The Abbott Government has a far better record than its Labor predecessor, but in politics these days successes don’t make up for mistakes. The Prime Minister needs a year of clear air.
Month: September 2015
The Royal Australian Air Force combat mission over Syria begins, Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirms.
Vladimir Putin confirms Russian military involvement in Syria’s civil war – Telegraph
If we burn all the fossil fuels, all the ice will eventually melt.
Source: New Study: Waterworld Is Definitely Going to Happen | Mother Jones
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has been caught on tape joking about low-lying islands being swamped by rising seas in a 23-second exchange that risked offending Indigenous people, ethnic leaders and Australia’s Pacific neighbours in one fell swoop.
Marshall Islands Foreign Minister Tony de Brum has slammed Immigration Minister Peter Dutton for joking that rising seas will swamp low-lying Pacific islands, inviting him to watch waves that pound his home and terrify his grandchildren.
As stigma is reduced and knowledge increased, it is vital that more clinical and other resources be made available.
Source: Buddy Franklin’s role in the never-ending battle against mental illness
For the love of Australians. Pass it on.
Source: Depressed Wombat Finds Comfort In The Most Heartbreaking Way
In all, Australia is engaged in a shameful, degrading and illegitimate method of determining the fates of asylum seekers. It cannot hold its head high in regards to one intake of refugees while many others languish in prisons of the government’s making.
Australia remains the only country sending Security personnel to vet choices made by the UN on who are the most in need. Will there any transparency in this process or will it become another secretive operational matter?
There is much being written about the refugee crisis in Europe at the moment but none of it explains why the problem is occurring and what needs to be done to address it. Robert Burrowes reports.
Source: Elites want more refugees. Why?
Labor’s role in Abbott’s policy shift should not be overlooked.
Source: Syrian refugees: Abbott shows he can change, listen and learn
A single image of a drowned boy half a world away has already split Australia’s ‘stop the boats’ consensus. Tony Abbott can only paper over it for so long
CANBERRA – What’s the difference between the Syrian asylum seekers waiting in refugee camps in the Middle East and those waiting for processing in Australia’s detention centre on Nauru
Source: Choosing Australia’s Refugees: Should All Syrian Asylum Seekers Be Treated Equally?
The jihadist Islamic State group has used the shocking image of drowned Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi to warn refugees against trying to flee to the West, calling it
Source: IS uses images of drowned toddler to warn refugees – Your Middle East
It was announced yesterday that 21st Century Fox and the National Geographic Society are creating a for-profit, commercial company that will encompass all National Geographic properties, including its magazines, websites and television channels. Fox will own 73% of this new company.
Australia’s immigration minister Peter Dutton has come under fire for making light of rising sea levels affecting Pacific Island nations.
Source: Australia minister Dutton under fire for climate joke – BBC News
Source: Abbott’s Road to Damascus
Like the old black and whites chronicling the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the bellicose arguments for and against the China-Australia free trade agreement do not yet connect.
One sign that the government is losing ground publicly is that it has suddenly stopped using the term “free trade agreement”. Focus groups perhaps? (The government is approaching the issue as if they were selling a Mars Bar.)
Source: China-Australia free trade arguments fail to bridge divide
Australia’s economy looks set to continue its strong growth, with key economic indicators showing no boats arrived in the last quarter.
“For those looking for a job, for those in small business, for those looking to invest, what we can say is the boats have stopped,” Prime Minister Tony Abbott said today.
He said Australia’s unemployment rate was predicted to fall to no boats in the lead up to Christmas. “This is good news, in particular for young people entering the jobs market”.
Year-on-year business confidence also showed a total lack of boats, while Mr Abbott said the share market would strengthen in coming months to no irregular maritime arrivals.
Saturday 5 September 1 “If you want to stop the deaths, if you want to stop the drownings, you’ve got to stop the boats,” Mr Abbott told ABC Murray Goulburn Local Radio. In making this statement he ignores the fundamental fact that in Syria 300,000 people have been killed so that stopping the boats actually…
Source: My Thoughts on the Week That Was – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The question all Australians should ask is this: What sort of country are we? Are we selfish or are we generous? Are we willing to mistreat terrified human beings who have the courage, and the initiative, to escape to safety?
Source: Getting The Facts Straight On Refugee Resettlement | Julian Burnside
Yesterday was the day after Tuesday. Being a day of the week, it was inevitable someone from the Liberal party’s right wing said something that reminded us our history is alive and on the backbench.The Liberal right, understandably upset that Tony Abbott has been intimidated into accepting more refugees by the human rights lawyers, demanded that Christians should be our priority.
The Australian government has just announced that it will take in 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees, giving priority to Christians and Yazidis who they say are the most persecuted, but not everyone agrees.
