Category: Informed Comment

Informed Comment

Cuddly Pete – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The success of Rupert’s exercise in spraying cologne on a chum bucket is yet to be proven but it is off to a bad start. Leave aside for the moment that Spud, sorry…Cuddles, is a 20 metre swimmer in a 50 metre pool who thinks shit takes are Japanese mushrooms and Feng Shui is a Chinese tennis player – in his first press conference as Lib leader Spuddley Too-right said; “I want to give you this assurance, we’ve heard loud and clear from the [partisanship-weary] Australian public” to be qualified a short time later with “Our job is to make things difficult for the Government“…so, lessons learnt, eh? Back to an obstructionist, Abbottesque future where after only three weeks Cuddles’ troops are laying the blame for nine years of Tory corruption, incompetence and wreckage at Labor’s feet.

Source: Cuddly Pete – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Poll: SCOTUS Anti-Abortion Ruling Could Motivate Strong Dem Turnout in Midterms

New polling taken directly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned abortion rights that were recognized in Roe v. Wade finds that voters are more likely to back candidates in this year’s midterms who support reestablishing abortion rights through federal legislation.

According to an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll conducted over the weekend, 56 percent of Americans do not support the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, in which the conservative majority ruled to undo the abortion protections established in Roe. Fifty-five percent of respondents said that they think of themselves as mostly supporting abortion rights, while only 36 percent said that they opposed those types of rights.

Poll: SCOTUS Anti-Abortion Ruling Could Motivate Strong Dem Turnout in Midterms
Informed Comment, Uncategorized

Crown v Shannon: bigwigs off the hook, small fish fried – Michael West

One guy prosecuted for allegedly running a company while bankrupt, ten Crown directors off scot free for washing $70bn through casinos for Chinese Triads, drug and sex traffickers and other assorted criminals. One rule for rich and powerful, another for the rest. Michael West reports on the world of deluxe double standards.

Crown v Shannon: bigwigs off the hook, small fish fried – Michael West
Informed Comment

Dutton, Speers, and that pathetic interview – » The Australian Independent Media Network

I regret that I’m compelled to write again about the Leader of the Opposition. In what was an interview about the past, he told us everything about the style of leadership we can expect from him. Let’s call it “Liberal Negative” to give it a name.

Dutton, Speers, and that pathetic interview – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Informed Comment

Rooing the day: Qantas passengers and crew taken for a ride by the board – Michael West

The Qantas board is offering staff an $87m bribe as it slashes real wages and conditions. As ever, shareholders and Qantas fat cats get the cream, writes Michael Sainsbury.

Rooing the day: Qantas passengers and crew taken for a ride by the board – Michael West
Informed Comment

Why Australian journalists are at war with their audience

Australia’s media is back-snapped broken — but don’t expect the most concentrated media industry in the world to fix itself, writes founder and publisher Dave Donovan and managing editor Michelle Pini.

Why Australian journalists are at war with their audience
Informed Comment, Informed Opinion

Governments are the cause of many of our problems – they could also easily solve them – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Morrison and Frydenberg celebrated “low unemployment” as a sign of their ” management skills” when it’s really proved to be their “failure”. Qualified workers are simply not available why? They cut the funding to Tech colleges and closed the doors to immigration and now have a backlogged waiting list of visa applications. As a result businesses can’t find the right people needed for the jobs. They can’t even get unskilled workers. What’s more Peter Dutton the worst ever Health Minister was then the Immigration Minister leaving the department struggling with the visa applications. Dutton has now claimed the crown of the worst Immigration Minister ever. These LNP assholes saw us slide down the ladder when compared to other nations and they have been consistently doing it for the past decade. Morrison doing nothing but scaming us in front of the lights cameras and in different costmes telling us we are the best.

When governments have access to the best experts, the latest evidence and analysis and the benefits of a fiat currency, and yet these problems persist, it’s hard not to think that politicians think more about themselves than they do about making decisions in the best interests of the country.

Governments are the cause of many of our problems – they could also easily solve them – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Informed Comment

Australian politics: Partygate and Trump Jan 6 hearings show why Australia must clean up its politics

Australian politics: Partygate and Trump Jan 6 hearings show why Australia must clean up its politics

Australian politics: Partygate and Trump Jan 6 hearings show why Australia must clean up its politics
Informed Comment

Only Labor can implement the much-needed change we need – » The Australian Independent Media Network

My thought for the day Sometimes wisdom jumps a generation. Well, we can always hope. ( John Lord )

Source: Only Labor can implement the much-needed change we need – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

How To End Corporate Welfare | The Smirking Chimp

This week, Congress is putting final touches on the CHIPS Act, which will provide more than $52 billion to companies that design and make semiconductor chips. The subsidy is demanded by the biggest chip makers as a condition for making more chips here.

