WA Liberal landslide buries Turnbull and Hanson.

March 13, 2017
Written by: David Tyler
88 Replies

It’s a Labor landslide in WA. Mark McGowan’s party may end up with 41 seats as the Liberal primary vote collapses 15% , and it’s all over bar the infighting and the recriminations. Yet one thing is sure. The fall of “Emperor” Colin Barnett can have nothing to do with Malcolm Turnbull; no blame no responsibility is accepted. Nothing to do with Turnbull’s support for the One Nation preference deal or his government’s dud policies. Instead the WA Premier invokes Whitlam.

It’s an overwhelming “it’s time factor”, Colin Barnett lies as WA Liberals openly wish they’d dumped him. Shit happens.

The ineluctable truth of Turnbull’s blamelessness emerges on ABC Insiders as “How the West Was Lost”, a gripping media mystery drama, reveals a mob of scapegoats for Liberal failure in a week of dodgy deals and reversals in which our anti-scare tactic PM’s Great Big Energy Crisis is gazumped by electron-magnate Elon Musk who offers a stack of Tesla batteries to keep the lights on in South Australia, a rashly wind and sun powered renewable rogue state.

Peter Georgiou, who takes his brother-in-law Rod Culleton’s senate spot, catches measles, a setback concealed during the campaign lest anyone laugh; or cast nasturtiums at One Nation’s crusade against childhood vaccination. There is no hope Georgiou can match the gifted buffoonery or performance art of his bankrupt predecessor but he is already off to a brilliant start not only with the measles but with his all-in-the-family route to power. One Nation is a one-ring circus.

Not to be outdone, moreover, La Hanson suddenly falls arse over tit. Everything is going so well, too. She’s set to be crowned Queen of WA by an adoring media, when she inexplicably trips over her lip; declares herself both a Putinista and a passionate anti-vaxxer. Naturally. All Trump torch carriers are virulently anti-jab and pro Putin, too.

Hanson’s revelations cause a stir. Some PHON dingbats flee the belfry. Brazen hussy. Traitor. What became of Pauline’s Celebrity Apprentice bikini-bottoms with the Australian flag on? Worse, she self-aborts her mission. Her WA Liberals’ preference deal reveals to even One Nation voters that Pauline is just another conniving politician. It’s a fatal error. Half her predicted supporters turn against her. Beliefs, Peter Ustinov said, are what divide people. Doubts unite them.

Not that Hanson is wearing any of it. Quickly, the Liberal’s senate stooge finds a handy scapegoat for her failure.

“I don’t think it was the Liberal Party, I think it was Colin Barnett. The people here did not want Colin Barnett — he should have stepped aside.” Or thrown out. Like milk in your fridge that’s started to go sour, she says. It’s easy to see why Turnbull confidante and inner cabinet member Arthur Sinodinos praised One Nation’s sophistication recently.

The truth is voters have stepped aside – and not only from Colin Barnett. They’re not that sweet on Pauline either.

Not only does Pauline’s pixie dust suddenly wear off, however, lame duck Turnbull’s fate is sealed by the sand-gropers’ no-vote, based in real fear that the Coalition is just an ill-disguised front for business, bankers and miners with its coal-war on the climate and environment and its class-war on the poor. Turnbull’s leadership is terminal. No ABC-led defence can help him now. He is a dead man walking even if he dare not show his face before noon.

The PM goes into witness protection, yet a piece by a Malcolm Turnbull appears 9:00 am in The Sunday Telegraph with the Dubai World’s Best Minister Greg Hunt threatening to bar unvaccinated kids from childcare and preschools. “No jab no pay will be matched by no jab no play.” Mal’s even written a letter commending his idea to state and territory leaders.

Sky News calls it the PM’s “hard stance on vaccinations”. Hunt repeats the word “tough” twice. It must be a stiff letter. The Liberal party’s storm-troopers are scrambled to put Humpty Dumpty back together again starting from the tough up. Sturmmann Matthias Stormin’ Cormann is despatched to stonewall on ABC TV. He belabours the Liberals’ preference deal’s impeccable logic. It would put a floor under a declining primary vote of 29%, he repeats ad nauseam.

Cormann’s the Liberals’ master tactician and powerbroker. His recent master stroke was to be seen walking out with Peter Dutton recently. Dutton wants to head up a new uber-department of Homeland Security an idea which many of his colleagues dismiss as a naked power grab by the Border Enforcer and his boss Mike Pezullo who amalgamated Customs and Border Protection without over troubling to get them working together properly. Or communicating.

Some see Dutton keenly building a power base from which to challenge Turnbull. Homeland Security would take what is laughably called oversight of ASIO from Attorney General. Others see Turnbull so beholden to the right and so keen to be free of Brandis that he will agree. It will not be a path to the top but to the bottom. Dutton struggled to run Health. He is overwhelmed by the tasks of winding up Manus and running down Nauru. His refugee deal with Trump is stalled.

Out of his stall and a law unto himself as ever, deputy leader Barnaby Joyce calls the preference deal “a mistake” before offering some colourful opinions on ABC Radio about One Nation’s senate candidates. “Mad”, he says.” Lucky this is not being broadcast.” Labor simply replies swiftly that Fizza Turnbull failed to act on his power to veto the deal.

Of course there are local factors. Barnett’s switched-on plan to privatise state electricity in WA seems a turn off for voters. It’s worked so well in other states. In Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, prices soar as systems become less reliable. The “Junior, sweaty, Navy Lawyer” attack on McGowan by the typically sensitive Minister for Welfare Extortion and sandgroper, Christian Porter may have not struck the right note early in the campaign.

But in a post truth, fake news Trumpocene age, personal abuse beats rational argument any day. Besides, didja hear what Turnbull called Shorten?

Like their federal counterpart, the WA Liberals are lean on policy. Astonishingly, also, Colin Barnett fails to convince anyone that he should waste a third term pretending to be an effective State Premier after blowing the proceeds of the mining boom, driving up the state debt and causing credit ratings and property prices to fall.

The Department’s pre-election budget update forecast total public sector debt will reach $41.1 billion by mid-2020.

Then there’s the elephant in the room of WA’s dodgy queue-jumping tax grab. Barnett’s government passed legislation in late 2015 to seize control of the $1.8 billion assets from the Bell liquidation — potentially jumping ahead of the ATO and other creditors. Somehow Joe Hockey and Attorney General George Brandis led them to believe that the federal government backed WA’s strategy. The High Court threw out the legislation on appeal, humiliating the WA government.

Sadly, Brandis’ inability to recall the nature or the precise date of his involvement may have misled parliament over the issue. The AG seems to have confused everyone. The case may also have cast a cloud over the Barnett regime. Certainly it has led to calls for Brandis to resign. Whatever else may be said, however, the Premier is clearly not short of big ideas.

You can’t fault Barnett for innovative policy. He’s out there doing the hard yards promising ripper statues of sporting heroes at the new Perth Stadium, not just a digital tribute, but a whole new statue every two years, plus a whole bunch of other stuff in aquaculture, Aboriginal rock art and tourism along with a pledge to see the federal government’s wonderful new Sunday penalty rate cuts translated into state awards, too. Plucky? “You bet you are. You bet I am.”

But you can’t fight city hall. Barnett is blown away by the Tsunami of unpopularity that is the Turnbull government.

Despite all the spin, the WA result is clearly a rejection of the Turnbull government’s Centrelink Robo-debt extortion of the poor and its equally cruel penalty-rate cuts. The state with 6.5% unemployed and rising, the nation’s highest, even measured by the government’s rubbery figures, also smarts over the barefaced robbery of Coalition tax cuts for the wealthy, while International Women’s Day this week reminds us that we remain one nation divided by entrenched gender inequality. It’s even more keenly experienced in the new mining industrial rustbelt of WA.

Women with children, workers least equipped to find childcare other days in the week, suffer the most from the government’s cutting Sunday penalty rates. They bear a disproportionate part of the social, emotional and economic brunt of the government’s push to have more Australians under-employed in an increasingly part-time casualised workforce where hours may grow, wages are stagnant and penalty rate cuts increasingly undermine household budgets.

Things are likely to get worse. Legal opinion for the ACTU released Friday by lawyers Maurice Blackburn finds that the Fair Work Commission case to consider consumer expectations and not to actively deter weekend work could be used to reduce awards in nursing and health care, transport, security, cleaning services, construction, clerical workers, laundry services, hair and beauty industries, trainers, mining and factories.

Employment Minister and Minister for Women, avid part-time property investor and lip readers’ gift, Michaelia Cash says it’s all a Labor lie but since her claim to have overlooked registering her 1.5 million property investment next door, no-one can believe a word she says. She’s a big fan of penalty cuts but you’d never know it – now. She’s in witness protection for the duration. Or at least until there’s no risk of being questioned about her property management skills.

At least Pauline tells it like it is. Even if the big ideas don’t always fit the sentence. Hanson’s support for penalty rate cuts goes back to running the Ipswich fish shop. Labor’s to blame. McDonald’s undercut her minimum wage. She had to pay eight dollars an hour more. EBA’s are to blame. It’s not the sort of pitch the average WA worker can relate to.

Yet the jabs break through. Not every mother owns a small business but all mothers know what is to have sick children.

Along with her dangerous advice to parents to make up their own minds on vaccinating their children, a song from Donald Trump’s hymnbook, she professes love for Russian despot Vladimir Putin, whom she naively praises as “a strong leader” who “stands up for his country” – not one who invades others to seize lands where ethnic Russians may live – as indicated by his incursion into Georgia, his seizure of Crimea and his role in the “frozen conflict” in eastern Ukraine.

28 Australians were among the 298 passengers killed when MH17 a Boeing 777 flying civilians was blasted out of the sky over Ukraine by a Russian missile, an act for which Hanson’s beloved strong leader, Vladimir Putin, refuses to take responsibility.

The media turn. Even ABC Insiders Barrie Cassidy can’t let her ignorance go unchallenged. Turnbull himself weighs in later and has another dab Sunday while Bill Shorten makes a bipartisan show of support for a factually based public health policy. It’s the high point of the political week – if you don’t count Colin Barnett’s comeuppance. Or Georgiou.

A concerted stand against Hanson may be good news for the nation this week even if the ABC gets its nose rubbed in its mess. In retaliation for holding Australia’s Trumpista to account, the ABC is barred access to her WA election wake where party members console themselves that their dismal showing was all the fault of Barrie Cassidy. Doubtless the banks and those international financiers who created the climate change hoax for profit have a hand in it, too.

Hanson’s “humilating flop” as Malcolm Farr calls it in WA parallells her failure to coordinate a handful of senators and makes a complete mockery of her leadership pretensions. But it’s not what people are telling her she says. It’s not what she hears from the voters. Like Corey Bernardi, she claims a type of clairaudience. She intuits the people’s will. Incredibly, no-one else can do this. Amazingly, ordinary people who lack her access to the media always agree with her.

No rebuke will easily dint Hanson’s rock-star popularity. Like her idol Trump, her fans are nurtured more by mutual ignorance, fear and hatred than petty details such as factual accuracy. Yet the preference deal with the Liberals, goes badly. She admits as much Saturday as she acknowledges PHON has won less than five per cent of the lower house vote and seven per cent in the upper.

Gone is any hope of the swag of seats predicted earlier. Gone is the prospect of holding the balance of power. PHON will be lucky to get one or two seats in a big Senate cross bench. Yet straight-faced she blames the Liberal Party.

Hanson, Labor helpfully reminds voters, is supposed to be above preference deals; that type of politics. No-one says that her WA bid is preposterous; no-one whispers she is utterly, ludicrously out of her depth; not waving but drowning. Luckily, however, there are others competing for Australian politics Darwin Award for individuals who contribute to improving the evolution of our national politics by selecting themselves out of the gene pool by self-destruction.

Perennial Darwin Award contender and sole survivor over his 2016 how to vote Liberal in the Senate fiasco plucky Tassie Senator Erich Abetz jostles to the front of the pack this week with some beaut new views on how women win respect.

