Category: Australian Politics

Australian Politics, Uncategorized

Australian Labor, the CFMEU and its secret money – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Given the extent of money flowing into Labor’s associated entities, questions remain to be answered by the AEC as to the destination of the payments made by these entities.

What is also clear is that the money flows in a circular fashion between the various Labor branches and associated entities. One can’t help drawing a comparison with the way laundered and dirty money is put through a casino ‘washing machine’ to be legitimised. One thing is clear, the lack of transparency in our political donations system is disturbing. One can only imagine what the most recent AEC disclosures prior to the last election will reveal, or not reveal.

But what has all this union money achieved? One only has to look at Labor’s support for the gas sector and mining in Qld and NSW (come on down Joel FitzGibbon) and draw your own conclusions.

Until the political donations process in this country, particularly through ‘associated entities’ is made publicly accountable, we can only guess as to the extent our politics is being influenced by vested interests.

via Australian Labor, the CFMEU and its secret money – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australian Politics, Uncategorized

Lendlease tax boondoggle bigger than the hole it left in Sydney Football Stadium – Michael West

Lendlease tax boondoggle bigger than the hole it left in Sydney Football Stadium

Lendlease walked away from its contract to rebuild the Sydney Football Stadium in July, leaving a giant hole in the ground and a state government scrambling to fill the construction void. The contract was worth $729 million but, in a retirement villages tax rort, the company has claimed far more than $729 million. Michael West reports on how Lendlease plays fast and loose with taxpayers.

via Lendlease tax boondoggle bigger than the hole it left in Sydney Football Stadium – Michael West

Australian Politics, Informed Comment, Uncategorized

Foreign influence in Australian politics – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Next week, Australia will host its first Australian Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC. The organiser says the event will “not be a one-off” and that its US backers, the American Conservative Union (ACU), had committed to holding the event long-term.

You also get to hear from ACU’s executive director Dan Schneider and their chairman, Trump fundraiser Matt Schlapp, whose wife Mercedes is Trump’s Director of Strategic Communications. In his role as vice president of federal affairs at Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC, Schlapp directed the major federal public policy strategies on anti-environmental and energy policies, financial markets, legal reform, and international and domestic tax issues.

For your entertainment, you can also listen to Nigel Farage – the man who so desperately wanted Brexit and then had no idea what to do with it when he got it.

Home grown contributions will come from luminaries like Craig Kelly, Mark Latham, Tony Abbott and Amanda Stoker as well as Fox News host Jeanine Pirro and sundry kids from the IPA.

The ACU have been involved with some shady fundraising practices in the past. Asked whether they saw an Australian conference as a financial opportunity, Cooper disagreed. “My perception of the ACU is that they are looking to spread their message,” he said. “If anything they are going to be investing in us for a long, long time.”

Considering how the government is going in the US and the UK, I fail to see what advice we could get from this bunch of tossers.

Unless it’s on how to put a fool in power.

via Foreign influence in Australian politics – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australian Politics

‘Politics off the front page’ is part of Scott Morrison’s bid to dial down the volume | Sarah Martin | Australia news | The Guardian

Scott Morrison has effectively told his MPs: shut your collective trap, and go and do your jobs

Shut your collective trap, and go and do your jobs.

He makes a fair point. Politicians in Canberra, including many of Morrison’s colleagues, have been obsessed for years by internal ideological divisions and personality clashes rather than their actual job of serving the Australian people.

Rewind to 2012 and it was Julia Gillard saying the same thing: “What do people want government to do? Talk about themselves, or deliver results? Well I want government to deliver results and that’s what I’m doing as prime minister,” she said (before the talking to themselves crescendoed and blood was spilled.)

via ‘Politics off the front page’ is part of Scott Morrison’s bid to dial down the volume | Sarah Martin | Australia news | The Guardian

"politics of envy", Australian Politics, Uncategorized

Politics of envy: Feeding the rich in an entitled society

Australia has become a country that takes from the poor to give to the rich.

This morning, the Financial Review had a piece titled ‘Tax cuts are no handout to the rich’. Well, of course, they would say that, as their whole purpose as a media publication is to write pieces that are of interest to those with money or interested in money.

