Over the years Australians have witnessed behaviours from the members of our government institutions that can be depicted as lacking. These days we have a word that is becoming increasingly common in our society, gaslighting; more specifically political gaslighting. Described by Medical News Today, “Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse where a person or group makes someone question their sanity, perception of reality, or memories. People experiencing gaslighting often feel confused, anxious, and unable to trust themselves.” The description provided by the Political Dictionary is, “Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or group”.
As we face a mounting ecological crisis, combined with racism and violence against First Nations people and refugees, Australia’s state and federal governments are ramping up anti-protest laws and even harassing the media. We need an organized fightback.
Australia’s biggest private and corporatised charities in aged care are threatening the government with a political campaign if they don’t get more money, on top of the $21 billion in government funding they get already. Throwing money at large providers has not worked, write Elizabeth Minter and Dr Sarah Russell, in a call for greater transparency and significant reform for the sector.
Like a bushfire – all it takes is a spark that is given time to develop. The Abbotts and Jones’ of this world do need to worry as their control is slipping day by day. What do you think?
Nobody in the coalition government is prepared to concede they are failing the unemployed. The party of “Jobs and Growth” has in reality been expanding “Unemployment and Recession” for years and no policy the government has implemented in Morrison’s $9B Social Security Safety Net seems capable of changing that path.
Christian Porter is responsible for serial breaches of the law, as documented here last year. These revelations alone should be enough to see Porter removed from official duties but his relentless persecution of Witness K and Bernard Collaery – both denied natural justice and prosecuted in secret – are hardly the stuff of a model litigant. Yet now the besieged Attorney-General calls for rule of law to apply in respect of the rape allegations against him. Elizabeth Minter reports.
Millions in JobKeeper subsidies and rent waivers has helped struggling department store Myer grow its profits by 8 per cent for the first half of the financial year despite a plunge in sales.
The Coalition could have saved the country billions if it had stuck to Labor’s original NBN plans and adjusted them with new technologies, Paul Budde reports.
The Morrison Government’s eye-watering stimulus package has little to show in the way of long-term benefit for the majority of Australians. Tarric Brooker reports. AS THE BULK of the Morrison Government’s coronavirus stimulus package draws to a close, one can’t help but be reminded of a quote from wartime British Prime Minister Winston Churchill: “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
The Government touts gas as being a key plank of JobMaker, its Covid-19 recession recovery plan. To help “support jobs” the government has given the gas industry $300 million of taxpayers’ money in subsidies. In return, the industry has cut about 3000 workers, more than 10% of it workforce, in a boom production year. Mark Ogge and Elizabeth Minter report.
When Young Liberals in Chris Hartcher’s Terrigal electorate were inspired by Brad Pitt’s Fight Club to head out late at night on what they called “Black Ops” to tear down opposition election posters, one could perhaps, despite the illegality, dismiss this as kids going a bit too far. The fact that Liberal hopeful Aaron Henry signed his email call-to-action as ”Tyler Durden” (Brad Pitt’s character) shows just how juvenile this crowd were. But when one of them then tried to destroy the career of Sydney Water chief Dr Kerry Schott via an anonymous email detailing a false complaint to the NSW ICAC, they moved from silly kids to dangerous. Carrying on in the same vein, there is a parliamentary group who call themselves the “Wolverines”, a nod to the 1984 Hollywood film Red Dawn, about a team of high school football jocks thwarting a Soviet invasion of the United States.
AN ALLEGATION OF the brutal anal rape of a child in 1988 has been made against an unnamed minister in the Federal Government Cabinet. The victim took her own life in June 2020. NSW Police have confirmed that a criminal investigation into the allegation dies with the victim.
An allegation of the brutal anal rape of a child in 1988 has been made against an un-named minister in Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s cabinet. The victim took her own life in June 2020. NSW police have confirmed that a criminal investigation into the allegation dies with the victim. Despite their knowledge that police will not investigate because the complainant is dead, government ministers and some journalists continue to claim that the matter must be left to the police. All of them are wrong, according to police.
Shipping group Qube Holdings will give back $17m in JobKeeper subsidies but pockets $13.5m and some fancy executive bonuses despite its revenue rising strongly. How did it pull this off? Callum Foote investigates how the Liberal Party-linked Qube gamed the Tax Office.
