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The Right’s right to be wrong

Has anyone else noticed the ever increasing drift from reality those famous bed-partners – the Coalition and the Murdoch media – have settled comfortably into?

Not only have they drifted into a land that resembles nothing like the one where we others dwell, they also have some absurd idea that this new, fabulous paradise is all that exists.

But alas, unbeknown to them it renders them ignorant, and oh so hypocritical.

Take Joe Hockey for example. He repeatedly bellowed that the age of entitlement was over, and followed up with a budget that showed us that the age of entitlement is of course over, except for those who are entitled to it.

It’s a strange world he lives in. It’s not in this universe.

Miranda Devine lives there too.

Her blog piece, ‘The Left’s race to call us all bigots’ was the inspiration for my satirical response in calling this piece ‘The Right’s right to be wrong’. I didn’t have to read all the article to see how wrong, hypocritical, and off the planet Ms Devine must be. I got as far as the first two sentences:

The self-appointed tolerance tsars of Australia are having such a hard time proving Australia is a land of bigots they are now jumping at shadows.

They see racism where most people see patriotism. They cry Islamophobia where there is none to be found. They hear dog whistles that never sounded. They are obviously losing their collective minds.

There is much in those claims to dispute, but I want to focus on Islamophobia where there is none to be found.

Maybe Ms Devine hasn’t been reading the very paper she writes for, which over the last month has been belting us with the news that does nothing more than highlight that we live in a country where Islamophobia has become a part of the national psyche.

Let’s take a random look at what her newspaper – and other media outlets – have been saying:

Young filmmaker Kamal Saleh is optimistic for the future of Australia after his social experiment on Islamophobia but says discrimination remains an issue in the community.

# Five threatening letters delivered to Muslim businesses and ­groups in Lakemba are being investigated by police, with more incidents believed to be going unreported. Campsie crime manager detective Inspector Paul ­Albury said the material was offensive and would be to anybody in the community. “It’s degrading, disgusting and derogatory to people and their religion,” he said.

# Last week, after Bernardi’s comments, I was interviewed by the ABC for an explanatory article on the burqa, the niqab, and my choice of garment, the hijab, which covers only a woman’s hair, neck and shoulders. Bizarrely, when posted by the ABC on Facebook, the article received more comments than the ABC’s reports on the anti-terror raids themselves. The comments section is sobering reading for anyone with any doubts about the perniciousness of Islamophobia in Australia.

# Australia has emerged as a fertile environment for Islamophobia. Stereotypical representations of Muslims in the early years of the “War on Terror” – which linked terrorism, violence and Islam – gained wide currency by the mid-2000s. Sections of the news media, politicians and social media have re-activated these stereotypes. Muslim Australians are made to feel they are targets – for everything from the everyday racism encountered in schools and on the streets, to draconian counter-terrorism legislation that restricts civil liberties, to war and the preparations for war.

# In the contemporary socio-political context of Australia, Islamophobia continues to be haunted by the cycle of moral panics around the Muslim “Other.”

# Tony Abbott has been urged to speak out more strongly against Islamophobia in Australia following reports of mosques being defaced, women verbally abused on the street and death threats issued to Muslim figures. Community leaders have said they are deeply worried that Australia’s mission against Islamic State (Isis) and recent anti-terrorism raids are fuelling attacks against Muslims in Australia.

# The waves of abuse on social media has also highlighted how open bigotry has become, as if the disgust around the Islamic State has given a free pass to intolerance.

# Many Muslim women, say Ms Kay and other community members, are fearful of going out and many won’t venture far beyond their homes. Ahmed Kilani, editor of website muslimvillage.com, says some are now questioning whether Australia is still a safe and tolerant society. “My own mother rang me yesterday,” Mr Kilani told SBS, “with concern about what’s going, she said, ‘I don’t feel safe and secure.’ She made the comment to me that despite living here for 40 years which is a lot longer than she lived in Egypt. She said perhaps I need to consider moving back there and questioned whether I should go and get myself a dual citizenship in case things get really bad.” Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane has called for calm, saying, “Muslim Australians are entitled to a fair go and to be treated with respect and there is simply no place for this kind of bigotry and this kind of criminal behaviour.”

I’m sure by now that you get my point. And to top it off The Daily Telegraph – the very paper Ms Devine works for – even published an article titled ‘Incidents of Islamophobia’.

