One wonders if Dutton flew to the US to tell Murdoch he’d support his illegal investment in Israeli-occupied Syria, Genie Oil. How on earth could he remain a clean energy sceptic given what we have witnessed globally about the ineffectiveness of fossil fuels to service the world’s energy needs? Australia among all the world’s nations is positioned to be the world’s biggest renewable energy provider. Political donations obviously remain the biggest determinant on policy. When will Murdoch’s media support be officially evaluated and counted as an LNP donation?
Clean energy scepticism has become a defining issue for the Coalition under Opposition Leader Peter Dutton who made it the main point of policy difference in his first budget reply speech.
With full knowledge of what they’d left behind after a decade of doing nothing but changing leaders and fighting among themselves, the LNP has landed with Peter Dutton as their leader. Dutton’s first step was to fly to the US to ask the Republicans what he should do and no doubt get Murdoch’s blessing.
He’s back and has still done nothing but told us to forget the past yet he is still talking about the $275 that we got but couldn’t notice because of the rolling storm of inflation they’d set loose.
The federal opposition leader said the forecast of a 56 per cent rise in power prices put paid to Labor’s promise of a $275 cut in bills.
Mr Dutton said Dr Chalmers had earned the nickname “Grim Jim”.
As soon as they’d lost the election Peter Dutton flew to America to seek advice
The New York Times has just released a study into the language used by a group of Republicans it labels “the objectors.” This is the radical posse that most stridently fights the fact that Biden won the election. Together with partisan media, this group of congressmen and women have done incalculable damage to the civic space in America, and may have broken it altogether. We have the same forces at work in Australia, battling to destroy our own democracy. The movement here is nascent, but so was the American version once.
Well, it would be because there is no jury. What I’m trying to say is that the decision has been made by the people who matter which – as I am sure you know is the Federal Coalition. Lidia Thorpe has failed to declare a conflict of interest.
Peter Dutton has led the charge, announcing that Senator Thorpe must leave Parliament because ‘you can’t receive those briefings during the day and then hang out, you know, in nice circumstances of a night-time with a bikie.
Peter Dutton is committed to calling Labor liars at every opportunity, as well as suggesting that there’s a big rift between Albanese and Chalmers on the tax cuts. The Liberals are a “broad church”, but Labor have rifts.
Ah, just like the mainstream media I’ve spent all this time discussing something which hasn’t happened yet and I’ve completely ignored the story about how Mathias Cormann is stuffing up his job at the OECD and how 26 economists and academics have written an open letter expressing concern about how he has effectively shut down the New Approaches to Economic Challenges which they believe was working efficiently.
Yes, when Mathias left the Liberals to work at the OECD, he managed to reduce the competency of both groups. It’s really pretty amazing that a body like that could employ a man who didn’t even notice that he’d forgotten to pay “HelloWorld” for his holiday.
Of course, this has nothing to do with his capacity to be an effective Prime Minister. I mean, we don’t elect governments because they’re composed of nice guys and gals. We elect them to have the ability to show foresight, communicate their vision and make the tough decisions when necessary.
So, all this stuff I’ve heard lately about Peter Dutton being such a great fellow just makes me think that he’s too nice to ever be a good leader.
By the way, in case you’re not aware, you should only try to cuddle a koala under strict supervision. In their natural state they can scratch and piss on you.
Reports that Labor is in talks with Peter Dutton over the looming Federal Integrity Commission laws have spread alarm Anthony Albanese might walk back on his pledge for a credible anti-corruption body. Callum Foote reports on the timing, the critical detail, the delays and the latest scare.
You reap what you sow. Dutton told them to go home and they did and aren’t coming back
LNP in Opposition to the ALP Government have left not just the buildin but Australia with an Abbottesque NOPE NOPE NOPE and yes “the sky is falling ” shreik. Nothing new to be seen from the Liberal Party!
Jobs summit: international students should get four-year visas
The previous Australian government told this cohort to “go home” when the pandemic hit. Students who chose to remain were locked out of JobKeeper and JobSeeker.
