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
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
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
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
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
Morrison has sought to weaken institutions. He was happy for Parliament not to sit at times during this crisis. Under his leadership, misleading Parliament no longer seems an important offence. After the Audit Office criticised the government’s sports rorts, its funding was cut back. Morrison has put the ABC board on notice, more or less told public servants to get back in their box and mocked international bodies. Secrecy dominates. On a surprising number of occasions, Morrison has made claims that are not, by any measure, true – that, for example, he has not said things he is on record as having said. A lot has been written about the war on truth, the loss of a common set of facts from which we can proceed. I am concerned just as much with something slightly, but significantly, different. Politics is not just based on facts; it is, at its heart, a collective quest to discover what the facts are, and then to act on them. Morrison addresses the media on Sunday outside Kirribili House. Morrison addresses the media on Sunday outside Kirribili House.Credit:Edwina Pickles It is this idea, of politics as a search for truth, that we are on the cusp of losing; the idea that, together, we can muddle towards consensus on what issues are real and pressing, and in this way make a better world, or at least a better country – and hopefully both. This is the role of the institutions our Prime Minister doesn’t like; this is why it is important that our politicians tell the truth and that the media holds them to that standard.
Trump’s greatest trick? Monopolising our attention
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
Morrison who has no faith in science and readily cuts back on research prefers to get his political advice from God and his only son Lachlan. which miraculously appears on the front pages of Australia’s media. Wh would anyone intentionally sabotage Victoria’s lock-downs by sending 55 NZers across the border to simply flout the States efforts to save lives and then blame the State? Simply because he can and has Ruperts blessing (ODT)
The frosty relations between the federal government and Mr Andrews continued on Sunday, with Mr Morrison and his two most senior Victorian ministers – treasurer Josh Frydenberg and health minister Greg Hunt – saying the easing of rules needed to go further.
Morrison wants Victoria lockdowns over, says Andrews should open faster
He switched to an announcement-based approach to leadership, and it made complete sense. In the current environment, there are no disincentives for doing so. Press conferences are held at short notice with details postponed until later, and inconvenient questions are easily batted away, well after headlines have established an underlying narrative. Outlets rush to break the news first, follow-ups are negligible, corrections are buried, and the media as a whole paints the picture you would expect from an ecosystem increasingly dominated by supporters of Morrison and his government (most notably in the News Corp stable). It’s all working for the prime minister – he’s a self-styled practical dad, an optimist taking care of business. If there are objections or uncomfortable revelations, he doesn’t accept the premise of your question. Next, please. And tomorrow he’ll have another announcement.
The announcement artist | The Monthly
PRIME MINISTER: Well the bus is going all the way up to Rockie and that’s where it was always planning to go. I mean, it’s a big state and I need to cover as much of it in four days as I can. So we were never planning to take the bus to Townsville, we’d always planned to take that last leg up to Townsville by plane because that was the most effective way to get there and to spend the most time there with people on the ground. I mean, these visits aren’t about sitting on a bus. They’re about actually engaging with small businesses and our supporters and the people of Queensland and listening to them.
JOURNALIST: Then why have the bus?
PRIME MINISTER: Because it gets me from A to B.
JOURNALIST: Will you be taking the bus to Rockhampton from here?
PRIME MINISTER: Yes. The bus will be going to Rockhampton from here. That’s right.
JOURNALIST: With you on it? PRIME MINISTER: I’ve got to get there earlier than the bus tonight.
The Important Thing Says Scotty Is That The Wheels on The Bus Go Round And Round… – » The Australian Independent Media Network
When Politics is reduced to a game it can’t and wont ever happen. (ODT)
Roosevelt took advantage of a crisis to make a better USA. You would hope Morrison and those that support him can live with the realisation that they could have made a better Australia for the next 50 to 70 years — and blew it. What do you think?
