The future of BHP's Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter in Western Australia remains unclear, with a decision expected within the next six months.
WA Liberal MP Rick Wilson wants the federal government to provide financial support, just like it has for four other metal smelters elsewhere.
BHP is expected to finish a review of its mothballed Nickel West operations by February 2027.
In short:
Underworld sources have warned the shooting of crime family patriarch Fadi Haddara is part of a "big war that won't stop".
Haddara was shot multiple times in Melbourne's west on Sunday evening and remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital.
What's next?
An investigation is underway into the shooting and police are hoping the incident will not prompt any ongoing feud.
>In short:
>A NATO fighter jet has shot down a drone that entered Latvian airspace, a spokesperson from the alliance says.
>It was not immediately clear where the drone had come from, though Latvia and other countries on NATO's eastern flank have suffered repeated incursions into their airspace as the war between Russia and Ukraine has dragged on.
>What's next?
>NATO has launched an investigation into the incident.
>Malian army says the soldiers were held prisoner by Tuareg and al-Qaeda-linked armed groups in the northern region.
>More than 40 journalists in Burkina Faso have taken part in a military-style "patriotism" training course imposed by the authoritarian ruling junta.
>South Korean President Lee Jae Myung urges talks with the DPRK to end the Korean War and replace the armistice with a lasting peace regime.
>Australians frustrated by soaring op shop prices have been given a confronting explanation for why donated goods can cost so much.
>One volunteer said waste disposal was among their store's biggest expenses, with donations including soiled clothing, worn out shoes and damaged household goods leaving the charity to foot commercial rubbish fees.
>'I volunteer in an op shop and our biggest expense is getting rid of the rubbish that is donated,' the volunteer said.
Vincent's story was immortalised in the iconic Paul Kelly song "From Little Things Big Things Grow".
POLITICS
No 613 Aug 15 – 21, 2026
The ICAC inquiry has heard how the Nationals senator engaged a lobbyist for the hard-right faction to push colleague Dave Sharma to drop support for changes to the Sex Discrimination Act.
By Karen Barlow
‘You use all means possible’: How Matt Canavan sooled the Reformers on Liberals
Jeremy Greenwood (centre) leaving the ICAC Operation Rosny hearings in Sydney on Monday.
AAP IMAGE / DAMIAN SHAW
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When Matt Canavan needed pressure applied to a Coalition colleague to quash proposed changes to the Sex Discrimination Act, he knew where to turn.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) heard this week that the National Party senator – now its leader – contacted his former political staffer turned lobbyist Jeremy Greenwood in 2021. The issue was then Liberal MP Dave Sharma’s push to repeal part of the Act that allowed religious schools to discriminate on the basis of sexuality and gender identity.
This detail was from Greenwood’s testimony, in the third week of the public hearings into allegations of multimillion-dollar illegal political donations and a hard-right Christian conspiracy to take over the New South Wales Liberal Party. Canavan is not called before the inquiry, nor is he accused of any wrongdoing.
A message exchange read by the counsel assisting ICAC, Peggy Dwyer, SC, on Tuesday has Greenwood relaying a conversation with Canavan to Dallas McInerney, the then head of Catholic Schools NSW and a hard-right Liberal figure known to be a friend and supporter of Liberal leader Angus Taylor.
“You say to him in December 2021, ‘Hey, mate, Canavan rang me. Said Sharma is trying to move section 38(3), which allows Catholic schools to discriminate on being gay and gender, etc. Wants the Church to come out hard against it. The ACL [Australian Christian Lobby] have told him they will pull the support for the RDA [Religious Discrimination Act] if it goes ahead,’ ” Dwyer read out.
This was in the lead-up to the moment in February 2022 when Sharma, then the Liberal member for Wentworth, crossed the floor to vote against the Morrison government in support of an amendment that would give greater protections for LGBTQIA+ students and teachers. He was joined by other moderates Bridget Archer, Katie Allen, Fiona Martin and Trent Zimmerman.
