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John Lord’s Election Diary No. 2: Morrison plays the race card while Dutton lowers the bar even further

Saturday 13 April 2019:

1 It looks as though Prime Minister Scott Morrison – without actually using the word “racist” – has inferred that the Opposition Deputy Leader Tanya Plibersek is racist. On what basis does he do so?

Well she is quoted as saying that Australians could not “rely on an Indian mining company to bring jobs to central and North Queensland.”

Scott Morrison has accused Labor of peddling racist sentiments.

He is of course talking about the Adani Coal Mine. How you could possibly infer that a person is racist from that statement is so stupid as to be beyond my comprehension, and the words are unworthy of an Australian Prime Minister.

But these members of the LNP are a weird lot. Power is everything to them and if you have to say certain things in order to retain it, then they think it is legitimate to do so.

“I think there’s form here from the Labor Party, particularly here in NSW,” Mr Morrison said.

While on the subject of Adani, there are some theorists who think that the election was called for May 18 because the subject of the Adani mine was to be discussed at a Senate Estimates Enquiry and that things might come out that would be uncomfortable for the government.

2 All the talk today has centered on Peter Dutton’s remarkable capacity for being a horrid individual after he criticised Labor candidate Ali France of using her disability as an ‘excuse’.

It was only a week ago that our Prime Minister when announcing a Royal Commission into the Abuse of the Most Vulnerable in our community said:

“We have to establish a culture of respect for people living with disabilities and the families who support, love and care for them.”

When asked for a comment he said that Peter had been taken out of context.

What on earth ever processed Dutton to think that with a history as long as your arm of saying the worst possible things about people, that he was Prime Minister material is beyond me?

Like many others of his ilk he is nothing more than a tactless, crass, insensitive individual who doesn’t belong in our parliament.

The vindictiveness of his crude attack on Ali France, that she was:

“Using her disability as an excuse” for not yet buying a home in the seat she wants to win at the May 18 election.”

Requires closer examination.

Bernard Keane writing for Crickey.com (firewall) had this to say.

“Ali France is an above the knee amputee and spent $100,000 of her compensation payment modifying her home. She hasn’t found a suitable house in #Dickson but has said that if she wins she will move and again modify her home.

She was trying to protect her toddler in a pusher from an oncoming car, which ran over her leg during the accident.

She was in a coma for days then awoke and was told her leg had been amputated. Her child wasn’t injured.

Ali is a journalist who’s been working in palliative care. She’s not a lightweight drongo like Dutton who belongs in the bin.”


Come on, people of Dickson. Vote for Ali France!

As Bevan Shields said in Friday’s SMH:

“Both sides expect the election campaign to be dirty but few thought it could go so low so quickly by exploiting the plight of a woman in a wheelchair.”

Peter Dutton’s apology came in the form of a tweet yesterday:

“I apologise to Ms France for my comments yesterday. My argument with the Labor candidate is about how our respective policies would affect the people of Dickson.”

Despite the uncouth mouth of Peter Dutton also being condemned, Birmingham was doubling down. He had apologised, after all. But it was far from the apology of a decent man.

“Lying in the media is wrong at any time however when they do it by deliberate omission it is even more so. Murdoch’s papers seem to do it with impunity” (John Lord).

3 Continuing on with their Trumpish incompetency, Morrison and Freydenburg decided to launch an early scare campaign.

They have reached a stage where they believe that the public will believe every lie they tell them.

These lies however were so obvious that a half-blind stone-death great grand mother with no economic experience could see right through them. Trying to turn every policy of Labor’s into a tax increase simply defies logic.

“Surely an incoming government who doubles the countries debt cannot then claim to have inherited a debt problem that amounts to a budget crisis” (John Lord).

In an article for Crickey (firewall) Bernard Keane had this to say:

The Coalition (spectacularly) missing the point on tax?

