LNP will do anything to take media attention off Robodebt
it takes the media’s attention away from Robodebt and the slim chance that they’d report the obfuscation, the inability of people to recall basic information and the obvious fact that it wasn’t incompetence that led to legal advice not being attached or passed on: it was a design feature of the standover merchant tactics that were employed by almost everyone involved.
Robodebt the cyber-machine pretending to take values out Welfare decisions. Only a Penacostalist could come up with a smokescreen like that. Let the computer be the judge said Pontious Pilate Morrison “I wash my hands and stand aside of any decision”
If public trust is to be restored, at the very least, the people responsible for this major breach of the law, the illegal Robodebt scheme, should face the hardest penalties available under our legal system.
Anthony Albanese says he hopes Australians will see through a “culture war” that is being drummed up on social media against an Indigenous voice to parliament.
It would be wrong to suggest that the Liberal Party is racist. Ok, they’re being led by Peter Dutton who did walk out on the Apology, but he acknowledged that he shouldn’t have done that because people keep bringing it up and he has to argue that it’s only the African gangs who are calling him racist. And it was the Liberal Party who argued that the Apology wouldn’t solve the practical issues and wouldn’t help to close the gap and that practical solutions like sending in the Army is the way to improve the lives of the ordinary Indigenous man and by helping men you’re also helping women so don’t you dare say that we’re sexist.
Obviously, when you see that the Liberals opposed the Apology and now are questioning the Voice to Parliament on the grounds that they would do nothing to actually improve things and that they’re largely hollow gestures, you have to ask why the Coalition haven’t done a lot more about improving things.
To be fair, the Coalition has only been in power for twenty of the past twenty-six years.
Susan Ley was a greater threat to Australian citizens when in the Morrison government. However, she still remains a greater threat than Miriam Rudd is today and we don’t know what she’s been planning as her next move as Dutton’s Deputy. We do however know she’s been planning not on raising children like Miriam Rudd in her very Australian extended family that fought to bring her home.
Why is the media calling this a “political furore” supporting the LNP’s efforts to create one? Miriam Rudd is an Australian citizen accused of a crime but an Australian citizen nevertheless and has the right to be here
“We don’t know where these people have been resettled. We don’t know which communities have been put at risk. We don’t know where they are moving in and out of,” Ms Ley said.
With full knowledge of what they’d left behind after a decade of doing nothing but changing leaders and fighting among themselves, the LNP has landed with Peter Dutton as their leader. Dutton’s first step was to fly to the US to ask the Republicans what he should do and no doubt get Murdoch’s blessing.
He’s back and has still done nothing but told us to forget the past yet he is still talking about the $275 that we got but couldn’t notice because of the rolling storm of inflation they’d set loose.
The federal opposition leader said the forecast of a 56 per cent rise in power prices put paid to Labor’s promise of a $275 cut in bills.
Mr Dutton said Dr Chalmers had earned the nickname “Grim Jim”.
Talk about double standards when it comes to media why is Lidia Thorpe targeted when Scott Morrison was left alone? When it was discovered he employed his best friend Tim Stewart and his son were QAnon members. The Stewarts were purportedly employed by Morrison’s wife. Was a parliamentary committee set up to investigate that relationship? Or his relationship with Brian Houston who he tried to take to the White House with him? Did the media cry that it didn’t “pass the pub test”.
Scott Morrison even after 2 years has refused to reveal the text messages sent between he and his “bestie” Tim Stewart.
30 Mar 2022 — After two-year freedom of information battle with Guardian Australia, the PM’s office has been told to search for any messages with QAnon …
A high-powered parliamentary committee will investigate Lidia Thorpe’s brief relationship with former Rebel bikies president Dean Martin after the Senate voted to refer the Greens senator.
Well, it would be because there is no jury. What I’m trying to say is that the decision has been made by the people who matter which – as I am sure you know is the Federal Coalition. Lidia Thorpe has failed to declare a conflict of interest.
Peter Dutton has led the charge, announcing that Senator Thorpe must leave Parliament because ‘you can’t receive those briefings during the day and then hang out, you know, in nice circumstances of a night-time with a bikie.