I’m baffled that Ms Devine finds it necessary not only to blame the Left for Islamophobia in this country – then announces that it doesn’t exist here anyway – yet works in an industry (and a newspaper) that keeps telling us how rampant it is.

If I may borrow an old adage: who makes this shit up?

The drift from reality is almost complete. She is quickly catching up to Joe Hockey.

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44 comments

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  1. david

    Every word factual, every point pertinent and until the voting public (majority of) wakeup and realise they are the recipients of a massive con job, nothing will change. It has been so ever since the Abbott/Credlin regime was born.
    We voted in the Opposition as it turned out ,to be our representatives to fight with tooth and nail such horror. We also voted as a body by majority for Anthony Albanese to lead us and take the Opposition to this evil. To fight it with their every tooth and nail.

    Alas we knew not the enemy within, the 30 odd of our elected representatives who stand for a political system not so different from that described above. A right faction alive and well bleeding our Labor Party for their factional gain, led by the man, without scruples changing his choice and vote for leader 3 times and who now fails to take the fight with any conviction, to the worst, most evil, poisonous human being to hold the seat of power in Canberra.

    I am weary, but I carry on, for all of us, for our kids, for the future, for Julia, for the Party and for Australia. THIS SEPTIC SORE ABBOTT AND HIS GOVT MUST BE DUG OUT AND CAST ASIDE. I dont know how but by all that is holy, I will not give up.
    Thanks Ross for reviving the passion, the flame has not gone out.

  2. Bilal

    Devine is just following her mentor’s script. Islamophobes continue to repeat that Muslims do not condemn ISIS/Daesh, Boko Haram, Somali terrorists, etc etc when practically every group of scholars on earth has issued religious opinions (fatwas) against them. Murdoch and those who follow his Tea Party politics refuse to publish anything other than their usual racist bigoted drivel for the brain dead. Two fatwas on Isis/Daesh are worth looking at to get some perspective.

    http://lettertobaghdadi.com/index.php signed by Islamic scholars from all around the world.

    http://binbayyah.net/english/2014/09/24/fatwa-response-to-isis/

    Devine’s “patriots” are different from those I regard as patriots. People who attack hijab women might seem patriotic to her and Murdoch but not to most Australians.

  3. Kaye Lee

    “Invited to dinner and drinks at Kirribilli House is a roll-call of Mr Abbott’s strongest supporters, among them Andrew Bolt, Piers Akerman, Janet Albrechtson, Miranda Devine, Dennis Shanahan, Paul Kelly, Chris Kenny and Tom Switzer.

    Guests were asked to keep details of the evening strictly confidential.

    “We do not release details of the Prime Minister’s private functions,” a spokeswoman from the Prime Minister’s office said.

    She declined to comment on whether taxpayers would foot the bill.”

  4. Kaye Lee

    Miranda has a great deal of experience at being paid to print crap. In 2007 she told us the war in Iraq was going well.

    “Still there are pockets of blind loyalty to the Government and Defence Minister Brendan Nelson knows exactly where to find them.

    In this election year he’s hand picked just three journalists to join him on his travels to Iraq and Afghanistan.

    They’re government barrackers – Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt, The Australian’s political editor, Dennis Shanahan and The Sydney Morning Herald’s columnist, Miranda Devine.

    Two – Miranda Devine and Dennis Shanahan have just been to Iraq with the Minister.

    And both splashed with front page stories that the war in Iraq was now going much better than you might have thought.”

    If you want an idea of how stupid Devine is, and how she is paid to print propaganda, read the following story. She should have stuck to being a gossip columnist.

    http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s2029170.htm

  5. mars08

    In the past decade, these things that have killed more people in Australia than Islamic terrorism… car accidents, falling off a chair, lightning strikes, crocodiles, accidental firearm discharges, hospital anaesthetic, snake bites, gastroenteritis.

    Far too many Australians have lost their minds over this “terrorism” hysteria!!

  6. Kaye Lee

    As far as I am aware, the only “terrorist” attack on Australian soil has been the Hilton bombing and there was a suggestion that ASIO was involved.

    “On 13 February 1978, the Sydney Hilton Hotel was bombed, one of the few domestic terrorist incidents on Australian soil. The Hotel was the location for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). Three people in the street were killed – two council workers and a policeman – and several others injured. Former police officer Terry Griffiths, who was injured in the explosion, provided some evidence that suggested ASIO might have orchestrated the bombing or been aware of the possibility and allowed it to proceed. In 1985, the Director-General of Security issued a specific denial of the allegation. In 1991 the New South Wales parliament unanimously called for a joint State-Federal inquiry into the bombing. However, the Federal government vetoed any inquiry.”

