For all the skittishness of Australian politics through the years of the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison governments there’s been one factor that has been remarkably consistent.
Amid leadership coups, cultural offensives and the revolving door of energy policy acronyms, the Australian public has remained steadfast in its belief that more needs to be done to address climate change.
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Advance Australia has raised almost $400,000 it will use to shore up the positions of key Liberal Party conservatives ahead of the federal election – including that of former prime minister Tony Abbott.
The emerging grassroots organisation, which wants to be the conservative answer to left-wing activist group GetUp!, claims 27,500 members and a $395,000 war chest raised from 2000 “mainly small donations”. It will focus on the seats of Dickson, Deakin, Boothby and Warringah – held respectively by Peter Dutton, Michael Sukkar, Nicolle Flint and Mr Abbott.
accused Advance Australia of lying, and pandering to the wealthy member of its “advisory council” which is manned by storage magnate Sam Kennard, doctor David Adler, and former ABC chairman Maurice Newman, among others.
“Advance Australia is spending its secret funding to spread lies and do the dirty work of hard right candidates like Tony Abbott,” Mr Oosting said. “The hard right and their multi-millionaire backers like Maurice Newman have been trying to buy influence for years but what they lack is genuine grassroots people power.”
via Advance Australia, the conservative GetUp!, comes to Tony Abbott’s rescue
Morrison is right to say we are not in a recession, but he was also the one who warned this week that “the economy under Labor will be weaker than it is under our government”.
From someone who has presided over an economy that is weakening quite dramatically, that’s a pretty hollow statement which is clearly more about stoking fear of an ALP government than reality.
But as with all fear campaigns, evidence has a way of revealing the truth and destroying the fear. And the GDP figures this week did just that.
via By stoking recession fears, Morrison highlights his own failure on economy | Business | The Guardian
The federal government has ditched a key recommendation from the banking royal commission to scrap trail commissions for new loans arranged by mortgage brokers after pressure from the industry and smaller lenders.
The mortgage broker industry, which had warned that many brokers would go out of business if the Hayne recommendation was approved, cheered Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s announcement on Tuesday that the government would now review trail commissions in three years if it remains in government.
via Government ditches Hayne recommendation on mortgage broker pay
The Intercept’s Senior Politics Editor Briahna Gray for a conversation with New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez about identity, race and class, and how these debates are likely to play out in the years ahead.
The sentence handed down by Judge T.S. Ellis to Paul Manafort is shockingly light. Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman was convicted of various financial crimes and could have ended up with 25 years in prison. Instead, Judge Ellis sentenced him to 47 months. To add insult to the overall injury, Ellis opined that Manafort had lived “an otherwise blameless life” as part of the justification for the light sentence.
Judge Ellis handed down a fundamentally biased sentence. Law Twitter is right about that, and rightly inflamed. Ellis is the same judge who gave former Louisiana congressman Bill Jefferson a 13-year sentence following conviction on corruption charges. It’s the longest sentence ever handed out to a member of Congress. (Jefferson was released after serving only four years, when Ellis accepted a Jefferson plea deal in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in McDonnell v. United States, which redefined our understanding of bribery of public officials.) This seems like a good time to mention that Jefferson is an African American while Manafort is an otherwise blameless white man.
via The Manafort Sentence Is a Lesson in White Privilege | The Nation
The New York Times is reporting Sunday that the fire was actually started by supporters of oppostion leader Juan Guiado.
The evidence is irrefutable (ODT)
via US Blamed Venezuelan President for Burning AID Trucks. Wrong.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is the homeland “only of the Jewish people,” in a new jab at the country’s Arab minority ahead of April’s election.
Netanyahu on Sunday addressed “slightly confused people” after an Israeli celebrity defended the rights of Israel’s Arab population. Arabs comprise about 20 percent of Israel’s 9 million residents. They have full citizenship rights but have faced decades of discrimination.
Netanyahu responded: Israel “is the national state, not of all its citizens, but only of the Jewish people.”
via Netanyahu: Israel Is The National State ‘Only Of The Jewish People’ | HuffPost
Calling the shots
McKenna is group head of broadcasting at News Corp, but with the ear of Lachlan Murdoch she is widely considered the most powerful individual at the historic media company in Australia (Murdoch himself describes his lieutenant as an “effective executive who takes the hard decisions and sees them through”.)
via Siobhan McKenna: Meet the woman calling the shots at News Corp
Australian households are among the world’s most indebted when compared with their income. And we’ve spent most of it on real estate.