When in Opposition the LNP can be relied on being far more Socialist. The “cost of living” for ordinary Australians suddenly becomes foremost and not the cost of labor weighing down the economy.
Forget the past. The problems start now and they lie with Labor and the blind promises they made when not knowing what the LNP had kept hidden. Hidden for the seeming sake of their “integrity” and openness in tact. Susan Ley and Peter Dutton keep talking about electricity prices but not that report about their increase well hidden and buried 6 months before the last election. Now that’s the price we bear for her “integrity”
Yep, I think that about covers it. Ignore the past, don’t have talkfests to talk about the future, act without consulting, build nuclear reactors to bring prices and emissions down sometime before 2050.
And remember that John Howard is always available to promote his book and to remind you that the Liberals believe in the free market so they’re prepared to spend vast amounts of government money to ensure that the free market works effectively.
She openly signed off on $22k of bonus gifts to her exec staff for work and goals achieved well before time. Morrison di the same for his political benefit and dodi it in secret while publicly blaming and shaming Holgate who in the end was found innocent.
Of the manufacturing projects, more than half were in electorates held by the Coalition while just three were in safe Labor seats.
Exclusive: Figures provided to the Guardian reveal exorbitant legal bill for pursuing cases against Collaery, Witness K, Richard Boyle and David McBride
Supposing the Morrison Government wanted to turn successive failures to destroy the ABC’s credibility into a success story, it could not do better than make significant Murdoch appointments to the ABC board, writes Paul Begley.
The con: Is the delay. It is in and money to be made in distracting the transition to a more rapid closure of the fossil fuel industry even if the case for renewable clean energy has been proved. If you can’t beat the argument’s direction of progress then delay it for as long as possible. Just as the LNP, IPA and Murdoch are a coalition for the defense of fossil fuels and will now continue to be, while declaring they are on board with reducing emissions and profiting from their efforts.
the Institute of Public Affairs, a rightwing group with a history of climate science denial that is supported by fossil fuel and mining interests, released what it described as polling showing people were open to the idea of nuclear energy. News Corp newspapers ran its arguments uncritically.
Why does the case for nuclear energy persist?
There is an assumption by some people, including Coalition MPs, that renewable energy cannot do the job, despite the expert advice that says otherwise. These critiques rarely address that advice head on.
But there is also a long history of nuclear energy being used as a delaying tactic for acting on climate change in Australia, including by fossil fuel interests.
Australia’s Shame – AG Michaela Cash took lessons from the Steve Bannon playbook. Control the Bureaucracy. Wasn’t that Lenin’s playbook?
Just before ousted Prime Minister Scott Morrison called the election, his Attorney-General Michaelia Cash stacked the Administrative Appeals Tribunal with a host of Liberal Party mates. Political appointments are out of control and the AAT needs to be killed off, writes Greg Barns SC.
Busted!! The LNP strategy of putting LNP supporters in charge of Government Departments is straight out of the Steve Bannon, American GOP Republican and Leninist strategies. The LNP was intent on dismantling the Public Service and has been doing it for the past 13 years.
Agency’s statement, which triggered last-minute scare campaign from Liberals, prompts increasing questions about its independence
Australian Border Force did not issue press releases about any of the five boat interceptions it made in the four years prior to its controversial election-day announcement that a vessel had been detected near Christmas Island, prompting further questions about the political independence of the agency.
The ABF is investigating its election-day conduct, which the acting prime minister, Richard Marles, has described as a “disgrace”.
The agency issued a press release as voting was under way, warning of the interception of an asylum-seeker boat off Christmas Island, precipitating a last-minute scare campaign warning voters to maintain border security by voting Liberal.
Outgoing energy minister Angus Taylor rejects suggestion delay was political and regulator says it was necessary to include ‘most recent network costs’
Morrison tells us to look at the paucity of stats when it comes to discrimination against LGBTQIs in religious schools when arguing for his RDA. “Look at the reality” he says. But he reverses that when he supports Deves who argues to ignore the paucity of stats in trans-gender girls in sports. They are virtually nonexistent and aren’t a threat to women in sport.
Not only do Morrison and Deves contradict each other but Morrison proves to be a hypocrite continuing to support Deves after her now two-faced tongue-in-cheek apology which she has publicly walked back on. Deves has literally spat the dummy and told Morrison he and his LNP cronies can get fucked and that she is now running as an independent for her own ego’s sake, despite knowing she has no chance of winning the seat.