“Queen Elizabeth II has demonstrated that hard work and commitment earn you far more respect than demanding that people make way and artificially promote you simply because of your sex,” tweets the budding local female emancipist, pocket philosopher and inveterate attention seeker Abetz who trips badly in his run-up to achieving his own unique insight into International Women’s Day. Abetz succeeds once again only in putting both feet into his mouth.

Last October, Abetz was berating the media for bias in failing to celebrate those who come out straight. “Ever thought why there is no celebration for those that decide to go from the homosexual to heterosexual lifestyle? Are they not honest? Are they not coming out as well? … just one of the examples of the one-way traffic and bias from the media.”

HRH, one hopes, will overlook Eric’s slight on her inherited privilege, status and wealth – just as women whose hard work and commitment has not yet made them members of the royal family may now safely overlook anything the senator says as the blathering of a manifest idiot who has no clue about gender inequality and less about gender politics.

Media bias, however, to be fair to Eric, is firmly entrenched although the traffic follows the money; flows Eric’s way.

An ally, of sorts, for example, in Abetz’ quest to misrepresent, dismiss or deny the gravity of gender inequality is to be found on what Peter Dutton sees as the jihadist conspirators’ ABC’s The Drum where one of a panel of “successful businesswomen” points out that the surest path to equal opportunity is to have your stockbroker gal pal on your speed dial. She’ll be the one with the best baby-sitting contacts. Abetz is right about the bias; The Drum is an exclusive club where success talks to itself in public.

In the same way, politicians talk to themselves in the media, or over each other or the interviewer, a process they fondly describe as “having a national conversation”.

None of these token successes have anything remotely useful to offer ordinary women whose lives in their own ways deserve every bit as much celebration and affirmation. Their presence is a reproach to all those who are trying to run a home and a family on a hopelessly inadequate and shrinking part-time wage.

Our media promotes inequality in privileging the discourse of the successful as it does by ensuring the dominance of a white male middle-class elite. If you are a woman, for example, you have a one per cent chance of being interviewed in a newspaper, on TV or radio or any other form of media. And in news coverage, three quarters of all women are invisible. Only about 24% of all people seen, heard or read about in the news are female.

Although women make up 46 per cent of all employees in Australia, they take home on average $283.20 less than men each week (full-time adult ordinary time earnings). The national gender “pay gap” is 18.2 per cent and it has remained stuck between 15 per cent and 18 per cent for the past two decades.

The PM honours International Women’s day with community legal centres in Australia, facing a 30% funding cut from the federal government next financial year. Tasmania’s state government recently announced they would make up the difference.

Nothing is heard from Minister for women Michaelia Cash about penalty rate cuts which hurt women the most. Nor does the government express any compassion or concern for the consequences of Robo debt clawback – although the ten per cent debt recovery surcharge may well be illegal – as too are its methods of discouraging protest.

News comes this week that the department pulls the files of those who make a fuss and sends their personal details to the Minister, who then may pass them on to be used against the ungrateful welfare recipient. It’s an extraordinary admission of another step towards a totalitarian state. It fits with Brandis’ recent admission that the AFP accesses certain journalists’ meta-data in order to hunt down whistle-blowers.

Soon this may all be under the aegis of Peter Dutton. What could possibly go wrong?

WA is at the very least a slap in the face for the federal government. It is almost certainly the end of Malcolm Turnbull. It may well be, also, that it is the beginning of the end for Pauline Hanson whose attempt to make it on the national stage has not got much beyond a seat on the cross-bench.

Or is it the end of the beginning? Certainly the curbing of the mainstream media’s fawning indulgence of a celebrity politician with some dangerously false ideas is a welcome corrective against infectious ignorance and division.

Now the same process needs to be sustained on the wilful disinformation of those in the major parties who would divide and dupe us for their ends and their backers’ profits.

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RoswellMarch 13, 2017 at 9:34 am

Outstanding article, David. Simply outstanding.

wamMarch 13, 2017 at 9:40 am

nice read!!!
Wonder if a quarter of the readers are women who believe the cultural and religious view that some women are good but overall they do not have the god given reliability of men because they cannot be trusted for a full 30 day effort.

David TylerMarch 13, 2017 at 9:52 am

Thanks, Roswell. Amazing to see in this morning’s MSM the consensus forming – hardening into orthodoxy – that the Liberal rout was all to do with state issues. Pauline Hanson on the other hand is putting the boot into Labor for spooking voters over the preference deal. Do I hear an echo of Turnbull’s Wentworth Hotel whinge?

Lorraine StansfiewldMarch 13, 2017 at 9:55 am

Very good article. The Australian political landscape is very scary.

Mick ByronMarch 13, 2017 at 10:04 am

The West Australian Labor party faithful must be over the moon and it seems to be overlooked just how important the hundreds of door knocking Labor and union volunteers played in pushing home the local W.A. issues.
This was first and foremost an election about West Australian politics and the Federal fallout was but a bonus.
NO party other than Labor comes out of this election with any glory.
Mark McGowan put his plan out there early with Labors 200 fresh ideas
https://www.markmcgowan.com.au/files/MarkMcGowanFreshIdeas.pdf
and some of the results at this stage of counting are quite astounding

Bunbury
Previously Very Safe Liberal 62.2%

Labor now 61.3% +23.4%

Armadale
Labor Tony Buti 75.0% +15.4%

Bassendean
Labor Dave Kelly 71.7% +16.5%

Darling Range
previously Very Safe Liberal 63.1%
now
Labor Barry Urban 55.4% +18.4%

Southern River
previously Very Safe Liberal 60.9%
now
Labor Terry Healy 58.6% +19.5%

Wanneroo
previously Safe Liberal 61%
now
Labor Sabine Winton 58.0% +19.0%
and on and on

It would be a shame to try to undermine the achievements of W.A. Labor and turn it into a Federal event
W.A. Labor deserve to bask in the glory they achieved

helvityniMarch 13, 2017 at 10:06 am

Thank you David for La Putinista for Hanson.

Pauline La Putinista has an almost poetic ring to it…

I been reading about Emmanuel Macron, one of the French presidential candidates, and I’m most impressed. I’d be happy to be called La Macronista. 🙂

Henry RodriguesMarch 13, 2017 at 10:10 am

Fantastic essay on the week’s events. Thanks friend. Must recommend it to everyone who wonders about the interpretation of the MSM and the ABC.

Miriam EnglishMarch 13, 2017 at 10:24 am

Superb article. Thanks for the insights David.

Bill ShawMarch 13, 2017 at 10:30 am

Good analysis David. Barrie Cassidy needs to read this before fronting Insiders again. He and his program way out of touch.

Peter FMarch 13, 2017 at 10:46 am

Wonderful article, David. I think you are correct with your chosen headline. The scary thing is that PH actually got so much further than that other QLD intellectual Joh.

TracieMarch 13, 2017 at 10:52 am

Not sure if you live in WA or not, but the Centrelink robo-debt fiasco wasn’t actually really one of the issues here. It was privatisation, along with the Roe 8,9,10 fiasco. Basically, the local issues outclassed the federal ones. Apart from Pauline, which we took full and total advantage of.

https://thewest.com.au/politics/state-election-2017/liberals-punished-for-roe-8-go-ahead-ng-b88412813z

helvityniMarch 13, 2017 at 11:09 am

Bill Shaw, I thought that Cassidy’s Pauline interview was influential in people going against her. He did not attack ‘poor’ Pauline, people didn’t need to feel sorry for Pauline. No sympathy vote for the underdog resulted…

I also found that Barrie was almost smirking on yesterday’s Insiders, he was rightly pleased….

Mick ByronMarch 13, 2017 at 11:28 am

Tracie
I have spoken to many on Twitter Facebook who worked on this election and they confirm much what you are saying that it was a mainly State issue campaign and they are a bit perturbed that those from the eastern states who had little or nothing to do with the campaign are trying to make it as though it was some sort of Federal referendum when in fact other than One Nation, Federal issues or Turnbull for that matter were rarely mentioned.
This is coming from people who worked full time for weeks and volunteers who doorknocked for hours on end.
It seems to be taking away from the effort they put in trying to make it something it wasn’t

TracieMarch 13, 2017 at 11:34 am

Thanks Mick

It’s not even that we disliked seeing Barnett’s face or anything, like what was indicated shortly before the election. We were devastated that – even with the election looming – Barnett decided to destroy the Wetlands anyway. It was pure spite, knowing that the community didn’t want it. Whenever we tried to talk to people, Barnett would shut us down. We weren’t listened to.

Turnbull’s name was barely said. Federal issues were barely said.

So could people please see it from WA’s point of view for once? The list was long for everyone to throw Barnett out, from a state viewpoint.

Jennifer Meyer-SmithMarch 13, 2017 at 11:56 am

A great read, David. I enjoyed the funny bits laughing at the absurdities you rightly identified about all the nutters in the Liberal Party and their would-be partners in crime, Hanson’s One Nation.

Unfortunately, the smile fell off my face when again reminded about the appalling inequities faced by women in their socio-economic circumstances, and the lack of political leadership in working against that inequity.

Jennifer Meyer-SmithMarch 13, 2017 at 11:59 am

Tracie,

despite Barnett’s environmental vandalism (for which he should be charged now that he does not have the protection of the Premier’s office), is there anything that can be retrieved and saved from the Wetlands?

JohnMarch 13, 2017 at 12:00 pm

David, I was enjoying reading this until I got to the completely false bit about Russia:

“.. one who invades others to seize lands where ethnic Russians may live – as indicated by his incursion into Georgia, his seizure of Crimea and his role in the “frozen conflict” in eastern Ukraine.

“.. when MH17 a Boeing 777 flying civilians was blasted out of the sky over Ukraine by a Russian missile, an act for which Hanson’s beloved strong leader, Vladimir Putin, refuses to take responsibility.”

You need to stop watching TV news.

TracieMarch 13, 2017 at 12:04 pm

Yes, there is much to be retrieved and saved. Already the community have many trees to be planted. Plans are already being organised to regenerate. This is going to be part of our healing process. I have seen that some plants have already started on their own, as Barnett couldn’t quite kill some of it off completely.

I am desperate for Barnett to be charged for his illegal behaviour in relation to this. This was an illegal construction, and going ahead against community wishes and with Labor repeatedly saying they would tear up the contracts is criminal.

Jennifer Meyer-SmithMarch 13, 2017 at 12:20 pm

Good news, Tracie.

FreethinkerMarch 13, 2017 at 12:23 pm

An enjoyable article, would be nice to see it on the main Queensland newspapers but I doubt that the editors will accept it.

KyranMarch 13, 2017 at 12:26 pm

“Of course there are local factors. Barnett’s switched-on plan to privatise state electricity in WA seems a turn off for voters.”
So, how does our ABC report on this?

“Western Australia’s business sector hopes a new Labor government will consider a broader privatisation agenda for state assets, as the state’s debt levels mount.
WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) chief executive Deidre Willmott said the CCI hoped the new government would take a fresh look at privatisation, despite a pledge by the party not to sell off the state’s main electricity utility.”

“Labor is facing a budget blowout of $3 billion this financial year, and $1.5 billion in 2017-18, while state debt is projected to climb to $41.1 billion by mid-2020.”

Just to be clear, the Labor government hasn’t been sworn in yet. It is, however, implied that it is their budget blowout. Imbedded in that last sentence is a link to a 9th February article, detailing the ‘hospital handpass’.

It’s worth a look, only to the extent that the ABC, our ABC, chose to lead with a lobby group’s wish list, whilst making only passing reference to the will of the people. Those nasty little buggers. The voters.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-13/privatisation-push-by-business-lobby-as-labor-faces-rising-debt/8348404

Thank you Mr Tyler. May the madness end sooner rather than later. Take care

JaquixMarch 13, 2017 at 12:41 pm

Pauline crying over spoilt milk. Wonderful to see. Barrie Cassidy will have to entice her to do another interview, a couple of weeks before the next Queensland state election, in particular. James Ashby may not allow it of course.

