When the Easter pause expires, Shorten will launch an electoral blitz in Queensland, where the Coalition holds eight key seats on margins of less than 6%. Shorten will also need to sandbag three Queensland seats Labor is clinging on to by wafer-thin margins.

The Adani coalmine is expected to be a major issue during his visit, with the Greens founder, Bob Brown, also in the state to lead a convoy against the Carmichael project.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/apr/21/scott-morrison-in...

Truce? Now with the evangelicals preaching prosperity and christ in a bonganistan church of the shire, advertising/spruiking was always going to be the key. The Scummo blitz 'em on TV, in two key states: WA and Queensland, both traditionally yoboistic about guns, greed and freedom to clear-fell the good land to turn it into a desert-like place when Jesus lived in Palestine... Alleluyah... Amen... get lost...

Ah... and of course Palmer did "his" job, which was to destroy Labor any which way he could lie about it.

Amid the debates about impeaching the current US president over Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, Pastor Robert Henderson, head of a ministry, has claimed that he interceded for Donald Trump before the courts of heaven.

In an interview with televangelist Jim Bakker, known not only for his preaching but for having a criminal record, Pastor Robert Henderson has predicted that those trying to remove Donald Trump from office will fail. Henderson, promoting his book “Prayers and Declarations that Open the Courts of Heaven” on “The Jim Bakker Show”, insisted that people, opposing the incumbent president are fighting God as Trump is the Almighty’s pick.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/us/201905301075463917-us-pastor-trump-god-choice/

Read from top... Unfortunately, when they (they won't) crucify Trump like Jesus, we end up with Pence-the-evangelist (who may not be sorry to see Trump take a blood bath)... Here in Aorstraiyaland, we've got Scummo the preacher who does not want to be pope but lead the country to coal heaven with magic bulldozers and the happy-clappy benediction of cash. Jesus or cash? Cash and Jesus? Guns? Cash and guns? Greed, god and guns combo...

See also:

A million fish died in our rivers last summer because billionaires dammed the upper reaches of several major Australian rivers so they could grow cotton. “What about the fish?” we should have asked our government. “What about the trees? What about the downstream farmers? What about Adelaide?”

We should have asked those questions of our government, but no, we left that to the farmers and to a bunch of “hippies” – the same bunch who protested at the slaughter of whales (and made millionaires of those conducting whale watching tours in the process).

We celebrate the return of Guruwul (whale), just as Aboriginal people always did and do. But the whales are only back through the efforts of people we allow our newspapers to malign: smelly, hairy, dole-bludging environmental warriors. One of those dole bludgers – a doctor with three kids – told me last week that taking leave from work to join the protests cost her thousands of dollars, “but I would do it all again just to see the whales on our coast again”.

We, the quiet people, need to rebel. We need our children to rebel – not necessarily by chanting platitudes or yelling into megaphones, although the whales were saved by such methods. If we don’t encourage them to demonstrate or protest, then we need to instil the wisest of all our skills in our children: doubt.

We need our children to care about the planet like those who have saved the whales for the enjoyment and reassurance of all. We need our children to consider the orthodoxy of the world, and examine it for its merit. That is called education.

When I was told at school that Aboriginal people were wanderers and the most backward people on Earth, I was ashamed rather than rebellious. Inquiry had been drilled out of me. By the time elders had drilled it back in, years after I left university, I began using the greatest research tools of all: curiosity and doubt.

We don’t need the kind of doubt that cripples us into inaction, but the kind that inspires generous thirst for investigation. I want students to read Young Dark Emu, not to vindicate my own opinion but to raise a platform for vigorous inquiry and generous doubt.

Doubt is just another word for investigation, the application of intellectual rigour, the wrestle of the mind with difficult concepts, the desire to make the world a better place rather than meekly accept the word of the more fiscally energetic.

My own reading was undirected growing up; we were a family of tradespeople and only my father read. He read quite widely but was still trying to convince himself that God was good. This is not necessarily a bad thing but many of the proselytisers are flat earthing avengers, and need to be approached with … doubt.

