Day to Day Politics: Is Dutton much worse than this?
Thursday 20 July 2017
Have you ever so desperately wanted to express a view on a subject only to find that someone else has encapsulated everything you wanted to say perfectly in his words? It happened to me on Tuesday. I put the subject on my list to write about only to receive Sean Kelly’s daily Monthly Today email titled:
A super poor decision
Malcolm Turnbull shouldn’t have promoted Peter Dutton
He starts with the thoughtful proposition of what if someday someone truly awful was in control new mega department.
”Whenever a government proposes concentrating power in the hands of a single individual, a predictable objection is always raised: “Yes, perhaps this might work in the immediate future, but what if one day there is somebody truly awful in this position? That’s what we have to worry about.
Today, there was no need for hypotheticals. Malcolm Turnbull has created a new super department, combining Border Force, ASIO, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, and the Office of Transport Security. Will it be run by somebody competent, like Simon Birmingham? Or somebody reasonable, like Julie Bishop?
No. It will be headed up by somebody truly awful: Peter Dutton.
Longtime readers will know that I hold Dutton in deep contempt, so you might not wish to trust my entrenched opinion.”
Before you read Mr Kelly’s piece please consider the following:
ABS stats on deaths by terrorist activity for the period 1978-2014 show that 113 Australians lost their lives. Yes, that’s right. In 36 years 113 people have died from terrorism. By comparison this year around 730 will die from Domestic Violence and around 2500 will take their own lives.
My thought for the day
”It seems to me that the wisest people I know are the ones that apply reason, and logic and leave room for doubt. The most unwise are the fools and fanatics who don’t.”
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Return to home pageA wonderful, but all too brief, article by Mr Lord. Hidden in his statistics re ‘terrorism deaths’ are the 88 deaths from the Bali bombings. These bombings were in revenge for Mr Howard’s involvement in the illegal and corrupt invasion of Iraq, supposedly in the quest to rid the world of fearsome – and imaginary – Weapons of Mass Destruction. [A translated transcript of the Indonesian court proceedings when the organisers of these bombings were on trial will attest to this,] Terrorism, as we know it today, owes most of its existence to this illegal ‘war’, as is widely known. The confected amalgamation of several ‘security’ related departments under the frightening control of Dutton will possibly be a bridge too far for many of the Liberals. I hope it is. The fact that it was even proposed is alarming enough!
The Bali bombings occurred on 12 October 2002. Iraq action 2003. Oh, and Saddam Hussein was preventing UN Weapons Inspections for a decade. I wonder why.
As for Domestic Violence offenders – 20 years in prison is fine by me. Perhaps Pete’s portfolio could be expanded to take care of this issue too.
The Bali bombings were directed at Americans but they were somehow tipped off by their Consulate and didn’t turn up. It was never intended as a direct terrorist attack on Australia. The terrorists admitted this and even apologised after the attack but later changed their story after the invasion of Iraq to suggest it was an attack on The West generally.
As for Saddam’s initial blocking of inspections, he was trying to keep his enemy Iranian neighbours guessing about his defence capabilities.
He actually lifted the ban but the invasion went ahead regardless and the results as well as the preliminary inspections showed that he did not have WMDs anyway. He was hanging out a “beware of the dog” sign but never had the dog to back it up.
The USA – who wanted a military overthrow of Saddam after the first Gulf War and even helped Saddam prevent a populist one that started – always intended to invade Iraq regardless of WMDs and was only looking for an excuse.
George W, the ever faithful son, desperately needed to complete “Daddy’s War”. And Little Johnny was only too willing to say “Me Too”!
” It will be headed up by somebody truly awful: Peter Dutton.”
Keating was right, Turnbull has poor judgement.
I hope this decision will not cause more suicides, my mood has certainly sank….
Zathras, ‘ He was hanging out a “beware of the dog” sign but never had the dog to back it up’ 🙂
A bit like the pretend camera, we put up when my beautiful cyclamens started disappear from our front porch/veranda… The stealing stopped…
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/30/world/meast/iraq-weapons-inspections-fast-facts/index.html
A reason Saddam would not allow inspectors into certain facilities was that he accused them of spying for the US, which they later admitted to and one US inspector confessed to. This is against the UN convention, as was the illegal invasion of Iraq.