David1March 13, 2017 at 12:49 pm

Great article David and re @John and his criticism of your interpretation of Russia, Putin, MH17 and invasions. It is very easy to attack you, but without backing up the ‘assertions’ John made, his comments mean diddly squat and are not worthy of further consideration. i suspect David you hit a deep sore point.
Look forward to your future work.

paulwalterMarch 13, 2017 at 12:58 pm

Guthrie’s ABC is a useless thing, no longer bearing any resemblance to the public interest broadcaster that once put presentation of facts and informed,objective commentary ahead of consent manufacture in the cause of vested interests led by the banks, oil TNC’s and media barons.

The result is a Tea Party world where deluded cranks put home schooling and anti vax before an adequate appreciation of how the balance between democracy and a healthy civil society has been altered in the interests of Big Business to the extent of inducing material failure for a once functional civilisation, what we now have is a sort regress almost to cannibalism as exemplified in Centrelink and penalty rates cuts, wilful smashing of education, communications and information flow and destruction of both political and environmental ecologies for nothing more interest of nothing more than the flourishing of the sterile psychoses of people like Rupert Murdoch, dislocated from reality, facilitated by opportunist scum in the media,

Florence nee FedupMarch 13, 2017 at 1:01 pm

I believe even Greens out voted One Nation by 2 to 1. Not getting much of a mention. Result doesn’t fit in with voters punishing established parties. Seem to be punishing those who don’t deliver.

Florence nee FedupMarch 13, 2017 at 1:06 pm

Interesting to see government MP quickly setting record straight that PM didn’t really talk about batteries while pushing clean coal. I wonder if he is desperate enough to back battery farm over wish his government?

CEFC is already going down this track. Suspect SA will release their new energy policies this week. Wouldn’t surprise me if they don’t wedge PM.

See that stupid video PM took part in last Saturday night?

David TylerMarch 13, 2017 at 1:12 pm

Well said, Paul. To say nothing of Guthrie’s direct link to the Rupert stable or the contempt she showed before the senate committee. Turnbull handpicked this destroyer. No interview required. Funding cuts; staff cuts and political attacks have all played their part in turning our ABC into some pathetic tabloid parody. The IPA are cheering. Next stage is to sell it off. Goodbye objectivity, accuracy or informing the community.

James O'NeillMarch 13, 2017 at 1:12 pm

@John & David 1. I was also enjoying the article until I got to the quoted piece about Putin,
Russia and MH17. That was a complete distortion of fact. Happy to back up my assertions David1. Aimn has only to offer the space.

Alan BairdMarch 13, 2017 at 1:27 pm

Yeah, 2GB has already been making copious excuses for Pauline. If they had to choose between Hanson & Turnbull the former would get the nod. As much as the Pauline-Putin admiration is simultaneously obnoxious and nutty, I find the Malaysian aircraft destruction more a product of a knowingly reckless donation of deadly weapons by a thug for his fellow Russian-Ukrainian thugs to play with. More chilling is Putin’s cold “elimination” of “selected” political and journalistic opposition, calculated to act as an object lesson to all Russians.
While I smile at the WA debacle and enjoy the recriminations among the calculating-to-nutty section of the right-wing spectrum, the boring but important stuff starts soon and it’s here where Labor so often goes all soft-and-runny. Already my attention has been attracted by Kim Beasley praising the new Labor leader as a “safe pair of hands”. Years ago, Kim was anointed by Gerard Henderson as the “best opposition leader” during the reign of John Winston Howard because of his ineffectual results due to his very “safe pair of hands” that couldn’t land a blow. In effect, ANY Labor leader praised by Gerard Henderson must accept it as “fulsome” praise ie. a deliberately sarcastic laugh, the kind politicians use whenever one of their “user” mates retires. If the new premier does what the US democrats did and suck up to the Big End (and accept their “donations”) we can look forward to a further dose of cynical distrust of the “Big Two” and plenty of room for a “Trumpette” for Oz. The electorate may be slow on average but they eventually cotton on and know when they’ve been had (SNAFU) .

RoswellMarch 13, 2017 at 1:32 pm

Some people get very sensitive over Putin. I don’t. There’s something about him I don’t like. ?

Jennifer Meyer-SmithMarch 13, 2017 at 1:40 pm

Well said, Alan Baird.

I hope for WA’s sake that McGowan proves to be a visionary innovator and a progressive, who implements an array of democratic socialist policies and political platforms while stomping on the neoliberalist so-called “safe pair of hands”.

I hope McGowan shows leadership like Weatherill appears to be intending with his discussions with Elon Musk regarding solar energy batteries.

We need visionary leaders throughout Australia.

helvityniMarch 13, 2017 at 1:47 pm

Yes, Jennifer; we need someone visionary, therefore there’s no use looking towards, Dutton, Morrison or Bishop, vision-impaired all three of them…

Andrew McKennaMarch 13, 2017 at 1:48 pm

Generally a good analysis, but unfortunately you’re a victim of our media and a blinkered western world view. I was enjoying this article until you started trotting out the tired old dogma our media expect us to believe:

Russia’s incursion into Georgia (provoked by fascist Georgia)

Russian seizure of Crimea (Crimea was originally part of Russia, lost when the USSR collapsed)

Putin’s role in Ukraine (where the US is clearly supporting Ukrainian fascists)

None of this takes into account the 1990s US assurance that it would not encroach on any of the former Soviet Republics or persuade them to join Nato, when in fact all have now either joined or come under US influence. It’s naive and simplistic to accuse Putin of being a ‘despot’: do you get your views from the Murdoch press? Did you forget the up to 20 million Russian citizens killed during WWII, and Russia’s understandable nerves at fascists on its doorstep?

You seem to be making facts up as you go: what was the finding that a Russian missile ‘blasted MH17 out of the sky’? It is likely the Ukrainians shot the plane down: http://www.globalresearch.ca/mh17-verdict-real-evidence-points-to-us-kiev-cover-up-of-failed-false-flag/5393317 , but as I’m sure you are aware, truth is the first casualty of war. You don’t know who shot the plane down, just as I don’t, and to so confidently attribute it to the Russians makes me question your analysis.

To question the orthodoxy of the day on vaccination is to be branded a lunatic, but history is littered with instances of the orthodoxy of the day being wrong and a few brave individuals who spoke out. I’m not for a moment labelling Hanson a ‘brave individual’, but I’m sure you’re aware of the hysteria that surrounds anyone who questions the legitimacy of giving babies, with underdeveloped immune systems, a cocktail of chemicals at 6 weeks old. (And just wait for the hysterical comments to start loading below). The mere fact that hysteria clouds this issue is enough to make me cautious. There’s notihing quite so terrifying as a human who is convinced they are right.

It’s a relief PHON fizzed in the West. Hanson is a dangerous racist who would take Australia backwards. It was high time Barnett and his big business cronies were thrown out of office.

But you throw out handfuls of ‘facts’ that you could drive a bus through, which doesn’t help your argument..

Kaye LeeMarch 13, 2017 at 1:54 pm

Globalresearch is an anti-“Western” website that can’t distinguish between serious analysis and discreditable junk — and so publishes both. It’s basically the moonbat equivalent to Infowars or WND.

While some of GlobalResearch’s articles discuss legitimate humanitarian concerns, its view of science, economics, and geopolitics is conspiracist — if something goes wrong, the Jews/West did it! The site has long been a crank magnet: If you disagree with “Western” sources on 9/11, or HAARP, or vaccines, or H1N1, or climate change, or anything published by the “mainstream” media, then GlobalResearch is guaranteed to have a page you will love.

“Russia’s incursion into Georgia (provoked by fascist Georgia)”

Oh really? That’s an interesting rewriting of history

There is no hysteria surrounding vaccinations from any sane person. It is only the anti-vaxxers who get hysterical because of crap they have read on sites like globalresearch.

helvityniMarch 13, 2017 at 2:02 pm

Jennifer, talking about visionaries, here’s more from my favourite poet, singer/songwriter, Leonard Cohen.

“Villanelle For Our Time”

From bitter searching of the heart,
Quickened with passion and with pain
We rise to play a greater part.
This is the faith from which we start:
Men shall know commonwealth again
From bitter searching of the heart.
We loved the easy and the smart,
But now, with keener hand and brain,
We rise to play a greater part.
The lesser loyalties depart,
And neither race nor creed remain
From bitter searching of the heart.
Not steering by the venal chart
That tricked the mass for private gain,
We rise to play a greater part.
Reshaping narrow law and art
Whose symbols are the millions slain,
From bitter searching of the heart
We rise to play a greater part.

Of course for starters, you have to have a heart, and to be willing do some BITTER searching… 🙂

Andrew McKennaMarch 13, 2017 at 2:03 pm

Nice try Kaye. Where’s your evidence Russia shot down MH17? In fact no one can prove one way or the other now. My point is that the article throws facts around that either can’t be proven or are the product of mainstream media/murdoch press.

RoswellMarch 13, 2017 at 2:05 pm

She never said they did. She never said they didn’t, either.

Kaye LeeMarch 13, 2017 at 2:07 pm

Obviously you and I are not privy to the evidence on MH17. Where do you think the rebels got missiles and a missile launcher from and the expertise to use them? There is footage taken by eye witnesses of the Buk missile’s route from Russia across the border into Ukraine. There were no attempts to hide the launcher on the back of a large Volvo flatbed truck.

As for there being no chance to find the perpetrators, the investigation is ongoing – they feel they have sufficient evidence for criminal charges.

Jennifer Meyer-SmithMarch 13, 2017 at 2:07 pm

🙂 Beautiful, H

Andrew McKennaMarch 13, 2017 at 2:11 pm

Obviously you and I are not privy to that evidence. Believe what you read in the mainstream press?

David1March 13, 2017 at 2:11 pm

@James O’Neill, I am sure AIM will give any reply you offer with due consideration re space. To reiterate Roswell, the sensitivity re Putin is odd. He is hardly a man of virtue or is that to be refuted as well, surprise me.

Kaye LeeMarch 13, 2017 at 2:18 pm

I certainly don’t believe crackpot sites like globalresearch or Breitbart. They print whatever the Russians want them to print and are home to every conspiracy nutter under the sun

David TylerMarch 13, 2017 at 2:18 pm

There may be hope yet for both Eric and Pauline:

Vladimir Putin marked International Women’s Day by praising Russia’s female population for their “beauty”, “tenderness” and for “always being on time”.

Pauline could be asked if she still admires her strong leader in the light of the following:

1. The Russian President has also approved a law to decriminalise domestic violence.

2. He also once said he “envied” a politician who was accused of multiple counts of rape.

Andrew McKennaMarch 13, 2017 at 2:23 pm

uh, sorry Kaye, my point is the Russian shooting down of MH17 can’t be proved. Show me the evidence? The article espouses the view as if it’s established fact, which it’s not. And maybe you could keep your discourse reasonable without getting so hot under the collar?

Kaye LeeMarch 13, 2017 at 2:24 pm

Oh please not another article on MH17. What more could be said beyond the 12 part series already published here.

https://theaimn.com/the-downing-of-malaysia-airlines-mh17-part-12/

Hot under the collar? What makes you assume that? How was my discourse “unreasonable”?

helvityniMarch 13, 2017 at 2:31 pm

David, in my old country ,the Russian women were not admired tor their beauty and tenderness, but for their toughness and resilience. Men were known to love their Vodka, so to look after the families women had to be strong, they were willing to work anywhere, on building sites, in factories…and the girls realised early not to rely on men but studied and became doctors and lawyers themselves…

Of course many of them are also very beautiful, so the West now has plenty of Russian super models… 🙂

RoswellMarch 13, 2017 at 2:33 pm

Kaye, it’s obvious that this bloke is just here to provoke a pointless argument. Ignore him. He’s a nutter.

Christian MarxMarch 13, 2017 at 2:39 pm

Great article, David. Our current political system is nothing but a corporate sham. The mainstream media
is nothing but a mouthpiece for the 1%. Totalitarian indeed!

Kaye LeeMarch 13, 2017 at 2:43 pm

David,

According to Russian government statistics from the Interior Ministry, 40 per cent of all violent crimes are committed within the family. The figures correlate to 36,000 women being beaten by their partners every day and 26,000 children being assaulted by their parents every year. More than 9000 women were killed in domestic violence incidents in 2013 alone in Russia

“Russia’s parliament has voted 380-3 to decriminalise domestic violence in cases where it does not cause “substantial bodily harm” and does not occur more than once a year.”

