That the Albanese government could further compromise Australia’s sovereignty, international integrity and national interests seemed inconceivable. Yet, intelligence, a vital government function inextricably connected with independence and protecting national interest, is being penetrated and colonised by the Americans.
Source: Abandoned sovereignty: Australia’s intelligence function colonised by US – Pearls and Irritations
There is something very odd in this statement of it being a “global first” given that Koalas don’t exist anywhere else. Only a politician could come out with such crap.
A national park dedicated to koalas would be a global first. A uniquely Australian park that recognised the importance of this iconic species, now facing extinction. Creating the park is more than a NSW state issue. In Indigenous culture, there are many koala dreamings, their loss kills country.
Source: Labor must ensure survival of an iconic Australian species
It’s not often the Australian Government acquires the same type of aircraft, from the same company, to perform a similar role across a span of 66 years. The Albanese Government’s purchase of new transport aircraft provides an interesting insight into the eye-watering costs of defence procurement. What’s the scam?
Put simply, the C130J, like the C130A before it, is an aerial truck.
No doubt the C130Js are more capable aircraft than their predecessors. But can they carry 10 times as much cargo in a given time, or fly ten times as far? Is each one ten times more capable? I doubt it.
Source: Half a bil per aerial truck for the Royal Australian Air Force – what’s the scam? – Michael West
The LNP more than any government before abused and misused its authority over the ABC and SBS. It began with a frontal assault by Tony Abbott in a quid pro quo return for favors provided by Rupert Murdoch the most dominant supporter of the Liberal, party, and its personal benefactor. It simply became policy to “Get the ABC” for free News Corp boosting.
A government review will attempt to resolve two long-running problems for Australia’s national broadcasters: How funding can be protected from government interference and how to avoid political “captain’s picks” stacking the boards.
The reality ignored by our ALP-Government
As US lawmakers wrestle over funds and the need to increase submarine production, the Australian side of the bargain looks flimsy, weak, and dispensable. With cap waiting to be filled, Canberra’s undistinguished begging is qualified by what, exactly, will be provided. What the US president promises, Congress taketh. Wise heads might see this as a chance to disentangle, extricate, and cancel an agreement monumentally absurd, costly and filled with folly. It might even go some way to preserve peace rather than stimulate Indo-Pacific militarism.
Nobel Prize winner speaks to the Albo-ALP Government. But are they listening?
Australia still has the chance to end the secrecy surrounding multinational profit shifting and set a new standard for others to follow. Anything less than the GRI standard, already released in draft legislation, will be a victory for the tax avoiders.
Source: PwC scandal: Anthony Albanese must stay strong on tax transparency
The Albanese Government’s future popularity may rest on the action it takes against the architects of the Robodebt scheme, writes Michael Galvin.
Source: Albanese Government must take action against Robodebt masterminds
When will Australians realise, as Paul Keating has been unerringly consistent in arguing, that they are part of the cosmopolitanism and complexity of Asia, and not a Western imagined community presided over by a fast declining America?
What sort of headline is this? Are mainstream media trying to blame Albo?
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accused his predecessor Scott Morrison of showing “no contrition whatsoever” after the former PM was named in a scathing Robodebt report.
Source: ‘No contrition’: Albanese slams Morrison’s Robodebt response
Indonesia’s president will leave Australia today after a three-day visit talking up a new economic partnership. But, as Zacharias Szumer writes, the media seems to have missed the backstory.
Source: Did someone say labour exploitation? Key question missed in Jokowi’s EV battery deal – Michael West
In recent times my own positive feelings towards the Greens have been eroded when they have chosen to align themselves with the coalition and One Nation to thwart government (usually Labor) policy. It may well be that the Greens were seeking the perfect in their policies and in their opposition to the ALP but be assured that the coalition and One Nation had no higher ambition than opposing for the sake of opposing.
