Fossil fuel execs welcome, Rudd goes stateside, and Labor doesn’t mind religion in politics after all

Catch you on the Woodside

A tipster got in touch to point out that the keynote address at the Australian Institute of Company Directors’ (AICD)WA Annual Awards Lunchon August 8 is to be delivered by none other than Resources Minister Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill.

Okay, so this is WA, where no-one bats an eye when fossil fuels lobbyists co-write government press releases, the barrier between employment in government and at resource companies is basically a sieve, and fossil fuel companies sponsor everything, including the person of year awards they give to Gina Rinehart.

Still, O’Neill’s appearance is noteworthy given, as our tipster points out, how hard AICD has gone on climate governance elsewhere. AICD hosts the Australian chapter of theClimate Governance Initiativewhich among other things supports directors to “embed climate considerations into board decision-making, and understand and act upon the risks and opportunities that climate change poses to their organisations”. A few weeks after O’Neill graces members with her thoughts, AICD will host a $200-per-ticket climate governance forumnot to mention its$1,000-per-person climate governance course.

Contrast this with the collapse of Woodside’s climate planat its 2024 AGM and theongoing controversyover the company’s Burrup Hub.

Seven Mountain Army

On the subject of eyebrow-raising speaking engagements, Labor’s member for Oxley, speaker of the House of Representatives and leader of the “absolute units” caucus Milton Dick will appear as a guest speaker at the ROAR 24 Leaders Summit, a $250-a-head event. Topics at the event include “what God is doing in various spheres of influence” and how to “elevate your sight to see God as the builder of nations and your significance in His nation-building plan”.

As spotted by the Rationalist Society of Australia, Dick appears in promotional material for the event, organised by Breakthrough Church pastor David Vaka. Vaka is an enthusiastic advocate for the Seven Mountains Mandate ideology, a dominionist Pentecostal sect that believes, as writer Elle Hardy puts it: “That the seven pillars of society have been taken over by demonic powers. Believers have to reclaim control of these ‘mountains’ so that Christ can return to rule over the Earth.” Those pillars are “education, religion, family, business, government and the military, arts and entertainment, and the media”.

We’re not suggesting Dick believes all of that. Still, after the solid week of pearl-clutching that attended reports of Senator Fatima Payman’s apparent decision to let God influence her vote on Palestinewe’re looking forward to seeing a series of reports quoting “senior Labor figures” who are deeply concerned about any move towards faith-based politics.

Rudd along

One person who is certainly taking the growing prospect of a second presidential term for Donald Trump seriously is Australia’s ambassador to the United States, former prime minister Kevin Rudd.

With the Republican National Convention underway, Rudd made sure he was there making friends.

He posted photos from the event with Trump’s former national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien, Trump’s former Homeland Security adviser Julia Nesheiwat, and Congressman Michael Waltz (also married to Nesheiwat). “All three deeply engaged with, and close friends of, Australia,” Rudd insisted.

This is, obviously, far more generous than Rudd has generally opted to be regarding Trump himself; you may remember Nigel Farage explicitly trying to do Sky News Australia a favour by putting to Trump some of the “horrible” things Rudd had said about him: “You were a ‘destructive president’, a ‘traitor to the West’.”

“He won’t be there long if that’s the case,” Trump responded at the time. “I don’t know much about him. I heard he was a little bit nasty. I hear he’s not the brightest bulb, but I don’t know much about him. If he’s at all hostile, he will not be there long.”

Or perhaps Rudd was just there to say hi to Liz Truss and thank her for the huge role she played in ensuring that the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years no longer come up on the first page when you search “chaotic government knifes sitting prime minister (again)”.

Why did Guardian Australia delete this story?

Guardian Australia appears to have lost faith in a piece headlined “Cannabis gummies like ‘a glass of wine with dinner’ for a growing number of Australians”. We noted that the piece appears to have been taken down “pending review” — though the archived version reveals a number of Australians are treating weed gummies as a perfectly pleasant dinner party accompaniment.

So why was it taken down? Did someone freak out and delete the piece, and then get way too into a jazz record to remember to put it back up? We understand there were some legal questions around the piece that had to be resolved, and the intention is to put it back up in time.