What really grated, though, was this tweet which the Liberals also flogged:

Unless the full tax cut package is passed, high income earners risk losing out to the “silent thief” of tax bracket creep, according to new analysis.

We are constantly told we need a surplus and we can’t afford to “waste” money. The Government has no money to help the homeless, raise Newstart, raise the pension or support community legal services — in fact, they are always looking for “savings” in these areas. Savings being the euphemism for cuts.

But the Government does have money to spend on tax cuts for those on high wages and big business.

Now, if everyone in Australia is supposedly equal, how can a Government justify giving wealthier people more money when we have people who are homeless, starving and living in abject poverty?

Worse. When this issue is raised, it is called “politics of envy”.

via Politics of envy: Feeding the rich in an entitled society

Australian Politics, Uncategorized

Chinese-Australians have had a gutful of politicians’ tokenism

https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.307%2C$multiply_1%2C$ratio_1.776846%2C$width_1059%2C$x_393%2C$y_87/t_crop_custom/w_800/q_86%2Cf_auto/ec0da2e309ad3b70c182e0b353258c13e925c36b

Get real we are Australians not Chinese first (ODT)

Chinese-Australians have had enough of the political tokenism displayed by all sides of politics.

We are not political cannon fodder and we no longer want to serve as cash cows and walking ATMs at fundraising dinners. We’re tired of having candidates in non-winnable seats. We want to be recognised for our commitment to Australian democracy.

My advice to Bill Shorten and Scott Morrison to take a step away from WeChat and show some genuine interest in our community’s concerns.

via Chinese-Australians have had a gutful of politicians’ tokenism

Australian Politics, Uncategorized

One Nation: All The Drama From This Week In Australian Politics

via One Nation: All The Drama From This Week In Australian Politics

Australian Politics

Independents Kerryn Phelps and Zali Steggall buoyed by NSW election results | Australia news | The Guardian

Zali Steggall (left), who is running against Tony Abbott in the federal Sydney seat of Warringah and Dr Kerryn Phelps, who holds the seat of Wentworth in the eastern suburbs.

Independents Kerryn Phelps and Zali Steggall buoyed by NSW election results | Australia news | The Guardian

Australian Politics

EDITORIAL EXCERPT: How to make no friends and influence elections

Remember Abbott No cuts to Health Education and the ABC he simply looked at the cmera and didn’t blink because he knew we’d buy it. Wake up Australia!! (ODT)

Barnaby Joyce expressed the strategy well, in a since deleted tweet this week:

‘There is no umpire in the political debate. There’s no rule book. What you get away with wins.’

Bullying, lying, cheating, smearing — and that’s just what Barnaby did before the last New England by-election, as you would have read here on IA. What an example for the nation — and his children.

As the late Bob Ellis, one of this country’s most lauded journalists, speechwriters, writers, playwrights and auteurs wrote in these pages, just a few years ago, the Right love to win by cheating. And so they do. And usually win.

And with a compliant rightwing mainstream media behind them – more so now Fairfax has been swallowed by Nine – the Right have a chance of deluding the populace into voting against their own interests again. Such is our lot.

 EDITORIAL EXCERPT: How to make no friends and influence elections

Australian Politics, Uncategorized

Scott Morrison’s ‘own goal’ on Warren Mundine creates new enemies and splits MPs – Politics – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Warren Mundine (left) and Scott Morrison (right) speak at a press conference on the New South Wales South Coast.

via Scott Morrison’s ‘own goal’ on Warren Mundine creates new enemies and splits MPs – Politics – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Australian Politics, Uncategorized

The Appeal Of Donald Trump, The Political Bones Of Peter Dutton And Other Carcases! – » The Australian Independent Media Network

So, as “The Financial Review” warns Bill Shorten about class warfare and the politics of envy, I have to laugh. Yes, its readers will all tut-tut and tell themselves that it’s big business that creates wealth and taxation is theft so shouldn’t we get a refund on the tax we don’t pay, the people struggling with their bills have already decided that something needs to change. Labor aren’t starting a class war; they’re simply describing it and suggesting that maybe we need to start looking after some of the wounded who’ve been ignored till now.