So once a year it is ok to beat your wife and kids. Happy birthday?

David TylerMarch 13, 2017 at 2:47 pm

The reference to MH17 was intended to contextualise Pauline Hanson’s comments. My article concerns an event widely accepted enough for lawyers to be prepared to go to court over it. Efforts to investigate have been stymied by Russia.

Rather than “throw facts around” as one comment asserts, the wording on MH17 is careful:

“…a Boeing 777 flying civilians was blasted out of the sky over Ukraine by a Russian missile, an act for which Hanson’s beloved strong leader, Vladimir Putin, refuses to take responsibility…”

Here are five facts.

1.Thirty-three relatives from Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia have filed a lawsuit against Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation over the crash that killed 298 people in 2014.
2. Sydney law firm LHD Lawyers has filed the claim in the European Court of Human Rights, an international court based in France.
3. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, an international passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was struck by a surface-to-air missile in July 2014, at the height of the Ukraine conflict.
4. Dutch investigators found the aircraft was shot down by a Russian-made rocket, but did not say who fired it. Ukraine and Western nations say Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine are responsible, but Russia accuses Ukrainian forces.
5. The documents allege that the Russian Federation has worked to keep its involvement hidden. It has failed to conduct an internal investigation, refused to participate in the cockpit reconstruction and its “Pawn Storm” cyber warfare unit hacked into the Dutch Safety Board investigative website, it states.

As Kaye notes, the issue has been already dealt with comprehensively elsewhere. Pauline Hanson also says that Putin did not have his finger on the button – the old you can’t prove he did it response. No. But it is a reasonable presumption given all available evidence. No-one so far has provided reasons to refute this presumption.

nurses1968March 13, 2017 at 3:07 pm

Once the dust had settled on W.A. Labors landslide I wouldn’t mind seeing Labor enter into an agreement with the Nats. It would get them control of the Upper House for the first time ever and support Brendon Grylls in raising the iron ore royalties price to $5 per tonne from 25 cents which the Nats are strong on .
That would be a good starting point

kerriMarch 13, 2017 at 3:28 pm

John
Can you please supply some links to support your view re Russia MH17?
Agree with Hevityni Barry did a good job of giving Pauline enough rope. A skillful interview.
Great article David!
Would love to see Michelle Guthrie in a “talk to the people” on Q&A

ZathrasMarch 13, 2017 at 4:04 pm

Everyone talks about MH17 but the US army shooting down Iran Air Flight 655 never seems rates a mention anymore, despite the similarity between the two events.

As for IAF655, despite the USA being obviously guilty they never admitted liability or apologised to the Iranian government.

Perhaps because there were no Australians among the 290 victims so it wasn’t considered a disaster at all.

Did anyone bother to accuse Ronald Reagan of having his finger on the button?

I wonder what Pauline thinks. I often wonder IF she thinks.

David1March 13, 2017 at 4:19 pm

David and Roswell both your latest posts convince me to cease any further comments with Mr O’Neill.

jimMarch 13, 2017 at 4:32 pm

So sour tits rants on about sour milk really, you’d think she’d be more civilized, she could admit that being a RWNJ ain’t all it cracked up to be and admit she’s not all that sophisticated after all as someone else said, maybe they said that after she took a brown paper bag,after she started talking ’bout the banking industry ?.”sophisticated” Pauleeen?.

When Labor members were appointed to the banking RC, and sought to alter the hearing dates to
allow more time for preparation and to provide additional days for questioning,
the Coalition members used their voting majority to press ahead with dates predetermined
with the banks.
The banks have ridden roughshod over their customers, the Australian people, and
the Turnbull/Abott LNP Government.

the LionMarch 13, 2017 at 4:43 pm

It is Simple the Hansonites still fail to understand 10 per cent of the votes doesn’t give lower house seats, Queensland does not have a lower house, hence there will not be many seats if any at all! I do understand that Queensland is very parochial and the claim of Hanson is a Queenslander might get a few extra votes for her, but even in Queensland in the recent Federal elections she would not have received a quota if it was a half Senate election, she would have only got in on Preferences so we are not sure how she would have gone at all, she however would not have any One nation Senators joining her and as we should note all her current Senators are on three year senate terms and there is a different system in place that was negated by the full double dissolution election!

jimMarch 13, 2017 at 4:44 pm

The banks argue that a Royal Commission could drag on. This is not an argument
against conducting a Royal Commission. This is a statement of fault, a frightened
thought for years of misbehaviour.

The only way to achieve any form of justice for
the victims of the banks, and the only way to truly shine a light on the practices
that drive unethical behaviour in the banking industry, is to hold a Royal
Commission. Why bother the people bail them out when the fall, this definitely does NOT work the other way around though you bet your raw onion it don’t,eh. And whats a few more suicides and wrecked lives it’s what the RWNJs do.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2817-right-wing-governments-increase-suicide-rates/

James O'NeillMarch 13, 2017 at 5:34 pm

Re David Tyler at 2.47pm. You refer to a “Russian missile” which in its context is misleading. The BUK missile was manufactured in Russia, but is used in a number of countries, including Ukraine. On 14 July 2014 a Ukrainian BUK regiment was in Donbass with three separate locations. Why would they need them? The “separatists” do n to have an air force.
You refer to the proceedings in the ECHR. Those cannot proceed until domestic remedies have been exhausted. Tim Lauschet has filed in the NSW Supreme Court. As of last week those proceedings have gone nowhere.
Your point (5) is not a “fact”, it is an allegation.
You seem to be unaware of the proceedings last week in the International Court of Justice. A reading of the partie’s submissions is instructive, which is more than can be said of AIMN’s efforts in this area.

cartoonmickMarch 13, 2017 at 6:03 pm

Nice item, thanks David.

Living in Perth, and being an editorial/political cartoonist, I’ve lived and breathed this election campaign and all its weird components.

And yes, I agree it was mainly state issues, but these state issues have underlying elements similar to those present in the Feds performance. Elements such as deaf politicians, arrogance (let them eat cake), unemployment, economy, inefficient use of taxpayers’ money and PRIVATISATION.

If the Feds don’t change their attitude to people, then voters will give them the same treatment the WA Libs received last Saturday.

Privatisation (IMHO) has gone crazy, with elements of the mega business community queuing up and almost demanding the government sell them a state owned asset. These assets are created with the tax payers money, are owned by the people, and should only be sold with the peoples specific approval.

This cartoon looks at privatisation . . . https://cartoonmick.wordpress.com/editorial-political/#jp-carousel-1031

Cheers
Mick

corvus boreusMarch 13, 2017 at 6:11 pm

nurses,
Novel though the idea is, I do not realistically see Labor and the Nats forming any kind of alliance in order to push the idea of an increased ‘steel mining tax’ through the WA parliament.
Labor specifically campaigned against implementing any such policy, and received strong lobbying support from not only the CFMEU but also the WA Chamber of Minerals and Energy.
Also Nationals leader Brendon Grylls, the chief architect of the proposed increase on royalties levied for iron-ore extraction, looks very likely to lose his seat to Labor’s Kevin Michaels.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-13/wa-election-brendon-grylls-facing-defeat-joe-francis-in-danger/8347864

Terry2March 13, 2017 at 6:13 pm

Pauline Hanson needs to remember that she is a Queensland senator and is paid as a Queensland senator to look after the affairs of Queensland.

I hope that all this electioneering in WA was being done with One Nation Party funds and not the taxpayer : whoever checks on politician’s expenses needs to look closely at claims made by Ms Hanson.

keertiMarch 13, 2017 at 7:13 pm

There is one thing that destroyed barnet and his merry band of wankers. That is his “government’s” inability to manage state finances. As someone once said, “It’s the economy stupid.” It is the same thing that will bring turnpuke crashing into ignominy. Following behind that is the trashing of the environment (esp in WA with Roe Highway) All of that overlayed with the jumping of ship that happens in the australian psyche when it finally gets through that the population is being beaten up by a bunch of bullies (ala workchoices…no choice at all!). Un fortunately the knee jerk is not a sign of a rising intelligence, it is generally due to the hypnosis of an effective slogan (jabs and growth…and that turned out to be little more than a slight stretch of a foreskin!)

Möbius EckoMarch 13, 2017 at 7:44 pm

Morrison’s argument for Barnett’s political thrashing is the its time one. He said that eight years is long enough for any government.

So Howard should have handed over to Labor halfway through his second term and I bet Morrison won’t wear his government standing down after eight years.

Jennifer Meyer-SmithMarch 13, 2017 at 8:09 pm

Interesting nonetheless, that even the most RWNJ’s like Morrisscum recognise how much Gough was loved.

Labor should take a relook at the Gough factor and see how Gough won people’s hearts and minds. McGowan’s win is really good for sure, but it is nothing like Gough’s in 1972.

Shorten must take heed of what good, heart-warming leadership means. If he doesn’t, he’ll just be obsolete like Turnbull is.

Möbius EckoMarch 13, 2017 at 8:20 pm

Oops, third term. Though Howard out in his second term would have been great and we wouldn’t be in half the shit we’re now in.

Alan BairdMarch 13, 2017 at 10:03 pm

Yeah, Shorten will need to come up with a clear statement of intent and methods to restore a fair distribution of wealth in Oz. Trumble continues to steer Oz towards a scenario I just saw located in the good ole US of A courtesy of 4 Corners tonight. A straight-from-the-shoulder expose of the economic “recovery” as experienced by Joe Average. One Joe was living in a pup tent in Seattle with his wife & kids and the city becomes unpleasant in winter. Fun for Dick and Jane! This story has been told many, many times with different names and an UNLIMITED cast of characters (millions to choose from) by any number of quality journalists over decades of US economic history over the last few decades. Penalty rates (back at home) is just the latest manifestation of the pressure necessarily ALWAYS being applied to the low paid ‘cos the rich squeal and have media mates who have journalist mercenaries to rely on. Seneca observed a couple of thou ago that the wealthy have the shortest tempers. Trump has been created by these trends evident in US & Oz. This week I also heard Thomas Frank describing why the Democrats as exemplified by Hillary have lost the plot and have developed tin ears when the poor are treated badly. THERE ARE CLEAR SIMILARITIES IN LABOR AND DEMOCRAT SYMPTOMS. If Labor sees fit to simply “go through the motions” to avoid controversy they’ll be the author of their own ejection. They need to be representatives, not of a few but of the many. It’s simply NOT good enough to do as the Libs ROUTINELY do and announce on election night that they’ll be “governing for all the people” when WE know they they left out the words, “…who are conservative voters, especially if they’re wealthy”.
PS. ScoMo today said Oz wages have stagnated for too long! Coulda knocked me down wiv a fevva! Did he mean CEOs?

Matters NotMarch 13, 2017 at 10:19 pm

Also watching 4 Corners. Amazed that those at the bottom of the pile are so accepting (relatively) of their situation.

The economic divide magnifies. No worries, Trump will fix it. It’s all about ‘belief’.

RoswellMarch 14, 2017 at 12:09 am

Alan, Morrison was probably referring to HIS wages. The man needs a pay rise. He’s over-worked and under-paid.

RoswellMarch 14, 2017 at 12:13 am

“No worries, Trump will fix it”.

MN, do you think Hanson might have had a similar agenda? “No worries, Pauline will fix it”.

It’s easy to assume it’s a winning pledge. One would think that if it worked for Trump, it could work for anybody. Difference is, Americans are more easily fooled. Just.

paulwalterMarch 14, 2017 at 2:38 am

The 4 Corners was horrific.

Harmonisation.

NOW do people understand what the Centrelink/penalty rates thrust is about?

IPA, directly spread from Extremist US Contrarianism and spread like the Plague by Murdoch, as has been the pattern for decades.

Möbius EckoMarch 14, 2017 at 7:24 am

Matter Not @ 10:19 “Amazed that those at the bottom of the pile are so accepting (relatively) of their situation.”