Politicians are promising, but not delivering
Low wages, job insecurity and a sense the game is rigged tends to quickly follow through to the political arena.
I wrote the following:
I have continued learning throughout life, from a maths degree at 21 to a law degree at 71, with other qualifications including a Masters in between. I have been a teacher (and even an insurance representative) as well as a lawyer and a mediator and have raised 3 children who are also all well-qualified.
In this process I have met thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds and believe I have earned respect from most of them.
But I do not think I would survive in the doghouse which is occupied by our politicians. They lack respect for others, they are too often inflexible, and, clearly, too many of them are there for their own benefit not ours.
They will make the nation suffer to win and promise everything (ODT)
It was just another week of lies from the Morrison Government, kickstarted this week by Energy Minister Angus Taylor.
via Morrison Government takes fearmongering to another level
Trump has taken 4 companies and applied his inventive policies to them and sent them bankrupt those companies greatest success was screwing the lives of the people who were involved with them. Trump merely walked away. Mind you I bet he took money out first and left the debt. Nothing has changed really. (ODT)
A senior Trump administration official has told Bloomberg News that the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy would see its $2.3 billion budget slashed by about 70 percent, to $700 million, under President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2020 budget request, which will be released on Monday.
Conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation have called for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, to be eliminated entirely, saying energy innovation is best left up to the private sector.
via GOING BACKWARDS: Trump To Slash Renewables Funding in New Budget
It is, of course, a crime to lie under oath; it is also a crime to lie to a congressional committee, whether you are under oath or not. “Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell,” Vox notes, “was convicted of lying to a Senate committee during the Watergate scandal.”
So I couldn’t help but ask the defensive Prince: Did he not worry that Mueller might send him to prison for not telling the truth, as he did with Gen. Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, and others?
“Nope,” he replied, giving me that dead-eyed stare once again, “not at all.”
via BUSTED: Erik Prince Caught In His Own Lie To Congress | Crooks and Liars
Is it any wonder the LNP do what ever Newscorp asks they just might print the facts (ODT)
Annual growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in the December quarter was a dismal 2.34%. The quarterly rise was just 0.18%. The latter ranks an appalling 32nd out of the 36 OECD members. It ranks 77th out of the 92 countries worldwide which record growth quarterly. Lowest ranking ever, by far.
With an election looming these numbers should remove any lingering doubt regarding the Coalition’s incompetence in economic management.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg hailed this week’s growth data with the mix of half-truths and blatant falsehoods we now expect from this Government:
‘With the unemployment rate at its lowest level in seven years … our economic foundations are in good shape’
Again, quite false. Australia’s jobless rate is at 5.02% is the same as it was back in 2011, when the whole world was in the worst global financial crisis in eighty years. Australia’s jobless rate then ranked sixth in the OECD. Now, after five years of strong global recovery, Australia ranks 17th.
Ok, free speech and all that. But given the Minister can ban anyone on “character grounds”, do we really need to import another offensive racist bigot when we’ve got more than enough of our own? Jobs for Australians first, I say, and I thought surely Pauline would support me, but no. Pauline called the decision “weak” and “gutless” and lobbied the Immigration Minister, David Whatshisname. who responded with a show of strength and reversed the decision.
Yes, nothing demonstrates the resolve of the Morrison government like their handling of Milo. Honestly, if they were a jockey they’d be up before the stewards to explain why they were running dead…
Actually, when I look at the betting odds on the election and their performance, I do have to wonder if a large number of them haven’t put their money on Labor.
via Scott Morrison, Free Speech And Too Much Milo – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Tony Abbott pulled the panic lever on Friday, and Malcolm Turnbull pushed the revenge button.
The gainers from these spectacular plays were Zali Steggall, the independent candidate who is trying to oust Abbott in Warringah, and Bill Shorten, who is handed another break in his campaign to defeat the Government.
Years ago, in a much earlier round of the climate and emissions wars, Mr Abbott referred to himself as a “weather vane”.
That accurate self-assessment invited ridicule, but his latest change of direction is beyond absurd.
