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
Category: LNP
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
Former WA Liberal MPs Nigel Hallett, Brian Ellis misused electoral allowances, CCC inquiry finds – ABC News
The CCC alleges Nigel Hallett and Brian Ellis engaged in serious misconduct Mr Hallett allegedly paid his lover a taxpayer-funded wage for a “sham” job Mr Ellis spent thousands of dollars of his electoral allowance at a strip club
Former WA Liberal MPs Nigel Hallett, Brian Ellis misused electoral allowances, CCC inquiry finds – ABC News
Why is the Coalition trying to abolish a valuable safeguard for consumers? | Australian economy | The Guardian
The LNP is the jettisoning of responsible lending obligations (RLOs). The proposal to remove RLOs for much of consumer lending from the relevant legislation, under the guise of supporting economic recovery, and unsurprisingly supported by the banks, has provoked widespread opposition.
Why is the Coalition trying to abolish a valuable safeguard for consumers? | Australian economy | The Guardian
Yes, I’ve noticed over the years that the Liberals often have excellent solutions to problems that would be the perfect answer except for the fact that there’s no explanation about the steps to get to the actual solution. In much the same way that we were told that the answer to unemployment was to create jobs and growth, Joe Hockey told people that the way to buy a house was to get a better job, and that the best form of welfare was a job, we now have Timmy Wilson telling us that it’s better to buy a house than to increase your superannuation. Of course, how people on lower incomes manage to buy a house when they’re getting enough for an extra cup of coffee, well, that’s not really addressed.
Beggars, Choosers And Tim Wilson! – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The Morrison government has big plans to channel huge amounts of money to News Corp.
Coalition has an impressive array of programs to fund News Corp
Scott Morrison says Australia’s position has been wrongly interpreted as siding with the US over China. Yet two of the main funders of the Federal Government-owned think-tank ASPI, a constant critic of China, are the US State Department, whose secretary Mike Pompeo has led the charge of global anti-China sentiment, and foreign weapons makers. Marcus Reubenstein investigates.
Revealed: radical escalation in US war machine funding for Australian Government “think tank” ASPI – Michael West
Scott Morrison’s attempt last week to crab walk away from his government’s insistence on being able to use so-called “Kyoto credits” to achieve Australia’s formal commitments under the Paris Agreement was inevitable. Morrison’s position was not only legally baseless and at odds with the rest of the world, it did nothing for the atmosphere.
Australia needs a climate policy vision – not a pathetic crab walk
So much for “we stand alone” stance insisted by Morrison. Broadsides coming from America suggest otherwise. (ODT)
Senior United States Senator Marco Rubio has lashed the Chinese government for its “economic coercion” against Australia, saying it is important for a global alliance of democracies to speak up in support of Canberra. The intervention from the former Republican presidential candidate followed a sharp escalation in rhetoric from Beijing as it doubled down on its claim that the Morrison government is solely to blame for deteriorating relations between China and Australia.
Senior Republican senator Marco Rubio slams Beijing for ‘bullying’ Australia
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released unemployment figures for the month of October, and in its monthly labour force survey on Thursday revealed an increase of one-tenth of one per cent nationwide, bringing the figure up to an even 7.0 per cent.
Ignore the spin – unemployment still up, says ACTU – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Morrison’s On The Water Matters Department is excelling itself (ODT) Scott Morrison’s office complied with legally imposed deadlines in just 7.5% of the freedom of information requests it received last year.
Scott Morrison’s office met freedom of information deadlines in just 7.5% of cases | Freedom of information | The Guardian
What the national audit office found was a carbon copy of the criticism that a 1999 New Zealand audit report had levelled at Scott Morrison when he was head of NZ’s Office of Tourism and Sport. Morrison had moved to NZ in 1998, reporting directly to the NZ tourism minister, as the inaugural director of the office. The NZ minister, Murray McCully, and Morrison were locked in a power struggle with the independent NZ Tourism Board. The NZ audit office report devoted a whole chapter to Morrison’s deceptive behaviour, which involved changing the focus of a consultant’s review to align it with Morrison’s political agenda and without conferring with the board or his minister. Morrison mysteriously departed the NZ Office of Tourism and Sport one year before the end of his contract term. Morrison’s disdain for transparency and the shirking of accountability, so evident during his tenure at Tourism Australia, persists to this day, with his continual deflecting and “move along, nothing to see here” attitude to journalists asking questions. Given the importance of the KPMG report the question can surely be posed “So where the bloody hell is it?”
Where the bloody hell is it? Did Scott Morrison lie about the report that saved his bacon at Tourism Australia? – Michael West
Scott Morrison won’t do anything!
