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Greg Hunt’s assurances mean fuck all

Perhaps in preparation for threatened defamation action against Waleed Aly for reminding us of the reports of Scott Morrison suggesting the Liberal Party should capitalise on community concerns about the inability of Muslims to integrate, Peter Dutton and Greg Hunt have lined up to deny it ever happened.

“Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and Health Minister Greg Hunt have revealed what really went on during shadow cabinet discussions about Muslims, denying Scott Morrison urged the Liberals to use Islamophobia to win votes,” reports Samantha Maiden in The New Daily.

Except Greg Hunt wasn’t even at the meeting.

“Unfortunately I wasn’t at the meeting, but I know Scott, and his style is deep compassion, he is deeply compassionate, he agonises around the issues of protecting people who are being lured to their deaths,” he said when the article was published in 2011.

Greg goes on to assure us that “Our position is very clear. That we are completely colour blind, race blind, religion blind on the issue of immigration.”

Right.

So when Peter Dutton, Morrison’s other referee, suggested white farmers facing violence in South Africa “deserve special attention” from “a civilised country like ours”, and when he said that people in Melbourne were too scared to go out to dinner because of African gangs, he was being colour blind.

When Tony Abbott said we would resettle an extra 12,000 refugees from Syria and Scott Morrison, as social services minister, said Christian Syrians would make up the bulk of the intake, they were being religion blind.

“Middle Eastern Christians have been run out of town in the Middle East now for many years and that is why our government right from the outset has had a much higher priority focus on those persecuted minorities in the Middle East which are predominately Christian and that is where our focus will be,” Morrison told reporters.

A spokesperson for Dutton said “there will be a lot of Christians who come under the program, but ultimately we want to make sure that we’re bringing the right people; people who can integrate into our community, that can get a job, can speak English, can give their kids the opportunity to go to school. That’s what we want from people that come under these programs and Mr Dutton is going to make sure that’s what we achieve.”

When Dutton said it was a mistake for Malcolm Fraser to let Lebanese Muslims migrate here in the 1970s because a few of their great grandchildren had been charged with crimes, he was being race blind…apparently. Ignore the fact that these kids were born, raised, and educated here.

Greg Hunt is the man who, in 1990, wrote his Honours thesis on the necessity of a carbon tax and, when he became environment minister, devoted himself to destroying our carbon pricing, earning him an award from the oil-producing nations for being the Bestest Minister Ever In The Whole Wide World”.

Greg Hunt is the health minister who would have us believe he has approved over 200,000 new drugs for inclusion on the PBS – except the vast majority of those are just allowing new companies into the market supplying their version of the same drugs. Hospital waiting lists have grown by an average of 2.4% per year over the last 4 years.

The peak body representing GPs is also not enamoured with the ministry of Dutton or Hunt, joining the political campaign with a grim warning.

“If we do not see action, general practice will not be able to keep delivering quality preventive, acute and chronic care. This will lead to increased hospital use and costs.”

Dutton and Hunt had in their mind that they would be PM and Deputy leader last August. Both have been censured for their disrespect for the legal system. They have no loyalty, no honesty, no integrity – just naked ambition.

If they are the best you can come up with to provide alibis/cover/character reference, then you are stuffed.

 

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47 comments

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  1. Peter F

    Had Greet Hunt known a recently convicted Paedophile he might have said the same thing “Unfortunately I wasn’t (there), but I know ” …..” , and his style is deep compassion, he is deeply compassionate, he agonises around the issues of protecting people’.

    It signifies nothing.

  2. Phil

    Greg Hunt.

    Bol………………………………………….locks………………………………………

  3. Kronomex

    “Greg goes on to assure us that “Our position is very clear. That we are completely colour blind, race blind, religion blind on the issue of immigration.””

    Means, “We only see white people.”