Not really, you only need look at history.

People can put up with an awful lot of misery and oppression before they fight back, but there is a limit to their endurance of hardship and oppression. Hundreds of revolutions, the overthrow of many dictators and the downfall of monarchies throughout history attest to this.

My belief, and it’s just a gut feel, Americans were getting close to the breaking point.

Jennifer Meyer-SmithMarch 14, 2017 at 7:54 am

I hope you’re right, Mobius.

Lorraine StansfiewldMarch 14, 2017 at 7:55 am

Thank you Tracie for enlightening me on WA issues. I for one was ignorant of the real issues that beset the people of Western Australia and will now read with interest your link to thewest.com.au.

Alan BairdMarch 14, 2017 at 8:10 am

Yes paulwaiter, “harmonisation” is a new example of “management-speak” and is used in connection with penalty rates lately, specifically, the reduction of weekend wages to that of weekday wages, ie. making them “the same” with no “disruptive” “higher weekend bits” protruding above the other bits on the weekly wage graph. “Harmonisation” is such a benign-sounding word isn’t it… sort of “smoothing” the wage rate over the week, ie. a straight line. Strangely enough, we NEVER hear about “harmonising” the CEO wage rate with say, the rest of the great unwashed. I mean, their rate REALLY sticks up in a most disturbing and excessively GREEDY way when placed on a graph with the rest of us. They need “harmonising” and I’ll feel better then. A feeling of harmony will descend upon me… aah. And neo-cons, you can stick your “politics of envy” right up there where the sun rarely shines. An appropriate place for a stupid term.

Jennifer Meyer-SmithMarch 14, 2017 at 8:29 am

I will be harmonised when the peasants come with their pitchforks.

helvityniMarch 14, 2017 at 9:35 am

It was heartbreaking to watch, it made me cry , it made me angry…in Oz we call these unfortunate people dole- bludgers, they walked miles just trying to find a day’s work; make Trump and Dutton to spend a day in these desperate peoples’ shoes… oh, yes, invite Tudge , Trumble and Brandis too, they can take that empty tent…

Terry2March 14, 2017 at 9:37 am

The WA election has obscured the discussion about penalty rates and in particular comments made by Turnbull on 3 March, as follows :

“The Prime Minister indicated the Government would push the commission to phase in the penalty rate cuts over two to five years in bid to ensure workers were not worse off.

Mr Turnbull said an element of modern awards was that any changes would not reduce the take-home pay of workers.

One option was to have the commission make a take-home pay order that whittles back penalty rates at the same time as annual minimum wage increases are awarded. The employee’s overall pay packet increases and offsets the phased-in reduction in penalty rates,” Mr Turnbull said. ”

It’s worth repeating what Turnbull said as it is precisely the point that Labor have been making :

“Mr Turnbull said an element of modern awards was that any changes would not reduce the take-home pay of workers.”

Turnbull now just needs to follow through on his rhetoric and we need to remember what he said.

Florence nee FedupMarch 14, 2017 at 9:57 am

I wonder why no one has come up with suggestion maybe people voted for Labor because they believe they have better policies, will govern better.

David TylerMarch 14, 2017 at 10:02 am

Whose MPs are in the main head and shoulders above the woefully talentless Coalition. And who still have some members who give a damn about protecting the rights of ordinary people. Who still believe for example that education is a right for not a luxury commodity for the privileged to enjoy or exploit.

jimMarch 14, 2017 at 1:11 pm

The Real reason is Mal’s LNP want us to believe the only solution is to keep digging up coal.
well one reason IMO is what have the LNP actually done?. Worst government since 1949 across the board too.

Mr Musk offered a “discount price” of $US250/kWh, effectively halving the price of battery storage – for the second time in 12 months.

Depending on how that 100MW is configured, either with two hours of storage or four, that equates to a price of $US50 million for a 200MWh facility or $US100 million for a 400MWh facility. In other words, it is cheaper than gas and can be built in a fraction of the time…………
This should be the wake up call needed to shake Australia’s politicians, regulators and media commentator, and general know it alls in the pub, That they are Delusional thinking that fossil fuels are the only answer to Australia’s so-called energy crisis.

Musk’s Twitter exchange with Cannon-Brookes triggered such a response on social media that he soon had both South Australia premier Jay Weatherill and prime minister Malcolm Turnbull on the phone, and had changed the debate about Australia’s energy future – something that thousands of submissions and endless reports had failed to do.

And the internet.

Jennifer Meyer-SmithMarch 14, 2017 at 1:37 pm

Musk is certainly the game changer.

Florence nee FedupMarch 14, 2017 at 1:54 pm

SA now has plan, putting money where their mouth is. Should work. Where is the federal government plan?

Miriam EnglishMarch 14, 2017 at 2:40 pm

The LNP certainly has a plan. It plans to stick with 19th Century technology: burning coal in aging steam engines to generate electricity.

It’s just not a very good plan.

Miriam EnglishMarch 14, 2017 at 2:50 pm

I have to admit that lithium ion batteries do worry me a little bit. They do wear out… well, strictly speaking, they don’t so much wear out as ending up coating one of their electrodes with an impermeable layer, preventing the battery from continuing to charge and discharge. There is some technology that can extend their life for many years, but nevertheless, each time they’re recharged they lose some of their capacity due to this effect. I don’t know how long Elon Musk’s batteries will last. I do know he’s using the best technology available so his will last longer than anybody else’s, but how long is that? How long until they need to be replaced? And does it really matter? There will probably be vastly improved storage technology available by then.

jimhazMarch 14, 2017 at 3:30 pm

Naturally The Australian talked the Musk idea down.

“In this newspaper yesterday, a former chief executive of Caltex Australia, Barry Murphy, calculated that a 100 MWh battery system could have supplied South Australia’s entire demand (measured at 3pm on Saturday) for 3.6 minutes before requiring a recharge, or 4276 homes for 24 hours based on average household demand. Not much good during a heatwave with no wind and the interconnector to Victoria down”

Looking at the figure of 4276 for 24 hours that seems fine to me. As blackouts usually don’t last for 24 hours, nor cover an entire state, this would equate to 34208 homes for 3 hours. In any case we are only talking 100m – just double it.

Not that I want batteries – I would prefer Solar-Hydro as the dams required could also be used for some irrigation or use sea water. Barry Murphy is now selling nuclear.

paulwalterMarch 14, 2017 at 3:54 pm

I see Kaye Lee and Roswell are derailing yet another real world thread, in this case the defeat of the Tories in WA, to self indulge over “the Russians” again, but I haven’t seen such hysteria paranoia over “the Russians” since Joe McCarthy and the DLP.

Dealing with issues like the destruction of public broadcasting HERE, might be a little more profitable for Australians, given the pervasive nature of consent manufacture now apparent in this country.

Like, if I want Uhilmann or IPA/ Murdoch style nonsenses, I already have the ABC, right?

I take it some have seen the Wong /Uhlmann interview that just happened? Uhlmann was shattered by Wong and it is relevant to THE THREAD, because of the power privatisation plan mooted so emphatically rejected by a public sick to the gills of this sort of rubbish.

paulwalterMarch 14, 2017 at 4:35 pm

i see “Bear” Grylls has conceded. The ABC announces this as the result of a sustained campaign by BHP and others to block Grylls’ proposal for a resource tax.

Was the ABC framing their story as a warning to the Labor that resource taxes can be “ünpopular”? How so?

If Grylls was kicked out it would be for far more than a resources tax, which would actually make sense to me.

But it does demonstrate how massive TNC’s will resist even a token rebalancing of wealth share and that ought to be seen as shameful, not a politician’s attempts to redress such an imbalance.

I hope Labor picks up where Grylls failed, if the reports are correct and apply the tax for the benefit of West Australians and Australians in general, who have had enough of disloyal tax dodging carpetbaggers,

paulwalterMarch 14, 2017 at 11:48 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzvhIKLB274

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RoswellMarch 13, 2017 at 9:34 am

Outstanding article, David. Simply outstanding.
wamMarch 13, 2017 at 9:40 am

nice read!!!
Wonder if a quarter of the readers are women who believe the cultural and religious view that some women are good but overall they do not have the god given reliability of men because they cannot be trusted for a full 30 day effort.
David TylerMarch 13, 2017 at 9:52 am

Thanks, Roswell. Amazing to see in this morning’s MSM the consensus forming – hardening into orthodoxy – that the Liberal rout was all to do with state issues. Pauline Hanson on the other hand is putting the boot into Labor for spooking voters over the preference deal. Do I hear an echo of Turnbull’s Wentworth Hotel whinge?
Lorraine StansfiewldMarch 13, 2017 at 9:55 am

Very good article. The Australian political landscape is very scary.
Mick ByronMarch 13, 2017 at 10:04 am

The West Australian Labor party faithful must be over the moon and it seems to be overlooked just how important the hundreds of door knocking Labor and union volunteers played in pushing home the local W.A. issues.
This was first and foremost an election about West Australian politics and the Federal fallout was but a bonus.
NO party other than Labor comes out of this election with any glory.
Mark McGowan put his plan out there early with Labors 200 fresh ideas
https://www.markmcgowan.com.au/files/MarkMcGowanFreshIdeas.pdf
and some of the results at this stage of counting are quite astounding

Bunbury
Previously Very Safe Liberal 62.2%

Labor now 61.3% +23.4%

Armadale
Labor Tony Buti 75.0% +15.4%

Bassendean
Labor Dave Kelly 71.7% +16.5%

Darling Range
previously Very Safe Liberal 63.1%
now
Labor Barry Urban 55.4% +18.4%

Southern River
previously Very Safe Liberal 60.9%
now
Labor Terry Healy 58.6% +19.5%

Wanneroo
previously Safe Liberal 61%
now
Labor Sabine Winton 58.0% +19.0%
and on and on

It would be a shame to try to undermine the achievements of W.A. Labor and turn it into a Federal event
W.A. Labor deserve to bask in the glory they achieved
helvityniMarch 13, 2017 at 10:06 am

Thank you David for La Putinista for Hanson.

Pauline La Putinista has an almost poetic ring to it…

I been reading about Emmanuel Macron, one of the French presidential candidates, and I’m most impressed. I’d be happy to be called La Macronista. 🙂
Henry RodriguesMarch 13, 2017 at 10:10 am

Fantastic essay on the week’s events. Thanks friend. Must recommend it to everyone who wonders about the interpretation of the MSM and the ABC.
Miriam EnglishMarch 13, 2017 at 10:24 am

Superb article. Thanks for the insights David.
Bill ShawMarch 13, 2017 at 10:30 am

Good analysis David. Barrie Cassidy needs to read this before fronting Insiders again. He and his program way out of touch.
Peter FMarch 13, 2017 at 10:46 am

Wonderful article, David. I think you are correct with your chosen headline. The scary thing is that PH actually got so much further than that other QLD intellectual Joh.
TracieMarch 13, 2017 at 10:52 am

Not sure if you live in WA or not, but the Centrelink robo-debt fiasco wasn’t actually really one of the issues here. It was privatisation, along with the Roe 8,9,10 fiasco. Basically, the local issues outclassed the federal ones. Apart from Pauline, which we took full and total advantage of.

https://thewest.com.au/politics/state-election-2017/liberals-punished-for-roe-8-go-ahead-ng-b88412813z
helvityniMarch 13, 2017 at 11:09 am

Bill Shaw, I thought that Cassidy’s Pauline interview was influential in people going against her. He did not attack ‘poor’ Pauline, people didn’t need to feel sorry for Pauline. No sympathy vote for the underdog resulted…

I also found that Barrie was almost smirking on yesterday’s Insiders, he was rightly pleased….
Mick ByronMarch 13, 2017 at 11:28 am

Tracie
I have spoken to many on Twitter Facebook who worked on this election and they confirm much what you are saying that it was a mainly State issue campaign and they are a bit perturbed that those from the eastern states who had little or nothing to do with the campaign are trying to make it as though it was some sort of Federal referendum when in fact other than One Nation, Federal issues or Turnbull for that matter were rarely mentioned.
This is coming from people who worked full time for weeks and volunteers who doorknocked for hours on end.
It seems to be taking away from the effort they put in trying to make it something it wasn’t
TracieMarch 13, 2017 at 11:34 am

Thanks Mick

It’s not even that we disliked seeing Barnett’s face or anything, like what was indicated shortly before the election. We were devastated that – even with the election looming – Barnett decided to destroy the Wetlands anyway. It was pure spite, knowing that the community didn’t want it. Whenever we tried to talk to people, Barnett would shut us down. We weren’t listened to.

