Only 40K ?
Moe Turaga never expected to end up enslaved in a rural Australian town when he left Fiji as a teenage boy to earn a living for his family.
Source: More than 40,000 modern slaves trapped in Australia – Michael West
Tag: Australia’s Shame
“Sometimes we just need to take time out, sometimes our souls are hurting, and so it is for me,” Grant said, as tears welled in his eyes. “I’m not walking away for a while because of racism – we get that far too often. I’m not walking away because of social media hatred. I need a break from the media. I feel like I’m part of the problem. And I need to ask myself how or if we can do it better.”
Source: Stan Grant farewells ABC’s Q+A, delivers powerful speech
Why truth-telling matters
Courts and policymakers are still making decisions about the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples without full knowledge of Indigenous histories and how they continue to affect people today. In our forthcoming book, I argue that even Australia’s highest court has presented a misleading, “whitewashed” view of the history of Indigenous belonging since 1788.
Australian foreign minister Penny Wong claims she wants peace in the Asia-Pacific. At the same time, she is doubling down on Australia’s role in maintaining the global dominance of US capitalism — and threatening war in the region.
Source: The Australian Government Is Selling War Under the Guise of Peace
Asking Indigenous peoples to simply elect one of their own democratically to sit in an extra chamber advising future government irrespective of what party wins elections. Isn’t a hard task to ask. I think it would be more productive to have more Indigenous advising State Governments via a Treaty in QLD and nationally through the Voice then having none at all in the room which could only make situations worse and a continual revolving door of post generational trauma that persists for another 235 years. Perhaps we could have a civil discussion about what many call Australia Day then, closing the gap, and improving living standards for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Having a voice might also increase the chances of more First Nations people becoming engaged in politics and see aspire to see perhaps a First Nations State Premier or Prime Minister one day?
Source: Voice and Treaty Must Happen Hand in Hand – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Hawke promised to rid us of child poverty but then we have had 20 years plus of the LNP
The insanity of all this defies logic. We can see venal capitalism making obscene individual profits for a tiny handful. We see governments, at the behest of the United States, spending unimaginable millions on weaponry that will make us all that little less secure and we have a generation of our youth, being cast adrift for the sake of what amounts to small change.
Source: Child poverty, $3.5 billion for tanks, and a government that does not care – Pearls and Irritations
Statement issued on 3 February last by the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian people. I quote:
“The Bureau firmly believes in supporting an immediate and unconditional end to Israel’s illegal, half-century-old occupation and establishing a two-State solution, with the achievement of the independence and sovereignty of the Palestinian State based on the 1967 lines, and the realisation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including self-determination, and a just solution for the plight of the Palestinian refugees, in line with UN resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements.”
Surely the Australian people are entitled to an explanation as to why in December last year the government voted against an International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the legality of Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
Source: Why did Australia oppose an ICJ advisory opinion on Israeli settlements? – Pearls and Irritations
Tudge knows full well he’s “out of reach”
The party that calls itself Liberal and describes itself as conservative is neither liberal nor conservative.
Australia’s news media is demonstrably worse than every other developed democracy but can it be fixed? Founder and publisher Dave Donovan reports.
When Class systematically dissects even those that deserve attention the most it’s used to political advantage to put the brakes on recognition of injustice and halt progressive and just change
“It is important we bring respect to this. This should be a conversation we should be able to have,” he added.
Labor minister Bill Shorten told Nine Ms Burney had been a great advocate for First Nations Australians.
“The issue is about whether or not we put First Nations people on the nation’s birth certificate, the Constitution,” he said.
Source: Nationals under fire over voice decision – Michael West
We shouldn’t even pretend to take these people seriously anymore. It’s insulting to the rest of us. Daniel Andrews will win the Victorian election because his opposition is pathetic and Victorians are heavily inoculated against NewsCorp’s bullshit, having been shovelled such a relentless amount of it in recent times.
Source: NewsCorp’s Victorian election coverage is divorced from reality | The Shot
Beyond Scrutiny
Australia’s TV media companies have told the National Anti-Corruption Commission committee that they should be exempt from being investigated for corruption by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC). I captured it on video, as per below, and it is amazing how brazen the media companies are thinking they can publicly demand to be above the law.
How does Qantas get away with it?
Apart from pushing its faux neo-liberal creed of free markets, Qantas has always been a sacred cow. Our politicians and business leaders recline in comfort in their Qantas lounges, with Rupert Murdoch’s Sky News on their TV screens, enjoying their frequent fliers.
