Christmas bombshell cements Australia’s pariah status
THE federal government is putting $50m on the table to speed up gas exploration and development in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo sub-basin 600km south of Darwin.
NT News 17/12/20
The link is probably pay-walled but the report is almost certainly available through other online searches.
I have just listened to a report on the ABC’s Country Hour (also 17/12/20) which clearly detailed the future wealth which will be generated by this initiative.
Why do not journalists ask the hard questions?
How can the Prime Minister not see the connection between his policies on fossil fuels and his failure to be invited to the climate change summit?
At a time when we are in deep debt, following necessary action on COVID-19, when we are, rashly, ignoring the need for increasing action to counter global warming, consequent on use of fossil fuels, where is Morrison’s logic in subsidising massive increases in the release of more fossil fuels?
Early in his Presidency, there were serious suggestions that Donald Trump lacked the mental capacity to perform in the office. His niece’s assessment certainly showed a picture of a truly unsuitable candidate for the role of POTUS.
There are alarming similarities between Trump and Morrison, and the latter’s faith in Pentecostalism, if genuine, presupposes that he does not see science as a more certain source of knowledge than is faith without evidence.
It is also apparent that Pentecostalism is a much more individual source of faith than is normally assumed when individuals call call themselves Christian.
Indeed, many of the standards of importance to members of the Pentecostal cult run completely counter to the teachings attributed to Jesus Christ as recorded in the Bible.
Like Trump, appearances indicate that Morrison’s first priority is to have power, and our misfortune is that enough in the Coalition are happy to let him make all the decisions, while the COVID pandemic gave him the excuse to sideline parliament for months during which he cemented his position as the Grand Pooh-Bah.
Being the Supreme Leader allows him to claim credit for all favourable outcomes, which were actually engineered by the Premiers and Chief Minister, while all unfavourable outcomes could be sheeted home to those same state and territory leaders.
IMHO, Morrison is totally lacking in moral standards, enjoys being a dictator, while not giving a tinker’s cuss about who is hurt – the refugees being bullied by Serco are just collateral damage, while the treatment of the Biloela family should be investigated by the UNHCR – and he is supported by a front bench which seems to be full of hypocrites.
After all the publicity that has been given to the bugging of the Timor Leste cabinet offices, leading to the secret trials of Bernard Collaery – a senior lawyer of impeccable integrity – and Witness K, (both of whom have had their lives and careers maliciously destroyed) how anyone can claim the secrecy to be justified, because the issue is one of national security, leaves my head in a whirl!
Pure and simple – it is a failed attempt to avoid embarrassment to former Cabinet members whose actions were motivated by commercial concerns.
The government’s own criminality is breath-taking in issues like ignoring High Court orders, establishing an illegal scheme to raise funds from innocent and vulnerable people through the enforcement procedure of Robodebt, and now, the latest, attempting to foist the cashless welfare card on a similarly disadvantaged group of people, quite contrary to the government’s own laws on the issue of credit/debit cards.
Australia has become a pariah in the developed world – and it is low on the popularity lists of many Pacific Island nations for very good reason!
I have no medical qualifications but observation makes me suspect that Morrison is a pigheaded bully and a narcissist who also uses his limited marketing skills to manufacture spin and conceal the truth.
He craves power, avoids giving any answers – let alone straight ones – to questions which really ought to be answered.
Our media have got to stop letting him get away with obfuscation and really press for answers.
Stop letting him mirror Trump!
As a dual British/Australian, I am struggling to see anything admirable in either nation.
And in both cases this is because of the leaders elected by those two nations.
Like those leaders, too many in the electorate have a limited understanding of science and a willingness to believe lies, because the truth is uncomfortable.
Recent severe weather events are not accidental and passing.
They are a consequence of global warming, and examination of information about what is happening in the Arctic and Antarctic regions would show that there is worse to come.
We have known about this for 30 to 40 years and have ignored the issue because it means we have to change our lifestyles, and forgo some of the conveniences to which we have become accustomed.
Australia is going to be shunned by the developed world as we get left behind, led by idiots whose self-belief is overwhelmingly misplaced!