Source: How To End Corporate Welfare | The Smirking Chimp

Informed Comment

Why the January 6 Committee Is Failing To Slow Trump’s Attempted Coup | The Smirking Chimp

By not divesting itself of the Big Lie and not embracing the truth of what the January 6 committee is revealing, the Republican Party is losing its last shred of moral authority to function as one of America’s two governing parties.

Source: Why the January 6 Committee Is Failing To Slow Trump’s Attempted Coup | The Smirking Chimp

Informed Comment

We Would Never Tolerate Julian Assange’s Persecution If Any Other Country Carried It Out

If Russia were persecuting a whistleblower like Julian Assange, the US would rightly condemn it as authoritarian abuse. But because that persecution is backed by the US, the mainstream media and American politicians are fine with it.

Source: We Would Never Tolerate Julian Assange’s Persecution If Any Other Country Carried It Out

Informed Comment

IAREM 2022: Switzerland tops economic rankings, Australia out of top 20

Contrast this with what Morrison and Frydenberg were telling us, and reality bites the lies told. Now Peter Dutton is here to tell us what good managers they were.

The Independent Australia ranking on economic management (IAREM) for 2022 reveals Switzerland now leads the world and Australia remains outside the top 20, reports Alan Austin.

Australia’s dismal 22nd ranking – behind Portugal, Malaysia, Guatemala and Ecuador – is the nation’s fourth year outside the world’s top 20. This contrasts with being in the top spot under Labor in 2009 and from 2011 to 2013. This decline reflects the long-term effects of hundreds of billions lost offshore in company taxes not collected and billions more lost to corruption and gross mismanagement under the Coalition.

Variables which have deteriorated most severely over recent years in Australia are inflation, economic growth, the tax burden and federal government debt.

Source: IAREM 2022: Switzerland tops economic rankings, Australia out of top 20

Informed Comment

Builders or wreckers – the contrast is stark – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The Coalition came to power in 2013 with the promise to wreck things and they didn’t disappoint. Labor had introduced a price on carbon that was working well. It encouraged polluters to reduce emissions, investment in renewable energy, and research and development. It gave money to farmers for carbon abatement. Trade exposed industries were compensated…

Over the last nine years, our relations with other countries soured. Our rankings for human rights, transparency and corruption, and press freedom have all tumbled, as has trust in government and other institutions.

These will all have to be rebuilt.

From the way Peter Dutton has started as leader, it seems the wrecking mentality continues in the federal Coalition. Luckily, the Australian electorate has made them irrelevant.

 

Source: Builders or wreckers – the contrast is stark – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Ransom Notes: pay us to keep our old power plants running or else, say fossil fuel majors – Michael West

gas, fracking, gas fired recovery

Prepare to subsidise fossil fuel plants indefinitely. That is the message this morning as, in the wake of Coalition dithering, the new government grooms Australian energy customers for more of the same energy policy. It’s the Richard Wilkins solution. Callum Foote and Michael West report.

Nine years of Coalition dithering on climate and energy have surely taken their toll. Way behind the eight-ball on transition to renewable energy, the new government is now grooming Australians to subsidise multinational fossil fuel corporations to keep their polluting coal and gas power stations running way into the future.

The public grooming comes via Murdoch and Nine media this morning to extend the life of fossil fuel plants and entrench the power of the very same corporations which have just extorted the energy market operator AEMO by threatening to pull supply out of the grid unless richly compensated. 

Source: Ransom Notes: pay us to keep our old power plants running or else, say fossil fuel majors – Michael West

Informed Comment

About “Boofhead” – » The Australian Independent Media Network

My thought for the day It is far better to form your own independent opinions relative to your life experience and reason than to allow yourself to be blindly led by others. ( John Lord )

Source: About “Boofhead” – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Why Albanese needs to protect capitalism from the capitalists

 

The message for the new government is clear: keep giving big business what it wants – weak merger and competition laws, plus prohibitions on union activity – and the economy will continue performing poorly. Profits will keep growing while household income shrinks.

Source: Why Albanese needs to protect capitalism from the capitalists

Informed Comment

We tried letting Sky News run the country and look where it got us – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The new leader of the wedge and slogan party said the crisis has occurred because the power industry has been “spooked” by the ALP’s plans to promote renewables “too quickly”.