The US was going to invade Iraq no matter what, as was proven by their planning for it a decade or so earlier, and their changing story for the grounds. Remember they stridently denied regime change, as did Howard in parliament many times, but that turned into regime change after the WMD claim turned out to be a lie.
The US also ordered the inspectors out of Iraq on the verge of them declaring there were no viable WMD, and then invaded shortly after.
“Is Dutton much worse than this?”
If the following is any indication then the madman in charge is only getting started –
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jul/20/power-and-water-cut-off-for-refugees-on-manus-as-dutton-confirms-closure
And what a surprise that there’s no mention about it on Rupert’s (all hail The Rupert) spewscrap and on the SMH site.
Now all the bald paranoid psycho needs is something to happen so he can declare martial law and remove Turnbull.
When the Coalition have such a deep pool of incompetent mediocrity to call upon why dredge the bottom to get Dutton,
Unless perhaps just maybe could their possibly be another reason?
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. But we are not talking about vigilance against invading marauding hordes. We are now talking about vigilance against our own government. Howard really made fact suppression and obfuscation an art form. They used to pay lip service to transparency, but now the facts are openly suppressed. On water matters. This is our democracy for dogs sake. And the MSM no longer cry that the people have a right to know. Help us help us dog almighty help us.
Warmonger Senator Bob Brown on Uncle Saddam:
“BOB BROWN: Two things there – first of all, I think I am, maybe, the only serving Australian MP who did call for the UN when it was in Iraq to go to the assistance of the Kurds who were being attacked and in a terrible position under Saddam Hussein back 10 years ago. I note the PM now revealing terrible things about Saddam Hussein but he sat on his hands for the last 15 years, said nothing, so did his colleagues – not a word – until the White House decided to invade Iraq, and now he has this catalogue of horrors, which he totally ignored over the last 10 years. But that being said, we’ve got to do all we can now to hope that Saddam Hussein will be the first casualty…”
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:%22media%2Ftvprog%2FCKV86%22
It is another amazing chapter in an incredible nightmare. I shuddered at the rabbott and in my arrogance, despite the love expressed for the member for warringah by a school friend living in the electorate who was appalled by my “vicious” negative comments, I still could not believe that he could ever be elected pm. Wow how wrong was I?
Yet, I am in repeat arrogance with Dutton!
Here is the new heir to the throne, loved for his forthright honesty(there’s a truth for you Lord) and lauded for his life saving stopping of people smugglers.
no no no wam you must stop this thinking immediately this time surely you could not be wrong? dutton couldn’t be leader? Although he could unite the party with corey returning to the fold?
ps Lord,
A rabbottian shared a tweet showing a ‘renouncement’ of british citizenship by tony abbott in 93 but no evidence of him being naturalised? Abbott and the larluds may not even be Australians.
Stateless???
“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.” — Edward R. Murrow
“Sooner or later we all sit down to a banquet of consequences.” — Robert Louis Stevenson
Australia’s steady decline into fascism has just been given an almighty push.
I despair.
This is how the sensible, moderate citizens of Germany and Italy must have felt regarding the decisions made for them by their respective governments, in the pre-war years.
Dutton’s past record, in any of his portfolios, show he is not the man for the job. Then again, I doubt any of the lustre-less LIB/Nat mob are suitable.
Adrianne Haddow, totally agree with your comment….
Some would say the PM is seeing the light but I think he is just feeling the heat.
I recall working in a professional firm with someone very much like Dutton – I’ll call him Mr X. An intellectual imbecile and a devious and malicious stabber. The guy routinely harassed female staff, who found him sleazy, clingy and desperate (OK, I don’t know that Dutton is like that, but I’m in the middle of a rant here!) Oh, and a simpering sycophant for anyone who needed to have their ego boosted (or a** kissed) and who could help the nitwit take another rung up the corporate ladder. Of course, as soon as that target fell from favour, he dumped them and joined the throng baying for their blood – the guy never had an original or intelligent thought in his life, but is good at copying what others are saying and reinforcing their views.