Turnbull’s name was barely said. Federal issues were barely said.

So could people please see it from WA’s point of view for once? The list was long for everyone to throw Barnett out, from a state viewpoint.
Jennifer Meyer-SmithMarch 13, 2017 at 11:56 am

A great read, David. I enjoyed the funny bits laughing at the absurdities you rightly identified about all the nutters in the Liberal Party and their would-be partners in crime, Hanson’s One Nation.

Unfortunately, the smile fell off my face when again reminded about the appalling inequities faced by women in their socio-economic circumstances, and the lack of political leadership in working against that inequity.
Jennifer Meyer-SmithMarch 13, 2017 at 11:59 am

Tracie,

despite Barnett’s environmental vandalism (for which he should be charged now that he does not have the protection of the Premier’s office), is there anything that can be retrieved and saved from the Wetlands?
JohnMarch 13, 2017 at 12:00 pm

David, I was enjoying reading this until I got to the completely false bit about Russia:

“.. one who invades others to seize lands where ethnic Russians may live – as indicated by his incursion into Georgia, his seizure of Crimea and his role in the “frozen conflict” in eastern Ukraine.

“.. when MH17 a Boeing 777 flying civilians was blasted out of the sky over Ukraine by a Russian missile, an act for which Hanson’s beloved strong leader, Vladimir Putin, refuses to take responsibility.”

You need to stop watching TV news.
TracieMarch 13, 2017 at 12:04 pm

Yes, there is much to be retrieved and saved. Already the community have many trees to be planted. Plans are already being organised to regenerate. This is going to be part of our healing process. I have seen that some plants have already started on their own, as Barnett couldn’t quite kill some of it off completely.

I am desperate for Barnett to be charged for his illegal behaviour in relation to this. This was an illegal construction, and going ahead against community wishes and with Labor repeatedly saying they would tear up the contracts is criminal.
Jennifer Meyer-SmithMarch 13, 2017 at 12:20 pm

Good news, Tracie.
FreethinkerMarch 13, 2017 at 12:23 pm

An enjoyable article, would be nice to see it on the main Queensland newspapers but I doubt that the editors will accept it.
KyranMarch 13, 2017 at 12:26 pm

“Of course there are local factors. Barnett’s switched-on plan to privatise state electricity in WA seems a turn off for voters.”
So, how does our ABC report on this?

“Western Australia’s business sector hopes a new Labor government will consider a broader privatisation agenda for state assets, as the state’s debt levels mount.
WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) chief executive Deidre Willmott said the CCI hoped the new government would take a fresh look at privatisation, despite a pledge by the party not to sell off the state’s main electricity utility.”

“Labor is facing a budget blowout of $3 billion this financial year, and $1.5 billion in 2017-18, while state debt is projected to climb to $41.1 billion by mid-2020.”

Just to be clear, the Labor government hasn’t been sworn in yet. It is, however, implied that it is their budget blowout. Imbedded in that last sentence is a link to a 9th February article, detailing the ‘hospital handpass’.

It’s worth a look, only to the extent that the ABC, our ABC, chose to lead with a lobby group’s wish list, whilst making only passing reference to the will of the people. Those nasty little buggers. The voters.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-13/privatisation-push-by-business-lobby-as-labor-faces-rising-debt/8348404

Thank you Mr Tyler. May the madness end sooner rather than later. Take care
JaquixMarch 13, 2017 at 12:41 pm

Pauline crying over spoilt milk. Wonderful to see. Barrie Cassidy will have to entice her to do another interview, a couple of weeks before the next Queensland state election, in particular. James Ashby may not allow it of course.
David1March 13, 2017 at 12:49 pm

Great article David and re @John and his criticism of your interpretation of Russia, Putin, MH17 and invasions. It is very easy to attack you, but without backing up the ‘assertions’ John made, his comments mean diddly squat and are not worthy of further consideration. i suspect David you hit a deep sore point.
Look forward to your future work.
paulwalterMarch 13, 2017 at 12:58 pm

Guthrie’s ABC is a useless thing, no longer bearing any resemblance to the public interest broadcaster that once put presentation of facts and informed,objective commentary ahead of consent manufacture in the cause of vested interests led by the banks, oil TNC’s and media barons.

The result is a Tea Party world where deluded cranks put home schooling and anti vax before an adequate appreciation of how the balance between democracy and a healthy civil society has been altered in the interests of Big Business to the extent of inducing material failure for a once functional civilisation, what we now have is a sort regress almost to cannibalism as exemplified in Centrelink and penalty rates cuts, wilful smashing of education, communications and information flow and destruction of both political and environmental ecologies for nothing more interest of nothing more than the flourishing of the sterile psychoses of people like Rupert Murdoch, dislocated from reality, facilitated by opportunist scum in the media,
Florence nee FedupMarch 13, 2017 at 1:01 pm

I believe even Greens out voted One Nation by 2 to 1. Not getting much of a mention. Result doesn’t fit in with voters punishing established parties. Seem to be punishing those who don’t deliver.
Florence nee FedupMarch 13, 2017 at 1:06 pm

Interesting to see government MP quickly setting record straight that PM didn’t really talk about batteries while pushing clean coal. I wonder if he is desperate enough to back battery farm over wish his government?

CEFC is already going down this track. Suspect SA will release their new energy policies this week. Wouldn’t surprise me if they don’t wedge PM.

See that stupid video PM took part in last Saturday night?
David TylerMarch 13, 2017 at 1:12 pm

Well said, Paul. To say nothing of Guthrie’s direct link to the Rupert stable or the contempt she showed before the senate committee. Turnbull handpicked this destroyer. No interview required. Funding cuts; staff cuts and political attacks have all played their part in turning our ABC into some pathetic tabloid parody. The IPA are cheering. Next stage is to sell it off. Goodbye objectivity, accuracy or informing the community.
James O'NeillMarch 13, 2017 at 1:12 pm

@John & David 1. I was also enjoying the article until I got to the quoted piece about Putin,
Russia and MH17. That was a complete distortion of fact. Happy to back up my assertions David1. Aimn has only to offer the space.
Alan BairdMarch 13, 2017 at 1:27 pm

Yeah, 2GB has already been making copious excuses for Pauline. If they had to choose between Hanson & Turnbull the former would get the nod. As much as the Pauline-Putin admiration is simultaneously obnoxious and nutty, I find the Malaysian aircraft destruction more a product of a knowingly reckless donation of deadly weapons by a thug for his fellow Russian-Ukrainian thugs to play with. More chilling is Putin’s cold “elimination” of “selected” political and journalistic opposition, calculated to act as an object lesson to all Russians.
While I smile at the WA debacle and enjoy the recriminations among the calculating-to-nutty section of the right-wing spectrum, the boring but important stuff starts soon and it’s here where Labor so often goes all soft-and-runny. Already my attention has been attracted by Kim Beasley praising the new Labor leader as a “safe pair of hands”. Years ago, Kim was anointed by Gerard Henderson as the “best opposition leader” during the reign of John Winston Howard because of his ineffectual results due to his very “safe pair of hands” that couldn’t land a blow. In effect, ANY Labor leader praised by Gerard Henderson must accept it as “fulsome” praise ie. a deliberately sarcastic laugh, the kind politicians use whenever one of their “user” mates retires. If the new premier does what the US democrats did and suck up to the Big End (and accept their “donations”) we can look forward to a further dose of cynical distrust of the “Big Two” and plenty of room for a “Trumpette” for Oz. The electorate may be slow on average but they eventually cotton on and know when they’ve been had (SNAFU) .
RoswellMarch 13, 2017 at 1:32 pm

Some people get very sensitive over Putin. I don’t. There’s something about him I don’t like. ?
Jennifer Meyer-SmithMarch 13, 2017 at 1:40 pm

Well said, Alan Baird.

I hope for WA’s sake that McGowan proves to be a visionary innovator and a progressive, who implements an array of democratic socialist policies and political platforms while stomping on the neoliberalist so-called “safe pair of hands”.

I hope McGowan shows leadership like Weatherill appears to be intending with his discussions with Elon Musk regarding solar energy batteries.

We need visionary leaders throughout Australia.
helvityniMarch 13, 2017 at 1:47 pm

Yes, Jennifer; we need someone visionary, therefore there’s no use looking towards, Dutton, Morrison or Bishop, vision-impaired all three of them…
Andrew McKennaMarch 13, 2017 at 1:48 pm

Generally a good analysis, but unfortunately you’re a victim of our media and a blinkered western world view. I was enjoying this article until you started trotting out the tired old dogma our media expect us to believe:

Russia’s incursion into Georgia (provoked by fascist Georgia)

Russian seizure of Crimea (Crimea was originally part of Russia, lost when the USSR collapsed)

Putin’s role in Ukraine (where the US is clearly supporting Ukrainian fascists)

None of this takes into account the 1990s US assurance that it would not encroach on any of the former Soviet Republics or persuade them to join Nato, when in fact all have now either joined or come under US influence. It’s naive and simplistic to accuse Putin of being a ‘despot’: do you get your views from the Murdoch press? Did you forget the up to 20 million Russian citizens killed during WWII, and Russia’s understandable nerves at fascists on its doorstep?

You seem to be making facts up as you go: what was the finding that a Russian missile ‘blasted MH17 out of the sky’? It is likely the Ukrainians shot the plane down: http://www.globalresearch.ca/mh17-verdict-real-evidence-points-to-us-kiev-cover-up-of-failed-false-flag/5393317 , but as I’m sure you are aware, truth is the first casualty of war. You don’t know who shot the plane down, just as I don’t, and to so confidently attribute it to the Russians makes me question your analysis.

To question the orthodoxy of the day on vaccination is to be branded a lunatic, but history is littered with instances of the orthodoxy of the day being wrong and a few brave individuals who spoke out. I’m not for a moment labelling Hanson a ‘brave individual’, but I’m sure you’re aware of the hysteria that surrounds anyone who questions the legitimacy of giving babies, with underdeveloped immune systems, a cocktail of chemicals at 6 weeks old. (And just wait for the hysterical comments to start loading below). The mere fact that hysteria clouds this issue is enough to make me cautious. There’s notihing quite so terrifying as a human who is convinced they are right.

It’s a relief PHON fizzed in the West. Hanson is a dangerous racist who would take Australia backwards. It was high time Barnett and his big business cronies were thrown out of office.

But you throw out handfuls of ‘facts’ that you could drive a bus through, which doesn’t help your argument..
Kaye LeeMarch 13, 2017 at 1:54 pm

Globalresearch is an anti-“Western” website that can’t distinguish between serious analysis and discreditable junk — and so publishes both. It’s basically the moonbat equivalent to Infowars or WND.

While some of GlobalResearch’s articles discuss legitimate humanitarian concerns, its view of science, economics, and geopolitics is conspiracist — if something goes wrong, the Jews/West did it! The site has long been a crank magnet: If you disagree with “Western” sources on 9/11, or HAARP, or vaccines, or H1N1, or climate change, or anything published by the “mainstream” media, then GlobalResearch is guaranteed to have a page you will love.

“Russia’s incursion into Georgia (provoked by fascist Georgia)”

Oh really? That’s an interesting rewriting of history

There is no hysteria surrounding vaccinations from any sane person. It is only the anti-vaxxers who get hysterical because of crap they have read on sites like globalresearch.
helvityniMarch 13, 2017 at 2:02 pm

Jennifer, talking about visionaries, here’s more from my favourite poet, singer/songwriter, Leonard Cohen.

