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.
Source: Morrison’s madcap plan to send coal to Ukraine just another “announceable”? – Michael West Media
Dutton TALKS the TALK but never WALKS the WALK
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.
Source: Australia wants a space industry. So why won’t we pay for the basic research to drive it?
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.
Source: Government denies that flood funding allocation is ‘political’
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.
Source: Twelve more things revealing Australia’s poor economic management
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.
Let’s not Forget
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.
Source: ‘Self-censorship’: ABC veterans decry political interference
Angus Taylor’s LNP Scam puts politics before science and the planet. Kowtowing to their donor class rather than the service of the nation.
The ANU’s Dr Fiona Beck says turning fossil fuels into hydrogen is always going to be dirtier than using renewables
Couple that with Dutton’s want for defamation cases brought by Government MPs to be funded by us the taxpayers. You then have a very privileged group who with power and access to money can say whatever they want but can shut down any criticism. The simple act of threatening a court case to shut citizens up becomes available to them. Don’t be fooled that this government is protecting anyone other than themselves while knocking freedom of speech on the head. The efforts are to ban any form of criticism and reduce debate.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Attorney-General Michaelia Cash announced in November that they would amend defamation laws, traditionally a state and territory responsibility, to provide an “easy and quick” way for people to complain to social media platforms and have allegedly defamatory material taken down.
Source: Trolling: Defamation experts reject Morrison government’s ‘anti-troll’ proposal
While Morrison and Frydenberg tell us how well we are doing and how globally admired we are economically the reality is hugely different. 8 years ago we were the world’s best and Abbott was Chicken Little screaming ” the sky was falling in”. 4 people died under the ALP’s Pink Bats scheme and we were spending far too much money to escape the GFC. History has shown that the Morrison/ Frydenberg LNP government has brought us to the worst position we have ever faced historically and had arrived there even before the pandemic. Their claims now are akin to those of Monty Python’s Black Knight telling us he was winning the battle. What’s worse Peter Costello’s Ch9 has printed a “poll” showing we still believe Morrison and Frydenberg are the “best managers”. Yes we do believe in fake news but then Gina made $9bn in two years didn’t she?
The Morrison Government’s tally of economic indicators which are the “all-time weakest” or “worst decline in the developed world” keeps climbing, reports Alan Austin. THE PROBLEMS THE Morrison Government has with mistreating women exist on many levels. Many economic outcomes which show impacts on men and women confirm female wellbeing has declined under this regime. 41. Lowest global ranking on gender gap since records began The world has advanced impressively in recent decades in closing the gap between men and women on education, job opportunities, wages and work conditions. Only one developed economy has gone backwards badly on this measure since 2014: Australia.
Source: Morrison Government records 50 worst economic outcomes
Since Abbott this government has made every effort to silence those who question what it is they are actually doing. The ABC, The UNHRC, and Independant Charities. But “don’t look in the rear vision” is Morrison’s catch cry because history reveals an ugly truth. You see just how downgraded Australia has become these past 8 years on every social metric and began with Abbott and has accelerated with Morrison. The only rapid advance we have made is down and when compared with other countries fast. We have done the LNP bungee jump and any seeming improvement has been from the bottom.
From the moment the Abbott government won office, the Coalition has waged war on charities. One of their first acts upon getting elected in 2013 was to try to demolish the charities commission, a one-stop shop for charities. Australia’s charities haven’t been silent in the face of the onslaught. They’ve written three open letters to successive Liberal prime ministers, complaining about the attempt to undermine the voluntary sector. They’ve held rallies and lobbied crossbenchers – most recently managing to see off a measure that would’ve allowed the commissioner to deregister charities if they held a protest that led to the blocking of a public footpath. Charities are sick to the gills of having to fight off the Morrison government. Through a recession and a pandemic, charities have supported vulnerable people, despite a precipitous decline in the rate of volunteering. When Australia was ranked last in the advanced world for action on climate change, environmental charities and business groups kept up pressure on the government for a meaningful response to the climate crisis.
Source: Charities are sick of fighting off attacks by the Morrison government | Andrew Leigh | The Guardian
This Bill is a denial by the AG that the debate rages within the different religions themselves. This new law is constructed as if it doesn’t. It’s a return to the past. This Bill is merely reverses what the majority of Australians voted for during the Marriage Equality referendum. It’s constructed to placate some 4% of LNP ultra-religious right-wing supporters and runs counter to the wants of the Australian Majority. It returns the stick that was once taken from them.