These actions have tainted our reputation as a global student-friendly destination and mean we need to act now to welcome more international students.
When in Opposition the LNP can be relied on being far more Socialist. The “cost of living” for ordinary Australians suddenly becomes foremost and not the cost of labor weighing down the economy.
Forget the past. The problems start now and they lie with Labor and the blind promises they made when not knowing what the LNP had kept hidden. Hidden for the seeming sake of their “integrity” and openness in tact. Susan Ley and Peter Dutton keep talking about electricity prices but not that report about their increase well hidden and buried 6 months before the last election. Now that’s the price we bear for her “integrity”
Yep, I think that about covers it. Ignore the past, don’t have talkfests to talk about the future, act without consulting, build nuclear reactors to bring prices and emissions down sometime before 2050.
And remember that John Howard is always available to promote his book and to remind you that the Liberals believe in the free market so they’re prepared to spend vast amounts of government money to ensure that the free market works effectively.
Finally, I’d just like everyone to remember the basic strategy that the Coalition will adopt over the next few weeks. If Labor and The Greens reach any sort of compromise, then it’ll be because they’re a coalition and if you vote for one it’s the same as voting for the other, but if they can’t agree, then Peter Dutton will move a motion of no confidence in the government because they can’t get their legislation through the Senate.
Ok, an Opposition leader would have to be pretty stupid to do that. So how long do you think it will be before he does?
Why is Australia so important to the likes of Lauren Southern? The Publicity support and nurture given to her, and grubs like her, by Sky News which is global of course. Coupled with the political sympathy afforded her by Australia’s worst Immigration and Homeland Minister Peter Dutton, who’s now lost for something to do she trying to remain relevant. Lies, lies, and more enables a depleting income for Southern which has now been cut off down under by the ALP. Try to get a visa now Lauren your lies are on record and the world has turned its back. Andrew Bolt for something to do might continue to pay you for interviews from Canada but I doubt it.
Lauren published a lengthy video called The Whole Truth on Tuesday. It commits more than two painful hours to unending navel-gazing about all the white nationalist shit she’s ever said or done. She says in the video that she was declared a political extremist in many countries and that this stifled her ability to apply for international visas.
So, she essentially had to make a performance of “quitting” in order to get a visa here — and this strategy was almost immediately successful.
So, I think that means I was right all along. (Tom Tanuki )
The success of Rupert’s exercise in spraying cologne on a chum bucket is yet to be proven but it is off to a bad start. Leave aside for the moment that Spud, sorry…Cuddles, is a 20 metre swimmer in a 50 metre pool who thinks shit takes are Japanese mushrooms and Feng Shui is a Chinese tennis player – in his first press conference as Lib leader Spuddley Too-right said; “I want to give you this assurance, we’ve heard loud and clear from the [partisanship-weary] Australian public” to be qualified a short time later with “Our job is to make things difficult for the Government“…so, lessons learnt, eh? Back to an obstructionist, Abbottesque future where after only three weeks Cuddles’ troops are laying the blame for nine years of Tory corruption, incompetence and wreckage at Labor’s feet.
Point of difference:- Peter Dutton declares Albanese empathy a danger to Australia
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has opened the door for the Nadesalingam family to pursuie permanent residency after their four-year ordeal in immigration detention.
Politicians of the Liberal kind have no real fundamental principles other than maintaining the economic interests of their donors. However, they do believe the 24/7 news cycle enables them to become chameleons change and like a laundromat have their histories erased but little else. There is no such thing as a fresh Dutton Taylor, Robert, Cash. There is no such thing as a Liberal Party whose interests are all Australia’s
Australians should be deeply concerned that Peter Dutton – the man who proudly marched out on the Apology to Indigenous Australians – stands unopposed within the Liberal Party as its alternative prime minister.
While his emergence as Opposition Leader has renewed scrutiny of his motivations back in 2008, this was just one of many troubling chapters in Dutton’s three-decade career that expose his serial failure to empathise with anyone he perceives as different.
New Liberal Leader Peter Dutton has a history of cruelty and corruption, despite the mainstream media telling us we should give him a chance, writes Dr Binoy Kampmark.
