Author: peterimrich
Half of voters say budget designed to win election as Labor takes 11-point lead on economic management
Reports of the meeting first emerged in 2011, with claims Mr Morrison urged the shadow cabinet to capitalise on the electorate’s growing concerns about “Muslim immigration”, “Muslims in Australia” and the “inability” of Muslim migrants to integrate. Then-opposition leader Tony Abbott was not at the meeting, but deputy leader, Julie Bishop, and the former immigration minister, Philip Ruddock, strongly disagreed with the suggestion, pointing out the Coalition had long supported a non-discriminatory immigration policy. Liberal sources said at the time Mr Morrison told the shadow cabinet meeting on December 1 at the Ryde Civic Centre that the Coalition should ramp up its questioning of “multiculturalism” amid deep voter concerns.
“I’m going to stop you there. I’ve already addressed this issue today. It is an ugly and repugnant lie,” Mr Morrison said.
“I reject it absolutely 100 per cent and my record of working with the Muslim community in Sydney in particular speaks volumes for my track record. Any suggestion to the contrary, I find utterly offensive. Thank you.”
But just 24 hours later, he confirmed he had raised concerns over the “anti-Muslim” sentiment of voters during a 2010 shadow cabinet meeting, but insisted it was only to “address them, not exploit them”.
Mr Morrison confirmed the discussions with The Project’s Waleed Aly in March 2019.
It was the first time the PM has admitted the discussions on “anti-Muslim” sentiments occurred, after describing claims he had sought to capitalise on the fears as “an ugly and disgusting lie” just 24 hours earlier.
In the interview, Aly asked: “Who is lying? You say that this never happened. You’ve called it a smear and a lie. Who is lying?”
The politics of a cliffhanger. The independents may have the final say in deciding who takes government in the event of an inconclusive result in the 2022 election. They’ll have to make up their minds, or the Queen’s man will be the kingmaker, writes Mark Sawyer.
For a bunch of non-politicians who want to take the spin out of politics, the climate independents have been adept at dodging one straight question. Who would they support to form a government in the event no party wins a majority?
Source: Scott, Anthony, or other? Who will the independents support? – Michael West Media
1 He won’t bring on a defamation suit. The examination would destroy him
2 He doesn’t demand charges be brought for the signing of false Stat Decs. Because they’re not.
3 He offers to sign one himself but hasn’t. He’s merely “Posturing”!!
4 Can a PM be charged for signing a false Stat Dec?
Scott Morrison’s willingness to sign a statutory declaration over accusations of racism feels invalid considering his track record of lying, writes Dr Jennifer Wilson. THE PRIME MINISTER of Australia, Scott Morrison, announced on Sunday that he is prepared to sign a statutory declaration that he did not act in a racist manner towards the man he defeated for pre-selection in the seat of Cook in 2007.
Source: Morrison’s misogyny, racism and bullying won’t disappear with a stat dec
If Liberal-National Party voters have a skerrick of integrity left they should assist the rest of Australia in ushering this Government out the back door, in a landslide.
The Coalition Government’s cash splash Budget is the final piece of a mountain of evidence that proves Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s team of “deplorables” are incompetent, devious and unfit to lead the nation.
Some Liberal MPs have already had the good grace to be honest with their supporters. Former Liberal MP John Alexander hopes ‘that if Labor’s Anthony Albanese wins the Election, policies more fit to serve the national interest rather than narrow sectional interest might be served’, while Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells says Morrison is “not fit to be Prime Minister” and, along with his cronies, has already “destroyed the Liberal Party in NSW”.
In National Party ranks, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, in a moment of lucidity and honesty, called Scott Morrison “a hypocrite and a liar” and stated that he had “never trusted him” and disliked “how he earnestly rearranges the truth to a lie”.
If you want PEACE
There’s a long and rich tradition of the Left’s opposition to militarism that dates back to the First International. It’s an excellent resource for understanding the origins of war under capitalism and helping leftists maintain our clear opposition to it.
Source: The Left Has a Long, Proud Tradition of Opposing War
However Australia sides with Russia and India fuck the world.
The world can still hope to stave off the worst ravages of climate breakdown but only through a “now or never” dash to a low-carbon economy and society, scientists have said in what is in effect a final warning for governments on the climate. Greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025, and can be nearly halved this decade, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to give the world a chance of limiting future heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The final cost of doing so will be minimal, amounting to just a few percent of global GDP by mid-century, though it will require a massive effort by governments, businesses and individuals.