Source: Don’t Give Up on Labor or forget the Independents ! – » The Australian Independent Media Network
One needs to ask whether or not this was or is “Equivalent” “Sports Rorts” or “Solar Rorts”. Sorry Rex I don’t think they’re the same. Why do you?
Every properly organized taxpayer-funded rort has a spreadsheet. And this one does too. With new FOI documents to hand, Rex Patrick looks at how ‘Solar Rorts’ came about.
Source: Labor’s Solar Rorts unveiled – replete with colour spreadsheet! – Michael West
the Greens are not in this to win the approval of the political classes. They’re in it to achieve bold, Whitlamesque, reform. So it’s an issue that Max Chandler-Mather is going to continue to pursue, no matter how many times he gets told he’s behaving like a brat. Because the Greens know the issue is an electoral killer. It has the capacity to completely reshape the voting patterns that the Labor party has relied on for the past fifty years.
Most renters vote Labor. At the moment. There is no reason that will be the case forever.
The approval by Netanyahu’s coalition government of thousands of new colonial settlement units in the Occupied West Bank comes in the midst of a nearly week-long wave of violence that has drawn international condemnation.
The Labor government made an election promise, a budget promise, a legislative promise and held two consultations on landmark legislation to implement global tax transparency for multinationals. Now it has bent to corporate pressure. Landmark legislation for public country by country reporting was set to be implemented as of 1 July. Late last week, it was announced that implementation will be pushed back for at least a year.
Propaganda and censorship are the two most important tools of imperial narrative control, and it’s very telling that Australia is ramping them both up as the nation is being transformed into a weapon for the US empire to use against China. Steps are being taken to ensure that the Australian populace will be on board with whatever agendas the empire has planned for us in the coming years, and judging from what we’re seeing right now, it isn’t going to be pretty.
Source: Australia keeps escalating its censorship and propaganda campaign – Pearls and Irritations
Corruption in politics has to stop and on the Labor side at the federal level Bill Shorten is at the heart of it and the Labor Party needs to take action fast otherwise in a year or two the federal Labor Party will be embroiled in corruption scandals the same as the Liberal and Nationals are now.
On the 30th of August 2022, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese held a press conference with Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney and gambling ad spokesperson Dr Shaquile O’Neal to announce a referendum on the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament, an advisory body of First Nations people who talk to Indigenous groups on a state and local level to try represent the diverse opinions of Indigenous people.
Eleven months later, the referendum bill passed, leaving many to wonder whether the ‘Yes’ campaign will ever start?
Source: The disappointing failure of the non-existent ‘Yes’ campaign – The Shot
The first successful year of the Albanese Government has been seriously undermined by a subservient defence policy which effectively outsources Australian leadership and puts at risk a more independent foreign policy.
There is still an opportunity for the Prime Minister to reassure Australians that our growing concerns are acknowledged.
This will require our government to listen to the many voices that have the experience and understanding of international relations to reset the terms of the AUKUS agreement in accordance with Australia’s national interest and in harmony with our place in the Asia Pacific region.
Source: A subservient defence policy undermines Albanese’s successful first year – Pearls and Irritations
I am in complete sympathy with Jennifer Bush Pearls and Irritations 5, June 2023 in resigning from the Labor Party because of Prime Minister Albanese’s congratulations to Israel despite its government’s disgraceful treatment of Palestinian people.
The State of HARD Labor
by Wendy Bacon | Jun 3, 2023 A bill introducing harsh penalties and extending the scope of a law applying to those who obstruct public places was passed after an all-night sitting by the South Australian Legislative Council this week. Wendy Bacon reports on the rise of draconian anti-protest laws
Source: Michael West Media – investigative journalists – always independent
Rather than being critical of Modi this hack tuns on Albo. Imagine the kowtowing the LNP would have done had Dutton been PM.
At least Albanese answered questions. At his joint “press conference” with Modi in Sydney, no questions were permitted. Modi has not taken questions at media conferences for the past nine years. He simply does not submit to free media questioning in India. And even in Australia, he sets the ground rules.