The senior ministerial media adviser who went public with her workplace treatment following her intimate relationship with her boss at the time, Alan Tudge, may have lost further work after speaking out about her experience. Rachelle Miller had been due to start a contract with a defence contractor, but Guardian Australia has confirmed a tweet from Louise Milligan, the ABC journalist Miller told her story to, that the offer was now under consideration. Miller declined to comment further.
Fears Rachelle Miller may lose new job after speaking out over affair with Alan Tudge on Four Corners | Australia news | The Guardian
Defence investigates itself How “independent” or effective a review is it when a department secretly investigates itself and its contractors by appointing an existing contractor to conduct the review, does not make public the review’s existence or its terms of reference, and keeps any resulting report secret?
Defence says the review found “no evidence” of inappropriate excess charges. This is despite three stories the same day in The Weekend Australian containing detailed allegations. So serious were the allegations, they were escalated up to Defence’s assistant secretary of fraud control who reportedly then referred several matters to the Independent Assurance Business Analysis and Reform Branch of Defence. Is Defence saying multiple audit and fraud officials, including at the most senior levels, all got it wrong? Are we being asked to conclude that senior Defence fraud officials cannot accurately identify inappropriate excess charges? It seems there is a serious problem then, no matter which way we look at it.
Department of Defence captured by foreign weapons makers Thales, BAE – Michael West
Nine Entertainment chief Hugh Marks dumped for having sex, Christine Holgate chopped at Australia Post over $20,000 in bonuses. Meanwhile, the top brass at Lendlease, having presided over a billion dollar tax scam, nonchalantly claim they are “continuing to engage with the ATO and await the finalisation of its draft determination”. Michael West reports.
Confession time for Lendlease as Tax Office bears down on humungous tax rort – Michael West
The gas industry will inevitably decline as an energy source for industry and homes due to both economic and environmental issues, and will not deliver the Morrison government’s promised “gas-led recovery”, a new report finds.The gas industry will inevitably decline as an energy source for industry and homes due to both economic and environmental issues, and will not deliver the Morrison government’s promised “gas-led recovery”, a new report finds.
Benefits of Coalition’s ‘gas-led recovery’ overstated and declining usage inevitable, report finds | Environment | The Guardian
The International Energy Agency just issued a report concluding that wind and solar are growing rapidly, unlike beleaguered fossil fuels, and that in only five years they will be generating a third of the world’s electricity, overtaking coal. They will overtake natural gas sooner, in 2023. Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel, producing enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, a dangerous heat-trapping gas that is rapidly heating the earth and its oceans and endangering our way of life.
As Wind, Solar, surge, Renewables to be Globe’s largest Source of Electricity by 2025
Donald Trump’s assault on democracy is outrageous, but it doesn’t appear to trouble ScoMo and his Coalition colleagues, writes Mungo MacCallum.
MUNGO MACCALLUM: Trump’s treachery and Morrison’s meek response
The Coalition government is pushing hard to get rid of responsible lending obligations, but it doesn’t seem to realise that removing these obligations will pull the rug out from one of its signature pieces of legislation that Scott Morrison championed when he was treasurer – mandatory comprehensive credit reporting. Elizabeth Minter reports.
Responsible Lending? Coalition’s left hand not sure what its right hand is doing – Michael West
AS THE QUESTION of behind-the-scenes bonking within the Federal Government came to the fore once again this week, Morrison provided evidence – in case anyone thought more was needed – of the dismissive culture towards women that characterises his prime ministership.
Some bonk ban: Ministers in the sack Morrison won’t sack
WHEN JOE HOCKEY, former cigar-chomping Australian Treasurer in Tony Abbott’s government and Australian ambassador to the USA between January 2016 and January 2020, made it clear that he agreed with his golfing buddy Donald Trump that fraud “for sure” characterised Democratic Party voting and that “there’s plenty of good reason to have litigation, I mean it is a complete dog’s breakfast right across the country,” he did more than jump into the unaerated, putrid goldfish bowl. He inadvertently shone a light on the real nature of the relationship between the current Australian Government and the Trump White House, a relationship which exposed the Australian Government as a kind of ex-officio branch of the Trump Republican Party.
Morrison’s Trumpist dilemma: A credible revisionist narrative is impossible
What constitutes a sackable offence for any man in the Morrison Government? Managing editor Michelle Pini reports on recent “bonk ban” transgressions.
Some bonk ban: Ministers in the sack Morrison won’t sack
Trump’s demise signifies a powerful rejection of the use of false narratives that create alternate realities and there’s a message here for Morrison, writes Dr Jennifer Wilson.
