Good morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Monday 26 March.
Top stories
As users continue to delete their Facebook accounts in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, people are discovering the social network holds far more data about them than they expected, including complete logs of incoming and outgoing calls and SMS messages. One user, Dylan McKay, reported that for the period October 2016 to July 2017 his logs contained “the metadata of every cellular call I’ve ever made, including time and duration” and “metadata about every text message I’ve ever received or sent”. Many other users reported unease at the data they had discovered being logged, including the contacts in their address books, their calendars and their friends’ birthdays.
The #deletefacebook movement took off after the revelations that Facebook had shared with a Cambridge psychologist the personal information of 50 million users, without their explicit consent, which later ended up in the hands of the election consultancy Cambridge Analytica.
Victoria’s national parks and water catchments should be opened up for sustainable logging, according to a group of six Victorian sawmillers. In a Guardian Australia exclusive for Our wide brown land series, Gregg Borschmann spoke to the sawmillers who say that the Victorian timber industry is in crisis. They want access to more timber – or exit packages. Sawmiller Brian Donchi says one option to secure long-term timber supply is to spread logging more evenly across the entire forest landscape. “Thinning forests could help save the animals and save the trees. It would be a more selective logging, including in national parks and water catchments. It could help protect animals, the water catchments and forests in general.”
The Catalan independence leader Carles Puigdemon is being held by German police, who detained the former Catalan president under a European arrest warrant as he crossed from Denmark into Germany. Puigdemont has been living in self-imposed exile in Brussels since October. On Friday the Spanish government reactivated an international arrest warrant for Puigdemont, who is wanted on charges of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds.
The Coalition has lost its 29th consecutive Newspoll, trailing Labor 47-53 on a two-party-preferred basis. The result will add to pressure on the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, to improve the government’s electoral prospects as it edges closer to the symbolically significant 30th poll – a figure which he cited as one of his reasons for toppling Tony Abbott in 2015. The poll of 1,597 voters also shows Labor’s primary vote climbing to 39% against the Coalition’s unchanged 37%. Labor’s first preference vote has not been as high since Turnbull ousted Abbott in September 2015. The poll also lifted Shorten’s satisfaction rating to 34%, two points ahead Turnbull’s 32%.
Labor’s Andrew Leigh says despite the Coalition’s claims that if big firms pay less company tax they’ll create more jobs, “the numbers show exactly the opposite”. The shadow assistant treasurer has published a paper in the Economic Analysis and Policy journal that compares the record of about 1,000 profitable Australian firms to test whether those with lower effective tax rates – due to offsets and deductions – create more jobs. About one-third of firms had sufficient deductions and tax offsets to pay an effective tax rate of less than 25%. These firms were shedding 1.2% or 0.07% of jobs a year, depending on whether tax was measured as a share of taxable income or as a share of accounting profits. Those paying 25% or more tax grew their workforces by 2.1% or 1.9%.
Sport
The Australian cricket team’s ball tampering is an unashamed disgrace, writes Kate O’Halloran, and cheats cricket fans of enjoying a fair game. Steve Smith’s team has not only lost its way, it has also lost the public’s respect and trust, and Smith must go, writes former Australian Test cricketer Jason Gillespie.
Nathan Buckley has said he has no intention of overhauling the Magpies’ game plan, despite not playing finals since 2013 and last year finishing 13th with just nine wins. Against the Hawks in round one, little seemed to have changed, with the result the same: a loss.
Thinking time
Qantas made history on the weekend with its first non-stop flight from Australia to the UK: a 17-hour odyssey that Guardian’s Asia Pacific editor David Munk spent in Kangaroo pyjamas. “Getting near the end. I have a chat with Michael Smith who has been wired up by scientists for the flight to track his sleep patterns, movements and food intake. They hope to find ways to overcome jetlag. ‘I’ll be fascinated to know much I really did sleep,’ he says.”
Childcare workers explain why they are striking tomorrow: “I’m hoping for the government to subsidise early childhood learning, to free parents from exorbitant fees, to raise the wage of educators and attract more people of both genders,” says Debbie Zurst from Clovelly Child Care Centre. “We’re not just kind ladies who look after the children. We believe in our rights.” Childcare workers who are dedicated to their vocation can pay a high price for that later in life as a lifetime of low wages hits home – tomorrow they strike for respect.
There are good reasons for ignoring the news, writes David Mitchell, who has slowly begun to cocoon himself from the “screech” of chaotic current events. “I think I’ll always value a vague sense of what seems to be generally going on – the alternative would feel like a denial of society. But the way the news reaches us these days, with so much of it either “fake” or “breaking”, is worse than ignorance. It’s a decontextualised screech that monetises its ability to catch our attention, but takes no responsibility for advancing our understanding or avoiding disproportionate damage to our peace of mind.”
What’s he done now?
Donald Trump doth protest too much? The president has posted on Twitter that he is having no trouble finding a new legal team to represent him on the investigation into Russian collusion – because what lawyer could possible turn down fame & fortune? “Many lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case...” Trump tweeted. “Besides, there was NO COLLUSION with Russia, except by Crooked Hillary and the Dems!”
Media roundup
The Australian Financial Review says Donald Trump’s trade war is making the markets “jittery”, though economists continue to urge calm. Australia’s main stock index is predicted to drop below 5,800 today, its lowest point since October. The ABC has an analysis piece on how light pollution is damaging the environment, killing wildlife and making it increasingly difficult for scientists to study the stars.
Every Australian newspaper splashes with the cricket ball tampering scandal. “Sack them all,” says the Herald Sun, “Smith falls on the sword,” at the Advertiser, “Cricket in Crisis” at the Canberra Times. The NT News took a different tack with its splash with a picture of bowler Cameron Bancroft and the headline: “Why I’ve got some sticky near my dicky”.
Coming up
Parliament resumes today for a three-day sitting week, with the Coalition still furiously lobbying senators Derryn Hinch and Tim Storer for the last two votes to pass the big business element of its $65bn 10-year company tax cut package. It’s the final sitting week before the budget.
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