    We can’t have all these non-white non-christian interlopers taking up residence our cities and doing unspeakable things like getting jobs that belong to Australians and…and take housing away from greedy property speculators and investor buyers and…stealing hospital beds when they are “sick”. The horror, the horror…

  4. Yvonne Robertson

    From the time Tony Abbott became Prime Minister – and even writing that feels weird – I would look at the front bench and think “OMG – is that the best they can do? Joe Hockey as treasurer? You’ve got to be kidding me! Kevin Andrews, Eric Abetz, Christopher Pyne, George Brandis, Nigel Scullion, Greg Hunt, Peter Dutton, Ian MacFarlane!!! Mr – I haven’t read the report because I know what would be in it! David Johnston, Scott Morrison, Barnaby Joyce and the great hip pocket padder Andrew Robb who looked almost civilized in such company. Tony as Minister for Women! And let us not forget Bronwyn Bishop as the illustrious speaker of the House…

    It has never gotten any better. None of them have been able to lie straight in bed. Matthias Cormann actually doesn’t blink while telling a ten minute fantasy fiction fable and if anything, hard as it may be to believe – the lies have only become more blatant and transparent – the only thing about this government that is transparent – their blatant lying.

    I reckon if you asked the majority of Australians who they trusted, Waleed Aly would win hands down and half the punters wouldn’t even know who Scott Morrison was. What a pack of ne’er do wells and misfits – sniveling groveling greedy graspers to a man and the one or two women. Unfettered market forces at work – the world of capitalism – here you have it. And then you look across to the land of the long white cloud. I cringe at our circumstances.

    Tell me why does it seem like the closer we get to the election the further away it feels?

  5. Kaye Lee

    Yeah Promo was REALLY compassionate.

    Scott Morrison agreed his department should intervene in ASIO security checks to try to prevent asylum seekers from being granted permanent protection visas.

    The Department of Immigration and Border Protection advised Mr Morrison that up to 700 asylum seekers “must” be granted permanent protection under the existing legislation.

    Mr Morrison agreed his secretary should write to the director-general of security to request ASIO delay security checks so that people close to being granted permanent protection would miss the deadline.

    It meant refugees about to start a new, permanent life in Australia would only be allowed to stay for three years.

    Mr Morrison also agreed to reissue an order to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and Refugee Review Tribunal to hear cases in a particular order to further slow down processing.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-30/scott-morrison-tried-to-delay-asylum-seekers-visas/9353350

  6. Zathras

    Morrison, Abbott, Dutton and the rest have been blowing that dog whistle so long they seem surprised and worried that the dog has actually arrived on our doorstep.

    Meanwhile their pandering to the extremists to win back One Nation defectors has only emboldened certain groups and any electoral gains have been proven transitory with many finally feeling fed up with the continuing abuse of off-shore detainees.

    RG Ingersoll said ‘In nature, there are neither rewards nor punishments – there are consequences.’

    The same can be said for political opportunism (or climate change).

    As for Hunt, he’s just a convenient Liberal stooge who uses Wikipedia as a definitive source of information and is likely to be dumped in favour of Julia Banks in his own seat.

  7. Kaye Lee

    whatever,

    It is also referenced in Greg Hunt’s information source of choice – Wikipedia.

    Just a reminder….

    Environment Minister Greg Hunt has hosed down suggestions of a link between climate change and increased bushfire intensity, saying he had ”looked up what Wikipedia” said and it was clear that bushfires in Australia were frequent events that had occurred during hotter months since before European settlement.

    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/greg-hunt-uses-wikipedia-research-to-dismiss-links-between-climate-change-and-bushfires-20131023-2w1w5.html

  8. David Tyler

    Spot on Kaye Lee. As Lenore Taylor reported “sources say” that Mr Morrison told the Shadow Cabinet meeting on December 1, 2010 at the Ryde Civic Centre that the Coalition should ramp up its questioning of “multiculturalism” and appeal to deeper concerns about Muslim Immigration and “inability to integrate”. Taylor maintains that her sources are reliable.

    Oddly, for one claiming to have been misrepresented, Morrison was silent at the time. if the allegations are so defamatory why has he waited nine years to dispute them?

