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Different year, same campaign

Did you hear that China is building a military base in Vanuatu?

Oh wait, that was 2018 when the headline read China eyes Vanuatu military base in plan with global ramifications.

“While no formal proposals have been put to Vanuatu’s government, senior security officials believe Beijing’s plans could culminate in a full military base,” writes David Wroe in The Age.

Of particular concern was a major new wharf funded by Chinese money because, “while its stated purpose is to host cruise ships, it had the potential to service naval vessels as well.”

“Fairfax Media understands there are senior figures within China’s People’s Liberation Army who would like to move quickly to establish a proper base on Vanuatu.”

One wonders why there wasn’t an immediate police investigation into leaked national security information – unless it was leaked by the government.

And did you hear that Albo is against boat turnbacks?

At least he was when he was outvoted at the Labor conference in 2015.

Once again, we are back to 2018 when Albanese was grilled about the same thing.

Asked to address concerns about his position on border protection, Albanese said that “circumstances had changed” from 2015 when he opposed boat turnbacks.

“The government’s policies have stopped the boats,” he said. “They’re not coming, so the circumstances of rejecting boat arrivals has been achieved.”

And Barnaby is building heaps of dams.

Perhaps not the 100 he promised in 2013. And not so much building as giving heaps of money to associates to try and rush through some sort of feasibility studies, business cases, cost/benefit analyses, environmental impact statements, inflated employment figures – anything that can justify spending public money on Gina’s dream.

Despite racking up huge debts and a structural deficit that will continue for years, the Coalition are still laying claim to being better economic managers, a claim that is debunked by Alan Austin in his article Worst debt blow-out in the developed world refutes Coalition claims of economic competence

Having lost the battle to stop marriage equality, persecution of the rainbow community has moved to expelling gay students and stopping trans kids from playing sport. Different target, same bigotry.

Oh, and death taxes…again.

You have to wonder what the point is of this travelling circus since we’ve seen and heard it all before.

 

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33 comments

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  1. New England Cocky

    When have you ever known the Liarbral Nazional$ COALition to have an original idea?

    Beetrooter is very good at supporting white elephant projects for ”mates” like his Campaign Manager, the unChristian John Anderson, former Member for Gwydir before it was abolished for loss of population and his fixation with the uneconomical Northern Inland Railway (NIR) projected to cost more than $14 BILLION while their own business case shows that it will be unprofitable for at least 50 years.

    Now Auntie Gina wants water for her coal mines so family farming enterprises are being sold the fantasy of numerous unprofitable dams in Nazional$ electorates without making any business case for that expenditure.

    Certainly, The COALition are telling lies about who is the least competent fina ncial managers in Australian politics.

  2. Michael Taylor

    Kaye, a ripper of a headline (and post).

    The variables of it are endless:

    Different year, same false promises.
    Different year, same scare campaign.
    Different year, same incompetent knobs.
    Different year, same story.
    Different year, same circus (to borrow one of your words).

  3. Kaye Lee

    Different year, same infrastructure spending announcements.
    Different year, same ridiculous totally pointless photo shoots………….which, when you think about it, are kind of insulting since Scotty seems to think everyone’s job is so easy, so lacking in specialty skills, that he can do it too. I’m sure the researchers are just thrilled to have Scotty contaminating the lab with his media pack. Welding is a piece of cake – give Scotty a go. Step aside machinery operator, Scotty wants a turn. And I still get shivers of revulsion about him massaging the apprentice’s head whilst washing her hair.

  4. Michael Taylor

    The baby-kissing photos are surely only days away.

  5. wam

    What works is known by the scummos. What is repeated is known by the Kayes who tell us. How many of us are swing voters? Albo needs to have a go. ps the nt has 4 pollies and 3 are labor and the fourth had grog problem and resigned leaving no clp pollie.. One labor(lingiari) is retiring so scummo is crawling all over us hoping to win lingiari. The clp sold the port to china now the septics wont accept telling china about arrivals so scummo is wasting cash by building a new port at $1.5b. The chinese only paid $500m so why not buy it back???

  6. Kaye Lee

    I note NT Senate hopeful Jacinta Price made an interesting comment in support of Katherine Deves.