For months, Mr Abbott was calling for Australia to exit Paris, like the Americans.
It was part of his unremitting campaign against Mr Turnbull, and the then-PM’s drive for a national energy guarantee.
What Warringah thinks of AbbottNew research shows Warringah voters are considering change but alternative candidates are yet to win their hearts and minds, writes Michelle Grattan.
But Mr Abbott’s new view is that leaving Paris is unnecessary.
Donald Trump has once again assured us that he is incapable of rational thoughts through a speech he gave at a conference on Saturday.
THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES gave a rambling and incoherent two-hour speech in which he raved like a lunatic and told crazy, self-serving lies from start to finish. If that no longer qualifies as alarming, we’re in serious trouble.
Fake News and a Fake resignation Shine moves sideways (ODT)
via Bill Shine abruptly resigns as White House communications chief – The Washington Post
The show goes on Sine wasn’t sacked he didn’t resign he was shifted sideways to deflect attention that from the fact that Murdoch runs the White House.(ODT)
Trump reportedly “feels he was sold a bill of goods by Hannity” about Shine’s abilities, “but Trump needs Hannity and so he will never attack him publicly”
Former Fox News executive and Roger Ailes’ “right-hand man” Bill Shine has left his job as White House communications director to join President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign as a senior adviser — despite reported complaints from the president about Shine’s poor performance.
Abbott told his interlocutor David Speers, because Angus Taylor was now the energy minister, and presumably is not in the grip of EO™.
Good man, Angus.
What is unclear though, is how Angus being a good man with EO™ immunity makes the Paris target any less than it was when Abbott signed up to it, recanted, then clambered back on board it again – but this way lies madness.
Instead of getting frustrated with a performance that could be fairly categorised perhaps as the last stand of the political opportunist, perhaps we should just look on the bright side and celebrate the backflip on the backflip.
Hooray.
Friday’s about face from Abbott shows that political pressure does have an impact.
ABBOTT PANICS HIS SMILE ALMOST CRACKED HIS FACE (ODT)
Tony Abbott pulled the panic lever on Friday, and Malcolm Turnbull pushed the revenge button.
The gainers from these spectacular plays were Zali Steggall, the independent candidate who is trying to oust Abbott in Warringah, and Bill Shorten, who is handed another break in his campaign to defeat the government.
Years ago, in a much earlier round of the climate and emissions wars, Abbott referred to himself as a “weather vane.” That accurate self-assessment invited ridicule, but his latest change of direction is beyond absurd.
For months, Abbott was calling for Australia to exit Paris, like the Americans. It was part of his unremitting campaign against Turnbull, and the then PM’s drive for a national energy guarantee.
But Abbott’s new view is that leaving Paris is unnecessary.“I’m not calling for us to pull out now,” he told a Warringah candidates’ debate on Friday.
“We had an emissions obsession that needed to be broken and it’s now changed”, with a new prime minister and a new energy minister, he said.
“We can meet our Paris targets without substantial policy change and without significant additional costs on the economy.”
Abbott’s beef with the Paris agreement – for which his government set Australia’s targets – was tied to his jihad against his successor.
What’s mostly changed, though, is Abbott’s own circumstances. He faces what’s for him an existential threat – the risk of being driven out of parliamentary life. Steggall has climate change at the centre of her campaign.
But can Abbott really think his local voters are so naïve that they’ll be convinced by such an obviously expedient shift of position? They know him too well for that.
University of Canberra research has shown they are critical of him, especially over his opposition to same-sex marriage and his wrecking behaviour.
Isn’t his risk that they could simply become more cynical, concluding he’s taking them for mugs, and he could worsen rather than improve his position?
And apart from how Warringah will read his latest shift, what about his vocal right-wing supporters? You’d expect they would be shocked by this backflip.
Abbott didn’t do a full conversion, however – he remains a coal advocate, suggesting the Snowy Hydro Corporation could invest in it.
“Coal-fired power remains the cheapest form of baseload power,” he declared.
That was enough to bring in Turnbull, who slapped down his nemesis from afar. Oceans and time zones mean nothing when your anger burns hot and Twitter’s at hand.
“But it isn’t, ” Turnbull tweeted from London in response to Abbott’s claim about cheapness. “Today the cheapest form of new dispatchable or base load energy is renewables plus storage.