Source: Modi visit: Albanese does The Boss’s bidding, no questions asked
Modi has a history of bloodshed that nobody should be proud of
As a start, let’s look at two recent incidents, one in India and the other in the United States.
Too many upper-caste Indians and white Americans think of themselves as the only ones worthy of enjoying the spoils of the Earth. They want it all and are ready to get it by exploiting, not to say violating, non-upper-caste bodies in India and non-white ones in the U.S., along with cows and fetuses, using religion as a tool in both cases. The bodies of Dalits, Muslims, Christians, the people of occupied Kashmir, liberals, journalists, historians, climate and human rights activists, educators, Blacks, Indigenous people, women, LGBTQ people—all of them are fodder for the violent right-wing in both countries.
Source: The Grim Lesson India Offers the US | The Smirking Chimp
When The ALP turned LNP
The workers that the labour parties nominally represent won a fairer life by the protests that the leaders are now banning. No wage labourer would have a 40 hour week, or a weekend, if the workers’ interventions had been forced to avoid “intentionally or recklessly” obstructing the “free passage of a public place.”
So a minister squirming and feeling uncomfortable about doing the unconscionable does send a mildly better message out into the universe, an improvement over ceding the airwaves and their mesmerising quality to parliament’s remaining Neanderthals – bought husks waving lumps of coal around Parliament House as a proxy for being able to waggle their tiny Neanderthal dicks in their hairy Neanderthal hands, something parliamentarians have needed to recently be discouraged from doing any more. No arguments from me there.
But that’s not the only worthwhile measure, though, is it? In reality – a place that needs to contend with the laws of physics and not the laws of political messaging – a place that billions of future humans will be dropped into head-first, drowning and burning – the upset feelings of any single minister consigning more carbon into the atmosphere matters not one single fucking iota.
Source: If this is the best we can hope for, why do we even bother? – The Shot
In what world does it make sense to claim a politician or a political party is owed the people’s loyalty?
It is the people who are owed. The people are owed good governance. We are owed more than sound bites that diminish us. We are owed a leadership that inspires us. And it is up to Anthony Albanese and his government to provide that – behind or in front of the line.
Source: Labor pains – The Shot
From relieving the backlog of visa processing to maintaining integrity of the migration system, the 2023 Budget seeks to repair the mistakes of the Coalition. Dr Abul Rizvi reports.
Source: Budget aims to fix Dutton’s migration policy disasters
Jim Chalmers’ long-awaited tweaks to the PRRT are the itsy-bitsyest “reforms” about, the equivalent of recycling old Christmas presents with a fancy new bow. Michael West reports on how the Treasurer is merely returning a couple of billion in gas sector subsidies, and only for a while.
“Chalmers slaps $2.4bn tax hit on oil and gas,” cried Murdoch’s The Australian. “$2.4bn gas tax hit on energy giants,” declared the AFR. Santos chief Kevin Gallagher was nowhere to be heard with his “Soviet-style” scaremongering. Is Australia still going the way of Venezuela and Nigeria, Kevin?
The Albanese government has announced a Net Zero Authority to reduce national emissions and help industry, communities and workers manage the shift to a low-carbon economy.
Source: Australia finally has a Net Zero Authority – here’s what should top its agenda
When free trade is just an illusion
When economics is a matter of scale corporations leave nations like Australia eating their dust. The massive subsidies paid for by ordinary citizens are the discounts that attract corporate investment. That fails to be spread equally across the world. America offers so much more honey to the multinational corporate hive. If rich in resources third-world citizens in poor nations pay the highest prices to attract investors to extract their resources and potential.
“We’re already moving people and capital to the US and delaying investments in Australia, and it’s not just us, it’s now most of the resources companies,” he tells me. “Australia has its own comparative advantages, but can’t outmatch the scale of the US subsidies.”
