Modern history shows Australia’s Coalition is incapable of effective defence planning and military hardware procurement, writes Alan Austin. THE LATEST FAILED attempt to upgrade Australia’s submarines – which has wasted multiple billions of borrowed dollars and eight years – follows a string of Coalition disasters.
Source: Submarine fiasco the latest in a long list of Coalition military failures
Threats to Australia’s democracy come in many forms but none is so insidious as the one posed by the power of corrupt money. The perception that politicians are open to influence by cash has the effect of sapping voters’ faith in the system and pushes them towards, on the one hand, extreme views and, on the other, apathy and disengagement.
Source: Blind trust gift to Porter undermines faith in democracy
Doing Business with LNP Australia and “That Fella Down Under ”
Australia signed a multi-billion dollar contract to buy French submarines in 2016. The new agreement effectively ends that deal. “This is a decision contrary to the letter and the spirit of the cooperation that prevailed between France and Australia,” France’s foreign ministry said in a statement. “The American choice, which leads to the removal of an ally and a European partner like France from a longstanding partnership with Australia, at a time when we are facing unprecedented challenges in the Indo-Pacific region… marks a lack of consistency that France cannot but note and regret,” it added.
Source: US, UK and Australia agree new Asia Pacific security pact | Military News | Al Jazeera
Hope Unlimited church reported a profit of $43,355 in 2019, which increased dramatically to $1.6m in 2020 in part with government pandemic payments
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.
Matthew Guy might entertain a secret wish that Scott Morrison loses the next federal election. Although the PM will not be taking the Victorian Liberals wishes into account, the next federal election date has major ramifications for Matthew Guy. If – as looks likely – the Morrison government is tossed out, then that assists the state Liberals. If Anthony Albanese wins, the new PM and his team recruit and cherry-pick the best staff from all the ALP states. Andrews’ advisers, working for the pre-eminent ALP premier, will be much sought after, leaving him relying on a new team in a state election year. Meanwhile, Matthew Guy will have an abundance of battle-hardened Liberal evacuees from Canberra looking to ply their trade, which re-invigorates a tired state Liberal Party. But the federal scene is not pretty for the Morrison [almost minority] government, and Victoria looks particularly ugly. Of the 21 “marginal”, Liberal-held seats to defend, the biggest clump of seven are in Victoria, then four in NSW, four in Queensland, three in WA, two in Tasmania and only one in SA. That is why Dan Andrews will accuse Scott Morrison of being the PM for NSW whenever he can. Inexplicably the PM is giving Andrews ample opportunities.
Source: Matthew Guy: If the PM loses, the big winner may be this guy
RoboDebt wasn’t as generous as the ATO
Pressure mounts to publicly name companies that received JobKeeper while turnover increased ATO will not pursue $180 million in JobKeeper payments to businesses that made ‘honest mistakes’ Questions were raised about the definition of ‘small and medium business’
JobKeeper for dentists? Fair enough. But more public subsidies for doctors’ lobby groups who enjoyed rising surpluses or hardly suffered a downturn? Callum Foote reports on Australia’s Medical Colleges refusing to pay back the millions in JobKeeper payments.
Source: “Everybody did it”: wealthy doctors lobbies ride JobKeeper gravy train – Michael West Media
Written in 2018 prior to Guy losing 11 seats at the Victorian State Election and resigning from his leadership, this story will leave you wondering if he’s really the best Guy for the job.
Source: Flashback 2018: The bad Guys
The Liberal Government has a new tactic in the effort to reopen our country — convincing the public that COVID-19 deaths aren’t a big deal, writes Dr Jennifer Wilson. NEW SOUTH WALES PREMIER Gladys Berejiklian has mastered the challenging technique of announcing COVID-19 case numbers and deaths in a manner so upbeat it verges on jollity.
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.
The LNP continues to make refugees and asylum seekers suffer by their political silence and lack of direction. Morrison talks about human rights but maintains policies that reflect otherwise. Preparing to return Afgan refugees to land they risked life and limb to escape.
As late as 28 July this year, with the Taliban brutally ascendant across Afghanistan and days from capturing the capital Kabul, Afghan nationals were told by the Department of Home Affairs they were “expected to depart Australia”. After the subsequent rapid fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, the Australian government announced “no Afghan visa holder currently in Australia will be asked to return to Afghanistan while the security situation there remains dire”. But that moratorium is only temporary, and it appears it does not apply to Afghans in Australia who do not hold a visa.
