New Liberal Leader Peter Dutton has a history of cruelty and corruption, despite the mainstream media telling us we should give him a chance, writes Dr Binoy Kampmark.
Source: Reactionary succession — Peter Dutton, Australia’s new Opposition Leader
Month: June 2022
Conclusion: Learn from History or Repeat It
The newly minted Prime Minister and his government seem to have learned the lesson from ten years ago. They are not willing to be beholden to the Greens because they know how that plays out. This is not to say that the Greens should be utterly shut out. Some of their policy ideas are positive (expanding Medicare to include mental health and dental care for one). But they should not be allowed to demand their policies be implemented when they received a tiny percentage of the vote. Who do they think they are, the Nationals? More seriously, the lesson of allowing small minority parties to have large influence over policy is not a lesson that Anthony Albanese has forgotten. Long may this strategic competence continue.
Suss Ley “heard and listened” then acted
Recovery plans designed to prevent the extinction of almost 180 threatened species and habitats, including the Tasmanian devil, were scrapped by the Coalition in one of Sussan Ley’s final acts as environment minister.
Our major parties’ primary votes are in structural decline, not because they are simply hopeless, but because our politics has fragmented to the point there are no natural majorities in Australia anymore. We now have majorities of dissent – so we can remove a government via a coalition of discontent, but any new government becomes vulnerable to a new dissenting majority forming around it. Our tradition of compulsory preferential voting has camouflaged this, artificially preserving two-party dominance. If we had a more European-style proportional system, we’d have had European-style results for a decade now: moving from one minority government to another, each made up of a temporary coalition of rivals. This might be the moment that our political fracturing finally overpowered the masking tape of our electoral system.
Source: Election 2022 results: There are no natural majorities anymore. Albanese’s might be the last one
Reliance on Russian Oil will steeply decrease and be over by the next decade.
In the first quarter of this year, Volkswagen and Mercedes — German carmakers said that sales of their EVs spiked, and increased by 65% and 37% respectively. Tesla sales were up 80%. In fact, the rush to EVs now is no longer hampered by consumer hesitancy, but by supply chain problems caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The German government now backs the goal that all new car sales should be EVs by 2035.
On May 16, the gun company Daniel Defense tweeted an ad featuring a toddler holding an AR-style rifle—the same kind of gun that would be used to kill 21 people in Uvalde, Texas, days later. According to Todd C. Frankel, an enterprise reporter at the Washington Post, ads like these are as routine as the “thoughts and prayers” Daniel Defense and other gun companies offer up after every mass shooting. There is “a Groundhog Day quality to all this,” he says. “They just follow the same playbook and no variation.” On Thursday’s episode of What Next, I talked to Frankel about why gun manufacturers aren’t worried about bad publicity and how guns became identity politics. This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Source: Daniel Defense Uvalde shooting: Gun manufacturers aren’t fazed by mass shootings.
Russian forces now occupy about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, as the battle clocked 100 days since the start of the invasion.
Source: Russia controls one-fifth of Ukraine territory as war grinds to 100 days
The press pack are acting as though the Coalition is temporarily exiled rather than categorically defeated, flooding the news cycle with the Dutton-led losing side and ignoring the Albanese Government, writes managing editor Michelle Pini.
Source: Albanese’s miracle win mangles media’s Dutton narrative
In his commentary on the recent Federal Election, BBC journalist Nick Bryant described former Prime Minister Scott Morrison as our first ‘post-truth’ leader. Given Morrison’s documented domestic and international mendacities, together with his exceptional talent for truth twisting, Bryant’s observation is definitely on the money.
However, what is absent from his analysis is the role of the media in enabling a post-truth climate that allows men such as Morrison, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former U.S. President Donald Trump to gain high political office in the anglosphere. None of these men or their equally compromised colleagues would have flourished had it not been for legacy media, whose journalists are apparently easily overawed by shiny, noisy, blingy things entirely devoid of substance and with a dubious talent for gishing the gallop.
The new government’s best-known leaders are Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong, two surnames drawn from the deep hinterland of multicultural Australia. Perhaps White Australia is finally on its way out.
Source: How the 2022 federal election may finally signal an end to ‘White Australia’
Linda Burney urges Peter Dutton to support Indigenous Voice
Dutton’s response still seems more a case of “victim-blaming” which has gone on for over 230 years. His claim might get onside if they clean up their act is simply that. In what world does The Age editorial see that as change? The Age clearly stands with the same colonist attitude that has always blamed indigenous Australians for their own historical demise and it not being in any way the effect or result of the racist colonial system forcefully implanted on them for over two centuries.
Dutton needs to be more Burney, Dodgson, and all of us Australians more Indigenous. That’s why a voice to parliament is a necessity and not just a promised gift or slight adjustment to our current system.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has indicated he may be open to supporting a referendum on a First Nations Voice to parliament, but he wants “the symbolic … to be accompanied by practical responses”. He wants a Voice to “reduce the incidence of child abuse within those communities” and to improve education, employment and “many other indicators”.