The US incentives program, mostly contained in its so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), “is the biggest piece of peacetime industrial policy we have seen in the democratic world.”
Source: Federal Budget 2023: The US is stealing Australia’s ‘core’. Gym Chalmers needs the energy to stop it
Upcoming federal and state budgets are expected to fund climate change by adding to record subsidies paid to fossil fuel companies.
Source: ‘Cooking the climate’ with subsidies for gas producers – Michael West
Government gross debt recorded last Friday was $894.6 billion, revealing the Albanese Government has added just $6.1 billion in its first 11 months. That compares with an average of $71.5 billion added each year by the previous Coalition Government over its term.
Source: National Times – Dazzling brilliance would be fantastic, but we’ll… | Facebook
Is the ALP gaslighting us with their “Safeguard Mechanism”?
Add Chevron’s carbon capture disaster to Woodside’s Browse Basin climate bomb and now the Perdaman fertiliser plant in the Pilbara and Western Australia is going to burn a giant hole in the Labor government’s Safeguard Mechanism. Callum Foote reports.
Source: WA Carbon Fiasco: Pilbara plant to blow more CO2 than Safeguard Mechanism will save – Michael West
I ordered a delicious but bog-standard pizza last night and it cost me thirty fucking dollars. JobSeekers are expected to live on forty fucking dollars a day. I do not keep meticulous financial records but I am fucking certain my shelter and nourishment, bills and bullshit, for the rest of the day cost more than the ten fucking dollars difference.
Source: What is the point of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese? – The Shot
While we’ve been busily distracted on the big issues like cost of living, AUKUS, the Voice, access to doctors and a broken gas market, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been quietly wrapping a highly controversial topic in a Cabinet secrecy blanket. Rex Patrick looks at politicised government advertising and raises concerns about the new Government Communications Sub-Committee of Cabinet.
Source: The best democracy money can buy – Rex on Albo’s secret advertising sub-committee – Michael West
The spiders web of Government Accounting
PwC leaked secret tax data from its government work to foreign tax avoiders, potentially costing Australians billions. Like nothing ever happened, they are now picking up multimillion dollar public contracts again. Callum Foote reports. Three months
Source: Pity about the corporate treason; PWC is back winning juicy government contracts – Michael West
Despite promises to leave no Australian behind, the Labor Government has turned its back on JobSeeker recipients stricken by poverty, writes Dr Jennifer Wilson.
Source: Albanese Government leaving JobSeeker destitute behind
One might well ask what the % gain is for Pharmaceutical Companies compared with the % of medication scripts written and not used. How much medication is sold and unused? Who stands to gain the most by this government’s generosity?
Millions of Australians with chronic medical conditions will find it much cheaper to obtain medicines under a new measure to be included in next month’s federal budget.
Source: Sick to get more bang for their buck on prescriptions – Michael West
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek will decide this Friday whether to approve what could be Australia’s newest coal mine, but there will be no fanfare. Callum Foote reports on a government busy rolling out new fossil fuel projects despite the strong advice of international agencies.
Source: All Fossils Go? Tanya Plibersek new coal mine approval due Friday – Michael West
The ALP seems intent on abandoning progressive policies and turning itself into a competent version of the Coalition. This is not good for them, our collective future, or democracy.
Source: What’s the point of the Australian Labor Party? – Pearls and Irritations
Billions for AUKUS submarines are not a good look in light of Welfare Report showing rising poverty. Ben Phillips reports on Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ Budget conundrum.
Source: Poverty conundrum for Jim Chalmers as welfare report lands, Budget looms – Michael West
Australian foreign minister Penny Wong claims she wants peace in the Asia-Pacific. At the same time, she is doubling down on Australia’s role in maintaining the global dominance of US capitalism — and threatening war in the region.
Source: The Australian Government Is Selling War Under the Guise of Peace
Mr Albanese said Mr Dutton was raising questions and doubts “by not having any substance to his opposition” to the voice.