  7. lyngainLyn Gain

    Those first two sentences of Devine’s were enough for me. Thank goodness I don’t ever have to read her in the SMH. Bring back Paddy McGuinness!

  8. Kaye Lee

    Actually there have been a few attacks.

    1915 shooting at Broken Hill – the killings were politically and religiously inspired;
    1972 bombing of the Yugoslav General Trade Agency in Sydney;
    1978 bombing of the Sydney Hilton hotel during a Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting;
    1980 assassination of the Turkish Consul-General in Sydney;
    1982 bombing of the Israeli Consulate and the Hakoah Club in Sydney;
    1986 bombing of the Russell Street Police Station in Melbourne; and
    1986 bombing at the Turkish Consulate in Melbourne.

    However the ABS tells us that you are statistically more likely to die from falling out of bed, an exploding gas cylinder at your next barbecue or being bitten by an “urticating caterpillar” or other “venomous arthropod”.

  9. mars08

    2005 Cronulla riots – the violence was politically and religiously inspired.

  10. stephentardrew

    The sad fact is that this abuse has deep psychological affects upon those who are discriminated against. Just talking to Aboriginal friends or the many people of other races I have worked with gives an idea of the depth of hurt and pain they suffer. I have had grown men break down because they feel so overwhelmed by hate and prejudice. Just for wearing different cloths; belonging to a specific religion; or for the colour of your skin. Some people have to pull themselves up day by day knowing someone could well abuse them in public or private. It is especially damaging to children. What a horrible way to live your life.

    There can never be enough reminders of the damage of prejudiced. You know those bloody angry Aborigines. I wonder why when you have to live with this day after day.

  11. Rob031

    Cormann seems to have put his foot in it this time today with his ‘girl’ comment. He probably meant it as a joke but in this hyper-vigilant political atmosphere, of which he should be aware by now, he should know that such comments are bound to backfire.

    (Look Mum… come on, come on, mum look. Look. They’re doing it again.)

    Surely those in the spotlight would be aware of the intensity of this spotlight. And, if they are not (as it seems to be the case,) why is this so I hear you ask in your relentless search for truth and enlightenment?

    I wonder if this outfit’s (LNP’s) gaffs will be their undoing at the end of the day. Abbott said A,B and C and the rest of the alphabetz to boot). Well… okay. Hockey said D,E and F. Well… Okay. Abetz said G. Well… okay. Brandis said H. Well..okay. Corman says I. Well… okay.

    Perhaps, even the thickest of people are coming to think: “Hang on a minute. There’s a pattern. What the hell’s going on here?” One can only hope that the collective veils of Maya begin to arise and folks get to be a tad nervous about Capt’n Crackers and his motley crew on the ‘good ship Budgie – where the figurehead was made of lead and shaped like nothing in particular. Sorry about that 🙂

  12. Lee

    Miranda who?

  13. PopsieJ

    I tuned in late to an ABC program last week too late to see who the panellists were but it did not take long to reach the WTF are you talking about moment .Quotes from one of them.

    Illegal arrivals aka Asylum Seekers are actually being treated fairly by being stopped because they would only die at sea !

    Baldric was quite right to have a robust confrontation with Putin because the Australians of MH17 were killed by Russian made weapons !

    The ANU were being disloyal to the country by divesting from fossil fuels because taxpayers would have to pay for the financial loss.

    And other bullshit

    The end credits explained it all, the panellist in question was Opinion Editor of the Australian (Rebecca Weisser ? )

    The poisonous evil elements of the Murdoch run right throughout the whole organisation !

    And Rob031 love your ref to The good Ship !

    T,was on the good ship Venus
    By God you should have seen us
    The figurehead was made of lead
    And acted like a penis.
    The Captains mate was Able
    And boy is she a fable
    She gave the crew
    Their weekly view
    Straight from the Captains table

    Better stop now

  14. Kaye Lee

    the tide was rising neath us
    upon our good ship Venus
    but looking down
    on those that drown
    we forgot about the “leaners”

  15. Loz

    Those people who write such nonsense for the Murdoch media are just feathering their own nest They and this government have little or no regard as to the harm they may be doing to certain sections of our society. To ignore what is really going on and to incite hate through their idiotic writings is shameful.