Yet the Spirit of Australia has vanished, replaced by an avaricious corporate monster preying on taxpayers at every turn. Old codgers such as this writer will recall better times. Once the staff were proud to work there.
Source: Qantas Smiles: shareholders and executives grin, customers and staff grit their teeth – Michael West
Morrison, Taylor Frydenberg and tha LNP will godown as Australia’s greatest liars on Climate Change
Australia produced 4.04 tonnes of carbon dioxide per person from coal-fired power stations last year, according to a new report by energy think tank Ember. That’s roughly four times the global average, double the average per person in countries like the US and Japan, and more than any other country in the G20 or the OECD. University of Adelaide energy economist Dr Liam Wagner said he was unsurprised by the ranking, given Australia has long been one of the world’s most coal-dependent countries.
Source: Australians remain the world’s worst coal power polluters per capita
Morrison’s Legacy as Immigration Minister. His use of Colour, Ethnicity and Religion shamed this Nation like the White Australia Policy once did..
We have offered unlimited visas to Ukrainian refugees, but 700,000 displaced Afghans do not get the same treatment. So much for respect for human rights in democratic Australia, writes Bilal Cleland.
Meanwhile, despite the increasing revelation of atrocities, the Australian government is cozying up to the Indian government which isn’t committed to any sanctions against Russia and trading with them in the same manner as China despite knowledge of the widespread butchery committed by Putin’s forces against Ukraine citizens. That transactional act alone is reason for kicking Morrison out because in a two faced manner he’s supporting Putin.
UN suspends Russia from top human rights body
Pirates with Confected Rights have no concern for people
A Thai gold mine owned by Australian company Kingsgate has been accused of creating “deserted villages with broken families”. It was closed by the Thai government, but an obscure clause in a “free trade” agreement has allowed the lucrative mine in Central Thailand to reopen. Tim Ginty reports.
Source: Riches for Australian miner equals misery for Thai villagers – Michael West Media
Scott Morrison announced “Ukrainians were automatically “refugees” and would go “straight to the top of the ladder” shows he;s a recist ethnicist and elitist. Iraqis , Aghanis, or Africans and definitely those who arrived by boat are different. They are “illegals”, first and even if “asylum seekers” they will never be settled here or even make it to Morrison’s ladder in total contravention to the International convention which we signed. Even the ACL the Australian Christian Lobby took umbrage at Morrison’s un Christian, Racist and Ethnicist announcement that suggested Ukrainians are somewhat an exception when it came to need. But that’s Scott Morrison who picks up a ukelele and can’t play. He has a history of takink on jobs he simply hasn’t the DNA or capacity to do and it’s readily ovbious for all to see.
This double standard is all the more apparent in how prominent journalists have discussed the war. CBS reporter Charlie D’Agata apologized after describing Ukraine as “civilized” compared to places like Iraq or Afghanistan, but he is far from alone. Others have similarly expressed shock that a war could happen outside a “third world nation” to people who “seem so like us.” In response to such examples, the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association released a statement condemning “orientalist and racist” rhetoric and demanded that newsrooms apply the same consideration to all victims of war.
Source: Media Malpractice and Information War in Ukraine | The Nation
the L-NP, Morrison and Frydenberg, have allowed Australia to slide down the Heritage Foundation’s International corruption ladder to its lowest ever recorded score of 77.7 from 13th to 18th and going down. Any wonder they are terrified of an independent ICAC.
“Little is discussed about financial abuse in Australian society,” Deloitte behavioural economist Wing Hsieh told AAP. “The challenges of domestic and family violence have been very much at the forefront of people’s minds and particularly so in recent years.” But the specific financial abuse that often leads up to it, while related, is often not discussed. More than 400,000 women and about 200,000 men suffer financial abuse, and the cumulative impact of people being prevented from working themselves and those who later need support from government and social services costs the economy and individuals experiencing abuse more than $10 billion a year.
Australia has a deteriorating global corruption ranking – and the mainstream media is ignoring it entirely. You won’t read about it in the mainstream Australian media. The story is missing from The Age and Sydney Morning Herald and a Google search reveals no coverage in any mainstream Australian media. What is it that gets so ignored? Just the news that Transparency International (TI)’s 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) has put Australia in 18th place – the worst result Australia has ever received since TI’s new methodology in 2012. Since 2012 Australia’s score has dropped 12 points and our rank in the global index has plummeted 11 places (from 7th in 2012). Keen observers will note that in that period Coalition governments have been in power for eight of the nine years. In contrast to our performance Papua New Guinea is improving and New Zealand shares equal first place.
