The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has left Tony Abbott out of his new ministry, and has taken some power away from Peter Dutton as he announced a “new generation” ministry.

He has given former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce the role of special envoy for drought assistance and recovery.

However, Morrison said Abbott would be welcome to play a similar role, if he was interested.

“These roles, I think, provide an opportunity for those who have served in senior levels in the past and continue to make any constructive contribution,” Morrison said.

“I look forward to continuing to engage with Mr Abbott on how he can play a role in those areas, but I fully respect his right to look at these issues as he sees fit.”

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/aug/26/dutton-stays-but-...

The "new generation" is full of the old faces... and they want us to swallow that this is done "to mend the rift"?... Balls. Moderate Liberals (CONservatives)? Balls!... Go away...

Awaiting the dreaded NBN through the clapped out copper network, this household has delayed the purchase of any new computing gizmos and programs. Having lost all my graphic computers due to old age (not mine, but the G4 and G5 — above 12 years of continuous usage — 24/7 — they make a noise as if the axles of the starter disks are spinning out of whack and the experts at Mac told me they'd be more useful as pot-plants), I am reduced to cut and paste jobs printed old toons downloaded from the YD.net.au on a cheap ($24.95) printer and use a cheap scanner ($19.98 at the "Cheap Store"... if I remember well the price was not $19.97 as the merchant would have lost 5 cents and won 2 cents should you pay cash) to get an image that is passable. My hand-writing is crap in winter as my fingers are cold and crap in summer as my hands are sweaty... 

And I'm too busy to polish toons from scratch. 

Peter Dutton has been accused of misleading Federal Parliament over the European au pair scandal, by saying he had no personal connection or relationship with the prospective employers. 

• Questioned about intervening in two cases earlier this year, Peter Dutton told Parliament he could rule out any relationship between him and the au pairs' employers
• Today he admitted he had worked with Russell Keag, whose family one au pair was planning to work with
• Greens call for explanation, but PM says opponents are simply "kicking up dust"

But Prime Minister Scott Morrison has launched a strong defence of his Home Affairs Minister, accusing his opponents of kicking up dust and "slinging some mud around".

In June 2015, Mr Dutton used his ministerial power to overrule a senior department official and ensure an Italian au pair was not deported, granting her a tourist visa. 

Michela Marchisio was planning to work for a former Queensland Police colleague of Mr Dutton's, Russell Keag, who is understood to have lobbied the Minister's office for action.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-31/dutton-au-pairs-greens-accuse-mini...

Like the Downers, the Adelaide McLachlans are an ancient and noble family, producing many fine specimens of bunyip aristocracy. As a McKinnon, I would note that Clan Maclachlan rightly supported the Jacobite uprising of 1745. We may have been beaten at Culloden, but the Stuart kings will reign again if God is good.

Gillon apparently got on the blower and explained Deuwel’s plight, and Dutton was so moved that he granted her a fresh tourist visa in less than 24 hours. So modest about these little acts of kindness, Dutton refuses to speak on them, even spending $10,000 of public money to keep records of them hidden. Hopefully a Senate inquiry into his generosity, ordered in late August, will enable the public to thank him properly at the next election.

Read more at:

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2018/09/01/gadfly-flagging-new-churchill/

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Five years ago, on a boiling hot day, Australian immigration minister Scott Morrison entered Manus Prison. A number of refugees who represented various groups were invited to meet with him. In that meeting, the refugee representatives found themselves being threatened – Morrison pointed his finger at them and yelled: “You have no chance of coming to Australia and you must return to your countries.” I depict this exact scene and its aftermath in my book No Friend but the Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison. 

It was a time when few people had heard of the prisons on Manus Island and Nauru. The refugees felt isolated and forgotten, the refugees felt extreme pressure. It was in this context that the refugees were confronted with that single threatening line by Morrison. That sentence conjured up a wave of hopelessness, so much so that a few people attempted suicide.

His despicable behaviour was also subject to serious criticism from the prison authorities. For days the situation was out of control. Actually, the circumstances created by this event eventually led to a riot in February 2014 – it led to the killing of Reza Barati. It also resulted in hundreds of refugees suffering serious injuries.

In fact, Morrison has been accused of playing a crucial role in inciting this riot. Even the guards were critical of him in this respect. Then on the day that Reza Barati was killed Morrison appeared on TV and lied by saying that Reza was killed outside the prison. But after a few days he was forced to admit he was wrong. After Reza’s death Hamid Khazaei lost his life due to a very basic infection. Just one month ago the Queensland coroner found that Hamid’s death was totally preventable.

It is clear that Morrison – the man who is now prime minister of Australia – has been instrumental in establishing a system that is responsible for the deaths of 12 human beings. He is a merciless individual. 

During a week of chaos in the political sphere which resulted in a change of prime minister, many Australians who did not have a good impression of Peter Dutton breathed a sigh of relief when Morrison was chosen as leader. The general perception is that Morrison has a more moderate approach compared to Dutton.

We can learn a lot from this fundamental error; this error may also impact the upcoming elections. Morrison is in no way a moderate figure. The biggest difference between him and Dutton is that the latter is an example of a new kind of western politician who has no fear of being seen as a bad person. However, Morrison is a demagogue who tries to present himself to society as a moderate politician.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/31/australia-needs-a-...

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Morrison is a Dutton in sheep's clothing...

new trick

Winning ugly

The one constant in politics – holding power – has been cast aside. With it go the orthodoxies of logic and reason. This is about ideology. This is about giving up on the country, on what it wants, because a stubborn few cannot give up on coal and traditional values. The Coalition would sooner forsake electoral success than reckon with the realities of climate science or engage with the leadership asked for by multiculturalism

Read more:

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/

Former Turnbull minister and Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells has accused Scott Morrison's backers of plotting for "some time" to have him take over as prime minister.

