By Matthew Reddin  

Two press conferences, two states dealing with Delta, two very different sets of reported numbers. I decided to compare the pair.

In her July 23 press conference, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian labelled the 136 new cases of COVID-19 a ‘national emergency’. Today, August 30, NSW reported 1293 new cases. No reports were offered of links; no reports were offered of the success of contact tracers. It’s apparently no longer important data; no longer important enough to know where the disease is, where it’s going, its impact or how one case may or may not be linked to another. No talk of it being a national emergency, despite the case numbers having increased marginally shy of tenfold.

On the day when Victorian health authorities reported 73 new cases, 52 of them linked with 21 under investigation (at time of press). In Victoria: 73 is too high a number to open up. In NSW: Case numbers aren’t the most important number, so why not have that picnic?

Tuning in to NSW’s 11.00 am press conference, the focus seems to be “reduce case numbers, sure, but get vaccinated.” The other number that’s critical, repeated, is hospitalisation. But no information is provided. 840 in hospital, 137 in ICU, 48 on ventilators. There’s no ‘national emergency’ when numbers indicate a virus out of control and a system that’s not keeping up.

I’d drink every time Berejiklian says variations on ‘Living with the virus,’ but I’d be passed out on the floor by lunchtime. It’s not a good look. As was this quote, right out of the Trump playbook: “Less testing means less cases”, meaning the less we know about those darned numbers, the less it impacts us, and by us, I mean LNP voters in safe North Shore seats.

NSW now saying not to focus on case numbers. But case numbers predict future hospitalisations and deaths. And knowing how many are unlinked cases provides additional information on success or failure. Transparency important NSW. https://t.co/FWe11JSXgW

— Prof. Nick Talley 💎 (@Prof_NickTalley) August 29, 2021

Immunologist Alan Baxter posted on Twitter, “Assuming a continuation of the exponential increase in case numbers, by the end of September, NSW will have over 10,000 cases per day, and by the end of October, 200 COVID deaths per day.”

Deputy Premier John Barilaro has been doing the media rounds touting the ‘freedoms’ NSW residents can look forward to once we reach the highly touted 70% vaccination rate (and, just as a refresher, 70% of adults over 16 is actually 56% of the population).

Priorities seem completely out of whack in NSW. Official words and actions look to be motivated by the people’s prevailing mood, rather than best medical practice. Say what you will about Daniel Andrews’ government, but nothing he’s been doing for the past 18 months has been textbook popularity contest-winning stuff. It’s politically counter-intuitive to be making daily announcements that won’t be well-received, operating under the guiding principles that what’s right will be well received, and if not, at least he did what was right.

Victoria’s 11:00 am presser was more of a sombre affair. Present was Health Minister Martin Foley; Daniel Andrews in absentia with fewer announcements to make in the lead-up to what will doubtlessly be a lockdown extension on Thursday. Foley, a laconic suburban probate lawyer type, delivers his messages in a matter-of-fact way. He’s on top of his numbers and tends to have zero patience for the dirt-dumb dipshits in the media who ask him questions that sometimes defy understanding. Taking a cue from NSW’s habit of hearing from the frontline workers to get the point across, he passes the mic to Kylie from Western Health, who speaks of her 2020 experiences with COVID. It’s not pretty. Whereas the NSW paramedic front-footed vaccinations (quite rightly), Kylie makes a sobering point about what they on the front lines are anticipating in the event of opening up. She is “terrified”.

It’s a weird state of play that while NSW, the ACT and Victoria are all under lockdown, the NSW government is downplaying their own situation; the federal government is arcing up their attacks on those states with zero COVID with the unmitigated temerity to “keep doing what’s worked and is overwhelmingly popular”.

Doing what’s popular rather than what’s right at a time of crisis doesn’t seem to bode well for the future. Feast your eyes upon this, from an anonymous doctor in a western Sydney hospital: “We believe it likely that projected patient numbers will soon be overwhelming…from Westmead to Liverpool and Blacktown, ambulances now routinely line up in hospital carparks, unable to discharge their patients. What exactly is going on?”

Sobering sentiments, right there. And a question that verges on the rhetorical.

It’s the kind of event that many premiers – Victoria’s Daniel Andrews included – foreshadowed based on their health advice and brought about extensive lockdowns to avoid. This kind of activity has been taking place all over the world, notably in the US.

Five days ago, the Associated Press reported that the state of Arkansas ran out of intensive care unit beds for COVID-19 patients on Tuesday for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began. Arkansas has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the US, with 40% of the state’s population fully vaccinated.

At the time of writing, 18.7 million doses had been administered in Australia, with 6.9 million people fully vaccinated. Noice. But still, that only represents 27.2% of the population, which according to my limited understanding of arithmetic is less than 70%. To quote Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction, “Let’s not start sucking each other’s dicks just yet.”

The ABC is also reporting – somewhat depressingly – an “…increase in COVID-19 positive residents refusing to self-isolate”. That’s hard to read, and even harder to comprehend. Asymptomatic people, fatigued from the third wave lockdown? You can kind of understand them doing this. Those who are asymptomatic but have been tested because of proximity to Tier 1 or Tier 2 exposure sites? At a pinch, you can see why it happens, even though it really shouldn’t. But diagnosed COVID-19 positive cases not self-isolating? That’s a dirty pool. Criminal negligence. Public floggings in Martin Place-type stuff.

In NSW, official words and actions look to be motivated by the people’s prevailing mood, rather than best medical practice. Say what you will about Daniel Andrews’ government, but nothing he’s been doing for the past 18 months has been textbook popularity contest-winning stuff.

It’s a weird state of play that while NSW, the ACT and Victoria are all under lockdown, the NSW government is downplaying their own situation; the federal government is arcing up their attacks on those states with zero COVID with the unmitigated temerity to “keep doing what’s worked and is overwhelmingly popular”. Someone seems to have forgotten to tell Frydenberg and Morrison that WA and Queensland are part of the Federation, and that winning seats in those states are necessary for the Morrison government to be returned to office.