The new leader of the climate change denying party suggested nuclear power was the answer. It is the most expensive form of power. It would take 15 years to build. It is not renewable and it produces toxic waste.

It is obvious where the views of the alternate prime minister and his deputy come from and it isn’t any of the energy regulators, suppliers or academics in the field.

Oh no. If you want to know how to run the country, turn to Sky non-News.

 

Source: We tried letting Sky News run the country and look where it got us – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Is the US heading for a recession? Here’s what you need to know | Robert Reich | The Guardian

US-STOCKS-markets Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange June 15, 2022 in New York as the US Federal Reserve announces a hike in interest rates. - he Federal Reserve announced the most aggressive interest rate increase in nearly 30 years, raising the benchmark borrowing rate by 0.75 percentage points on June 15 as it battles against surging inflation. The Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee reaffirmed that it remains "strongly committed to returning inflation to its 2 percent objective" and expects to continue to raise the key rate. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP) (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)

Is the US heading for a recession? Many signs point in that direction. New home construction slowed in April. Mortgage demand continues to decline. Some of the country’s largest and most influential retailers are reporting disappointing sales and profits. The stock market is in bear territory. Futures markets are signaling trouble ahead.

Source: Is the US heading for a recession? Here’s what you need to know | Robert Reich | The Guardian

Informed Comment

Businesses warn of closures over wage rise – Michael West

We aren’t talking big business here but small working-class businesses. It’s always the case that the lobbyists for the top end of town throw cats among the pigeons in order to have Australia’s poor or lower 40% appear to be fighting among themselves so the media have something to amplify. Business has a united front, workers don’t given the LNP has reduced the Unions to a shadow of what they once were this century.

There is no talk of dropping the stage 3 tax cuts for the wealthy is there? Only a rise of wages, less than a packet of cigarettes, is what will send “Australia’s Businesses Broke”. A dollar an hour is the tipping point, a cup of coffee a day. Tony Abbott sent the whole fucking Car industry and allied services to the wall and got less of a response from the media. A whole sector of industry simply disappeared. The LNP gave QANTAS a bailout of billions to “keep its workers” and now we see it didn’t. Where did the money go?

Businesses could be “sent to the brink” of collapse by the size of the increase to the minimum wage, according to industry groups.

Source: Businesses warn of closures over wage rise – Michael West

Informed Comment

From being horrible in government to being hypocritical in opposition – » The Australian Independent Media Network

My thought for the day Often life is an experience of random unidentifiable patterns and indiscriminate consequences that don’t always have order nor require explanation. The more we relate to others, the more we get to know ourselves. ( John Lord )

Source: From being horrible in government to being hypocritical in opposition – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Three things Labor should reconsider – » The Australian Independent Media Network

There are three things that Labor should reconsider.

1 they should increase income support payments.

2 they should scrap the stage 3 tax cuts.  With inflation on the rise, we certainly don’t need to give rich people more money.

They should revisit the taxation reform Tax concessions on property investment have fuelled the housing crisis – start there.

3 Labor should do a complete review of defense spending. We are wasting hundreds of billions of dollars on last century’s weapons of war. Cyber security, robotics, and autonomous systems, communications, international regulatory bodies, foreign aid, trade, and diplomacy will be far more important than accumulating manned tanks and submarines.

Governments,, have to be flexible enough to respond to changing circumstances.

Source: Three things Labor should reconsider – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Still Faxing: CITIC the gigantic tiny Chinese coal miner – Michael West

What's the scam?

CITIC the Chinese coal mining juggernaut churns out $8bn in revenue from its suite of Australian coal mines, gets government subsidies, but pays almost no tax and actually faxes in its one financial report to regulators. What’s the scam?

Source: Still Faxing: CITIC the gigantic tiny Chinese coal miner – Michael West

Informed Comment

A Final Thought on the Hearings: How Trump Will Be Held Accountable | The Smirking Chimp

In other words, even if he avoids prosecution, even if he is never formally deemed a criminal under the law, Trump will be accountable to history. That is not as satisfying a form of accountability as a criminal judgment, to be sure. But it is a form of accountability that is inescapable. If the committee does its work properly — and I have every confidence it will — it will create a clear record. Which means that for our children and our children’s children — for as far as future generations will know of our recorded history — Donald Trump will live in infamy.