Morrison, who handpicked Deves to run just weeks out from the start of the campaign, has repeatedly defended the Warringah candidate by noting she had apologised for her remarks.
On Saturday he said: “In terms of what Katherine Deves has said in the past, she has withdrawn those and she said they were insensitive.
“And that was my view as well. So there’s no suggestion that I have supported those earlier comments.
I don’t support those earlier comments.” The shadow infrastructure minister, Catherine King, told ABC News Breakfast it did not surprise her that Deves had walked back the apology.
“I think this is an incredibly divisive debate and I think the prime minister has chosen a very divisive candidate to run in that seat and I think it’s really awful to see that happening in the context of a federal election campaign,” she said.
Murphy said he was further frustrated by the complaint from Taylor’s office given the minister’s first speech to parliament in which he said he would “always” defend free speech as the foundation of democracy.
Order to remove Vote Angus Out community group’s election signs in Hume came after complaint from Liberal incumbent’s office
Rules and Laws aren’t for Josh Frydenberg they stand in his way
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is responsible for laws being broken that maintain accountability in the fossil fuel industry. Anthony Klan reports. THE BOSS of the nation’s monopoly infrastructure regulator – who engaged in serious illegality that the Federal Government went to substantial lengths to cover up – earlier helped dismantle accountability laws in favour of major fossil fuels infrastructure owners.
Stuart Robert has said he does not know where the education minister Alan Tudge is, and bizarrely claimed to have been doing Tudge’s job for “almost 12 months”.
Two more weeks and they will have lied their way to oblivion.
Fears that the cashless debit card will be implemented for all income recipients across the board, including those on the age pension, appear to originate from the Government’s own information and statements.
Religious hate has been imported directly from America for use by the “blessed” Scott Morrison. A political tool applied by his “Captains Pick” Katherine Deves in Warringah to hopefully divide the whole Australian electorate by hate, in order to squeeze a few votes from the ultra religious right, god botherers, transphobes, and homophobes hidden under rocks. Even worse, he defends this action in the guise of “free speech” and ” the defense of women”, Single handedly Morrison has shown he’s lower than a snake’s belly and a hypocrite who speaks in tongues. Particularly when he doubles down and says he will protect children ( LNP politicians) from any “digital trolling” if they win. Morrison has shown he’s as two faced and corrupt as any tent crusader, QAnon, or other hate-preacher,we have seen here or come out of America.
Assistant Health Secretary Rachel Levine said trans youth are being “driven to depths of despair” and committing suicide at alarming rates, during a speech on Saturday about the dangers of anti-trans laws being passed in red states across the country. Levine, the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, said in a speech at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth that LGBTQ youth are being “attacked” and have “few places to turn” for help. “I want to say this very, very clearly: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans are committing suicide at a rate that should shock our conscience,” Levine said during the Out For Health Conference. “Even after decades of progress, the most vulnerable among us continue to suffer … transgender women of color not only continue to be harassed, but are more likely than the population at large to suffer violence and even murder.”
Frydenberg would have, if he could have, said “They’re doing it tougher in Ukraine therefore we should be grateful for Morrison’s LNP”
‘‘Australians couldn’t give a stuff about inflation in the United States,’’ Labor’s Jim Chalmers told a media conference. ‘’And the UK,’’ he added later. The shadow treasurer was responding to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s attempts to play down the inflation rate (5.1%, the highest in 21 years) by citing higher rates elsewhere. Malcolm Fraser tried similar to Frydenberg in 1983 amid severe recession, running the slogan: ‘‘We’re not waiting for the world’’. It didn’t save the Coalition from a thumping defeat.
Carbon Pricing has only ever been the “LNPs Cry Wolf”. It’s not a tax you can choose not to pay it and its market driven. Calling it a tax is a fabrication. You can’t choose not to pay your taxes. OOPS! I got that wrong the rich can choose under the LNP rules. Especially Corporations. If we are making things up we can arbitrarily say LNP are taxing us with the “Cost of Living”. Or they’re taxing us with their downward pressure on Wages. Taxing us with Cheap imported Labor, Taxing us with the Casualisation of Jobs. Simply taxing us with their existense.
