Hugh Riminton

National Affairs Editor @10NewsFirst
Ambassador @SoldierOnAust Various NFP Boards Grateful father of four, grandad to two. All views my own.

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

@NissenWayne @Realtime1968 Yes - the precedent was a FB post about an aboriginal prisoner in the NT. The post elicited a torrent of vile responses. The prisoner was successfully sued the news organisation that put up the initial, non-defamatory post. Most Australians on X know nothing about it, but should

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

Alan Jones leaves court after a day in which most of the evidence was suppressed, as his lawyers seek to challenge the credibility of his chief accuser on indecency charges. Details 10 News 5pm.

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

@SandyHorne61 Let’s see how summer goes. I was out north of lake Mungo a couple of weeks ago and it felt like an endless green carpet dotted thick with Mallee.

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

@last_jones I hope *more* than half the time reporters ask questions that don’t suit the party. What else are they there for?

The role is to clarify and test political positions on behalf of their chunk of the voters.

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

In seeking to chose which outlets will ask her questions, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation is “weakening democracy” says Peter Greste.

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

@jacredd @charliepick Dennis Allen, one of Katy’s odious offspring. Chopped the legs off his victim to get him in the barrel. Pure speed-popping psychopath. The crims didn’t want to go near him.

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

35 years ago, I sat in the Victoria Supreme Court corridor awaiting a verdict in the Walsh Street murders if two young policemen. Also there was Kath Pettingill, mother of one of the accused killers, Victor Peirce. “Granny Evil” evidently took a shine to me because later came a..

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

Alan Jones’ lawyers promised a “bundle of dynamite” that would destroy the credibility of his main accuser. Today they delivered it, but it is subject to a non-publication order while the judge decides on a prosecution move to have it declared inadmissible. The plot thickens.

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

Pettingill has died, of natural causes, at 91.

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

The strange courtesies of the matriarch of a family that murdered untold numbers - including the Walsh Street victims, as it turned out - and ruined many lives through their drug trade.
Luckily I never got to test her promise.

[Ben Phillips @BenPhillips_ANU]

Population growth about 8 months ago was back to the 20 year average 1.5%. As always best to look through the covid period for most stats.

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

@Tim_Denning Ignore all emails. Get to inbox zero. Don’t do meetings - send emails. Be high energy. But be silent, zen, Buddhist. Steal your boss’s customers (s/he won’t notice). Retweet this post.

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

I needed to move a sofa.

I mentioned this to an American. He said, "You know anybody with a truck?"

I did not know anybody with a truck.

He looked at me with real concern. Not pity. Concern. The way you look at a man who has told you he does not have a name.

"You gotta know somebody with a truck."

I asked how one acquires such a person.

He said, "You just do."

This is the third time I have received that answer in this country. It is the answer to everything here. You just do. There is no process. There is only the eventual fact of having.

He said, "Ask Kevin."

I do not know a Kevin. He said Kevin like I should. He said it the way you say a shared uncle.

I met Kevin four days later. Kevin owns a truck. Kevin does not own a truck for himself. Nobody owns a truck for themselves. Kevin owns a truck for a fifteen mile radius.

Inside I said: THIS MAN HAS TAKEN A VOW. HE DID NOT ANNOUNCE IT. HE SIMPLY PURCHASED A BED AND ACCEPTED THE CONSEQUENCES.

Kevin arrived on Saturday. He brought the truck. He also brought a second man.

I had not asked for a second man.

The second man's name is Tony. Tony came because Kevin came. Tony did not know me. Tony did not ask what we were moving. Tony brought gloves.

They moved the sofa in eleven minutes.

I offered them money. Both of them laughed at the same time, which felt rehearsed and was not.

I asked what I owed them.

Kevin said, "Buy the pizza."

That is the price. That is the entire economy. The truck costs one pizza and the pizza is not negotiable and the pizza is also not expensive and everyone knows what size.

Inside I said: THE FEE IS FIXED ACROSS THE ENTIRE NATION AND WAS SET BY NO ONE.

We ate on the floor because the sofa was against the wall and none of us wanted to be the first to sit on it.

Tony told me his daughter plays soccer. I asked if she is good. He said, "She's aggressive."

I still think about that.

Three weeks later, Kevin texted me.

"You free Sunday? Helping Tony move a fridge."

He did not ask if I wanted to. He informed me of a fridge.

Inside I said: I HAVE BEEN CALLED UP. I DID NOT ENLIST. THE PAPERS WERE FILED ON MY BEHALF.

I went. I moved the fridge. I have no truck. I contributed only arms.

Afterward, a man I had never met asked me if I knew anybody with a truck.

I said, "Yeah, I got a guy."

I have a guy.

I am somebody's guy now, too. Tony has told two people about me.

He describes me as "the guy who's strong for his size."

I have never been prouder of a sentence in my life.

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

Alan Jones leaves court after hearing evidence from a federal police officer who - as a teenager - claims he was repeatedly indecently assaulted at Alan Jones’ country property. Jones denies 22 charges. Details Ten News at 5.

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

China has won the diplomatic battle to control the South China Sea, says former Australian ambassador to China, Geoff Raby. https://t.co/O9iJH1mMES

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

Day One done: Alan Jones leaves court after hearing evidence from a man who has accused him of multiple counts of indecent assault when the witness was a teenager. Jones denies all 22 charges from six complainants, full report TEN News 5pm

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

@RationalistsUtd The reduction in fertility rates includes children of migrants too. The main factors are urbanisation, reduced religious sanction against birth control and the fact that women have ambitions other than producing numbers of children. How do you propose to reverse that?

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

In simple, dispassionate language, George Megalogenis dissects a nation where most inhabitants are migrants or their children, and professional women outnumber blue collar men in the workforce. The fracture lines play out noisily; this is the context.

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

@PeteMuhleisen @cathywilcox1 You can have a crack at any religious organisation branch-stacking while (allegedly) dodging the law.

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

What mere columnists take a thousand words to say, @cathywilcox1 delivers in 69.
And in coloured ink.