Source: A Final Thought on the Hearings: How Trump Will Be Held Accountable | The Smirking Chimp

Informed Comment

Why is Scott Morrison remaining in the Parliament? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

So, what could be Morrison’s motivation for staying on? Perhaps his ego is telling him to be patient for another opportunity. Maybe he believes God’s will is for him to fulfil his destiny. Maybe there is another reason. Maybe it’s for the money (though I’m not suggesting it is).

Source: Why is Scott Morrison remaining in the Parliament? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Treasury boss Steven Kennedy’s cure for debt and deficit

Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy says inflation pressures will persist into 2023 “at the very least”.

Albanese has to do what Morrison and Frydenberg didn’t. Have the guts to do and fix that which led us to, and created the crisis we find ourselves in now. Make those that profited from the LNP’s gross generosity pay, and take those steps immediately rather than later….increase their taxes and collect what they haven’t paid.

 Anthony Albanese and his Treasurer, Dr Jim Chalmers, have inherited many problems that won’t be solved quickly or easily. Nor will they be solved without the new government being willing to persuade voters to accept the sort of tax changes no pollie wants to talk about in an election campaign.

Source: Treasury boss Steven Kennedy’s cure for debt and deficit

Informed Comment

The Two Biggest Questions About Last Night’s Hearings on Trump’s Attempted Coup | The Smirking Chimp

Last night, we learned several things from the first hearing of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol:

Source: The Two Biggest Questions About Last Night’s Hearings on Trump’s Attempted Coup | The Smirking Chimp

Informed Comment

Why the televised hearings on the January 6 insurrection will be historic | Robert Reich | The Guardian

‘No president in history has staged an attempted coup to change the outcome of an election.’

They will mark a milestone in the battle between democracy and autocracy. Everyone should tune in and watch them

Those who claim that a president cannot be criminally liable for acts committed while in office apparently forget that Richard Nixon avoided prosecution only because he was pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford.

Those who argue that Trump should not be criminally liable because no president in American history has been criminally liable, overlook the fact that no president in history has staged an attempted coup to change the outcome of an election.

Without accountability for these acts, Trump’s criminality opens wide the door to future presidents and candidates disputing election outcomes and seeking to change them – along with ensuing public distrust, paranoia and divisiveness.

Source: Why the televised hearings on the January 6 insurrection will be historic | Robert Reich | The Guardian

Informed Comment

9 Coalition years equal 50 years regression, Dutton notwithstanding

Have you heard the one about how the Liberal leopard changed his spots? He moved from the Government spot to a spot in the shadows to pounce on progress at a future date. (Michelle Pini)

THE MORE the Liberal and National parties talk of change, the more things stay the same.

Apart from the front men (for they are usually men) who are quite regularly replaced or recycled, this is true no matter which Coalition yardstick you care to examine: health, gender equality, education, climate change, Indigenous affairs, the economy, cost of living pressures or corruption.

While the regression in these areas certainly fluctuates in terms of severity, the fact that they remain largely unaddressed by the previous Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison Government is testament to the degree to which the Coalition entrenches inequity across most social parameters.

Source: 9 Coalition years equal 50 years regression, Dutton notwithstanding

Informed Comment

WATCH: AOC Rips Lax Gun Laws, NRA ‘Blood Money’ During House Hearing

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

“For all the billions and trillions that this body authorizes in the name of national security, we can’t even keep our kids safe from their schools being turned into a war zone.”

Source: WATCH: AOC Rips Lax Gun Laws, NRA ‘Blood Money’ During House Hearing

Informed Comment

Albo’s to-do list: There’s a lot for the new government to fix – » The Australian Independent Media Network

My thought for the day Labor will deliver a future where no one is held back, and no one is left behind (Anthony Albanese). ( John Lord )

Source: Albo’s to-do list: There’s a lot for the new government to fix – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Dutton and Trump politics – » The Australian Independent Media Network

The mainstream media in Australia is currently whitewashing fascist politics. It is not just sycophantic, or lazy, journalism. It is dangerous.

Without a strong news media, Australia faces a clouded future. Albanese’s government may be able to repair our Rule of Law protections adequately to protect us into the future from the international right’s authoritarian games. The radical right might lose their hold on the Liberal and National parties. We have seen in America, however, that this form of the right is prepared to play the long game. Journalists that help them whitewash their cruellest actions aid them in this plan.