Let’s find out how that turns out, shall we?

This article was originally published on The Big Smoke.

By Peter Wicks  

The new dawn looms. Where the unvaccinated are Morrison’s scapegoats and our children are used as guinea pigs.

Sometimes making people do something can be tricky. Some go for the gentle encouragement method. Others go for the ‘scare the crap out of them’ approach.

It’s sad to see NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and some in our media taking the latter approach. In what has now finally been declared a race to vaccinate, I personally feel the scare tactics have gone a step too far.

I listen to the daily updates of the hundreds of COVID-19 cases in NSW and hear the daily death toll as we all do. But like many others I wince when I hear the victims of Sydney outbreak described not as loving mothers, or cherished sons, but as ‘unvaccinated’. Like that is the most significant thing about their life.

We all want to see more people vaccinated, but I think this public branding of a victim is both perverse and disrespectful. It borders on victim blaming.

Have I got this right; Morrison didn't get enough vaccines but now it's our fault we aren't vaccinated? Talk about gaslighting.

— Laura is somewherein84 (@somewherein84) August 23, 2021

The other thing that really irritates me about this victim blaming is it ignores the fact that we have a shortage of supply of the Pfizer vaccine. Hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps millions are currently sitting on a waiting list for the vaccine. Their wait is by no means any reflection on them, rather it is a reflection on the Morrison government. If any of those on a waiting list caught the virus and ended up dying, they would be another statistic announced as ‘unvaccinated’. Not because they were an antivaxxer, lazy or complacent, but simply because Scott Morrison didn’t order enough vaccine.

However, when Berejiklian says “sadly there have been three deaths in the last 24 hours” and then adds “all three were unvaccinated,” that’s not the impression you are left with.

Another day of victim blaming?

You know what I’d like to see?

I’d like to see those in our mainstream media question this.

I’d like to see them ask, regarding those who had died, “How many of these were on the long list awaiting vaccine availability?” Why not? The data should be available from NSW Health.

I live in regional Victoria, I was originally told I had to wait over 8 weeks just to get a date to make an appointment as everything was full and their system would not allow them to book anything ahead of eight weeks. Fortunately I found an alternative that had just started getting access to Pfizer and I shortened the wait to five weeks. I know of many others still waiting for their first jab.

We hear Morrison talk about this imaginary figure of 30,000 lives somehow saved, meanwhile there is real data and real names for those that have died waiting for the vaccines he didn’t order. Real lives of real people with real families. Each one a tragedy worth far more than being labelled and brushed off as “unvaccinated”.

Each of these people died because we were not at the front of the vaccine queue as we were assured in perhaps the most shameful political lie told yet this century.

Those of us who haven’t died waiting for vaccine availability are now being told that ‘the dawn’ is coming. The day when we hit the magic 70% vaccinated and have to “learn to live with the virus.” Morrison insists we have to end lockdowns at some point, and that is the point he wants us to revert back to normal life.

In the COVID-19 modelling, opening up at 70% vaccine coverage of the adult population with partial public health measures, we predict 385,983 symptomatic cases and 1,457 deaths over six months.

— Doherty Institute (@TheDohertyInst) August 23, 2021

That sounds great, unless of course you’re a kid, have a kid, or maybe grandkids. Children won’t be vaccinated, just like all the ones we are seeing now end up in ICU or violently ill from the Delta strain, the Gladys/Morrison strain as some call it.

Living with the virus

While in first world countries children as young as 12 are receiving Pfizer, here in Australia the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) have been asleep at the wheel waiting for Health Minister Greg Hunt to figure out which way to hold the map. While Morrison and Hunt bicker with ATAGI over the wording of Astra Zeneca advice, children are picking up the virus and taking it to school for show and tell.

2022 is looking like it could be the year the Morrison government turned everyone’s children into guinea pigs while the modelling his decisions are based on shows the Delta variant will spread like a wildfire. Never mind, just like last time there were wildfires, the long vaccinated Morrison will probably have Jenny and his kids watching the carnage on TV from a beach hotel suite in Hawaii.

Australia’s burning

At least back home we’ll be able to do the important things again like go to a Harvey Norman store, or cross our fingers and put the rent money in a pokie machine right?

Yeah sure kids can wear a mask to school, but how many adults do you see having trouble fitting a mask properly?

Even if ATAGI pull their finger out and approve Pfizer for anyone over 12 years old, and even if we have 100% of those eligible vaccinated, where does that leave kids under 12? Do they all have to become Bubble Boys and Girls and live their lives in lockdown until a vaccine is found for them?

We need better options than what is being proposed.

Some will think I’m just being negative and not offering any ideas. I may be wrong, but I thought the countries Chief Medical Officer was paid the big bucks to do just that?

Instead of finding ways to improve our prospects he unfortunately seems to be focussing on trying to find ways to justify Morrison’s positions.

Morrison now says “It’s not how you start the race, it’s how you finish the race.” Well as we lurch from one failure to the next it is looking increasingly likely under a Morrison government we won’t see the finish line.

If we want to make the distance there is one thing that we will need almost as much as we need more vaccines.

A new government.

This article was originally published on Wixxyleaks.

By Dave The Trucker 

It started with a push for workplace rights, but the subversion of the #IStandWithTruckies hashtag is indicative of where we’re at in this country.

The virtues of a transient workplace such as mine mean you can roll your eyes at fellow staff’s comments without reprisal. The downside is that the comments you hear don’t have a face, they just come through the radio, supplanted by the next, louder comment.

On Twitter, the hashtag #IStandWithTruckies is trending, inspired by the possibility of a countrywide blockade erected in response to the government (whichever one) making a vaccine mandatory. It, like many things of ill repute, is an American invention, one eagerly bumped by sound thinkers, like Clive Palmer.

On the platform, user Ben Davison writes:

“Right now the mouthpieces of foreign propaganda are using #IStandWithTruckies to plan a series of blockades to undermine our #Covid19 response. The screenshot is from a video with an American explaining how to disable a truck to use it as a barricade.”