Announcing that it was time for the electorate to see his softer side, new Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he will continue to relentlessly deride minority groups, but in a more cuddly way.
How welcome will this sabre rattler be in those “outer suburbs” like Dandenong after his Hansonite attacks on the Lebanese Muslims Africans and Chinese? Dutton has always been the man from the Monkey Pod room driving the LNP to the bigoted right. The Queenslander who helped Howard steal Pauline Hanson’s space in Australian politics. Nothing has changed except he’ll now be competing with the Nationals in the regions and allowing those Liberals with independent and singular community concerns go. Dutton was always right of Abbott never left of the mad monk.
As soon as Defense Minister Dutton was gone from the government China announced it would drop its security plan for the Pacific region, and has specifically said it was prepared to work with Australia. But it simply wasn’t prepared to work with any government prepared to simply use it them as a political tool for their domestic politics or one supported by Murdoch’s Sinophobic divisive Media.
Outer suburban voters and small business owners will be Peter Dutton’s target to rebuild the devastated Liberal vote as the Coalition shifts away from big business in a pitch to “forgotten people” and towards what it calls sensible action on climate change after years of division.
Incoming Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has blasted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for doing what he said he would do, as well as going back on an LNP policy.
‘How dare you do what you said you would do? That’s not what a government does’ he said.
‘That’s not what a government does’ he said.
‘He also reversed our policy, a very galling decision on his part. Mr Albanese is very entitled, isn’t he? He seems to think being ‘in government’ allows him and his fellow lefties to ‘make decisions’. The man is delusional’.
Peter Dutton just bought 121 new tanks OOPS! Will the LNP cancel that order like the one they canceled with the French that cost $5bn and returned NOTHING? How much would canceling the useless tank contract cost us.The cancellation of the subs cost twice what the ALP pledged to fix Aged Care with. Would canceling the tanks cost another $5bn is that why Reynolds needs to strip the NDIS just in case?
It’s clear as the sixth week of the war begins that his apparent plan was to send a column of tanks rumbling into Kyiv, blow up a few things, send Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his government scampering away in fear, declare victory, install a puppet president and go home. Evidence that his plan was a strategic, tactical and political failure is showing on your television screens around the clock. If there is one image that will symbolize forever this war, it will be a blown-up Russian tank, its treads sagging and its turret tilted, rusting by the side of the road in Ukraine.
In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, India, South Korea, China, Russia, and United Arab Emirates – to name a few – basic research in space and planetary science, and science missions, are key elements in strategies to grow their sectors. In Australia, this kind of fundamental work only gets around A$2 million a year. It hasn’t budged in a decade.
Instead of investing in extremely expensive crewed platforms that take decades to design and manufacture and are potentially too valuable to lose, we should be making greater use of uncrewed and autonomous systems. Investing in cybersecurity and countering misinformation are far more relevant national security issues than buying bigger guns. Some say that having a few targeted long-range missiles would be a sufficient deterrent against aggression. It would certainly be cheaper than wasting money on submarines. Personally, I think respect given and earned, co-operation for mutual gain, and help in times of need or crisis, are far better defences than any weapon. The Coalition picked a bad time to cut Foreign Aid, ignore pleas to reduce emissions, and then act all offended when other suitors come calling. We need détente, not Dutton – a man who speaks very loudly and carries a tiny widdle stick.
Couple this with the government’s efforts to limit class action suits. Disallowing and smothering individuals from uniting in any action against either the government, MPs, or any mega-corporations in the country. Under the Morrison LNP the wealth at the top has seen growth at an accelerated pace while, the middle class diminished, compounding the acceleration of poverty but more so inequality. It’s an example of government abuse and the bullying of its citizens in the only world nation not a signiture to Bill of ( Human ) Rights.