via The Appeal Of Donald Trump, The Political Bones Of Peter Dutton And Other Carcases! – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australian Politics, Uncategorized

Political Wrecking Ball for Hire : Tried and Tested works every time ! – » The Australian Independent Media Network

When we thought we’d removed the idiots from the field we still find we have the greatest of them all left. (ODT)

As a wrecking ball, the Liberal Party has no further to look than Dutton. A man who manages to sail under the media radar by rarely making himself available to media scrutiny unless it happens to be a weekly love-in with Ray Hadley on 2GB or a scripted interview on Sky-After-Dark.

Even as the dust was settling over the leadership debacle Dutton declared that he had no regrets about bringing on a week of drama that had split the Liberal Party and halted Parliament. He continued to describe himself as a “better person” and a “person of greater strength and integrity to lead the Liberal Party” than Malcolm Turnbull.

You be the judge !

via Political Wrecking Ball for Hire : Tried and Tested works every time ! – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australian Politics, Uncategorized

The Morrison Government takes Australia from bad to worse

All the old political players are still in power. Donald Trump is President of the United States. And in Australia, we have our own wannabe Trumps and populists of the Right — people like Pauline Hanson, and Liberals like Tony Abbott, Peter Dutton and even Scott Morrison.

The big story in Australia last year was the Liberal Party dumping Malcolm Turnbull as its leader and Scott Morrison becoming Prime Minister. Morrison is now the PM because he is not Dutton. That is hardly a recipe for success.

The Morrison Government takes Australia from bad to worse

Filed under:
Australian Politics

Feeding the Monster – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Under Australia’s two party preferred political system we see alternate parties denigrated by the left and right to keep them suppressed. Two party preferred, not three party preferred is the war cry. We see alternate political parties denigrating the left and right to try to carve their way into a position of political power. From where I stand, political parties are not working for democracy, they are working for themselves and once again, the financial elite. So, it’s time to change the system.

What choices do we have? Where do we turn to establish a democracy for the people by the people? If it’s not political parties, what is it? I think now is the time for a monumental social experiment. We are definitely in the mood and we are well on the way so, let’s keep pushing and flood the parliament with independents. Give independents the balance of power in both houses of parliament and we are in with a chance of knocking off elitist rule and establishing our democratic birth right.

via Feeding the Monster – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australian Politics, Uncategorized

25 reasons why the Coalition has failed the nation

There are many reasons why the Coalition has been politically inept. John Lord examines 25 of the key areas in which they failed.

via 25 reasons why the Coalition has failed the nation

Australian Politics

For democracy’s sake, Dutton must go

Ask Peter “the skull” Dutton, our minister for gnome affairs, whose failed messianic bid on 24 August to supplant Malcolm Turnbull as Australia’s Prime Minister is mostly responsible for the Vesuvian-strength political disruption against the Liberals in Saturday’s state election in Victoria and political rockstar Julia Banks moving to the crossbench as an Independent, severing from the Liberal Party entirely.

via For democracy’s sake, Dutton must go

Australian Politics

Here’s Where You Can Legally Consume Marijuana In The US In 2018 | IFLScience

via Here’s Where You Can Legally Consume Marijuana In The US In 2018 | IFLScience

Australian Politics

Wentworth Circus, Elephants In The Room, Jokers In The Pack And Too Many Ringmasters… – » The Australian Independent Media Network

So, before the media starts talking about how terribly the Labor Party performed and tries to start leadership speculation about Shorten, let’s see this for what it is: a massive wake-up call for Scott Morrison. Unfortunately for him, his speech last night suggested he intended to just keep hitting the snooze button.

via Wentworth Circus, Elephants In The Room, Jokers In The Pack And Too Many Ringmasters… – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australian Politics

The Wentworth byelection is a vote on the Liberal party’s lurch to the right | Kristina Photios | Opinion | The Guardian

Protesters dressed as former Prime Minister’s Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull are seen outside the venue where candidates for the seat of Wentworth were attending a community forum. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)

The Wentworth byelection is the testing ground of one of the main tenets of the federal Liberal party’s thought leadership – and one that Malcolm Turnbull pushed back on during his term – that we need to attract the disenchanted rightwing vote.