    He’s on thin ice. On the night before on the night before the 2004 election, a bogus ALP brochure was circulated in Greenway NSW. It bore the slogan “Ed Husic is a devout Muslim. Ed is working hard to get a better deal for Islam”.

    Husic had been the victim of “a vicious and well-orchestrated attack on his religion and ethnicity”, Eric Roozendaal told NSW Upper House, 27 October, 2004. He didn’t say who had produced the brochure, but he told Parliament that the direct beneficiary had been Louise Markus, the Liberal Candidate. Markus is a member of the Pentecostal Hillsong Church.

    Those responsible were never identified, but Scott Morrison was state director of the Liberal Party at the time and it’s difficult to believe that he could not have known of the smear tactic.

    In 2008 a Parliamentary investigation of the scandal by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters commenced. It reported in March 2010. Oddly, Scott Morrison, its deputy chair, left the committee in February 2010 three weeks before it delivered its report.

    Morrison’s pre-selection for the seat of Cook is also an episode which although well-known, has never been clearly explained by the current incumbent. Morrison’s opponent, Michael Towke, a member of the local Lebanese community, was disendorsed after a series of defamatory articles appeared in The Daily Telegraph, allowing Morrison to gain endorsement, despite his poor showing in the first ballot – and to gain the seat in the 2007 election when he followed Bruce Baird into parliament.

    Not long after, Morrison was on air saying how he’d like to lead a group of young Lebanese Australians on a tour of the Kokoda Trail-after the Cronulla Riots – because he believed it important to show leadership on unity in the community.

  9. Kaye Lee

    And another reminder about Hunt from 2012…

    THE wife of Victorian Liberal frontbencher Greg Hunt traded shares in major mining companies as her husband fought against the mining tax.

    Paula Hunt – whose husband is the Opposition’s climate change spokesman and MP for Flinders – bought and sold shares in Rio Tinto, Tiger Resources and Fortescue Metals Group.

    https://www.heraldsun.com.au/archive/news/mps-trade-in-mining-shares/news-story/c692a77e1ee55f6b5ad21ac8e121cb61

    Hunt truly is in need of a C change.

  10. Glenn Barry

    Compassionate Morrison is the best oxymoron I have heard this decade, I could exhaust a thesaurus worth of derogatory adjective on the man and still come up wanting in the expression department.

    …and Greg Hunt, the man ABSENT from the room says that it didn’t happen

    They really do like giving the incident more oxygen, I will say that of their tactical thinking

  11. Alcibiades

    Lenore Taylor wrote the original piece at Fairfax, and used multiple primary sources, which as a result of events she has re-confirmed. Lenore is currently the editor at the Guardian Australia.

    Subsequent expanded followup was written by Fairfax Peter Hatcher & Andrew Probyn whilst at the West Australian.

    Morrison didn’t sue in 2011 because it is true. He is not suing ever, because, it is true.

    The liar in chief Morrison has merely engaged fellow liars to lie that it is not so. ReichsMarshall Dutton of the Uber-Ministry of Home Affairs and Yorrick Hunt, who is a very nasty piece of work indeed.

    Indeed the RACGPs are now organising to campaign in coalition seats re the Medicare & DVA Gold Card rebate freezes of seven(7) years & counting. The highest level of public trust is held by GPs. Morrison & co. are gone, hell they’re obituaries were being published in articles on Thu 14 Mar 19, and much has happened since.

    Pauline Hanson has openly stated coalition MPs desperate for preferences will direct them to one Nation as they please. On this she is almost certainly correct. That won’t go down well with the Non One Notion voters voting, it hasn’t done on each occasion in the past (see: recent WA & QLD elections).

    Morrison having tried to one-up bully the President of Turkey, facing his own regional elections, by declaring “All options are on the Table” (MAGA!) may well result in visas cancelled for ANZAC day ceremonies & events in Turkey. ‘Tis supposed to be about Remembrance for our fallen, not commercial profits nor tardy politics.