Morrison is not a Leader – » The Australian Independent Media Network
NSW point’s to Morrison’s involvement in COVID-19’s spread (ODT)
But it seems there’s still room for ideology
Education and Music and the Arts all export industries have been left to go it alone during COVID. Is it because of their tendancy not to be LNP voters but more critically thinkng Australians. The 1 million temorary visa holders certainly aren’t voters and they are trapped here without support and the government simply doesn’t care. 450 applicant foe a job no Australians applied for shows theis governments compassion.(ODT)
At a pragmatic level, the Government will also not view universities as the powerhouse of one of our most successful export industries, that therefore might be worth supporting, let alone investing in through some sort of strategy to bring them back from the abyss?
And it will not do anything serious about another major export earner, contemporary music.
But Morrison went further. He presented his disdain for summitry not only as a personal foible but also as a reflection of his worldview – his belief that international bodies and gatherings should be mistrusted and that they threaten to undercut the nation’s independence and interests. Morrison rejected what he labelled “negative globalism” and warned that Australia must tread warily to avoid being dictated to by an “unaccountable internationalist bureaucracy”.
AdvertisementBut this was before the Covid-19 pandemic. Never mind Climate Change
Righto. So we expect China to be open and transparent but not our fearless men in black. If our own Border Force won’t co-operate then why should another country, particularly considering the accusations being made and broadcast by the Murdoch muckrakers like Sharri Markson who now seems to have become the letter box for US propaganda.
What a joke.
And where is the call for an investigation into the handling of the outbreak in the US and the UK and our failure to stop them importing the virus into Australia?
via Scotty’s shirtfronting sophistry – » The Australian Independent Media Network
These funds already invest some money in the corporations Morrison is bailing out like Virgin. Now Morrison has turned into a dodgy financial advisor. It sounds as if he’s demanding to invest, no give money to businesses that were already on the brink before COVID-19. Virgin for one.
Virgin wasn’t asking for a loan as much as a buyout. saying if they don’t repay in two years the government can have them. Morrison seems to be handballing companies like Virgin to the pension funds for an apparent commission of making the LNP look good but it simply makes him look dodgy by calling them weak.(ODT)
Australia’s Morrison Wants Pensions to Fund Company Bailouts – Bloomberg
In these ways, the coronavirus health and economic crisis will be Morrison’s nemesis as it will his mentor Donald Trump. As Bret Stephens concludes
It should not have had to take a deadly virus to expose this presidency (or prime ministership) for what it is. But it’s fitting that it has. A man who thinks he can twist every truth to suit his needs has at last discovered that he cannot twist the truths of nature and of one of nature’s gods. Her name remains Nemesis.
via Coronavirus will prove Morrison’s nemesis. – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Far from being the Christian that invited media into his church to film him praying and far from espousing the values of Christianity, our current Prime Minister thrives on division, spin and lies. This failed marketing man is a danger to all Australians — “divide and conquer” may be a well-worn cliché, but this is exactly what Scotty from Marketing does on a daily basis. A caring government is one that seeks to unite its citizens and work to build a better society for all, sadly we have a PM that seeks to feather his and his mates’ nests with his hideous politics of division.
God Bless for the gift of the Corrupt Miracle (ODT)
It’s so easy to become complacent, so easy to accept the corruption, let alone the sheer incompetence of the Morrison government, so easy to let our preoccupation with the cricket or the football or the golf distract us from how our nation is being governed, how poorly our government is addressing the crucial issues of climate change, inequality, and a stuttering economy, and how incompetent, dishonest and corrupt our politicians have become. As the image that heads this piece highlights, money, and with it power and influence, is at the heart of all corruption, as the recent ‘sports rort’ saga so strikingly demonstrates.
If we let our leaders off the hook, we will have only ourselves to blame.