Mr Guy is seen by supporters to have better political instincts and cut-through than Mr O’Brien. Some MPs think the former leader, who was heavily defeated in the 2018 poll, has more energy in front of the camera, an attribute that is crucial for relevance-deprived oppositions who have struggled to achieve success across the country during the pandemic. However, Mr Guy will probably come under scrutiny for his rezoning decisions as planning minister in the previous Liberal government, as well as the infamous “lobster with a mobster” scandal sparked by his dining with an alleged mafia leader. Mr O’Brien begun contacting MPs to shore up support on Sunday evening. Neither Mr Guy nor his supporters were returning calls from The Age on Sunday night.
Source: Michael O’Brien’s leadership in doubt as Liberal spill proposed as early as Tuesday
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)
Tonight, Sixty Minutes is doing a piece on this massive rorting of public money but evidently Frydenberg was not available to be interviewed : perhaps he had to wash his hair !
Source: JobKeeper : Welfare for the Wealthy ? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
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”.
Without Murdoch Clive and the IPA
There is the smell of political death about the PM writes The Canberra Times’ Jack Waterford. The veteran joins Niki Savva in noting the unprecedented shift of power from the commonwealth to the states, a direct function of a weak, untrustworthy PM who increasingly reveals his lack of leadership in National Cabinet meetings. It may take the federation decades to recover from the collapse in Prime Ministerial leadership. The Coalition’s primary vote drops to 36 per cent, according to News Poll – the party’s lowest since March 2019 and over two points below its May 2019, election result. Yet Labor support rises to 40 per cent – its best result in the poll since December 2018.
When the premier of Australia’s biggest state warns the country that things are going to get much worse before they get better, we should thank her for her honesty and urge our national political leaders to take note. In many ways Premier Gladys Berejiklian has no alternative but to face the facts of her own lethal misjudgments since June; she is trying to move the argument from case numbers to hospitalisations at the very time when the state’s health system is already struggling to cope. The day on which a new record of 1290 infections was announced, Ms Berejiklian was warning her hospitals would face even greater pressure on stretched intensive care units peaking in October, the same months she hopes the state will reach 70 per cent of its adult population fully vaccinated. This in itself is a reality check. If you take an increasingly strident Treasurer Josh Frydenberg at his word, he will withhold federal financial support for people in states whose governments continue lockdowns once the 70 per cent national target is reached. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is warning states to stick to the reopening plan as economists warn of another technical recession. Photo: AAP He says th
Source: Paul Bongiorno: Truth serum needed just as much as more vaccine doses
The new dawn looms. Where the unvaccinated are Morrison’s scapegoats and our children are used as guinea pigs. Sometimes making people do something can be tricky. Some go for the gentle encouragement method. Others go for the ‘scare the crap out of them’ approach. It’s sad to see NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and some in our media taking the latter approach. In what has now finally been declared a race to vaccinate, I personally feel the scare tactics have gone a step too far. I listen to the daily updates of the hundreds of COVID-19 cases in NSW and hear the daily death toll as we all do. But like many others I wince when I hear the victims of Sydney outbreak described not as loving mothers, or cherished sons, but as ‘unvaccinated’. Like that is the most significant thing about their life. We all want to see more people vaccinated, but I think this public branding of a victim is both perverse and disrespectful. It borders on victim blaming.
Morrison’s reliance on Private MainStream Media to not to keep repeating his history of failing to act, to act solely in his political interest, to repeatedly misinform and not do his job has been the mainstay of his self-serving approach to government. He holds the media’s purse strings and Murdoch, Costello, Stokes, Ch10, and WiNN know it. Murdoch has the biggest private grip on as a paid influencer and is intent on getting the biggest portion of the LNPs budget.
A political party with the sole purpose of eradicating Federal Government corruption has been registered in time for the next election, but may not make it to the starting gate. Investigations editor Ross Jones reports.THIS WEEK, the Morrison Government provided new proof – if any was still required – that Australia needs to police its politicians.
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.
When politics is neither a duty or a service and reduced to simply a game of 4 years to set up winning at all costs then there is only 1 party to vote for ant that’s the opposition.
The Morrison Government is about to pull one of its best-ever scams. All of the Coalition’s many tricks take Australians to the cleaners, but this quiet little rort is aimed squarely at Australian democracy.
Source: Killing competition and a Federal ICAC, courtesy of the Coalition
The man in charge of Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s office was running corporate affairs at Westpac’s BT when the superannuation giant was aggressively covering up a major scandal involving the gouging billions of dollars from its members.
Source: Frydenberg’s revolving door
Australian workers have received all-time low annual wages rise over the financial year just ended, reports Alan Austin. AUSTRALIA HAD ALWAYS rewarded workers with steady wage increases year on year as industrial cooperation and improving productivity have generated ever-rising company profits. That is, until 2013, when the current Coalition Government came to power. In the eight years since then, wage rises have fallen to a fresh all-time low six times, the latest at an appalling 1.71%, according to last week’s data.