    Morrison, the treasurer who declared War!War!War! as an official ceremony was occurring & broadcast, Australian veterans remains were being returned to Australia. His judgement is shocking, appalling.

    Just sayin’.

  12. Kaye Lee

    From David’s link…

    FEDERAL MPs Andrew Hastie, Josh Frydenberg Andrew Nikolic, Craig Kelly and Michael Sukkar are to be congratulated, not castigated for their calls for Islam to look deeply within itself.

    “Modern Islam,’’ says Mr Hastie, “needs to cohere with the Australian way of life, our values and institutions.’’

    Michael Sukkar identifies a lack of reformation within Islam as contributing to “medieval teachings and practices.’’ Josh Frydenberg identifies “a problem within Islam.’’


    How interesting that they also say “Some of terrorism’s most successful recruiters come from Australia and have influenced increasing numbers of teenagers to join in the hatred being expressed against their own country.”

    It seems that too many of our politicians are among those recruiters….or should I call them legitimisers….or George Christensen and Cory Bernardi’s favourite term…appeasers.

  13. Trevor

    Morriscum

  14. Kaye Lee

    Josh Frydenberg also must wear the consequences of his previous (riding what he thought was a good wave) comments.

    Asked if he was concerned that the wider public debate in Australia had a “large element of denial in it when it comes to confronting the fact that this is a problem within Islam”, Mr Frydenberg replied: “I would say it is a problem within Islam.

    “The point about Islam is that this is a minority of extremists, and you could argue it’s even a small minority of extremists but it’s a significant minority of extremists and it does pose a challenge to our way of life in Australia.

    “We need to acknowledge the significance of this threat, to acknowledge that religion is part of this problem, and thirdly, because this is the key point, we need to deal with it at a hard edge — with a military response — but we also need to deal with it with a counter narrative.”

    “The Grand Mufti failed in his leadership with his statement,” Mr Frydenberg said.

    “He sought to cover that up subsequently but it was a graphic failure and he has more of a responsibility not only to the Muslim community but to the community at large because all of our security is at risk.

    “His first reaction was his instinctive reaction. You only make a clarification after you realise the response to your first comment. That was the first comment that I’m sure many in the Muslim community heard and certainly that’s what the rest of Australia heard.”

    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/paris-attacks-grand-mufti-in-graphic-leadership-failure/news-story/5e9fa96d29dafa65a167c970f8ad7ccf

    Well guess what, romper bomper stomper doo, the rest of Australia sees you too Josh

  15. paul walter

    Needed cheering up.

    That was a good one, Kaye Lee.

  16. Paul Davis

    Dark Sky has persisted with the story of Dear Leader’s outrage at the Waleed Aly slander regarding what was not said at a 2010 shadow cabinet strategy meeting. That outstanding journalist Peter Greasy on his Front Page show tonight explained that Dear Leader had shown remarkable restraint, nay, noblesse oblige, in not initiating legal action for this disgusting slur on his character.

  17. Patagonian

    Whatever – you would think that if it was untrue Morrison would have taken it up with SMH at the time. He knows this is his Waterloo. As for Ghunt, he has all the credibility of a $3.00 note. It is just a massive insult – one of the many perpetrated by this ‘government’ – to our intelligence.

    Was Turnbull in the Shadow Cabinet back then? I can’t remember and am not going to waste my precious time checking, but maybe he will address it in his book

  18. Patagonian

    Kay Lee, as a woman living in Australia, Christian beliefs and the way they are interpreted and applied in our parliaments, our workplaces and in society generally have had a far more deleterious effect on me than anything Islam-related. There are so many, many ways that the alleged word of the alleged Christian deity have been twisted through the ages by men to suit their own misogynistic agendas, and many of them still affect women in a negative way today. .

  19. Andreas Bimba

    This is all quite depressing really. An inevitable consequence of a failure to hold those in public office to account. The mainstream media fell off the rails decades ago through the deliberate actions of its controlling oligarchs. FFS much of the electorate blurt the same lies, hatred based on ignorance and false solutions, but with much more venom to whoever will listen. One Liberal volunteer told me during the previous federal election ‘what Australia really needed was 10 years of Tony Abbott’.