“Villanelle For Our Time”

From bitter searching of the heart,
Quickened with passion and with pain
We rise to play a greater part.
This is the faith from which we start:
Men shall know commonwealth again
From bitter searching of the heart.
We loved the easy and the smart,
But now, with keener hand and brain,
We rise to play a greater part.
The lesser loyalties depart,
And neither race nor creed remain
From bitter searching of the heart.
Not steering by the venal chart
That tricked the mass for private gain,
We rise to play a greater part.
Reshaping narrow law and art
Whose symbols are the millions slain,
From bitter searching of the heart
We rise to play a greater part.

Of course for starters, you have to have a heart, and to be willing do some BITTER searching… 🙂
Andrew McKennaMarch 13, 2017 at 2:03 pm

Nice try Kaye. Where’s your evidence Russia shot down MH17? In fact no one can prove one way or the other now. My point is that the article throws facts around that either can’t be proven or are the product of mainstream media/murdoch press.
RoswellMarch 13, 2017 at 2:05 pm

She never said they did. She never said they didn’t, either.
Kaye LeeMarch 13, 2017 at 2:07 pm

Obviously you and I are not privy to the evidence on MH17. Where do you think the rebels got missiles and a missile launcher from and the expertise to use them? There is footage taken by eye witnesses of the Buk missile’s route from Russia across the border into Ukraine. There were no attempts to hide the launcher on the back of a large Volvo flatbed truck.

As for there being no chance to find the perpetrators, the investigation is ongoing – they feel they have sufficient evidence for criminal charges.
Jennifer Meyer-SmithMarch 13, 2017 at 2:07 pm

🙂 Beautiful, H
Andrew McKennaMarch 13, 2017 at 2:11 pm

Obviously you and I are not privy to that evidence. Believe what you read in the mainstream press?
David1March 13, 2017 at 2:11 pm

@James O’Neill, I am sure AIM will give any reply you offer with due consideration re space. To reiterate Roswell, the sensitivity re Putin is odd. He is hardly a man of virtue or is that to be refuted as well, surprise me.
Kaye LeeMarch 13, 2017 at 2:18 pm

I certainly don’t believe crackpot sites like globalresearch or Breitbart. They print whatever the Russians want them to print and are home to every conspiracy nutter under the sun
David TylerMarch 13, 2017 at 2:18 pm

There may be hope yet for both Eric and Pauline:

Vladimir Putin marked International Women’s Day by praising Russia’s female population for their “beauty”, “tenderness” and for “always being on time”.

Pauline could be asked if she still admires her strong leader in the light of the following:

1. The Russian President has also approved a law to decriminalise domestic violence.

2. He also once said he “envied” a politician who was accused of multiple counts of rape.
Andrew McKennaMarch 13, 2017 at 2:23 pm

uh, sorry Kaye, my point is the Russian shooting down of MH17 can’t be proved. Show me the evidence? The article espouses the view as if it’s established fact, which it’s not. And maybe you could keep your discourse reasonable without getting so hot under the collar?
Kaye LeeMarch 13, 2017 at 2:24 pm

Oh please not another article on MH17. What more could be said beyond the 12 part series already published here.

https://theaimn.com/the-downing-of-malaysia-airlines-mh17-part-12/

Hot under the collar? What makes you assume that? How was my discourse “unreasonable”?
helvityniMarch 13, 2017 at 2:31 pm

David, in my old country ,the Russian women were not admired tor their beauty and tenderness, but for their toughness and resilience. Men were known to love their Vodka, so to look after the families women had to be strong, they were willing to work anywhere, on building sites, in factories…and the girls realised early not to rely on men but studied and became doctors and lawyers themselves…

Of course many of them are also very beautiful, so the West now has plenty of Russian super models… 🙂
RoswellMarch 13, 2017 at 2:33 pm

Kaye, it’s obvious that this bloke is just here to provoke a pointless argument. Ignore him. He’s a nutter.
Christian MarxMarch 13, 2017 at 2:39 pm

Great article, David. Our current political system is nothing but a corporate sham. The mainstream media
is nothing but a mouthpiece for the 1%. Totalitarian indeed!
Kaye LeeMarch 13, 2017 at 2:43 pm

David,

According to Russian government statistics from the Interior Ministry, 40 per cent of all violent crimes are committed within the family. The figures correlate to 36,000 women being beaten by their partners every day and 26,000 children being assaulted by their parents every year. More than 9000 women were killed in domestic violence incidents in 2013 alone in Russia

“Russia’s parliament has voted 380-3 to decriminalise domestic violence in cases where it does not cause “substantial bodily harm” and does not occur more than once a year.”

So once a year it is ok to beat your wife and kids. Happy birthday?
David TylerMarch 13, 2017 at 2:47 pm

The reference to MH17 was intended to contextualise Pauline Hanson’s comments. My article concerns an event widely accepted enough for lawyers to be prepared to go to court over it. Efforts to investigate have been stymied by Russia.

Rather than “throw facts around” as one comment asserts, the wording on MH17 is careful:

“…a Boeing 777 flying civilians was blasted out of the sky over Ukraine by a Russian missile, an act for which Hanson’s beloved strong leader, Vladimir Putin, refuses to take responsibility…”

Here are five facts.

1.Thirty-three relatives from Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia have filed a lawsuit against Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation over the crash that killed 298 people in 2014.
2. Sydney law firm LHD Lawyers has filed the claim in the European Court of Human Rights, an international court based in France.
3. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, an international passenger flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was struck by a surface-to-air missile in July 2014, at the height of the Ukraine conflict.
4. Dutch investigators found the aircraft was shot down by a Russian-made rocket, but did not say who fired it. Ukraine and Western nations say Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine are responsible, but Russia accuses Ukrainian forces.
5. The documents allege that the Russian Federation has worked to keep its involvement hidden. It has failed to conduct an internal investigation, refused to participate in the cockpit reconstruction and its “Pawn Storm” cyber warfare unit hacked into the Dutch Safety Board investigative website, it states.

As Kaye notes, the issue has been already dealt with comprehensively elsewhere. Pauline Hanson also says that Putin did not have his finger on the button – the old you can’t prove he did it response. No. But it is a reasonable presumption given all available evidence. No-one so far has provided reasons to refute this presumption.
nurses1968March 13, 2017 at 3:07 pm

Once the dust had settled on W.A. Labors landslide I wouldn’t mind seeing Labor enter into an agreement with the Nats. It would get them control of the Upper House for the first time ever and support Brendon Grylls in raising the iron ore royalties price to $5 per tonne from 25 cents which the Nats are strong on .
That would be a good starting point
kerriMarch 13, 2017 at 3:28 pm

John
Can you please supply some links to support your view re Russia MH17?
Agree with Hevityni Barry did a good job of giving Pauline enough rope. A skillful interview.
Great article David!
Would love to see Michelle Guthrie in a “talk to the people” on Q&A
ZathrasMarch 13, 2017 at 4:04 pm

Everyone talks about MH17 but the US army shooting down Iran Air Flight 655 never seems rates a mention anymore, despite the similarity between the two events.

As for IAF655, despite the USA being obviously guilty they never admitted liability or apologised to the Iranian government.

Perhaps because there were no Australians among the 290 victims so it wasn’t considered a disaster at all.

Did anyone bother to accuse Ronald Reagan of having his finger on the button?

I wonder what Pauline thinks. I often wonder IF she thinks.
David1March 13, 2017 at 4:19 pm

David and Roswell both your latest posts convince me to cease any further comments with Mr O’Neill.
jimMarch 13, 2017 at 4:32 pm

So sour tits rants on about sour milk really, you’d think she’d be more civilized, she could admit that being a RWNJ ain’t all it cracked up to be and admit she’s not all that sophisticated after all as someone else said, maybe they said that after she took a brown paper bag,after she started talking ’bout the banking industry ?.”sophisticated” Pauleeen?.

When Labor members were appointed to the banking RC, and sought to alter the hearing dates to
allow more time for preparation and to provide additional days for questioning,
the Coalition members used their voting majority to press ahead with dates predetermined
with the banks.
The banks have ridden roughshod over their customers, the Australian people, and
the Turnbull/Abott LNP Government.
the LionMarch 13, 2017 at 4:43 pm

It is Simple the Hansonites still fail to understand 10 per cent of the votes doesn’t give lower house seats, Queensland does not have a lower house, hence there will not be many seats if any at all! I do understand that Queensland is very parochial and the claim of Hanson is a Queenslander might get a few extra votes for her, but even in Queensland in the recent Federal elections she would not have received a quota if it was a half Senate election, she would have only got in on Preferences so we are not sure how she would have gone at all, she however would not have any One nation Senators joining her and as we should note all her current Senators are on three year senate terms and there is a different system in place that was negated by the full double dissolution election!
jimMarch 13, 2017 at 4:44 pm

The banks argue that a Royal Commission could drag on. This is not an argument
against conducting a Royal Commission. This is a statement of fault, a frightened
thought for years of misbehaviour.

The only way to achieve any form of justice for
the victims of the banks, and the only way to truly shine a light on the practices
that drive unethical behaviour in the banking industry, is to hold a Royal
Commission. Why bother the people bail them out when the fall, this definitely does NOT work the other way around though you bet your raw onion it don’t,eh. And whats a few more suicides and wrecked lives it’s what the RWNJs do.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2817-right-wing-governments-increase-suicide-rates/
James O'NeillMarch 13, 2017 at 5:34 pm

Re David Tyler at 2.47pm. You refer to a “Russian missile” which in its context is misleading. The BUK missile was manufactured in Russia, but is used in a number of countries, including Ukraine. On 14 July 2014 a Ukrainian BUK regiment was in Donbass with three separate locations. Why would they need them? The “separatists” do n to have an air force.
You refer to the proceedings in the ECHR. Those cannot proceed until domestic remedies have been exhausted. Tim Lauschet has filed in the NSW Supreme Court. As of last week those proceedings have gone nowhere.
Your point (5) is not a “fact”, it is an allegation.
You seem to be unaware of the proceedings last week in the International Court of Justice. A reading of the partie’s submissions is instructive, which is more than can be said of AIMN’s efforts in this area.
cartoonmickMarch 13, 2017 at 6:03 pm

Nice item, thanks David.

Living in Perth, and being an editorial/political cartoonist, I’ve lived and breathed this election campaign and all its weird components.

And yes, I agree it was mainly state issues, but these state issues have underlying elements similar to those present in the Feds performance. Elements such as deaf politicians, arrogance (let them eat cake), unemployment, economy, inefficient use of taxpayers’ money and PRIVATISATION.

If the Feds don’t change their attitude to people, then voters will give them the same treatment the WA Libs received last Saturday.

Privatisation (IMHO) has gone crazy, with elements of the mega business community queuing up and almost demanding the government sell them a state owned asset. These assets are created with the tax payers money, are owned by the people, and should only be sold with the peoples specific approval.

This cartoon looks at privatisation . . . https://cartoonmick.wordpress.com/editorial-political/#jp-carousel-1031

Cheers
Mick
corvus boreusMarch 13, 2017 at 6:11 pm

nurses,
Novel though the idea is, I do not realistically see Labor and the Nats forming any kind of alliance in order to push the idea of an increased ‘steel mining tax’ through the WA parliament.
Labor specifically campaigned against implementing any such policy, and received strong lobbying support from not only the CFMEU but also the WA Chamber of Minerals and Energy.
Also Nationals leader Brendon Grylls, the chief architect of the proposed increase on royalties levied for iron-ore extraction, looks very likely to lose his seat to Labor’s Kevin Michaels.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-13/wa-election-brendon-grylls-facing-defeat-joe-francis-in-danger/8347864
Terry2March 13, 2017 at 6:13 pm

Pauline Hanson needs to remember that she is a Queensland senator and is paid as a Queensland senator to look after the affairs of Queensland.