The Liberal Party has called for a legislated, but not constitutionally enshrined, voice process involving representative local and regional bodies.
Mr Albanese said he had made it clear there would be local and regional bodies, which may differ across the states and territories.
He pointed to South Australia’s decision to set up a state voice.
“It’s quite clear that the national voice would work with state voices, were they to be established as well,” he said.
“So clearly we want to hear from local communities, working the way up. But you need a national voice as well.”
Source: Solicitor-General’s advice on voice to be made public – Michael West
Amid fossil fuel corporate fury at any move to tax them or cap their soaring price rises, the tax reform moves of the Albanese government have been yet modest. The country-by-country reporting initiative however has drawn international plaudits. Callum Foote and Michael West report on the progress and the challenges in funding Australia’s future.
Corporate Australia is quite media friendly but only inside journalists received comprehensive answers to enquiries and emails. This makes investigative journalism exciting. Something is lurking under friendly marketing structures if no replies are forthcoming. The companies on the ATO’s tax avoidance lists are indeed some of the most secretive. I love to be kept waiting for replies as it motivates my chases even further.
Legalized tax avoidance by Anglo-American multinational companies is standard practice. Some US companies like Cubic Defense and Cubic Transportation of San Diego have no record of company tax payments at least since the Abbott Government was elected in 2013.
Under the previous LNP governments, initiatives by Cubic received favourable comments in the Australian Defence Magazine:
Our future strategic history was outlined in San Diego in March 2023:
Since then, it is very clear, as with all matters regarding US policy, that Australia will, if not agree outright with Washington, adopt a constipated, non-committal position. “Quiet diplomacy” is the official line taken by Albanese and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, a mealy-mouthed formulation deserving of contempt. As Greens Senator David Shoebridge remarks, “‘quiet diplomacy’ to bring Julian Assange home by the Albanese Government is a policy of nothing. Not one meeting, phone call or letter sent.”
Dowling seems to expect Albanese to walk on water, orat least turn it into wine, and do it NOW!! The ALP have hardly in power this century but Dowling raises the chant we so often hear. “When do we want it? We want it now”. There are many faults surfacing but they aren’t all Albanese’s Shane.
Anyway, Rex Patrick of Michael West Media is way ahead of Dowling on the problem of the FOI. He’s taking them to court to try to set a precedent. So much so the head of the FOI has resigned. Dowling is merely climbing on Patricks shoulders and shouting to stay relevant it seems.
Anthony Albanese’s handiwork in abusing FOI laws is about to come under close scrutiny after the Senate voted to hold an Inquiry. Governments are notorious for abusing Freedom of Information laws to hide government corruption from the media and public and the Albanese government has quickly shown they are no exception.
South Australians gather in the heart of the Adelaide’s CBD to watch history being made as the First Nations Voice to Parliament bill is passed.
Why on earth would any ALP leader give Costello or Murdoch their plans to distort. It’s time Australia turned their backs on them rather than accepting them as a “normal” part of our media landscape.
Note the most significant uplifting thing today was South Australia leaders in providing the First Nations people with a Voice to the SA parliament. Do we hear either the Murdoch or Costello organizations celebrating the ” uniting event”?
Labor has united the country while the LNP has done everything to divide it for the duration of this century.
Andrews leaves for the four-day tour on Monday afternoon, which will make the first leader of an Australian government to visit China since the beginning of the pandemic. The plan to visit was first reported by The Age on Saturday.
Source: Coalition tells Andrews to stay in his lane, be more transparent on China trip
“He had a new style of politics, he wasn’t into playing games, he wasn’t negative. A fresh start, he said let’s put some policies out,” he said. The Labor leader joined elite company in the state party by winning from opposition. Only Neville Wran (1976) and Bob Car (1995) had done so since World War II.
Source: Euphoria and relief as Chris Minns leads Labor to win – Michael West
olddogthoughts 
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