    “Let’s be straight here, she’s from the Northern Beaches in Sydney, she’s a white Australian woman, but if we don’t stand up for someone like her and her position, then the voices of other women — marginalised Indigenous women, voices of ethnic women who deal with their own cultural issues when it comes to patriarchal cultures — they don’t get to have a voice either.”

    Ummmmm…….that sounds like a rehearsed line looking for a chance to use it and a bit of a stretch. Jacinta’s not the sharpest tool in the shed.

  7. Tanya Carroll

    How about on the Federal Election night 2019 when Scotty got up on stage & said how good are the quiet ones or was it how good was the quiet Australian ones. Does this mean his so called quiet ones are not going to be quiet ones any longer & they know what the Federal LNP Government is actually doing to this sun burnt country of ours too. 🙁 Grrrr

  8. John Hanna

    Jacinta is indeed a tool, attempting to apply flawed logic.

  9. pierre wilkinson

    and the Chinese want to build a port facility in the NT
    wait….didn’t they just but one?

  10. Terence Mills

    Peter Dutton is playing the China conspiracy card again and this time trying to start a scare campaign saying that ‘Australia should prepare for a chemical weapon attack on one of its allies’. He is careful not to say that Australia is at risk but just ‘one of our allies’, presumably he’s nodding at Taiwan. He went on to say ‘the country’s strategic position is ‘dire’, comparing it with the nation’s position in the lead up to the Second World War in the 1930s’.

    He believes that any attempts at diplomacy with China should be out of the question and he suggests that any attempt at rebuilding our relations with China, as suggested by Labor’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Penny Wong, would be seen as a weakness on our part. He says :

    ‘They’d laugh under their breath and Penny’d think “well, well, if we pull back on the AUKUS deal, and show that as a sign of good faith to the Chinese, they would enter into good faith negotiations with us”. They’d play her like a fool,’ he said.

    There is, of course, no suggestion that Labor would pull back on the AUKUS deal. In fact, at the present time there is no AUKUS deal beyond a few platitudes and vague talk of submarines and tanks.

    Dutton is playing a dangerous game here that is solely based on domestic political outcomes but which could backfire on Australia : Dutton has even suggested that we should consider trade sanctions on China and as our exports to them consist principally of iron ore and coal that presumably is where he would start.

    Like it or not, we rely heavily on coal and iron ore exports to keep our economy ticking over : as Morrison say with pride, “We’re good at digging things up”. But, the latest figures suggest Australia exported no thermal coal to China in 2021, compared with 35million tonnes in 2020 and 50million tonnes in 2019.
    About eighty-percent of our iron ore exports go to China and any threat to this lucrative market would have dire consequences for the Australian economy.

    Peter Dutton is a very naive operator and shows very poor judgement when it comes to international relations and diplomacy. Whilst his scare campaigns and conspiracy theories may assist a coalition re-election they do nothing for the long term well being or security of Australia.

  11. wam

    wow kaye and John, Price is far sharper than many politicians. She is an Alice Springs Counsellor and Deputy Mayor whose views are echoed by many NT Aborigines.
    matt garrick ABC
    Price:
    “If Deves can be silenced then imagine the plight of marginalised women in our nation? They too will be silenced in the name of ‘Wokeness’ and I for one will not stand for this!”

    Thousands of people have supported and shared Ms Price’s post, which has been “liked” by her fellow Country Liberal Party candidate Damien Ryan and Victorian state MP, Bev McArthur.

    Ms Price has previously voiced her support for keeping transgender athletes out of women’s sports.

    “The dangers of high impact sports speak for themselves but having to compete against biological males who have transitioned and whose physical capabilities overpower biological womens (sic) physical capabilities puts our lives at greater risk of injury or even death, whether on the footy field or in the ring,” she posted on social media in February.

  12. Kaye Lee

    wam,

    I am well aware of Ms Price and her óngoing aspirations to follow in her mothers footsteps by joining the political gravy train. I have yet to hear her offer a solution for anything.