The Attorney-General’s department has confirmed religious schools’ right to sack teachers for their views on sexuality under the federal government’s revised Religious Discrimination Bill and signalled protections for LGBTQI students will be delayed.
Source: Teachers can be sacked over sexuality under bill, A-G’s department confirms
Why the ABC is so essential!!
Media ownership and diversity are obviously not front-of-mind issues for most of the electorate. But they are not negligible considerations either. Morrison relies heavily on the support of News Corp, which has become a de facto propaganda arm of the government. Anything that unsettles that cosy arrangement would compromise his media strategy and make an already difficult set of circumstances even more awkward.
Source: As COVID rips through Australia, is Scott Morrison’s media strategy starting to fail as well?
Morrison saw RATs as a means to throw Covid cases into chaos and camouflaging his total mismanagement of Covid yet again. It’s the only reasonable explanation for why he’s been so insistent on making some tests free and others paid for by us. He had no qualms in saying overpayments of JobKeeper would not be required to be repaid by corporations, but RAT tests needed to be paid for and the prices set by the ‘free’ market. A bonus to the retailers like Chemist Warehouse Harvey Norman and Ebay scalpers of the tests. Many corporations of course, sponsor him and support his “let it rip” stance against lockdowns threatening their profits. Morrison is a great supporter of corporate Socialism in a Capitalist nation.
Victoria’s case numbers doubled to overtake New South Wales on Saturday as the state scrambles to improve the accuracy of rapid antigen testing (RAT) numbers incorporated in the data. States are working to include the RATs now being undertaken by people at home, with Victoria and Queensland launching self-reporting systems and NSW to follow. Victoria’s daily figures were more than double the previous day’s total, with 51,356 cases. But the numbers were inflated by a backlog of RAT cases which accounted for about half and included some infections that were up to six days old as well as double ups with PCR tests. Based on a closer look at the health department figures, there were likely closer to 30,851 new cases in the state on Saturday — still a record, and an increase of more than 40 per cent on the previous day. The Victorian health department is now rushing to improve the accuracy of the state’s COVID-19 figures.
Source: Rapid antigen testing results blow out daily case numbers
Like a Beagle Boy serial offender Stuart Robert strikes again
Once again, universities have suffered at the hands of political interference, this time from the acting Minister for Education Stuart Robert who decided to reject six approved research projects. The rejected grants, he said, “do not demonstrate value for taxpayers’ money nor contribute to the national interest”. All were in the humanities: two on climate, two on China, two more on literature. This is not the first time the minister has tried to take out the trash. Who could forget the time Robert was forced to refund $721 million to victims of Robodebt? That too was dropped late on a Friday. Here’s what happened this time.
Source: Under cover of Christmas, Education Minister Stuart Robert overruled the experts
After Peter Dutton’s somewhat meager success in the courts, the rush is on to ID and shut down anyone that AG Cash or other Government Parliamentarians may or may not be offended by. Couple that with the call Dutton made for Government MP’s to be allowed to sue or when sued to be covered at our, the tax payer’s, expense they’re demanding to be untouchable. Dutton probably foresaw that he was going to have to shell out his own costs but didn’t, it seems, predict, he’d have to pay some of the costs of the person he was suing.
The Government gets bad PR on Social Media which it doesn’t get from the privatized “cash for comment” MSM. It can’t close the ABC down and doesn’t like it. The biggest trolling on Social Media is anti- Government and the algorithms amplify that anti-government sentiment. While they have Parliamentary Privilege we have Social Media and our privilege needs to be regulated as we roar and they merely squeak on Social Media..
“This is a very simple bill that says we’ve had enough with online trolling,” Senator Cash said. “If Anthony Albanese and Labor cannot support that then quite frankly, they are failing Australians.”
