters not just because the waste is galling, but because this kind of performative diplomacy erodes public confidence in the very causes it purports to champion. If you wanted to design a role that fuels scepticism about reconciliation, appoint a taxpayer-funded roving ambassador to attend international conferences with no clear mandate, no KPIs and no link to tangible outcomes for those suffering entrenched disadvantage back home. If this were a corporate role, it would be axed in the next round of budget cuts. Instead, it's being defended by the government with the often hollow rhetoric of diversity, inclusion and soft power, as though those buzzwords justify burning through public funds with no accountability. The truth is you can't close the gap from business class, and symbolic diplomacy, no matter how well-intentioned or well-funded doesn't help when it's divorced from practical policy. If the Albanese government can't see that this is wrong, they're not listening. And if the Coalition has any sense, they'll stick to their pre-election pledge to abolish this role on day one of returning to office. But God only knows how far off into the distance that day might be. The real work of reconciliation will remain stuck on the tarmac until this bloke gets the boot.
The Star
a day ago
- Politics
- The Star
Bringing 'Achilles' to heel: Portal claims Jho Low in China under fake Aussie passport, Greek alias
KUALA LUMPUR: Fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Low, the alleged mastermind behind the multibillion-ringgit 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, is reportedly living in China using a forged Australian passport under a Greek alias, according to investigative outlet Brazen. He is said to be using the name "Constantinos Achilles Veis" on the fraudulent passport. The publication, co-founded by former Wall Street Journal reporters Bradley Hope and Tom Wright, who were pivotal in uncovering the 1MDB corruption network, claims Low is residing in a luxury neighbourhood in Shanghai. Responding to the report, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) issued a statement warning that passport fraud is a serious offence under Australian law. 'The Australian Passport Office specialist investigators and intelligence officers assess every allegation of fraudulent use of Australian passports,' a DFAT spokesman said. The use of a false Australian passport is an offence under that country's passport legislation, with convicted offenders facing up to 10 years' jail, or a fine of up to A$330,000 (about RM910,500), or both. DFAT added that it could not comment on individual cases because of privacy laws. Low, who has consistently denied wrongdoing, is wanted by multiple jurisdictions, including Malaysia, the United States and Singapore, for his role in siphoning an estimated US$4.5bil (RM21bil) from the sovereign wealth fund. Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has been in prison since 2022 after being convicted of corruption and money laundering linked to the scandal. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim responded cautiously to the latest claims, saying he "we have no information, we are yet to receive anything." "Let me check. I've read [the media reports]. I need to verify with the home minister,' he was quoted as saying by Bernama. The Brazen report also comes amid long-standing international efforts to bring Low to justice. In 2019, the US Department of Justice reached a settlement with him to recover US$1bil, but he remains a wanted man. Authorities previously seized the superyacht Equanimity, which was allegedly purchased with stolen 1MDB funds. The vessel was later sold for US$126mil, and the proceeds returned to Malaysia. The use of forged Australian passports has raised concerns in the past. In 2010, Australia expelled an Israeli diplomat after Mossad agents used fake Australian documents in an assassination operation. To enhance document security, Australia introduced the R Series passport in 2023, which DFAT says has advanced security features to deter counterfeiting and forgery.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Daily Mail
Prime suspect in horrific cold case murder of 23-year-old woman is mysteriously found dead in Thailand
The suspected killer of a young woman whose partially burned body was found in bushland in NSW more than 20 years ago has been found dead in Thailand. Accused serial rapist and murderer Kevin Steven Correll, 69, died while on holiday in the South East Asian country last week. Correll was identified by police as the most likely to have killed 23-year-old car saleswoman Rachelle Childs on June 8 in 2001. Police did not charge anyone over her murder after the early investigation was repeatedly botched. Ms Child's body was found dumped in bushland in Gerroa, south of Sydney, about 100km away from her home. Unleaded petrol had been poured over her face and other parts of her body in what had been an apparent attempt to hide DNA evidence. She was found partially undressed and was likely either smothered or strangled to death. Authorities in Thailand have said the details surrounding the death of Correll remain a mystery. A member of Correll's family said police turned up to his son Mitchell's house to inform them an autopsy that was already underway. 'Not sorry he's gone just sorry that Rachelle's family aren't going to get the justice that they so deserve,' they told the Daily Telegraph. His estranged daughter, Jazz, found out her father was dead after speaking to her brother on the phone Saturday. 