My own reading began with the Collins Seagull Library: a world of snow sleds and intelligent huskies, deserts and endurance. Living in the wilds of King Island, Tasmania that was all I knew – not the snow and huskies, but the power of nature and the attention you have to give her, the kind of attention that makes you fall in love.

I snuck a look at my father’s books and knew him to be a good man because of it, but then good school teachers, the doubters and worriers, introduced me to a world of Australian books. I loved Lawson, was suspicious of the jingoism of Paterson, but I was troubled by Barbara Baynton, the great doubter.

I loved Patrick White from the first mention of scrolls of bark in The Tree of Man but worried increasingly of his treatment of Aboriginal people, as colourful wallpaper on which to write grander ideas.

I loved John Morrison and Alan Marshall, of course, but it was the stories of Judith Wright, so underrated in Australia, that had my fingers tingling with the impulse to write.

I suppose I was 16 when I first read Dylan Thomas and was entranced by his manipulation of words and ideas. Of Aboriginal literature I was innocent until I read Oodgeroo, but it was Jack Davis who thundered justice into my brain, a thunder that still rolls whenever I turn the page, any page.

Teach our kids doubt so they can build strong, reliable minds. Teach them to avoid the cosmetic, the craven, the jingle of self-satisfaction. If they want to watch any number of glitzy reality TV shows, ask them if it is a good thing to set up nasty, shallow, meaningless human conflicts. Ask them if it is right to be mean and careless. Ask them to wonder about a society that needs such things to relax at night.

Introduce them to doubt and wonder. The world will be safer and healthier for the exercise of their brains.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/01/bruce-pascoe-teach-your-ch...

Bruce Pascoe (born 1947 Richmond, Victoria) is an Australian Indigenous writer, from the Bunurong clan, of the Kulin nation. He has worked as a teacher, farmer, a fisherman and an Aboriginal language researcher.

Read more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Pascoe

Be careful with "doubt". The rich denialists will try to make you doubt the sciences of global warming and other stuff. Investigate, question things, sure. Doubt for your own sake, but don't indulge in the doubt instilled by the corporations, and do not eat their hamburgers. Make your own food.

Note: Gus met Judith Wright many times with other fellow writers in the 1970s and 1980s...

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has dismissed concerns about a police raid on a News Corp journalist's home more than a year after a story she reported.

• Scott Morrison says Federal Police followed the law when they raided a journalist's Canberra home
• AFP officers spent seven hours in Annika Smethurst's home more than a year after the publication of a story she reported
• The story alleged the government was considering giving spy agencies greater domestic surveillance powers

Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers spent hours raiding Annika Smethurst's Canberra home yesterday, alleging there had been an unauthorised leak of "national security information" in a story she wrote in April 2018.

The AFP said the story included information classified as an official secret.

The Prime Minister — who is in London for his first meeting with the Queen — initially said the raid was an ongoing matter for the AFP and police were better placed to comment.

But when asked if he was concerned at a journalist's home being raided, the Prime Minister said "it never troubles me that our laws are being upheld".

Smethurst's story, which included photographs of government documents, said the Home Affairs and Defence departments were considering giving spy agencies greater surveillance powers.

The story alleged new powers, if adopted, would go to the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) to secretly access bank records, emails and text messages without leaving a trace.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-05/scott-morrison-defends-raid-on-jo...

Australian Federal Police officers are raiding the ABC's Sydney headquarters over a series of 2017 stories known as The Afghan Files. 

• The AFP said there would not be any arrests today
• ABC managing director David Anderson said the broadcaster "stands by its journalists" and "will protect its sources"
• An AFP statement said the warrant was not linked to an AFP raid on a Canberra News Corp journalist's home on Tuesday

The stories, by ABC investigative journalists Dan Oakes and Sam Clark, revealed allegations of unlawful killings and misconduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan and were based off hundreds of pages of secret Defence documents leaked to the ABC. 

The search warrant names Oakes, Clark and the ABC's director of News Gaven Morris.

Three AFP officers entered the ABC first, followed shortly afterwards by three police IT technicians.