Dutton’s idea of making things better is, first make them worse,
One of the greatest challenges for a political commentator in recent years has been keeping track of the Morrison government’s lies and obfuscations. These have escalated considerably in the last couple of weeks, since former media advisor Brittany Higgins revealed she had allegedly been raped in Parliament House by a senior staffer. Since then, ministers, MPs, Senators, their advisors and staffers have devoted an inordinate amount of their taxpayer-funded time to covering their backsides about who knew what and when. According to estimates by the ABC’s 7.30 program last night, there appear to be thirty or more people with knowledge of the so-called “serious incident” in 2019, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison conspicuously excluded from the circle of knowledge. The latest government member to speak up is Home Affairs Minister, Peter Dutton. Dutton is, among other things, the minister responsible for the Australian Federal Police, as well having once served as a police officer in the Queensland Police sex offenders’ squad. You need this background as context for what comes next.
When you have a leader whose most memorable contribution has been a rather tragic Elvis impersonation, I guess it’s understandable that the natives might get restless. But in the last few weeks, the Nats have gone so far off reservation they seem to be occupying a totally different universe.
Climate denial from Rupert Murdoch’s toxic Sky News, Buffy the Vampire Slayer from Junkee. This sort of “news” will be on display on Google News Showcase as a result of the government’s regressive new media laws. It is a travesty for journalism and dangerous to climate and energy transition, writes Giles Parkinson, founder of independent media site Renew Economy.
In November 2020, Four Corners aired a program titled Inside the Canberra Bubble. The Morrison government went to great lengths to try to prevent the program going to air, and then threatened the ABC to the extent that the broadcaster’s Chair, Ita Buttrose, publicly defended the program. Alan Tudge, Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure, who campaigned on family values, was revealed to have had an extra marital affair with staffer, Rachelle Miller, who has now lodged formal complaints of bullying against him, and against Michaelia Cash. Attorney-General Christian Porter was alleged in the program to have a history of sleazy sexist behaviour towards women. Porter immediately announced he was taking legal action against Four Corners. However, we have heard nothing further about any such action. The number of Morrison’s ministers involved in allegations of sexual harassment and the concealment of sexual violence against women in their workplace is astounding. The message to women working in Parliament House is clear. No minister will support you. At time of writing Linda Reynolds, who was due to appear at the National Press Club today, has been admitted to hospital. Reynolds was expected to come under intense scrutiny at the Press Club today over her management of the Higgins rape allegations. The alleged rapist is also in hospital.
While Australia criticises other countries for their expansionist policies, it claims to own 42% of Antarctica. And although citing a “staunch commitment” to environmental protection of the Antarctic, proposes to build a $2 billion concrete aerodrome at its Davis base. Brian Toohey reports.
Selling no giving our resources away for short term funds
The “corporatisation” of Australian farming continues apace. Almost 14% of agricultural land is now owned by foreign investors who, according to a ruling by the ATO, do not have to pay capital gains tax on water rights. Callum Foote reports.
As a high-income-earning mortgage holder, my windfall has been twofold. First, last year’s tax cuts have delivered a boost to my take-home pay of about $93 a fortnight, or $6.66 a day. Meanwhile, the interest rate payable on my $700,000 (ish) mortgage has fallen from 2.69 per cent to about 2.13 per cent (thanks also to some savvy shopping around). This boosts my bottom line by about $150 a fortnight, or $10.74 a day.
THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA is reporting that the Nationals are revolting on climate change, demanding the new $1 billion Grid Reliability Fund be allowed to invest in coal and nuclear power.
Now Three accusers Morrison not interested in their names
Journalist: A second woman has been raped. Prime Minister: I don’t need to know who that is. Imagine for one moment the tremendous privilege Mr Morrison enjoys that allows him to choose not to know. By any measure this is a bizarre reaction to such news, and one wonders why the Prime Minister felt compelled to let everyone know that he doesn’t know the name of the second victim, and, even more oddly, that he does not need to know.