Source: ‘We’ve had enough with trolling’: AG Cash pressures Labor on social media crackdown
Independent senator Rex Patrick has condemned the prime minister’s department for claiming it cannot find a key letter from Christian Porter to Scott Morrison about the sports rorts affair, a position seemingly at odds with the attorney general’s office, which has fought to keep the document secret. Patrick has been fighting an almost two-year freedom of information battle with the attorney general’s office, seeking access to a letter from the then attorney general to the prime minister about the administration of the community sport infrastructure program. The attorney general’s letter is thought to provide legal advice to the prime minister on a particular aspect of the damning auditor general’s report that found the government handed out $100m in sport grants in order to favour “targeted” Coalition seats at the May 2019 election. Parliament House, Canberra Information watchdog demands change after two government departments break FoI laws within a month Read more The request was rejected on cabinet confidentiality and legal privilege grounds, something Patrick disputed and took to the watchdog, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. While he was waiting for a
Above all, Morrison’s backing of Gladys helps normalise corruption as a way of government and the price of doing business. Whilst it’s a dog-whistle to the “freedoms” mob demonstrating against being vaccinated and imported lies and conspiracies about a deep state, it is also an act of desperation born out a Machiavellian realpolitik that tells him his government needs to win at least one other seat in NSW. “Politics is governed by the iron laws of arithmetic” his mentor Howard drily opined in an absurd reduction that helps our democracy drown in cynicism and distrust. In reality as Tony Fitzgerald argues, we need every politician to acknowledge that “membership of a political party doesn’t excuse them from their personal obligations to act honourably, and political parties to understand that voters will only vote for politicians who make and keep promises to act ethically.”
Source: Morrison woos Gladys to attack ICAC – » The Australian Independent Media Network
How dare LNP Politicians be questioned for “integrity” by any body other than the LNP itself. Royal Commissions are there to investigate the ALP and their Left-Wing comrades because unlike Morrison, Frydenberg, Dutton, Tudge, or Berejiklian Liberals “never” lie. They have attested to that publicly.
Scott Morrison’s attacks on NSW’s ICAC and endorsement of embattled former premier Gladys Berejiklian to join federal politics have intensified, with the Prime Minister saying she would be a “great” candidate, despite an ongoing corruption investigation.Senior Liberals are escalating their public calls for Ms Berejiklian to switch from NSW politics to Canberra – despite a cloud hanging over her knowledge of corruption by ex-boyfriend Daryl Maguire – in the face of a huge community campaign from Warringah incumbent Zali Steggall.And even as the federal government stalls its plans for a Commonwealth integrity body, Mr Morrison has again attacked the NSW anti-corruption watchdog, hinting that an adverse finding against Ms Berejiklian wouldn’t scupper any bid for high office.“I think she would be great. The way that Gladys Berejiklian has been treated has been shameful,” PM Morrison said on Monday.gladys berejiklian icacMs Berejiklian gives evidence to ICAC in October.“I don’t call that justice.”
Source: Liberals want Berejiklian to run for Warringah, despite ICAC investigation
With 95% of Victorians vaccinated and 60% in support of Dan Andrews Matthew Guy is attempting what Custer did HIS LAST STAND. Like Morrison he sympathises with the misdirected “me” crowd. The crowd currently walking the street yelling “fuck you” to 95% of Victorians that support this state. “We” you see don’t want our hospitals over run by Pandemic lovers and spreaders. “We” who for thier sake got vaccinated so “we” won’t come running and banging on our hospital ED doors expecting to be treated before those that are vaccinated. “We” that don’t want to witness the ramping that their selfishness creates.
Matthew guy, and how many like him are simply weaponising lockdowns and vaccine mandates for political gain? How many of these limp dicks marching are are actually but secretly vaccinated. Credlin, Kelly and the 5 members of the LNP seen at a previous demonstration certainly were. Yes, Matthew Guy seems born to lose out on the fringe in Dandenong away from the centre of town were The Base, Proud Boys, Nazis, and misguided drops of water are that will over time simply evaporate leaving Victorian ocean without really altering it.
Meanwhile the EU, UK,USA are suffering a resurgence and are returning to the actions that Dan Andrews has taken and will continue to take to make all Victorians not just feel but be safer, and ensure that our Frederally under-financed Public Health System keeps working for all of us. LNP mandated 18 year olds force and sent to Vietnam to save us and “free” us and we marched and demonstrated. This is certainly not any “freedom” march to liberate us or anyone from government oppression that’s for sure. Greg Hunt is resigning…wonder why?
Mr Guy made the promise as health authorities around the country debated how to respond to the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 and a daily “freedom” protest at the Victorian Parliament swelled to thousands.
Source: ‘No ifs, no buts, no more lockdowns’: Matthew Guy launches campaign
How simple is simple. How easy to read between the lines. The UK’s BBC holds up, with pride, their “misinformation department” the department Senator McGrath would label dangerous, biased and unnecessary because Murdoch and paid to comment media are sufficient. A “Misinformation Dept” in a public broadcaster would make him so transparent he’d simply disappear.