    Just because you are Aboriginal doesn’t make you right

  13. Harry Lime

    Yes,the travelling circus and lie fest rambles on,while the rhetoric soars to stratospheric stupidity as defeat looms ever larger.The Ringmaster and his gaggle of clowns,chief among them groper mouth Dutton,are apparently willing to risk the safety and future welfare of the country in an attempt to cling onto power.Worst and most frightening government ever, by any measure.The Mad Monk and now the fake pentecostal have driven a bulldozer through integrity,competence and fairness,not to mention the trashing of Parliament.

    It beggars belief that anyone outside the usual suspects who stand to gain from Morrison’s idiocy,could possibly vote for these wreckers.

  14. wam

    Sorry I should have proofed – councillor – I remember the post and my inane comment of 4 years ago. She did well in the Alice by defeating snowden.
    So well that Lingiari could become clp with an Alice boy damien ryan running and snowden retiring.

    However, my point on your IQ comment is, she has been selected, for a guaranteed seat in canberra, by an organisation that has been both racist, sexist and homophobic. That suggests she is not deserving of your comment on her intelligence.
    ps
    I was churlish enough to be cheered by 185 cm and 147kgm laurel hubbard’s olympics but wouldn’t like to meet her at footie??

  15. Kaye Lee

    Transathletes aren’t a new phenomenon and sporting organisations already have policies in place to deal with the situation. This is shameless culture wars for political purposes and those who are prepared to cause such harm to advance their political ambition deserve all the criticism they get.

    https://www.transathlete.com/_files/ugd/2bc3fc_483de30a599e4972b418f20994048b5a.pdf

  16. A Commentator

    The discussion about participation of trans women in women’s sport is reasonable and important.
    Perhaps now isn’t the time, but it should happen.

  17. Kaye Lee

    It has happened. It is happening. Making it a candidate topic in an election is despicable. The question is how to be inclusive, not whether to be. They aren’t looking to that – they are deliberately dog whistling to transphobic and homophobic people in search of votes. I reiterate, I have never heard Jacinta Price offer a solution for anything. Her plan seems to be to punish harder and exclude.more

    https://www.transathlete.com/policies-by-organization

  18. A Commentator

    As I said, perhaps this is not the time, but people that have a male puberty are generally faster and stronger than those that don’t.
    It is an issue in some sports, and I believe the current IOC restriction of a year is becoming recognised as inadequate.
    Yesterday I listened to Tracy Holmes interview 2 candidates for the AOC presidency, both spoke (diplomatically) about their misgivings.

  19. Kaye Lee

    Perhaps those two men need to read their own policy statement clearly laid out in the first link I provided titled “IOC Framework on fairness and inclusion and non-discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sex variations.”

    This is a culture war imported from the US where some crazies wanted to stop funding to any school that allowed trans kids to play sport.

    https://www.newsweek.com/aoc-rebukes-gop-senators-amendment-covid-bill-over-trans-girls-playing-school-sports-1574249

  20. Michael Taylor

    Some might consider me a bit weird but I like to place all people as equal whether they be white, black, brown, yellow, gay, trans, Muslim, male, female, rich or poor, or young or old.

    I only have three exceptions: LNP politicians, Murdoch journalists and Crows supporters. They are on a lower evolutionary rung than the rest of us.

  21. Terence Mills

    Curious that with the rash of infrastructure spending announcements coming from Morrison and increasingly Barnaby Joyce that the accompanying media pack overlook the most obvious and important question :

    Is that infrastructure cost to be achieved with borrowed money ?

    A yes or no answer would then lead to inevitable and important further questions but they never get asked: why is that ?

  22. A Commentator

    Research on the advantage of trans women in women’s sport is limited. The most credible study found that they retained a 12% advantage in middle distance running years after the transition.
    This is significant at the elite level, where inches matter. The only tests were on running, push ups and sit ups.
    Cycling, swimming etc was not part of the research. But 12% advantage is equivalent to a 3 lap head start in a 10,000 m run. It will eventually cause a reaction at the elite level
    No problem with though at the club and social level.
    But it shouldn’t be an issue in politics.

  23. Kaye Lee

    We are agreed about that – it should not be an election issue or any MP’s bandwagon.

    The discussion should not be phrased negatively – it should be about fair and safe inclusion, not exclusion.