THERE WAS NO question which the world’s most admired country in 2011. Australia’s achievements included: The world’s highest median wealth, according to Credit Suisse; The greatest economic freedom in the OECD, according to the Heritage Foundation; 20 years of continuous GDP growth, alone in the developed world; Triple A credit ratings with all three global agencies for the first time in history; A jobless rate down to 4.92% in June, among the lowest five in the OECD and a level not achieved since; The Australian dollar hit a 30-year high of 1.095 U.S. dollars; The world’s best Treasurer, according to other global finance ministers; Australia’s first carbon pricing scheme was enacted, thereby joining the world on climate action; Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s speech to the U.S. Congress was interrupted six times for standing ovations, ten times for seated applause and received a record three-minute standing ovation at the end; and Australia was nominated at the 2011 G20 leaders’ summit to chair the G20. That’s the top ten. There were plenty more. ANU astrophysicist Brian Schmidt won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics; Samantha Stosur won the U.S. Open; and Sally Pearson was named IAAF world athlete of the year. It was a great year for global recognition. It’s a pity that so few successes were reported in Australia. Fast forward one decade and Australia is now condemned globally for its abject failures on more than ten substantial issues.
Google good, Facebook bad. That sums up mainstream media coverage of the Coalition government’s bizarre new media code. That’s because Google paid up, Facebook decided it was extortion and called Josh Frydenberg’s bluff, banning Australian news. Kim Wingerei and Michael West report on the corruption of mainstream media. As if Rupert Murdoch and the Coalition had not already flubbed Australia’s credibility around the world for their failure on climate change, now we look like we don’t know how the internet works.
The pathetic Morrison government protecting media monopoly against free circulation! Ah ha ha! Crumple. Back and forth, unable to know who to hate more. The government’s News Corp tax has turned a rich tangle of contradictions into a political event. The pleasure of watching the Morrison government’s face change as it slowly realises it might have bitten off more than it can chew is only mitigated by the haunting feeling that we will all lose whatever happens. At the topmost level is the most obvious political political advantaging of News Corp, by the government, requested or otherwise. News Corp may have said nothing explicit to Scott Morrison’s government but it didn’t need to; it’s been campaigning against tech/social media on its front pages for years. This global historical moment in tech v old media — the producers of Succession must be furiously rewriting episode nine of the coming season as we speak — has come about in Australia because we’re the “weak link” in the sham idea of a free press and democracy. We’re a Murdochracy, bought and sold, especially, but not only, when the Coalition is in power.
You wouldn’t necessarily know it from a media obsessed with posturing about Facebook, but it’s hard to overstate just what a disastrous week Scott Morrison and the rotten — in all senses of the adjective — government he leads has just had. Overlooked this week in the focus on Brittany Higgins and the implosion of the news media bargaining code was how deeply and bitterly divided the Coalition is. Scott Morrison was forced into the humiliating position of withdrawing a key bill — his legislation to push the Clean Energy Finance Corporation into funding gas projects — because his own backbenchers, led by former cabinet ministers Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan, intended to make it a vehicle for government funding of coal-fired power stations.
Why is this all happening? Our gutless Government is owned lock stock and barrel by conservative media. Our monopoly mainstream media is jousting with the monopoly social media platforms to gouge whatever they can out of each others’ revenue streams. Without the backing of monopoly level conservative media our current Government would have been chucked out long ago. So no surprise that the Coalition is sucking up to Murdoch. Bit trite for our Government to argue on behalf of Murdoch et al about how their revenue streams are being ripped off by the larger social media platforms, when that same Government is flaying the revenue streams of the ABC.
Tony Abbott closed Radio Australia down and let the Chinese in to take that space. Now the Morrison Government is preventing Australian News reaching the Pacific again giving that space to the Chinese while they slash the ABC’s budget instead 0f expanding it to to compete with Facebook. The LNP is supporting Murdoch and Costello’s private interests in exchange for political influence and ensuring fake news is concentrated in their hands. LNP are certainly the Pillocks of the Pacific( ODT)
Facebook’s move has also drawn an angry response from Pacific community groups in Australia. Nai Tuuut from the Pacific Community Council of Far North Queensland said her organisation relied on Facebook to share community news, as well as vital public health information in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Without us being able to share Australian news or even the Queensland Health is unable to post on Facebook, that just makes it extremely hard to keep our community up to date and just aware of what’s going on,” she told the ABC.
The LNP government is pulling out all stops to help Murdoch and Costello before the next election. If they truly wanted a real diverse information service rather than police Google and Facebook they should have enabled the ABC to develop a public rather than controlled service and invested funds instead of cutting those of the ABC. The ABC has protected us from the absolute crap and propaganda promoted on our privatized MSM. We as tax payers have seen our taxes abused, politicized and promises broken by the LNP at the fastest and most egregious rate in the past 8 years. How can the unions, multicultural, indigenous and critical communities communicate? At election times the LNP certainly doesn’t want them to.