  16. Terry2

    Recently that intrepid media reporter for the Australian, Sharri Markson, embedded herself in journalism lectures “dressing as a student” at the University of Sydney and at UTS – was she wearing a burqa so as not to be recognised ? The express purpose of this adventure was to establish beyond doubt that students were being indoctrinated to be anti Newscorp and hostile to Murdoch publications.

    All was breathlessly revealed by Sharri once she had cast off the false moustache and sun glasses – couldn’t have been a burqa as university security would have sprung her early in the charade. Well, it seems, surprise surprise, that her hunch was spot on and students of journalism are being taught to be discerning when it comes to the veracity of reporting and editorial content in Newscorp publications. Students, it appears, are actually being taught to apply critical analysis to our media and not to accept the rantings of Bolt, Akerman, Shanahan, Devine et al as impartial and objective reporting.

    Could it be that students graduating in journalism will recognise that ‘fair & balanced’ is just a slogan and that blind political partisanship is not useful or a basis for informed journalism.

    Let’s hope so.

  17. Lee

    Students were being taught about Murdoch’s media bias 10 years ago when I was at uni. I recall a lecturer telling us that since Murdoch owns every major daily in the country, if he wants to spread his propaganda he can hit most of the nation in a single day.

  18. Billy muddle moir

    The zeal of Murdoch editors and journalists not only encourages excessive support for his/their stated preferences but allows them to extropolate into situations that might gain his/their approval, even if they are immoral or illegal.
    It is sad to see journalists, my family once considered fair so deeply compromised that they must rationalise to avoid feeling guilty of such editorially induced bias.
    Now you are talking David who is your member? Mine is a rabbottian, a five ‘investment’ homes twit selected by a party because the polls in 2010 told them the incumbent labor man was a sure thing. However to their chagrin, a nasty personal attack and the rabbott’s fear campaign caused an upset win for an inept compromise candidate who is now their member.
    The fear of the (non-existent)debt crisis maintained the win in 2013.
    At my poker machine thursday afternoon, there is a group of men and women who have much to lose under the coalition budget but still support the rabbott and voted against the labor candidate because the rabbott was Opus Dei and therefore cannot tell a lie.(belief needs no evidence for and sees no evidence against) The fact that the labor man was a staunch catholic, his dad was often on the altar aiding the priest in communion and his mother was prominent, in her gender roles, made no impression whatsoever.
    What may work is little billy hitting the commercial TV giving us bottom of the heap people some ammo against the slogans by taking ‘economic girlie man’ cigar sucker to task.
    Belgium is in the Forbes top 7 list as having a debt of over a 100% to Gillard/Swan debt of 20%. If he calls Australala a crisis what would he call those his homeland’s economy?
    (What about the rabbott homeland England almost as bad as Belgium but even worse the preferred submarine home Japan is over 200%. The breakfast show would be falling over backwards to ask questions of the rabbott, hockey corman about the disastrous economies of these countries??)

  19. mars08

    The Australian conservatives are, without a doubt, following the same trajectory as their American cousins.

    For the past two decades (maybe longer) the hard-core, loonie right has tightened it’s hold on the Republican party. With the help of their friends in the MSM they have shut down any signs of rational thought on the conservative side of politics.

    And… they have consistently shown that they will… shamelessly, say anything… LITERALLY ANYTHING… to assist their cause.

    How does on counter such a mentality?

  20. stephentardrew

    Mars8:

    Shoot em all; burn down their houses; sterilize them, send em to Africa.

    Er.. is that politically correct or not?

  21. stephentardrew

    I am guilty of copy cat crime.

  22. mars08

    …send em to Africa…

    WTF? Seriously? That’s just nasty!

    Hasn’t that continent got enough to deal with?

