Forget me not

More pedantry. This time, in an opinion article about the replacement of Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan with Ben Carroll, former Premier Jeff Kennett (1992-1999), gets important details about his own political career wrong. Kennett became Premier in 1992, defeating his predecessor, Joan Kirner, in that year's state election. Kirner became Premier in 1990 after the resignation of John Cain, and not 1991. 

 

Tin foil hats aplenty

Some brief thoughts about Queensland One Nation Senator, Malcolm Roberts. Senator Roberts isn’t the only conspiracy theorist in One Nation. It is disingenuous for him to claim, as he has, that the media is trying to make him look bad.

I can name at least two others. I know for a fact that a One Nation candidate in the 2017 WA state election, and is still involved in the party, runs an active anti vax group on Facebook. Without the permission of the relatives of the deceased, he posts stories of people who have died prematurely, and claims this was caused by the Covid vaccine.

Another one privately believes that the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre was a false flag operation to disarm the Australian people. This person is also adamant that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s real surname isn’t Albanese, and that he has created a fictional life story for political purposes. 

It concerns me that such people are already walking in Australia's corridors of power, and if opinion polls are accurate, there will be many more in future Parliaments. 

How very reassuring

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addressed the nation tonight to talk about the fuel crisis. All television networks covered it live, in prime time. In the end, Albanese didn't really say anything to allay anxieties about impending rationing or shortages. 

All he did was call for calm. What a let down. There was no information given about what his government is doing to manage the crisis. Why did he bother?

Moral conscience of the nation

The Australian Greens are well known for their opposition to war. A cursory reading of their website makes it very clear to any observer that they are vehemently opposed to the United States and Israel's military action against the Iranian regime. Diplomacy and peaceful resolutions are the solution, not war. 

Perhaps they envisage negotiations, brokered by an impartial third party. Moreover, the aggrieved Iranian regime isn't evil, but amenable to reason, if only they were given a chance to calmly talk about their legitimate grievances, all sides in this conflict would see the errors of their ways. 

Foreign policy analysts who are actually across their brief on the subject of Iran think otherwise. As Times of Israel contributor Samuel Koltov argues, Iran cannot be treated as a rational, and logical state actor. Too many analysts fail to grasp Iran's religious-ideological worldview. Its leaders believe themselves to be preparing the world for the coming of the Mahdi, an Islamic Messianic figure. Their hostility to the United States and Israel is regarded as a religious obligation. They are engaged in an eschatological battle with religious enemies. 

Nobody likes war. The immense death and destruction is tragic. The Greens fail to grasp that whoever negotiates a ceasefire with Iran will be negotiating with fanatics. 

https://greens.org.au/campaigns/no-us-forever-wars

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/stop-treating-iran-as-a-rational-actor/

Bottomless pit of shonkiness

With reports of widespread corruption in the Victorian government's multibillion dollar infrastructure programme, the Big Build will turn out to be a massive rort. 

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/alleged-big-build-union-corruption-may-have-cost-victorians-up-to-30-billion/ar-AA1W7HN7?ocid=BingNewsSerp

 

Maintaining the rage, fifty years on

Coming up to the fiftieth anniversary of the November 1975 dismissal of Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam's government by Governor General Sir John Kerr, expect a flurry of print and digital media discourse on this tumultuous and controversial period of Australian political history. Former Attorney General George Brandis is getting in early. 

Even if this article is written by a former federal Liberal politician, it is still pertinent to remind that in 1970, when he was Opposition Leader, Whitlam unsuccessfully attempted to block supply to then Prime Minister John Gorton. I was not aware of that. 

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/the-forgotten-hypocrisy-over-whitlam-s-dismissal-he-tried-to-oust-libs-the-same-way-20251009-p5n1f7.html

Christians are a bunch of dills

An excerpt from Gerard Henderson's Media Watchdog blog, that I felt compelled to repost here. A leftist media outlet attempts to give former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, well known for being a Pentecostal Christian, a fair interview. 

 Issue 683 – The Sydney Institute

Feel the tension in the air

In a 2013 book, author and former Harvard professor, Daniel Goldhagen, described antisemitism as the "devil that never dies." Antisemitism has spiked since the October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, with many incidents of antisemitic attacks occurring around the world. 

According to the Jerusalem Post, the annual report for 2023 and January 2024 on the fight against antisemitism published by the Diaspora Ministry, the World Zionist Organization, and the Jewish Agency showed that between October and December, the number of antisemitic incidents worldwide increased by more than six times than the number of incidents between January and September of that year. 