With a leader like ScaMo running the ship, the LNP’s biggest fear is the ABC installing “a misinformation department” before the next election and turning the lights on his efforts to diminish our democracy. The pillars of which are the universal franchisement of all citizens, their right to vote being interfered with by racing through new Voter ID laws to supress not free up voting. Their unexpressed dream to get rid of compulsory voting and the ABC the public’s auditor. McGrath and the LNP prefer to tear down the Aussie Democratic house rather than lose. However accepting loss is the linch pin the foundation of a Democracy. It’s the agreement made before and on why we even have and elections.
When Queensland Senator James McGrath gave his first speech in parliament, he made his intentions very clear – this culture warrior was on a mission to destroy the ABC. “While the ABC continues to represent only inner-city leftist views, and funded by our taxes, it is in danger of losing its social licence to operate. I am calling for a review of the ABC’s charter. And if they fail to make inroads to restore balance, then the ABC should be sold and replaced by a regional and rural broadcasting service. In the meantime, Triple J, because of its demographic dominance and clear ability to stand on its own, should be immediately sold.”
“These are the people that are supposed to be the high-calibre Liberals. If this is the high-calibre Liberals I’d hate to go to a Liberal party branch in Queensland and see the low-lifes in operation.” (Doug Cameron)
Source: James McGrath’s crusade against the ABC – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Attorney-General Michaelia Cash has succeeded where her predecessor Christian Porter failed. Today she will take her twice-revised religious discrimination bill to the government party room for approval. Senator Cash is confident she has walked the fine line between guaranteeing the freedom of religious believers to discriminate in their beliefs against Australians who are not heterosexuals and the rights of these To discriminate against Marriage Equality, Australians. The whole exercise is fraught because any idea that freedom of religion does not already exist in Australia is absurd, and all sides of politics in Canberra know it.
Source: Paul Bongiorno: We don’t need a bill allowing churches to discriminate
LNP using taxpayer money against Public Health
Coalition senator Gerard Rennick is being accused of undermining the nation’s vaccine rollout with “anti-vax content”, after setting up a taxpayer-funded website to publish unverified reports of alleged vaccine adverse events and claim a government “cover up” of side effects. The Queensland senator, who says he will withhold votes from his government’s legislation unless they back down on vaccine mandates for workers, has defended his actions as in “the taxpayer interest”. But Senator Rennick has been condemned by the federal Opposition and by Australian Medical Association vice president Dr Chris Moy, who called it “about as ant
Source: Coalition senator slammed for ‘anti-vax’ content funded by taxpayers
The mainstream media and Liberal Party through their lies and propaganda have created a breeding ground for violence and extremism, writes Hayden O’Connor. FORMER DEPUTY Chief Medical Officer turned Liberal Party spokesperson Nick Coatsworth declared this week on Today that those protesting the Andrews Government’s Pandemic Bill are doing so as a result of the Victorian Government’s “heavy-handed approaches” during COVID-19, highlighting the absence of such protests across the rest of Australia. The “heavy-handed approach” explanation for the protests put forward by Coatsworth and others is ridiculous. Victoria is not the only state to have had lockdowns or vaccine mandates and the proposed pandemic legislation actually increases transparency and switches the authorisation of public health orders from the Chief Health Officer to the Minister for Health, which is how it currently works in the “gold standard” state of New South Wales.
A Google search of the parties to this case reveals five pages of results. To date, the case of their aggrieved client has been reported across most of Australia’s major media outlets, including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, news.com.au, NCA Newswire, and News Corp websites in every Australian capital city. It even garnered international coverage in The Economist and South China Morning Post. This might not have been the expected outcome for their client, but for Meyer Vandenberg its failed campaign of defamation threats ended up delivering the firm billable hours which would have run well into six figures. Any embarrassment to the firm’s partners has been well and truly cushioned by the fees. What began as a lawyers’ picnic eventually turned into shark-like fee feeding frenzy, with a total of 13 lawyers from both sides feasting on the carcass of Meyer Vandenberg’s ill-fated attempt to silence critics of the Morrison government. The question which hangs around is exactly who footed the bill?
The LNP has used war as a weapon to maintain it’s political power domestically. Used it ‘against’ Australia not ‘for’ us. Korea, Russia, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have been tools of fear to promote and retain power. The same can’t be said of the ALP who in most instances withdrew us from these conflicts. Should we be surprised at the degree to which we have attached ourselves increasingly to the American hip. Our domestic politics, our culture, every aspect of our post WW2 lives has the star spangled banner imprinted on it. Close examination shows it to be no accident much of the planet has been its pawns. They have 150 bases outside their borders.