AFP officers served the ABC legal team with a warrant and are searching for, and copying onto hard drives, information related to the warrant.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-05/abc-raided-by-australian-federal-...

Note that these TWO STORIES GO BACK AT LEAST A YEAR and the "AFP actions" were DELIBERATELY held back till AFTER the elections... Rotten? Yes!...

The shine is coming off the new Morrison government very quickly. Economic management and national security are supposed to be the Coalition’s strong suit. Today’s weaker-than-expected national accounts, following yesterday’s unprecedented interest rate cut by the RBA, undermine the government’s claim to be the better economic managers, and may call into question the achievement of the much-vaunted budget surplus for 2019–20 that was central to their re-election. Meanwhile, today’s federal police raids on the ABC, following yesterday’s raids on News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst, confirm that regime change is needed at the AFP – at the very least, it has allowed itself to appear politicised. The raids also indicate that digital rights and civil liberties advocates have been right all along, and that Australians have allowed far too many freedoms to be traded away under the pretext of national security. A line has been crossed.

On the economy, the 0.4 per cent rise in GDP for the March quarter, revealed today, is the lowest growth figure recorded since September 2009, in the wake of the GFC. This takes annualised growth back to 1.8 per cent – a run-rate well short of the 2.25 per cent for 2018–19, which was forecast in the April budget. The government forecast a budget surplus for the coming financial year, 2019–20, on the back of expected growth of 2.75 per cent. We are a long way from that now, and facing economic headwinds with trade tensions overseas and stagnant wages at home.

The government is hoping its $1080 per person low- and middle-income tax offset, to be paid from July, will stimulate growth, along with falling interest rates. The Reserve Bank is widely expected to follow through with more cuts after yesterday lowering the cash rate to 1.25 per cent in a bid to stop unemployment ticking up further and to get inflation back into the 2–3 per cent target band. The RBA governor, Philip Lowe, last night called for investment in public infrastructure (if only he would come out and call for a Green New Deal).

At a press conference today, shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers emphasised that this was the third consecutive quarter in which the economy has been in “per-capita recession”, which hasn’t happened since 1982. After its first shadow cabinet meeting yesterday, Labor has compromised on the government’s tax cut package, offering to support stages one and two, while still opposing the third and final stage, which is proposed for 2024–25, to radically flatten the tax rate to 30 per cent for anyone earning between $40,000 and $200,000. The government has refused to split the bill’s stages, describing the tax cuts as a package. The weaker-than-expected growth figures – and the need to put money back into people’s pockets to get them spending again – will increase pressure on both sides to come to an agreement. It is easy to imagine Labor coming under most pressure if it is seen to be standing in the way of immediate tax relief for millions of workers.

On the federal police raids on the media, both the prime minister and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton happen to be out of the country, but Scott Morrison blithely told journalists in London overnight he was not concerned about yesterday’s seven-hour raid on Smethurst: “It never troubles me that our laws are being upheld.”

Dutton’s fingers are all over this, and as the responsible minister for the AFP he has serious questions to answer. The federal police guidelines, as investigative journalist Kate McClymont tweeted, require that: “All matters where the execution of a search warrant may have politically sensitive implications should be raised with the Minister responsible for the AFP.” It was interesting to hear Attorney-General Christian Porter confirm the same thing on RN Breakfast this morning: “It’s usually the case that in matters that are sensitive – and clearly this is – that there’ll be a quick briefing to alert someone that it’s going to happen, when they’re the responsible minister, so I would guess, but it would only be a guess, that the minister for home affairs would have had such a heads up immediately beforehand.”

In a statement, the AFP confirmed that today’s raid on the ABC was the result of a 2017 referral from the chief of the Defence Force and the then-acting secretary for Defence. In both the Smethurst and ABC raids, the obvious question is: why has the AFP waited so long, until just after the federal election? As Crikey’s Bernard Keane writes in a searing column [$] today, and as I wrote yesterday, it is only the latest in a long line of apparently blatantly political investigations by the AFP. Another three years under Dutton, using the full apparatus of his home affairs ministry to unashamedly persecute his political enemies, is starting to look dangerous to Australia’s democracy.