Source: Indigenous Voice to parliament: First Nations Voice will meet Peter Dutton’s demand
Newly elected senator for the NT, Jacinta Price, told Sky’s Paul Murray that she is “feeling really strong” and ready to “get out there and fight” for Australians.
“Australia will soon realise that they’ve just elected our Joe Biden to run the country and they’re just going to have to learn the hard way. But I’m certainly going to be there to hold them to account and to help pick up the pieces once we have to.”
So much for constructive conciliation.
In fact, it’s hard to see how having Ms Price in parliament will be in any way constructive.
Source: Meet Sky After Dark’s Voice to Parliament – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Josh Frydenberg’s mate on the opposite side of politics Ed Husic now has his chance to show what he can do for Australia
“Ed Husic has a long and distinguished track record in the Parliament working with the STEM sector and championing Australian science and technology,” said Science and Technology Australia Chief Executive Officer Misha Schubert. “We are delighted to see him given this crucial portfolio and look forward to continuing a productive relationship with him and his team on behalf of the 90,000 STEM professionals Science & Technology Australia represents.”
Was this an individual case justly heard or a case of systemic misogynism and domestic abuse against women in America? “Donald Trump Jr boasts Johnny Depp win is end to the ‘rabid feminist’ Me Too movement” but then We know Trump Jnr is an idiot like his father. However, Depp was found guilty in the UK in 2020 but not in America in 2022. What would have happened here?
A divorce settlement will follow the only winners seem to be the lawyers and individual change the system will remain intact and the publishers insured.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/amber-heard-johnny-depp-fans-memes-reddit-b2091455.html
The jurors spent a month and a half hearing arguments from lawyers for actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in a very public defamation case.
Source: Johnny Depp Wins Defamation Lawsuit Against Amber Heard | HuffPost Entertainment
The Fox News-fueled Justice Department probes then-President Donald Trump demanded as rebuttals to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation generated plenty of frothy Fox content. They also gave Republican partisans excuses to discount the obviously unethical and potentially illegal behavior of Trump and the crimes of his underlings. But efforts to turn the network’s conspiracy theories into federal cases have tended to diminish and fail under the scrutiny of prosecutors, judges, and juries.
Capitalism creates social disorder and relies on police and prisons to manage it. Until liberals recognize this link between criminal justice and the economy, their reform programs will be ineffectual — and racist policing and mass incarceration will persist.
Source: Capitalism Creates Chaos. The Carceral System Is a Bad Attempt to Contain It.
Peter Dutton claims to have a softer side. 1) We know he’s a Lib activist and strategist 2) We’ve seen the level of his empathy on show in the treatment he handed down to Biloela family in particular their Australian-born children. Coupled with the cry from the town. His “empathy”, an alternative fact, compared with that of the ALP’s. 3) We saw Dutton’s power, and were certain of his ability to use it. He arrogantly allowed two opere’s, illegal overstay, to be extended for a favor to a mate. 4) Yes. he now claims he has a softer side unseen for over 20 years because he presented out of necessity as the role model of a Liberal Politician. 5) Compare him to Albo or any ALP for that matter and Peter Dutton stands alone and not needed by anyone. 6) Dickson sent him that message with a slide of 2.6%
My wish for you in these trying times is that you not become immobilized or numb or selectively empathic — that you continue to respond to the suffering of others with concern and activism. In my experience, taking action – even a small effort to alleviate the suffering of others — is one of the most important means of remaining fully human at a time when the world’s pain can otherwise be overwhelming.
The Labor Party’s victory offers a blueprint for diminishing the global influence of the Fox News founder.
Rupert Murdoch, who oversees a global media empire that includes Fox News, doesn’t like losing, but he just tasted defeat in Australia’s election. Despite years in which Murdoch’s media properties vociferously backed conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Labor leader Anthony Albanese won the May 21 contest. Australia saw a wave of climate-friendly, independent candidates and Greens politicians take power in a thorough rejection of the culture wars around trans rights and “religious freedom” unleashed by Morrison and his backers in the Murdoch media.
Source: In Australia Election, Rupert Murdoch Was a Surprise Loser
The LNP still believes it can manipulate the Australian public
My thought for the day We all toy with the idea of changing the world but never consider changing ourselves. ( John Lord )
Source: The villain takes centre stage – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Announcing that it was time for the electorate to see his softer side, new Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he will continue to relentlessly deride minority groups, but in a more cuddly way.
Source: Gentler, kinder Dutton to insult minority groups more affectionately from now on | The Shovel
Labor has won a working parliamentary majority in a sullen, angry country. Perhaps more by pure luck than design, Australia has avoided a hung parliament. That’s the good news. But for this Labor government to do us proud, it will have to do something humble. Call the Greens into its fold. There is no alternative in the long term, writes Mark Sawyer.
Source: It’s time. Time for Labor and the Greens to say yes to love – Michael West
The ABC has recently accepted all the recommendations provided by the review of its complaints process. A major recommendation that they be directly responsible to the Board and bypass the ABC’s editorial staff. However, given the Board wasn’t selected on merit alone for the past decade, as required by statute, and the LNP government ensured it was biased in its favor the only option now is to sack it. Then reappoint a new one and to make the ABC complaints process really independent in accordance with the intentions of the Act. https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/abc/13906138?jwsource=cl
Conspiracists see that as the long-term end-game in which many of those who built trust in the ABC have been recruited to destroy it. What can’t be explained is how they might have been persuaded to sacrifice their precious reputations to contribute to that end.