Currently history has been a domestic struggle between Democracy and Autocracy between the Australian Labor Party and those that have always believed they were born to rule the LNP. Any true Liberal views in the LNP gone and swung Right. To attempt to mainframe our history in any other terms blurs the underlying reality. The Morrison government is certainly not a reflection of any Democratic progress being fine tuned or even imagined.
Paranoia about Chinese influence in Australia is on the rise — and the Australian ruling class is stoking tensions between China and the United States. For the sake of world peace and prosperity, they have to be stopped.
Source: Australia Is Lobbying for a New Cold War Between China and America
The ultimate goal is to “steal a Nations votes” by creating System where voting is reduced to a pantomime as seen in Hungary, Turkey, Russia, and what the Republicans conservatives propose for the USA. Simply put a One Party Autocracy where opposition is reduced to tokenism in An Oligarchic Autocracy. Their loss should it ever occur is evidence of a rigged system. Evidence of their unacceptance of loss is proof of Democracy Lost
If we don’t need it, why does the government want it? “Voter suppression” is the call from the left on that. The government, it’s alleged, is copying straight from the Republican Party’s US playbook, manipulating the law to disenfranchise voters who are less likely to support conservative candidates, such as the poor and marginalised. Specifically, in America, Black people. Here, likewise. After all, which section of the Australian population is most likely to have difficulty producing ID on polling day? Make it harder to vote, and they won’t.
The analogy is imperfect, because of compulsory voting. The actual negative impact of voter ID requirements is likely to be vanishingly small, given that the proposed law does make it very easy to comply. However, that’s not an argument in favour of the law.In the absence of any stated or apparent rationale for bringing in voter ID (beyond the meaningless assertion about public confidence), it’s fair to look for a more cynical explanation. Some have suggested that this is the first step by the Coalition down the path of undermining public confidence in compulsory voting with a view to eventually pushing for a change to voluntary voting.
Source: Voter ID legislation: the Senate needs to reject this bad, unjustified law
Thanks Tony Abbott you legacy of putting the brakes on Australia with your “Nope Nope Nope” policy approach now “Slow Slow Slow” govenments don’t do progress style maintained by Scott Morrison is coming into relief and the skidmarks self evident. Climate, the NBN, the ABC, Welfare, Health, Education are just among some areas spiralling down since 2013. Yet, domestically the fix is still in with Murdoch and Ch9 domestically blowing smoke declaring us great and going in the right direction. Is it any wonder Morrison hates going overseas because when he does that fake greatness is laid bare for all to see. We were lauded and admired the 2nd best economy on the planet during and post GFC, and then in 2013 along came the L fucking NP and put an end to that progress felt by all Australians.
The technology in the Coalition’s cut-down version of the NBN cost up to three times more than originally forecast and was closer to the initial estimated cost of a revised version of Labor’s full-fibre plan, according to figures the government has sought to keep secret for almost a decade.
Morrison’s “Christian Majority ” in Australia is under 10%. It’s a false flag flown by the LNP to ensure that though religiously divided the active Christians, Muslims are there for him. Religious freedom exists and has improved in our Secular State which under our Constitution guarantees the Separation of Powers. Protestants no longer battle Catholics who today dominate our politics but are still an Australian minority. While historically Christian Replacement might be real its hasn’t been by any other religion but who gives a fuck agnosticism. Any “protection of religion in legislation is is a return to the flip side, and a license for the return of systemic bigotry”. The title sounds fair but it sure as hell is looking like Texas is coming to Australia.
71% of Australians say religion is not personally important to them and 62% do not belong to any religious organisation. Only 23% say they do belong, and only 15% are actively involved.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison wants to use hydrogen to prolong coal-fired power as Australia is blasted by a key ally as “a great disappointment” on climate change.
With nothing but scandal after scandal not knowing what to do this government is following the footsteps of Trump’s Republicans and it’s obvious. Cobble the vote whereever possible and ensure the most vulnerable who the won’t help can’t vote. They are desperate to appear like a government rather than what they are, a ship of fools.
But while requiring IDs may materially help them in some close electoral contests, this is better read as a symptom of the Australian right’s stunning lack of imagination.