Source: “Now or Never” to Avert Climate Disaster, UN Panel Says – Mother Jones
The world looks at Australia and says “They are Lying”
The United Nations secretary-general says Australia and other countries intent on increasing fossil fuel production are dangerous radicals. António Guterres made the comment while launching a new global climate change report urging the world to hit the accelerator on the transition to renewable energy. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, released on Tuesday (AEST), says it’s still possible to meet the objectives of the Paris climate pact to limit global warming to well below 2C, preferably to 1.5C. It sets out viable, financially sound options to keep the 1.5C goal alive, with Mr Guterres saying the pace of transition to renewables needs to triple. “We are on a pathway to global warming of more than double the 1.5-degree limit agreed in Paris. Some government and business leaders are saying one thing — but doing another. Simply put, they are lying,” he said.
Source: ‘They are lying’: UN chief attacks Australia’s climate approach
When Diplomacy and Hypocrisy stand shoulder to shoulder it’s generally over more than one issue. Australia India and Russia aren’t signatories to the Glasgow Emissions Target agreement on Climate either. We and they are all pro-coal, fossil fuels and stand alone against the rest of the world including the Australian electorate. How is it this Australian Government can declare that the friend of my enemy is our friend and still pretend to support Ukraine? They just do it without qualification expecting we will vote for them? The Morrison Government’s legacy is tarnishing us in the eyes of the world. It’s no wonder why Biden couldn’t remember ScaMo’s name but Trump could.
Barry O’Farrell, Australia’s High Commissioner to India, says the Modi government’s refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not an issue for Australia. Mr O’Farrell, the former premier of NSW, made the remarks at an event in New Delhi for the Australia India Institute, which is led by former Labor senator Lisa Singh. Lisa Singh, CEO of the Australia India Institute, and Barry O’Farrell, Australia’s High Commissioner to India, at the Australia India Institute. Lisa Singh, CEO of the Australia India Institute, and Barry O’Farrell, Australia’s High Commissioner to India, at the Australia India Institute. Australia has expressed concern about suggestions India could bypass Western sanctions via a bespoke banking system and India has been forced to defend its decision to buy up cheap Russian oil. Asked whether India’s “perceived neutrality” on Russia posed concerns for the newly revived Quad alliance – comprising Australia, the United States, India and Japan – O’Farrell said Australia opposed Putin’s war but respected India’s different stance. “In relation to what’s happening in Ukraine, Australia’s made our position very clear – Australia understands India’s position,”
Source: India’s refusal to condemn Russia not an issue for Australia: Barry O’Farrell
Russians prove to be absolute liars and are losing absolutely. Not just the war but their global propaganda efforts to discount what it is they have really done. They will go down in history for being duped by a steroid-riddled madman Vladamir Putin.
In a Telegram post on Sunday, the ministry suggested that the bodies had been recently placed on the streets after “all Russian units withdrew completely from Bucha” around Wednesday.
But a review of videos and satellite imagery by The New York Times shows that many of the civilians were killed more than three weeks ago, when Russia’s military was in control of the town.
Source: Satellite images contradict Russian claims, show bodies lay in Bucha for weeks
The Real Nazi of Eastern Europe
Pointing to historical timelines, history professors are highlighting how Putin’s decisions are relatively similar to the same ones German dictator Adolph Hitler made during Operation Barbarossa, the mission he led when the German army invaded the Soviet Union.
There is less to Australia’s jobless situation than the Coalition and the craven mainstream media want us to believe, as Alan Austin reports. AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY RECENTLY, before, during and after delivering last week’s Budget, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has bragged about Australia’s jobless. He has boasted that the unemployment rate is at a 50-year low, that a million new jobs were created late last year, that Australia leads advanced economies and that all this is due to effective Coalition policies. The hard, cold evidence refutes all these claims. Blatantly falsified figures
Source: Morrison and Frydenberg’s only economic success isn’t even true
five claims he tweeted recently.
TESTED
Unemployment has dropped to 4% in Feb,
77k jobs created
The participation rate is at a record high
Female unemployment is at a 48 yr low of 3.8%
375k more Aussies in work than pre-COVID
Source: Josh’s Jobless Jargon – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Concetta Fierravanti-Wells: an “autocrat [and] a bully who has no moral compass”, “not fit to be prime minister.”