Facebook blocking such a broad range of content will have a disproportionate impact on small community organisations and independent media, and in turn harm marginalised groups who have come to rely on the accessibility and ease of Facebook in accessing critical services and information. The code was never written with these groups in mind.
Former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins on Wednesday accused Scott Morrison of “victim-blaming rhetoric” – as the Prime Minister sought to explain why his own staffer failed to tell him Higgins had alleged she’d been raped. Malcolm Turnbull cast doubt on Morrison’s claim his office only knew of the allegation last week, saying it was “inconceivable” key members of the Prime Minister’s staff did not know earlier. Higgins, who worked for then defence industry minister Linda Reynolds, claims she was raped by a colleague after the two returned to the minister’s Parliament House late one night in March 2019. She has said she was very drunk and the assault occurred when she fell asleep on the minister’s couch. Morrison says he only learned of the rape allegation this week and his office only “became aware of this issue on February 12 of this year.”
With his government now engulfed in the scandal of its mishandling of the alleged rape of staffer Brittany Higgins, Scott Morrison faces the consequences of two long-running features of his political persona. There is now an obvious and serious discrepancy between what Higgins has said about the role of the Prime Minister’s Office in the aftermath of her alleged assault in Parliament House, and Morrison’s own claims — reflected in material circulated to journalists — that she is wrong. In short, Higgins says Morrison’s private secretary, former Crosby Textor luminary Yaron Finkelstein, contacted her in relation to the matter. Morrison says it didn’t happen and his office only became aware of the alleged rape last week.
Since World War II Australia has progressively ceded its sovereignty to the United States. The process was hastened by former Prime Minister John Howard who had little sense of national independence. Australia is now tied to a state suffering economic decline, a collapse in political consensus that may turn violent and diminishing international influence. In order to maintain supremacy, America has decided to confront rather than co-operate with China. And Australia is allowing itself to be dragged along behind the back of the truck.
A few weeks ago, Peter Dutton decided to release dozens of refugees who had been held in Melbourne hotel rooms for more than a year because it was “cheaper for people to be in the community than it is to be at a hotel or for us to be paying for them to be in detention.” What a revelation. Dutton told 2GB radio the released men had been assessed as not being a threat. Which is a turnaround from his fearmongering 2 years ago that the medevac bill, allowing these refugees to receive medical treatment on mainland Australia, would lead to “Alleged murderers, rapists and paedophiles” coming to Australia. Speaking of not being a threat, another court decision will be made today about the ongoing detention of the Biloela family. Priya, Nades, and their Australian-born daughters, Kopika, five, and Tharunicaa, three, were taken from their home in Queensland and moved to Melbourne in March 2018 and have been detained on Christmas Island since August 2019. Department figures provided to the Senate estimates process last month show keeping the family detained has cost $1.4m in the past year.
Pascoe also noted that Morrison refused to condemn the violence that occurred when the US Capitol was stormed by rioters in January, unlike Conservatives such as the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. A week later, Acting Prime Minister and Nationals Party leader Michael McCormack added fuel to the fire generated by LNP backbenchers spreading false or unsubstantiated statements on social media by stating Facts are sometimes contentious, and what you might think is right somebody else might think is completely untrue. “That is part of living in a democratic country. In 2015, on the release of a report into bullying and harassment in the military, Australian Army Lieutenant General David Morrison stated: ‘The standard you walk past is the standard you accept’. The comment was reflected on by a writer for The Huffington Post who went on to suggest Every time we accept the status quo of poor behavior, we are endorsing it. A strong leader should not only advise of behavior that is appropriate, they should embody it. They should be the person telling us that we don’t tolerate bullying or harassment. Morrison and the state premiers aren’t necessarily being booted permanently from Twitter or Facebook or inciting mobs to invade the Parliamentary buildings on Capital Hill, Spring St or George St, but they are implicitly supporting behaviours that demean the democratic process by not speaking out about them. They, and the parties they represent, are also openly involved in a winner take all battle where belittling, bullying and harassment of those with different opinions is not only common, but expected. In recent months, the US has seen the results of a winner take all battle of wills for the future of the country. Let’s hope our leaders observe, reflect and actually lead, before it’s too late.