Australia has no voter fraud problem but the Coalition wants to look like it’s doing something
A proposal to tighten voter ID laws emanated from the Liberal party room last week.
It resembles many initiatives of the Morrison government, and most of the ideas which have emerged from Australian conservatism more broadly in the past decade or more, in that it is opportunistic, unoriginal, and so unnecessary as to be baffling.
It does not appear to be a response to anything that is actually happening in Australia.
There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Australia, where compulsory voting and universal electoral enrolment make voter fraud at scale almost inconceivable.
The Greens have written to new Senate President Slade Brockman to stop Australia’s Parliament House being used to gouge money from billionaires and corporations. Michael West reports on Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s gala fundraiser in the Great Hall.
Importing Scab Labour to break the backs of Australia’s Unions
The Government is contemplating a substantial increase in immigration, boosting the Pacific Australian Labour Mobility Scheme and introducing the new Agriculture Visa, so it’s worth reflecting on where things are at with Australia’s biggest ever labour trafficking scam.
Source: Update of Australia’s biggest ever labour trafficking scam
Very few media outlets have covered the Witness K and Bernard Collaery case in a diligent manner. Sky News, so often rallying for freedom of speech and democracy, didn’t even report on the successful appeal. Like all whistle-blowers, Bernard Collaery is a hero. People of all walks of life should be protected if they report on malfeasance. If Collaery’s prosecution goes ahead, Australian democracy will be weaker as a result.
Big differences when it comes to policing “Free Speech” Political speech and whistleblowing are significantly different from Racial Discrimination and sexual abuse yet the LNP right-wing declared all speech should be free as speech is speech and it’s all equivalent. Tony Abbott certainly supported Andrew Bolt and was prepared ti rid us of the RDA, Racial Discrimination Act. However not any more says Scott Morrison and it’s no longer so! However, he’s not going to police it but says he will force Twitter and Facebook etal to dance to his tune. Mandatory ID of the Twitterati will be required is his threat but not so across the board. Those “sources” unnamed in the media supporting him and his party over and above, say Dan Andrews will be ok and of course that privileged protection he has when he’s in parliament will continue. Politicians should be allowed and encouraged to sue the electorate.
Morrison personally isn’t what might be regarded as an “action man”. He’s a wordsmith and has a team of highly paid elves on call constructing his words, slogans, and catchy sentences and he believes that’s should be an exclusive and protected by executive privilige.
Once again politicians and journalists are talking up the bad side of social media and threatening to police our Twitter identities. However, as Dr Martin Hirst argues, this is just another attack on our right to political speech.
However, this is the nature of political speech. The one thing that politicians hate – along with their media cheer squad – is being held to account for their words and their actions. They hate that we use social media to call out their lies and deceit.
In fact, they hate it so much that outgoing-ABC news boss Gaven Morris is encouraging journalists to quit the platform.
Said Morrison:
“I increasingly have told people at ABC News that I certainly don’t want them on there for their job. I’d have no problem if they choose to be there, personally, but we don’t need journalists to be on Twitter or to be on social media as part of their job.”
He’s fudging of course. The ABC – and all media – need the engagement, but they like it better when we keep quiet.
The AUKUS security pact is crippling our nation’s sovereignty and perpetuating our position as a lapdog to the United States, writes Dr Geoff Davies.
Despite lessons from Singapore, the UK, and others where public health is crashing despite 80-90% vaccination all that really matters to the LNP is they are wasting money on people and need the effen states to get out of their way. There is an election coming and they need some short term “seeming success” like Singapore initially did after they reached 80% vaccination of “all” their citizens. So who gives a fuck what happens in the long term as the election will have been done and dusted?
Meanwhile those individuals in real need of assistance or on the verge and teetering will be “stranded” but then they aren’t LNP votors or donors. Only those small businesses that don’t “snap back” will be coupled with those that were always at the bottom of the pecking order anyway. So, tough luck according to Frydenberg but he will have saved those organizations that pay the LNP to be the LNP and run their fiefdom Australia. Unfortunately the stock market has hit and iceberg before Frydenberg could save it a sign of worse things to come.
The federal government’s plan to cut off COVID-19 payments is partly to encourage states to open up faster and remove more rules, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said, despite business and social groups warning lockdowns may continue beyond 80 per cent vaccinations.
