Documents released under Freedom of Information reveal Australia approved 103 military export permits to UAE and Saudi during the Yemen war – and denied just three permit applications. Michelle Fahy investigates Australia’s escalating export trade in weapons with the Saudi dictatorship, in defiance of its international commitments.
Category: LNP
The Liberal Party has escaped accountability for its corruption for too long and the Australian public should speak up now, writes Grant Turner.
Source: Morrison’s corrupt LNP would crumble under a royal commission
It is embarrassing enough that the government is even considering PEP11, the proposal to drill for gas directly off the coast of Australia’s most populous beaches and wealthiest economic zone. The final decision rests with Resources Minister Keith Pitt. Luke Stacey and Michael West report.
Morrison is right – but not for his vacuous rhetoric. Future generations will judge us on what we deliver. Just as they judge us today on what we do rather than whatever our government might say – and then pretend it didn’t say or try to crabwalk away from. The inaction of this government to honour its obligations to its citizens in its travel ban on those trapped in India – or its chicanery on energy or climate change, its betrayal of its stewardship, or duty of care of the planet for future generations, is an indictment of its motives to seek and hold power for its own sake and a travesty of democratic principle and responsibility to its people. It is also a declaration of moral bankruptcy.
Source: Blood on your hands, Prime Minister? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Climate science tells us the world will likely need negative emissions technology – drawing CO2 from the atmosphere – if it is to meet the objectives agreed in Paris six years ago. The emissions from the gas burned at the new plant will ultimately add to the CO2 in the atmosphere, and they are avoidable. To borrow a phrase, you cannot offset your way to zero.
Government should focus on ‘disaster mitigation rather than clean-up’ as climate change events increase, industry experts say
At least 13 former Liberal MPs and political staffers have been appointed to plum federal government jobs since the start of the year, including a former deputy mayor given a 26-year-long, $10 million post at the Fair Work Commission.
Source: ‘Year of the mate’: At least 13 former Liberal MPs, staffers given plum jobs
And in true Orwellian Doublespeak, Prime Minister Scott Morrison used the war footing to paint himself as the champion of peace. Michael Tanner reports. It’s been a while since the government actually announced a policy and that drought looks set to continue. Because even though there was blanket media coverage of the fact that the federal government is planning a big budget spend, the government once again delivered that announcement via “a cosy briefing to a tight crew of chosen Canberra-based journalists“. And the cosy crew dutifully did their bit, with near-identical articles posted almost simultaneously late on Wednesday night, each regurgitating Josh Frydenberg’s draft speech, with reports of what the Treasurer “will say” littered throughout their publications. The only difference this time from previous drops was that the circle has expanded beyond The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Age/SMH, The Conversation, ABC and The Guardian. Rupert Murdoch’s tabloids are now also getting looped in, with The Adelaide Advertiser, The Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun and The Courier Mail all getting the drops, all running segments of the Treasurer’s upcoming speech,
“Equally, that should not come at the expense of dishonouring our Western heritage, which has made us the liberal democracy that we are today. We have to get the balance right and I’m concerned that we haven’t in the draft that’s been put out.” Under the proposed changes, unveiled by the national curriculum authority on Thursday, children will be taught that First Nations’ people experienced British colonisation “as invasion and dispossession of land, sea and sky”. References to Australia’s “Christian heritage” were also removed out of the civics and citizenship syllabus in favour of terms such as secular and multi-faith.
Source: Alan Tudge ‘concerned’ about colonisation emphasis in proposed curriculum changes
A glance at Angus Taylor’s track record somewhat explains the lunacy behind his latest plans for climate action.
Source: ANDREW P STREET: Questioning Angus Taylor’s sci-fi emissions plan
Well may Scott Morrison tear up as he relates how his daughters, wife and widowed mother drive his every decision. The facts are that every move of the Coalition government ensures women are poorer, more insecure at work and more vulnerable to violence on the job. The Industrial Relations bill pushed through last week is a final nail in the coffin for women. Alison Pennington reports.
Source: Crocodile tears no mask for Coalition’s economic war on women – Michael West
The latest official figures show Australia’s infrastructure investment has plummeted, reports Alan Austin.
AUSTRALIA HAS BORROWED heavily to weather the recent COVID-induced economic storm. But in contrast to previous major global recessions, it is emerging with virtually nothing tangible to show for the debt incurred.
Source: ALAN AUSTIN: Australia’s low infrastructure spend, despite record debt
Fossil fuel multinational Shell does not believe it will ever pay the Australian government a cent in resource taxes for the gas it draws from the country’s biggest gas project, Gorgon.
