But if Australians followed the 2020 presidential race in the United States with greater-than-usual interest, it was because when boiled down, it presaged a plausible descent for Australia’s politics, too.
As Trump exits the White House, he leaves Trumpism behind in Australia
This loosely is how the Google/Australian media controversy has gone. If I use Google to look up Scott Morrison to see whether he’s announced that he’s taking another break and I’m directed to an article by newspaper that doesn’t have a paywall, then they’ll be relying on advertising from the traffic that goes to their site in order to make money. Why they’d argue that Google should be forced to pay, I can’t work out. It would be different if Google was plagiarising the articles or breaching their copyright, but if the media companies aren’t happy with this arrangement, then they can put all their articles behind a paywall.
Just Don’t Try To Make Sense And Accept That The Liberals Can Flip Position Without Anyone Noticing! – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Australia’s Disgusting Leadership (ODT)
Members of the Morrison government have saved their loudest outrage for Twitter, the social media platform Trump used to incite his followers, and the platform that has finally banned Trump for life. This, it appears, is the great injustice, an affront to “free speech,” and, wait for it, censorship.
When your government thinks banning Trump from Twitter is the real injustice – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Frydenberg, McCormack, Kelly and even Morrison shame our nation. They believe inciting encouraging and promoting sedition, violence, and insurrection is simply allowable and to prevent it a matter of “suppression of free speech”. Rest assured they don’t practice what they preach at home in the workplace or other of their social and cultural situations. Swearing like drunken sailors isn’t tolerated in their homes. Do they seriously listen to what they are saying? All readily condemning whistleblowers and journalists, so much so, that they demand we maintain and even strengthen the laws that prosecute them are (ODT)appropriate. They don’t speak up for Julian Assange who the American government wants to put away for 174 years. Not so poor old Don the victim of Twitter.( ODT)
Senior government ministers have lashed Twitter’s ban on Donald Trump as multiple social media giants removed the outgoing US President from their platforms.
Donald Trump Twitter ban: Josh Frydenberg ‘uncomfortable’
Labor’s health spokesman, Chris Bowen, seized on the controversy, arguing the social media giant had “called out ‘Conspiracy Craig’s’ medical disinformation campaign” after the prime minister, Scott Morrison, and federal health minister, Greg Hunt, failed to do so.
Liberal MP Craig Kelly attacks Facebook for warning him over unproven Covid treatment post | Australian politics | The Guardian
The overall population projection Treasury is now making is that once international borders fully re-open and things go back to “normal”, the population will grow at around 350,000 per annum for the second half of the 2020s. So, can we believe this latest population projection? Is Treasury really now being transparent?
Treasury’s latest population projections seem hard to believe
Australia seems hell-bent of damaging its economic security in the interests of being in the vanguard of a growing international anti-China “cabal”, writes William Briggs.
Australia, China and the weaponising of trade
How did an Australian-made transponder, a key part of drone technology, end up in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan where human rights abuses are prolific? Michelle Fahy investigates the murky trail of the drone bit and the cagey response of the Defence establishment from DFAT to DoD to Minister Marise Payne.
Not Just Careless: Australian weapons part turns up on Armenian battlefield – Michael West
As Jobkeeper, JobSeeker and other stimulus measures are wound back in 2021, it is doubtful the Morrison Government will rise to the enormous economic challenges ahead, writes Tarric Brooker.
The Morrison Government and the biggest withdrawal of spending since World War 2
Yes, confirmation bias is hard to overcome. If I use Gladys Berejiklian as my final example, I have to ask myself would I be upset if the premier of my state had kept their relationship with a corrupt politician a secret, failed to declare various conflicts of interest, shredded documents and removed computer files that gave information about pork-barrelling, failed to make masks mandatory because well, it’s just more rules, isn’t it, told us that there’s no real concerns about behaviour that some consider corrupt because everybody is and failed to protect koalas? Somehow I don’t think I’d be saying that they’re only human.
The Incredible Shrinking Prime Minister – » The Australian Independent Media Network
He reminds his daughters that if the economy can’t afford drugs for a child their age with Cystic Fibrosis, the child doesn’t get to breathe. No pressure. No emotional blackmail. What a mensch! What a man for our times. Yet as the pandemic becomes endemic, as his government’s debacle in its megaphone diplomacy with China begins to cost, the Morrison’s government’s hollow promises, lies and incompetence will be its undoing. Looking at the debacle that is the NSW government’s response to what may well prove to be a new wave of coronavirus cases surely no-one can miss the criminally negligent federal government behind the scenes. Our challenge is to hold it to account.