Source: Morrison delivers for foreign corporations: Lowest wage rise on record
Australia has a long history of meddling in the affairs of its Pacific neighbors. In the Philippines, right-wing strongman Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs” amounts to state terror — which Australia’s government has enthusiastically supported through military aid and legal advice.
Source: Australia Is Enabling State Violence in the Philippines
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.
One is reminded that American President Richard Nixon repeatedly made the claim that he was speaking for “the great silent majority” of his country. One can note that he was not a member of such a group since he was making a noise in speaking.
Source: Coalition counts on deathly silence from ‘quiet Australians’
You’ve got to hand it to the Deputy PM, he does a pretty good WC Fields with practically no theatrical training. Sure, parliament is theatre, but a NIDA admission would elude most of them. Talentless. Barnaby Joyce, on the other hand, makes it look easy, especially when he is channelling a movie star whose schtick is playing a drunk. Probably due to cultural cringe, the Australian media largely ignored Barnaby’s bravura performance in last Wednesday’s Question Time and left it to the UK’s Daily Mail to write a glowing revue:
Source: Barnaby Joyce wasn’t drunk, that was just an Oscar-worthy performance
It’s fair enough to ask if Morrison has proved he is up to it, whether he has the courage, the ability and the wisdom to continue to see the country through these most testing times. Has the Prime Minister grown into the job? An increasing number of Australians think not. Has the Prime Minister grown into the job? An increasing number of Australians think not.Credit:Dionne Gain If you believe the polls, more and more Australians are nudging towards saying no: he does not. They question whether he has the physical, intellectual or mental ability or even the empathy to lead, to earn trust, build coalitions, forge consensus, or to be something more than a moneybags, a punching bag or a spokesman for the premiers.
Source: Prime Minister Scott Morrison in trouble but could again land on his feet
The Government department which covered up the security report into the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins is also the department found to have a culture of bullying, and is also the department whose staffer is threatening multiple legal actions against small publishers and other Australians. What is going on at Parliament House? Michael West investigates the Department of Parliamentary Services.
Source: Parliament’s Department of Cover-Ups faces bullying claims, tangle of lawsuits – Michael West
Unexplained legal judgments raise questions that deserve a hearing.
What makes it so scandalous is court case has dealt with suppressed evidence and applications to remove and redact documents in court file where there has been extensive argument to justify it. But when it came to my affidavit and written submissions there was no argument and/or application to have the affidavit and written submissions removed. What does “apparently” mean in her reason where she says, “given they contain apparently scandalous and scurrilous material about third parties”? “Apparently” means she was told by someone else. Who was it? Justice Jagot’s abuse of the law is obvious because even it was true and my documents did contain “scandalous and scurrilous material about third parties” those parts could have been redacted, like numerous other documents in this matter have been when challenged, and put back in the court’s online file. And who is this “third party” and what did I say about them?
“But I think the problem is the messaging around the vaccination, because if you’re telling people at some stage, ‘oh you shouldn’t have this vaccine, it’s probably not the best thing for you’ and then you want to change that message and say ‘oh, no we’ve changed our mind, it is good’, I think that makes it difficult for people who are considering whether to get vaccinated and when to get vaccinated. “Public health messaging needs to be really clear and when it changes, it can be difficult for people to deal with and have effects that were not intended and that may be what’s happened in Australia.
Source: Australia COVID: AstraZeneca vaccine creator says Australian lives at risk over mixed messaging
Far worse than the ALP’s Pink Bats and how many has this government let die
Is the Morrison Government’s COVID-19 vaccination rollout program one of Australia’s biggest ever public policy failures?
Source: Public policy failure of Coalition’s vaccine rollout
REAL CRIME IN AUSTRALIA ISN’T POLICED
Payments described as ‘waste of public money’ represent almost 14% of the $90bn program
Recent data confirms Australia’s economy is currently being managed more ineptly than at any time in the last sixty years, reports Alan Austin.
Source: Morrison’s recession: Australia’s worst since records have been kept
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.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has failed monumentally. Malcolm Turnbull before him failed and prior to him, Abbott, the destroyer, added to the damage of John Howard’s legacy. Why anyone under 35 would vote for the Liberals has got me beat. They would be like turkeys voting for Christmas.
Source: Wren’s Week: Liberal Party are intergenerational thieves
Scott Morrison this week more or less trashed Australia’s top advisory body on immunisation, in remarks that were at best ill-judged and at worst alarming. On Wednesday Morrison told a news conference he (or the government) made a “constant appeal” to the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) to review its advice on AstraZeneca according to the balance of risk. On Thursday he said on radio: “I’ve just simply said balance of risk is changing, guys, so how is that impacting on your advice, and it’s time to think about that”. The “guys” (and girls) on ATAGI are obviously as aware as anyone of the changing risk profile as cases increase.