The moderates, including Andrew Bragg in the Senate, had secured the backing of then prime minister Scott Morrison for the amendment before, Liberal sources say, he “backtracked or changed his mind or got pressured by various groups”.
So then, “all bets were off”.
In this week’s hearings, Dwyer repeatedly pressed Greenwood about this controversial period of Morrison’s term.
“Mr Canavan called you, did he, and suggested that you and Mr McInerney do something about it?” she asked.
“I believe so, based on that. That’s how it appears,” Greenwood said.
The exchange is illustrative of how political influence is deployed in the conservative sphere, and of the pressure exerted by the religious right on legislation. For ICAC’s Operation Rosny, the messages helped clarify the relationship between Greenwood and McInerney, two central figures under investigation.
“So, was it your role at that point in time to engage Mr McInerney in actions about what should be done politically on behalf of Catholic schools?” Dwyer asked Greenwood.
“I was asked by a federal senator to pass a message on to the CEO,” he responded.
It worked. McInerney’s messages show he texted Sharma and Bragg “asking for urgent conversations”. Contacted by The Saturday Paper, Sharma said he could not recall being pressured by Catholic Schools NSW or by Dallas McInerney. The senator also said he and Canavan have a good relationship and they “talk all the time”. The Australian Christian Lobby was also very active at the time, running campaigns in 2022 against sitting Liberal members who opposed discrimination on religious grounds.
At a Parliament House press conference this week, The Saturday Paper asked Canavan about Greenwood’s testimony relating to his request. The Nationals leader said he had “no recollection” of making such a call, but that he raises issues with colleagues “all the time”.
Asked why he would need to go through someone else to talk to a Coalition colleague, Canavan said this was just part of the democratic process. He conceded he had Sharma’s mobile phone number.
“Obviously, when you’re trying to get a result on an issue, you use all means possible,” he said.
“In a political debate, there are always going to be groups and others that are interested that contribute to that. And one thing I think is very important in this debate is that we don’t chill people being involved in politics. There is nothing wrong with people seeking a change in the law. There is nothing wrong in people advocating for particular positions. There is nothing wrong in saying you want a change to the Sex Discrimination Act.
“I want changes to that right now, and other people should be free to contact their elected representatives to make that point.”
Canavan is among conservative Coalition figures who, ICAC has heard, gave political heft to Reformers events by appearing as guest speakers. Others include former prime minister Tony Abbott, broadcaster Alan Jones and McInerney.
This lobbying on behalf of the Nationals senator five years ago is not a focus of the inquiry but helps establish the crusade of the conservative figures associated with the now-defunct group of Reformers. This Opus Dei-linked sub-faction of the Liberal Party was attempting to promote the political interests of the religious far right, in ways that have drawn the attention of the anti-corruption watchdog.
A message Greenwood sent to Jean-Claude Perrottet on January 12, 2023, is among many that have come back to haunt him: “Hey, so you know I’m good to you and help you and give you your filthy schools money … and put up with your fucking whining.”
Operation Rosny is probing allegations that conservative figures used bogus consultancy and lobbying entities to wash millions of dollars’ worth of dodgy political donations. The inquiry is examining the source of funding for a coordinated hard-right branch-stacking scheme by the Reformers. Lobbying and party branch-stacking are not illegal activities, but it’s alleged that banned donations were accepted and not declared from prominent hotelier Michael O’Hara and disgraced fugitive property developer Jean Nassif.
The controversy has dogged the NSW Liberal Party for years and engulfed senior figures. It was the subject of a 2023 NSW parliamentary inquiry, but central figures managed to evade the service of summonses. They include the brother of then Liberal premier Dominic Perrottet, prominent Reformer Jean-Claude Perrottet, whose flight to Fiji was paid for by Jeremy Greenwood.
On Thursday, state Liberal leader Kellie Sloane replaced frontbencher Chris Rath as her representative on the party’s state executive, following the revelation from the hearings that he had helped people avoid giving evidence. The state executive may have to make decisions relating to Operation Rosny, including over party membership.
McInerney gave evidence on Thursday that he is no longer a member of the Liberal Party, as of June 30. He had joined the party as a schoolboy.