The Australian’s front page screams ‘’Labor carbon tax warning’’, citing comments by Whitehaven Coal chief executive Paul Flynn that Labor’s plan is a carbon levy by stealth. If only, some Labor supporters might say. Imagine a full-blooded response: ‘’Yes we damn well do plan a carbon tax. We had it before and we’ll have it again.’’
Morrison says “screw the evidence” take the bigot’s side on transgender children in sport “its commonsense”. No. it’s his faith! Research on children shows his claim to be “bullshit” and that saying his kids are “blessed” is little more than religious orthodoxy. There is nothing common about it and evidence proves it makes no sense.
The Police, and the AFP have found no evidence that his “Captain’s Pick” Katherine Deve’s family have been physically threatened. Morrison’s insincere apology about disabled kids not being “blessed” mirrors Deve’s equally insincere “I’m sorry I’ll just tone it down”. Neither are sorry. Morrison hasn’t reversed his NDIS cuts and Deves hasn’t stopped advocating transgirls are a massive to girls sports. They need to be judged on their beliefs not just their style of argument. They have been and loudly by a bipartisan majority that have declared them wrong, that children should be allowed to be children.
Morrison’s history in politics has known him to be as devious as a Golum and as cunning as a sewer rat when it comes to dividing and fragmenting communities for a handful of votes. It’s how he won preselection in the first place. Others have sworn stat decs which Morrison calls lies but won’t sue for defamation. He claimed he’d sign a dec countering their claims but then backed down for fear he might be prosecuted fo a false claim.
All of us have implicit stereotypes that guide the way we view the world. Many people will look at a transgender woman’s face or height and think “it’s unfair” if she wants to play in a women’s sport. That is an assumption.
Transparency experts have criticised as “absolute rubbish” Scott Morrison’s claims that the resignations of New South Wales Liberal premiers Nick Greiner and Barry O’Farrell show the Independent Commission Against Corruption is a “kangaroo court”. On the defensive after effectively ditching his commitment to create a federal anti-corruption body, Morrison complained on Friday that the NSW Icac had resulted in politicians quitting “too many times”.
Morrison simply can’t speak to the truth because to the truth of the matter would condemn and reveal him to be what he is on a larger and more intense scale than currently publicly seen. It’s why he’s currently being condemned by so many members within the Liberal Party and why so many are abandoning the Party in numbers and droves never seen before. The Party has shifted to no longer be a diversity of individual opinions to become one of strategists tactitionsand liars to achieve one mans goal and win at any cost.
Should Morrison win this election the cycle of shattered promises and increased repression will be felt in the first year revealing truth and fakery. But shortly after Morrison’s campaign of lies and illusion will begin again with media aid forging a path to the election in 2025. Dealing in the lies is now the norm, to win the goal, ignore democracy, serve oneself and a select group supporters and have those least likely to vote for you pay. Groups, organizations and Institutions like ABC, Universities, the Arts, were critical thought might flourish will be dismantled or neutered. Systems that maintain power and enable reward to trickle, no flow up not down strengthened. As a consequence decisions that serve the Nation merely secondary in intent. This has been the increasing autocratic nature of the LNP this century and their ever increasing move to the extreme and religious right.
Since arriving in Minnesota, local support groups have found the cousins a two-bedroom rental property, helped pay the bills and provided medical assistance. “As soon as we came here, they treated us with dignity,” Mehdi says. “Australia has never done that.” Former immigration minister in the Fraser government, Ian Macphee, says the Coalition’s track record with refugees makes him ashamed to be Australian. “People like Mehdi have committed no crime and yet have been locked up with no idea of when they’ll ever get out,” Macphee says. “The inhumanity of it is appalling, it’s racist and it’s hidden from most of us.” On March 24, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews announced Australia had agreed to New Zealand’s offer to take some of the boat arrivals, an offer made nine years ago. Mehdi welcomed the news but was sceptical: “I think they’re just trying to say before the election, ‘Look, we made a deal’.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has chastised Labor for an ad highlighting Liberal MP Gladys Liu’s links to donors suspected to be risks to Australia’s national security, claiming the opposition is engaging in racist campaigning. “They go after Gladys Liu because she’s Chinese,” Morrison said on Sunday. “They’re engaged in what I think is a sewer tactic here. This is Morrison Wolf whistling and the The Age assisting with it’s banner
One component of the ad stated that the Victorian division of the Liberal Party reportedly handed back $300,000 in donations because then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s office was told the Chinese donors, invited to a 2015 event by Liu, were potential national security threats.