Morrison has repeatedly said he’s a “full termer” and has no plans of calling an election any time soon. It may be one of the few pledges he can keep.
A drop in the polls – largely due to the government’s manmade “women issues” combined with backbencher woes – had already left the Coalition teetering on the edge of minority government, making many MPs nervous.
The abrupt change in the government’s vaccine fortunes – once thought so golden that announcements came attached with Liberal party branding – turned nervous into anxious on Friday.
The Coalition government’s signature employment policy for young people JobMaker has created just 609 jobs. And thanks to the flawed design of JobKeeper, which shut out many young people from key financial support, superannuation accounts were emptied, for which the young will pay a heavy price down the track. Kathryn Daley, Belinda Johnson and Patrick O’Keefe report.
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In Morrison’s world, he didn’t say what he said. The states and the federal government are getting along harmoniously, and criticism of the rollout doesn’t actually exist. What is the above, if not textbook gaslighting?
Source: Latest & Breaking News Melbourne, Victoria | The Age
State of Surveillance: Online Safety Bill captures the bad stuff but Commissioner’s powers too broad
by Samantha Floreani | Mar 30, 2021 | Business
The Online Safety Bill, if passed in its current form, could further undermine political accountability by ensuring footage of police violence or human rights abuses, for example, is taken down. That the government is not listening to concerns about the bill’s wide powers suggests some of the consequences may be intended. Samantha Floreani reports.
Political bias and the lack of diversity in Australia’s media have received increased attention since former PM Kevin Rudd began a petition for an inquiry regarding these issues. Australia’s media is the most concentrated of any democracy in the world. The largest stakeholders (and chairpersons) of the three largest media companies in Australia – News Corp, Nine Entertainment Co and Seven West Media – all have known links to the Liberal Party. The ABC is also chaired by Ita Buttrose, another person with links to the Liberal Party. This overwhelming ownership (and management) of Liberal-aligned persons in Australian media has resulted in obvious bias in Australia’s media content, which is hindering democracy.
Scott Morrison’s dirt unit – the one that briefs the Prime Minister on gossip about press gallery bureaux but apparently not about alleged rape in a minister’s office down the hall – is worse than it seemed last week.
Michael Pascoe: Morrison’s mud throwing is worse than it seems
His problem is neither Christian Porter nor Linda Reynolds, the two ministers who for different reasons have caused so much political pain, volunteered to take one for the team.
Paul Bongiorno: Shuffling deck chairs can’t save sinking ship
1 in 4 unemployed Australians has a degree. How did we get to this point?
more than one in four graduates can expect to be either unemployed or underemployed four months after completing their undergraduate degree. So how did that happen?
1 in 4 unemployed Australians has a degree. How did we get to this point?
Australia’s serious economic mismanagement demands more attention than it is getting, reports Alan Austin reports.
Morrison Government piling Australia in debt
Once the government releases the final draft of the legislation, it will be easier to make a judgment on what it has in mind, but Mr Robert’s approach to developing the new legislation so far seems too secretive and confrontational.
Copy of Secretive approach to reform threatens consensus on NDIS
This government looks mean and tricky. They look mean because people – staffers, constituents being trolled online by their local member or the walking innocent caught up in robo-debt – have been treated like political problems that are often slimed or managed. They look tricky because everything is swamped by Canberra Bubble word-salad where process and middle management blather are used to hide bad behaviour, inaction or cover-up.
Dennis Atkins: Scott Morrison needs to hear some hard truths
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is being urged to take action against one of his veteran MPs, Andrew Laming, who late on Thursday was forced to apologise to two women for trolling them on Facebook.
PM urged to act after Laming apologises for ‘shocking’ trolling behaviour
After months of repeatedly assuring Australians public our vaccine rollout is on track, health department secretary Brendan Murphy has conceded it is behind schedule. “Clearly our rollout was slower than we originally anticipated,” Professor Murphy told a Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday.
Murphy admits vaccine rollout timeline ‘patently unachievable’
Scott Morrison has pointedly left in doubt the future of Christian Porter as Attorney-General, saying he is presently considering advice on Porter’s situation in the context of the “ministerial guidelines”.
Scott Morrison leaves Christian Porter’s future in doubt, amid reshuffle speculation
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his Party now acknowledge that migration is crucial to economic growth and prosperity, writes Dr Abul Rizvi. AFTER TELLING temporary entrants to “go home” just 12 months ago and cutting the Migration Program ceiling by 30,000 per annum to “bust congestion” as part of his 2019 pre-election Population Plan, Scott Morrison now says we must overhaul temporary migration in the post-COVID era to fill rapidly emerging skill shortages.