Read more:

https://www.themonthly.com.au/today/paddy-manning/2019/05/2019/155971411...

Australia May Well Be the World’s Most Secretive Democracy

SYDNEY, Australia — One journalist is being investigated for reporting that several boats filled with asylum seekers recently tried to reach Australia from Sri Lanka. Another reporter had her home raided by the authorities this week after reporting on a government plan to expand surveillance powers.

Then on Wednesday, the Australian federal police showed up at the main public broadcaster with a warrant for notes, story pitches, emails, and even the diaries for entire teams of journalists and senior editors — all in connection with a 2017 article about Australian special forces being investigated over possible war crimes in Afghanistan.

The aggressive approach — which Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, has defended — fits with a global trend. Democracies from the United States to the Philippines are increasingly targeting journalists to ferret out leaks, silence critics and punish information sharing — with President Trump leading the verbal charge by calling journalists “the enemy of the people.”

But even among its peers, Australia stands out. No other developed democracy holds as tight to its secrets, experts say, and the raids are just the latest example of how far the country’s conservative government will go to scare officials and reporters into submission.

Read more:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/world/australia/journalist-raids.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

And we complain about Russia...! We're idiots... It's called a democracy but it's really a turd on a religious stick from the shire...

Our saving grace?: Julian Assange. 

Free speech in Australia

Posted: 05 Jun 2019 06:52 PM PDT

Am I living in a police state? On Tuesday the Australian Federal Police raided the home of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst. On Wednesday it was the turn of journalists in the Sydney offices of the ABC. 

They were looking for information that they could use to prosecute whistle-blowers who provided the information to journalists. That is only part of the problem. 

The ABC report, called the Afghan Files, exposed the murderous actions of Australian troops in occupied Afghanistan. They killed unarmed Afghan men and children. In March this year David McBride, the leaker, was charged for releasing that information. He could be jailed for revealing the crimes of our government and its troops. As a recent quote, attributed supposedly to Edward Snowden, has it:

‘When exposing a crime is treated as committing a crime, you are being ruled by criminals.’ 

True. And what the recent events, plus others show, is that we are now in the age of the secret state. For example Smethurst’s report revealed that intelligence authorities were discussing greater powers, in effect to spy on Australians. Clearly the government does not want sensitive material that exposes its machinations, its crimes or its lies being released to the public. 

The whistle-blowers in the Smethurst and ABC cases are not the only people the Government are pursuing. Former ACT Attorney-General Bernard Collaery and ‘Witness K’ are facing trial and jail for revealing the truth that Australian spies bugged the negotiating rooms of the Timor- Leste negotiators in the talks to carve up the revenue for the sea between the two countries. 

It is not just those revealing spy or military actions who are under attack. Former Tax Officer Richard Boyle faces many many years in jail for spilling his guts about the ATO and its heavy handed tactics against small business. Public servant Michaela Banerji, lost her job for posting, anonymously, comments critical of the government.  She is now arguing before the High Court that she has the right to freedom of political communication. 

And then there is Julian Assange. The attempts to extradite him to the US for exposing the crimes of US imperialism are a clear attack on the right to free speech in the US, and a warning to journalists around the world. The Australian government is complicit in this attempt to suppress information we should know about. Chelsea Manning, the person who provided him with the files, has served 7 years in jail already (after President Obama commuted her 35 year sentence) and is currently back in prison for refusing to talk to a grand jury investigation into Assange. 

Our esteemed Prime Minister has defended the recent police raids on Smethurst and the ABC. No one is above the law, he says. That is clearly not true. Politicians often appear to be above the law, especially conservative ones in power.  In the US Trump is the classic example. In Australia, one needs only to ask how the AFP inquiry into the leak of material from Senator Cash’s office is coming along. Or whether any leak from Minister’s offices is ever investigated.

In a truly democratic society, all the behind the scenes politicking around Adani, the real economic benefits, the real costs, the approval processes and the real job figures (100 according to National Party Deputy leader and Minister Bridget McKenzie) would be public so we could make informed decisions. It isn’t. 