I hope that all this electioneering in WA was being done with One Nation Party funds and not the taxpayer : whoever checks on politician’s expenses needs to look closely at claims made by Ms Hanson.
keertiMarch 13, 2017 at 7:13 pm

There is one thing that destroyed barnet and his merry band of wankers. That is his “government’s” inability to manage state finances. As someone once said, “It’s the economy stupid.” It is the same thing that will bring turnpuke crashing into ignominy. Following behind that is the trashing of the environment (esp in WA with Roe Highway) All of that overlayed with the jumping of ship that happens in the australian psyche when it finally gets through that the population is being beaten up by a bunch of bullies (ala workchoices…no choice at all!). Un fortunately the knee jerk is not a sign of a rising intelligence, it is generally due to the hypnosis of an effective slogan (jabs and growth…and that turned out to be little more than a slight stretch of a foreskin!)
Möbius EckoMarch 13, 2017 at 7:44 pm

Morrison’s argument for Barnett’s political thrashing is the its time one. He said that eight years is long enough for any government.

So Howard should have handed over to Labor halfway through his second term and I bet Morrison won’t wear his government standing down after eight years.
Jennifer Meyer-SmithMarch 13, 2017 at 8:09 pm

Interesting nonetheless, that even the most RWNJ’s like Morrisscum recognise how much Gough was loved.

Labor should take a relook at the Gough factor and see how Gough won people’s hearts and minds. McGowan’s win is really good for sure, but it is nothing like Gough’s in 1972.

Shorten must take heed of what good, heart-warming leadership means. If he doesn’t, he’ll just be obsolete like Turnbull is.
Möbius EckoMarch 13, 2017 at 8:20 pm

Oops, third term. Though Howard out in his second term would have been great and we wouldn’t be in half the shit we’re now in.
Alan BairdMarch 13, 2017 at 10:03 pm

Yeah, Shorten will need to come up with a clear statement of intent and methods to restore a fair distribution of wealth in Oz. Trumble continues to steer Oz towards a scenario I just saw located in the good ole US of A courtesy of 4 Corners tonight. A straight-from-the-shoulder expose of the economic “recovery” as experienced by Joe Average. One Joe was living in a pup tent in Seattle with his wife & kids and the city becomes unpleasant in winter. Fun for Dick and Jane! This story has been told many, many times with different names and an UNLIMITED cast of characters (millions to choose from) by any number of quality journalists over decades of US economic history over the last few decades. Penalty rates (back at home) is just the latest manifestation of the pressure necessarily ALWAYS being applied to the low paid ‘cos the rich squeal and have media mates who have journalist mercenaries to rely on. Seneca observed a couple of thou ago that the wealthy have the shortest tempers. Trump has been created by these trends evident in US & Oz. This week I also heard Thomas Frank describing why the Democrats as exemplified by Hillary have lost the plot and have developed tin ears when the poor are treated badly. THERE ARE CLEAR SIMILARITIES IN LABOR AND DEMOCRAT SYMPTOMS. If Labor sees fit to simply “go through the motions” to avoid controversy they’ll be the author of their own ejection. They need to be representatives, not of a few but of the many. It’s simply NOT good enough to do as the Libs ROUTINELY do and announce on election night that they’ll be “governing for all the people” when WE know they they left out the words, “…who are conservative voters, especially if they’re wealthy”.
PS. ScoMo today said Oz wages have stagnated for too long! Coulda knocked me down wiv a fevva! Did he mean CEOs?
Matters NotMarch 13, 2017 at 10:19 pm

Also watching 4 Corners. Amazed that those at the bottom of the pile are so accepting (relatively) of their situation.

The economic divide magnifies. No worries, Trump will fix it. It’s all about ‘belief’.
RoswellMarch 14, 2017 at 12:09 am

Alan, Morrison was probably referring to HIS wages. The man needs a pay rise. He’s over-worked and under-paid.
RoswellMarch 14, 2017 at 12:13 am

“No worries, Trump will fix it”.

MN, do you think Hanson might have had a similar agenda? “No worries, Pauline will fix it”.

It’s easy to assume it’s a winning pledge. One would think that if it worked for Trump, it could work for anybody. Difference is, Americans are more easily fooled. Just.
paulwalterMarch 14, 2017 at 2:38 am

The 4 Corners was horrific.

Harmonisation.

NOW do people understand what the Centrelink/penalty rates thrust is about?

IPA, directly spread from Extremist US Contrarianism and spread like the Plague by Murdoch, as has been the pattern for decades.
Möbius EckoMarch 14, 2017 at 7:24 am

Matter Not @ 10:19 “Amazed that those at the bottom of the pile are so accepting (relatively) of their situation.”

Not really, you only need look at history.

People can put up with an awful lot of misery and oppression before they fight back, but there is a limit to their endurance of hardship and oppression. Hundreds of revolutions, the overthrow of many dictators and the downfall of monarchies throughout history attest to this.

My belief, and it’s just a gut feel, Americans were getting close to the breaking point.
Jennifer Meyer-SmithMarch 14, 2017 at 7:54 am

I hope you’re right, Mobius.
Lorraine StansfiewldMarch 14, 2017 at 7:55 am

Thank you Tracie for enlightening me on WA issues. I for one was ignorant of the real issues that beset the people of Western Australia and will now read with interest your link to thewest.com.au.
Alan BairdMarch 14, 2017 at 8:10 am

Yes paulwaiter, “harmonisation” is a new example of “management-speak” and is used in connection with penalty rates lately, specifically, the reduction of weekend wages to that of weekday wages, ie. making them “the same” with no “disruptive” “higher weekend bits” protruding above the other bits on the weekly wage graph. “Harmonisation” is such a benign-sounding word isn’t it… sort of “smoothing” the wage rate over the week, ie. a straight line. Strangely enough, we NEVER hear about “harmonising” the CEO wage rate with say, the rest of the great unwashed. I mean, their rate REALLY sticks up in a most disturbing and excessively GREEDY way when placed on a graph with the rest of us. They need “harmonising” and I’ll feel better then. A feeling of harmony will descend upon me… aah. And neo-cons, you can stick your “politics of envy” right up there where the sun rarely shines. An appropriate place for a stupid term.
Jennifer Meyer-SmithMarch 14, 2017 at 8:29 am

I will be harmonised when the peasants come with their pitchforks.
helvityniMarch 14, 2017 at 9:35 am

It was heartbreaking to watch, it made me cry , it made me angry…in Oz we call these unfortunate people dole- bludgers, they walked miles just trying to find a day’s work; make Trump and Dutton to spend a day in these desperate peoples’ shoes… oh, yes, invite Tudge , Trumble and Brandis too, they can take that empty tent…
Terry2March 14, 2017 at 9:37 am

The WA election has obscured the discussion about penalty rates and in particular comments made by Turnbull on 3 March, as follows :

“The Prime Minister indicated the Government would push the commission to phase in the penalty rate cuts over two to five years in bid to ensure workers were not worse off.

Mr Turnbull said an element of modern awards was that any changes would not reduce the take-home pay of workers.

One option was to have the commission make a take-home pay order that whittles back penalty rates at the same time as annual minimum wage increases are awarded. The employee’s overall pay packet increases and offsets the phased-in reduction in penalty rates,” Mr Turnbull said. ”

It’s worth repeating what Turnbull said as it is precisely the point that Labor have been making :

“Mr Turnbull said an element of modern awards was that any changes would not reduce the take-home pay of workers.”

Turnbull now just needs to follow through on his rhetoric and we need to remember what he said.
Florence nee FedupMarch 14, 2017 at 9:57 am

I wonder why no one has come up with suggestion maybe people voted for Labor because they believe they have better policies, will govern better.
David TylerMarch 14, 2017 at 10:02 am

Whose MPs are in the main head and shoulders above the woefully talentless Coalition. And who still have some members who give a damn about protecting the rights of ordinary people. Who still believe for example that education is a right for not a luxury commodity for the privileged to enjoy or exploit.
jimMarch 14, 2017 at 1:11 pm

The Real reason is Mal’s LNP want us to believe the only solution is to keep digging up coal.
well one reason IMO is what have the LNP actually done?. Worst government since 1949 across the board too.

Mr Musk offered a “discount price” of $US250/kWh, effectively halving the price of battery storage – for the second time in 12 months.

Depending on how that 100MW is configured, either with two hours of storage or four, that equates to a price of $US50 million for a 200MWh facility or $US100 million for a 400MWh facility. In other words, it is cheaper than gas and can be built in a fraction of the time…………
This should be the wake up call needed to shake Australia’s politicians, regulators and media commentator, and general know it alls in the pub, That they are Delusional thinking that fossil fuels are the only answer to Australia’s so-called energy crisis.

Musk’s Twitter exchange with Cannon-Brookes triggered such a response on social media that he soon had both South Australia premier Jay Weatherill and prime minister Malcolm Turnbull on the phone, and had changed the debate about Australia’s energy future – something that thousands of submissions and endless reports had failed to do.

And the internet.
Jennifer Meyer-SmithMarch 14, 2017 at 1:37 pm

Musk is certainly the game changer.
Florence nee FedupMarch 14, 2017 at 1:54 pm

SA now has plan, putting money where their mouth is. Should work. Where is the federal government plan?
Miriam EnglishMarch 14, 2017 at 2:40 pm

The LNP certainly has a plan. It plans to stick with 19th Century technology: burning coal in aging steam engines to generate electricity.

It’s just not a very good plan.
Miriam EnglishMarch 14, 2017 at 2:50 pm

I have to admit that lithium ion batteries do worry me a little bit. They do wear out… well, strictly speaking, they don’t so much wear out as ending up coating one of their electrodes with an impermeable layer, preventing the battery from continuing to charge and discharge. There is some technology that can extend their life for many years, but nevertheless, each time they’re recharged they lose some of their capacity due to this effect. I don’t know how long Elon Musk’s batteries will last. I do know he’s using the best technology available so his will last longer than anybody else’s, but how long is that? How long until they need to be replaced? And does it really matter? There will probably be vastly improved storage technology available by then.
jimhazMarch 14, 2017 at 3:30 pm

Naturally The Australian talked the Musk idea down.

“In this newspaper yesterday, a former chief executive of Caltex Australia, Barry Murphy, calculated that a 100 MWh battery system could have supplied South Australia’s entire demand (measured at 3pm on Saturday) for 3.6 minutes before requiring a recharge, or 4276 homes for 24 hours based on average household demand. Not much good during a heatwave with no wind and the interconnector to Victoria down”

Looking at the figure of 4276 for 24 hours that seems fine to me. As blackouts usually don’t last for 24 hours, nor cover an entire state, this would equate to 34208 homes for 3 hours. In any case we are only talking 100m – just double it.

Not that I want batteries – I would prefer Solar-Hydro as the dams required could also be used for some irrigation or use sea water. Barry Murphy is now selling nuclear.
paulwalterMarch 14, 2017 at 3:54 pm

I see Kaye Lee and Roswell are derailing yet another real world thread, in this case the defeat of the Tories in WA, to self indulge over “the Russians” again, but I haven’t seen such hysteria paranoia over “the Russians” since Joe McCarthy and the DLP.

Dealing with issues like the destruction of public broadcasting HERE, might be a little more profitable for Australians, given the pervasive nature of consent manufacture now apparent in this country.

Like, if I want Uhilmann or IPA/ Murdoch style nonsenses, I already have the ABC, right?

I take it some have seen the Wong /Uhlmann interview that just happened? Uhlmann was shattered by Wong and it is relevant to THE THREAD, because of the power privatisation plan mooted so emphatically rejected by a public sick to the gills of this sort of rubbish.
paulwalterMarch 14, 2017 at 4:35 pm

i see “Bear” Grylls has conceded. The ABC announces this as the result of a sustained campaign by BHP and others to block Grylls’ proposal for a resource tax.

Was the ABC framing their story as a warning to the Labor that resource taxes can be “ünpopular”? How so?

If Grylls was kicked out it would be for far more than a resources tax, which would actually make sense to me.

But it does demonstrate how massive TNC’s will resist even a token rebalancing of wealth share and that ought to be seen as shameful, not a politician’s attempts to redress such an imbalance.

I hope Labor picks up where Grylls failed, if the reports are correct and apply the tax for the benefit of West Australians and Australians in general, who have had enough of disloyal tax dodging carpetbaggers,
paulwalterMarch 14, 2017 at 11:48 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzvhIKLB274

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