via I have nothing but contempt for Scott Morrison – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Tag: Scott Morrison
When a Surplus is more important than Australians in need. (ODT)
via NDIS funds ‘repurposed’ for drought relief under Scott Morrison’s plan
Unions, The ABC, Information, are all in for a challenging future until a year out from the next election (ODT)
Thanking the Sky-Man for us becoming more Californian (ODT)
Howard declared it a crime to stop Australians waving or wearing the Australian flag. Morrison agreed. It was 2005 and a Patriotism and jingoistic nationalism enabled and encouraged ultra-right Nationalists to continue to wage war on migrants and Muslims after Cronulla. Howards Hitleresque response was to the Big Day Out banning the flag as it encouraged sectarian violence, arrogance and disrespect of Australia and who we were by White Nationalists and their ignorant camp followers. morrison saw it as a political advantage. (ODT)
Scott Morrison’s pledge to crack down on climate protesters is in part a deflection, a ruse to encourage climate change deniers by implying that there’s nothing wrong with building more coal-fired power station; it’s the “extremist, radical activists” who are out of line. And it’s a way of wedging Labor. Yet it would be wrong to see it merely as an act of bellicose posturing from a wannabe populist strong man.
Morrison’s past record suggests more than a hint of an authoritarian, if not autocratic, personality beneath the evasions, the secrecy and the cultivated, folksy veneer of the sport-loving, cap-wearing , beer-drinking suburban dad as populist leader.
Given the proliferation of national security laws which have hugely strengthened the power of the state, since 2011, moreover, we must challenge Morrison’s latest florid, rhetorical assault on democracy; resist all attempts at division and the silencing of dissent. Our future as a civil society; our freedom depends upon it.
Beyond a Morrison Police State. – » The Australian Independent Media Network
In a political world full of harmful ideologies, Kyle Mervin explains how to spin them to the masses and make them work.
Lie number one: Make out that you are more popular than you are
Lie number two: If you don’t have an actual enemy, you have to create one
Lie number three: Create your enemy’s arguments for them
Lie number four: If you do find yourself under attack for your ideas, guide your argument away from the detail and argue your right to say it
Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies director Chen Xiaochen said Shanghai, where life expectancy reaches 82, is “probably the only developed city” in China, while rural areas remain far behind.
via China claims Australia the ‘pioneer’ of a global anti-China campaign
via
Mm, and then there’s Gladys Liu. While she may not be a card carrying member of the Chinese Communist Party, she’s certainly belonged to organisations which are meant to advance China’s interests in other countries. When Scottie hears this, does he announce that he’ll ask the security forces to check it out? No, he calls her a great Australian and accuses people of racism for even suggesting that there are questions to answer.
Good on him, says the Chinese newspaper. (This is real, I’m not making it up).
Now imagine if Jeremy Corbyn or Bill Shorten had introduced a card to control people’s spending, presided over raids on journalists and then was praised by the Communists for standing up for a possible Chinese propaganda stooge. Yeah, I can see the Murdoch press calling for their extradition to Guatanamo Bay as a threat to the nation.
–– ADVERTISEMENT ––But Scott, it seems, is ok right up until he says, How Good is the Socialist state?
via How Good Is Communism? OR ScoMo The Trotskyist – » The Australian Independent Media Network
What else but Scott Morrison’s belief in the words of Donald Trump would have been the inspiration behind his decision to expose Australian troops to a possible armed conflict in the Strait of Hormuz?
Is it the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ all over again? Same players: the US, the UK and Australia and an oil-rich nation. Same catalyst: believe whatever a POTUS says.
But more to the point, why does Morrison feel we need to join the US in Iran on Trump’s “say so”?
Is Morrison one of the few remaining individuals on the face of the Earth who believes anything Trump says? It appears as though he is.
Perhaps Scott Morrison could tell us what else he believes from the mouth or mind of Donald Trump.
This should be easy.
Tell us, Scott:
MAKING AUSTRALIA GRATE AGAIN
Fears that China will exploit Australia’s neglectful – if not abusive – relationship with its Pacific neighbours are aired all week but the Morrison government isn’t listening. It does everything in its power to offend and alienate Pacific leaders as it clings to its ideological fixation with supporting a moribund coal industry at home.
Above all, enlisting or inspiring the support of Alan Jones, aka The Parrot, has helped the Morrison government shine a light on the unreason, the bullying, the racism and the misogyny which lie at its heart.