'I feel sad for his many victims,' she told the publication. Consular assistance is being provided to Correll's family in Australia, a DFAT spokesman confirmed. Many believe the initial police investigation into Ms Child's death had been thoroughly mishandled by local police before they handed it off to homicide detectives. Local police lost a crucial piece of CCTV footage which showed Ms Childs with what could have been her murderer at a petrol station on the night of her death. Other mistakes by the police unit included one officer who contaminated DNA found on a bedsheet in her car and others who did not collect her phone records properly. Correll was Ms Child's boss at the used car dealership, Camden Holden, where they both worked when she died. He was voluntarily questioned on three occasions by police regarding her death but detectives were unable to gather enough evidence to convict him. This is despite the fact that his alibi for the night of Ms Child's death could not be corroborated. Correll had previously been in court accused of rape. In once incident in the 1980s a woman's screams attracted police, who found him with his pants down, and she told them she was being assaulted. Correll was charged but a jury found him not guilty later in court. He had three other women also accused him of rape in separate incidents but was found not guilty in court. In the 1980s personal attacks against alleged victims in the witness box over their clothing or dating history was common. Another of his accusers said he had threatened her with a knife and threatened to kill her children. Correll was one of the last people to see Ms Childs alive when she left work the day before her death. Other employees recalled her telling them she was going to meet up with someone at the Bargo Hotel that evening but she did not say who it was. There was no CCTV inside the hotel and police did not manage to question everyone who was there on that night. After the meet Ms Childs rang her sister for a brief chat which was the last anybody ever heard from her. A motorist who was driving along the road where Ms Childs was found recalled to police having seen a 1978 Holden Commodore matching the description of the one she owned. The car was parked off the highway about 200m away from where Ms Childs was found the following day around 10.20pm on June 7. Another witness recalled seeing the car later with its boot open in the same location at 11pm. They told police there had been one person standing up next to the car while a second person was lying on the ground. Correll's alibi was that he drove from Camden to Campbelltown to meet his partner on June 7. He had been in a three-month long-distance relationship with a Thai woman when he died.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Australia's reckoning with Indigenous people takes one cultural glide forward, two political steps back
For several decades First Nations artists have done much of the heavy lifting in Australian cultural diplomacy. And now Wesley Enoch as chair of Creative Australia has to fix a damaged sector. Archie Moore, Tracey Moffatt, Warwick Thornton, Deborah Mailman, William Barton, Tony Albert, Judy Watson, David Gulpilil, Christian Thompson, Ivan Sen, Emily Kam Kngwarray, to name just some of the many who have won accolades for their stunning, original work and taken their place at the peaks of cultural power and influence. Winning hearts and changing minds as they went. Not so long ago this suggested a long overdue reckoning with the First Peoples; a reckoning that the rest of the world was watching in the detached way that those who can be bothered note what is happening elsewhere. Australia is diffident about cultural diplomacy, reluctant to exercise its soft power (in anything other than sport), as the abandonment of ABC Asia Pacific TV demonstrated – although the ABC has since revamped its international service. The global celebration of First Nations artists was a powerful way of showing that modern Australia had thrown off its colonial legacy, had grown into a truly mature and reconciled nation and come to terms with the ancient human heritage that makes it truly unique. Creative Australia put First Nations stories first in its strategic priorities, Dfat's cultural grants emphasised the persuasive power of 65,000 years of unique civilisation, and Australia lobbied hard for Unesco recognition of cultural heritage at Gunditjmara and now Murujuga. Yet as we approach the second anniversary of the decision by most Australians to reject meaningful recognition of First Peoples, the tension at the heart of this international celebration of the talent, stories and unique ways of seeing, being and doing comes clearly into focus. Is it simple hypocrisy or the old Australian way – one glide forward, two quick steps back? There are markers. The silence about discussing the referendum or to even consider national truth-telling. The ratty politics rejecting welcomes to country and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags. The patchy reporting of the coronial findings of institutional racism in the NT Police and the Yoorrook inquiry's findings of historic genocide. The federal court's hand-wringing decision that accepted government policies caused wilful destruction of culture and environment in the Torres Strait Islands but that it was unable to do anything about it. These recent events suggest that coming to terms with the enduring impact of the past is at best the latter, two quick steps back. At worst, to me, it suggests further signs of what Jeremy Bentham once called an 'incurable flaw'. All this came to mind as I stood outside Tate Modern waiting in line under an unusually hot summer sun for my bag to be checked. My English friend and I were on our way to the third floor of the vast former turbine to see the Emily Kam Kngwarray exhibition. 