“We are now able to have lower emissions and lower prices but we need to plan it using engineering & economics rather than ideology and innumerate idiocy”.
via View from The Hill: Tony Abbott tries some climate adaptation for the winds of Warringah
It’s the same in preselection contests. The Liberals are against quotas because they think that women should get their positions on merit, while men should get them on the basis of who their friends are. (Warren Mundine, anyone?) Quotas, it’s argued, don’t allow the best person to be given the job. This sits oddly with the idea that the Nationals are entitled to certain number of ministries, but there’s surely a reason why quotas are good for the divvying up of ministries but not for ensuring female representation.
Yes, sorry, girls… Is it all right to call you “girls” or should I say “ladies”?
Anyway, sorry. Apparently, you’re allowed to “rise” but only if your success doesn’t come at the expense of a man.
Happy International Women’s Day
Leaked notes from Defence revealed it was forced to reduce counter-terrorism ocean patrols with the Philippines, cancel a martitime operation with Pacific neighbours and cancel an air surveillance exercise with Indonesia because it had to pick up the slack left by an underfunded Border Force, which had 20 per cent fewer sea-going personnel than it neede
But the real border control issue today is the record number of asylum seekers, mostly non-genuine, entering as tourists right under Dutton’s nose. He has serious questions to answer on this.
People arriving on visitor visas and changing their status onshore constituted an astonishing 24 per cent of net migration in 2017-18 – the mark of a visa system out of control.
But most unforgivable is Dutton’s vilification of certain migrant communities and his dog-whistling on citizenship laws. More recently, he has followed up with appalling comments on sick asylum seekers from Manus and Nauru taking places of Australians on hospital waiting lists. No previous immigration minister has ever stooped so low.
You will never see this in Newscorp (ODT)
via Worst ever immigration minister: Asylum seekers jet in under Dutton’s nose
The Goose locked out Journalists from his events and claims entitlement for the tactic. The Gander isn’t inviting the FOX into their party. Factless politics and crocodile tears is Trump’s strategy and style. Fear before Reason his tactic. (ODT)
via Democrats bar Fox News from political debates over Trump ties
Get over it folks this is journalistic integrity at Murdoch’s Fox News and in Trump’s reality a fake American immigrant who snuck in for the lifestyle and fascist opportunity to take over the country’s media. He hasn’t been able in Australia because they have the ABC an independant public media the most trusted in the country and compulsory democratic voting. Murdoch however has done a major job of it in the UK and now almost a complete job of it in the USA. His profits in the USA are financing the consolidation of Murdoch media globally and ensuring a product that services the 1% largely corporations across the English speaking world. Let’s face it he’s MMussolini’s and Trump’s wet dream. (ODT)
via Fox’s “news” team is an essential cog in a corrupt propaganda machine
It’s amazing just how the wealthy can argue about poverty wow $1.60 a day to $7 in 8 years is this really the destruction of poverty? Who is taking part in this conversation? They ought to see what Australia has acheived over the past 200 years to improve the lives of the first Australians who colonisers said said weren’t here until Mabo This is the reverse of the Monty Python skit on who was brought up the poorest.(ODT)
But one thing seems clear — it was decolonisation that ultimately made it possible for poor countries to start catching up. Free from the crushing burden of producing resources and crops for their colonial masters, many of these countries were able to pursue their own destinies and to experiment with economic policies until they found a mix that worked. The triumph of decolonisation is a story that even Hickel should be able to feel happy about.
Bill Gates is right about poverty, the world really is getting richer
Why is all of this coming to the surface now? An effective opposition to a government that began with Tony Abbott that allowed Corporate Crime to flourish and a blinkered view of policy needs for the Nation. Oversight rejected over and over and deregulation a priority. LNP are yet again to hanball the problems to the ALP to fix yet again.(ODT)
At Acquire there was no lack of confidence. Emails started with “Lads” and the directors and shareholders including “Uncle Andy” Demetriou were described as “the boys” who attended “big dog” meetings. Yet Wall’s memo hinted at internal concerns about the sustainability of its business.
Wall’s note cheerfully concluded: “Lads… Let’s make some serious money.”
The demise of Acquire: How the ‘big dogs’ in education lost their bite
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