In a professional firm context, I am able to say to friends who work for rival organisations that as long as Mr X continues to rise up the corporate ladder, they have nothing to fear from that firm – they will never be able to stake a serious place in the market. But of course, in the meantime, Mr X continues to do damage and rises despite the fact that he is loathed by most who come into contact with him.
For Dutton, I see much of the same. The price will be paid by the Coalition – with fools like Dutton, Kelly, Frydenburg, O’Dwyer (anyone heard from that idiot lately?) and a leader who can’t lead, they have almost made themselves unelectable. But in the meantime, we have to grimace at the folly of gormless twerps like Dutton and the damage he is doing to our social and cultural fabric.
If we go back to the Hashshashin about 800 to 1,000 years ago in Persia and later Syria (a Shia break out group if you will), they were the first thought to practice the art of terror. They were too small in number to win major conflicts, so relied upon their ability to move among their opposition and assassinate powerful figures more or less at will. This instilled fear, especially amongst the leaders of their opponents, who realised that they could easily be assassinated – even by one in their inner circle, as was intended and conflicts were often resolved by the capitulation or negotiation of the more powerful opposition. Terrorists can’t win any battles in any military sense – what they can do is to create a climate of fear.
Unfortunately, when you give buffoons like Dutton more power, he will tend to be corrupted by it and start moving beyond his remit and his (growing) power relies upon the very fear that terrorists want us to feel. How perverse is that?.
Been saying it for a long time Adrianne Haddow, we are following Hitler’s manifesto to the letter.
Let us not be like those compliant Germans and Italians, let us continue to speak up, to decry the fascism banging on our doors.
As Immigration Minister, Dutton cannot even control a small prison on Christmas Island. What hope has he got to run his new so-called super-ministry. Keating is right,Turnbull has very poor judgement.
Turnbull on the news yesterday was mouthing off that the Greens were sloppy in not being aware of their dual citizenship. He conveniently forgets that his Liberal colleague Jackie Kelly was the first one who was sloppy. Not only did she not remember that she was a member of the ADF when she won her seat, she also forgot she was still a NZ citizen. How sloppy was that.
eefteeuu July 20, 2017 at 11:29 am
“As Immigration Minister, Dutton cannot even control a small prison on Christmas Island.”
I look at it in a different way, he is quite capable to control it like other “camps” under his responsibility, but he does not care less about the people inside.
Make them suffer and be miserable is what he want, he reminds me Henry Kissinger.
Immigration Department suffers morale slump with management blamed for cultural problems
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-20/immigration-department-blames-management-for-morale-slump/8632470
I find that morale problems are most often driven from the top down – lol this is the real trickle down effect. You can bet Dutton has put in a number of absolute cretins at the top level and this is flowing through via appointments of duds the top duds prefer -Yes men. The pathetic Border Force salary caps would of course also harm morale and result in a who gives a shit viewpoint. There would be other unnecessary authoritarian policies Dutton would also have been pursuing via his arsehole executives.
Any “economic” or “technical” gains they make in streamlining organisational structures will immediately be lost via by the large costs of low employee morale.
The whole thing is a crime against employees and the public and about as inane as Bastardy Joyce’s departmental transfer to Armidale.
On several occasions I have heard our PM say Australia has the best security services in the world. If that is so, why do we need to change the current structure?
My observations of Dutton lead me to believe he does not have the intellectual capacity nor the administrative skill to run such large, multi-functional set up.
I may be wrong, but I foresee a major SNAFU on the horizon.
This is a case of “Stupid is as stupid does” with Duncehead Il Duttonuci –
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/peter-dutton-vows-manus-island-will-close-in-october-despite-donald-trump-refugee-intake-20170719-gxes83.html
Don’t laugh. This a deliberate step toward Totalitarianism.
People make a conscious decision to be EVIL. To hurt, bully, threaten life, place people in poverty. There are many examples throughout history, all eventually coming to a very uncomfortable end. The one that always gets them in the end is coming before your maker, there is no physical proof this is our outcome. For those who select EVIL, my wish is that the Pit is there waiting for their moment.