If you’ve been forwarded this newsletter, you can sign up free here.
- We don’t have enough missiles, and the Iran war made that worse
- Misogyny is the best extremism warning sign
- New Chinese ambassador arrives with charm and Taiwan baggage
NATIONAL CABINET: The meeting takes place in the Commonwealth Offices near Circular Quay. Here’s how the debates are set to go.
Unity: Second National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children; Bird flu.
Labor majority view: AI and data centers.
Division: Gun buybacks and reforms; GST reform.
Also worth noting: South Australia joined the list of states (NSW, QLD and TAS) unhappy about federal plans to reduce the private health insurance rebate for Australians aged 65 and over — that’s two governments from each party warning the changes could push more older Australians into already strained public hospitals.
INFLATION NUMBERS OUT TODAY: The latest Consumer Price Index numbers are out at 11:30 AEST. The Reserve Bank has warned inflation may not return to the middle of its target range of 2 to 3 percent until early 2028.
ANTISEMITISM ROYAL COMMISSION WINDING UP EARLY? Public hearings will end today. Someone should let News24 know. The Commission’s report is still expected Dec. 14.
AUSTRALIANS DISLIKE DATA CENTERS AND NUCLEAR PLANTS EQUALLY
Among 1,562 people surveyed by DemoAU for Capital Brief
- 23 percent would support a data center in their area
- 20 percent would accept a nuclear power plant
- 49 percent would be OK with an apartment block
ZERO: This year’s ministerial pay rise, per the independent Remuneration Tribunal.
Yes, but: Ministerial pay is set as a ratio of MP salaries, which are also decided by the Tribunal. So, even though ratio of the pay bump that Ministers get over MPs won’t grow, if MPs are later awarded a pay rise, Ministers would benefit from that twice: as an MP, and through their slightly larger ratioed ministerial pay bump.
Any questions? Don’t ask us — send them to the Tribunal.
MIND THE MISSILE GAP: There’s concern in Canberra over Australia’s munitions stocks if war breaks out in our region, Finn McHugh, Ryan Heath and Phelim Kine report. That hasn’t been helped by the U.S., our biggest supplier, running down its own stockpiles.
Leave some for us: With war in Europe and the Middle East, Australia faces competition to lock down its U.S. orders. Maritime security specialist Jennifer Parker told Playbook: “Of course they will prioritize themselves.” While Australia will get the first foreign delivery of new AIM-260 missiles, that won’t be until 2033.
Local supply: Former U.S. Pacific Command operations director Mark Montgomery wants Canberra to accelerate production of underwater drones, and turn them into a major new export market. Norwegian weapons manufacturer Kongsberg is opening a new missile facility in Newcastle by the end of next year. Tellingly, it has the capacity to build more than the government’s asking for right now.
Rhetoric vs reality: “Australians know the world is changing, but don’t connect that to how it could change their daily lives,” Parker said. “If they did, the conversations dominating our newspapers would be very different.”
EU CAN DO IT: Don Farrell is urging Labor’s best friends — the business community — to help get his EU-Australia free trade deal over the line. He needs help getting the deal through the Senate, which is full of free trade skeptics.
Down to business: At an Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry general council meeting in Adelaide today, Farrell will urge its members to “make your views known” to any Coalition MP because “there is no second chance with the EU if we choose to walk away from this deal,” according to a copy of the speech Playbook saw.
Trading blows: Straight-laced Angus Taylor is seeking to keep the populists in his party at bay, and has declared 2026 the best time to be a free trader, but that’s not the full story.
Awkward #1: Playbook hears that Taylor turned up to a meeting with ambassadors from EU countries two weeks ago and expressed skepticism about the EU deal because it wasn’t a “traditional” trade deal (there are climate obligations).
Awkward #2: Taylor’s Coalition partner, Nationals Leader Matt Canavan, warns the LNP cannot “win with an ideological pursuit of free trade.”
MEET LIU JINSONG
China’s new ambassador to Australia is now in Canberra, arriving 30 years after his first visit as a young diplomat. He took the bus from Sydney Airport to the Territory on Monday, “chatting and enjoying myself with ordinary Australians.”