“What do we know about Liberal Gladys Liu?” a male voice says in the ad, with an ominous-sounding background track.
Frydenberg proved to be a law of his own when he co-opted NGO CEOs to endorse his advertising in Kooyong breaking the rules that apply to all Charities.
The faceless Coalition aides conscripted to do the leg-work for the government’s billion-dollar pork barrelling program have spurned requests to comply with the ANAO audit, leaving ministers unaccountable for their spending before the Election. Jommy Tee reveals how Coalition MPs have the inside running on pushing for projects in their electorates.
The Audit Office (ANAO) has encountered a severe lack of co-operation from ministerial advisers, who have refused to participate into the current audit into the controversial Building Better Regions Fund (BBRF).
The ministerial advisers play the key role in filtering information from the Department of Infrastructure which runs the $1.4 billion program and in assisting the ministerial panel in determining who gets grants under the program.
Michael West Media (MWM) has been informed that the first draft of the Audit Office into the beleaguered and controversial BBRF contains damning commentary about the administration of the program.
Serious deficiencies have been highlighted including lack of robust reasoning as to why particular grants were awarded by the various ministerial panels. We have previously exposed how applicants that r
Currently, the LNP in Australia is importing their ideas from the US Republicans who have given up on the great experiment of Democracy. We have seen their Australian clones adopt a carbon copy of the culture wars from U.S. From rumblings that the election is being “rigged” to multiculturalism being the scourge that’s dividing this nation from a mythical and heroic one they claim once united us. The increasing drift to the right is taking us away from from a representative Democracy and driving us towards Mussolini’s dream of a Corporate State and in the long term to the death of the Liberal-National Coalition as a political party. Their current short-term agendas carries with them the long-term consequences of the board taking over the company..
“Overall, Greene’s position within the Republican party seems secure. That’s partly because the Republican leadership is surely aware that most of the energy and activism in conservatism is in the far-right wing that stands behind Greene. In fact, Greene is the poster child of a rising group of rightwing radicals: in Congress, she likes to present herself and like-minded allies such as representatives Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz as the future of the Republican party, and they aren’t shy about their intention to purge whatever vestiges of “moderate” conservatism might still exist within the Republican party.”
It’s no longer “what can we do for you, but what you can do for us in terms of $$$? In the end many of these announced promises will simply go the way of vanashing bubbles even if the LNP government wins. Morrison has been only doing one thing for the past 3 years,and that’s rehearsing the reselling of his massively expensive waste. It’s like a replay of Sunset Boulevarde “Action Lights your on Scotty” with not a voter invited on to his very “on set party” for the crew.
The system under which billions of dollars of grants are handed out to communities across Australia is irretrievably broken. There’s no other conclusion to be drawn from the figures compiled by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that, grant by grant, electorate by electorate, show a community’s ranking on the electoral pendulum dictates its financial support.
Straight from Trump’s Playbook or Steve Bannon’s appoint as many of your friends to positions that will hamper any new government. There’s no ICAC to investigate the corruption that this government has delivered and wielded on the Australian electorate. Economic and Cultural Crimes done dirt cheap.
The Australian Federal Police Association, which represents 4,000 AFP members, has placed the establishment of a “far-reaching anti-corruption body” among its highest priorities ahead of the federal election, alongside improved support for officers suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, greater resourcing, and stronger firearms regulations.
The anti-corruption subject has raised its head once again. Now the Australian Federal Police are calling for a commission with far reaching arms. I thought the AFP were a voice for the LNP, however this report in the Guardian tells me something different. This commission must have retrospective powers. The Scummo team doesn’t want that. One has to wonder why? Could it be that the vast majority of them are corrupt?
Labor has already committed to an anti-corruption commission with the strength and powers of a standing royal commission, including the ability to hold public hearings.