The view held by some in the party is that the emergence of independent conservative parties have stolen our vote and we need to court them back. The internal counter-argument is – well, yes, but you will lose the rest of the country.

Australia is just not America, as much as some wish it was.

The Australian Conservatives have not gone off like fireworks and One Nation polls on a national average that is consistently below the Greens. Does that mean we have more environmentalists than conservatives?

via The Wentworth byelection is a vote on the Liberal party’s lurch to the right | Kristina Photios | Opinion | The Guardian

Australian Politics

Party’s over: In a nation of cynics, we’re flocking to the fringe – Politics – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

A group of sad politicians standing under a rain cloud.

via Party’s over: In a nation of cynics, we’re flocking to the fringe – Politics – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Australian Politics

Liberals warn colleagues: Move against Peter Dutton and you could bring down the government

When Right or Wrong don’t matter nor what’s best for the country. Only the game and their jobs is what matters. (ODT)

Queensland Liberals have warned colleagues considering voting to refer Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to the High Court that they could send the government to the gallows early by setting up a devastating byelection in his seat of Dickson.

Ian Macdonald, the longest-serving person in Parliament, said a byelection in that seat “wouldn’t be easy to win” and the prospect of the Morrison government losing its majority should weigh firmly on MPs’ minds ahead of a likely referral vote next week

via Liberals warn colleagues: Move against Peter Dutton and you could bring down the government

Australian Politics, Uncategorized

Chart of the day: Voters think Liberals are divided, out of touch, and too close to big business – Politics – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The Coalition has taken a battering in the polls since ousting Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister, and it’s not just their popularity that’s suffered.

via Chart of the day: Voters think Liberals are divided, out of touch, and too close to big business – Politics – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Australian Politics, Uncategorized

A new direction: The truth about the economy they don’t want you to know

Buried truth leaves a party throwing dead moggies on the table, Immigration, Climate Change, Gender etc.(ODT)

But maybe not. Back then, 5.3% ranked equal sixth lowest out of the 35 wealthy member countries of the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD). In November 2012, Germany and Australia both had 5.3% of their workforce unemployed. Only South Korea, Switzerland, Norway, Japan and Mexico had lower jobless rates.

Today, four years into the strongest global boom in trade, jobs and profits in decades, 5.3% ranks 18th. That is in the bottom half of the table. Thirteen countries now have their jobless rate below 4.0%.

If Australia still ranked sixth in the OECD, its rate would be 3.5% and another 243,000 Australians would be off welfare and earning a salary

via A new direction: The truth about the economy they don’t want you to know

Australian Politics, Uncategorized

Australians ‘crying out for election’ after leadership turmoil: Turnbull

The Coalition faces the prospect of fighting a snap election with a severely depleted bank account and a raft of seats still without a Liberal candidate, compared to a cashed-up and energised Australian Labor Party.

A besieged Malcolm Turnbull said Australian voters “will be crying out for an election” following tumult over the prime ministership.

via Australians ‘crying out for election’ after leadership turmoil: Turnbull

Australian Politics, Uncategorized

Leadership twist as report claims Peter Dutton could be ineligible to sit in Parliament

Dutton is a reliable buffoon always guaranteed to trip up (ODT)

Network 10 on Monday night reported Mr Dutton could be in breach of the constitution, which rules ineligible anyone who “has any direct or indirect pecuniary interest in any agreement with the Public Service of the Commonwealth”.

Mr Dutton’s register of financial interests shows he is a beneficiary of the RHT Family Trust, alongside his wife. The trust owns his wife’s company, RHT Investments, which runs two childcare centres in Brisbane: Bald Hills and Camelia Avenue.