  23. Dissenter

    Apparently there are 1900 humans employed to write spin by the Abbott government.
    To stave off the boredom they also write the scripts for 2GB, articles the Daily Telegraph and the other Murdoch SPEW VIEW papers and any journalist too busy or incompetent to due their own due diligence and investigative reporting. They write for anyone who wants spin to spurt and spew to spit.
    The Think TANKS tell them what to write so that the concepts are coherent.
    They have to have the get out of jail clause free because sometimes they go to far deliberately but that is the FUN after all.
    goebbels mastered the art of propaganda and now the LNP abbott and Credlin and the rest are taking it up to the next stage.
    RAMP IT UP so that we do not notice what they are really doing.
    Destroying the place, selling us out.
    IN NSW BAIRD has participated in a Xpromotional ad with BOLT, DEVINE and CLENNEL and others for MURDOCh.
    BOUGHT BAIRD has sold his soul and tarnished the position of PREMIER of NSW he must resign.
    This is the very least we should expect.
    THE LNP have some idea that if they are PERVASIVE ENOUGH with their PROPAGANDA and the DAILY TELEGRAPH and FAUXTEL and SKY and the other rags and radio stations THEY CAN CREATE A NEW NORMAL- a new reality and new standard and new think.
    THis presupposes that they are replacing a vaccuum of nothingness and that Australians HAVE NO BRAINS AND NO EDUCATION.
    It depends on insousiance as ABBOTT describes.
    THEY ARE WRONG.
    The more they push the more educated amongst us will push back with IDEAS that expose and admonish the propaganda for what it is.

  24. DanDark

    “THEY ARE WRONG.
    The more they push the more educated amongst us will push back with IDEAS that expose and admonish the propaganda for what it is…

    I agree Dissenter and well said…….

  25. Roswell

    Murdoch tells us he has no influence over what his editors say or who they support. What a load of rubbish!

    Seems odd then that every major editor on the planet supported the invasion of Iraq in 2091. So did Rupert, by the way.

    Maybe they’re all just scared of him.

  26. Kaye Lee

    It’s as if the Leveson Inquiry never happened. How is this man still allowed to own media?

    “Campbell wrote that on 11 March 2003, a week before the Commons vote in which MPs voted to deploy British troops to Iraq, Murdoch intervened to try to persuade Blair to move more quickly towards war. “[Tony Blair] took a call from Murdoch who was pressing on timings, saying how News International would support us, etc,” Campbell wrote. “Both TB and I felt it was prompted by Washington, and another example of their over-crude diplomacy. Murdoch was pushing all the Republican buttons, how the longer we waited the harder it got.” The following day, 12 March, he wrote: “TB felt the Murdoch call was odd, not very clever.”

    Campbell’s disclosure of Murdoch’s intervention on the eve of the Iraq war is the second substantive example to raise questions over the News Corp chairman’s claim that he never tried to influence any prime minister. John Major told Leveson on Tuesday that Murdoch told him in February 1997, three months before the general election, that he would withdraw support for the Tories unless the then prime minister changed his policies on Europe.

    Major told the inquiry: “If we couldn’t change our European policies, his papers could not and would not support the Conservative government.”

    Campbell told the Guardian that Murdoch’s intervention on Iraq was a “very rightwing voice” that came “out of the blue” adding: “On one level [Murdoch] was trying to be supportive, saying I know this is a very difficult place, my papers are going to support you on this. Fine.

    “But I think Tony did feel that there was something a bit crude about it. It was another very rightwing voice saying to him: look isn’t it about time you got on with this? I think, as I recall Tony saying, he didn’t think it was terribly clever.”

    In his testimony to the inquiry said he did not remember the calls but added that the Sun’s support for the Iraq war was well known. “I don’t remember the calls. The [call on] 11th might even have been calling me for my birthday, but no, our position on the war had been declared very strongly in all our newspapers and the Sun well before that date.”

  27. freddo

    With respect, when Miranda said “where there is none to be found” she didn’t mean geographically. Miranda is full of it, true, but you won’t win over minds by being just as full of it the other way. I wrote this article off as just another wheedling rant at that point and failed to read on. Pot, kettle.

  28. Roswell

    Well, freddo, if you didn’t read on then you don’t know what the article is about, which hardly qualifies you from making a sensible comment.

  29. DanDark

    Freddo no you don’t “win over peoples mind”s, you educate them to think for them self with the facts, yes facts, both sides of the story, something Miss Devine and her type seem to be missing in their propaganda vomited onto the masses…..