Trump may be gone but in Morrison, he lives
Why should Christian Porter be given the benefit of silence when Australians aren’t. Why shouldn’t MP’s practice what they preach and their pasts remembered. The ABC informs us Morrison wants it shut down. So does Rupert.
The Australian’s editor-at-large, Paul Kelly, said on Q&A that Porter was “trashed” by the program, adding
What’s in the ‘public interest’? Why the ABC is right to cover allegations of inappropriate ministerial conduct
The rush by the government and its media supporters to attack last night’s Four Corners as not in the public interest is not merely wrong, but offensively so.
The ABC has exposed the sordid side of Canberra in the public interest
Australia risks becoming an international pariah if it maintains its climate denialism as its major trading partners embrace carbon neutrality.
Walls close in around Scott Morrison on climate change
Senator Eric Abetz has been criticised for asking Chinese-Australians to denounce the Chinese Community Party during a Senate Committee, writes Peter Henning.
Senator Eric Abetz stirs controversy with racist questions to Chinese-Australians
The claim Both the Coalition and Labor have in the past argued that paying off Commonwealth debt is a benchmark of economic success in Australian politics. But Treasurer Josh Frydenberg recently warned Australians that his July budget update was going to contain “eye watering numbers around debt and deficit”, saying: “The coronavirus has required the Government to spend unprecedented amounts of money to support people in need”. The following day, in an interview with ABC News Breakfast, shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers said the Government must not be allowed to “pull a swiftie” by pretending the red ink in the budget was a consequence of the virus when the vast majority of the debt had piled up beforehand.
Jim Chalmers says two-thirds of the debt in the budget was borrowed before the start of the pandemic. Is he correct? – ABC News
If the Coalition was serious about helping those who have a go, they would be giving larger tax cuts to those who would value the extra $20 or thereabouts a week and spend it on fixing the car, paying the outstanding bills or going away for the weekend for the first time in years, rather than those who really won’t even notice the extra $20 a week in their bank accounts. Morrison and Frydenberg had the perfect opportunity to make a real change for the better. Did they take it? – nope, of course they didn’t.
A new normal – yeah, right – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The delayed Integrity Commission proposed by the Government is drawing criticism for its possibility to make parliamentary corruption worse. Investigations editor Ross Jones reports.
Proposed Commonwealth Integrity Commission would be an LNP weapon
While US Republican politicians and conservative commentators were quick to condemn President Trump, not so Australian conservatives, despite their professed love for freedom. Bernard Keane reports.
Coalition, conservatives duck for cover on calls for US democracy – Michael West
Hundreds of communities across Australia are hurtling towards the coal and gas cliff as politicians obsess over Cartier watches and pandemic politics. Michael West reports on the spectre of plunging demand for fossil fuels and the savage effects it will reap on regional communities.
Asleep at the Wheel: why Australia’s emissions policy debacle puts hundreds of communities at risk – Michael West
Prime Minister Scott Morrison swung the spotlight away from the mounting evidence of the misuse of taxpayer funds and on to AusPost’s CEO Christine Holgate. The media was only too happy to oblige. Michael Tanner reports.
Tamed estate: Scott Morrison, the master magician – Michael West
Labor has accused the government of using taxpayer money for political research from a connected consultant. Is this a case of the Coalition helping itself, or all above board?
How taxpayers are funding government messaging on COVID-19 recovery
The ATO’s debt book has hit another record and pressure is building on the agency to claw back this debt The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in net tax collections dipping over the past financial year, but tax refunds have risen As with prior years, the ATO has opted to settle with some large companies that disputed tax bills, rather than fight it out in court
ATO’s debt book grows to more than $53 billion as boss Chris Jordan faces Senate Estimates – ABC News
Scott Morrison’s ‘have a go, get a go’ mantra was untrue when he first said it but its invocation in recession is even more absurd
Australia’s leaders don’t even try to understand the working poor | Poverty | The Guardian
In my opinion, what this means is that the Government would like the ACCC to facilitate NBN Co to increase their prices. I will come back to this in a bit more detail. But in essence, the Government would like to create a better financial position for the NBN to put it up for sale. The alternative I have advocated now for many years is to write down some of the NBN costs.
NBN battle between the ACCC and the Government
Victoria’s lockdown has provoked a self-styled rebellion that postures as defending freedom against the state premier, “Dictator” Dan Andrews. But once you scratch the plebian surface, the “movement” is led by right-wing activists and funded by Liberal Party money.
The Australian Right Is Trying To Import Trump-Style Reactionary Populism
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