Two things are clear. First, this debate is not going away. Indigenous and non-Indigenous advocates for change are part of an activist heritage that is intergenerational. Second, it is clear to us from our campaign that many Australians won’t be marching for change today – but they still reject the woefully inadequate status quo for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in 2022. These Australians are tired of hearing the same promises and plans by governments to ‘close the gap’ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians without seeing real change in peoples’ lives.
Source: A vote for an Indigenous Voice could unlock path to unity
Ms Barber, from Glen Iris, is not alone. She represents one side of a growing generational divide over the celebration of Australia’s national day. A recent survey by CoreData Australia, covering 1250 Australians aged 18 and over, shows younger people are less likely to celebrate the day. Almost 70 per cent of Gen Z participants – people under the age of 26 – said they did not intend to celebrate. Other studies released this week have reached similar conclusions. A YouGov survey showed younger generations are likely to prefer celebrating on a different day. One by Roy Morgan found almost 65 per cent of participants younger than 25 supported January 26 being referred to as Invasion Day instead of Australia Day.
Source: Australia Day 2022: Why many young people have given up on celebrations
The Morrison Mad-Man’s Plan, Prizes for Detterance sinks Australia to lower depths of depravity. Rewards for “Keep Out” signage in Sri Lanka.
While Australia’s reluctance to meet its human rights obligations is not new, the “Zero Chance” short film competition for 2022 takes our reputation to a new and deeper level of moral depravity. It encourages Sri Lankan filmmakers to come up with videos that might deter their fellow citizens from seeking refuge in Australia via boat. Effectively, the competition proposes that every day Sri Lankans convince their neighbours to relinquish their human rights and win a digital SLR camera or a drone. The suggestion that those who have endured years of suffering may be deterred by a short film, is callous enough. The idea to recruit their fellow citizens to dissuade them from recognising their rights is morally repugnant.
Source: Using prizes to deter asylum seekers sinks to next level “depravity”
We saw how Vanstone and Guy cozied up to Australia’s Mafia Dons. They certainly weren’t the ALP being offered incentives.
Australia is cementing its name as a haven for money-launderers in global regulatory circles. Now that former laggard America is reforming however, the 64 billion dollar question is: will Canberra finally leap into action? Nathan Lynch examines how Australia has been exposed by the changing climate in Washington.
10 December, International Human Rights Day, happened to be the birthday of Adnan Choopani. Adnan escaped persecution in Iran when he was just 15 years old and has been moved from detention centre to detention centre for almost nine years now. Even though he was recognised as a refugee in 2014 already. At the moment, Adnan is being detained in the Park Hotel. This Human Rights Day Rally coincided with his 24th birthday.
The Australian Senate’s Privileges Committee, oft described as its most ‘powerful’ body, has found Australian Tax Office commissioner, Chris Jordan, not in contempt of the Senate for refusing to release the data on large companies who received JobKeeper payments reports Callum Foote.
I noted elsewhere that “Adelaide was originally populated by the aboriginal Kaurna people, who called it Tarndanyangga. It is now about as populous as San Diego. It was settled by free British immigrants, unlike the rest of Australia, which was a penal colony. In the nineteenth century, “Afghans” were brought in as camel drivers. It has the oldest continuously functioning mosque in Australia, constructed in 1889, and the state is known for its dedication to religious freedom.”
Thanks Tony Abbott you legacy of putting the brakes on Australia with your “Nope Nope Nope” policy approach now “Slow Slow Slow” govenments don’t do progress style maintained by Scott Morrison is coming into relief and the skidmarks self evident. Climate, the NBN, the ABC, Welfare, Health, Education are just among some areas spiralling down since 2013. Yet, domestically the fix is still in with Murdoch and Ch9 domestically blowing smoke declaring us great and going in the right direction. Is it any wonder Morrison hates going overseas because when he does that fake greatness is laid bare for all to see. We were lauded and admired the 2nd best economy on the planet during and post GFC, and then in 2013 along came the L fucking NP and put an end to that progress felt by all Australians.
The technology in the Coalition’s cut-down version of the NBN cost up to three times more than originally forecast and was closer to the initial estimated cost of a revised version of Labor’s full-fibre plan, according to figures the government has sought to keep secret for almost a decade.
Morrison a cheap con-man the accidental PM who fucked everyone over. He lied, and only Macron has called him out for who he is. A “very low grade Trumpesque salesman and certainly not anyone worthy of being a Nation’s Prime Minister . Lacking in any ” Stature”, even Biden couldn’t remember his name, Morrison nevertheless seems to have always had “a plan” and he executed it labelled “The Australian Way” and shamed us all.