Greenwood and McInerney are of particular interest to the commission’s investigators, as the subjects of years of intercepted messages, emails and phone taps. Both deny being Reformers, but they are tied to the main group of Jean-Claude Perrottet, Robert Assaf and Christian Ellis through friendships, the Liberal Party and fundraising activities.
McInerney, a hard-right conservative and self-described on-and-off political aspirant, has finally been questioned about a Reformers group chat message presented to the hearing last month alleging Angus Taylor had committed to a $15,000 “injection”, plus more on a monthly basis.
Like Greenwood in the days before, the factional ally of Taylor sometimes struggled with his recollection of the Reformers’ actions between 2019 and 2023.
McInerney again heard his intercepted text message to Reformers members, dated March 8, 2021, in which he appeared to inquire on the group’s progress stacking the Liberal state council, and saying he wanted to “shake down Angus for 10k”. He also was quizzed over a message two days later from another Reformers member, Dylan Whitelaw, notifying the group that “Dallas has told me he got the commitment from Angus for the $15k injection plus a $3k monthly donation!”
McInerney told the commission he had emerged from a meeting with fellow Liberal Party figures with “in principle support” for the right faction in upcoming internal party elections and for candidates in marginal seats.
As to the question of the alleged commitment by Angus Taylor, who was then a Morrison minister, McInerney said any request was “entirely independent” of the work and funding of the Reformers.
“I’ve never asked Mr Taylor to financially support the Reformers,” he said.
Asked why Whitelaw would have written such a message, McInerney told the inquiry, “I don’t recall telling Mr Whitelaw that. I know Mr Whitelaw is proudly telling the rest of the Reformers that. That’s not a verbatim for me.” McInerney then ventured a “number of explanations” for Whitelaw’s comments other than possible misinterpretation.
“He lied. He ... boasted. He lied,” he offered.
As for the “shakedown” message, McInerney said it was “just the nomenclature” and he could have used “approach” or “ask”.
Asked what the $10,000 was for, he said upcoming internal elections and the associated campaign.
Whitelaw previously told the inquiry he did not know if Taylor made a donation and he would be “very surprised” if he had.
Taylor, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, has repeatedly denied ever making payments to the Reformers.
He was pressed again by 10 News political editor Ashleigh Raper on the morning of McInerney’s first day of evidence.
“I’m giving the same answer I’ve been giving all along. I’m not going to give a running commentary on this, I’ll let the commission do its work. No payment was made. I was clear about that from the start,” Taylor told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
Taylor’s director of media, Kane Silom, then approached Raper after the press conference – but while cameras were still rolling – saying, “Are your ratings that bad? Seriously, that’s a fricking disgrace.”
At ICAC, the work of the Reformers, and their effectiveness, has been heavily downplayed in some testimonies.
McInerney said twice on Thursday morning that the Reformers were “spectacularly unsuccessful” in their ambitions to shift the Liberal Party to a more conservative Christian stance. Their obsessive factional work was, to McInerney, “a calling for them, a duty”.
The Saturday Paper reported last week that the Reformers had a four-year target to recruit 5000 new conservative members and take control of the Liberal state executive.
Its long-term goal was to have “every winnable seat held by a conservative”. The shorter-term and ultimately unsuccessful aim was to unseat centre-right powerbroker Alex Hawke in the seat of Mitchell, and moderate Julian Leeser in Berowra.
Greenwood was clearly feeling under pressure towards the end of his three-day appearance this week in the ICAC witness box.
It is alleged Greenwood and Ellis set up the consultancy Beckington as a bogus company, with its first client being Catholic Schools NSW, headed by McInerney. Later they signed on developer Jean Nassif, who fled to Lebanon in 2022, and his now-collapsed company Toplace.
Messages on August 4, 2020, point to a considerable amount of money coming from Concord, a codename for Nassif. Greenwood mentioned his “best mate” Jean-Claude Perrottet wanted a cut.
“You need to give Claude this full amount. Considering what Concord gives, it’s not right he doesn’t get it,” Greenwood texted Ellis.