• Senator Fierravanti-Wells says Morrison backers need to explain themselves
• She says it was "very clear" they had been planning for his ascension
• Mr Morrison beat Mr Dutton 45-40 in the leadership spill

In an interview with the ABC's National Wrap program, Senator Fierravanti-Wells said Mr Morrison's backers had to explain their actions because she believed they were actively working for his election as leader.

Mr Morrison beat Peter Dutton 45 votes to 40 in a leadership spill on August 24. 

Senator Fierravanti-Wells' intervention seeks to throw doubt on the claim that Mr Morrison and his supporters had "clean hands" during the leadership turmoil.

The ABC has spoken to others who believe the Morrison camp exploited the situation to have their candidate elected.

Senator Fierravanti-Wells said having seen what emerged it was "very clear" that those people who were supporting Mr Morrison were doing so for "quite some time and it is very clear that the people who have emerged as his strong backers are people well known here in NSW, well-known powerbrokers and well-known powerbrokers here in the Liberal Party in NSW".

"I believe that in the end the vote that really I think was a very indicative one … was the vote to spill and that was how many people wanted to spill the position and there was 45 and 40 against," Senator Fierravanti-Wells said.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-03/morrison-backers-plotted-for-some-...

Our latest Prime Minister, Scott "ScoMo" Morrison, has survived his first ten days in office, but there’s a lot of duck-paddling below the deceptively smooth surface, writes political editor Dr Martin Hirst.

OUR NEW SUPER FRIENDLY, footy-loving, God-bothering Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has now had just over a week to get his well-shod feet under the desk where his predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull, had sat only a few short days earlier.

Is it too soon to assess the "new generation" leadership team that Morrison installed on the green leather front bench?

Well, it is often said that a week is a long time in politics and since Morrison’s premiership is likely to be measured in weeks rather than years, we might proffer that the first ten days of his Prime Ministership are equivalent to the usual "100 days" in more normal times.

“Insiders” are already telling the Murdoch media that it is “all but over” for the Morrison Government.

First of all, the line up in Morrison’s Ministry looks horribly familiar to anyone who’s been paying attention. To make matters worse, the Liberals' problem with women hasn’t gone away. Former Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is having a bet each way on staying or going; and Member for Chisholm Julia Banks is going too, citing misogyny and bullying as the last straw for her. Another factor could be that Chisholm, her seat in outer Melbourne, is one that Labor is likely to win back in the next election.

The Coalition spinners and the Press Gallery stenographers have been talking up the "new look" Morrison front bench, but there are so many familiar old and recycled faces in the Ministry and the Cabinet that it still looks like an FJ Holden with a badly-applied coat of candy apple red paint. It’s a jalopy and they’re trying to sell it to us as a hot rod.

Let’s start with the recycled tyres added to the outer ministry: Member for Fadden Stuart Robert and Member for Farrer Sussan Ley.

These two were sacked by Malcolm Turnbull for rorting their expenses. Ley was Turnbull’s Health Minister until she was forced out in January 2017. Ley, for claiming travel expenses for a trip from Canberra to the Gold Coast to attend an auction and buy an apartment owned by a significant Liberal National Party donor, Martin Corkery.

Read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/morrisons-fir...

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Note: I know I should have said "Morrison is a Dutton disguised as lamb" but I preferred the mixed metaphor referring to the wolf... "Morrison is a Dutton in sheep's clothing..."

Four months after losing the leadership spill he instigated, Peter Dutton has broken his silence with an extraordinary spray at Malcolm Turnbull.

Calling the deposed prime minister incompetent and indecisive, the home affairs minister told Brisbane’s Sunday Mail that Turnbull had brought about his own downfall through his lack of political nous.

“Malcolm had a plan to become prime minister but no plan to be prime minister,” Dutton told the paper.

He also criticised the former leader for actions he saw as undermining the Morrison government.

“I am the first to defend the legacy of the Turnbull government,” Dutton said. “Malcolm was strong on economic management, borders and national security, but Malcolm will trash his own legacy if he believes his position is strengthened by seeing us lose under Scott [Morrison].”

He accused Turnbull of not supporting the Liberal party’s candidate in his old seat of Wentworth.

“Walking away from Wentworth and not working to have Dave Sharma elected was worse than any behaviour we saw even under [former Labor prime minister Kevin] Rudd.”

Dutton insisted he was not a stalking horse for the former party leader Tony Abbott. “The suggestion I was acting under Tony’s direction is another fairytale. I had been clear with Tony very early on I would not be his stalking horse.”

He said Turnbull’s poor management had lost the Libs 15 seats in the 2016 election, leaving the government “with a one-seat majority which just made the parliament unmanageable. We were paralysed.”

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/dec/30/peter-dutton-accu...

Dutton talks mega-shit... Had Malcolm not been the head of the Liberals (CONservative party)at THAT election, they would have lost by another 14 seats. Abbott was crapshit. Scummo is crapposhit. Malcolm was pushing (l)iberal shit uphill knowing it would roll back upon him with a capital (L), but he kept pushing with hair-brain schemes that would prevent the Duttons and the Scummos to rule, to no avail. Shit is more powerful than perfume. Lies are more powerful than the truth. Meanwhile don't mention the cigar-chomping Belgian... and all the other sycophants...

How is this for a conspiracy: Dutton wins the PMship, then loses his seat at the next election.... Who is replacing him as the LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION (the Liberals CONservatives)? Well, Abbott of course...

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