Image from Twitter

Elsewhere, under the same hashtag, many are showing support of the plan, purely because of the crucial role that truckers possess. It’s a maxim I hear in my workplace. If we stop, the country stops. We are the people that the government will listen to. If we stop for a week or month, the government will really feel it. However, the point is lost, as the message is a drive against political corruption and/or taking back the country.

Park her up 👑Kings👑 #IStandWithTruckies pic.twitter.com/XY8Z2WeJ51

— Space Karen (@Karen54379260) August 23, 2021

In reality, the genesis of the movement was motivated by the application of COVID rules at a roadhouse in Gilandra. According to what information has been passed on, the local police apparently threatened a $5000 fine if they let truckies dine-in, which conflicts with the National Cabinet exemption allowing dedicated stops and lounges to remain open during Covid lockdowns.

Per Big Rigs:

“Senator Glenn Sterle, a former truckie himself, has now taken up the fight, writing to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and other state cabinet members to get on board and ensure police abide by the National Cabinet directive on truckies’ facilities.

This article was originally published on The Big Smoke.

By Ad astra  

This short piece is not intended to be a serious treatise; instead it’s a light-hearted appraisal of federal politics. We have had our fill of commentaries on the ins and outs of the Canberra scene written by self-confident ‘experts’ who believe they understand the machinations of the political class. It can’t be all that complicated though; self-interest seems to explain most of the day-by-day behaviour of our politicians.

Instead, this is a search for our very own ‘Toad’, in our very own ‘Toad Hall’, federal parliament. Persist with me if you’re up for a disrespectful tilt at our politicians.

Why Toad, an inelegant creature with none of the refinements of a classy frog? What is it about this ugly fellow that attracted me?

I suspect it was the enigmatic personality of Toad in A A Milne’s dramatisation of Kenneth Grahame’s 1908 novel Wind in the Willows (my favourite tale as a youngster), namely Toad of Toad Hall, that caught my attention at I grew up in what was then the rather sooty coal-mining precinct of Silkstone-Booval in Ipswich in SE Queensland.

He appealed to me because he was so full of ideas. Some were bright, some ridiculous, but they were always presented with such assurance, such confidence, such flair. His advocacy of his ideas was consistently enthusiastic, passionate, always patently honest. Yet the impetuosity with which he presented them resulted in blunder after blunder, which he conceded in his characteristic self-deprecating manner: “stupid Toad”, “silly Toad”, “ignorant Toad”...

The question I put to you is: Who, is our very own Toad in our very own Toad Hall, our federal parliament?

Who there has a personality that matches Toad? Can you identify a politician who consistently comes along with ‘bright’ ideas, who presents them with unbridled enthusiasm, who falls flat on his or her face over and again, but, and this is a big ‘but’, is ready to admit mistakes?

Or does your mind revert to the plethora of politicians who never do so, always seek to blame others, always find others whom they deem responsible?

Our PM is a past master at sheeting home mistakes to others. When have you heard him genuinely, I mean genuinely, accept responsibility, concede an error of judgement, appear eager to put the record straight? No, it’s always someone else’s fault. His verbal diarrhoea is legendary. As is his inability to utter a genuine full-throated ‘Sorry’. There’s always a ‘Morrison’ way of avoiding it.

Unfair appraisal? Reflect on his demeanour during press conferences, where his characteristic smirk bespeaks confidence, over-confidence some would say. Others may use a less polite descriptor.

Our PM is no ‘Toad’.

By John Haly  

Much is made of the 21^st century being a post-truth world. Many identified it when presidential spokesperson Kellyanne Conway defended White House Press secretary Sean Spicer’s fallacious claim about attendance numbers at Donald Trump’s inauguration. Kellyanne Conway infamously referred to Spicer’s assertions as “Alternative facts“. This became a catch cry of satirists, comedians and news broadcasters reflecting the absurdity of presidential lies and fallacious propaganda. However, political manipulations of the “truth” are older than the writings of the ancient Chinese military treatise of “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu.

Populist lies

What does mark the 21st century is not the strategic lie of clever politicians but the blatant lie of the Populist. The blatant lie has replaced clever self-serving lies that take time and nuance to unravel. It’s an appeal to a demographic wanting the smallest of justifications to rise in the insurrection at the Capital or organise a packed, mask-less protest rally during a pandemic.

Great swathes of humanity descend into the 21st-century rabbit hole, emerging catatonic and confused into a world of irrationality, conspiracy theories, and QAnon. Framed by shameless populist’s admonition, whose goal is greed, popularity and personal gain/power at any cost to society. However, the political class has always been tarred with the brush of falsehoods by the public. Those goals aim to serve ideological or personal ends, but for the population, the falsehoods of this century have more dire consequences. These blatant lies blind us from the existential threats to us all, such as COVID-19 pandemics, climate change and biodiversity collapse.

Post-truth world equals Pre-Fascist realm

We should ask ourselves both why and how “alternative facts” (or, to put it bluntly, “mendacious lies”) dominate and hamper the cultures of the modern world and warp our perspective of the truth.

Here are my ten reasons why “alternative truths” hold sway.

1. Political advantage

Manipulating the populous through algorithms

Contemporary manipulations of the public for political gain are outsourced to the private capital of organisations such as Cambridge Analytica that resulted in the election of Trump and other populists. The data mining and psychological manipulation on behalf of Trump were detailed in the whistleblower’s book, “Mindf*ck” by Christopher Wylie. The broader European perspective of “This is Not Propaganda” by Peter Pomerantsev explores the dark world of influence operations run amok. It is a world of dark ads, psy-ops, hacks, bots and alternative fact propagation. This would include Firecrest technologies, Emerdata and SCL Group companies and even i360. The latter aided the conservative political gains in the South Australian elections but were abandoned despite protests from state branches by the evident lack of digital nous exhibited by federal Liberal Party operators. Nevertheless, it is a global phenomenon with many agents producing propaganda in social and mainstream media.