A criminally negligent federal government beneath the festive schmaltz. – » The Australian Independent Media Network
But with major pharmaceutical companies rolling out vaccines and millions of doses being bought by the United States, Britain, the European Union and Australia, developing countries argue such attempts to give them purchasing power in the market will only go so far. In October, India and South Africa asked the World Trade Organisation to temporarily waive intellectual property (IP) protections so that vaccines and other equipment for fighting COVID-19 could be made more cheaply at greater scale. Australia joined Britain, the US and the EU in opposing the move, arguing that existing rules on licensing would be sufficient to meet demand.
Fair global distribution of vaccines is vital
Top economists want the dole permanently increased in 2021 and a closer review of the federal government’s wage subsidy scheme JobKeeper to determine the future of the $100 billion lifeline.
Economists back JobSeeker extension, wage subsidy review
It was the first time Liberal government had lost a vote in the house since Peter Gutwein took over as Premier in January this year. Sue Hickey is often described as “maverick Liberal MP”. Maverick or not, it is highly unusual for parliamentarians to cross the floor, to side with their political adversaries rather than their colleagues, and Hickey’s decision spoke volumes about the subject matter at hand.
A Guaranteed Job? Radical idea to combat automation, alienation gathers momentum – Michael West
Charging exorbitant prices for travellers stranded overseas while raking in record government subsidies. Qantas and Virgin are the quintessential cases of “privatise the profits, socialise the losses”. Tasha May.looks at the airlines’ fine balancing act in corporate socialism during the pandemic.
Balancing Act: Qantas reaps $1bn from taxpayers, but jobs, flights, fares all up in the air – Michael West
“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favourable.” In many ways, Australia heading into 2021 is broadly summed up in this way.
No favourable economic winds for Morrison’s Australia
When it comes to the managing of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, there is plenty of blame to go around. But don’t look to the federal government to accept its fair share.
Paul Bongiorno: PM shirks duty in gold-standard quarantine blame game
The three key economic messages from the Morrison Government are quite false, but the media keeps promoting them anyway. Alan Austin reports.
No, Australia’s economy is not rebounding strongly. Who told you that?
Racism, fear and lack of moral courage sees Australia tied to a declining America.
Australia must forge an independent foreign policy
The Morrison government has proposed sweeping changes to Australian labor laws intended to cut wages, entrench precarious work, and cripple unions. The proposed changes would sweep away the remnants of collective bargaining and hand dictatorial power to bosses.
Scott Morrison’s Industrial Relations Laws Are a Kick in the Teeth for Australian Workers
Families who lost loved ones to COVID-19 in Victorian aged care homes say it’s “unacceptable” the federal government has kept them in the dark about an inquiry into the outbreak. It comes amid revelations the Morrison government is a month behind schedule and won’t be publicly releasing a report into the handling of the virus until Christmas.
St Basil’s families in dark amid Morrison government aged care delays
All foreign investment bids for Australian assets must be screened by the Foreign Investment Review Board From December 31, foreign buyers will face even more scrutiny when bidding for sensitive assets Experts say restrictions are being used to screen out bids by Chinese companies and are counterproductive to trade relations
Foreign investment clampdown prompts claims of Chinese buyers being ‘frozen out’ – ABC News
For Australia, lessons can be learned from Japan. New Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga used his first overseas trip to visit Indonesia and Vietnam. Suga signed a defence export deal with Hanoi and provided a $670 million low-interest loan to Jakarta. Suga also deepened security relations with Australia through a defence pact. Suga is making clear and systematic moves to diversify relations and contain Chinese expansion, yet is doing so without the belligerent bluster and crude diplomatic noise found in Morrison’s public displays. Japan has ongoing disputes with China over the South China Sea and tensions remain over Japan’s security arrangements with the United States, yet the two maintain productive and mutually beneficial trade and diplomatic relations. Former Prime Minister and specialist in Sino-Australia relations, Kevin Rudd, has described Japan’s approach as “do more, talk less”. For attention-hungry Morrison, such a strategy is inconceivable.
The global context of China’s assault on Australian trade and diplomacy
When one-third of casuals work full-time hours, almost 60% have been with their employer for more than a year, and more than half cannot choose the days they work, is the “flexibility” of a casual job really for the benefit of employees? Professor David Peetz reports.