'Why is it on now?' he asked. He knows Australia, has spent time in central Australia and understood how the voice referendum hung heavily there. It's a reasonable question. And there are many answers. Some practical, others freighted with meaning. The director of the Tate told the press it was part of her plan to celebrate older female artists who should be considered great masters (mistresses?). The art press buzzed that this was one of three major exhibitions of Indigenous artists in London this summer – the others from Canada and Peru. Indigeneity is 'a thing'. The collaboration to celebrate the 'old lady's' work between the Tate, National Gallery of Australia and the women of Alhalker country began not long after the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, declared there would be a referendum to secure meaningful recognition of First Peoples in the Australian constitution. These big retrospective shows are years in the making, especially ones that require the active involvement of local communities as well as major galleries and high-profile owners around the world. When the extraordinary show first opened in Canberra just months after the vote, there was sadness about what might have been, about how the exhibition might have celebrated a new beginning. In London two years later, this is a barely acknowledged backdrop. Those seeing her work for the first time grapple with what it represents, how someone who only started painting in her 70s produced work as fresh and innovative as any major 20th-century artist – but how it grew out of her knowledge, skill and dreaming. Like all great artists the work is truly hers, grounded in her unique perspective. What comes as a surprise, to those who have only seen her images in books and posters, is their three-dimensional quality. Kngwarray layered paint to evoke stories of such extraordinary depth that they carry a fourth dimension of infinite time, 'everywhen'. It invites the viewer into a unique way of seeing and being. Another Australian artist is also celebrated on level 3 of the Tate. Leigh Bowery, who in his short life became a London gay style icon. Both Emily and Leigh speak to a distinctive Australian sensibility and energy. They prove that from an unlikely starting point anything is possible. Answering my friend's question, I said I wished the curators had projected The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, where flamboyant gay culture meets the outback, on the wall between the two iconoclastic Australians, to help viewers literally join the dots between the two exhibitions. Culture is complicated, cultural diplomacy can take time, but culture might still lead politics. Julianne Schultz an emeritus professor at Griffith University and the author of The Idea of Australia
The Age
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Age
Four in five Tuvaluans apply to move to Australia. Frayzel is among them
The great climate migration of the 21st century has begun, with 80 per cent of the population of tiny Tuvalu entering a lottery to migrate to Australia. Midnight on Friday was the deadline for the Pacific island nation's 10,643 citizens to enter a ballot for a permanent residency visa. As of Friday afternoon, 8074 people in 2278 family groups had applied, in what the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade called 'an incredibly positive uptake'. Just 280 places are available in the first year. The Tuvalu figures are on top of the 56,000 people from other Pacific nations who applied for 3000 places in the broader ballot for the Pacific engagement visa last year. The next round is due to open soon. One of the applicants in the Tuvaluan lottery is Frayzel Uale, 18, who moved to Melbourne four years ago with his family when his mother came on a student visa. Uale, who is working a packing job while studying information technology, remembers his homeland as 'peaceful and joyful' and still feels connected to his culture, but he doesn't see a future for himself in Tuvalu. 'There are more opportunities here,' Uale said. 'I hear stories from Tuvalu about how the weather's been changing a lot lately, with king tides going up, the streets are sometimes covered in water, and erosion is happening everywhere. Tuvalu has contributed so little to climate change, but we are one of the most affected countries.' Tuvalu is a low-lying atoll nation, like Kiribati and the Marshall Islands in the Pacific and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, facing an imminent existential threat as sea levels rise. Loading The visa is part of the Falepili Union Treaty, which also includes a security pact and climate mitigation to support Tuvaluans to stay in their homeland. DFAT says that in 2025-26, an estimated $47 million in development support will contribute to important climate adaptation, telecommunications, infrastructure, health and education projects in Tuvalu.
