Friday 29th of March 2024

we all need role models...

a model hero...

From the master of the rightwing dunny. Andrew Bolt

I HOPE Malcolm Turnbull watched Donald Trump on TV last weekend. He would have seen real leadership. 

The Prime Minister could then have learned a lesson before it’s too late — if it isn’t too late already.

Turnbull would have seen Trump end his first hectic week as US President with yet another round of executive orders, not just on the economy and trade, but on suspending immigration from seven troubled Middle Eastern and African nations and building his Mexican border wall.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-bolt/andrew-bolt-malcolm...

internal criticism not as loud as external criticism...

Coalition ministers have been forced to defend the Government's renewable energy target from criticism by former prime minister Tony Abbott, who has repeated his call for it to be scrapped.

Key points:
  • The Government has set a target of producing 33,000 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy by 2020
  • Mr Abbott argues the target will destroy heavy industry in South Australia
  • Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg defends the policy describing it as "moderate" compared to Labor

In a speech to a Young Liberals conference in South Australia on the weekend, Mr Abbott accused the Turnbull Government of taking the public for "mugs" and losing touch with traditional Liberal voters. 

The attack comes a week after Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg defended the policy from criticism, insisting it would be difficult to meet despite exemptions for heavy industry. 

The Federal Government has set a target of producing 33,000 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy by 2020, although this was downgraded from 41,000 gigawatts hours under the Abbott government.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham told ABC's AM that there was no plan to change the renewable energy target despite internal criticism.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-30/government-defends-renewable-energ...

Not enough renewables in this government... despite the hot air generated by talkfests...

the TPP is dead... get over it.

Two events in recent days highlight the extent to which Australia is caught up in our region’s geopolitical structure, but seemingly bereft of the capacity for a coherent and nuanced response.

The first was US President Donald Trump fulfilling a campaign pledge to scrap U.S. participation in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). Notwithstanding that the other two main contenders for the presidency, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, had made identical pledges, the government seemed unprepared for Trump’s signing of the relevant Executive Order.

Only hours before Trump affixed his signature to the Order, Turnbull was “confident” that Trump would change his mind. So confident was the Australian government, and so out of touch with the new realities out of Washington, that they had not instructed DFAT to prepare a Plan “B”.

Labor’s Trade spokesperson Jason Clare had made two FOI requests for evidence of a Plan B only to be told that no such Ministerial request had been made. This is stupidity of a new order of magnitude.

When confronted with the reality of an American withdrawal from the TPP, Turnbull and Trade Minister Ciobo further detached themselves from reality by claiming that China and Indonesia could step in to fill the gap created by the departing Americans.

Having spent the last seven years negotiating an agreement that had, at its core, a plan to isolate and exclude China, did Turnbull and Ciobo seriously expect China to step in and rescue Turnbull from his own hubris and incompetence?

The Chinese have, in any case, spent the past several years far more productively, fashioning a series of trade, infrastructure and financial arrangements that are transforming the geopolitics of Eurasia and the Pacific. These include the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), consisting of the ten ASEAN nations, plus China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, representing 46% of the world’s population, 40% of world trade, and a combined GDP of $17 trillion dollars.

Other initiatives include the Chinese led Free Trade Area of Asia and the Pacific (FTAAP) which Australia has studiously ignored,; the Asia Investment Infrastructure Bank (now with 70 members) and, most importantly, the huge One Belt One Road (OBOR) developments, which I have examined elsewhere.

The second incident illustrative of the alarming blindness of our politicians was Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s visit to the U.S. this past week for what can only be described as the ironically entitled U.S.-Australia Dialogue for Co-operation in the Indo-Pacific.

read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/turnbull-bish...

he is barking mad...

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten says he hopes he is wrong about US President Donald Trump, whose views he has previously called "barking mad".

In his first National Press Club address of the year, Mr Shorten also criticised Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for not speaking out against Mr Trump's executive order on immigration.

Mr Trump's executive order placed a 90-day ban on travel from seven Muslim-majority nations: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

There were fears that the ban would stop Australians who are also citizens of those countries from entering the United States, though the Turnbull Government has since stated this is not the case. 

The Prime Minister has dismissed criticism about his refusal to condemn Mr Trump's visa ban, but Mr Shorten used today's speech to questioned his "silence". 

"When you are the Australian Prime Minister, you stand up for Australian values," he said.

"When the German Prime Minister saw what was happening, she spoke up. When the Canadian Prime Minister saw what was happening, he spoke up. When the British Prime Minister saw what was happening, she spoke up. 

"Our Prime Minister, when he saw what was happening, he stayed silent. There isn't much point in having the top job if you're not going to back in what you believe."

Earlier today, Mr Turnbull said his job did not involve publicly providing guidance for other leaders.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-31/bill-shorten-stands-by-barking-mad...

all in the same boat...

Before Trump, the Obama administration deported more than 2.5 million immigrants from the time he took office until 2015, more than any other US president. Two-thirds of deportees had committed only minor infractions, such as driving without a license or jumping a turnstile. Others had no criminal record at all. In the same period, detention of non-citizens increased by 25%.

Trump’s executive orders may take racialised border control, Islamophobia and aggressive deportation of non-citizens to new extremes. But in the last two decades, successive Australian governments have paved the way in showing there is no rock bottom when it comes to inhumane treatment of refugees and non-citizens.

On Monday, former Australian immigration minister, Scott Morrison, boastedthat “the world is catching up to Australia” by implementing harsh border protection policies. The executive in Australia can already deport adult non-citizens found guilty or suspected of criminal offences. These powers apply to all non-citizens, including people who have lived in Australia for most of their lives or whose immediate family are Australian citizens.

The Turnbull government has repeatedly trumpeted its offshore detention centres, where asylum seekers are held in conditions that have been described by the UN as amounting to torture, as the prototype for tough border control. Indeed, this week Turnbull “welcomed” the US to “emulate” Australia’s approach.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/31/in-a-global-trend-...