  30. Billy muddle moir

    ‘Dissenter’ the more educated have had years to point out how nasty the rabbott et al are and, despite constant help from this suppository, have failed, but once, to land a punch. Those of us barely on the right of the bell curve and the 50% on the left, are the electors and we are easily frightened into believing what the media tell us.
    So is it possible you educated and labor are already a year late in preparing for 1916(remember your history?) the coalition has its sights firmly on the 2016 election.
    Currently, the rabbott has only virtual opposition but in case little billy finds his beaconsfield fervour they have two royal commissions, a labor debt crisis and no boats slogans all ready to roll. Even corruption of the libs has made no marks.
    ps what has robb signed? What has pyne done to NAPLAN, What sort of kickbacks are the ‘education brokers’ getting from vet help???
    Remember bob’s ‘there will be no financial need for any child to live in poverty'(like gillard’s ‘no carbon tax’ accurate quotes present a different picture) Well we are a rich country and there is NO financial need but according to ACOSS 600000 children are living in poverty. This tragedy will pale into insignificance as a result of the rabbott giving for profit education institutions access to public money limited only by the requirement to get a signature on a piece of paper. A simple process of conning the vulnerable by tricky ads promising prosperity but putting billions into the pockets of the ‘educated’ and leaving millions of Australians in debt. A debt that compound interest will send into 100s of thousands. A debt that can never be paid off but will?? Well you intelligent and educated tell me how a 40 year old woman with a vet/hecs debt of $200000 and two teen age children will be able to re-enter the work force??

  31. Dissenter

    Billy muddle moir, I am personally utterly despaired of the LACK OFS from Labor.I am a member but I wonder why. THey are failing on all levels. as we speak they are mounting a campaign about the uni fees and privatisation.
    But like everything they are doing I believe it will fail. They are managing Labor to fail I think and the image of Shorten on the other story tells me why. It is Shortens role to support Abbott to win the next election and to damage Labor as he moulds Labor to move more to the right contrary to members wishes.
    I wish my reading of this were wrong but there is too much evidence to back it up now even if circumstantial.

  32. Kaye Makovec

    Kaye Lee said – “If you want an idea of how stupid Devine is, and how she is paid to print propaganda, read the following story. She should have stuck to being a gossip columnist.”

    I must decline in my fear of contagion 🙂
    ——————————————————————————

    Dissenter said – “The more they push the more educated amongst us will push back with IDEAS that expose and admonish the propaganda for what it is.”

    No aspersions to the writers and commentators here but I am actually hoping the lesser educated people of Australia will rise and take a stand because it seems to me THE most bigoted, racist, sexist people spouting their disgusting attitudes ARE the best educated politicians, journalists, commentators and university professors and if they are the revered leaders I fear for my country.
    ——————————————————————————————————————————–

    THE most prevalent reason for hating Muslims that I see is from people saying “I hate what the Muslims do to their women in excluding them from …….. ” yet want to do the same thing here purely based on headgear. They just don’t get it. And I don’t get why they don’t get it.
    ——————————————————————————————————————

    Roswell said “Murdoch tells us he has no influence over what his editors say or who they support. What a load of rubbish!” “Maybe they’re all just scared of him.”

    He probably doesn’t on a daily basis but as they were all chosen for the job based on their beliefs, attitudes and ability to sort out the good from the bad and only print the bad with the addition of bigoted, racist, sexist opinions, it is to be expected they will follow the Murdoch line.

    Not scared of him, he is their idol.

  33. Matthew Oborne

    “in case things get really bad” in 2007 senior Liberals were having so called slips of the tongue, if you dont like it then leave still echoes in bishops voice, Thankfully Australians were voting them out no matter what wedge issues they threw in the way, Kevin wanting smooth sailing chose the easy way and supported the wedge issues, and stuck to them after election day. The wedge issues this time around were the NDIS, the NBN, education, health and welfare, as well as the offshore processing.

    Every single progressive wedge issue promise has been broken.

    Racism is now on the Ballot Box, the mother in the article is right to be worried, right to be thinking if things get too bad here they might have to flee to safety.

    This is Australia, a country where right wingers have been calling for war since early this year in the media, a country where, when the government falters it is time to use what little intelligence Asio had on suspected radicals and get on the megaphone, have a constant stream of articles fed by a government that must have been demanding that these suspected radical needed to be charged and swooped on in highly publicised raids.

    The resulting Media frenzy, swept the MSM up with almost no one asking critical questions, or using their common sense to say we have far greater threats. Was it fear of being wrong in the face of an avalanche?

    Are Channel 2 personalities thinking of their future, a possible life without the ABC?

    The much publicised 8 to 1 ratio of lies – Liberal to Labor is that tying the hands of the ABC as I see so many lies go uncontested?

    That Mother is right to fear all this as the much believed systems of checks and balances has almost completely failed to materialise, Is it just a myth? She has a right to expect governments dont whip up community hatred towards her, Yet as of Today I am not hearing a loud and clear voice from the government telling Australians this will not be tolerated.