2. Media power and control

The dominance by organisations like the Murdoch press, OAN, and Fox News engage us in divisive propaganda instead of news and accurate journalism. Instead of holding power to account, the Fourth Estate is more frequently complicity with power. This is not merely an opinion but the legal defence used by Fox News to defend their hosts. Legal complications over the lack of veracity in reporting have long plagued the Murdoch press, but its power over parties and electoral influence is also a matter of record.

3. Cultural complacency

Cogitative progressions and the death of reasoning

There is a culture of acceptability for political lies and even allowing the lies to slide by with populist politicians. Manipulative social media posts that appeal to emotional or perceptual biases are propagated. “People feel free to make unsupported claims, assertions, and accusations in online media,” said Vint Cerf. As Dan York also notes, “The ‘mob mentality’ can be easily fed, and there is little fact-checking or source-checking these days before people spread information and links through social media.”

Not only do we disparage fact-checking and frequently could not be bothered to check political veracity, but partisan “fact-checkers” also have weaponised “fact-checking”.

4. Experiential evaluation

There is a cultural belief in the fluidity of truth in which opinion and anecdotal expressions are given identical or greater weight than fact-checking and well developed and robust methods of statistical analysis. Cognitive Research states, “People are also more persuaded by low-quality scientific claims that are accompanied by anecdotes and endorsement cues, such as a greater number of Facebook ‘likes’ as well as prior exposure to misinformation. In particular, the presence of anecdotal evidence can serve as a powerful barrier for scientific reasoning and evidence-based decision-making.”

5. Underfunding education

The defunding and elimination of free university education has resulted in an inferior quality of education for the Australian/American/British populations. As John Biggs and Richard Davis’s paper on “The Subversion of Australian Universities” concludes, “Today, our tertiary system is no longer able to fulfil its proper function in the community.” The deteriorating quality standards in Australian Universities leaves many graduates unequipped for the working world. Academic bodies have for years petitioned against the cuts to higher education to increasingly deaf ears in parliament.

It is not just tertiary education in Australia that is suffering a decline. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) reports that high school test scores have been plummeting for years.

The deteriorating education results in a plummeting of quality standards in Australian Universities. Access is based on economic capacity to afford education and the resultant financial pressure to pass mediocre students. Instead of passing students based on individual intellectual demonstrations of academic quality, a culture of grading on a curve is the acceptable standard.

6. Irresponsibility

A list of Rabbit-holes to dive down

People have not been held accountable for the results of their inane opinions, whether they range from:

• anti-vaxxers,
• the divinity of Trump,
• the benignity of Scott Morrison,
• refugees are terrorists,
• that conservatives are better economic managers,
• selfish wealthy freeloaders hoarding franking credits at the expense of the government,
• climate change denial,
• arsonist claims on bushfires, etc.

These people have largely been able to get away with their foolish choices and claims that have generated destructive results for Australian society and civil liberties as a whole.

7. Poverty

The paucity of resources available for adequate discernment or investigation of the truth is underscored by the crushing weight of surviving poverty. Ill-equipped communities, schools, and teachers have to scale inter-generational poverty and abuse that impact brain development, breadth of opportunity, material resourcing, and starting education at an expected time and age. Economic disadvantage is linked to chronic tardiness, lack of motivation, and inappropriate behaviour in school children and follows them into adulthood. Eric Jensen documents this in his book “Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids’ Brains and What Schools Can Do About It.” This is before we even contemplate the issues of remote and regional education in the vastness of Australia. Underfunding public schools and TAFE and tertiary education have a long history in Australia. Extracurricular activities such as music, languages, travel/excursions, and etc are only available to children of wealthy parents or private education as public education has suffered multiple ongoing budget cuts that date back decades.

8. The “means” of production

Beyond poverty, the working class and the demands of their labour, of time and energy in terms of excessive working hours and inadequate wages and working conditions limit their socio-political awareness. One’s financial needs for personal and family obligations leave little time or energy for contemplation into the truth of State propaganda and media bias. Moreover, juggling more than one job to meet the financial demands of survival depletes time and resources for contemplative thinking. The ABS reported recently, “Filled jobs increased by 73,700 in the March quarter, 56,100 of which were jobs worked by people as a secondary job.”

9. Dismantling opposition

Diminishing critical public resources results in the inadequate assessment of proposals and developing ideas. The data necessary to evaluate deteriorating social and economic business concerns vanishes. This has been exemplified by defunding and closure of legal advice, research facilities and a raft of labour market monitoring (specifically during Abbott’s reign) along with compromising formerly independent bodies such as:

• Productivity commission with compromised business executive,
• Climate monitors stacked with fossil fuel executives.
• CSIRO being compromised with Gisera vested interests in Gas and Coal, and
• fact-checking units within public broadcasting.

The result is that critically based research becomes more inaccessible. Misinformation is easier to find, and the partisan media spoon-feeds that to the masses by the bucketful.

10. Illiteracy

Literacy is a surprisingly large issue in Australia; as Benjamin Law wrote some years ago, “…an OECD study surveyed Australians aged between 15 and 74 and rated them on their literacy skills. The results were shocking: 43.7 per cent had below-proficiency-level literacy.” Some indicators since then have seen improvement but as Helena Burke in the Australian noted: “According to the OECD, one in eight Australian adults are functionally illiterate, reading at an OECD Level 1 or below.” Unfortunately, though, she continued to say, “At present, there is no national adult literacy policy within Australia.”

Infotainment or Knowledge

Broadsheets to YouTube how conditions have worsened

Criticism of relative illiteracy notes how many in the community get their knowledge base from YouTube videos rather than reading and comprehension. Short podcasts and videos provide a superficial education with little by way of citations to follow up. In pursuit of easy to digest snippets of short-form, educational content (infotainment) provides an ephemeral intellectual reward and a diminished perspicacity. As a freelance journalist, I am aware this article exceeds the Guardian’s word limit of 800 words and Independent Australia’s at 1200. Long read articles are a small specialist market for a limited audience as the response of the larger public is usually conveyed by the acronym “TL;DR”. So even for the literate, reading can be viewed as onerous. Ask yourself when did you last read a non-fiction book? While the Australian Council for the Arts determined that 92% of Australians self-identify as ‘readers,’ the time spent doing so averages 6 hours and 18 minutes a week. That put our country in 15th place in the world.