Julia Banks: “menacing, controlling wallpaper.”
Jacqui Lambie: “one of the most unpleasant men I’ve ever had to sit in front of.”
Gladys Berijiklian: “evil”, “a bully”, “a horrible, horrible person.”
Christine Holgate: “I became the roadkill of our Prime Minister, who sought a major distraction of the piling criticism in parliament that week”, “one of the worst acts of bullying I’ve ever witnessed” and an “utter disgrace”.
Pauline Hanson: “he is a bully, because I have experienced it myself…he is…you do it ‘my way, or there’s no way’.”
Bridget Archer: “a frank discussion – not just a pastoral care meeting…I would have preferred not to have the meeting at that time while I was feeling emotional.”
The bully will be brought low. In trying to save the odious toad and their own grifting arses the Tories have an advertising expenditure (using our money aka theft) that exceeds that of McDonalds and Coles but it will prove to be insufficient.
Morrison’s concession speech will, of course, frame the impending result as a failing on the part of the electorate.
Source: Smirko flashes his nasty – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Last week Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells called Mr Morrison unfit to be Prime Minister and said he had campaigned against a preselection rival, Michael Towke, because of his Lebanese heritage. The contents of statutory declarations signed in 2016 by Mr Towke and a preselector, Scott Chapman, were made public this weekend – first reported by The Saturday Paper – and included claims Mr Morrison had made comments about the political downsides of Mr Towke’s race while spreading misplaced rumours that he was a Muslim. “These are quite malicious and bitter slurs, which are deeply offensive, and I reject them absolutely,” Mr Morrison said while campaigning in Tasmania on Sunday.
Source: Scott Morrison engulfed by racism accusation as campaign looms
But once preferences are allocated, the two-party-preferred gap remains strongly in favour of Mr Albanese’s Labor at 54-46. This correlates to a national swing of 5.5 per cent to Labor since the last election. If that trend is distributed across all seats, it would result in a landslide victory for Labor with the estimated loss of 17 Coalition seats. With an election expected to be called within days, the government may have hoped for a greater response. Asked who would be a better Prime Minister, the poll sided narrowly with Mr Morrison, who improved by a point to 43 per cent. Mr Albanese was unchanged on 42 per cent.
Tucked away in the maelstrom of Budget announcements is a measure which turns private pension funds into the financial equivalent of a magic pudding; valuable, inexhaustible and sheltered from tax until ready to be passed on to the next generation. Harry Chemay unveils the quadrella of self-managed superannuation lurks which favour wealthy retirees. While many Australians were looking for relief from cost of living pressures, wealthy retirees had another reason to celebrate the recently delivered Budget. It continues a measure that turns their private pension funds into the financial equivalent of a magic pudding; valuable, inexhaustible and sheltered from tax until ready to be passed on to the next generation.
Racists are never shy when going to an election. Ukraine refugees are welcome jnHungary when others weren’t!
Ahead of today’s Hungarian election, Viktor Orbán has boasted of his solidarity with Ukrainian refugees. The anti-immigrant premier has folded to public sympathy for Ukrainians — but the welcome doesn’t extend to everyone fleeing war.
Source: Viktor Orbán’s New “Pro-Refugee” Stance Is Opportunistic — and Still Racist
Trump asks Putin to save him as American’s turn their backs.
For a former president to appeal to the Russian leader for political help amid the “atrocities” in Ukraine is “completely unacceptable,” the GOP governor said.
Vlad’s Army of Liberation is less civilized and less disciplined than the Nazis army was.
“These people were not in the military. They had no weapons. They posed no threat,” said an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Source: Russian Forces Accused of ‘Deliberate Massacre’ in Bucha
Does Morrison even play Cricket? After the past 3 years who do you believe the man who says he “was chosen by God” “doesn’t lie” or legally binding Stat decs signed to say ScuMo used Racism and Ethnicism to gain pre-selection in his want to be a politician? The LNP used similar tactics when attacking Africans in Australia Dutton never really mentioning the fact that like Lebanese they were in the main Christians and even more educated than the average Australian. It may have been done publicly by Peter Dutton but Morrison was his leader and said nothing.