In his testimony, Greenwood confirmed Concord was Nassif, Perrottet needed money and Greenwood was happy to give it out of the Beckington account. He said, however, he could not recall this exchange.
“It was of no concern why he thought he wanted it,” Greenwood said. “He’d been complaining to me. I think it matches that message he said, ‘Everyone’s winning but me.’ I had no concerns.”
Later, Greenwood set up JPG Advisory, a registered lobbying firm, and Catholic Schools NSW moved from Beckington to JPG.
Greenwood explained that Jean-Claude Perrottet, after helping to secure the contract, was being paid an ongoing monthly agent’s fee worth 50 per cent of the money coming from Catholic Schools in a private agreement as a friend. He described Perrottet’s invoices as “internal documents”.
“It could say he bought a flamingo off me. It’s just an internal document only for me, it’s how I process it out that matters,” Greenwood said.
Dwyer interrogated this explanation as implausible.
“I suggest to you, Mr Greenwood, that the true situation is that you have concocted with your friend Jean-Claude Perrottet and others a story to justify accounts that show you paid half the money from Catholic Schools to Jean-Claude Perrottet. What do you say to that?” she posed.
Greenwood snapped. “That is completely false,” he responded. “And you know I’ve done a huge body of work for Catholic Schools. You have been through my emails.”
Someone in the room allegedly “pulling a face” then caught his eye.
“Don’t give me that look,” Greenwood said. The witness was warned by the ICAC commissioner to be respectful and maintain decorum while giving evidence.
A message Greenwood sent to Jean-Claude Perrottet on January 12, 2023, is among many that have come back to haunt him: “Hey, so you know I’m good to you and help you and give you your filthy schools money … and put up with your fucking whining.”
“Don’t put that in writing,” Perrottet cautioned, to which Greenwood responded: “It deletes.”
That was nothing more than a “stupid joke” intended for a friend, of whom he was about to ask some sort of favour, according to Greenwood.
The descriptor of “filthy schools money” for a consultancy to Catholic Schools surprised the assistant commissioner, Fabian Gleeson, so he pressed further.
“Like I said, it was just a stupid joke where I am trying to rile him up about something I know would make him nervous to hear,” Greenwood said.
“Why would Jean-Claude be nervous to hear that phrase being used to describe the money you were paying to him,” the commissioner asked.
Greenwood said that “sounds awful” but he said Perrottet “always gets nervous about everything”.
Before he was released from the witness box, likely to return later, Greenwood was reminded he was before a private ICAC hearing in June last year and was warned at the time that it was a criminal offence to discuss his evidence – or even that he had given evidence.
“Did you do that?” Dwyer pressed on Greenwood, who insisted he could not remember.
“I have said about 15 times, I don’t know.”
CCTV footage shown to the inquiry showed, however, that Greenwood met Jean-Claude Perrottet at the Royal Oak Hotel, aka the Oaks, at Double Bay on June 24. It is a regular spot for the two, but they could be seen on this day, hours after giving secret evidence, with their phones placed on a table a couple of metres away as they spoke.
“It’s just a practice I’ve had for a long time,” said Greenwood, before invoking a former United States president.
“I remember Barack Obama once said he never brings a phone into a meeting.
“I don’t recall when I started it.”
Despite his current memory lapses, Greenwood was praised this week as having been a good worker.
“I’ve had excellent staff through my entire career, including Jeremy and many others,” said Matt Canavan. “I’ve been very blessed with great staff.”
Karen Barlow is The Saturday Paper’s chief political correspondent.
Whole carcass feeding on a feast and fast schedule encouraged zoo-housed lions to display feeding and activity patterns more similar to those seen in the wild.
..
ASIC says it will be watching if the big four banks resurrect mass-market wealth pitches, as ANZ and Westpac signal their desire to offer retail advice.