On arrival in Australia Liu did two things:
- Posed with United Front activists — a group that works to promote mainland China’s takeover of Taiwan, under the guise of “reunification.”
- Published a letter to Australians and “overseas Chinese, students, Chinese institutions, and businesspeople in Australia.”
In the letter he wrote: “Before my departure, I perused hundreds of volumes of old archives on China-Australia relations … Although separated by oceans and with different national conditions, the people of China and Australia share a common spirit of resilience and self-reliance.”
“The two countries have no historical grievances, no fundamental conflicts of interest, highly complementary economies, and mutually reinforcing cultures. The prospects for cooperation are promising, but properly managing differences and expectations is also crucial.”
More reactions to Liu’s arrival: The Australian | The Nightly | ASPI
RE-MEET KEVIN RUDD: Deidre Chambers, what a coincidence!
The former Prime Minister and China expert is in town, and will tonight “examine the evolution of China’s economic strategy under Xi Jinping,” delivering an ANU China in the World Lecture.
CIAO, EU AMBASSADOR: The somewhat drawn out farewell to Gabriele Visentin peaked Tuesday night at The Boat House. (The Cabinet’s in Perth, so there was a separate ministerial goodbye, and a final farewell in Sydney Thursday.)
SPOTTED: Among the 100 or so Ambassadors and senior foreign diplomats, Playbook spotted Labor National Secretary Paul Erickson (with adorable daughter Essie on his arm); DFAT was represented by Deputy Secretary Elly Lawson, who made the toast; Dougal McInnes, First Assistant Secretary for Europe; and Megan Anderson, Assistant Secretary responsible for the EU. Also: President of the Australian Human Rights Council Hugh de Krester, National Security College’s Rory Medcalf and ABC’s Stephen Dziedzic.
SARA MEGER – THE EXTREMISM WARNING SIGN AGENCIES ARE MISSING
With gendered violence on the National Cabinet agenda today, Miriam Webber spoke to University of Melbourne’s Meger about her research findings that misogynistic gender attitudes are the strongest predictor of support for violent extremism. The study was commissioned by the Office of National Intelligence in 2024.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Talk through your research …
Our security agencies have noted that young people are disproportionately overrepresented in countering extremism programs.
We did a national survey that had two samples — a youth sample of about 1,100 aged 13 to 17 and then just over 2,300 adults.
I really wanted to challenge the idea that extremism is coming from what people are exposed to on social media, like there’s some sort of direct pathway from social media or online gaming into extremism, and that misogyny is somehow only contained to incel extremism.
The report findings are that these misogynistic attitudes are even stronger predictors of all forms of extremist attitudes than I was even anticipating.
What should the national security agencies be taking away from this report?
To recognize that misogynistic attitudes and attitudes like hostility to feminism, [are themselves] an extreme political ideology that cuts across all of the recognized categories of extremism that our agencies already focus on.
So if we can see this as an attitudinal precursor, then we could perhaps develop better early intervention or early warning systems.
How do you hope the National Cabinet discusses your research?
That this is not a problem of a few bad apples.
It’s pointing to a systemic issue that may actually be growing. We don’t have longitudinal data to show, but we have enough cross-sectional surveys now that have shown the rates of people feeling like gender equality has gone too far increasing, and it’s especially increasing in younger boys and men.
This was a study conducted in Australia but do you see this as a fairly global issue, or is it quite distinct to our culture?
No, I definitely don’t think that this is unique to Australia.
My own background is in international relations and international security, and the impetus for me studying these attitudes in Australia was feeling a bit frustrated that for so long our counter-terrorism, countering violent extremism frameworks have operated on this assumption that these attitudes are somehow external to Australia and get imported.
I think what we’re seeing across a number of Western and increasingly non-Western countries is the influence of these really hostile, anti-gender, anti-feminist, misogynistic attitudes being co-opted by different political ideologies.
MEET LABOR’S HOUSE ‘TWINK’
Tim Abbott, an online influencer who built a brand as the “Worthless Twink,” is now working for first-term Brisbane Labor MP Madonna Jarrett. Abbott confirmed the move by posting a photo in Parliament wearing a staffer’s pass.