The Prime Minister has again rejected claims he made racist comments during a 2007 preselection battle for his NSW lower house seat of Cook. Outgoing Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells last week made the accusations under parliamentary privilege, claiming Scott Morrison told party members they couldn’t have a Lebanese person as a candidate. The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday published details from two statutory declarations signed in 2016 about the 2007 preselection campaign. The declarations claim Mr Morrison said the Liberal Party should not back his main opponent because of his Lebanese background and rumours he was a Muslim. Mr Morrison on Wednesday denied Senator Fierravanti-Wells’ initial accusations, labelling the comments as “rubbish”.
Source: PM denies attacking 2007 preselection rival’s Lebanese ethnicity
Anne Ruston readily makes statements without naming anyone for support. Nevertheless she’s pointing at the LNP for the accusations and claiming that witnessed signed Stat Decs are lies without any basis to her claims.
Morrison isn’t taking any legal action, why? The people making the so called “false” declarations haven’t been charged. We know “I don’t lie” Morrison has a history of lying and covering his past up with NDAs and we know the accusations aren’t coming from the ALP. We also know that Morrison is doinga Trump and simply denying and deflecting everything. So the probability that the accusations are true seems to pass the pub test but the denials don’t.
Social Services Minister Anne Ruston said it was a ‘”political hit-job”. “It is disappointing to see such a calculated, political hit-job on the Prime Minister on the eve of the election by his enemies,” she told Sky News. “I don’t think there has been any prime minister who has done more for the multicultural communities of Australia, including the Lebanese community.”
Source: ‘I don’t think anyone believes the PM’: Labor steps up attack on PM
Australians don’t mind rascals larrikins and rogues but they sure as hell hate holier than thou liars that use their religious faith as smokescreens to hide their true nature. Shane Warne could do anything and he was forgiven as was Bob Hawke. We even learned to forgive Malcolm Fraser over time and it wasn’t because the LNP renounced him but because he was truly remorseful and showed it. However, we never forgave just forgot Billy McMahon but not so John Kerr, John Howard, Tony Abbott or Henry Bolte.
Morrison thought he had Anthony Albanese on the run over his refusal to hold a review into the treatment of Kimberley Kitching, a real issue that will not go away. Now the Labor leader is handed a political gift from one of the toughest conservatives in the business. “Morrison is not fit to be Prime Minister.” The Labor attack ads won’t be hard to make; they can leave it to the intern.
Liar
On August 16, 2010, five days before the federal election, Julia Gillard said “there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead”. On August 20, the day before the election, she said “I don’t rule out the possibility of legislating a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, a market-based mechanism. I rule out a carbon tax.” When she announced the market-based carbon pricing scheme on February 24, 2011, the government’s press release said: The two-year plan for a carbon price mechanism will start with a fixed price period for three to five years before transitioning to an emissions trading scheme. Despite these easily verifiable facts, Peta Credlin and Alan Jones decided it would be politically expedient to label Gillard a liar, even promoting the puerile putdown “Juliar”. The fact that the Coalition got rid of a well-functioning emissions trading scheme only to introduce their own fatally flawed emissions reduction fund and carbon offsets scheme shows they are far more interested in the politics than the outcomes. Julia did not lie. Scott, on the other hand – well, how long have you got?
Source: A tale of two “liars” – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Australian fossil fuel subsidies will top $11.6 billion this financial year, with new analysis shedding light on the extent to which both federal and state governments are actively supporting the continued expansion of the fossil fuel industry. New analysis, published by The Australia Institute on Monday, has estimated that fossil fuel subsidies increased by 12 per cent in the last year – a $1.3 billion increase – driven higher by the Morrison government’s ‘gas-fired recovery’.
Source: “Perverse:” Australian fossil fuel subsidies will top $22,000 a minute this year | RenewEconomy
Anthony Albanese’s aged care push is smart policy. It’s the right thing to do too, but it does not address the fundamental problem of a privatised system and its profit-takers. The Morrison government tossed some money at the problem, much went to the middlemen. The Opposition, to its credit, is having a go. But is Labor leader Anthony Albanese on the right track? Wherever you look, the failures of privatisation are myriad, often spectacular. Billions wasted on JobActive the privatised jobs service, gold-plating in electricity, privatised prisons, the gutting of the bureaucracy in favour of consultants, the sale of Sydney Airport, Transurban’s taxing toll-road monopolies, profiteers in the home care scheme.