3 min read
August 12, 2026 - 5:00AM
Australia’s major banks have suggested a potential re-entry to retail advice, almost a decade after the damning royal commission. Pictures: Damian Shaw/NewsWire, Chris Pavlich, Getty Images, Britta Campion
The corporate regulator has put the big four banks on notice over any return to wealth management for the masses, as federal Labor prepares to advance advice reforms following a lengthy delay.
Financial Services Minister Daniel Mulino is expected to recommit to long-awaited advice reform legislation when he speaks at the National Press Club later this month.
With details still being finalised, there is speculation in some quarters that Dr Mulino may progress some of the much-delayed Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) reforms as part of a larger package to improve consumer protections in advice.
It comes in the wake of two investment scheme collapses that have shocked the financial services industry and cost 11,000 people their retirement savings.
DBFO was the government’s response to a 2022 review of the financial advice system that recommended ways to make advice fairer, simpler and more accessible.
It has been on the backburner since the collapses of the Shield Master Fund and First Guardian Master Fund, two schemes that took in $1bn of super savings from retail investors before they imploded.
In his speech on August 19, Dr Mulino is also expected to outline new rules that will shut down the high-pressure, cold-calling sales tactics used to drive retail investors into the two failed funds.
Financial Services Minister Daniel Mulino is expected to recommit to advice reform legislation. Picture: Monique Harmer/NewsWire
Without waiting for DBFO legislation to be pushed through, the nation’s biggest super fund, the $410bn AustralianSuper, this month registered a new entity, AustralianSuper Advice, as it prepares to offer more detailed advice to members.
But big super is still counting on the government following through with DBFO reforms that would allow funds to “nudge” or prompt members to seek financial advice, as well as clarity on what advice services can be charged across the whole membership base.
It comes as industry funds bleed members to retail platforms, as wealthier people shun big super for a more personalised advice-driven retirement journey.
There is also speculation Dr Mulino will in his upcoming speech refer to one of the most controversial elements of the reforms – the proposed “new class of adviser” that would allow banks and super funds to ramp up advice products using these lower-qualified and cheaper, advisers.
The major funds have been heaping pressure on the federal government to push ahead with the DBFO reforms, as they battle to retain members.
Eyeing the nation’s swelling retirement honey pot, the major banks are also looking to push back into mainstream wealth management, with the bosses of ANZ and Westpac both signalling a desire to re-enter the retail advice market as they wait for DBFO reforms to move forward.
But as banks make noise on advice, Australian Securities & Investments Commission chair Sarah Court warned the sector to remember the lessons from the past.
“We understand the importance of access to good quality financial advice and support efforts that will enable Australians to get trusted financial advice more readily,” Ms Court told The Australian.
“We would want to ensure any re-entry into wealth management by banks is done in a way that has regard to the lessons from the financial services royal commission, particularly around potential harm around conflicts.
“Should banks return to this space, ASIC will be watching closely and monitoring customer complaints to ensure those lessons are not forgotten.
“ASIC would encourage banks to leverage technology, innovation and their own increased risk and compliance maturity in the design, implementation and ongoing monitoring of models, to ensure customer interests are put first.”
ASIC chair Sarah Court says banks need to learn the lessons from the past if they re-enter wealth management.
The new ASIC chair’s comments come after ANZ chief executive Nuno Matos in recent months said banks should broaden their suite of offerings and get back into wealth management to boost their margins.
Similarly, Westpac chief executive Anthony Miller has warned that regulatory settings are holding banks back from providing even basic advice, such as being able to point customers to bank accounts with higher savings rates.
Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia chief executive Mary Delahunty urged the government to push ahead with the stalled DBFO reforms to lift access to financial advice.
“The sector needs clarity on the line between general and personal advice, on how they can use digital tools, and on how to discuss things like the Age Pension and transition-to-retirement strategies with their members,” Ms Delahunty said.
“These are things that members rightly expect their super fund can help them with as a trusted source of information.
“These are sorely needed reforms that will increase access to personalised advice.
“What the government needs to do now is set out a clear pathway and timetable for these reforms, so the sector can get on with solving this problem.”
Hundreds of thousands of food delivery workers have won a world-first minimum pay of $31.30 an hour – and Uber Eats says customers won’t foot the bill.