Social services minister joins Eric Abetz in urging religious focus as Muslim and Christian leaders raise concerns that it would foster discrimination
Trade union royal commission delivers Kathy Jackson heads-up
Is it fine for inequality to increase as long as everyone’s incomes rise? That worked OK in the boom but now the richest households are pulling away
ABC $7.30 presenter Leigh Halfprice interviews Australian Prime Minister Tony Idiott on the subject of the Australian economy.
Source: ABC $7.30: Leigh Halfprice interviews Australian Prime Minister Tony Idiott
Retail franchise 7-Eleven launched an exciting new addition to its range of Slurpee flavours today – made from the distilled perspiration of hundreds of underpaid, overworked foreign employees.
“The harder they work, the more they sweat, the more Slurpees we can produce, and the more money we make,” a spokesperson for the company said.
He said each employee had targets for how much sweat they needed to produce each day. “If they don’t meet the target we’ll report them to authorities and suggest their visas are confiscated. Just telling them that can increase sweat levels by 20%. Genius!”
The new Slurpees will cost $3 for a ‘small’, $4 for a ‘medium’, or $5.50 for a ‘large’, often just referred to in the business as an ‘hour’s wages’.
Just when it seemed like he had run out of things to say about his four-month training regime for the upcoming local marathon, work colleague Jeremy Layson found a whole new set of details deep inside his memory that he had previously failed to mention.
“He was definitely running out of steam. The conversation was trailing right off, and I thought I’d be able to get back to work,” said Rachael Hallam, who works with Layson.
“But then from nowhere he starts talking again, about the food he’s eating or something, and it was as if we were right back at the start of the conversation.
“I couldn’t believe it. I’d literally turned around to walk back to my desk”.
Layson said later that he had also felt the conversation was over. “I was done. I’d gone through my 10km, 15km, 20km and 30km schedules and times, I’d used up all the quotes I had about marathons being a metaphor for life. I’d even talked about the importance of balancing distance training with rest days. I’ll be honest, I was about to stop; end the conversation right there. Then I remembered diet”.
He said he was pleased to be able to complete the conversation in under four hours.
”Turkey is an important partner for the EU in the fight against terrorism and extremism. Clearer actions from the Turkish side in the implementation of necessa
Source: EU countries turn a blind eye on Turkish aggression against the Kurds – Your Middle East
The government should be ashamed that it has detained on Manus Island the few Syrians who have reached here.
Source: Australia has power to save tens of thousands of Syrian refugees
The Abbott government was expected to approve Australian bombing runs against Islamic State targets and supply lines in Syria on Tuesday night, while the question of how many refugees could be absorbed by Australia has exposed ugly divisions in the government party room.
Source: Australia looks set to start bombing Syria as Libs warn against too much refugee compassion
What you need to know to understand Syria’s civil war — and the refugee crisis it created.
Source: Why people are fleeing Syria: a brief, simple explanation – Vox
Here’s the story the media refuses to tell you about the refugee crisis rocking Europe.
Source: Read This Before the Media Uses a Drowned Refugee Boy to Start Another War
If this isn’t a good enough reason to legalize it, we don’t know what is.
Source: Colorado May Have To Refund As Much As $30 Million In Pot Taxes
In 2004, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution that lays out seven ‘essential elements’ of democracy, including: • Separation and balance of power • Independence of the judiciary • A pluralistic system of political parties and organisations • Respect for the rule of law • Accountability and transparency • Free, independent and pluralistic media…
Source: The slide away from democracy – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The Syrian refugee crisis has become the story of the week. The images of hundreds of refugees streaming off ferries, dozens in unseaworthy vessels, and endless lines walking along rail-line tracks toward Germany in search of a new life, have flooded our television news services. In Australia, particularly on social media, the debate is in…
Source: Has Abbott found his 9/11? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
This government and this country need to think long and hard about what it means to say “no more Muslims”
Source: If you turn your back on Syria’s Muslims, forget about ‘Team Australia’
Comment: The delays and cost blowouts have been much worse under the Coalition.
Protesters gather in front of the Israeli prime minister’s office to demand greater funds for Christian schools.
Source: Protesters rally over funding for Christian schools in Israel – BBC News
When Tony Abbott addressed the nation with his job application in 2013, he made a lot of promises about his “positive plan to restore the hope, reward and opportunity that should be your birth right.” “We have the plan, we have the team and we are ready.” He promised to “end Labor’s big waste –…
Source: Tony’s report card – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Senior federal opposition and union figures have condemned new evidence a Chinese-owned dairy planned to import workers to help run its controversial Gippsland dairy operations.
Source: Unions lash Chinese dairy investors as plans to import workers exposed
Andrew Robb admitted on Insiders that 84% of 457 workers who are currently employed were not subject to labour market testing and that that situation will remain. Just to be clear, these were his exact words BARRIE CASSIDY: Well because it raises the prospects of course that Gina Rinehart, who you mentioned of course, could…
Source: Skin in the game – » The Australian Independent Media Network
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