Attorney-General Michaelia Cash has defended the appointment of ex-Liberal MPs and coalition staffers to high-paying roles on the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, saying they are “qualified”.
Ten years in the making of an agreement signed just weeks before an election smells of a scam. One needs to ask what Morrison actually sacrificed in order to gain this politically advantageous signing at such a fortuitous moment. The Indians are known for their bargaining skills and ability to take commercial advantage. They are one of the few countries currently refusing to criticize Putin and are not employing sanctions against Russia. Furthermore, they are happily buying their cheaper oil and so offering indirect and questionable support in their war against Ukraine. Morrison is rewarding India a nation for its questionable ethical and contrarian stance to ours and his associated media propagandists are supporting him in this less than perfect moral stance. he’s indirectly siding with Russia. In fact he directly sided with Putin at the last Climate summit in Glasgow.
The Morrison government has hailed the agreement as a significant step in its efforts to diversify export markets and reduce Australia’s economic dependence on China.”This is an economic agreement that has strategic might to it,” Mr Tehan said.
Morrison punishes Victoria a Labor State he knows he simply can’t win. Smoothing the path for Matthew Guy in November his only hope. Morrison has to go!!
Even more interesting is The Age’s opinion section. It is currently promoting the witholding of funds by the Morrison government. It’s a biased opinion and plain to see written by an member of none other than the Victorian LNP. No surprise now that Ch9 owns the masthead and is run by Peter Costello. We must in the long term SAVE AND REVIVE OUR ABC
The Morrison government says Victorian Labor’s multibillion-dollar Suburban Rail Loop does not “stack up”, raising questions about the state government’s ability to pay for the project if forced to go it alone. Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher also hit back at attacks from the state government, which has criticised the Commonwealth for only allocating 6 per cent of the budget’s infrastructure funding to Victoria, which is home to 26 per cent of the nation’s population.
What has come into relief with Fierravanti-Wells’s ferocious tirade on Scott Morrison is why so much effort was made in the past 2 weeks to have Anthony Albanese look like a heartless, uncaring bully and thug in the case of Kimberly Kitching even though she made no formal complaint. The debate about Kitching was orchestrated along with the accusations about the “mean girls” as a PR smokescreen for what Morrison knew was laying ahead. Because Fierravanti- Welles’s thoughts and accusations let loose about Morrison were no secret within the Liberal Party machinery and were going to be unstoppable pre-election. It demonstrates just how Trumplike and American the Australian Liberal Party from Abbott to Morrison has become. The Liberal Party dirt brigade has been working overtime.
They like the Republicans claim they are the only Party defending our true religion and faith and Morrison isn’t shy claiming he is the spiritual head of the new politically Christian Liberal Party. His decisions are based on protecting faith and culture and his decisions far superior to any facts put forward by divisive godless experts and scientists. Unfortunately he represents minority interests who claim they are the true defenders of all Australians. This began with John Howard who cosied up with the Exclusive Bretheren and other religious cults
The savage assessment of Scott Morrison by one of his nominal allies is like a bolt of lightning into the debate about whether the Prime Minister deserves another term in power.It electrifies the election campaign when Morrison is trying to make the contest about his leadership and the personality of his opponent, Anthony Albanese.
Little by way of logistical or pricing detail was given. We know who benefits the most from this. A triumphalist Whitehaven Coal will supply it, and the cost to the Australian taxpayer will be in the order of AU$31 million. Given that Whitehaven Coal has been a Liberal Party donor – AU$98,000 has been given over the last five years – the whiff of something rotten in the land of coal is strong.
The Morrison government has made a habit of celebrating the announcement rather than the execution of detail. Mendacity and incompetence are twinned in this government’s insignia, and Ukrainian officials best ready themselves for disappointment.
If the Morrison government really wants us to believe it will ship 70,000 tonnes of Australian coal straight by the Russian navy in the Black Sea, bang through a war zone, it is proving very reluctant to share even the slightest detail of how it might accomplish this feat of ridiculousness. Callum Foote and Michael West report.
In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, India, South Korea, China, Russia, and United Arab Emirates – to name a few – basic research in space and planetary science, and science missions, are key elements in strategies to grow their sectors. In Australia, this kind of fundamental work only gets around A$2 million a year. It hasn’t budged in a decade.