“Documents purporting to be Treasury costing’s were circulated to media outlets to demonstrate that Labor would increase taxes by $390 billion over a decade compared to the government.

Interestingly, neither of the outlets friendly to the Coalition ran hard with it. The AFR‘s John Kehoe noted that it was really a Coalition costing “via Treasury”. The Australian tucked it away on page 4. Both outlets have, ironically, run with other stories in recent days saying Labor’s policies will raise far less tax than Labor says.”

The end result was for them to make monumental fools of them selves. In government their incompetency resulted in a daily stuff up of one sort or another. Are they trying to lie their way into another term?

It also has to be said that Shorten’s rebuttal wasn’t very effective. In fact it was as insipid as a limp handshake.

“Less informed voters unfortunately outnumber the more politically aware. Therefore, conservatives feed them all the bullshit they need. And the menu generally contains a fair portion of untruths” (John Lord).

4 It looks as though they are continuing in the campaign period. After all the problems with citizenship last year you would think it would be the first matter of importance. Instead the Liberals have had to replace three candidates, two with dual citizenships and one an Australia Post employee. How stupid can you be?

Labor also had it’s problems with Melissa Parks – Labor’s star candidate for Julie Bishop’s seat of Curtin – having to quit on Friday night after the party entered into crisis talks over remarks she made about the Israel and Palestine conflict.

5 It’s 12.30 I’m watching News24 when a Q&A promo comes on and Malcolm Roberts’ head appears. He is running for the Senate. Another blow for science.

6 It’s Sunday April 14, 8.30am and I’m watching Simon Birmingham being interviewed by News 24. He is telling the most outrageous lies and I can feel the rage building up in me.

I know that it’s what one should expect. However, there is this fight between the idealist me and outraged me. Despite the Lib’s accusation of a $387 tax grab being discredited throughout the media there was Birmingham repeating the same lies.

7 The Election campaign has been running for only a few days and we are yet to hear a narrative of hope – of – ideas – of innovation, even dreams of a better Australia. I can understand the silence of Scott Morrison.

After six years of governance he and the other prime ministers (Abbott and Turnbull) have harvested little to talk about. In fact, demonstrably the LNP has shown that it inhabits a past where its MPs find it difficult to break out of in order to keep up with the rest of us.

My thought for the day

The exchange and intellectual debate of ideas needs to be re energised and it is incumbent on everyone to become involved.

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22 comments

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  1. James O'Neill

    John, you really need to proof read your articles. The repetitive errors are distracting.
    As to your point (4), it needs to be pointed out that the “problem” Labor has with Melissa Parks is that she told nothing more than the truth about Israel and the Palestinians. Labor’s gutless attitude to the criminal apartheid regime in Tel Aviv is nothing less than disgraceful.

  2. whatever

    On our ABC Radio the other day, there was a “researcher” warning us about the dangers of people returning to Australia from the Iraq-Syria civil war.
    Right-wing crackpots who spend all their lives on the internet trying to find evidence that a distant territorial war equates to World Domination are not “researching”.

  3. Terence Mills

    Peter Dutton is the last one to be pointing fingers at Ali France for not living in the Dickson electorate.

    Dutton is fortunate to have a substantial property portfolio and whilst he maintains a home in his Dickson electorate he is more likely to be found at Palm Beach’s millionaires’ row on the Gold Coast where he owns a beachfront home that cost him a cool $2.3 million in 2015.

    It seems that from a Qld copper Dutton has become extremely wealthy on a politician’s salary. I think this man’s finances warrant looking into.

    For instance, the reported $20,000 paid to Santo Santoro to provide access for Chinese billionaire Huang to lunch with Dutton is a little strange : normally a payment for such access to a minister would benefit the (Liberal) party – see for instance Hockey and Treasurer for Sale where the access payments went to the party – but in this case we are told that the money went to Santoro : was there a kick-back to the very accommodating minister ? If not and with no benefit to the Liberal party why on earth would Dutton lunch with a man who had already been flagged by ASIO as having Chinese communist party affiliations and why would Dutton prioritize the citizenship process for Huang’s family ?