3 min read
August 12, 2026 - 8:28PM
Food delivery drivers and riders will see their minimum pay jump by 25 per cent to $31.30 an hour from next Monday.
Uber Eats has pledged to pursue “operational efficiencies” and not impose price hikes on customers when the minimum pay of hundreds of thousands of food delivery drivers and riders jumps by 25 per cent to $31.30 an hour from next Monday.
Hailing a Fair Work Commission decision late on Tuesday to approve a world-first minimum standards order for on-demand food delivery workers, Uber Eats, DoorDash and the Transport Workers Union said its operation from August 17 would be a landmark moment for the nation’s gig economy.
Under the new “safety net” pay rates, which follow groundbreaking legislation by the Albanese government, workers will receive hourly rates ranging from $31.30 to $32 depending on the class of vehicle, up from the current estimated average of $24 an hour.
The proposed rates will increase by 50 cents an hour next year, and range from $31.80 to $32.50.
Uber claimed in 2023 that delivery fees could jump by 85 per cent because of concerns the orders would require payment of penalty rates and other employment conditions, while DoorDash calculated the average delivery cost could rise by more than 210 per cent, assuming full-time and part-time award rates were applied.
The final order, which follows government concessions at the end of 2023 and long-running negotiations between the TWU and the platforms, does not include penalty rates but provides for a new hourly minimum rate as well as personal accident insurance coverage, pay transparency and union representation rights.
Uber Eats says affordability remains important to customers and merchants. Picture: Uber Eats
Asked whether there would be any impact on customer prices as a result of the order, Uber Eats Australia & New Zealand managing director Ed Kitchen on Wednesday said: “What we know is important to consumers and merchants is affordability and that is why we will be focusing on driving operational efficiencies rather than defaulting to increasing delivery or merchant fees.”
TWU national secretary Michael Kaine said the decision of “whether or not to charge their customers more is with gig platforms, many of which are making mammoth profits”.
“Gig workers have been the most exploited workforce in this country for the last decade. Most people would accept that the workers delivering food to our doorstops rain, hail or shine should earn at least a minimum wage, even if it costs a couple of dollars extra,” he said.
In a notice of intent last month ahead of its final decision, a commission full bench, headed by president Adam Hatcher, said the new pay rates would likely substantially improve the earnings of a large number of employee-like workers while being affordable for the online platforms.
In a joint statement, the TWU, Uber Eats and DoorDash said the final order introduced an “industry-wide safety net for hundreds of thousands of platform delivery workers in Australia while preserving the flexibility that sits at the heart of on-demand work”.
TWU national secretary Michael Kaine says gig workers have been the most exploited workforce in this country. Picture: Nikki Short
Mr Kaine said “the world is looking on as gig workers in Australia win new rights and protections that will change their lives, after years of campaigning for a better industry”.
“Gig workers in Australia were left outside our workplace systems for far too long,” he said. “From Monday, they will be entitled to an absolute world-leading set of standards that we will build on over time. We acknowledge the constructive discussions with Uber Eats and DoorDash which have led to this historic moment.”
Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Amanda Rishworth said the commission’s decision was enabled by the government’s Closing Loopholes laws and was a “milestone in delivering stronger protections and a fairer safety net for gig economy workers … This order is a big step in delivering Australia’s world-leading gig worker protections and means food delivery workers don’t have to trade off flexibility for fairer protections.”
Mr Kitchen said the order represented “modern reform for a modern way of work that proves fair standards and flexibility can co-exist. These standards provide a guaranteed safety net while protecting the flexibility delivery people tell us they value most.
“We look forward to continuing to provide reliable, affordable services to merchants and consumers who rely on us every day.”
Maggie Lloyd, head of public policy APAC, Central Asia and the Middle East at DoorDash, said the order “marks a defining moment for Australia’s on-demand economy and for the thousands of workers who deliver for Australian families and businesses every day”.
“These new standards prove that strong worker protections and the flexibility that delivery workers value can go hand in hand,” she said.