Bad Gig: industrial relations “reform” bill delivers flexibility … for employers – Michael West
With the cost of energy generated from wind and solar now less than coal, the share of Australia’s electricity coming from renewables has reached 23%. The federal government projects the share will reach 50% by 2030. It is at this point that integrating renewables into the energy system becomes more costly. We can add wind and solar farms at little extra cost when their share is low and other sources – such as coal and gas generators now – can compensate for their variability. At a certain point, however, there comes a need to invest in supporting infrastructure to ensure supply from mostly renewable generation can meet demand.
Up to 90% of electricity from solar and wind the cheapest option by 2030: CSIRO analysis
Rumours are flying thick and fast over Scott Morrison’s impending ministerial reshuffle this week, but one particularly spicy one lasted barely minutes before being seemingly shut down.
Cabinet reshuffle: Rumours and daggers surround Scott Morrison’s line-up
The federal government’s industrial relations “reform” bill offers a new definition of “casual” employment that creates more problems than it solves. It effectively defines a casual job as anything described that way by the employer at the time a job commences, so long as the employer initially makes “no firm advance commitment to continuing and indefinite work”. Anyone defined as such loses any entitlement to leave they might otherwise have got through two recent Federal Court decisions. Fair enough, you might think. Casual jobs are meant to be flexible. There can’t be an ongoing commitment.
The truth about much ‘casual’ work: it’s really about permanent insecurity
The best interests of older people are not uppermost in this government’s thinking. Referring to older people requiring care as “consumers”, describing the transfer of residents to hospital as “decanting”, talk of “cohorting” residents into specific sections of a home and other dehumanising language set the scene for its priorities. Using aged care homes as a dumping ground to provide work for people who are unemployed is just the latest ploy, writes Dr Sarah Russell.
El Cheapo Aged Care: why the Coalition’s make-work schemes won’t work – Michael West
The government’s Cashless Debit Card almost fell apart on Wednesday night. Senator Rex Patrick’s refusal to support the government’s plans to make the scheme permanent gave some hope that this expensive, ideological and cruel policy would end.
Who’s really behaving badly? Confronting Australia’s cashless welfare card
“I think if the Australian government was sensible, it would bite the bullet and allow the people who are in Australia to stay,” Thom says, describing it as the most obvious solution – particularly in light of the halt to migration caused by Covid-19. “But given Australia has a policy of never allowing these people to stay permanently, then it has to accept other offers that are being made in good faith, like the New Zealand offer.” The home affairs department says Australia remains committed to its regional processing policy and is establishing an enduring regional processing capability in Nauru. “The Australian government’s policy remains steadfast: no one under regional processing arrangements will be settled in Australia,” it says.
Lives in limbo: more than 1,500 asylum seekers still face uncertain future | Australia news | The Guardian
The one difference in this country, the massive difference between the Labor Party and the Liberal Party, is energy policy.”
Murdoch and the Nationals join forces against NSW and ‘renewable energy stuff’
In days gone by, government ministers never survived misleading parliament, for example. But Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s offensive, bellicose ramblings about former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Monday (7 December), provide another case study in how to avoid scrutiny. Morrison was asked by Deputy Opposition Leader Richard Marles in Parliament: “Why have Tony Abbott and Alexander Downer been able to leave and re-enter Australia multiple times this year when there are thousands of vulnerable, stranded Australians who haven’t been able to get home once?” Morrison replied by alleging Rudd had also obtained privileged travel exemptions. Except Rudd hadn’t.
Morrison’s Anti-Accountability vaccine gets L-NP off Scott-free
Porter’s attack on workers will do something else as well. It is workers and households that have been the heroes of the recovery. While business has hidden in its bunker, Australians have endured lockdown, complied with often draconian restrictions on their freedom, then emerged to get back to work and start spending in exactly the way the government has urged them to. Their reward for that? Workchoices 2.0, designed to undermine their wages and further tilt the industrial relations playing field in favour of employers. It’s vicious, ideological and idiotically self-defeating.
Christian Porter’s new wage growth attack defies Reserve Bank advice
In summary, if Scott Morrison is a prick, how good a prick is he?
Scott Morrison is not a prick
A
Remember the promise of the Casual worker’s bonus for benefit sacrifice that was a Trumpian promise still in waiting.
The government sat on a report into the retirement income system for four months because it was so politically sensitive and then released it on the day the Brereton report into potential war crimes in Afghanistan was released. Harry Chemay looks at what’s at stake in the debate around the rise in superannuation guarantee levy.