These ten factors contribute to the ongoing undermining of truth in society.  We often seek simplistic answers to complex questions. Too many of us will not spend the time reading and examining the nuance and subtleties of issues. (Especially when they can be breezed over in a five-minute video.)

Too Long; Didn’t read!

Still, you are here reading this article. Did you just scan it quickly out of idle curiosity? Did you click on even one embedded link out of that curiosity to further your knowledge of something herein written? Perhaps, I got something wrong, but would you know from reading the link’s contents? Was that “reading”, or did you skim over what was written quickly because it was a bit long and … hell … who has the time, education, or philosophical inclination for in-depth understanding?

This article was originally published on Australia Awaken – Ignite your Torches.

Australians for War Powers Reform: Media Release

The tragic situation unfolding in Afghanistan should lead to a complete overhaul of how Australia goes to war.

That’s according to former diplomat and acting President of Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR), Dr Alison Broinowski.

“Hundreds of thousands of people in Afghanistan are now facing imminent danger following the complete mismanagement of the withdrawal of troops, in a war that was never properly and transparently scrutinised in Australia. There was a serious lack of oversight and accountability on both joining the war and how it was conducted.”

“In 2001 troops were sent off amid the shock of terrorist attacks on the US, but many key elements of a decision for war, including an exit strategy, were nowhere to be seen. Now the Afghan people are paying the price, as the Australian government has failed to protect those who worked with Australian forces.”

“For several months, numerous experts and NGOs have been pleading with the Morrison government to urgently offer visas to these staff and we have seen delay after delay.”

At present the power to take us to war is concentrated in the hands of the Prime Minister, and the Parliament has no say whatsoever.

“We need legislation to ensure that our elected representatives have a vote before any Australian forces are sent overseas,” Dr Broinowski said.

“We also need rules in place that require Parliamentary oversight as any war proceeds. Transparency and accountability to Parliament are critical. Australian governments have repeatedly lied to the Australian people about the progress of the war in Afghanistan.”

“There is currently legislation sitting in the Senate to address war powers but both the major parties are refusing to debate the bill. They have done this repeatedly since 1985. This must change,” Dr Broinowski concluded.

By 2353NM  

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve looked at some of the less savoury aspects of the current Coalition Government, led (for the moment) by Scott Morrison. This week, how about we look at the environmental record of this government, which reaches back to the days when Tony Abbott was the Prime Minister.

Abbott was elected partly on the false premise of ‘the carbon tax’ which really wasn’t a tax at all. To be brief, a tax is something you can’t legally avoid paying. A trading scheme, such as an Emission Trading Scheme, is a process where if you make the economic choice not to comply with regulations, you have to pay a penalty. The choice is yours. As Abbott’s Chief of Staff admitted years later, ‘the carbon tax’ was a figment of the LNP’s imagination designed to bring down the ALP government, although to be fair, the ALP Government of the day was ably assisting the process by repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot.

It’s history that Malcolm Turnbull rolled Incumbent Prime Minister Tony Abbott in 2015. Turnbull attempted to introduce an emissions trading schem in 2018 which assisted Scott Morrison to roll Malcolm Turnbull and become Prime Minister.

AAP has provided a history of Morrison’s environmental credentials which seems to consist of maybe Australia will get to net zero emissions by 2050 (most of the world is actively working towards it rather than being aspirational) provided someone else stumps up the money and his caucus allows it.

We should remember Senator Michaela Cash’s claim at the last federal election that (then ALP Leader) Bill Shorten was going to kill off tradies using their ‘work’ vehicles on the weekend by subsidising electric cars.

“We are going to stand by our tradies and we are going to save their utes,” Ms Cash told reporters.

“We understand choice and that is what Bill Shorten is taking away from our tradies.”

She joined a chorus of Coalition figures who have criticised the Opposition’s announcement of a target for electric car sales to make up 50 per cent of the market by 2030 as well as new emissions standards for petrol vehicles.

While ‘fortress Australia’ attempts unsuccessfully to repel the infidel that may be carrying infection into Australia, the rest of the world is adopting measures that will improve the environment.

To purchase a petrol or diesel vehicle in the UK after 2030, it must be a hybrid – and even they are being phased out by 2035. Norway’s vehicle sales for the year 2020 were 141,412, about one tenth of the Australian annual vehicle sales. 83.45% of the vehicles sold were powered solely by electrons rather than fossil fuel.

In Australia, we are subsidising our remaining two oil refineries to upgrade and produce petrol that would only comply to the current European standards of sulphur by 2024 and the government has announced they will fund the installation of 403 electric vehicle chargers around the country.

The Gratten Institute has recently released a report calling for the removal of new petrol and diesel cars from sale in Australia by 2035 and subsidies for fully electric vehicles. Even the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industry agrees with most of the recommendations

However the FCAI has agreed with other aspects of Grattan Institute’s report, particularly its recommendations for tax reform including the axing of stamp duty, import duty, and luxury car tax on all zero-emission vehicles.

The UK is closing its last operational coal fired power stations by 2025 and Spain closed 7 of its 15 coal fired power stations on 30 June 2020.

The Coalition Government has attempted to interest the private sector in the construction of a new gas fired power plant in the Hunter Valley with no response – so they are funding it through Snowy Hydro which is owned by the Australian Government. It’s no wonder no one would build it for them, as news.com.au reported at the time, the plant is likely to become a stranded asset.

But Andrew Stock, a senior energy executive with over 40 years’ experience, said the construction of a new gas power station would not lower electricity prices for homes and businesses as promised by the government. He claimed it would only raise them.

“Gas is expensive and gas peakers that rarely run need to drive up prices to get a return … Federal interference in the electricity market also discourages private sector investment,” he said.