US president Joe Biden has admitted the orchestration of the AUKUS pact was “clumsy” as he met with the French president for the first time since the secret submarine deal.
Mr Biden also told Emmanuel Macron that he “was under the impression that France had been informed long before” about Australia’s plan to scrap its $90 billion submarine contract with France.
The two leaders are in Rome for the G20 summit, also being attended by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, which comes as Scotland prepares to host the COP26 climate talks.
Mr Biden did not formally apologise to Mr Macron but conceded the US should not have caught the country by surprise.
“I think what happened was, to use an English phrase, what we did was clumsy,” Mr Biden said, adding the submarine deal “was not done with a lot of grace”.
Source: Biden admits to Macron about ‘clumsy’ handling of AUKUS pact
The only Western Democratic Nation without one
Lastly, I would like to suggest caps on parliamentary tenure. We cannot guarantee expertise in our parliaments, but we can reduce the power imbalances, the influence of lobbyists, the pernicious and mostly unseen corruption by capping parliamentary tenure in the House of Representatives to two terms and in the Senate to one term. My definition of political “careerists” are individuals who seek re-election. Politics should be a calling.
He really believed he could be this country’s PM. He mocked our Pacific neighbors and had no qualms sneaking in Operes as a special favor for a mate. Apparently, if he had his way the Sydney Mardi Gras would be banned because it’s “woke” and a critical want to replace heterosexuals in every aspect of our institutional lives. Peter Dutton is our paranoid Minister of Defence and showing Australia he’s doing his job and not acting on his personal whims.
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in May revealed that the Defence Minister had ordered his department and serving military personnel to stop events with “particular clothes in celebration” after Defence held morning teas where staff wore rainbow clothing to mark IDAHOBIT. Mr Dutton told Defence Force Chief Angus Campbell and secretary Greg Moriarty to issue a note ending such events, saying he would never tolerate discrimination but would not pursue a “woke agenda” either.
Source: Defence emails reveal staff shame at Dutton’s ‘tone-deaf’ IDAHOBIT morning tea ban
Upon the very isolation of this vast island continent … a unique human experiment might be attempted. As with nowhere else upon the globe, here a distinct biological community might be established, maintained and nurtured within a single geographic entity. If the indigenous peoples continued their perceived decline towards extinction and other migrant races were excluded or expelled, a ‘pure race’ could logically result (Cited in Evans et al, 1997:26)
Source: Nationhood and the ‘Pure’ Race (part 4) – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Interest subsequently increased in using evolution theory for justification of a strong state in Australia. It is this racialist concern with a distinctively Australian type that undergirded the White Australia Policy, which was sanctioned by the adoption of the Immigration Restriction Bill in 1901. Pettman comments that the: Imperialist and racist ideology drew on generations of conquest, slavery and exploitation, and on a whole language of black inferiority and white superiority, bolstered in the nineteenth century by the new sciences. This ideology proved useful and flexible in rationalising the bloody violence, dispossession and incarceration of Aboriginal people, necessary to clear the way for the white nation (Pettman, 1988:2). Jan Pettman notes that the Darwinist explanations of evolution asserted that given equal competition, the fittest societies would survive and the inferior would die out, and links the attempted and hastened destruction of Aboriginal societies based on this theory. The British, being industrious and capital driven, accepted themselves as superior to the ‘improvident’ Aborigines and accepted that as racially doomed and undesirable were destined to
Source: Nationhood and the ‘Pure’ Race (part 3) – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The close relationship between actors in Australian and US intelligence of course goes back prior to the Prime Ministership of Whitlam, as evidenced by Australia’s secret role in the overthrowal of the Allende Government in Chile and the Sukarno Government in Indonesia.
As the war hawks today swirl at the spectre of a Chinese paper tiger, it seems we are locked into a more offensive UK-US alliance structure and a government determined to undermine our rights and welfare at every turn. What a betrayal those days of Hawke now seem to those who long for a country that supports social justice and an independent foreign policy. Surely this is the task of a new Labor Government.
Source: The Hawke Files and the Birth of the 51st State – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Scott Morrison, whose COVID face masks have the Australian flag emblazoned on them, likes to talk about “the Australian way” of doing things and Australian values. But it is not “the Australian way” to secretly plan, over a very long time, to deceive a close friend of this country, and then to treat them in a most humiliating and disdainful manner. That does not align with “Australian values” of honesty and fair dealing.