    Did not most of the electorate vote for TONY ABBOTT and to axe the tax and ditch the witch, or her egomaniac usurper in 2013? Did not far right racist and extremist parties perform very well in the previous federal elections?

    FINALLY. FINALLY. Enough of the swinging voters in the swinging seats have now switched on their second brain cell so we may again have a relatively competent federal government again, or will it be a landslide and a rare admission that we got it wrong, terribly wrong for voting in such total rubbish for two terms?

    Much of the damage inflicted over the last two terms of government such as six years of climate change inaction, many hundreds of billions of dollars stolen by the local and foreign based kleptocracy, the suffering of millions of the discarded and the innocent, all the massive cuts to essential government services based in lies about the debt, all the scamming and lying, the most wasteful defence acquisitions in our history and the expulsion of our car industry and most of the rest of our manufacturing sector, cannot or will not be undone.

    But it wasn’t all the fault of the media oligarchs, the kleptocracy and the corrupt LNP was it?

    Many more of us need to realise that Labor in part earned its defeats by also following the agenda mandated by the kleptocracy of budget austerity, trickle down economics, excessively open markets, privatisation rorts, and the rest of the neoliberal scam.

  20. Kaye Lee

    Patagonian,

    I agree. Women are supposed to be silent vassals and compliant vessels.

  21. Alcibiades

    @Andreas Bimba

    Well said.

    @Terence

    Watch the rapid eye blinking. Sam,”STFU!’. Exit stage left …

  22. Kaye Lee

    terence,

    Add “I’m not going to take lectures from…” to “I won’t be providing a running commentary on…” and “releasing that information would have unfairly prejudiced commercial interests and prejudiced the security, defence or international relations of the commonwealth”…

    This government has NEVER given a straight answer to anything.

    Compare them to Jacinda Adern who makes a point of informing the people honestly and how the Kiwis immediately were up front about where they may have failed and proactive about how to improve. That comes from honesty, not obfuscation.

  23. Alcibiades

    @Kaye Lee

    When the colonies became States, when we became a Federation, the Commonwealth of Australia, the constitution was written with the option for New Zealand to sign on as an additional State. They went their own way as a sovereign nation.

    Perhaps we could join the Nth & Sth islands, as the West island, on the condition the Federal/Commonwealth government is run from NZ. They have many issues too, far from perfect, but at least they’re still sane.

    In other news, a graphic analysis shows how the Australian terrorist attack on New Zealand was a result of permissive immigration policies by Australia. Morrison, Dutton & Coleman have further serious questions to answer.

    VISUAL: How Immigration Led To Australian Terrorist Attack In Christchurch

  24. Andreas Bimba

    So true Kaye, honesty and not obfuscation would help so much and I’m also a fan of Adern.

    Unfortunately for Adern the NZ Labour Party and NZ Greens finance guys and leaders (not Adern personally) met with the high priests of the NZ banking and finance sectors prior to their previous national election, promising budget responsibility, a return to surplus and to work to reduce NZ’s ‘crippling national debt’. Effectively they were asking for permission from the oligarchs to get elected before the citizens made their choice.

    I have a link somewhere and will try to find it.

    None of those involved in this meeting, except the bankers, apparently realise that national government deficits are essential for a growing economy and that deficits expand the wealth of the private sector. Nor that the central bank /Treasury can control the interest rate on bonds that are issued or not issue bonds at all, if the current legislation allowed this.

    Note the banks impose the policy of national government austerity as it increases personal debt, increases unemployment and reduces any wage increases. This is good for profits and their relative wealth even if the economy as a whole stagnates.

    NZ is far from being on the right path just like Australia.

  25. Kaye Lee

    Bankers may have plans but I am not sure that Adern is sticking to them.

    “The Government’s first Budget has delivered a big boost for public services including $3.2 billion extra for health services over four years – and a large-scale state house building programme. And an extra $1.6 billion for education will go to early childhood education and a boost for students with higher learning needs.”