“Any potential shortfall created by the closure of Liddell Power Station (in 2023) would have been filled by the NSW state government and energy industry’s announced plans to build renewable energy zones and big batteries across the state.

“Renewables are the cheaper, smarter choice to meet future energy demand compared to gas, which is expensive, polluting and worsens climate change. This decision is an all-round poor move for Australian taxpayers.”

In the UK, a major 3.6 gigawatt gas fired power generator has recently been scrapped before it was built

Will Gardiner, CEO of Drax Group said “Our focus is on renewable power. Our carbon intensity is one of the lowest of all European power generators. We aim to be carbon negative by 2030 and are continuing to make progress. We are announcing today that we will not develop new gas fired power at Drax. This builds on our decision to end commercial coal generation and the recent sale of our existing gas power stations”.

And

Drax’s announcement was made on the same day UK analysis firm Carbon Tracker released a detailed report into the costs of heavy reliance on gas-fired power. “Betting on new gas today means shouldering consumers with higher prices tomorrow as well as missing the net zero pathway the UK government has committed to,” they said, in their ‘Foot off the gas’

We claimed a couple of weeks ago that Morrison obviously doesn’t plan for the future, rather reacts poorly to emergent issues while trying to ‘market’ his way out of the problem. Last week we questioned the morals and ethics of a government that thought it was acceptable to award contracts that run into the billions of dollars to firms with Liberal Party connections without a competitive tender process or throw money into electorates they either needed to keep or thought they could win at the last election, rather than address demonstrated needs across the community. While none of the behaviours that we have discussed over the past couple of weeks have been acceptable, the real crime of the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison Government is the environmental vandalism they have perpetrated, as future generations will be adversely affected by the Coalition Government’s lack of action.

Technology and new products will assist the transition to better environmental management. To demonstrate the point, was Michaela Cash correct when she claimed that Shorten was coming after your utes when promoting an electric vehicle subsidy? In a word – no. Ford in the USA is now accepting pre-orders for an all-electric F150 truck with a potential $7,500 US Government Tax Credit! If a large American ute is what you need to carry your tools during the week and tow your boat on the weekend, you’ll survive in an all-electric vehicle world.

What do you think?

By 2353NM  

There have recently been a number of ‘freedom’ rallies across Australia where participants seem to be claiming that the current pandemic is somewhere between a farce and a ‘deep cover’ operation by unnamed authorities to exert control over the mindless minions (that’s the rest of us). Some who should know better, including LNP Federal member George Christensen, exercised their ‘freedom’ to protest that others were taking away ‘our freedoms’. Pity some of the company he was keeping seemed to identify with QAnon – a strange group of people that allegedly take instruction from an anonymous person who posts ‘cryptic’ messages on obscure internet message boards despite claiming they should be free of government instruction and direction.

There were plenty that decried the rallies as idiotic but you have to wonder if in amongst those with an ideological barrow to push, there were some that are completely bamboozled and concerned by the government’s seeming incompetence and want their opinion to be heard. We talked about Morrison’s lack of ability to organise or plan for the future a week or so ago in ‘The dog ate my homework’. Concern and confusion about the government’s actions is probably justified.

What we didn’t talk about last week was the use of our funds in attempts to purchase favour and grace from marginal electorates. At the same time the Coalition are dishing out favours and opportunities to those that have supported the conservative side of politics in the past without even a pretense of fairness or equity.

Prior to the 2019 election, the federal government promised commuter carparks at various locations in Australia’s larger cities. Normally councils and state government build public transport infrastructure but it wouldn’t be the first time the Federal Government has funded public transport infrastructure. While it’s true that car parking near transport nodes will probably increase the use of public transport, reduce congestion on our roads as well as reclaiming the nearby suburban streets for local residents, the Australian National Audit Office claims

the Commuter Car Park fund started with a list of “top 20 marginal seats” identified by the office of Alan Tudge, who was then minister for urban infrastructure.

ANAO officials said the government chose where to build the car parks based on the votes up for grabs rather than the potential to ease congestion and noted the office of Prime Minister Scott Morrison was involved in some of the decisions.

It claimed a similar approach was used for the wider $4.8 billion Urban Congestion Fund of which the car park program was just one part.

It is concerning the Audit Office thought there was little consideration of the need to increase public transport usage, rather the objective being to maximise the Coalition votes at the election. Apparently some of the commuter carparks were over half a kilometre from the railway station they were supposed to be servicing!

In late July, The Guardian reported that

Canstruct International, the Brisbane company and Liberal party donor running Australia’s offshore processing regime on Nauru, has won another uncontested contract extension – $180m over six months – bringing its total revenue from island contracts over the past five years to more than $1.5bn.

There are 108 people held on Nauru under Australia’s offshore processing regime. It costs Australian taxpayers more than $8,800 every day for each person held on the island, or $3.2m a person each year.

While no new asylum seeker arrivals have been sent to Nauru since 2014, the regime there will cost Australia more than $400m this year.

And probably more telling

The original contract for “provision of garrison and welfare services on Nauru” awarded to Canstruct was worth just $8m in October 2017 but this was amended almost immediately – increased by 4,500% to $385m just a month after being signed.

These two examples are not outliers. Crikey has ‘a dossier of lies and falsehoods’ that make interesting reading.

The medical experts seem to suggest that the way out of the COVID pandemic is vaccination. The vaccination rate in the US is considerably higher than Australia’s, yet people are still dying. The sad fact is that most COVID-19 related deaths in the USA are among unvaccinated people. Taking part in a ‘freedom’ protest where social distancing and mask wearing is obviously not encouraged is only likely to be hazardous to your health. If people really are flummoxed or confused about the Government’s management in general, as some protestors seem to be, the best option for them is to become politically aware and ‘fight the good fight’ from the inside. The alternative is to be associated with a ragtag bunch of conspiracy theorists who could be the recipients of a number of ‘Darwin Awards’ in the not-too-distant future.