My thought for the day
Nothing has ever stood in the way of science and technology. Its advancement has been staggering. So why are the conservative political forces so opposed to it? ( John Lord)
When Scott Morrison told us that we needed more love, I must admit that I was a little cynical. Was this the same Scott Morrison that locked up asylum seekers, wanted those under thirty to wait six months for the dole, opposed marriage equality, restricted the notion of a “fair go” to those “having a go”, promised to repeal the Medevac legislation, and relentlessly attacked Bill Shorten and the Labor Party? Surely not! It must be some other Scott Morrison. Was our PM going soft? What next? Will he be out hugging some distraught voter Jacinda Adern style? Apart from his attachment to a lump of coal and his affectionate hug of Malcolm just before he screwed him, I’ve never seen anything resembling love from the man.
Ok, ok, love is a very private thing… Unless you’re Barnaby Joyce who’s prepared to talk about it publicly providing you can pay $150,000 for an interview.
Anyway, Mr Morrison seemed to have relinquished the idea that politicians can achieve anything when he told the congregation at Hillsong: “Our nation needs more prayer, more worship. That’s how things are overcome.”
via Loving Scott Morrison… And Praying For Him, Too! – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Ask yourself this: Does the political culture we have make you feel good about your country?
So don’t moan if the Coalition continues to stuff things up. They have been doing so for six years. You gave them another three. That’s not my fault.
My thought for the day
The right to vote in an election is the gift that democracy gives. Therefore, it is incumbent on the voter to at least have a rudimentary understanding of politics and to take an interest in the political landscape.
via Habits are hard to break. Just ask Scott. – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has slapped down Tony Abbott for his “partisan” tribute to their late Labor predecessor Bob Hawke following the 89-year-old’s death on Thursday.
Mr Abbott shocked the community with a statement that attempted to score political points just hours after Mr Hawke’s death, describing the Labor legend as having “a Labor heart but a Liberal head”, and bemoaning modern Labor’s drift from his legacy.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott said his predecessor Bob Hawke had “a Labor heart but a Liberal head”.Former prime minister Tony Abbott said his predecessor Bob Hawke had “a Labor heart but a Liberal head”.Credit:Janie Barrett
Mr Morrison said those were not the words he used in his own statement and that he hoped Liberals paying tribute to Mr Hawke “would not be seen to be partisan”.
He praised Mr Hawke as a “unifier” and “a man of enormous intellectual capacity”, as well as Labor’s greatest prime minister.
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via Bob Hawke death: Scott Morrison cautions Tony Abbott on ‘partisan’ statement
The problem with the Liberals and Nationals lining up with ‘crackpots and cranks’ is it’s not a cost-free exercise
We have to thank Andrew Bolt for giving this embarassment more air to the detriment of himself and Gerard Henderson neither of whom laid a glove on Bolt’s media nemesis Waleed Aly. Who was invited to NZ unlike them (ODT)
My interpretation of Henderson’s words was that Aly had no right to question Morrison simply because he was the Prime Minister and he should have more respect.
Was Aly supposed to concede that politicians are the citadels of all knowledge?
Aly is an author, journalist, newspaper columnist, radio and television presenter, lawyer, academic, guitarist, songwriter and thinker.
Scott Morrison is the Prime Minister of Australia has a BSc (Honour’s) from Sydney University.
Central to Aly’s criticism was the proposition that Scott Morrison had, at a shadow cabinet meeting in 2010 “urged the shadow cabinet to capitalise on the electorate’s growing concerns” about Muslims and appeal to the public perception of their “inability to integrate”
This followed his questioning in the same month after forty-eight asylum seekers died in the Christmas Island boat disaster. In February 2011, Morrison publicly questioned the decision of the Gillard Labor government to pay for the relatives of the victims to travel to funerals in Sydney, arguing that the same privilege was not extended to Australian citizens.
After fellow Liberal and shadow treasurer Joe Hockey disagreed with Morrison’s statements, Morrison said that the timing of his comments was insensitive, but did not back away from the comments themselves.
via History tells us that it’s hard to believe him – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Key points:
Scott Morrison said he never told senior colleagues to exploit community concerns about Muslim migration
The Prime Minister accused Waleed Aly of being “very emotional” and “over the top”
Mr Morrison refused to say whether his party should preference One Nation and Fraser Anning last.