Equally concerning is that according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, antisemitic incidents in Australia increased by 738 per cent in 2023, compared to the previous year. 

Surely this should concern any right thinking person. Nobody should feel unsafe in their community, just because of their ethnic or religious background. 

Dysfunctionality writ large

Some thirty years after Labor in Power, a documentary series about the Hawke-Keating government, that held power in Australia from 1983 to 1996, comes Nemesis, featuring interviews with many of the key protagonists. This should dominate the political news cycle for at least the next couple of weeks.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/nemesis-tells-the-story-of-the-coalition-years-in-its-own-words-some-of-it-will-leave-you-stunned/

Act your age and not your shoe size

Well said. Senator Lidia Thorpe, who is too radical even for the Australian Greens, conducts herself like a student activist, and not a federal politician. 

https://www.3aw.com.au/grow-up-neil-mitchell-reacts-to-lidia-thorpes-clash-with-police-at-protest/

Fair suck of the ketchup bottle

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will be the next Australian ambassador to the United States, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced today, describing Rudd as an "outstanding appointment." 

One hopes that Rudd will be more successful in this role than he was as Prime Minister. At least now he will have something else to focus on, rather than blaming everyone but himself for losing a job that he thought was his vocation. He will have to carry himself a bit more carefully from now on, as Joe Hockey, another former Australian ambassador to the United States, has stated. 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-20/kevin-rudd-appointed-washington-us-ambassador/101791798

https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/kevin-rudd-must-rebuild-bridges-and-rein-in-outbursts-as-new-ambassador-to-united-states-joe-hockey-warns/news-story/baea55545b3db7f61aff7cc0def542f1

Raise your hands

A friend of mine brought this article to my attention, asserting that the recently defeated former Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, well known as a Pentecostal Christian, was a theocrat. In its tone, it reads like the sort of thing you would read in a campus newspaper. Frankly, you'd expect a better level of analysis from someone claiming to be an experienced journalist. 

https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/07/22/morrisons-revelation-australia-lived-under-theocracy/

Sawing off the branch you're sitting on?

Jane Caro

Jane Caro, feminist social commentator, writer, and lecturer, is standing as a Senate candidate for the Reason Party in New South Wales. The Reason Party is an amalgamation of the Sex Party, a political party started by the Eros Foundation, which is an adult industry lobby group, with the Australian Cyclists Party, and the Voluntary Euthanasia Party. 

Now, bear in mind that I am just an obscure blogger, with no profile to speak of. Nor do I live in her state, so I am not eligible to vote for her. However, it is reasonable to ask her if she, as an avowed feminist, has any problem with being a member of a political party that was partially founded by the Eros Foundation. This foundation has links to the adult industry, which feminists such as herself usually oppose because it is based on the commodification and exploitation of women. 

Caro is also a domestic violence campaigner. Domestic violence prevention is part of her party's platform. A considerable body of peer reviewed research has clearly established the link between pornography use and domestic violence. This research is widely available to the public. Much of it is not behind paywalls. Yet, a cursory reading of the Reason Party website, which is vague on details, shows that it is against restricting the availability of such material to adult consumers. Is this a problem for Caro? Does her party really want to solve this problem, or perpetuate it?

These are the sorts of questions a journalist should be asking her, and that thinking voters should consider before casting their ballots on election day. 

We will make you be generous

The Australian Greens want to scrap all student loan debts if they hold the balance of power after the next federal election. The plan is to pay for this by increasing corporate taxation, and making wealthy Australians pay more income tax. Presumably this sounds very appealing to their target voter base, which includes a good number of young people living in inner city areas, as analysis by Roy Morgan Research shows. 

One also assumes that the Greens have thought this through properly, and they're not shooting themselves in the foot. If corporations have to pay higher taxes, it may mean that they have less money to invest in employing people, including investing in graduate employment programmes, or drive those companies offshore into countries with lower taxation. In other words, there will be less jobs for these university students when they graduate, and less tax revenue for the government to implement this policy. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10645903/Greens-promise-SCRAP-student-loan-debt-Australians-party-holds-balance-power.html

http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/7974-who-are-the-greens-2010-cf-2018-201905100753

Bad news

Senator Kimberley Kitching (ALP, Victoria) has died suddenly from a suspected heart attack. She supported the passing of the Magnitsky Act, which allows sanctions to be imposed on foreign government officials who are involved in human rights abuses. This Australian government is using this legislation to place sanctions on the Putin regime in Russia. This is a fitting legacy. 