Source: Dutton and Trump politics – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

The CEO-to-Worker Pay Gap Is Climbing to Truly Obscene Levels

We in Australia have been following American Capitalism blindly for the past decade with the help of the LNP government

A new report finds that the gap between worker pay and CEO compensation continues to grow at some of the United States’ lowest-paying firms. At dozens of companies, the ratio exceeds one thousand to one.

Source: The CEO-to-Worker Pay Gap Is Climbing to Truly Obscene Levels

Informed Comment

Who is it that can’t manage money? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

If only we had of voted Morrison in we’d have never known

“The economy was weaker in the March quarter than was forecast at election time.

“Growth at 0.8 per cent was…much weaker than what was expected for the corresponding period in the pre-election fiscal outlook”.

He added: “Consumption, dwelling investment, new business investment export and the nominal GDP were all weaker in the March quarter than was anticipated by our predecessors in the Budget and by the departments at PFO.”

“Although the national accounts are notoriously backward looking, if you think about what has happened in the economy since the end of March: inflation is higher, we have had an interest rate hike, petrol prices are up 12 per cent since the end of April, wholesale electricity prices are up 237 per cent since the end of March, and gas more than 300 per cent higher than the average of the last few years.”

Robust in parts, resilient in parts, but with rising inflation, chickens coming home to roost, and a perfect storm of energy rate spikes.

Who is it that can’t manage money?

 

 

Source: Who is it that can’t manage money? – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Barnaby sounds worried – » The Australian Independent Media Network

For years, he has been doling out money hand over fist, often to people with connections to the Liberal or National parties, for water rights or dubious dams.

There was the Politics in the Pub night in Shepparton where Joyce promised irrigators more water from the Murray-Darling.

“We have taken water, put it back into agriculture, so we could look after you and make sure we don’t have the greenies running the show.”

He dismissed a Four Corners program about water theft as “them trying to take more water off you, trying to create a calamity.”

Never mind about fish kills and dried up rivers and towns with no drinking water.

Then there was ‘Watergate’ where Barnaby paid $80 million to a company with connections to Angus Taylor for worthless overland water flows.

Urannah dam is a whole other can of worms with hundreds of millions being funnelled to a company run by people with links to the LNP for a project facing serious questions about its economic benefit.

Likewise the Dungowan dam proposed for Barnaby’s own electorate, where he said he has “no real interest” in seeing the business case because “we’re not asking for a return”.

In March, Joyce promised $5.4 billion to build the Hells Gate dam on the Burdekin River despite there being no business case and no assessment of the environmental impacts yet.

Barnaby’s baby, the Inland Rail, also deserves scrutiny.

Source: Barnaby sounds worried – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

It is hard to fathom what a hateful place Australia has become – » The Australian Independent Media Network

We have become a hateful place over the last decade – suspicious of each other, greedy, unprincipled, uncaring, focused only on what’s in it for me.

The election showed the country is ready for a reset. It will be up to all of us to be part of that. We can and must do better.

Source: It is hard to fathom what a hateful place Australia has become – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Will the hateful army who bullied Yassmin Abdel-Magied come after Australia’s diverse new parliamentarians? | Sisonke Msimang | The Guardian

If the euphoria and back-patting over the federal election results are anything to go by, Australia is a vastly different country from the one Yassmin Abdel-Magied left five years ago.

A new cohort of confident, competent, successful and ethnically diverse parliamentarians are about to enter public life. They have been widely celebrated as a sign that the country is getting multiculturalism right.

Anyone unlucky enough to have the combination of confidence and ‘difference’ will be in for a rough ride

Source: Will the hateful army who bullied Yassmin Abdel-Magied come after Australia’s diverse new parliamentarians? | Sisonke Msimang | The Guardian

Informed Comment

Michael Pascoe: Time to chill about election – we’re regaining balance

This election was simply about the arrogance and corruption of the Morrison Government and its backers. As long as Morrison,Dutton, Ley Taylor Cash, Tudge, Hawke,and Robert remain in the Liberal Party it will never be regarded as anything but, a bunch of arrogant and corrupt maggots who dislike each other.

It was the Morrison government’s arrogance that it thought it could simply dictate to the electorate what the Liberal and National parties’ sponsors wanted it to be, along with buying votes through unprecedented corruption and abuse of power.So don’t panic even if you’ve drunk the Kool-Aid about a Labor government being a threat to civilisation. In the end, the centre wins.