    We desperately need a federal ICAC !

  4. Josephus

    Terence perhaps re Dutton remind Chris Bowen , Mr Shorten /Ms Plibersek of the veniality of this awful creature. Just in case they have forgotten! He needs perhaps to be prosecuted. Is Queensland another country? Some have said so.

    If Scott M thinks the word ‘Indian’ is racist he is himself a racist. ‘Indian’ is not a pejorative word. Adani is a destructive and exploitative company that is being pursued by the Indian authorities for tax evasion. It chucks workers off their land without compensation if they work on but do not own the land in question, plus its mining ventures pollute the air and water wherever they go. So maybe rather than say ‘Indian’ call Adani a company that ruins lives .
    I heard Shorten on ABC radio today extolling science – let him accept the consequences of climate science and not allow any company least of all a ruthless one to use up our precious water and pollute vast areas.
    The coal in the Galilee Basin is of two types- one is low quality and is planned to be exported to poorer countries such as India – that is how that company respects its own people. Yet unlimited free water for Carmichael, while towns are rationed!
    The first duty of any government is to protect its people, and above all their water. The number of jobs Adani promises is not credible; other jobs will be lost , and that is not even to mention the heartbreak of the local indigenous people.

    Get RID of the COAL-tion while ensuring that Labor respects science in practice: please phone shadow ministers, e mail them.

  5. New England Cocky

    “She’s not a lightweight drongo like Dutton”

    ALI FRANCIS CANDIDATE FOR DICKSON

    I feel I must speak our in defence of our native birds who have far more intelligence that the Monster for Dickson, Benito Duddo.

    Spangled Drongoes are proud birds of the Australian rainforest able to communicate with their peers and work co-operatively. This is the extreme opposite of the Monster who sought a “safer” electorate than Dickson to continue his personal campaign of plundering the public purse through the Parliamentary Allowances Scheme from his principal residence on the Gold Coast. As a former Queensland copper his wealth has grown astronomically, from resigning from the Police two weeks before being eligible for superannuation (following some “alleged” incidents involving bullying of Aboriginal persons) to the present multi-million cache. Ws there any drug money involved in this phenomenal financial success??

    @James O’Neill: I agree, the Zionist policies in Palestine and the West Bank are no better than the German Nazi policies of 1933 to 1945, and just as debilitating. Australian politicians today have to resist the urge to pacify fascism in all its forms, just as our Australian troops did 1939-1945.

    @ Trence Mills: “We desperately need a federal ICAC.” YES!!! Consider the efforts of Water MInister Barnyard Joke and the about $80 MILLION payment for virtual water to Eastern Australian Agriculture where Minister Angus Taylor is reported to the founder.

    @Josephus: Adani and other mining corporations are building robotic technology to further reduce the number of jobs created by their destruction of natural habitat and groin water for Australia

  6. Alcibiades

    Newspoll ran a poll, published very much later than usual, not a weekly or fortnightly, but a ‘4 day special’ for the period of 11Apr19 & 14Apr19, commencing immediately after the election was called Thursday AM.

    ‘No Change’ according to Limited News since the previous anomalous Newspoll outlier at 52-48 2PP, against aggregate trend and concurrent polls. However, both ALP & LNP primary vote increased by ~2% each, at the expense of One Notion. LNP is still ~3% below its primary vote at the 2016 election, & it’s primary vote is still within the 51 polls aggregated trend of minus ~3-6% coalition primary vote since 2016 election.

    Regardless of the over-the-top hyperbole, essentially … No Change. In fact, LNP position just degraded significantly in key Queensland seats, & also NSW, due to LNP reduced ON preference flows.

    One Notion has crashed from 8% to 4% 2PP, in the wake of the guns-for-funds scandal, with popular support falling nationally to its lowest point since an 11% high in 2016. Greens remained unchanged on 9%.