It is also noteworthy that unlike others in her party, she sought to build bridges with socially conservative voters, such as those who did not support the redefinition of marriage by the Australian Parliament in 2017. At this time, it is speculated that the stress of having to fight toxic factional battles to retain her position on the Senate ticket in the forthcoming federal election may have contributed to her death. Condolences to her loved ones. 

https://thesydneyinstitute.com.au/blog/todays-media-watch-dog-postponed-until-monday/

Group hugs, everyone

This is posted here not to endorse a political party message, but to point out the breathtaking naivety of the Greens defence and foreign policies. It looks like a student activist poster on a campus billboard. What is their alternative? Defusing international tensions with a crack team of deradicalization program facilitators? The Greens' policies play to their left leaning base, being hostile to the United States, a well worn leftist article of faith, and their absolute belief in non-violence, even in the current world situation in which there is a real possibility of war with China. That is the whole point of the recently announced AUKUS alliance, and the submarine deal; to counter belligerent world powers. Nobody likes war. As just war theory holds, it should only be used as a last resort, but it should be an option. 

If the Greens had been around in the 1930s, perhaps their strategy to avoid war with Nazi Germany would have been to offer Hitler counselling to help him address unresolved childhood trauma. Surely he wasn't irredeemably evil, they'd reason. He liked art, nature, his pet Alsatian dogs, and claimed to be a vegetarian. 

In the words of Kim Seong-kon, professor emeritus of English at Seoul National University and distinguished visiting professor at George Washington University:

 "Peace is given only to those who are strong and prepared for war."

https://aijac.org.au/featured/greens-foreign-policy-would-make-australia-less-safe/

https://www.nationthailand.com/perspective/30340951

https://www.smh.com.au/world/war-is-the-last-resort-but-it-must-remain-an-option-20120211-1syc7.html

Respect the past

As a political history buff, and former librarian, I am mildly interested in the news of the establishment of the Robert Menzies Institute. Due to open later this year, it will incorporate a library and museum, and a research facility to examine the life, political career and legacy of Australia's longest serving Prime Minister. To my mind, it is a worthwhile endeavour, and one that surely any fair minded Australian can find it in themselves to support, regardless of their political beliefs. 

https://www.theage.com.au/national/robert-menzies-institute-to-open-at-melbourne-university-20210430-p57nv1.html

Sleeping on the job?

Since the opposition Liberal Party has no realistic chance of winning the Western Australia state election in March, extravagant election promises like this are a mere formality. I know of Western Australian Premier, Mark McGowan, but have no idea who this McGown chap is. Perhaps this post was written when the author was about to retire for the night. 

Cause for concern?

Following Victoria's lead, Queensland and Western Australia plan to legalise euthanasia. Well regarded lawyer, Paul Santamaria, son of the prominent Catholic social activist, Bob Santamaria, has raised concerns that safeguards in the draft legislation will be inadequate to protect the elderly and other vulnerable people will not be worth the paper they're printed on. Put simply, a chronically ill senior citizen may feel pressured to prematurely end their life after their doctor mentions that euthanasia is available to them. It makes one anticipate old age with some trepidation. 

Besmirching your heritage

Generations of Australians were avid readers of The Bulletin, a political and business magazine that was published from 1880 to 2018. It was controversial but respected, which contributed to its longevity. Among its significant contributors were Barbara Baynton, C.J. Dennis, Dorothy Mackellar, Nettia Palmer, Andrew Barton 'Banjo' Patterson, and Ethel Turner, all of whom were respected literary figures, and the respected political journalist, Laurie Oakes. 

The Bulletin lives on as a Facebook news site, but aside from sharing the name, it is a pale imitation of the original. It touts itself as an independent, unbiased, non partisan news source, free of the sinister tentacles of Rupert Murdoch, and the alleged Liberal Party bias of his newspapers and cable television network. 

Unfortunately, their answer to this is to publish puff pieces about the Australian Labor Party. It's poor form to accuse your rivals of bias, and at the same time appear completely oblivious to your own. The administrators don't like their views being challenged. Disagree with them, they'll belittle and block you. 

They also engage in gutter journalism, perpetrating rumours and gossip that portrays their political opponents in a negative light, and their spelling and grammar is poor. If this publication was in print, frankly, I wouldn't even use it to line my cat's litter tray.