Source: Grattan on Friday: Morrison wrong to try to influence advice from expert immunisation group
Scott and Gladys were so intent on dividing the country they forgot that pride comes before a fall. They both failed the test of leadership blinded by their populist electioneering. Now they are looking at others to blame when all they need is a mirror.
Watching New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian and her “gold standard” pandemic management unravel before our eyes is a bittersweet moment for many people — Victorians, in particular.For months on end, Gladys has been held up as the model all should follow. We have heard that Gladys’ gold standard contact tracing was second to none. That her approach to handling the pandemic was far superior to her mere mortal non-Liberal counterparts around the country. Even that she single-handedly “saved Australia”.
Source: Liberal Party pandemic management: Exemplary — thanks, Gladys!
The prime minister has until next May to hold an election. The government has ample time to play catch-up with the rollout. If further outbreaks are contained and the elusive herd immunity is achieved by then, lockdowns will have become a thing of the past. The relief at being able to move on may obliterate current disquiet. Further, in normal circumstances, policy virtue is not necessarily synonymous with political success. The last federal election was an indicator of this. The Coalition triumphed despite a threadbare policy program. In other words, policy prowess is only ever one measure of a government’s success.
Source: Is the COVID vaccine rollout the greatest public policy failure in recent Australian history?
“It’s our waste, it’s our problem”, said Scott Morrison as he announced the nation’s waste export ban culminating in 2024. Not really. It’s a good thing Australia has banned solid waste dumping to the Third World but we have left a gaping, toxic loophole; burning plastics for energy. Luke Stacey investigates.
Governance experts fear Australia is sliding down the “slippery slope” of corruption, calling on the federal government to overhaul its planned integrity commission in the wake of an auditor-general report into a program funnelling hundreds of millions of dollars into Coalition-held seats.
The problem with the system is that it premised on competition, not collaboration. This model of employment services, delivered by outsourced providers, seems to have mostly benefited the providers.
Source: The problem with employment services: providers profit more than job seekers
However, for the past 13 years, only one party has been in control of the situation no matter the sentiments of the electorate. It s point of political difference as they believe ‘fear’ wins them the power game. Forget the service.
Neither side of politics can honestly claim to be above blame here. Both the Coalition and the Labor Party have played their part in the increasingly inhumane immigration and welfare practices imposed in the name of ‘compassion’. Both side of politics have weaponised human lives. It needs to stop.
Source: Compassion – you’re kidding – » The Australian Independent Media Network
A takeovers binge is in swing in the jobless sector as the biggest private provider of employment services, the foreign multinational Max Solutions, mops up smaller players and posts strong revenues from government. Stephanie Tran investigates the Jobactive scheme and the failure of privatisation.
Source: Foreign multinational Max Solutions the biggest winner in pandemic jobs crisis – Michael West
Not only had Mr Morrison’s net approval slid to its lowest level since the 2019-20 bushfire crisis, popular support for the Coalition (down two points) and Labor (up two points) was deadlocked at 39 per cent. The four-point turnaround equates to Labor taking a 53-47 lead in a two-party-preferred vote and a significant defeat for the Morrison government if a federal election was held.
Source: Labor takes 53-47 lead as Scott Morrison’s approval rating plummets
Vying for the top job with Petter Dutton for being Australia’s worst Minister of everything
Stuart Robert has been the Minister for Employment for less than four months but already has the art of fudging figures and faking facts finely honed, writes Alan Austin.
Source: A new Employment Minister, but the deceptions continue
Incredibly, a survey finds 42% of Australians believe China will attack Australia, this despite exports to China surging 36% over in the last six months, and despite there being no logical rationale for war with China, or an attack by China. Marcus Reubenstein analyses the ludicrous position of Australia’s China hawks and the mainstream media pushing their agendas.
Source: War with China: zero logic yet the weapons lobby has 42% of Australians believing it – Michael West
The overwhelming response – which followed a plea for donations on Shanks-Markovina’s YouTube channel – showed the public was on their side, he said.“We have received more than 24,000 individual donations – that’s more people [than] who first voted John Barilaro into parliament,” he said in a statement.Among his supporters is former prime minister Kevin Rudd.
Source: More than $1 million raised for friendlyjordies legal battle
Here’s a Boat you wouldn’t want to be in and it’s not even on the water. There’s an LNP wall of silence in their way.
When Australian soldiers withdrew from Uruzgan Province, local builder Hammedullah Hammedie knew he had to flee as well. Because of his work for Australia, Hammedie says he was a target of the surging Taliban.
Source: ‘My destiny to die’: Afghan who helped Australian soldiers pleads for visa