    Comment: No election announcement ‘tightening’, no budget ‘bounce’ … nothing. Historically unprecedented.

    More One Nation preferences flow typically (3/2) to the Coalition than the ALP, yet the 4% drop in 2PP for One Nation has had no effect on Coalition 2PP according to Newspoll, … how … very … odd.

    Regardless, that 4% drop ON preference flows will reduce the LNP 2PP in a number of highly contested seats in QLD(Crucial seats, desperate for ON preferences) & NSW.

    One Nation’s voter slip gives a lift to both major parties The UnAustralian

    PS Doh! Newspoll made no adjustment to calculated 2PP for demonstrably weaker ON preference flows to LNP, ’cause they are still using no longer relevant 2016 preference flows, regardless ? And, locally relevant(QLD/NSW), yet not significant ‘nationally’ ? If so, neat ‘magic’ trick, Limited News …

    http://i64.tinypic.com/mvonew.jpg (Image)

  7. Terence Mills

    Clive Palmer in Townsville today :

    “Townsville’s certainly been doing it tough and difficult since the floods and we want to look forward and not backwards,” he told reporters this morning.

    “For that reason I’ve decided today that we will pay out all outstanding amounts in workers’ entitlements that was owed by Queensland Nickel.”

    That is one promise I would be getting in writing !

  8. Keitha Granville

    Is there a remote chance that any party, any politician, will introduce some kind of legislation that makes election lies illegal ? Why can they do it with no comeback ? They all do it. There MUST be something that can be done.

  9. New England Cocky

    @Alcibiades: Shades of the 2016 Barnyard Joke election campaign in New England when Barnyard et al ran television ads alleging incorrectly and libellously that Tony Windsor was “having it off” around the electorate. This was slanderous because it was common knowledge that Tony and wife Lyn have been an item since kindergarten.

    However, the truth came out when Barnyard confessed to an adulterous sexual relationship with his Press Officer Vicki Campion and denied being the father of subsequent Sebastard. Now a second brat is in the oven, guaranteeing his “bit of fluff” an even bigger slice of his residual wealth after the divorce settlement with his first wife and family.

    Meanwhile, the National$ election committee that approved the offensive political ad have some members regarded as well known for their philandering and other proclivities, that was chaired by John Anderson, former Leader of the Nat$, former Chair of Eastern Star Gas, now Chairman of the Northern Inland Railway which was given about $700 MILLION of taxpayer funds to establish a very unpopular inland railway to Brisbane for distribution of manufactured goods from industrial Melbourne (if there is any manufacturing remaining within Australian borders) that will take at least 50 years to recover the establishment cost.

  10. Just by observation

    “The exchange and intellectual debate of ideas needs to be re energised and it is incumbent on everyone to become involved”
    – This is a good thought, and one which I might suggest has only one small error, contextually. It is not incumbent, indeed it is not even progressive for ‘everyone’ to become involved. The exchange and intellectual debate of ideas needs, by definition, to be carried out by those capable of the intellectual exchange of ideas. Not everyone falls into this category. This is not a statement of bigotry, exclusivity, morality, or anything else, it’s simply axiomatic. I know the publishers and editors of this blog and it’s associated comments reserve the right to, as stated in the disclaimer, remove comments owing to:
    “4. Comments that attack a person individually or are considered defamatory
    5. Comments posted with the clear intention of diverting or disrupting the topic”
    However, I don’t think it’s unrealistic to point out that consistency of scrutiny hardly qualifies as an objective measure where it’s been stated that it’s incumbent on all persons, capable or other, to enter the debate. That in itself disqualifies it from being intellectual in any manner.

  11. Alcibiades

    New England Cocky,
    One remembers only too well. Brutal, vicious, malicious & outrageous lies. Yet what was Barnaby up to, & the corporate MSM protected Joyce to the hilt.