When Playbook’s Finn McHugh approached Abbott through his Instagram account for comment, McHugh was blocked. Playbook had however already spotted Abbott in Parliament’s Staff Dining Room.
Abbott’s impressive following helped him land a multi-year partnership with the Sydney Swans, saw him run marathons while promoting Audible, and led him to test the Masterchef kitchen.
Abbott abandoned Sydney’s housing market in 2025 to work on a rural Queensland property. This “financial gap year,” he said on TikTok, was an attempt to save for his dream: a “Gwyneth Paltrow hinterlands dream house with goats, ducks and a lot of dogs.” He’s now traded that for a mix of constituent inquiries, and hawking Lululemon discounts.
Reporting live from Thredbo: Abbott isn’t retreating to his couch between Parliament sitting weeks — see this post from the slopes. Notably, there’s no “Paid partnership with” label on this brand collaboration.
Silver medal: Abbott’s 116,000 Instagram followers make him the second-most followed Labor-affiliated Parliament House pass holder, after PM Albanese (roughly 675,000). As best we can tell only Sen. Pauline Hanson (438,000) and Sen. Mehreen Faruqi (122,000) beat him from other parties.
ANGUS TAKES A TOOWOOMBA TUMBLE: Four days into the Pollie Pedal charity cycle ride (it’s serious business, the participants are cycling 110 kilometers a day), our former champion triathlete Opposition Leader crashed his bike. “I’m feeling it. Day four, your legs are always pretty heavy,” Taylor told Triple M.
Did you know? Taylor arranged $33,000 in federal government grants for the religious charity providing breakfasts for the ride, Michael Bachelard and James Massola report. That’s Rapid Relief Team, which is backed by the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, which paid far-right activists to disrupt 2025 election campaign events.
GREENS IN LOCKDOWN OVER FOREST FIGHT: A dispute over a controversial Improved Native Forest Management method (INFM) — the proceeds from which would fund management of a 1.2 million acre Great Koala National Park for 12,000 koalas in NSW — is no closer to resolution.
Greens are still split over whether to side with the Nationals and One Nation in a mid-September Senate vote, or risk rebuke from party elder Bob Brown,
“Ahead of the vote we’re consulting with the climate and environment movement. The Greens want to make sure that forests and the climate are both protected. We’ll take this motion through our usual process,” a Greens spokesperson told Playbook. Have you been consulted? Write in.
The real question: What can the Green squeeze out of Labor in return for supporting INFM?
Green MPs and Senators can’t talk about that unless and until they secure something meaningful. That’s because if they deem the offer insufficient, and vote against INFM, they need to be able to say publicly that they thought it was a terrible idea all along.
The context: The INFM has opened up a damaging rift in the party. Brown, through his foundation, has labeled it “a scheme that lets polluters keep polluting.” On the other hand, conservation biologist Professor David Lindenmayer, famous for taking on the logging industry, has argued “the incentive the INFM method provides to stop native forest harvesting is a major positive step forward.”
The dummy spits: Climate Minister Chris Bowen hit a nerve telling The Saturday Paper that voting against INFM “would be a betrayal of native forests.” Greens Senator Nick McKim — the party’s forests spokesperson — shot back in a rant to journalists about “Bowen’s forest hypocrisy,” connecting it to his government “approving new coal and gas mines hand over fist.”
AGREE TO ALY: There’s one point of bipartisanship out West: Anne Aly’s fashion is iconic.
The W.A.-based federal frontbencher has her hands full with three portfolios — small business, multicultural affairs, and international development — but still finds time to knit her own wardrobe. You can see her latest 100 percent Australian merino wool creation here.
LEFT RIGHT UNITE: What do former SBS stalwart Mary Kostakidis and Pauline Hanson have in common? They both hate Section 18C of the Racial Vilification Act.
“18C (is) a terrible law that infringes on one of the very few rights protected in our constitution. It is being weaponised to destroy people’s lives,” Kostakidis wrote on social media.
Strange bedfellows: Kostakidis is a strident Israel critic, and faces a trial later this year after posting a link including parts of a speech by deceased Hezbollah leader Hassan Nassrallah. Hanson is a major Israel supporter, and is taking an 18C conviction — for telling Greens Sen. Mehreen Farqui to “piss off back to Pakistan” — to the High Court.