The forgotten nation after 220 years and years of generational cultural and systemic racism
The COVID-19 crisis in Wilcannia demonstrates how entrenched neglect, combined with a global pandemic, have created a perfect storm impacting the most marginalised people in society. The treatment of the Barkindji people of Wilcannia is appalling by anyone’s standards and should be unacceptable to every Australian. The stories flooding out of Wilcannia of mistreatment of Aboriginal people should make every person stand up and demand immediate action. The government needs to take immediate action to address the conditions in which the people in Wilcannia are forced to live, and by providing vaccinations immediately to all those who want to be vaccinated.
Source: COVID in Wilcannia: a national disgrace we all saw coming
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.
A new approach to democracy is needed to fight the Federal Government’s failure to deliver First Nations’ rights as called for in the Uluru Statement of the Heart, writes Matthew Butera. Our collective failure to embrace the Uluru Statement from the Heart represents a missed opportunity to accelerate Australia’s journey to becoming a more reconciled, inclusive and just society. An innovative approach to doing democracy could be the path back on track.
Source: First Nations Voice to Parliament: It’s time to rethink democracy
Morrison grabbed 4 million Pfizer doses the wealthy nations like the UK and Singapore no longer needed calling it “a loan”. He actually Insured our pain, his failure in supply of vaccines to us will be felt by the lower income regions. Morrison’s delay will now be theirs as in effect he’s jumped the queue. While he’s claiming hero status he’s doing what Trump did. In an effort to boost himself he’s growing and magnifying Australia’s shame.
London: Wealthy countries face mounting pressure to divert COVID-19 vaccine supplies to lower-income regions, with a new analysis showing they’ll likely have about 1.2 billion extra doses available by the end of the year.
Source: ‘Moral outrage’: Wealthy nations will have 1.2 billion vaccine doses they don’t need
The LNP arguments about not being contributors to the world’s CO2 emissions are rather pathetic. By our exports we are contributors to the largest global emitters.
there is no denying the ugly. As is true almost everywhere else, coal goes hand-in-hand with corruption. The projects commissioned by provincial governments were characterised by crony capitalism, with officials being bribed to provide cheap capital and disregard environmental and safety requirements. Centrally directed anti-corruption campaigns have had limited effects, particularly in provinces like Shanxi and Inner Mongolia where coal mining and new power plants are concentrated. There is little we in Australia can do to influence China. Our only contribution at this point will be to manage a transition away from dependence on thermal coal as an export industry. Sadly, there is no sign that our leaders are willing, let alone able, to undertake this task.
Dissemble and delay, pray the crisis goes away. Like bushfire preparedness, like pandemic shortcomings, like climate change policy, the Prime Minister was told we had people who needed to be rescued long before yesterday. Maybe it was just the usual gross incompetence – or maybe the government didn’t really want to import any more Afghanis than it absolutely had to.
Source: Michael Pascoe: Australia is an accessory to the Afghanistan disaster
When Australia previously sent asylum seekers offshore, under the Howard government, the majority of people processed offshore and found to be refugees were settled in Australia. This fact did not prompt an increase in boat arrivals. More recently, there was no spike in boat arrivals when Australia announced that people offshore would be eligible for resettlement in the United States, or when almost everyone was moved back to Australia. We have just over a thousand asylum seekers here in Australia, and a small number offshore, who have been put through significant trauma in a failed attempt to send a harsh deterrence message to others who might consider trying to reach Australia by boat. They have been waiting years for a solution, when a simple one is available right now. All should be permitted to settle permanently in Australia or another appropriate country, provided that alternative is voluntary. Serious consideration should be given to what reparation and rehabilitation Australia may owe the victims of offshore processing. This deeply flawed policy must not be permitted to reach its ten-year mark.
Source: Cruel, costly and ineffective: Australia’s offshore processing asylum seeker policy turns 9
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.
Friday marked 100 days until the critical COP26 United Nations climate summit starts in Glasgow and the milestone was marked by renewed urgency in climate action. Alok Sharma, the Conservative UK cabinet minister who will be the formal host of the Glasgow talks, used it to write to relevant ministers around the world and call upon them to raise ambitions. “Although significant progress has been made, we must be honest that collectively we have not yet delivered at the scale and pace that science requires,” read his letter. “The world will be watching in Glasgow and it is our shared responsibility to rise to the challenge.”
Afghanistan is teetering on the brink of an almost unimaginable disaster. The withdrawal of US and allied forces, scheduled by President Joe Biden to be completed by September 11, threatens to precipitate the unravelling of the most pro-Western government in Southwest Asia.
Source: On the brink of disaster: how decades of progress in Afghanistan could be wiped out in short order
Yesterday, Canberra again promised that we’ll be vaccinated by Christmas. Yet, three months into the rollout and only 1.9% of NSW has had both doses.
olddogthoughts 