“This sets a new benchmark for modern workplace regulation and demonstrates what can be achieved when industry, unions and government work together.”
Abstainers are being blamed for killing jobs, crushing profits and draining the fun from society – and now science is in the crosshairs.
6 min read
August 12, 2026 - 5:00AM
As Matthew Condon approaches 1000 days of sobriety, he wonders why the celebrations feel so flat. Pictures: Unsplash, News Corp Australia. Artwork: Frank Ling
According to my trusty calculator, I’m approaching my 1000th day of being alcohol free.
From that first sober minute to the publication of these words, I’m sitting on 954 days plus almost six hours. Or two years, seven months and close to 11 days. Or just shy of 22,902 hours. Which is 1,374,119 minutes.
But hey, who’s counting?
Cue the trumpets and red carpet and raised flutes of chilled Oddbird Blanc de Blancs zero alcohol fizzy chardonnay.
Why, then, do the celebrations and the (fake) champers feel so flat?
Because abstainers like me are apparently causing all sorts of problems throughout global economies and communities by choosing to give up the grog. We’re the reason people are losing their jobs in booze-related industries. We’re the cause of big liquor producers dropping profits. We’re the nasty pins to the world’s party balloons; the boring fun police. Boo hiss.
The backlash against choosing an alcohol-free life is not just against us teetotallers. Science is copping a hiding as well for its brutal assessment of the health detriments of the Demon Drink.
In fact, this growing chorus against the plonk/turps/sherbet nay-sayers can be traced back almost directly to a specific academic paper – Taking Pleasure Seriously: Should Alcohol Research Say More about Fun? by James Nicholls and Geoffrey Hunt, published in the journal Addiction in early 2025.
Who would have thought that this humble thesis by a public health lecturer from Scotland (Nicholls) and an academic out of Denmark (Hunt) – its message gathering steam by the month – would become a sort of proxy flag-bearer for global hedonists?
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The paper argues that you can’t really dictate to people the potential health risks of drinking without taking into consideration the pleasure factor in the consumption of alcohol. In short, don’t preach about the health side of the debate without trying to understand the innumerable (and often complex) reasons people like to drink in the first place.
“Alcohol research has a problem with pleasure,” the paper begins. “On the one hand, pleasure is a difficult phenomenon to research, at least from an epidemiological or clinical perspective.
“On the other, because of its predominating focus on harms, public health‐oriented alcohol research and advocacy can appear to find pleasure problematic in the moral sense. Although most people drink because they enjoy it, much public health discourse downplays pleasure as either marginally significant or as a kind of misperception driven by external forces including marketing, custom, social norms and peer pressure.”
Cop that.
Also, the paper suggests, scientists and health professionals should consider three factors in their research into and proclamations about alcohol consumption.
“Epistemologically, because understanding pleasure is necessary for any field claiming expertise in drinking behaviours,” Nicholls and Hunt argue. “Ethically, because the case for valuing long‐term health over short-term pleasure is not self‐evident and needs to be justified; and pragmatically, because currently the discourse on pleasure is largely ceded to those actors (eg the alcohol industry) against whom much public health advocacy is directed.
“We suggest this will require two broad actions: the exploration of novel methods, and interdisciplinary engagement, to better define and measure pleasure; and a sustained debate on how much value (if any) should be accorded to pleasure in public health discourse.”
The case for valuing long-term health over short-term pleasure ‘needs to be justified’, the researchers argue. Picture: Getty Images
The bottom line is this – how do experts address alcohol as a human health hazard while acknowledging that the act of drinking itself remains a time-honoured “source of pleasure” for so many people?
(Two British academics, James Morris and Emma Davies, were swift to publish a response to Nicholls and Hunt, also in the journal Addiction, called “No Safe Level” Advocates Must Take Note, agreeing with their colleagues. They wrote: “In addition to overlooking pleasure in drinking, ‘no safe level’ messaging may also reinforce the general perception that abstinence is the only acceptable goal. Indeed, abstinence can be perceived as threatening to drinkers and result in resistance or even the stigmatisation of non‐drinkers.”)