IF THERE WAS one thing which should unite all media commentators, economic analysts, religious leaders and decent citizens in outrage against the Morrison Government, it is this. After the robodebt scandal in which the Government relentlessly pursued debt repayment from countless poor people, it can’t be bothered chasing millions rorted by the rich. The Coalition was ruthless in harassing pensioners for puny debts, that were often non-existent. It didn’t stop even when it was proven many were taking their own lives in despair. But they now refuse to require corporations to repay taxpayer funds fraudulently pocketed.
My thought for the day We exercise our involvement in our democracy every three years by voting. After that, the vast majority takes very little interest. Why is it so? ( John Lord )
Morrison must have known, when he made his announcement one month ago, that there was no possibility of vaccinating 80,000 people in February and 4 million by the end of March. He must have known this, and yet he delivered this message to the country anyway. This is not how we need a leader to behave in these circumstances, or any other.
The ABC can reveal Nick Warner started being paid as a consultant for the Prime Minister’s Department in January This is despite working for a private lobbying firm with close links to the Middle East Mr Warner is a former director-general of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service
“I suspect Orwell would see, as he did back in the 1930s, the rich and outrageous irony of governments using the resources of the people to manipulate them and to keep them acquiescent, passive and apathetic.” Shadow Minister for Public Accountability, Kelvin Thompson’s introductory remarks for the Government Advertising (Prohibiting use of taxpayers’ money on party political advertising) Bill 2005. Unfortunately the Thompson’s bill never got up. John Howard’s majority saw to that. It has now become widespread practice for Coalition ministers to spend public money advertising their political parties. Government ministers are using official ministerial announcements as a platform for Liberal Party and National Party advertising, drawing widespread condemnation for misuse of public money. The dubious practise reached a flashpoint this week after Health Minister Greg Hunt was caught branding an announcement for Pfizer vaccines with the LNP logo early. Hunt was questioned about the political party advertising by ABC presenter Michael Rowland and responded with personal insults, branding Rowland a “leftie”.
As election time rolls around – September and October are months most mentioned – it will be interesting to see whether Morrison and his ministers take their foot off the opening gear for the pork barrel sluice gate.
It might have made more sense to realise that PNG, precisely in being sovereign, is making its own arrangements. Security cadres in Canberra and Washington take issue with the fact that the natives are showing initiative. Shoebridge even comes close to accusing the country of being a harlot of international relations. “Promises of millions – even billions – of dollars for a remote province are attractive not just for the Moresby government but for provincial leaders who need to deliver funds to local supporters.” The sort of cash, in other words, Australia is simply not interested in supplying.
Fair enough, but the increases in compulsory super contributions will come out of the same bucket as wages – so-called on-costs which employers use to pay wage cheques, workers compensation, payroll tax, employees pay-as-you-go tax, and employees super contributions, which is also known as the “super guarantee”.
They can’t cut the ABC it’s too obvious .However Face Book and Google are their targets for not the right reasons
With a federal election due this year or early next, the misinformation from Australia’s mainstream media is ramping up. Alan Austin reports. COALITION PARTIES and the pro-Coalition media already spreading the falsehoods they hope will dupe enough voters. The upcoming election is already being influenced by these elements.
Kristina Keneally claims the federal government is “turning a blind eye” to the threat of white supremacists, in a dispute over a hotly contested Senate motion where the Coalition deleted and amended mentions of right-wing extremism.
But the premiers have been given a free pass because the lockdowns have been funded by the Commonwealth. That money runs out in March, so it will be interesting to watch whether the will to imprison populations remains in the face of cash-strapped states being forced to bear the full financial cost of their decisions. If push comes to shove when the cash dries up expect the premiers to direct their communities’ anger at Canberra. This is a risk for Morrison because he won’t win a fight with a popular premier on a state’s home ground. It’s another depressing lesson from the pandemic: Australia is still a collection of colonies masquerading as a federation.
Tensions have spectacularly boiled over in the halls of Parliament, with Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek and Craig Kelly squaring up in a heated argument over the Coalition MP’s debunked and “dangerous” claims about COVID.
Scott Morrison has taken another, albeit very small, step towards endorsing a target of net zero emissions by 2050. He told the National Press Club on Monday: “Our goal is to reach net zero emissions as soon as possible, and preferably by 2050”.
olddogthoughts 
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