    That NZ budget showed government spending at 33.7% of GDP. In Australia, total expenses are expected to decline as a
    percentage of GDP from 25.5 per cent in 2017-18 to 25.2 per cent in 2020-21.

  26. Patagonian

    Terence Mills – he got out of there as fast as his chunky little legs could carry him. If he’s done so much for the Muslim community in Sydney, why did he not go to Kinglsake Mosque last Sunday as Bill Shorten did, and why did he announce $55 million in grants to protect places of worship and religious schools at an Israeli Chamber of Commerce meeting?

  27. New England Cocky

    “Dutton and Hunt had in their mind that they would be PM and Deputy leader last August. Both have been censured for their disrespect for the legal system. They have no loyalty, no honesty, no integrity – just naked ambition.

    If they are the best you can come up with to provide alibis/cover/character reference, then you are stuffed.”

    Says it all really …..

  28. Kaye Lee

    F#ck you Morrison. We KNOW what you have said and done to the Muslim community and we know why.

    In the wake of the Bourke Street terror attack in Melbourne, Scott Morrison has pointed the finger of blame at Muslim leaders.

    The Prime Minister claims they’re not doing enough to stop extremism, criticising the community for “making excuses”, looking the other way and ignoring potential risks.

    “I won’t cop the excuses,” Mr Morrison said, doubling down on his attack.

    “For those who want to stick their head in the sand, for those who want to make excuses for those who stick their head in the sand, you are not making Australia safer.”

    Greg Barton is the chair of Global Islamic Politics at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation. He described Mr Morrison’s remarks as “politically charged” and took a swipe at the timing of his pointed remarks, in the lead up to the Victorian Election.

    The focus would be better placed on detecting and preventing the types of attacks that police are increasingly concerned about before they happen, Mr Barton said.

    Rather than attack and potentially alienate the Muslim community, Mr Barton said engaging with them for the purpose of targeted outreach could deliver far better results.

    “Simply finding the resources to employ a hundred properly trained and equipped youth workers to engage with at-risk youths would likely yield considerable dividends.

    “In comparison with the many tens of millions of dollars spent at the hard end of countering terrorism, the resources provided to youth workers and community intervention programs remain pitifully small.”

    https://www.news.com.au/national/crime/the-big-problem-with-scott-morrisons-attack-on-the-muslim-community-after-bourke-st-terror/news-story/1cad6ca2945efcf9c8674a63edfdf4d0

  29. Kaye Lee

    Prime Minister Scott Morrison has no regrets about criticising Muslim leaders despite a boycott of his private meeting to discuss Islamic extremism.

    The prime minister angered some leaders with comments about what the community should be doing following the deadly terror attack in Melbourne.

    A group of leaders, including Grand Mufti Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, signed a letter on Tuesday night telling Mr Morrison they wouldn’t be attending the meeting.

    “Many in the Muslim community including the undersigned are deeply concerned and disappointed with statements made by senior government ministers and the prime minister in the recent past which infer that the community is collectively culpable for the criminal actions of individuals and should be doing more to prevent such acts of violence,” the letter said.

    “These statements have achieved nothing to address underlying issues, but rather, have alienated large segments of the Muslim community.”

    https://www.sbs.com.au/news/pm-not-backing-down-on-criticism-of-islamic-extremism

    Tell us again how much you have done for the Muslim community and how appreciative they are of your patronage. Honestly, Abbott embarrassed me, Turnbull disappointed me, but Morrison disgusts me.

  30. helvityni

    ‘ Honestly, Abbott embarrassed me, Turnbull disappointed me, but Morrison disgusts me.’

    Spot on , Kaye, in total agreement!

  31. Andreas Bimba

    Sorry if this is strictly not on topic but I have to respond regarding the policies of the current New Zealand government.

    Kaye, yes the current New Zealand government has increased spending on important social programs which is fine but has at the same time reduced deficits and returned to surpluses. I think you are well aware that national government surpluses generally lead to recessions, increases in unemployment and social hardship which was the point of my comment and the prior link.