    I am not surprised at all as various Liberal adherents whipped up enough hatred towards Julia that people ended up thinking it is freedom of speech to threaten her life and were charged for doing so. The right to misinform isnt that what we used to call lies and fraud?

  34. david

    Excellent post Mathew.

  35. Dissenter

    Kaye Markovic. Hi Kaye, While it might look like the best educated are spouting those views which are so offensive it is not the case. Barry Spurr is an exception. the politicians and such who espouse those views are simpleminded bigots due to the narrow Christian upbringings I think and it shows in the LNP.
    Educated people ensure that they are not racist or bigoted and that ifdo they hold any prejudice it is private and does not impinge their judgement because they know it is wrong to bear prejudice.
    You have every right to fear for your land as I do. It is now held in the most dangerous government we have ever had due to their propaganda techniques and also due to their embedded powerful influence in the media and pervasive influence throughout every channel on Tv and radio as well, the think tanks etc.
    The lesser educated if they are smart can see that there is manipulation involved; the problem is that it is all pervasive and comprehensive and they do not know what to believe. That is why I am in despair.
    The opposition parties NEED to ENSURE that people are AWARE of the lies and it is not happening as constantly or as visibly as it should be happening that the people are being told.
    In order to learn people need to hear, see, read and speak that knowledge and it is not coming across. Cheers.
    There is more we can do but it just looks like there are too few of us.

  36. Lee

    “While it might look like the best educated are spouting those views which are so offensive it is not the case. Barry Spurr is an exception. the politicians and such who espouse those views are simpleminded bigots due to the narrow Christian upbringings I think and it shows in the LNP.”

    Bigots they most certainly are. However, several of them have a law degree. Surely that is one course where one learns to be openminded because things are not always as they seem and not to jump to conclusions but rather look at the evidence. Yet we have people like Hockey saying that poor people don’t need cars or don’t drive very far based on no credible evidence whatsoever. He either didn’t look at the evidence for the consequences of his budget either, or he simply doesn’t care. I think the latter is closer to the truth. Paul Keating said that conservatives are mean little people. I agree with him.

  37. corvus boreus

    Lee,
    Law, as a profession, also seems to often require refining the practices of quibbling, locating loopholes, and the suspension of personal ethics. At the peak of their profession they wear wigs and funny gowns.
    I wish we had more science degrees in parliament.

  38. stephentardrew

    Yes Corvus many, many more. A lack of scientific illiteracy is heading us towards catastrophe. Scientist did not loose credibility they were simply so vilified that they lost their MSM voice. There are plenty of informed science sites that provide facts but they require reason, attention and effort. How have Labor tried to get the scientific facts across? With cheap one liners and worn out metaphors. It makes me so angry that in the age where science and technology are the foundations of capitalist profitability they could so easily ignore and vilify our best minds.

    Sportsmen and women do not contribute a fraction of the wealth to society that science does yet they are lauded over the true wealth makers.

    What a twisted society we are.

  39. Lee

    “Law, as a profession, also seems to often require refining the practices of quibbling, locating loopholes, and the suspension of personal ethics. ”

    Corvus, I suspect that those who seem to be lacking in the personal ethics department probably had dubious ethics to begin with. Also, how much of the negative image of lawyers is a stereotype? I know some lawyers who are extremely nice people, honest and ethical.

    I would love to see more scientists in parliament. However the good ones are more likely to be interested in a traditional science setting. We would probably get the crap ones in parliament.

  40. corvus boreus

    Lee,
    I don’t know how much of the negative image is stereo-typing, but mine was; I don’t personally know many lawyers.
    I also take on board your comments regarding the likely quality of any scientists entering politics.
    It does seem to attract the dregs and lees of law and economics, and the occasional failed priest.
    I sill maintain that I would prefer a few boffins to balance the quibblers and bean-counters.

  41. Lee

    “It does seem to attract the dregs and lees of law and economics, and the occasional failed priest.”

    I’ve always maintained that if Hockey was any decent lawyer, he’d still be working as one. He could earn more (legally) as a good lawyer than as a politician.

  42. Kaye Lee

    Joe was only 30 when he entered Parliament and prior to that he was the Director of Policy to the Premier of New South Wales. After graduation he worked as a banking and finance lawyer at Corrs Chambers Westgarth but it couldn’t have been for long – he was always looking for a path to the public purse.

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