Source: Albanese’s aged care push: right target, wrong attack. Privatisation the rub – Michael West Media
Modern slavery has become a major talking point in recent years. Many of us are familiar with the statistics: 40.3 million people are a victim of modern slavery, half of which perform forced labour. While not uncontentious, these figures are now well-known thanks to the advocacy of public figures and politicians.
Australia will review its own Modern Slavery Act in 2022. Australians should also be on the lookout for a Draconian border bill, introduced in the name of “addressing modern slavery.”
Source: Modern slavery shouldn’t be weaponised by conservative governments
Successive Australian Governments support Israel and Saudi Arabia. Why is it our governments blindly the support thes governments who terrorize their own citizens,and neighbors? Governments who readily assassinate those they believe opposes them? Governments that spy on us kidnap and even imprison Australians and committ crimes pretending to be us? Meanwhile, we support still support them in their crimes.Are we not who we claim to be?
In December 2018, while on a family holiday to Kuwait, Mohammed decided to make her bid for freedom in what would become her world-famous escape. This is where her book begins, with the frightening first steps of trying to seize her own passport from her brother.
Source: The ‘unfathomable’ memoir that everyone living in the west should read
On Sunday night, a shooting attack in the Israeli city of Hadera left two police officers dead and several more people injured. It was the second attack in Israel linked to the Islamic State group in less than a week, after four people were killed in a stabbing and car-ramming attack last Tuesday in Be’er Sheva. The photos and videos released last night by the police show that the two perpetrators arrived at the scene in Hadera with an enormous amount of firearms and weapons. After the incident, which ended when undercover Border Police officers killed the two attackers during a shootout, Israeli military commentator Yoav Limor wrote in the right-wing Israel Hayom daily that the attackers had “slipped under the Shin Bet’s radar.”
Peter Dutton just bought 121 new tanks OOPS! Will the LNP cancel that order like the one they canceled with the French that cost $5bn and returned NOTHING? How much would canceling the useless tank contract cost us.The cancellation of the subs cost twice what the ALP pledged to fix Aged Care with. Would canceling the tanks cost another $5bn is that why Reynolds needs to strip the NDIS just in case?
It’s clear as the sixth week of the war begins that his apparent plan was to send a column of tanks rumbling into Kyiv, blow up a few things, send Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his government scampering away in fear, declare victory, install a puppet president and go home. Evidence that his plan was a strategic, tactical and political failure is showing on your television screens around the clock. If there is one image that will symbolize forever this war, it will be a blown-up Russian tank, its treads sagging and its turret tilted, rusting by the side of the road in Ukraine.
Source: Ukraine has become a graveyard for Russians — and for modern weapons systems | Salon.com
My thought for the day At the time of the election, the Coalition will have been in power for nine exhausting years and want you to give them another three. What, as a legacy, do they have to show for it? Has this Government raised your standard of living? ( John Lord )
The Ad man Cometh! Who was and will that money be it spent with? It’s why the corporate and private MSM invest so heavily in supporting the government? For their and their supporters advertising dollars of course. Didn’t we notice just how much Harvey Norman spent and Clive Palmer is spending” Mega – bucks are being spent on “government announements” and soon to be election advertising. Private Media Isn’t FREE. SAVE OUR ABC because sure as hell the LNP hate it.
Coalition spent $145m on advertising last financial year, with defence recruiting and Covid vaccines among biggest campaigns
Source: Morrison government’s advertising spend tops Coles and McDonald’s | Australia news | The Guardian
How often do we see on the news “500 people are hiding in X theater” only to see it bombed by the enemy. Or, “we are going to Syria to bomb the mother fuckers”. Governments may hold some secrets but they sure as hell more often than not telegraph their punches for domestic currency to the enemy. It makes you wonder whose side their on.