    “Crown accounts for the Government show a $343 million deficit in the first three months of the 2019 Financial Year, which was broadly in line with the May Budget forecasts and on track to end with a surplus of $3.7 billion for the full year.”

    Quoted from this link.

    https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/11/01/300526/government-books-show-small-deficit

    This link shows a chart of how NZ national government spending has trended to a surplus.

    https://tradingeconomics.com/new-zealand/government-budget

    I am sorry to say it but Jacinda Adern either doesn’t understand her nation’s macroeconomic predicament or is not defining the policy in the vitally important area of finance. The New Zealand government is not even following Keynesian economic principles but hard line Monetarist principles. Our ALP is much the same unfortunately.

  32. Patagonian

    I see A. Bott has the same supernatural abilities as those of Ghunt – to know precisely what happened at event where they were not present

    From MSM today: “The Prime Miniature described Ali’s as “a disgraceful smear and an absolute lie” and was backed by current and former Liberal frontbenchers Peter Dutton, Mr Abbott, Philip Ruddock, David Johnston and Greg Hunt.”

    Neither Mr Hunt or Mr Abbott were in the room for the meeting, but Turnbull and Andrew Robb were. Turnbull is reported to have been one of those who argued against Snott’s brilliant idea.

    Robb subsequently attempted to neutralise the incident by telling the Australian Financial Review at the time: “Scott did talk about the strong feelings in the general community about Muslim immigration, and he said that we as a party had to engage with that sentiment. But I’m sure he meant we should engage in a constructive way.”WHAAATTT???

    The Prime Miniature has now agreed to sit down with Waheed Ali for a one-one-one, ad free 30 minute interview. No doubt it will be the usual shout-fest. I hope Ali doesn’t let him off the hook.

  33. Diannaart

    Andreas

    What you say is true for the most part.

    However, apart from Ardern, I have listened to NZ’s leader of the opposition and he actually made sense and talked rationally. Now, I haven’t listened to most NZ politicians, maybe they do have some who are serial liars, make no sense and believe coal is a food source … BUT, imperfect as everything is, NZ makes me feel good about humans. That they can do the right thing.

  34. Andreas Bimba

    Hi Diannaart, my comments are just in regard to New Zealand Labour and the NZ Green’s position on fiscal policy, or the issue of deficits and surpluses. The Greens never made it to government by the way as Labour instead turned to NZ First.

    These parties are not lying about their fiscal policy, it is their public position to aim for surpluses and this is the wrong position from a social welfare or economic growth and employment point of view. The National Party also aims for surpluses.

    Surpluses represent discarded money and serve no useful purpose other than to impose austerity even if some treasury bonds are written off. As I mentioned the Reserve Bank of NZ can set the interest rate on treasury bonds. It could set new ones at zero interest like Japan if it wanted to. The whole concept of national government debt is actually a lie used to convince citizens that they need government austerity imposed on them.

    The ‘debt’ is actually additional currency spent into the economy and is essential to maintain economic growth and to keep unemployment low, especially at the bottom of any business cycles.

  35. Diannaart

    Andreas

    No argument from me. The idea of budget surplus is endemic to to the WASPy nations of the OECD. Really way past time government obsession with this failure of an idea was dumped along with the politicians who wouldn’t know the price of milk let alone understand the vital importance of investing into their nations.

    I was less about hard economics and more about the vibe of the place.

    🙂

  36. Andreas Bimba

    Thanks Diannaart, I agree the vibe is better there than here apart from their central bankers that led the world into monetarism and neoliberalism under Lange and before Reagan and Thatcher.

    They are truly evil, a good documentary was made about this period and is on youtube.

  37. Diannaart

    Andreas

    Am debating with myself as to whether I’ll follow up with the doco. Since Christchurch I feel overwhelmed by so much that is so wrong.

    I think I’ll keep up with puppies and kittens and other animals, that’s the best I can do ATM

    Cheers

  38. Andreas Bimba

    No worries, for anyone who is interested.

