Squiz Today – Monday, 2 May

THE SQUIZ
Yep, we’re at the halfway point of the federal election campaign, and the major parties are sharpening their pitches and targeting the voters they need onside to tip the result in their favour. Yesterday, Labor leader Anthony Albanese officially launched his campaign in Perth. And PM Scott Morrison was in Western Sydney to talk up the Coalition’s credentials. We’re getting to the pointy end now as the latest poll points to a Labor victory.

LET’S GO WEST…
That’s where 600 of the party faithful gathered, including former PMs Paul Keating and Kevin Rudd, the newest Labor premier on the block Peter Malinauskas, and the federal Labor’s frontbench team. And Albanese’s message was focused on the need for change. “Australia: If we stand still, we will be left behind. The decision you have to make at this election is not just a choice between Labor and Liberal. It’s a choice between shaping the future or being shaped by it,” he said. There was a range of policy announcements covering the cost of drugs, new charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, and improving pay equity for women. The showstopper: a new housing policy that would see the government pay for up to 40% of new houses. And on why he’s better than the other bloke, Albanese said he won’t “run from responsibility” or treat every crisis as “a chance to blame someone else”.

RIGHTIO. AND ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COUNTRY?
Morrison told his supporters that the Coalition is better placed to manage the economy in these tricky times at a campaign rally. “It’s not about personality politics. It’s about the serious challenges that the government has and I can tell you, you do not want a pile of chaos,” he told the crowd. He said the Coalition has policies to help first home buyers, and a policy to cut the price of medications listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. He also committed to cracking down on the big tech companies to help protect young people’s mental health, creating tricky territory for his Warringah candidate Katherine Deves, who made a bolt for it… And in Melbourne, Treasurer Frydenberg launched his campaign to hold his seat of Kooyong, where he is being challenged by ‘teal independent’ Dr Monique Ryan. He says a vote for Ryan “is a vote for a hung parliament” – which would mean “chaos and confusion”. Yep, things are heating up…

US Speaker meets Zelensky in Kyiv

The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has made a surprise visit to Ukraine’s capital Kyiv to pledge America’s ongoing commitment to the war effort. President Volodymyr Zelensky said it showed “the United States is the leader in strong support for Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression.” Actress/UN humanitarian advocate Angelina Jolie also visited Ukraine’s western city of Lviv to meet people displaced by the war before leaving when air-raid sirens sounded. Meanwhile, a group of 100 civilians have been evacuated from Mariupol’s steelworks complex – it’s thought that another 1,000 remain inside. And Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has confirmed that he’ll attend the G20 summit in Bali in November – a move slammed by PM Scott Morrison. “The idea of sitting around a table with Vladimir Putin … for me is a step too far,” he said. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has also been invited.

Western Bulldogs rocked by historical child abuse revelations

The AFL club from Melbourne’s western suburbs is reeling after it was revealed that the club was the scene of horrific child abuse in the 1980s. Adam Kneale was 11yo when he was first abused by club stalwart Graeme Hobbs in the club’s offices in 1984, and he organised for Kneale to be abused by other men while using match tickets, cash and season passes to groom future victims. Kneale eventually reported the assaults to police, and Hobbs was jailed in 1994. Hobbs was exiled from the club when his grooming of children was made public in 1992, but Kneale had not received an apology or acknowledgement of wrongdoing. Bulldogs CEO Ameet Bains said he’s “shocked and dismayed” by Kneale’s story. “The club will seek advice from police to ensure Adam and anyone else who may come forward are appropriately supported,” he said yesterday.

Boris Becker jailed for insolvency fraud

Former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker has been jailed for 2.5 years for hiding £2.5 million of assets and loans to avoid paying debts. The case centred on Becker’s bankruptcy in June 2017 from an unpaid loan of more than £3 million on his luxury estate in Mallorca, Spain. Becker was legally obliged to disclose all of his assets so that the trustee could distribute the available funds to his creditors. But a court in London heard that he’d deliberately failed to declare his share in a £1 million home in his German hometown of Leimen, £66,000 in shares and almost £390,000 of payments to others, including 2 ex-wives. Judge Deborah Taylor said the former star hadn’t accepted guilt and noted a previous conviction for tax evasion in Germany 20 years earlier. “There is nothing to show for what was the most glittering of sporting careers, and that is correctly termed as nothing short of a tragedy,” Becker’s lawyer Jonathan Laidlaw said.

Oz gets a new Olympics boss

Australian Olympic Committee VP Ian Chesterman has been elected president, replacing an imposing force on the Olympics scene, John Coates. Chesterman was chef de mission for the Tokyo Games and 6 Winter Olympics teams before that and said he wants to inspire the next generation of athletes. Coates, a 32-year veteran who delivered the 2000 Olympics to Sydney via a frantic last-minute lobbying effort which saw him visit 30 countries in the final days before the vote, has retired. The 71yo was critical to winning the bid for the 2032 Brisbane Games in the months before his retirement, and he remains on the organising committee’s board. International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach is in Oz at the moment – he congratulated Chesterman and praised Coates’ record. “The shoes he has to fill are huge,” he said.

Vale Naomi Judd

One of America’s biggest country music stars Naomi Judd has died suddenly at 76yo after suffering from mental illness. Her daughters are Hollywood actress Ashley Judd and singer Wynonna – they described her death as a tragedy, saying “we are navigating profound grief and know that, as we loved her, she was loved by the public.” The family said they wouldn’t be releasing any other details about her death. Naomi and Wynonna were the Grammy-winning duo The Judds, who last performed together a fortnight ago at the US Country Music Awards. They will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame this morning. Naomi – who’d just announced an arena tour to begin in September – was so youthful that the mother-daughter duo was often mistaken for sisters. The Judds are country music icons in the US – they scored 14 #1 songs between 1983 and 2000 when ill health made it difficult for Naomi to go on performing. She is survived by her husband Larry Strickland, who was a backup singer for Elvis Presley.

Daniel Faalele, the Melbourne-born American football-playing talent, has been drafted by the Baltimore Ravens. If he gets a start, he’ll become the heaviest player in the NFL at 174kg.

Scott and Charlene will be back to say goodbye to the residents of Ramsey Street. Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue are locked in for the finale of Neighbours – no word on Margot Robbie, Liam Hemsworth, Guy Pearce, Natalie Imbruglia or Delta Goodrem…

British funnyman James Corden is leaving US late-night TV. The creator of viral sensation Carpool Karaoke hasn’t been drawn on what’s next, but his cheeky competitor Stephen Colbert set tongues wagging when he suggested he would be the next Dr Who… To get the week started, it’s hard to go past his spins around the block with Adele and Justin Bieber. You’re welcome.

Public holidays in Queensland (Labour Day) and the Top End (May Day) 

Eid Al-Fitr begins, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan

Start of Privacy Awareness Week (until 8 May)

World Tuna Day

International Harry Potter Day

Birthdays for actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (1972), singer Lily Allen (1985), and Princess Charlotte (2015)

Anniversary of the deaths of inventor/artist Leonardo da Vinci (1519), first FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (1972), and al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden (2011)