History repeats itself: Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott backed away from his attempt to repeal the law in 2014, but has revived the idea as freewheeling federal Liberal president.
SPOTTED: SMH has a fun who’s who of the Business Council of Australia dinner. KPMG’s new boss John Sams was the biggest surprise attendee (h/t Will Glasgow).
PARLIAMENTARY HEARINGS:
Inquiry Into Solar Panel Reuse and Recycling in Australia,
Inquiry into Local Government Funding and Fiscal Sustainability,
Department of Defence—Facilities to Support Air Mission Training System Project.
The ACT government is hosting an on-site seminar for ACT public servants and some federal public servants on how the Legislative Assembly works.
Amazon Web Services will host its Public Sector AI Symposium at the National Convention Centre Canberra.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr wrote in with feedback on his own 3,083 word Playbook Interview, published Tuesday — or rather additional views:
“Now the PM has affirmed WA’s GST deal the next step is providing certainty for the rest of us about what comes after the GST No Worse Off Guarantee expires in 2029-30. Certainty beyond 2029-30 is now the key issue.”
ANU APOLOGIZES TO OWN COUNCIL MEMBER IN SETTLEMENT: Demographer Liz Allen experienced “indefensible treatment” after accusing former chancellor Julie Bishop of bullying and intimidation at a parliamentary inquiry in August 2025. ANU apologized “unreservedly” and awarded Allen an undisclosed payout, Sarah Lansdown reported.
DISR PLEADS GUILTY: Department of Industry, Science and Resources has pleaded guilty to one charge of failing to comply with health and safety duties causing the risk of death or serious injury after a child suffered burns to her hands in July 2022 when she touched a plasma globe exhibit shortly after using alcohol-based hand sanitiser provided by the Questacon science center, per Canberra Times.
HERE COMES STEPTEMBER: Not a typo, just a month-long effort to get you moving, which includes a Boot Scootin’ Line Dancing event at Double Drummer on National Circuit, Sept. 4.
The fitness challenge is known to plunge certain departments into competitive overdrive: Send us your war stories.
DECODED — TOM MCILROY ON BLUE POLES HEADING WEST: The author of the definitive book on Australia’s definitive modern painting says: “The PM loves the Blue Poles purchase as part of Gough (Whitlam)’s legacy to the country, and Labor’s leadership on the arts.”
Guardian political editor McIlroy says Jackson Pollock himself (not to mention Lee Krasner, the guardian of his legacy) “would love the painting going west,” given he was born in Wyoming and “always saw himself as being from the American west at heart.”
HUMAN LEAGUE: AI music is going to be banned from Australia’s top music charts unless it can prove that it was “substantially human-made”
This comes weeks after a song with AI vocals — Queensland DJ and producer Josh Fawaz‘s cover of Madonna’s Like a Prayer — became Australia’s most played song.
MOVES AND APPOINTMENTS
BEACH CLUBS: Former minister and ambassador to the U.S. Arthur Sinodinos is joining Noosa Partners as Strategic Advisor and Executive Chair.
That reminds us of fellow former Liberal minister and former ambassador to the U.S. Joe Hockey forming Bondi Partners in 2020.
Are Palm Beach Partners, Portsea Partners, and Cottesloe Partners next? You’re on notice Julie Bishop.
OLD STOMPING GROUND: Deputy Liberal Leader Sen. Jane Hume will cover finance, her pre-election portfolio, while Sen. Claire Chandler is on maternity leave. Hume will add that to her current role as Coalition productivity and deregulation spokeswoman.
RETIRING (IN TWO YEARS): Greens Sen. Barbara Pocock won’t contest the 2028 election, leaving the party to fill the second spot on its S.A. ticket.
PROMOTED: Former Qantas fleet captain James “Ossie” Miller is the Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s new Aviation Commissioner.
Shayne Neumann (ALP), Sen. Tony Sheldon (ALP), Malcolm Mackerras AO, prominent Australian psephologist and political analyst, Spectator Editor and Tory peer Michael Gove.
Happy 5th birthday to our cousins at Canada Playbook.