Of course, I did delete a certain senior politician’s name from a recent piece that I wrote. Apparently, the PM’s office got all hot and bothered when Waleed Aly suggested in a response to Christchurch something that was widely reported in 2011 and threatened defamation action.
A rather interesting response, given Scott didn’t threaten to react so litigously when it was reported way back in 2011. I guess it was different then. It wasn’t being said by a Muslim.
If politicians had the strength to do what is right, we could make this world a far better place. Instead, we are subjected to lying, mealy mouthed excuses. endless arguments about ridiculous trivialities, and empty egotistical posturing.
We are led by politicians who are more scared of losing an election than of wrongly sending us to war or of the consequences of ignoring climate change.
You aren’t a “strong leader” Scott. You are an empty blowhard on the make who doesn’t have the ability or the courage to solve anything.
via Politicians create problems rather than solve them – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Which of the men runs on the amoral belief the” end justifies the means” and pretends he’s a Christian.It isn’t the leader of the ALP that trashe the Hippocratic Oath doctors take as being a threat that turns medical practitioners into activists and a national threat.
Scott Morrison saw how media enabled of community division and fueled the Cronulla Riots in 2005 and he immediately took it to his local branch of the Party and encouraged the use of ethnic and racial division to raise the fear-meter in order to garner votes. While his rejected the Morrison tactic Tony Abbott haf no qualms in holding back and we’ve seen it applied time and time again. Yes it’s back again now in full force. These good Christians family men like Morrison, Corman and Abbott have began calling the Asylum Seekers “Rapists” “Pedophiles” and worse for the simple purpose of garnering desperate votes.
With the help of Ch9 and News Corp and 2GB their PR machines ready to put profit before reality we have seen the campaign of fear hate begin where hope of “political gain ought not justify the immoral means” being applied to asylum seekers as if they were cockroaches by our current LNP government. A legacy encouraged by Scott Morrison as far back as 2005 (ODT)
Labor workplace relations spokesman Brendan O’Connor said the Prime Minister had chosen to “misrepresent the truth” and “lie to the Australian people” in an attempt to gain political advantage when he should be safeguarding the national interest.
“Most remarkably and outrageously, we’ve seen him announce the opening of Christmas Island. Well if this wasn’t the biggest advertisement to people smugglers, I don’t know what is,” he said.
“To open up a taxpayer funded motel in Christmas Island to basically advertise to people smugglers in the region that indeed business is back – that is a desperate act.”
Former prime minister Tony Abbott said the Labor rules would mean people could “get on a boat, get to Nauru, get sick and get to Australia” – making no mention of the fact the new law did not apply to new boat arrivals.
Labor legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus said Mr Morrison had chosen to “endorse lies”.
via Government prepares to remove 300 refugees from Manus Island and Nauru in first wave of transfers
Here is the direct voice of Trump, the sentiments of Tony Abbott and a “reported” leak to distance themselves from what would otherwise seem Liberal lack of compassion. Abbott the Catholic and ex- trainee priest showed his by pouring shit on Medicine’s Hippocratic Oath. It’s too compassionate for Team Australia (ODT)
through the week, there was the leak of ASIO briefings that reportedly suggested that not only would the amendments let murderers, paedophiles and rapists into the country, but they would lead to the collapse of the border protection regime, (how Trump is that?ODT)
Implicit in the message has been the idea that the so-called Phelps bill is just a phony construct to get everyone out of offshore detention because doctors had too much “compassion”, as former prime minister Tony Abbott warned. ( Catholic and ex trainee priest ODT)
It is distressing for many of us having to deal with the anti-Muslim, anti-refugee and anti-immigrant propaganda striking us in social media, and in the corporate press, particularly the Murdoch-controlled media.
That a section of our political leadership joins in these attacks is also a cause of distress.
The fact that the current Prime Minister Scott Morrison, in Liberal Party talks in 2011, urged the shadow cabinet to use the growing concerns about “Muslim immigration”, “Muslims in Australia” and the “inability” of Muslim migrants to integrate as part of its election strategy, still worries our community.
While this is not yet the dominant picture in this country, the example of the Trump Administration and the Brexit campaign in the UK indicate what could be the result.
Although these outdated and disproven racist theories have been expelled from scientific discourse, they still raise their heads in political discourse and amongst the less literate of the public.