The media is also smelling a rat in the incessant doom-laden warnings about the perils of booze coming from health tsars.
A recent article in The New York Times investigated the practical, sociological and economic damage done in the face of creeping societal abstinence.
Reporter Ginia Bellafante travelled to Kentucky in the US, the acknowledged home of bourbon, “to gauge the collateral effects of this growing aversion, a reality propelled by science, supported by surveys and punctuated by my own experience as a host who had noticed that a longstanding dictum of entertaining – the allotment of a half bottle of wine per guest – no longer applied”.
She wrote: “For all the benefits of cutting back, certain rituals were vanishing, and it was hard not to wonder what else the temperance revival had carried away with it.” (Note the author’s use of “temperance revival”, which evokes some sort of old-fashioned travelling evangelist spruiking under a Big Top.)
The temperance revival has even hit Kentucky, the home of bourbon. Picture: Bloomberg
The article added: “Over the past quarter-century, about two-thirds of Gallup poll respondents have consistently said they drink wine, beer or liquor regularly or on occasion. Last year, that figure dropped to 54 per cent, the lowest in 90 years. Among 18 to 34-year-olds, the number fell to 50 per cent.”
Medical authorities hold the bullhorn right now. And their brutal warnings of alcohol’s lethal effects clearly have been cutting through to the public.
“The realignment is testament to the power of messaging coming from various corners of the medical establishment, messaging that has convinced many Americans that even a few glasses of Sancerre a week can lead to serious illness and death,” the article said. “Three years ago, the World Health Organisation declared that no amount of alcohol is safe.
“The push accelerated … in January 2025 when the US surgeon general … warned that alcohol leads to a greater absorption of carcinogens, increasing the risk of at least seven types of cancer. Some figures in public health argue that enjoyment – the delight taken in drinking and the sociality it can afford – should not be overlooked. Their voices have had little influence.”
The result on the ground? In the US, restaurants, clubs and bars are suffering without the profit margins of alcohol sales. The big alcohol companies are retrenching staff. And given they are traditionally generous donors to the performing arts, museums, historical societies and other cultural institutions, philanthropy is being squeezed.
In Australia, the decline in drinking alcohol is staggering, particularly among the young.
According to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare statistics, the monthly drinking levels of 18 to 24-year-olds has dropped from 34 per cent in 2019 to 29 per cent in 2022-23 and counting. Among 14 to 17-year-olds, just 31 per cent had an alcoholic drink in 2022-23 compared with 69 per cent in 2001. That’s a lot of temperance revivalists.
The young, in particular, are not drinking as much alcohol. Picture: Getty Images
But have those of us who’ve chosen to travel on the wagon contributed to a mirthless world? And who are the health experts to tell people how they should live? (Or, well, die?)
For eons many of the great philosophers have asked: What is life without pleasure?
As Nicholls and Hunt suggest: “We … need more explicit discussion of the ethical principles that prioritise the cultivation of long‐term health over other preferences. What is the underpinning justification for minimising the value of short‐term, potentially risky, pleasures that may, in other respects, strengthen social bonds, create novel experiences or simply feel good in the service of sensible self‐discipline?”
Human beings are nothing if not adaptive.
In Britain a similarly fractured hospitality industry has turned to novel ways to entice patrons back to pubs and clubs.
In London, for example, there’s a multistorey bar called House Party, built to replicate an ordinary home, with sofas and television sets playing sport, 1970s carpet on the floors, karaoke in one of the bedrooms and drinks served out of red disposable cups.
There’s another venue where you suit up in prison overalls and sit in a replica cell from the 1920s complete with bars (the steel as well as liquid variety) and a cameo from a Bible-bashing warden. It’s called – wait for it – Alcotraz.
There’s yet another themed club – apparently extremely popular with the TikTok and Instagram crowd – that features a ball pit you can cavort in.
Is this what the world has come to?
Are we cleanskins to blame for all this lunacy?
A thousand days or not, I’m tempted – almost, slightly, ever so marginally – to reach out, with a trembling hand, for a snifter.
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