Cartoon by Alan Moir (moir.com.au)
China has plenty of ammunition to punish us, because our claims of being superior on human rights issues are totally hollow.
We have regularly, as a nation, prided ourselves on being so much better than so many other countries where corruption is endemic.
Please take note!
Corruption is, and has been since settlement, alive and well in Australia!
If we followed the government’s suggested anti-corruption legislation, it would become protected, and no government, however corrupt could be challenged!
Is that a good look???
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12 comments
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Mark Needham
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New England Cocky
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jimbo
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Michael Taylor
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Mark Shields
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RosemaryJ36
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Matters Not
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Matters Not
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RosemaryJ36
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guest
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RosemaryJ36
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ajogrady
Return to home pagePeace and Goodwill.
Health, Wealth and Happiness.
To us All.
Merry Christmas to all here on AIMN, the reliable news analyists putting Australian best interests ahead of the politicians pandering and kow-towing to foreign owned multinational corporations.
Outstanding!! Intellectual integrity!!! Well reasoned. Concisely argued.
Unfortunately in the Corporate Murdochery Penal Colony I can only despair.
And so it goes.
Thank you, Mark and NEC.
There hasn’t been much to be happy about the way this world is heading, but you two guys are fighters, and you’re both fighting for what is right. Bring on 2021.
“Why do not journalists ask the hard questions?”
For example, WHO exactly are these powerful individuals controlling our elected representatives and media? Let’s really investigate them and their vested interests! Like what percentage of his wealth does Murdoch store in fossil fuel? And for that matter, what financial interests in fossil fuel do all the recent presidents, congressmen/women, prime ministers, parliamentarians actually hold? It is a major journalistic investigation but apparently all this information IS on the public record – and would certainly be in the public interest!
Until Australians start thinking about what damage the government is doing to this country – how likely is that? – and responses to FOI requests, if granted, are produced without so many redactions that they are a waste of effort – how likely is that? – our only recourse, hampered by COVID-19 outbreaks, is to get out on the streets and protest!
So far this year I have spent 46×2 hours on Wednesday afternoons since the lockdowns started back in early February, sitting in my Extinction Rebellion t-shirt outside the NT Parliament House, talking to anyone who queries why, and usually – unless it might rain or already is raining – with a spread of “I love solar”, “No Fracking!” or XR signs on display.
I plan on continuing as long as it takes!
I will never get the publicity earned by Greta Thunberg, but – at 85 next month and with 4 great grandchildren, all under 10 – I want to do my bit to leave behind me a world which can be safely inhabited and I am limited in how to achieve that.
Re:
Pray tell – when was the last time street protests, flag waving, traffic disruptions and the like had any really significant effect(s)? Certainly, it does wonders for the feelings of some individual protestors (fosters a warm inner-glow and the like) and demonstrates good intent but where are the outcomes? Don’t we want something more than good intentions? Don’t we want a few metaphorical runs on the board?
In days of yore, Joh used to arrest, incarcerate and/or physically bash protestors (personal experience) but eventually he understood, it mattered not. Protestors in the main are harmless.
(Indeed, sometimes they are counter-productive.) And usually ineffective, particularly in the short and intermediate terms. In the absence of any other structural mechanism, it’s only at the ballot box that real change occurs and even then it’s difficult to tease out who voted for what and why. We are a democracy in name only.
Despite all the froth and bubble (and there’s been a surfeit of that) exactly what has Greta achieved? Has the United States advanced in the last 4 years? Britain? Australia? China? Yes I know there’s many more promises but what’s new? Not that I’m cynical. Lol.
There counter … (above) should be replaced with they’re counter ..
(Just sacked the proof reader.)
I made the correction for you! RJ36
MN – haven’t you been following what is happening in the USA following the Black Lives Matter street protests? Police forces are being reviewed.
RosemaryJ36,
you are right to question the federal government subsidising of exploration for gas in the Northern Territory. The justification for that subsidising is the money it will gain from people who buy it. And of course gas is part of the Coalition roadmap to economic recovery. It is supposed to be a transition between carbon emissions and zero carbon emissions, but the time line is not clear. The Coalition is very nervous about it.