Source: Michael Pascoe: Time to chill about election – we’re regaining balance

Informed Comment

New Brooms, Old Stories: The Australian Labor Party and Julian Assange – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Opposition legal affairs spokesman George Brandis failed to identify any relevant law that might have been breached, either Australian or US. Liberty Victoria president Spencer Zifcak was “astonished” that a lawyer of presumed competence could have made such remarks. “There is no charge, there is no trial, there is no properly constituted court, and yet the Prime Minister deems it appropriate to say that Mr Assange has committed a criminal offence.”

Within less than a fortnight, the AFP, in concluding its investigation, informed Attorney-General Robert McClelland that “given the documents published to date are classified by the United States, the primary jurisdiction for any further investigation into the matter remains the United States.” After evaluating the material concerned, the federal police had failed to establish “the existence of any criminal offences where Australia would have jurisdiction.”

Source: New Brooms, Old Stories: The Australian Labor Party and Julian Assange – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

One that the Murdoch media got horribly wrong – » The Australian Independent Media Network

My thought for the day Would you rather play in a team of champions or a champion team? ( John Lord )

So, what comes out of all this rejection of Murdoch and his acolytes? There are still some good sports pages to read and pics galore, but I wouldn’t trust the politics.

In debating their tactics with colleagues and friends, I have noticed that the Sky (and Fox) viewership seems to be marked by a collective personality disorder whereby the viewer feels almost as though they’ve been let into a secret society. Arguably, this has been the election in which the bias of its tilted reporting has been exposed?

When the polls have been analysed to the nth degree, and all the data is done and dusted, one of the biggest stories of this election will be how Murdoch’s News Corp failed to have the desired influence on the result. From newspapers to television; it has become impotent. Maybe forever. I want to think so.

Source: One that the Murdoch media got horribly wrong – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Reactionary succession — Peter Dutton, Australia’s new Opposition Leader

New Liberal Leader Peter Dutton has a history of cruelty and corruption, despite the mainstream media telling us we should give him a chance, writes Dr Binoy Kampmark.

Source: Reactionary succession — Peter Dutton, Australia’s new Opposition Leader

Informed Comment

Election 2022 results: There are no natural majorities anymore. Albanese’s might be the last one

The election results have revealed a realignment of support for the major parties.

Our major parties’ primary votes are in structural decline, not because they are simply hopeless, but because our politics has fragmented to the point there are no natural majorities in Australia anymore. We now have majorities of dissent – so we can remove a government via a coalition of discontent, but any new government becomes vulnerable to a new dissenting majority forming around it. Our tradition of compulsory preferential voting has camouflaged this, artificially preserving two-party dominance. If we had a more European-style proportional system, we’d have had European-style results for a decade now: moving from one minority government to another, each made up of a temporary coalition of rivals. This might be the moment that our political fracturing finally overpowered the masking tape of our electoral system.

Source: Election 2022 results: There are no natural majorities anymore. Albanese’s might be the last one

Informed Comment

Albanese’s miracle win mangles media’s Dutton narrative

The press pack are acting as though the Coalition is temporarily exiled rather than categorically defeated, flooding the news cycle with the Dutton-led losing side and ignoring the Albanese Government, writes managing editor Michelle Pini.

Source: Albanese’s miracle win mangles media’s Dutton narrative

Informed Comment

Mainstream journalists are failing to speak truth to power – » The Australian Independent Media Network

In his commentary on the recent Federal Election, BBC journalist Nick Bryant described former Prime Minister Scott Morrison as our first ‘post-truth’ leader. Given Morrison’s documented domestic and international mendacities, together with his exceptional talent for truth twisting, Bryant’s observation is definitely on the money.

However, what is absent from his analysis is the role of the media in enabling a post-truth climate that allows men such as Morrison, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former U.S. President Donald Trump to gain high political office in the anglosphere. None of these men or their equally compromised colleagues would have flourished had it not been for legacy media, whose journalists are apparently easily overawed by shiny, noisy, blingy things entirely devoid of substance and with a dubious talent for gishing the gallop.

Source: Mainstream journalists are failing to speak truth to power – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Meet Sky After Dark’s Voice to Parliament – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Newly elected senator for the NT, Jacinta Price, told Sky’s Paul Murray that she is “feeling really strong” and ready to “get out there and fight” for Australians.

“Australia will soon realise that they’ve just elected our Joe Biden to run the country and they’re just going to have to learn the hard way. But I’m certainly going to be there to hold them to account and to help pick up the pieces once we have to.”

So much for constructive conciliation.

In fact, it’s hard to see how having Ms Price in parliament will be in any way constructive.

 

Source: Meet Sky After Dark’s Voice to Parliament – » The Australian Independent Media Network