Since July 2, the centres have been receiving direct financial subsidies from the Commonwealth government, according to the Network 10 report. The trust of which Mr Dutton is a beneficiary profits from the childcare centres, giving rise to a potential breach of section 44.

via Leadership twist as report claims Peter Dutton could be ineligible to sit in Parliament

Australian Politics

Malcolm Turnbull’s opponents are waging a guerilla war to kill off his leadership – Politics – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

He had got his National Energy Guarantee (NEG) past his colleagues by a healthy margin; for all intents and purposes, his approach on energy policy had been endorsed.

But if war teaches you anything, it is that numbers do not count in an insurgency.

Mr Turnbull is now the target of full-blown guerrilla warfare.

The insurgents may have varying endgames, but their first ambition is clear: to kill off Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership.

via Malcolm Turnbull’s opponents are waging a guerilla war to kill off his leadership – Politics – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Australian Politics, Uncategorized

A showdown is looming between Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull

Obviously Andrew Bolt hasn’t the inside rail when it comes to what’s going on in politics. While he flounders with “unnamed conservatives” and “rumours” the Fairfax papers don’t and aren’t afraid to name those men Bolt prefers to keep hidden (ODT)

Abbott still suffers from the wounds inflicted on him when Malcolm Turnbull toppled him as prime minister in September 2015, which means the pain from the past shapes the Liberal Party’s looming decision over its future.

via A showdown is looming between Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull

Australian Politics

Quō vādis Malcolm ? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

If Turnbull moves further Right they will definitely lose the next election this was a vote for the ALP Right because there was no other alternative. Had the ALP been further Left than they are now the margin would have been even greater. So bring back Abbott for the left’s sake. (ODT)

The result in Longman (and Braddon, and Perth, and Fremantle and Mayo) is a repudiation of Turnbull and the Liberal party who have thrown everything at Shorten over recent weeks and vastly outspent the Labor party. As prime minister, having put his leadership squarely on the line, his position as leader is now untenable and if he places his future in the hands of his colleagues we can expect him to be dumped and that will give us Peter Dutton and the Abbott rabble followed closely and inevitably by the demise of the Liberal party.

via Quō vādis Malcolm ? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australian Politics, Uncategorized

Labor wins and Coalition reels in Super Saturday byelections

Australians said an Emphatic “No” to the LNP’s Drift Back to Abbott’s Right-Wing White Pacific Dream. This was a “No” to Right-Wing Drift of Turnbull’s LNP Policies, Media Influence and intrusion, IPA Lobbying and benefiting of  the few who only believe in the “me” and not the collective “we”who make up this multicultural country called AUSTRALIA that was also a proud global team player. (ODT)

Labor has secured a major victory over the Turnbull government in a marathon political contest across five byelections, gaining ground in key seats in a show of strength ahead of the next general election.

Labor held its four electorates while the Coalition failed to regain one of its old strongholds, in an outcome that dashed government hopes of turning the tables on its rivals.

via Labor wins and Coalition reels in Super Saturday byelections

Australian Politics

Victorian ReachTEL poll: 51-49 to Labor, and time running out for upper house reform

A Victorian ReachTEL poll for The Age, conducted July 5 from a sample of 1,500, gave Labor a 51-49 lead. Primary votes were 39.4% Coalition, 35.4% Labor, 10.5% Greens, 3.6% One Nation, 2.8% Shooters and 3.5% undecided. The Victorian election will be held on November 24.

via Victorian ReachTEL poll: 51-49 to Labor, and time running out for upper house reform

Australian Politics

Latham and Hanson: we know how this political relationship will end

“Mark Latham has fallen out with everyone he’s ever worked with and Pauline Hanson has fallen out with everyone she’s ever worked with.”

And now, of course, Latham, once a man the Labor Party thought should be prime minister, and Hanson, who the Liberal Party once preselected as its candidate for federal parliament, are working together.

via Latham and Hanson: we know how this political relationship will end

Australian Politics

Australians don’t trust politicians, but the pollies don’t appear fussed – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Why don’t they and their parties get the message to provide a public service and not just service the public? (ODT)

But no matter how we finely slice these data, they all point to one overarching trend: citizens in democracies are expecting more from their political systems and political leaders, and they are increasingly underwhelmed by what they see.

via Australians don’t trust politicians, but the pollies don’t appear fussed – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Australian Politics, Uncategorized

Truth tampering – a sinister political reality – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australians were justifiably shocked, appalled and embarrassed by the ball tampering our test cricketers attempted last month in South Africa. Somehow, better was expected of them. After all, they were playing the gentlemen’s game – cricket – where any cheating was simply ‘not cricket’.