The latest AFP raids mean that anyone who revealed government held information about Adani would be investigated for potential ‘crimes’.  Adani whistle-blowers and journalists would become criminals for revealing the truth. Meanwhile the environmental crimes against humanity that Adani is committing continue, supported by a powerful faction of the political class.

If, as Scott Morrison asserts, nobody is above the law, where are the investigations into, let alone charges against, potential war criminals like John Howard? Or against those who run the concentration camps on Manus Island and Nauru, people like Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison? Not to forget Mike Pezzullo, the head of Dutton’s department and the man who referred the Smethurst story to the AFP.  It seems, to echo George Orwell, some are more equal than others.  

The second reason for the government pursuing Smethurst and the ABC is to shut journalists up. The Government wants to make sure journalists refuse to provide information that exposes the government and its crimes, misdemeanours and lies. This is information we have a right to. It is a clear signal from Morrison, Dutton and the like that they will use the Federal Police as part of their ‘evidence gathering’ to prevent future unwelcome releases both by the leakers AND the press.

It may have the opposite effect.  It could embolden contacts (perhaps) and journalists (more likely) to release ream after ream of the dirt they have or that this government is hiding. It would for example be great to see the Murdoch Press taking a more critical role against the government and exposing its many secret sins to Australians. However, this approach limits the response to brave whistle-blowers and journalists.   We need a systemic response to this ongoing erosion of basic bourgeois rights. 

This is a battle between the secretive State and the so called Fourth Estate. This is a battle between different components of the capitalist system. 

What we have in Australia is limited free speech. We live in a limited democracy in which every three years we get to choose between one of the competing parties of capitalist managers. The debate between the major, essentially similar, pro-capitalist parties dominates our profit driven press and its hangers on, like the ABC. 

Of course, there are some differences between the ALP and the Coalition. But they (and the Greens, One Nation etc etc) are united in their support for capitalism, the exploitative relationship between capital and labour, and bosses expropriate that extra value workers create to make their profits. Where they differ is sometimes over the rate of exploitation, and how best to manage the system – cooperatively or confrontationally or mixtures in between – to continue that exploitation.

What those of us who believe in more than just freedom for Graham Richardson and Gerard Henderson to debate the way forward for capitalism want is a truly democratic society.

The current erosion of free speech has a common beginning. First, they come for the refugees and unionists.  Who knows for example that it is a crime for journalists to report the truth about the concentration camps on Manus Island and Nauru? Who knows for example that is illegal for unions to strike outside the very limited few months during the bargaining period?

These attacks on the rights of these seeming political bogey men and women make restrictions on free speech acceptable to many. Then they can come for the whistle-blowers and journalists. 

 As George Orwell (again!) says: ‘In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.’ I will continue to write from the Press Gallery. I will agitate for my colleagues in News Corp and Nine Media, the ABC and other outlets, to tell the truth. But unlike them, I do not have the resources, nor the ability, to protect whistle-blowers that the capitalist Fourth Estate has.  Nor do I alone have the collective capacity to defend free speech.

Ultimately a free press depends on the capacity of journalists themselves to defend their rights. In the end that means striking collectively to uphold press freedom.  As Sally McManus says, it is necessary for unions to break bad laws. 

I agree with McManus. Now is the time for workers at News Corp, Nine Media and ABC to go on strike for free speech.  Other unions like the building unions could join them in a strike for freedom. Otherwise the erosion of our basic freedoms under capitalism will continue unabated. 

John Passant is a member of the Canberra Press Gallery. Media and other for profit organisations should contact John to discuss the rates for republication of this and other articles.

Read from top.

Australia's energy problems have been exacerbated by the rise through Morrison's ranks of the former Minerals Council CEO, writes Sophie Vorrath.

IN CASE THERE WAS any doubt about the ties that bind Australia’s top coal lobbyists with the Federal Coalition Government, former Minerals Council of Australia CEO Brendan Pearson has been tapped as a senior advisor to Scott Morrison.

The appointment, revealed in The Australian on Wednesday, shifts Pearson up in the Coalition pecking order from the office of the Minister for Finance, Mathias Cormann, to Morrison’s inner sanctum.