Morrison’s forthcoming ‘U-turn’ on migration
Since the Coalition won government in 2013, everything remaining that was good and worthwhile in this country has been trashed by the idiots who are theoretically in charge of running the country. All they are actually achieving is running us and our standards down to the level of the convicts and their keepers who first invaded this land. I am no Labor supporter, either, but I do want a government which shows a capacity to understand and cater for people’s needs. And, most importantly, recognises that equality of opportunity is a universal right! Instead we have a national government which has dragged a country, which once had enormous potential, into a ramshackle mess.
When will humanity, compassion, honesty and basic decency regain their places in our lives? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Despite his failings as Finance Minister and his reputation as a climate change criminal, Mathias Cormann will now head the OECD, writes Ketan Joshi.
Climate wrecker Mathias Cormann appointed head of OECD
A federal Labor MP has accused the Coalition of only taking national security threats seriously when it’s “politically convenient”, after the Australian spy agency, Asio, changed the language used to describe the rising threat of rightwing extremism. Ed Husic, who became the first federal MP to be sworn in on the Qur’an in 2010, said he and other Muslims had previously faced repeated calls from conservatives to condemn Islamist extremism “louder, stronger, and more regularly”. But Husic noted that some politicians in government ranks had taken exception to the term rightwing extremism now they were “being asked to confront an errant, ugly streak within conservatism”.
‘Hectoring’ from conservatives blamed for Asio move to dump term ‘rightwing extremism’ | Australian security and counter-terrorism | The Guardian
Most of the ASX-listed companies that received JobKeeper subsidies didn’t need it, and the great majority of those are keeping the money.
Alan Kohler on JobKeeper and how big companies made out like bandits
Cuts to the ANAO and ICAC in NSW make governments less accountable and more capable of decisions that go against the public good, writes Sue Arnold.
Cuts to auditing and corruption agencies hurt democracy and environment
Coalition’s war on casual workers a harbinger for assault on permanent workers – Michael West
The workplace abuses of the 18th and 19th centuries have returned under the guise of the gig economy. The Morrison government has now proposed sweeping changes to labour laws that will cut wages, entrench precarious work, cripple unions and hand absolute power to bosses. But the assault on casual workers is just the beginning. If the IR bill becomes law, permanent workers will also be affected. Alison Pennington reports.
Coalition’s war on casual workers a harbinger for assault on permanent workers – Michael West
The Australian Government has been stalling in our nation’s broadband progress, especially when compared to other countries, writes Paul Budde.
Australian Government falling behind on world broadband scale
It was with a sense of exhaustion and despair that I attended the women’s March for Justice yesterday. I’ve been attending similar protests for most of my adult life and yet, here we are, facing a Federal Government that offers us less justice than any other in my memory.
Higgins and Tame can’t do it alone: Men must step up
Writing in The New Daily, it was Dennis Atkins who drew our attention to the notion that we had a ‘transactional’ Prime Minister. He recounted an exchange between Nick Xenophon and the PM when Xenophon asked him if he’d like to catch up for a coffee to have a chat about issues, to which Morrison responded: ‘What for?’ ‘No, mate. I’m purely transactional.’ It was Morrison’s way of saying: “What’s in it for me?’. Reflect on that and then ask yourself how often he behaves in this self-seeking way.
Living with our ‘transactional’ prime minister – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The US will spend, if we want to be purists, $716 billion on the military. It’s actually a lot more because the National Security Agency is part of the military, and the CIA to all intents and purposes is military in nature and between them their secret budgets top more than the $50 billion that was leaked in a Congressional hearing eight years ago, and could be double that now since so much more US military activity is now handled by Special Forces acting under the direction of the CIA, but for sake of argument let’s just leave it at $716 billion. Russia’s military budget is $65 billion, and even if you tripled that to account for how much more expensive everything is in the US from soldiers’ pay to weapons systems would represent less than a third of what the US spends. China’s military budget $183 billion, and again, you could double that if you like to account for different costs and it would be less than half of the US military budget.
Let’s Stop Pretending Russia and China are Military Threats | The Smirking Chimp
Australia has exploited international students by reaping the benefits of their economic contribution before locking them out of the country during the pandemic, writes Hayden O’Connor.
The Australian Government’s shameful exploitation of international students
Scott Morrison might have been a moderately successful salesman – he has certainly bamboozled his political peers into buying into his pseudo policies – but his realistic concern for people’s needs is absolutely non-existent and every policy he announces is doing more and more damage to our future.
Are we really making progress? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
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