Why then are we not even more disgusted by the truth tampering our politicians perpetrate day after day? We ought to be! But we seem to accept it as the norm. We allow them to lie to us with scarcely a murmur of protest.

The motive behind their tampering is the same: an insatiable desire to win, win, win at any cost; to utterly defeat the enemy. 2353NM expanded on this theme in his insightful piece: A Winning Culture.

via Truth tampering – a sinister political reality – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Filed under:
Australian Politics

Tony Abbott’s Latrobe Valley cycle timed for Turnbull’s Newspoll black day – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Tony Abbott cycling

One Liberal moderate bluntly characterises the “Monash Forum”, which burst into the energy debate this week, as “the deplorables trying to give themselves a credible front”.

Whatever else it might be, the so-called forum is Tony Abbott’s latest weapon in baiting the Turnbull bear.

via Tony Abbott’s Latrobe Valley cycle timed for Turnbull’s Newspoll black day – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Australian Politics, Uncategorized

Turnbull had his chance to be a moral force – now he’s just a spent one

The Liberal Party has no compelling alternative to Turnbull. If it did, he’d be long gone. But it has three aspiring alternatives. The most obvious is the least plausible, Tony Abbott, who, in the Easter spirit of resurrection, this week offered as a political rule that “you’re always better the second time around”. The voters don’t intend to give him the chance and neither do his colleagues.

The most plausible is Julie Bishop. Of the Liberal leadership contenders, she is the only one who could credibly improve the Coalition’s vote and win an election. She is the champion of Liberal moderates and demonstrates her star power every time she visits a colleague’s electorate to campaign for them, which she does tirelessly.

Turnbull had his chance to be a moral force when he first took the prime ministership. But when he abandoned every big cause he’d ever championed during his three decades in the public eye – the republic, climate change and gay marriage – and accepted the Abbott policy settings as a condition of taking the job, he lost every skerrick of moral authority with the people.

via Turnbull had his chance to be a moral force – now he’s just a spent one

Australian Politics

Fractured Coalition lost in the wilderness

 

Labor has a unifying sense of purpose around the “fairness” theme that has been Shorten’s rallying cry ever since his budget reply speech in 2014. The constant disagreement in the Labor ranks over asylum seeker policy, likely to trigger another argument at the national conference in Adelaide in July, is one of the few flashpoints in a caucus that is remarkably solid when it makes big calls on economic or budget policies. This is not a verdict on those policies; it is an assessment of Labor’s cohesion and political strength.

via Fractured Coalition lost in the wilderness

Australian Politics

Politicians should rely more on science, less on populist gut feelings

And New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Ahern said she would go beyond GDP and other purely economic measurements to look at how New Zealand society is progressing.

Relying on purely economic measurements allows governments to almost ignore their main purpose – improving people’s lives. If something is not measured it can be ignored.

As it happens, early this decade the Australian Bureau of Statistics began what Ahern wants to do. It set out to measure Australia’s progress. It did a wide consultation on what mattered to Australians. Economics was just one of four main areas of concern. The others were society, environment and governance.

Since then, we may have progressed economically, but regress has been the mark of the other areas.

Pertinently, regress in governance included the Coalition Government squeezing the ABS so much financially (and probably otherwise) that it was forced to abandon the Measuring Australia’s Progress program altogether.

via Politicians should rely more on science, less on populist gut feelings

Australian Politics

Australian politics a slut shaming disgrace

It should not come as a surprise that the conservative forces in society hold conservative views about women. These views express the oppression of women under capitalism, and their role as the unpaid bearers and carers of the next generation of workers.