Average Australians could not afford to sue for defamation and any potential costs awarded would be swallowed by legal fees. Rather, the Tories’ ambitions will help the powerful to silence critics or to retaliate should that fail. Spud even had the front to suggest a fund from tax payers be established to cover the legal costs of the pursuit of their adversaries because even rich guys need our money to pay expensive silks to sue us and to intimidate inquisitive journalists. First they came for the ABC. Then they came for journalists and whistle-blowers. Now they’re coming for the tweeters.None of this is meant to imply that Spud is an actual Nazi or a sympathiser of the Stasi, Oprichnina, Geheime Staatspolizei, NKVD, DINA, the Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities or any other secret police organisation or goon squad for any repressive regime whatsoever. His resemblance to a versatile root vegetable is however indisputable.
Defence Minister Peter Dutton’s portfolio has been extended to including hosting ABC’s seven o’clock bulletin, in a move designed to ensure Australians hear the right news. Mr Dutton – who will take on the role in addition to his existing responsibilities – has extensive media experience and is seen as having a better grasp than his predecessors of the types of stories Australians should hear.
In his maiden speech, Dutton said “I have seen the sickening behaviour displayed by people who, frankly, barely justify their existence in our sometimes over tolerant society.” Having watched Dutton enhance his personal fortune for twenty years, I have seen nothing to justify his existence in our parliament or the support of his over tolerant constituents and colleagues.
Mutual support, loneliness, convenience or a dose of good old-fashioned paranoia appears to have brought the two closer together. The object of that paranoia is Peter Dutton.
Frydenberg and Morrison are tied together by their apron strings now, but there is no knowing how or when it will end. Related Article Too often Scott Morrison finds himself on the backfoot. Editorial Scott Morrison Morrison’s leadership weaknesses all too clear The Age’s View The Age’s View Editorial In 2018 Frydenberg welched on a deal with best friend Greg Hunt to run for the deputy leadership which he won handsomely. He can be a mongrel when advancement beckons. In the first leadership ballot, enough of Morrison’s “God Squad” voted for Dutton to guarantee Malcolm Turnbull’s destruction. It didn’t stop Morrison throwing his arm around “my Prime Minister” Turnbull in front of cameras to deflect questions about his own ambition.
Morrison’s ministers are full of excuses about Australia’s unimpressive effort. Defence minister, Peter Dutton, has constantly reiterated the idea that processing the paperwork is a difficult thing indeed, because some of the visa applicants cannot be trusted. Having aided Australian and other coalition forces in the past, they had proved flexible with shifting allegiances. “I’m not bringing people to Australia that pose a threat to us or that have done us harm in Afghanistan.” With such an attitude, shutting the door to the suffering, even to those who were part of the coalition’s absurd state building project in Afghanistan, will do little to trouble an unformed, unimaginative conscience.
Over the years, empty legal threats would rain down like confetti. The largest number came from Peter Dutton, who took a special interest in everything I said about him. The ABC managers developed “Dutton fatigue”. No doubt the relentless pressure was designed to make me cool my jets, to be more cautious in my commentary about the combative ex-policeman from Queensland. At one exasperated stage I told my manager I wanted to start my own proceedings against the minister alleging he defamed me for claiming I was defaming him when plainly I was not. I argued that it was defamatory to accuse a professional broadcaster of defamation for no reason, as the inference was that I was reckless or incompetent, derelict in my obligations to my employer, in breach of the ABC charter and someone the audience could not trust.
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.
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.
The first to seal its frontier was the Marshall Islands. Samoa, Tonga, Kiribati, Palau, Micronesia, Tuvalu, Nauru, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, followed suit. Six months on, most of the world is ravaged by the coronavirus but these island nations remain virus free.
Peter Dutton’s powerful base for exercising and seeking to exercise control over his fellow Australians, appears unchallengeable, writes Bruce Haigh.
Patriotism is defined by the ruling LNP and supported by the Labor Party. China has now been identified as the enemy. It is best to go along with that narrative lest your home is raided, travel restricted and phone tapped.
The Anzac myth is deployed in these times as an appeal to a higher order of nationalism requiring the sacrifice of some liberties and compliance with unpopular directives. Its greatest appeal is on the right of the political spectrum. It has reached its use-by date, but nothing else is on offer.
olddogthoughts 
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