    The New Zealand documentary ‘In a land of plenty’ made in 2002 is about the beginnings of the neoliberal era in New Zealand, covering the period 1984 to 1999.

    It runs for 1hr 47 min and I highly recommend it. It is also very relevant to our current times and the themes are applicable internationally.

    A good description of the film can be found here.

    http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/jbl16910.htm

  39. Alcibiades

    @Andreas Bimba
    Thank you. Well made, very powerful documentary.

    Make no claim to economic expertise. However, a few observations:
    None of it happened by accident.
    Planned deliberate mass national/societal transfer of wealth & power.
    Deliberate lies & deceit as to the true purpose & goals.
    Create a permanent disempowered underclass, & demonize in the public mind to silence them. Straight out of archaic 19th century US Puritan values & mantras. “If you have a go, you’ll get a go”. Morrison.
    Deliberate destruction of Labour power & voice vs capital.
    Creating a ‘Dog eat dog’ attitude throughout society, which facilitates permissive corruption/unethical conduct through endemic fear/insecurity.
    Diminishment of actual democracy and devolution of the representative State to an unaccountable authority, serving what/which vested interests ?
    Creating conflict & division, antithesis of a communal/harmonious/supportive society, to further enhance exploitation.
    The carrot of low interest easy credit to survive, then higher rates and entrenched exhorbitant indentured servitude to service the debt &/or seizure of last remaining individual assets.

    “Theory tells us the answer”. Newspeak lives.

    Saw the same through Oz in the early nineties.

    The gig economy is the next stage on steroids.

    Productivity has increased at the same rate as corporate profits over 30 years now, yet real incomes have flatlined over the same period. Not-by-accident !

    1/3 of corporations pay no tax & FA pay anywhere near 30%.
    Literally 100’s of billions of evaded taxes transferred overseas per annum.
    50+ milllionaires who pay zero tax not even the medicare levy.
    1 in 7 using rorting trusts & & exploiting faux tax free entities every which way they can, without consequences. Most people have no knowledge of what a trust is.
    Serial corporate phoenixing.
    1 hours work a week constitutes statistical ’employment’. Barf.
    Increasingly larger scale under employment & massive job casualisation/insecurity.
    A managed rorted visa systems to ensure ‘illegal’ unprotected exploited labour = maximised profit & further undermines Labour.
    $30bn LNG exports for pennies, yet no domestic LNG reservation, further crippling what few industries are left.

    Primary beneficiaries ? Foreign owned tax avoiding multinational corporations/shareholders.

    Where did the farms, the factories & the hard assets go ? Snapped up for pennies by ?

    A single mother forced to exist on Newstart who in desperation steals nappies & milk ($20) gets a criminal record for life.
    Yet Bankers who methodically premeditavely plan and enact corporate schemes over years to literally steal $billions from ‘customers’ … get multi-million dollar golden parachute payouts & promptly commence a similar role in another corporation as … ‘punishment’ ?

    Dog, I’m getting really pissed now. Wide awake. Apologies for the long text rant …

  40. Andreas Bimba

    Wow that’s a brilliant summary Alcibiades. I wiil take a copy of it and look at each point and give them more thought when I can. This also helps with my part time activism for social, environmental and economic causes.

    The film is very powerful and quite depressing really and the same forces that started the ideology of neoliberalism are now even more entrenched but their day is coming.

  41. David Evans

    What a disaster the last six years have been. The most incompetent mob of hateful deviates in Australias’ political history. Absolutely nothing good has come from the a, t, and m “governments”, There should be some means available to the electorate to not just vote them out, but to recover from individual members the misspent and wasted funds that have disappeared while these pompous pricks have held office…..Corrupt, or just inept?…. Either way, they should bear some individual personal responsibility. They will be voted out, and will immediately start their life again with their $$$ sponsors. Make the pricks stand down (dole?) for 1-2 years before they work again, WE have to get real with failed ‘representatives’.

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