Only a mass movement of women, the women’s liberation movement, challenged this and won, admittedly, partial victories. However, until the role of women as the brood mares for capitalism is fundamentally challenged, women will continue to be oppressed.

via Australian politics a slut shaming disgrace

Australian Politics

A new enemy now lives in the PM’s camp

Illustration: Jim Pavlidis

Third is that Turnbull has created a determined new enemy in the Coalition’s ranks. Joyce is furious that Turnbull condemned him so publicly, and is convinced that Turnbull’s office went on to leak against him. Joyce will now join Tony Abbott on the backbench and on a mission to destroy Turnbull.

Turnbull had his 10 minutes of virtue-signalling and his 15 minutes of publicity. Now he will have a lifetime enemy inside his own Coalition. Another one.

via A new enemy now lives in the PM’s camp

Australian Politics, Uncategorized

Turnbull says Joyce made ‘the right decision’ by quitting

Barnaby Joyce steps down as Deputy Prime Minister.

Malcolm Turnbull says Barnaby Joyce has made “the right decision” to quit his job as the Deputy Prime Minister because he faces difficult personal issues and a new complaint against him.

via Turnbull says Joyce made ‘the right decision’ by quitting

Australian Politics

Wayne Swan on retirement, Abbott, Turnbull and right-wing radicalisation

[Former PM] Tony Abbott and a group of extreme right-wing thugs conducted one of the most vicious and destructive scare campaigns in modern history on deficit and debt — which has since doubled and even tripled, in some years … And they have been aided by the Murdoch press, which has acted as a cheer squad and echo chamber.

via Wayne Swan on retirement, Abbott, Turnbull and right-wing radicalisation

Australian Politics

“THE BONKING BEETROOT”: Deputy PM and “homewrecker” Barnaby Joyce allegedly may have traded sex for favours with powerful Canberra lobbyist – True Crime News Weekly

Shari Markson from Murdoch’s stable didn’t break the Barney Story but did raise it to political thunder to discredit Malcolm Turnbull our PM

Only after billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch gave the nod to his News Corp foot soldiers last week to proceed with publishing the truth about some of the scandals surrounding Mr Joyce, did other journalists suddenly somehow discover their reporting mojo and investigative capabilities.

 

Rupert Murdoch
Media mogul and political kingmaker Rupert Murdoch (Commons)

Over the past week, news headlines in Australia have involved almost nothing else apart from the struggles facing Mr Joyce. The headlines have even travelled around the world with media in the USA and UK reporting on Mr Joyce’s troubles and travails. Clearly and obviously this story was in the public interest. But why not in October and November last year when Mr Joyce was facing an important by-election in New England caused by his own ignorance of his citizenship status?

via “THE BONKING BEETROOT”: Deputy PM and “homewrecker” Barnaby Joyce allegedly may have traded sex for favours with powerful Canberra lobbyist – True Crime News Weekly

Australian Politics

Political advisers: a case of who you know, not what you know?

Barnaby Joyce (far left) in June last year with media adviser Vikki Campion (far right).

I don’t think I properly understood before that the hiring of political staffers is arbitrary and without scrutiny. One of Australia’s leading researchers in this area, Maria Maley, also at the ANU, has comprehensively reviewed federal political advisers in Australia. The news isn’t good. She describes advisers as “a cadre separate from the public service … partisan”. Under the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act, they are employed personally by ministers but their salaries are paid by the taxpayer.

Maley says one of the negative features of Australia’s arrangements is the secrecy surrounding the identity of ministerial staff. We don’t really know who they are, how they got there and why they were chosen. It’s awful.

Maley says the Coalition, under former prime minister John Howard, ditched the practice of naming advisers; and their identities are not readily publicly available. Everyone in Parliament House knows but not us. We pay the bills but we don’t know who they are.

via Political advisers: a case of who you know, not what you know?