Currently, Peter Dutton is sending promised “armored vehicles” to Ukraine. In reality reality “Peter Dutton doesn’t know how to get promised armored vehicles to Ukraine.” The government announced it was sending 70k tons of coal to Ukraine. It might get there sometime next year if they can find a ship. However, Poland exports coal and is Ukraine’s neighbor and could get it tomorrow. Dumb is what Morrison is but always the ad man selling pet rocks, or cans of fresh air and advertising “fake news”
For decades, minor parties in Australia have introduced bills seeking to give parliament greater control over military deployments. In the debates and inquiries that have followed, a wide range of objections have been raised. We are told that, as military deployments are often made on the basis of confidential information, this information cannot be publicly disclosed to the parliament. Another common objection is that parliamentary decision-making would reduce the flexibility and speed needed to carry out military operations safely and effectively. Most of the opposition to war powers reform, received as part of Michael West Media’s ongoing survey of politicians, follows similar lines. You can see myriad responses here. However, some experts think there might be another reason — one that Australian pollies may be uncomfortable acknowledging.
Source: White and might is right: the secrets which push us into other people’s wars – Michael West Media
Their appeal began to grow with the LNP’s encouragement of White Nationalism. Morrison has always favored racist and ethnicist politics since the Cronulla riots. He saw the effects of hate, xenophobic and jingoistic promotion by Alan Jones on 2GB had, and later with the associated Murdoch recruiters like Andrew Bolt and others on Skye News After Dark had encouraging white Australians to neo-Nazi responses and attitudes. Adnrew Bolt wrote and said he wished Australian Christian youth showed the same comittment as the Barcelona terrorists. They have given voice and platforms to homegrown White Nationalists and voices imported from overseas. Voices barred from other democracies because they were known to promote violence. .
As neo-Nazism continues to be a growing problem in Australia, it’s important to be aware of the dangers it presents. Digital editor Dan Jensen checks out a new documentary taking us inside the world of right-wing extremism.
Barnaby Joyce abolished Water Advisory Board and made a promise of $5.9bn to invest in a Qld dam with no business plan. Yet, Josh Frydenberg dares to say after 8 years “We have no evidence Victoria’s biggest infrastructure program will be a success”. What a pure political betrayal of Victoria his own state when experts were consulted, reports, and due diligence done and all he did was not be bothered to read them. He inherited the blackmail offer left by Abbott of $4bn withheld unless Dan Andrews capitulated and did what the LNP demanded. Victoria was the growth state before the pandemic and kept the nation afloat when the Federal LNP were dragging us backwards.
The costs of the federal government’s commitment to fund dams in Queensland without the scrutiny of a now-abolished national advisory body should be a cause for concern for the community, a former supreme court judge says. Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce disbanded the National Water Grid Advisory Body this week, claiming it was “an appropriate time for it to conclude its work”. The body had been established by Joyce’s predecessor, Michael McCormack, in 2020 to scrutinise and provide advice on major water infrastructure projects.
Ten years in the making of an agreement signed just weeks before an election smells of a scam. One needs to ask what Morrison actually sacrificed in order to gain this politically advantageous signing at such a fortuitous moment. The Indians are known for their bargaining skills and ability to take commercial advantage. They are one of the few countries currently refusing to criticize Putin and are not employing sanctions against Russia. Furthermore, they are happily buying their cheaper oil and so offering indirect and questionable support in their war against Ukraine. Morrison is rewarding India a nation for its questionable ethical and contrarian stance to ours and his associated media propagandists are supporting him in this less than perfect moral stance. he’s indirectly siding with Russia. In fact he directly sided with Putin at the last Climate summit in Glasgow.
The Morrison government has hailed the agreement as a significant step in its efforts to diversify export markets and reduce Australia’s economic dependence on China.”This is an economic agreement that has strategic might to it,” Mr Tehan said.
Source: ‘Historic’ trade agreement with India signed after decade of negotiations – ABC News
This week on Q&A Barnaby Joyce said “we are a government who only spends money where we see a return on investment and growth in GDP”. Well we know that!! So little has been devoted to Age-Care, flood disasters, pensioners, job seekers yet debt blew out 400% above 2013 levels. It went from 10% of GDP to over 40% and is heading to 50%. So where did the money go and why doesn’t it matter now? It mattered ever so badly when the ALP were in government. The LNP are currently screaming taxes taxes will go up under the ALP yet they have constantly been the highest under the LNP.
The scam is that flood and fire victims and other ordinary Australians don’t have lobbyists and don’t pay political parties. What are they thinking, that politicians will just help them because …?
Cruelling somewhat the Budget pitch euphoria in corporate media today, The Australia Institute has sallied forth with its annual analysis of hand-outs to coal and gas multinationals, state and federal, finding they cost the public $11.6b in 2021-22, or $22k per minute.