Source: Playing devil’s advocate or becoming the antichrist — a quandary at the ABC
There’s one guarantee they don’t bother with the ALP, Greens, and Teals. So where does their money go? Politicians and parties that empathize with their more guns, and less control cause. But they, sure as hell do, cosy up to the increasingly extreme right to fire their bullet points. Barnaby Joyce unfortunately will not be in their sights as much as when he was the leader of the Nationals. Mass shootings well, they’re rare and in the above-pictured company not required to be talked about. Fired up: Shooters’ dollars on the rise, including political donations
The shooting at a Texas primary school which resulted in the death of 19 children demonstrates the power of the US firearms lobby. The same forces are at work in Australia, reports Callum Foote.
Vancouver, British Columbia: Canada’s government has announced it will allow the province of British Columbia to try a three-year experiment in decriminalising possession of small amounts of drugs, hoping it will ease the fear of arrest by those who need help and stem a record number of overdose deaths.
Source: Canadian province to decriminalise cocaine, opioids and ecstasy
Would this political moron have been Morrison’s LNP captain’s pick In Australia’s election 2022? Would Murdoch be running her gun campaign here?
In a chaotic, but absolutely riveting, Twitter rant Tuesday, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene suggested that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s proposed gun laws could result in a Russian invasion.
Source: Marjorie Taylor Greene Suggests Justin Trudeau’s Gun Laws Invite Russian Invasion
Cruz, who blamed last week’s shooting in Uvalde on the abundance of doors at the school, said the number of doors in the US had been allowed to increase unchecked.
Source: America introduces strict new background checks for buying doors | The Shovel
How welcome will this sabre rattler be in those “outer suburbs” like Dandenong after his Hansonite attacks on the Lebanese Muslims Africans and Chinese? Dutton has always been the man from the Monkey Pod room driving the LNP to the bigoted right. The Queenslander who helped Howard steal Pauline Hanson’s space in Australian politics. Nothing has changed except he’ll now be competing with the Nationals in the regions and allowing those Liberals with independent and singular community concerns go. Dutton was always right of Abbott never left of the mad monk.
As soon as Defense Minister Dutton was gone from the government China announced it would drop its security plan for the Pacific region, and has specifically said it was prepared to work with Australia. But it simply wasn’t prepared to work with any government prepared to simply use it them as a political tool for their domestic politics or one supported by Murdoch’s Sinophobic divisive Media.
Outer suburban voters and small business owners will be Peter Dutton’s target to rebuild the devastated Liberal vote as the Coalition shifts away from big business in a pitch to “forgotten people” and towards what it calls sensible action on climate change after years of division.
Source: Peter Dutton pitches to forgotten Australians in the suburbs to rebuild Liberal vote
It’s been a golden era for Google Australia, Netflix Australia and Facebook Australia. Bunkered in pandemic lockdowns, Australians spent record time on their screens. How then did the digital giants rake in so much cash but pay so little tax? Michael West looks at the tall tales the multinational tax dodgers tell the Australian Tax Office.
The mess the LNP helped create and blamed others for.
What happens from here is unclear, but the company’s turmoil can’t be divorced from the Coalition’s policy failures
A “Easy” planned path to transition
With electricity bills soaring, a national Renewable Electricity Storage Target may be one way of achieving lower emissions – and lower prices
3 ways Australia could have been a Renewable Energy Super Power & 100 ways how Morrison’s LNP ignored it but for only 1 Reason “Power”
Australians will bear yet another blow to our cost of living in July when electricity prices will surge up to 18.3%, which amounts to over A$250 per year in some cases.
Source: 3 ways Australia can become a Renewable Energy Superpower – without Leaving anyone Behind
China has dumped an ambitious plan to sign a wide-ranging agreement with Pacific Island nations. The bombshell announcement came from China’s ambassador to Fiji, Zhang Ping, on Monday afternoon.
Despite what the mainstream press might have you believe, Scott Morrison has no one but himself to blame for his election loss, writes Dr Victoria Fielding.
This Memorial Day, we should rededicate ourselves to fighting the horrors of war. So here’s a 1916 Eugene Debs piece, never before republished, about why internationalism is at the heart of socialist politics.
Source: Eugene V. Debs: Socialist Internationalism Versus Capitalist Nationalism
It’s the business of “Cash For Comment”. In Murdoch’s world “Show Me Your Money” comes first, last , and is the determinator of the long term policy.
As the country reels from yet another horrific mass shooting, right-wing media outlets like Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News are doing all they can to halt any progress on reforming the country’s gun laws. But a totally different story is being told in Australia — the original home of the Murdoch family’s media empire — where Murdoch outlets have instead touted the importance of gun safety, and are now highlighting the dangerous conditions of gun proliferation in the United States.
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