I’m more confused about things like their recent thought bubble on moving the Israeli embassy to Jerusalem. Various bodies have suggested that this may lead to protests and possibly even violence. Now, it would be far too conspiratorial to suggest that Scott is actually hoping to provoke a terrorist attack in the hope that it would give him a boost in the polls. As if he’d be prepared to do whatever it took to get re-elected; he’d only do whatever it takes to stop children being brought here for medical treatment. No, I find this confusing because – apart from Trump’s US – no other country seems to be doing this. Clearly, it’s putting our free trade agreement with Indonesia at risk, and we can’t take the lead with any action that puts our economic growth at risk when the future of the planet is at stake, but somehow we can go out on a limb about the location of an embassy. We can follow Trump, but tell the Indonesians that we don’t let other countries set our foreign policy.
via Jesus Supports Discrimination! – » The Australian Independent Media Network
An Australian war hero “ignored” by Peter Dutton for years says he’s disgusted the Home Affairs Minister personally intervened to stop a French au pair from being deported.
via Aussie war hero ‘ignored’ by Peter Dutton says he’s disgusted by au pair intervention
The Liberals were right. There’s no need for a banking Royal Commission. It’s just fostering ill will and leading to a lot of complaints from people. Ok, not perhaps, the dead clients that the Commonwealth Bank continued to charge for advice even though they knew that they’d died. Let’s be real here, people. Dead people aren’t in the best position to make their own decisions so they probably needed the advice more than anyone. I have it from a source that in many cases the advice was: “You should stop paying me now that you’re dead.” Not one of these dead clients are complaining that the advice was wrong, even if it wasn’t heeded.
Yep…
Does the Treasurer really think the public is so dim?
Source: Banking royal commission: Does Scott Morrison really think the public is that dim?
From guest columnist Scott Morrison
Enough is enough. For too long, middle aged, straight white men like me have not had a voice. Around the country, we have been sidelined, marginalised, laughed at and abused. It’s time to take a stand.
We hear so much about other groups of society. But show me a position of power in this country that’s occupied by one of my people – someone who looks like me.
Take, for instance, our parliament. Ok, bad example. Consider instead then our business leaders. Ok, but you know what I mean.
I’m sick of the bigotry and the abuse. I’m sick of doors being shut in my face. I’m tired of opportunities that are given to others, taken from me, just because of who I am. Just because of the way I look. Just because I’m attracted to members of the opposite sex.
It’s high time that we had a say in how this country is run. It’s high time we had some input into how the nation’s finances were spent. It’s time doors were opened for us as well as other Australians. It’s time our voice was heard. Just for once.
The latest national accounts figures for the December quarter, as boring as they may be to some, caused the Treasurer, Scott Morrison to be upbeat about the direction the Australian economy is heading. He is being premature. Trying to gloss over a disturbing trend by remarking on how much better we are performing above the…
Source: Morrison misreads the state of the Economy – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Scott Morrison is a formidable politician, a leading contender to replace Tony Abbott, and perhaps the anointed successor to Malcolm Turnbull. But Treasury is hardly an easy stepping-stone to the Lodge. Of the 38 treasurers before Morrison, only six went on to be prime minister.
Any unwanted economic indicators trying to reach Australian shores will be locked up on a small island and never spoken about again, the new Treasurer has revealed.
Making clear he would not comment on operational matters, new Treasurer Scott Morrison said, “If there’s a problem with our economy you certainly won’t be hearing about it from me”.
When asked where the debt levels were currently at, Mr Morrison said, “on a boat to Manus Island”.
Mr Morrison was then asked what the unemployment rate was, to which he replied “it’s the number of people over 15 who are actively looking for work, as a percentage of the total workforce”.
The right-wing media’s calls to end birthright citizenship — a constitutional guarantee — have been repeated incessantly over the years and have once again found a sympathetic ear in Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), who recently re-introduced legislation that would supposedly “prevent children born in the U.S. of foreign national parents from gaining automatic U.S. citizenship.”
Conservative media figures going back to Glenn Beck in his Fox News days have railed against so-called “anchor babies” and “birth tourism,” the former a derogatory slur and debunked myth used against U.S. born children of non-citizens, the latter of which represents a sliver of births that experts have repeatedly pointed out are “extraordinarily rare” and an insignificant immigration problem. As Salon’s Simon Maloy recently wrote, this “grossly nativist and legally dubious” rhetoric has nevertheless found a receptive audience in Republican legislators on both the state and federal levels.
At the same time, right-wing media continue their drumbeat on this issue, most prominently ABC contributor and talk radio host Laura Ingraham, who has called ending the constitutional guarantee of citizenship at birth a “common sense step.” This is nothing new for Ingraham, a self-proclaimed influence on Republican politics who has repeatedly condemned “birthright citizenship nonsense.”