Assuming employers will lift wages in place of superannuation levy is a triumph of hope over experience – Michael West
My thought for the day In terms of the environment, I wonder what price the people of tomorrow will pay for the stupidity of today. ( John Lord)
Patting yourself on the back for what? It’s pitiful. – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The Liberals Are Ramping Up the Marketization of Australia’s Public Schools
Public school teachers have been working harder than ever during the pandemic. But that’s not enough for the New South Wales Productivity Commission, which wants to cut pay and conditions, while increasing productivity by pitting “value-added” teachers against their colleagues.
The Liberals Are Ramping Up the Marketization of Australia’s Public Schools
The nation’s domestic intelligence agency will be able to spy on Australians who have been working for a foreign power when they return from overseas under the biggest overhaul of Australia’s national security laws in four decades.
Intelligence review recommends biggest overhaul of national security laws since 1980s
Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg billed taxpayers almost $5,000 to take the prime minister’s private jet on a whirlwind trip to Sydney on the night of Lachlan Murdoch’s Christmas party, leaving Canberra after 6pm, attending the Bellevue Hill soiree and then returning to the capital before 9am the next morning.
PM and treasurer bill taxpayers for private jet to Lachlan Murdoch’s Christmas party | Australian politicians’ expenses | The Guardian
There are voluntary redundancies going on left right and centre. For people who rely on research funding, I think this is the final straw.” University of Western Australia genetic disease researcher Dr Gina Ravenscroft found herself shaking as she read the grant results, on which the employment of her colleagues depended. “It is not a way to live, where you are so worked up and stressed about whether or not you’re going to be able to keep employing people,” she said. “There is just no way that is a sustainable way to fund research.”
Coronavirus Australia: Scientists face bleak Christmas as COVID-19 funding crunch hits research
Clay foot diplomacy is all the rage in Canberra, and the Australian government has become a solid practitioner. Having stuck its neck out across continents and seas to proclaim the need to investigate China over the origins of the novel coronavirus, the Morrison government now finds itself in the tightest of corners. Very much one to bite the hand that feeds it, Australia is trying to prove in international relations that you can, from behind the curtain, provoke your largest trading partner while still hoping to trade with it.
Doctored Indignation: Australia-China Relations – » The Australian Independent Media Network
It is time the Australian Bureau of Statistics changed the way it reported unemployment figures, writes Alan Austin. Australia’s real unemployment rate is closer to 13% than 7%.
Reality Underemployed: time for truth in jobless figures – Michael West
If Newspoll is to be believed so far the Prime Minister is getting away with his evasions and obfuscations, but the two-point lead in the preferred party lead suggests the government hasn’t got a comforting buffer. Indeed, it is within the margin of error for a lineball result.
Paul Bongiorno: Atrocious decisions all the way up the chain of command
Australian governments and their defence leaders, with help from lobbyists, choose immensely complex, overpriced and overmanned weaponry. Wasteful spending has to end, writes Brian Toohey.
“Mind-boggling” waste revealed in the record rise in weapons spending – Michael West
Australia’s mainstream news media is largely tied to the Liberal Party which is driving our nation towards authoritarianism, writes Richard Gillies.
The effect of Right-wing bias in Australia’s media
My stomach has really toughened up since working in aged care,” Nicole* told the ABC. “I once saw a sign in the kitchen saying ‘essence of chicken’ in a big bucket … it is a disgrace. Ads showing ‘nutritionally balanced’ food are blatant lies.”
Would you eat this? The real food inside aged care facilities in Australia – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
As Australia is a global pariah on climate change, it is a pariah for not cracking down on money laundering and financial crime that facilitates child exploitation and terrorism. But with the Greens’ amendment to the anti-money laundering/counter-terrorism financing bill to be debated this week, Labor, the Coalition and the cross-bench senators will have to decide: are they owned by the powerful property, accountancy and legal industries or not? Tasha May reports.
Money-laundering bill finally back in Parliament despite fight by Law Council, property lobby – Michael West
More than 120 consumer, legal and other associations and almost 100 “prominent individuals” have signed an open letter to MPs urging them to reject a bill that would axe important borrower protections.Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s decision to overhaul the National Consumer Credit Act is an attempt at making it easier for consumers to obtain loans and spur growth as the economy slides into recession.
‘Borrower beware’ of new responsible lending laws
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Australia’s top diplomat, Frances Adamson, have both set out a vision for Australia that accepts the old order is changing.
Scott Morrison’s new vision for Australia accepts the old global order is changing – ABC News