Australian Politics

Malcolm Turnbull’s dilemma as Barnaby Joyce becomes a liability

PM's office says Vikki Campion jobs did not breach rules because she was not Barnaby Joyce's 'partner'

The grounds for removal are arguably already there. Not only is there the distraction but there is also the revelation that Joyce failed to inform the PM of his changed circumstances including that his new partner was a staff member – a notification to the PM is required under the ministerial code of conduct

via Malcolm Turnbull’s dilemma as Barnaby Joyce becomes a liability

Australian Politics, Australian Pride

Australian Values? What Can I Say? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australian Values:  Remember when it used to be Simpson and his donkey now it’s Matthew Guy is a donkey

So, in Victoria, Matthew “The Family” Guy has announced that Victorian schools will be instructed to teach “Australian values” under a Liberal Government, as well as getting rid of all this trendy nonsense of teaching about sustainability, Asia and aboriginal history. Of course, Safe Schools goes because an Australian environment needs to be dangerous and there’s also going to be a greater concentration on “literacy, numeracy and writing.” Writing, of course, being a totally separate thing from literacy.

via Australian Values? What Can I Say? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australian Politics

Dutton and the Coalition: Ramping up fear and racism

via Dutton and the Coalition: Ramping up fear and racism

Australian Politics, Uncategorized

Victorians scared to go to restaurants at night because of street gang violence: Peter Dutton

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.

“Peter Dutton has blasted the Victorian Labor government over African street crime, claiming residents of Australia’s second-largest city were scared to go out to restaurants at night.” The Age

 

Dutton is a perfect example of why we ought to be ashamed of our government. Democracy is diminished when Australia’s media play to and deliver this degree of misinformation by a leading Cabinet MP. Dutton an ex cop  from Qld is basically calling Victorian  police the Premier’s marionettes. In fact he’s calling all of Victoria’s educated experts on crime liars.

Dutton should refer to their Royal Commission on Youth Justice and the Australian ABS before opening their mouths and delivering BS and false facts. Potato Head Dutton ex Sargent it seems is ignorant about his own states crime stats when discussing Melbourne. It is shameful and represents the quality of the man who was once a cop and is now in charge of Homeland Security. He didn’t know what was going on during b\”Boomgate” and seems to know even less now.

From ABS the Australian Beareau of  Statistics shows Victoria’s criminal offenders decreased by 3,442 less than Qld’s Mr Dutton going down in numbers. While Dutton’s LNP cut funding to the state by $75 mill.

OFFENDER NUMBERS INCREASED IN ALMOST ALL STATES AND TERRITORIES

  • Victoria was the only state or territory in which the number of offenders decreased between 2014–15 and 2015–16, with a decrease of 3,163 offenders (or 4%).
  • Over the same period the number of offenders increased in:
      • New South Wales (by 3,905 offenders or 3%)
      • South Australia (by 2,254 offenders or 5%)
      • Western Australia (by 1,322 or 3%)
      • Northern Territory (by 279 offenders or 2%)
      • Queensland (by 245 offenders or 0.2%)
      • Australian Capital Territory (by 125 offenders or 5%)
      • Tasmania (by 49 offenders or 0.5%)

Victorians scared to go to restaurants at night because of street gang violence: Peter Dutton

Australian Politics

The Life of Brian to be outlawed? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

3 Card Monty of Politics

So, if you were Scott Morrison wouldn’t you adopt the look over there policy and redirect the national focus away from fiscal management and call for us to rally under another banner for a new cause, in this case a religious crusade?

via The Life of Brian to be outlawed? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Australian Politics

The Hunting of the Sam

The charge that Sam Dastyari was actively undermining our security agencies is a ludicrous beat-up that could have easily been exposed by any serious journalist who looked into the story, writes Dr Barry Hindess.

Why are all these peoplcoming out to support Sam when the die has been cast????

The Hunting of the Sam

Australian Politics

Greens single out 13 companies that paid no tax yet donated to major parties | Australia news | The Guardian

Sarah Hanson-Young, Richard Di Natale and Adam Bandt

“This information exposes that simply cracking down on foreign donations will not end the influence of big money over our political system,” he said. “Until we reform our entire donations system, Labor and the Liberals are simply propping this broken system upGreens single out 13 companies that paid no tax yet donated to major parties | Australia news | The Guardian