    One also remembers the Notionals setting up a Website in Rob Oakeshotts name, and filling it with Dildo sales & porn to capture basic web queries on his name.

    IMV, the Notionals have always played extremely dirty, even worse than the Libs, yet somehow it always falls under the corporate MSM radar.

    Oakshott is a possible win this time in Cowper (NSW) given Hartsuyker has bailed out. The NAT margin of ~4.6% has collapsed. IND 1.60 v NAT 2.20.

    Windsor, Oakshott & Wilkie are amongst the few Fed pollies one respects.

    PS Barnaby has gone radio silence, wonder if it’s related to all those baseless ‘Cease & Desist’ letters Angus Taylor’s dodgy lawyer has been throwing around. Summint about Venality, $80M, Cayman Islands, Tax evasion & water sales, or somesuch.

  12. whatever

    They are using the ‘Joe the Plumber’ tactic, now.
    At a Shorten presser today, where the jounos acted like hecklers, a ‘member of the public’ was given the microphone.
    He sounded like a typical TalkBack Radio stooge caller.

  13. Alcibiades

    The conversation parents across Australia have to have with 18+ year olds. Getup! 🙂

    https://www.facebook.com/GetUpAustralia/videos/590597618085021/ (Video 1m 08s)

    Don’t take it for granted that the (especially young) people in your life are enrolled to vote. Send them to https://aec.gov.au/enrol to check their enrolment. There’s only 3 DAYS LEFT to enrol to vote! Enrollments close 8PM Thursday April 2019. Dutton was re-elected on a margin of only 217 votes …

  14. Stephen

    Peter Dutton doesn’t belong in parliament, I doubt he belongs in the Human Race.

  15. wam

    A good read, lord but why didn’t the narrow nosed nasty get a run? Did you miss insiders?

    keitha what you consider a lie may have been the truth for that moment in time and subsequently no longer true.
    Take juliar if she and labor had exposed the blackmail of the loonies and emphasised xmas 2009?????
    Whatever, very little time is spent debriefing those trained to kill. Surely a great worry.

  16. Jon Chesterson

    Morrison… Arrogant prick – and yes my language is going to get worse because of this arrogant prick prancing around the country doing the Boston tea party. Can anyone teach this arrogant prick to shut up before we all die of political toxaemia.

  17. Kaye Lee

    Alcibiades,

    I have talked to everyone in their 20s that I can get my hands on. It took a lot to make my son, an avid fisherman, understand the Shooters and Fishers are not on his side. He was also angry with the Greens – something about no fishing zones between Newcastle and Wollongong. But he has agreed to put Labor number 1 – probably to shut me up. It is amazing the difference between people who are politically engaged and those who aren’t. On 7:30 report they interviewed Wentworth voters at the train station. “Health and education are important to me so I will probably vote Liberal”?????? I mean I understand the guy who said tax cuts for rich people are important to him – kind of expect it there – but most people don’t seem to have a clue.

  18. Alcibiades

    Kaye Lee,
    Apathy, encouraged by the MSM, & disengaged ignorance is alas the norm. ‘Rusted Ons’ of either persuasion are incomprehensible to me. Yet, ripples in a pond, even a single vote, does actually count. For example Dutton’s margin is 1.7%. People falsely assume that’s significant, not so, a margin of merely 217 votes. Just 218 changed &/or additional opposed votes ?, and he’s out on his arse!

    8pm tomorrow night is the close. Junkee, TripleJ, Pedestrian TV & others have been working to get even more of the under 24 vote enrolled. Keen to see what the AEC reports on new enrollments & increased participation rate once the numbers are crunched.

  19. Kaye Lee

    Facebook plays a big role with the young ones. They latch onto an issue and share it.

  20. Pingback: John Lord's Election Diary No. 3: My language really doesn’t tell you what I think of these bastards - » The Australian Independent Media Network

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