Source: Treasurer says cutting COVID payments will encourage states to open faster
Our political leaders will do anything to stay in positions of power, including deceiving the voting public on urgent matters of climate change, writes Sue Arnold. PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT issue facing this nation is not the pandemic, economic scenarios or nuclear submarines but a perilous lack of critical thinking and analysis by political parties, the mainstream media and a large majority of Australians.
LNP’s Mining Welfare scheme rolls on. His announcement is as genuine as the Phillip Morris announcement to “Unsmoke the Planet” with an investment in new technologies.
“Australia has a lot at stake,” he will say. “We cannot run the risk that markets falsely assume we are not transitioning in line with the rest of the world.” He argues the government is making progress on meeting emissions reduction targets and investing in new technologies.
Source: Treasurer urges protection of mining industry on road to net zero
The verdict Mr Hawke’s claim is cherrypicking. Australia “resettles” more refugees than most, but this only accounts for people transferred to Australia from other asylum countries, including refugees referred by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Fewer than one per cent of the world’s refugees are resettled each year, or roughly 108,000 of the 20 million refugees under the UNHCR’s mandate in 2019. Other countries take in far greater numbers of refugees arriving on their doorstep. In 2020, and for the fifth year straight, Australia ranked third in the world for the number of its resettlements from other asylum countries, behind Canada and the United States.
Big business doesn’t vote, small business does. That’s the dilemma for Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg as they try to keep JobKeeper secret heading into the election. Michael West reports.
Why is the Australian government devoid of any original strategic tactics of it’s own? Every move they make is directly from Trump’s American Republican Party the GOP? They don’t appear to have any specific tactics that are in any way Australian. They aren’t in anyway transparent but only intent on gaslighting the Australian electorate.
Yesterday the federal government quietly appointed Lorraine Finlay as the next human rights commissioner. She is a Murdoch University legal academic and human trafficking specialist with the Australian mission to ASEAN. Media releases from Attorney-General Michaelia Cash and the Australian Human Rights Commission both praised Finlay’s academic expertise and work in international human rights law. But they neglected to mention hers deep ties to the Liberal Party, as a former upper house candidate in Western Australia and president of the state’s Liberal women’s council. They also overlooked her years spent vocally taking positions that might put her at odds with the AHRC.
Source: The new human rights commissioner has perfect credentials (Lib, IPA, 18c)
Yes Minister and Politi-Speak : Sussan Ley controls the world’s coal demand and use
Ley wrote that she had found the mine’s expansion was unlikely to lead to an increase in global average surface temperatures, based on advice she received from the department. She said this was because the mine was unlikely to cause more coal to be consumed globally than would be consumed if she refused the project. She also found the project was unlikely to cause harm to human safety because it was likely that a comparable amount of coal would be consumed in its place if she rejected the development. She concluded that this meant the project would not result in an increase in global greenhouse gas emissions – a finding Lock the Gate labelled “bizarre”.
Morrison and his Coalition Government have announced 3,000 humanitarian visas for Afghan refugees but that is within the already allocated 13,750 refugee annual intake. He also pointedly mentioned that he would not tolerate refugees arriving “illegally” and would not create a “product” for people smugglers returning to his reductive narrative of framing Afghan refugees as potential threats to Australian security.
Australia is experiencing widespread, rapid climate change not seen for thousands of years and may warm by 4℃ or more this century, according to a highly anticipated report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The assessment, released on Monday, also warns of unprecedented increases in climate extremes such as bushfires, floods and drought. But it says deep, rapid emissions cuts could spare Australia, and the world, from the most severe warming and associated harms.
When Tudge crept out from under a rock to hold a media conference on Wednesday, Nine’s Jonathan Kearsley was waiting for him and chased him back to the ministerial wing demanding answers about his role in formulating a list of marginal seats where the car parks were to be allocated, in consultation with Scott Morrison. If the footage looked like a dodgy tradie being pursued by an A Current Affairs reporter, that was entirely appropriate, except that Tudge had rorted far more money than any tabloid TV crook ever has.
Source: Morrison’s stench of corruption is becoming all-pervasive in Canberra
Just before the Audit Office released its scathing indictment of the commuter car parks program, Australia quietly added the auditing profession to our skills shortage list. These two events really sum up the Morrison government – an outfit obsessed with tactical politics, wholly uninterested in governing, and contemptuous when it comes to governance. That we are running out of auditors shouldn’t be such a surprise. Sports rorts, female change room rorts, safer communities rorts – the sorry list goes on and on. But the commuter car parks program sets a new standard – a new low.
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