What do you think?

By Brian Morris  

Authoritarian religion – throughout history – has had a seamless simpatico relationship with authoritarian governments. Think middle-ages, the Conquistadors, and Catholic pogroms against heretics. Over recent decades it’s become a triumvirate of conservative clerics, politicians and media hacks – trying to stamp out rationalism!

This census is a classic example of how fundamentalist religion, politics and media have come together.

Of course, they were driven to tightly re-group to fight off the dastardly ‘secularists’ who dared to challenge dishonesty in the perpetual census question on religion. It’s been hopelessly biased since the first census in 1911.

But what does it matter if the data is a bit skewed? More on that shortly, but first, what’s going on?

Secular groups across the country have commissioned reputable independent national polls, and voluminous academic research, to amass indisputable “evidence” that ABS data on religion is fatally flawed. It matters simply because there are serious consequences.

But in similar vein to fervent anti-Vaxxers, QAnon conspiracists, and Young-Earth evangelicals – “evidence” and “facts” are completely irrelevant to conservative MPs, fundamentalist Christians, and pseudo-journalists.

Take this incredible interview on news.com.au with Peta Credlin and Michael Sukkar MP, billed as the “minister for the census”. It’s loaded with hate and bile and panic – that Barbarians are hammering at the Pearly Gates!

The secular Census Campaign has been a measured and rational effort to present the facts that this religious question is collecting tainted data, which grants unfair billions to religious businesses. More on that shortly. But:

Peta Credlin: “Why are they (secularists) so scared of Christianity?” and “…it diminishes our values, it puts the family unit under threat if you diminish faith.” Really, how so?

Minister Sukkar: “…It’s an intolerant hatred of people of faith and of faith itself.” and “I think it’s quite bizarre that people would be motivated to try and influence how other people respond to their Census but I suspect that it’s an underlying intolerance and indeed a hatred for people of faith.”

“… pressure from relatively strange, unusual groups trying to tell you how to answer your Census should be ignored … these sorts of unusual groups (are) trying to pressure you or cajole you into answering a Census in any way other than what is truthful.”

Oh, the irony – they want their truth. But they can’t handle the real “truth”.  Tones here of Jack Nicholson, from the film, ‘A Few Good Men’ (54 seconds). It’s the unvarnished literal truth that’s difficult for the indoctrinated.

And there’s more of this bizarre right-wing “fake news” here, and here, and here, and here. As you’d expect, too, social media is alive with anti-secular trolls who think the sky will fall in if the Christian vote declines (again!).

Which it will! But only marginally! And that’s because, like all past census questions on religion, it’s knowingly flawed. Nine out of ten psychologists will tell you that – the tenth is probably an evangelist.

All reference below will confirm the census question, “What is the person’s religion?” is biased, as it implicitly assumes every citizen has one. Links in the next paragraph show the government knows the data is skewed.

The 2016 census result showed 30 per cent No Religion, and 60 per cent Religion. That’s hopelessly wrong. ABS and government know that! They have no qualms collecting “childhood” faiths from people who have long ago abandoned a family religion. They don’t practice it, and feel religion is not important to them. ABS here and here.

The “truth” is that 78 per cent of Australians want religion to be separated from politics. The July Essential Poll, commission by the National Secular Lobby shows the current public view of the ‘No Religion vs Religion’ split. It’s NOT the 2016 result of 30/60 – but in fact 52/41. A two-thirds rise in No Religion and a one-third drop in Religion. (No incongruity with the differential in ‘thirds’, you have to do the maths.)

Keep in mind that around 10 per cent are “other religions”, so Christianity right now is around just 30 per cent! And all the evidence comes from the 152-page Religiosity in Australia report. And when all respondents were asked if they “belonged” to a religion, 62 per cent said NO.” Read the Executive Summary (better, all 152 pages).

That report shows that for all religions the ‘truly’ committed people of faith total only around 15 per cent! Again, for the speed-readers – only 15 per cent committed to a religion! These are known colloquially as ‘Devouts’ (10 per cent) and the ‘Regulars’ (5 per cent).

So, in truth, Christians who have a full-on devout faith – mostly Pentecostals (like the PM, Scott Morrison) and other evangelicals – number just 10 per cent. A small base, with too much power to sway politicians. And that’s telling too. Academic Dr Andy Marks shows only 7.5 per cent of MPs claim “No Religion”. Why is it now blocked?

So, the earlier question was, “why is all this important?”.

Well, it’s more that important – it’s critical. The article “Corrupted census data on religion ‘gifts’ billions to Churches” says it all – backed up by hard evidence!

Think about this logically. Conservative prime ministers from Robert Menzies, John Howard, Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, and now Scott Morrison – not to mention the ALP – have contributed greatly to the promotion of religion. They have all ignored the fact that religiosity in Australia, since 1911, has been in steady decline!   

Be clear! This is not an attack on people having a faith; it’s about religious political influence and dishonesty.

Undeniably, religious political influence has steadily increased. In 2014 a full 40 per cent of kids attended private religious schools, up from near zero when PM Menzies first started to fund Catholic schools. In 2016 Catholic school funding was $12 billion, and public schools struggle for functional funding. It’s now education welfare!

Add to this the additional billions that the government ‘gifts’ to a variety or private religious businesses in hospitals, aged care and other public services – not including genuine charities! Concurrently, vital services in public schools and higher education, public hospitals, health and support, are basically welfare programs!

Just like the ‘sports rort’ and the ‘car parks’ rort before the last federal election, the multi-billion dollars funding of private religious businesses – all of which pay no tax – amounts to ‘spiritual pork-barreling’.

Peta Credlin, other right-wing media, conservative politicians, and religious hierarchies are absolutely wrong about secular Australians being “anti-religion.” People can believe exactly what they wish – even if it’s alien invasion, a flat Earth, or homeopathy.

But please, don’t weaponise your religion to rort billions of taxpayer funds, based on shonky census data – which starves vital funds from a vast array of public education and other services. It’s dishonest and un-Australian.