Chris Kenny (15/11/20200 wrote: “Australia knows that under Paris, Australia is broadly committed to net-zero emissions sometime between 2050 an 2100. But the less he [Morrison] says about this the better – he benefits from differentiation on the issue.”
Kenny’s claim is that Albinese’s idea about net-zero by 2050 is impossible because 2050 is so far away and besides, he does not tell us how he will achieve it (but then neither do all the other countries talking of net-zero emissions by 2050, says Kenny.) But by 2100? Easy peasy for Kenny.
Much has been written about natural gas (methane), including here at AIMN. Another little point appeared @theconversation.com: “Gas cooking is associated with worsening asthma in kids. But proper ventilation helps.”
Rosemary, in a comment you point out Greta Thunberg’s publicity. But she is criticised by the Murdoch media, for example of being only a child who should be in school. They do not dare criticise someone like David Attenburgh. Some one like Greta seriously embarrasses those people in important positions in the fossil fuels industry who are seeing their industry falling to stranded assets.
Chris Mitchell (16/11/2020) seems to think only Murdoch journalists know about climate change. He says: “Most journalists have little real understanding of climate change or the costs of mitigation: they are on a mission to save the planet. Such moral posturing leaves little time to read the science and economics.”
But all Mitchell has to read is a dodgy IPA publication full of contradictions.
Former politician John Anderson (“It’s critical the West recovers its self-belief”, The Australian, 12/12/2020) has been talking to some authors who claim: “The West has more recently produced ideologies that would undermine its own achievements, namely postmodernism and critical theory.”
Post modernism and critical theory are not “recent” at all, but arose even before WW2. Why Anderson would involve himself in these theories is not entirely clear, except they do analyse “traditional knowledge and institutions” in terms of language use and the establishment of power, in a whole range of fields of knowledge including religion, science, culture, architecture, society…
Anderson’s desire to go backwards into the nostalgic past is vain and blind. Events just this year with the pandemic, bushfires, the presidency of Donald Trump and the revelation that all is not well the destructive events we see in climate change. And yet our government seems not to understand.
But there are so many people who do understand are not bound by “traditional” ways of thinking and acting. Such a person is Jeremy Rifkin, who has written 20 books on society and climate, including “The Third Industrial Revolution”, which he says is already under way, where people cooperate instead of try to out-compete, where people are aware of the need to take care of the planet…His idea as a 2 hour lecture on SBS (18/12/2020) was all-encompassing as a survey of the world around us. Yet I had never heard of him. Why is it so, when we are fed so much pap not worth anything here in Oz?
guest – Why is it so, when we are fed so much pap not worth anything here in Oz?
May I suggest the dominance of Murdoch media is the obvious answer?
Now that I have retired, and have time to read up about what is happening all round the world, I realise that most people, struggling to make a life, do not have time to find out the facts for themselves?
Under their masterful and expert dereliction of duty and their corrupt guiding influences the L/NP, with their usual ability to disregard any practical use of due diligence or forward planning, has Australia destined to become a major economic backwater and an internationally recognised pariah state that will be ridiculed, ostracized and become irrelevant on the world stage.
Scotty from marketing,the periferous penticostalot Pinocchio, with his conga line of corrupt theives and con artists masquerading as a government are doing what they do best, deceiving and destroying gullible Australians lives and living standards while they funnel taxpayers monies into the pockets of L/NP donors who mostly do not pay taxes. Corruption 101.
Australians keep voting for the party that does not represent or respect them. A party that is an insult to Democracy and an embarrassment to good governance. A party that is built on nepotism and corruption. A party that is big on rhetoric but small on achievement. A party that has overseen the collapse of Australian living standards. A party that has been the architects of the most failed policies in Australian history. A party that has decimated the economy and the emvironment. There has been enough evidence in the public arena for many many years that the L/NP are a criminally corrupt cabal of foot soldiers for big business and have been a continuous and destructive impediment to Australia reaching its true potential. The fact that the L/NP shake hands with devils and turn their backs on angels is indisputable. Greed and corruption is their religion. Lies and distortion is their game. The L/NP are a parasitic pox on good honest hard working Australians. “1984” was written as a warning … not as an instruction manual for the L/NP.