  24. Arnd

    Different year, same campaign

    Let’s just hope it doesn’t have the same outcome, too.

  25. Kyle Brunning

    With Scrotie and Potato Head ramping up the war rhetoric, do you reckon we’ll survive this election campaign without starting a war with China? Pick a fight with a nuclear power, genius Scrotie.

    Scrotie’s getting desperate now, and General Potato can see Australia jumping behind them for a very khaki election.

    But don’t worry, all the sabre rattling by the LNP would have Xi pissing himself laughing. For a start, there’s a bit of mismatch in military strength, and the extra uniforms that could be brought to bear. And in case anyone has not noticed, Uncle Sam is shitting himself over Ukraine, let alone China, and cavalry won’t be riding into a mess we got ourselves into.

    The next global conflict could be nucular, and we only have ourselves to blame, as world citizens, for not taking the dangerous toys off the little boys.

    Summing up, Xi can take over aus whenever he likes, who can stop it? He’ll probably humiliate Canberra a fair bit before that. Anyway, I love Chinese food, and Chinese girls – yum yum. Always wanted a Chinese wife.

  26. wam

    don’t worry kyle, the septics will fast track the lying rodent’s f35s.
    Love your list michael. Intelligence equality.
    Kaye considers jacinta as a blunt tool whilst the clp consider her the best candidate, black, whte or brindle, to represent the NT.
    This may be the only time I agree with the clp.
    You make your own assessment

  27. Florence nee Fedup

    Also different but same faces for last nine years. The more they change, the more they stay the same.

    When I hear the sports community raising concerns regarding trans people, I find no reason for it to become political fodder. The people concerned are too crucial for that to happen.

  28. Consume Less

    Yeah, Dutton’s war mongering rhetoric with China is pitiful and small minded, the guy is a complete idiot. Australia must vote these morons out, please.

  29. Terence Mills

    Swimmer Emily Seebohm’s image has been used without permission in a campaign by Advance Australia to attack Zali Steggall on the issue of transgender women in sports .

    Seebohm has come out with the following statement :

    “As I have stated in the media this week, there needs to be a conversation started about how to be inclusive while still maintaining fairness for all athletes,” she said.

    “I did not, and would never, give my permission for my image or brand to be used by Advance Australia on the mobile billboards, or advertising that is currently circulating, as part of a political campaign.

    “I remain committed to finding a fair solution for all athletes to be able to compete on a level playing field, while encouraging inclusiveness and supporting more young people to become involved in sport.”

    Emily Seebohm strikes the right note is her sensible and balanced comments – good on her !

    Dawn Fraser is also reported to be ‘ furious her photo had been associated with the campaign and she had engaged her own solicitor’.

    The Australian Olympic Committee have sent a solicitor’s letter to Advance Australia as they have used the AOC logo to give their nasty campaign some credibility.

    So far Advance Australia have refused to remove the billboards .

    Watch this space.

    Advance Australia was previously know as Captain Getup, a Liberal party front set up to peddle misinformation and conspiracy theories.

  30. GL

    Jeez, the desperation of the LNP is starting to show when they present this election bullshit flyer, that showed up in the mail this morning, as “proof” using 1992 – 2022 to prove how terrificus they are.

    “It won’t easy under Albane$e”

    Labor

    Higher unemployment 7.1%
    Higher interest rates 5.1%
    Higher electricity rates 8.3%
    Balanced budgets? (I thought using the question mark was pathetic) 0

    Liberal

    Higher unemployment 6.1%
    Higher interest rates 3.8%
    Higher electricity rates 2.0% (I almost choked on my coffe when I read that) Balanced budgets? 11.

  31. GL

    I see that our parrot foreign minister has been well trained to…um…parrot Scummo and the Reichspud on the Pacific region and China and Russia and Labor.

    “Authoritarian powers are asserting themselves. We are seeing this in the travesty that is Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine … we see it in the way that China challenges the international system of rules and laws.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2022/apr/26/australia-politics-live-news-election-2022-scott-morrison-anthony-albanese-china-pacific-covid-coronavirus-nsw-queensland-victoria-weather?page=with:block-626782918f088a33aff42262#block-626782918f088a33aff42262

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