So this piece is a heartfelt call to be aware of the peril we face while the Morrison government is in charge, an earnest call for the courage to speak up loudly, a plea to call out its corruption, its self-serving behaviour, and its incompetence. Otherwise we are doomed. The corrupto-virus epidemic will continue unchecked. Unless we can bring about a change, our beloved country will wither, and we with it.
via Corrupto-virus threatens world governance – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Morrison is hell bent on cutting the budget of Public Media to the equivalent of 1984. (ODT)
There have been 670 emergency broadcasting events for the 2019-20 financial year so far, an ABC spokesman said, compared to 371 for the full 2018-19 financial year. In 2017-18 there were 256 events, a figure that had been surpassed by mid-September 2019.
via ABC under ‘growing’ cost pressure as bushfire emergency broadcasts surge
Morrison throws respect overboard a view from outside Australia.(ODT)
Donald Trump has been on the campaign trail from the day he got elected. He’s been planning nothing but winning in 2020 and beyond. Morrison’s LNP has been doing nothing but much the same wearing baseball caps and being the salesman without a product. (ODT)
Suite of policy measures? A set of trite slogans and a hyper-partisan party stalled in continuous campaign mode is a suite of policies? And it’s back to the old “selling the message”, regardless of how meaningless, or morally bankrupt. “Angus doesn’t have the ability to sell a positive climate change message.”
“This is not normal” says New South Wales Liberal Minister Matt Kean who is vilified The Australian for breaking ranks; noticing that Australia might be in the grip of record drought, heat and catastrophic bushfire.
Kean’s on to something. Voters may, indeed, be expecting the Federal government to do more than send its PM on top secret holidays with his pal Tim. But credibility and sincerity? Morrison’s got no show.
This is not normal, Mr Morrison. – » The Australian Independent Media Network
An Excuse for a PM (ODT
When our accidental-Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, took office, he swore an oath to ‘be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Her heirs and successors according to law.’
No mention of his duties to his wife and daughters. They are a private matter and, as long as he remains Prime Minister, his duties lie to the high office to which he has (sadly) been elected, and for which it appears he totally lacks competence!
Prime Minister – this is not all about you.
You really don’t have a clue, do you?
It is not about your promises to your daughters.
It is not about sharing the grief of people whom you have let down.
It is not about getting a few more photo ops, showing the caring Prime Minister comforting the distraught property owner who has lost everything.
Or the grieving widow with a young family whose partner died fighting the fires because he cared about his community.
That is all hypocritical flim-flam which highlights your failings.
Australia, along with all inhabitants of this planet, is facing an existential crisis.
The Coalition climate deniers have also been denying their country the ability to take actions which might have – at least to some extent – mitigated the current catastrophic conditions, and without which we can guarantee this is not the end but the beginning of a growing disaster.
Yes – we are not the only country needing to take action – but we are the developed country with the highest per capita level of emissions of greenhouse gases.
Yes – countries like China, India and the USA are lagging behind in taking action, but that does not give us licence to do nothing. Instead it gives us an obligation to put them to shame by showing how a relatively small country can rapidly become carbon neutral.
via Scott Morrison should resign – » The Australian Independent Media Network
“I deeply regret any offence caused to any of the many Australians affected by the terrible bushfires by my taking leave with family at this time,” he said in a statement. It came after the deaths of two fire fighters and the injury of others, and Morrison’s decision to cut short his Hawaiian holiday.
But the prime minister still remained quite focused on why he’d taken leave just now, telling 2GB how he’d had to bring his holiday forward because of his commitments to visit India and Japan in January, missing a break at the coast. So he’d wanted to give his girls a surprise with this family trip to Hawaii. Etc. Etc.
He didn’t seem to grasp that while he likes to emphasise his relationship with the ordinary Australian, as prime minister he is not an ordinary Australian.
Contrary to what Science and Insurance Companies tell us but similar to what Tobacco companies would like us to believe about smoking and cancer. There’s no direct proof smoking causes cancer and the science is fake and the Insurance Companies wrong. (ODT)
As firefighters in four Australian states struggled to contain unprecedented bushfires that threatened life, property and wildlife, Prime Minister Scott Morrison argued that there is no direct link with Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Morrison claimed there is no “credible scientific evidence” that cutting our emissions could reduce the intensity of bushfires.
![Screenshot_2020-02-14 It turns out Scott Morrison and his friends can do whatever they like What a shock First Dog on the M[...].png](https://peterimrich.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/screenshot_2020-02-14-it-turns-out-scott-morrison-and-his-friends-can-do-whatever-they-like-what-a-shock-first-dog-on-the-m....png)
via 
via 