This week I witnessed the worst character traits of human behavior play out on my television screen as a Prime Minister in dire straits regarding his, and his party’s, popularity tried to weaponize a death for political gain, assisted by some elements of a partisan media which commenced with an article written by Shari Markson and published in The Australian on Wednesday, 16 March 2022. To my knowledge, Ms. Markson has never written a positive word about the ALP, and of course, the Murdochracy which owns The Australian has pinned its political colors to the mast supporting the Liberal Party since about 2009. To say the article and Mr. Morrison’s behavior was vile and distasteful is an understatement. Some of you may be feeling inclined to say, “Michael, you’re an ALP member”, which I am, and I am proud of it, but hear me out as this is an important statement I make for the future of our entire democracy, including for the Liberal Party.
Thousands of flood-stricken residents in the NSW northern rivers region have been cut out of flood relief payments, forcing the government to deny allegations the emergency funding has been allocated politically.
Following catastrophic flooding, Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday announced a plan to provide two additional $1000 Commonwealth disaster payments to residents in the council districts of Richmond, Lismore and Clarence Valley.
But three other council areas in the region, all struck by the floods, were not granted the two additional payments: Tweed, Byron and Ballina shires.
There is plenty in last week’s quarterly national accounts that the Coalition Government does not want voters to discover, as Alan Austin reports. THE SHARE of Australia’s income going to workers is now at an all-time low. The big corporations are getting the highest share ever. These are two pretty important facts that the Morrison-Joyce Government and the mainstream media – who are all big corporations – want concealed. They are well-hidden in the extensive files published last Wednesday by the Bureau of Statistics. But they are there.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) is busy not so much with a conflict on the other side of the globe but finding a way to spin the misery of the people of Ukraine into anti-China propaganda. It’s just the kind of propaganda Scott Morrison wants, and the prime minister clearly thinks he needs, in the run up to a likely May federal election. For years ASPI has suckled at the teat of the weapons industry; but far and away the most generous of ASPI’s benefactors is the Morrison government.
Ironically, the Warringah Motion was promoted as broadening the democratic processes within the Liberal party which in turn it was thought would boost branch membership, a win win it was suggested. The question is, when the executive of a political party are prepared to scrap their own democratic principles and processes to appease threats of blackmail from a person like Craig Kelly, is that the sort of party with which you would wish to associate yourself ?
There’s a new Coalition in town. It’s is the L-NP- UAP. The Liberal Party has taken to protecting Craig Kelly and Palmer’s Donations to form the Morrison/JJoyce/Palmer The Liberal-National-United Australia Party.
Instead, this year, there’s no one. Kelly has renominated to run for the UAP, spending Clive Palmer’s money freely on newspaper and television advertisements, as have a handful of independents and Peter Tsambalas for the Labor party.
Taxpayer-funded ads exaggerated the federal government’s role in infrastructure projects, while a plan to include former deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, had to be scrapped for breaching advice, an auditor general’s report has revealed. The Australian National Audit Office made those findings in a report, released on Thursday, identifying “shortcomings” in the Building Our Future campaign, including material that was not always presented in an “objective and fair manner”. The audit examined the framework of government advertising, which is once again ballooning in advance of the 2022 election, and three campaigns conducted since 2019. Government advertising is subject to strict guidelines against party political material, but is often criticised for boosting messages favourable to the incumbent.
By the systematic robbing of a constitutionally formed, Independent Statutory Body, Our Public Broadcaster, of its power to do what it was chartered to do the ABC has been intentionally, and conspiratorially neutered by the LNP. Made beige for the LNPs singular political interest, and that of the IPA’s and Murdoch’s, in a quid pro quo funded arrangement that will continue until it’s dismantled or completely privatized as a News source and agency. SAVE OUR ABC
“Relentless attacks” on the ABC from the Coalition have drained up to $600 million in annual funding from the national broadcaster and blunted its criticism of the federal government, according to a report released on Monday. The report is co-authored by the Australia Institute’s Fergus Pitt and veteran ABC journalist and board member – and The New Daily contributor – Quentin Dempster.
olddogthoughts 