It’s a $1.3b (12%) increase on last year thanks to the feds. Across all budgets there is $55b committed, which is 11 times the balance of Australia’s Emergency Response Fund ($4.8b in Dec 2021), while $11.6b in 2021-22 is 56 times the budget of the National Recovery and Resilience Agency.
The subsidies cost the Federal government more than it spent on public schools in the same year ($9.7b). Now *that’s* a scam … and we are yet to see the Budget.
Even the energy minister of the United Arab Emirates, the world’s eighth largest oil producer, has admitted that the steps so far taken in the small Gulf country toward green energy have saved it $191 billion. The UAE gets about 7% of its electricity from solar panels, saving on the import of natural gas. Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazroui said that the Emirates government is so taken with these savings that it intends to accelerate solar projects. Emirati companies such as Masdar and Dewa are also spearheading 40 wind and solar projects internationally.
The far-right, conspiracy theorist website The Gateway Pundit has spent the weeks following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pumping out the Kremlin’s propaganda materials and narratives.Founded in 2004 by Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit is a voraciously pro-Trump blog that has spread conspiracy theories about everything from the 2018 Parkland school shooting and former President Barack Obama’s birth certificate, to the Las Vegas mass shooting and the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Most recently, the blog has served as a promotional platform for Russian propaganda in the month after the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
One panelist on Rossiya-1, Russia’s most nationalistic state TV station, recently called for “for nuclear missiles to hit Poland, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia” and the opening of a “corridor” from Russia to its Kaliningrad exclave “in order to save Kaliningrad from the nuclear bombardment of Lithuania and Poland.” According to a recent survey from the Ukrainian polling company Active Group, 86 percent of Russians support an armed invasion of other European countries, including Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. (This poll should, however, be taken with a giant grain of salt given that polling in Russia is extremely unreliable.)
Source: Russia’s Neighbors Look at Putin and Ask “Who’s Next?” – Mother Jones
It appears that Vladimir Putin’s aides have misinformed him about the war, fearful of his reaction.
John Howard courted religious cults like the Exclusive Bretheren who like Morrison also saw themselves as members of God’s “elect”, saviors but not bullies or liars.
With an election campaign set to be announced within days, Prime Minister Scott Morrison finds himself fighting fresh claims about his character, including that he has an “autocratic” and “bullying” agenda and treats opponents disrespectfully.
Source: ‘Autocratic agenda’: Morrison faces mounting bullying allegations
The claim that Australia’s recovery “leads the world” is one of the two most easily disproven falsehoods in the history of budget fabrications. Australia is nowhere near the leaders.
France, the UK, the US, Sweden, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Norway, and Portugal all grew by more than 5%. The Netherlands, Italy, Hungary, Greece, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Poland advanced by more than 6%. Ireland, Israel, Turkey, Argentina, Croatia, Georgia and Estonia expanded by more than 8%. Chile, Colombia, Malta, Panama and Slovenia grew by more than 10%.
Other measures also have Australia well down the global tables, and near the bottom on some. These include youth jobless rates, wages growth, retail sales, productivity, social housing and infrastructure investment.
Source: Blinded by dodgy stats: Frydenberg’s sermon relies on rusty tablets – Michael West Media
Public school funding to be cut by $559 million over the next three years. Private school funding increased by $2.6 billion.
“Closer analysis of the Budget papers shows the Morrison government has cut over half a billion dollars from public schools,” said Correna Haythorpe, Australian Education Union federal president.
The cuts to public schools’ funding from the 2021-22 Budget are:
$139 million in 2022-23
$193.9 million in 2023-24
$226.9 million in 2024-25
In sharp contrast, the increases in private schools’ funding are:
$616.8 million in 2022-23
$690 million in 2023-24
$715.6 million in 2024-25
$537.1 million in 2025-26
Though the government does have its priorities set, giving $61m for school chaplains.
Source: Public school funding cut by half billion, private increased – Michael West Media
Truth in Irony
Let’s be quite clear here: If Scott Morrison was a jockey, the stewards would be questioning him after the election about whether he was running dead. If he was a football coach, he’d be accused of tanking. If he was a Prime Minister, he might actual do something to help the country.
olddogthoughts 
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