On the March 10 edition of The O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly joined the chorus when he heard that children born in the U.S. automatically receive citizenship — “the baby gets the passport” — and declared, “That law’s got to change.” In the segment, which focused on “birth tourism” by Chinese parents, O’Reilly concluded, “This law is being abused like crazy. It’s got to be changed. That should not be a hard thing to do.”
In fact, that would be an extremely hard thing to do — it would require amending the U.S. Constitution or overturning centuries of post-Civil War Supreme Court precedent.
O’Reilly and his guests — Fox host Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former prosecutor, and contributor Lis Wiehl, also a lawyer — ignored the fact that it’s not merely a “law” that confers citizenship to children born in the United States — it’s the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That amendment, intended to ensure equal protection for all in the wake of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, unequivocally states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States … are citizens of the United States.” This amendment has long been understood to grant birthright citizenship, and that interpretation has been re-affirmed by the Supreme Court since as far back as 1898. James C. Ho, the former solicitor general of Texas, explained in 2011 that birthright citizenship was intended “to reverse the Supreme Court’s notorious 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling denying citizenship to slaves” and their children, and challenging its legality is “wasting taxpayer funds on a losing court battle, reopening the scars of the Civil War, and offending our Constitution and the rule of law.”
But conservative media’s radical calls for the end of birthright citizenship continue to make headway with Republicans in Congress.
On March 10, Vitter re-introduced his Birthright Citizenship Act, which would “close a loophole by clarifying that birthright citizenship is only given to the children of U.S. citizens and legal resident aliens.” In announcing this legislation, Vitter claimed that allowing birthright citizenship is based on “a fundamental misunderstanding of the 14th Amendment,” suggesting that the framers of the amendment, the Supreme Court, and legal experts have been wrong about its plain language for the last 150 years.
An alternate explanation for Vitter’s legislation — other than pure confusion — is that this is intended to be unconstitutional and represents a “test case” expected to be repeatedly struck down in the federal courts on the way to the Supreme Court. Although GOP senators have shied away from acknowledging this, right-wing anti-immigration activists like Kansas’ Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach have plainly admitted as much.
Right-wing media is not quite so honest in its calls to rewrite the U.S. Constitution, choosing instead to baselessly scaremonger about “anchor babies” and “birth tourism.
As the 2014 gubernatorial race starts to heat up, a bill is working its way through the Florida legislature that would make it a felony offense to earn less than $25,000.00 per year. The bill will also place those with minority racial status on probation.
In 2011, Florida effectively disenfranchised 1.5 million citizens with a new restrictive voting law. The law prohibits anyone ever convicted of a felony from voting in local, state or federal elections. Commenting on the situation, Governor Rick Scott stated “We really got on the right track in 2011, and this new bill should put us over the top.” When asked what he meant, Scott replied “Well, we certainly don’t want to risk uncertainty in the election process by allowing criminals to vote, and since most crime is committed by the poor and minorities, this new law just takes the next logical step. The bill will prevent undesirables from participating in the election process.”
One of the chief sponsors of the bill, Representative Billy Bob McSneed, a Republican from Panama City, stated “All these minorities, many of them illegal, are taking our jobs and threatening our way of life down here. By placing them on probation, we can better control ‘em and stop all the election fraud. Hell, it’s bad enough that we let ‘em drive.”
Election fraud in Florida has reached enormous proportions in Florida over the last decade, according to the Florida Republican Central Committee. McSneed supplied us with documents proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that there have been at least three dozen cases of individuals voting illegally in Florida over the last ten years.
“We live in state where 36 votes could tip the balance, McSneed said. The only logical thing to do is attack the root of the disease, not the symptoms, and the root of the disease is poor people, minorities, and poor minorities.”
When asked how many citizens of the state that this bill would disenfranchise, Governor Scott replied, “We have no idea, but the vast majority of them will be Democrats, and that’s all that matters.”
Challenges to the new bill’s constitutionality will no doubt be numerous. However, given the current glut of challenges in Florida’s courts challenging other demented laws passed by the legislature, any decision will be slow in coming and probably will occur post-election.
Reached for comment was Representative Barbara Hernandez, Democrat from Miami. She stated, “I am currently trying to decide whether to hang myself or move to a more open society. Maybe Cuba or North Korea.”
