Squiz Today / 02 February 2018

Squiz Today – Friday, 2 February

SQUIZ SAYINGS

“It’s Versa-ché.”

Donatella Versace says we’ve been saying her family and luxury brand name wrong. It’s not Versa-chee. Skip to 4:47 of Vogue’s latest 73 Questions and you’ll see.


ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

THE SQUIZ
Federal Labor yesterday lost its first MP to the citizenship cluster-disaster – bringing the parliamentary total to 10. David Feeney, Labor MP for the seat of Batman, has resigned from parliament because he can’t back up his claim that he is not a dual British citizen with any documentation. And that left two options:

1. He could wait for the High Court to rule on his case; or,

2. He could resign, forcing a by-election.

Feeney’s gone for option two and says he won’t be a candidate in that by-election.

SIGH. GIVE ME A LITTLE BIT OF BACKGROUND…
You got it. Feeney was an up-and-comer who never really arrived. He was very nearly beaten by the Greens at the last election in his Melbourne-based seat after registering a 9.6% swing against him. That's why the Coalition will make a big deal about the by-election being a test of Bill Shorten’s leadership. Suffice to say the Greens are very excited about their chances of picking up a second House of Reps seat in the new poll. The hot favourite to represent Labor is ACTU chief Ged Kearney.

SO THAT’S THE END OF IT, RIGHT?
The short answer is no. The long answer is that there are still some Labor and Liberal MPs (and one Nick Xenophon Team member) who have a citizenship cloud hanging over them. With parliament back next week we’ll no doubt hear more about what might happen with their cases. Just when you thought the citizenship saga was so 2017… And while some of our pollies doggedly remain in Parliament despite possibly being in breach of the Constitution, over in the UK one Lord was so embarrassed about being late to Question Time this week, he resigned. That’s a man who takes punctuality very seriously.


WOOLWORTHS UNVEILS THE NEXT GENERATION OF SUPERMARKET

Living lettuces, custom-made party cakes, flame roasted chicken, artisan bread and delicious ready-to-go meals. This is not your ordinary supermarket... Woolies have unveiled a new store format at Marrickville Metro in Sydney this week focusing on incredible fresh food and convenience. And the good news is some of these features could be coming to a store near you...

Click here to take a video tour of Woolworths' next generation supermarket.


SQUIZ THE REST

A BUSY DAY FOR ABC’S LAWYERS
Anyone in ABC’s legal department looking for a quiet day yesterday would have been disappointed.

• ASIO officers rocked up bright and early at the ABC’s Canberra Parliament House and Brisbane offices yesterday to secure the hundreds of runaway Cabinet documents with a couple of BYO safes in tow. Reports this morning say ASIO last night took custody of the papers.

Former PM Kevin Rudd said he would sue the ABC over their story based on one of the documents relating to the Rudd Government’s ‘pink batt’ program.

• And then late yesterday actor Craig McLachlan filed defamation proceedings against the ABC and Fairfax following reports of harassment claims against him. What’s more: he’s hired Stuart Littlemore, a former presenter of ABC’s Media Watch, to represent him.

That’s a full work week by anyone’s standards.

CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?
PM Malcolm Turnbull was Australia’s largest political donor in 2016-17 with a whopping $1.75 million going from his own pocket to the Liberal Party’s coffers. Hey, if you’re not going to back yourself how can you ask anyone else to? And Ros Packer, wife of the late Kerry Packer, was also up there giving $500,000 to the Libs and $30,000 to Labor. Labor’s biggest donors were the unions who chipped in more than $6 million. Donations over $13,200 must be declared, and the list is here.

MERHI SENT CASH TO HER ISLAMIC STATE TRAINED BROTHER
Linda Merhi, the Sydney woman charged last week over terror funding allegations, was in court yesterday where a few more details about her case were revealed. Police say she sent money to her brother Ahmed who was in Syria training to be an Islamic State sniper. Her lawyer asked for bail on mental health grounds but the magistrate said that was not appropriate given Merhi had shown sympathies for IS.

HOUSE PRICES IN REVERSE
Prices for housing are definitely cooling in our biggest markets with the second consecutive monthly drop. Data from January shows price declines in Sydney (-0.9%) and Melbourne (-0.2%) for the month. Hobart is powering along with a 1% increase in January, and Brissie was up a teeny bit. All other capitals recorded January price drops of less than -0.5%. Analysts said the numbers show the property price boom is over.

FRIDAY LITES – THREE THINGS WE LIKED THIS WEEK
Hands up if you feel like Harri the Galah and need a holiday… Yes, it’s only February but who else feels like this is going to be a mega year requiring a getaway to look forward to? The New York Times’ authoritative 52 Places to Go in 2018 has got you covered.

Confession time: we haven’t had a haircut in nine months (#squizbudget). And things are getting out of control so some research on 2018 hair trends is the starting point. You don’t want to rush these things…

Tourism Australia scored a bit of a coup this week. Its fake teasers for Dundee: The Son of a Legend Returns Home have caused quite a stir because who wouldn’t want to see Hugh Jackman, Margot Robbie, Liam Hemsworth, Isla Fisher and Russell Crowe together on screen for the next Crocodile Dundee instalment? It’s actually an ad campaign aimed at this weekend’s Super Bowl audience. Love a good joke executed well.

SQUIZ THE DAY

Friday

12.00pm (AEDT) - Davis Cup Tennis - Australia v Germany - Brisbane (this is on across the weekend)

World Wetlands Day

75th anniversary of Russia's Battle of Stalingrad victory

Groundhog Day

Saturday

Setsubun - a kind of Japanese Buddhist/Shinto lunar new year

Sunday

World Cancer Day

Independence Day - Myanmar

Anniversary of the death of Karen Carpenter (1983)

The Squiz Archive

Want to check out Squiz Today from the archive?

Get the Squiz Today newsletter

It's a quick read and doesn't take itself too seriously. Get on it.