The secular majority – now armed with indisputable evidence of the ongoing rort, caused by a ‘loaded’ religious question – will launch its new campaign in 2022, when ABS call for submissions for Census 2026. The question must FINALLY be changed, to end this spiritual pork-barrel rort.

By 2353NM  

When you were a toddler and those responsible for looking after you asked you to do something you didn’t want to do, you probably threw a tantrum. A couple of years later when you had learnt to communicate, you probably expressed your disapproval (then threw a tantrum when your disapproval was noted but made no difference). By the time you got to school, you were used to people telling you what to do, but you had a number of ‘reasonable’ excuses at hand such as ‘the dog ate my homework’, ’s/he made me do it’, ‘I wasn’t told’, ‘I didn’t hear you’, ‘I didn’t understand’ or simply ‘I don’t want to’. At the time, you probably considered the responses to be absolutely logical, argued rationally, clear and indisputable. In short, they were (in your opinion at the time) world class responses to external events.

It’s a bit like Prime Minister Morrison’s claims around the ‘world leading’ management of the pandemic response by his government. To date, Australia has been relatively successful at ensuring the virus didn’t get more than a toehold in the community. In spite of Morrison’s claims, the state and territory leaders have done the heavy lifting through building their contact tracing capability, isolating areas within their states where necessary to prevent the virus spreading and managing a quarantine process (on behalf of the federal government) for people coming into the country from overseas. While Morrison claims success, in reality the only two items in the pandemic response that have been left to the federal government were vaccine procurement and distribution as well as finding a better alternative to quarantine than that offered by the stop gap use of large hotels in our major cities. The ‘dog’ didn’t get to the Morrison Government’s homework – it seems the work was never done. As we entered the 2021/2022 financial year, there were lockdowns in 3 states and one territory, with other states telling their residents to exercise extreme caution, wear masks and observe various restrictions.

On July 2 2021, following a National Cabinet meeting apparently called to bring the state leaders on board, Morrison fronted a press conference and announced Australia’s four stage plan to return to something like ‘pre-COVID’ normality – where the virus is treated like any other seasonal virus such as the flu. All well and good in theory, but the COVID-19 ‘emergency’ is now 18 months old and according to Morrison we as a nation had a ‘world leading’ response. Had Morrison’s government started to develop a plan to exit the pandemic in January 2020, he could rightly claim to have a ‘world leading’ response. It’s not like they weren’t warned by the World Health Organisation that there was a highly contagious virus on the way and it was the ideal time to accumulate test kits, medical equipment and supplies and make arrangements for the isolation of people that were affected.

In March 2020, The Saturday Paper interviewed Dr Bill Bowtell, who was scathing in his criticism of the COVID-19 response. As he had a considerable role in this nation’s management of the HIV crisis in the 1980s, he probably had some idea of what he was talking about. Frankly, a lot of his predictions have come to pass. Particularly telling is the discussion around a March 2020 press conference with Morrison, Health Minister Hunt and Deputy Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly where

Between them the three men said the word “plan” 32 times, but in reality it was more like a blueprint for bureaucratic consultation. There were no concrete actions mentioned. None of the three men uttered the words hygiene, handwashing or social distancing.

By September 2020, we were going to have a ‘gas fired’ economic recovery from the COIVD pandemic. According to a report in The Guardian, Morrison’s announcement at a speech in the Hunter Valley claimed that there was no credible transition strategy for our energy requirements that didn’t rely on the burning of gas

He announced steps that could expand the gas industry, but few measures designed to boost the economy in the short-term – most were little more than commitments to coming up with a plan.

Morrison acknowledged the rise of cheap solar and wind energy, but beyond a passing reference, there was no discussion of a transition plan or dealing with climate change. The destination set out in the speech was an expansion of gas that could last for decades.

A little light on the detail, which coincidentally is a little like Morrison’s four stage plan to return to something like a pre-COVID normal that he announced on July 2. The first stage is ‘Vaccinate, Prepare and Pilot’ which requires a reduction in overseas arrivals into the country while we all go and get vaccinated when the vaccine is available (weren’t we supposed to be at the ‘front of the queue’?). As The New Daily reminds us,

Moving on to the next phases relies heavily on the rate of vaccination.

As of Thursday [1 July 2021], 7.9 per cent of Australians are fully vaccinated while 29.6 per cent have received at least one shot.

To see how we rate in comparison to the rest of the world, click here.

In the ‘Post Vaccination’ phase, lock downs will become less frequent and those who have been fully vaccinated will have less restriction than others. Arrival numbers from overseas will increase and those who can demonstrate full vaccination may be able to arrive in this country without quotas. Again, as The New Daily suggests

Phase Two of the plan will commence when enough Australians have been vaccinated, though we don’t yet know what number that is.

Mr Morrison said it will be determined by a “scientific number” in agreement with each state and territory.

Again, little detail. Apparently no-one knows how many of us have to be vaccinated before we move to ‘Stage 2’. But once we get there, ‘the plan’ suggests we then move through a consolidation phase to an ongoing process where COVID infections are treated like we treat the seasonal flu with some additional requirements around arrivals from overseas.

Cartoon by Alan Moir (moir.com.au)

The Morrison government’s COVID-19 management process is similar to his management of many of the challenges in government, long on rhetoric and short on achievement. Certainly, he should be guided by the medical evidence to determine a response to a problem that has a medical root cause, but aren’t we paying him to be thinking of the potential issues before he is forced to address them by the state leaders and have the information to hand? Telling us all, 18 months into the pandemic, that the Australian Government has yet to determine an appropriate level of herd immunity to a virus because they haven’t asked the question until now is insulting to us all. You might recall that vaccination was always seen as the way out of the pandemic.

Most of us are well aware it’s far more likely that a 7-year-old hasn’t done their homework than the dog actually ate it. Morrison hasn’t even attempted to give us a reason why his government’s homework hasn’t been done. Fortunately for us, the state leaders have demonstrated they have the real power, time and time again.

What do you think?