It also reunites the Prime Minister with the likely source of the infamous lacquered lump of coal he brandished in Parliament back in 2017, when Pearson still headed up the Minerals Council.

Pearson will also be back working side-by-side with his former MCA deputy chief executive, John Kunkel, who currently occupies the key position of Scott Morrison’s Chief of Staff.

Read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/coal-lobbyist-rises-i...

The federal fund set up to fight climate change and reduce Australia's carbon emissions could be used to help extend the life of coal-fired power stations — an idea labelled "insane" by one expert. 

• The Emissions Reduction Fund is under review and one idea being considered is whether the public funds should be given to coal-fired power generators 
• The chair of the review committee says projects awarded funds should achieve "real and genuine abatement"
• One expert said the idea coal-fired power plants would qualify for taxpayer-funded carbon credits was "insane"

The independent committee overseeing the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) is considering the idea as part of a review into the Federal Government program. 

The ERF helps pay for projects, including tree planting and installing energy-efficient appliances, to help Australia meet its global reduction targets.

As part of the review, the independent Emissions Reduction Assurance Committee (ERAC) is considering whether changes are needed to how projects are assessed and which qualify for taxpayer-funded carbon credits — the assessment style is called 'the facilities method'.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-21/erf-could-hand-money-to-coal-fire...

Read from top.

Labor has accused Scott Morrison of trashing Australia’s standing in the Pacific and alienating its friends at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu, while a former president of Kiribati has urged Australia’s membership to be reviewed.

Anote Tong said the forum should consider possible sanctions or suspension of Australia for its continued “protestations” on coal and climate.

“What is the relevance of Australia’s ongoing protestations in the forum?,” he said. “If it’s going to continue with that line, it poses a danger to the other countries in that forum.

“How can you justify being part of a family and part of a group which you’re trying to destroy?”

Read more: 

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/aug/17/morrisons-arrogan...

Read from top.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison stands accused of “hypocrisy” on matters of free speech and democracy – by defending free speech in Hong Kong, but curbing it at home.

The accusation comes as a running stoush between the Prime Minister and the activist group GetUp threatens to overshadow Mr Morrison’s call for calm in the face of global unrest.

On Friday, Mr Morrison called for China to respect the right of peaceful Hong Kong protestors – but a day later vowed to crack down on GetUp and curb its influence ahead of the next federal election.

GetUp National director Paul Oosting told The New Daily: “On the same day as notionally supporting democratic protesters in Hong Kong, Scott Morrison has launched an unprecedented attack on everyday people participating in Australian politics. His hypocrisy is astounding.”

GetUp’s claim was supported by the NSW Council for Civil Liberties. Speaking to The New Daily, the council’s president, Pauline Wright said:

“On the one hand, our Prime Minister is supporting pro-democracy supporters in Hong King, and rightly called on them to do so peacefully – and he’s also called for that to be respected by China.

“And we would call on our government to respect the right of community organisations to…protest government policies.”

Earlier in the week, Mr Morrison rejected China’s claim that mass protests in Hong Kong are showing “sprouts of terrorism” – while on Friday, speaking in Tuvalu, he called on China to respect peaceful protestors.

He called the protestors “to do so peacefully and for that to be respected and to support any initiative that de-escalates tensions,” he said, according to the Australian Financial Review.

But in an apparent case of mixed messaging on democratic free speech, Mr Morrison called for a fourth enquiry into GetUp, claiming the organisation was a “wolf in wolf’s clothing” and demanding it be registered as a political party.

This would purportedly subject the group to closer scrutiny and accountability.

In his speech to the Liberal Party’s state conference in Adelaide on Saturday, Mr Morrison blamed GetUp for “vile, personal attacks on our candidates” in the May poll – and planned to revisit the group’s political status.

GetUp anticipated the conference speech, issuing a statement from GetUp National Director Paul Oosting saying: “The attack on GetUp members today by Prime Minister Scott Morrison is undemocratic and contains factual errors.

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2019/08/17/scott-morrison-hong-kong-hypo...

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