DUTTON AND ABBOTT ON THE WARPATH - INVASION OF SOUTH AFRICA IMMINENT?

Peter Dutton and Tony Abbott must be two of the most ignorant racists in Australia and it proves beyond doubt - not that there was very much doubt before - that the award of Rhodes scholarships is absolutely meaningless, much as many Nobel prizes are.

In their ignorance - and racism - they have absolutely no idea about life in South Africa, let alone white South African farmers and who do they think is going to support their hair-brained scheme to get white farmers out of South Africa  and bring them to Australia to resettle them here.

The genocide of Abbott and Dutton in Australia continues apace, and if they think they will be able to create genocidal conditions in South Africa, they should think again.

Dutton has already been given too much power by Turnbull, who has shown that he is just as racist as his colleagues but does it all in a more subdued and subtle way.

Apartheid has always been alive and  well in Australia, but Dutton and Abbott have just provided it with a new layer - interfering in the affairs of other countries.     South Africa is a very complex country with a very complex society, and both Dutton and Abbott will be in serious trouble if they start interfering in  the affairs of other countries.

Of course they are well practised with that as well, if you consider all the wars they have joined in where the affairs of other countries had nothing to do with Australia.

The cartoonist Zapiro in South Africa has cartoons regularly published in the online journal Daily Maverick from South Africa - an excellent paper actually - and some of Zapiro's cartoons over the years have been on a par with Tandberg's in Australia.

The cartoon below, by Zapiro, was published on 20 MARCH 2018 in the Daily Maverick and hits the jackpot:

The Peter Dutton one reads: "2018 Australia's PETER DUTTON - FAST TRACK VISAS FOR WHITE S.A. FARMERS".

FLAT EARTH SOCIETY ELECTS TONY ABBOTT AS ITS NEW PRESIDENT

When I left South Africa in 1978 and came to live in Australia I knew that Australia was backward in many respects and in many respects old-fashioned, but I did believe that I had left the South African flat earthers behind.

How wrong can one get! And it shows that being a Rhodes scholar proves the value of that experience - Australia's current prime minister was a Rhodes scholar and is one of the most intellectually backward and bankrupt minds it is possible to find in the year 2015.

We woke to the news report on the morning of 12 July 2015 that the Australian prime minister had escalated the war on wind energy and wind farms and power, and proving that which we have always known that, like Zuma in South Africa, Abbott will prove to be the worst head of government that Australia has ever had.

It is difficult to know how one comes to terms with this issue and how to deal with it. Many people in Australia are supporters of the concepts of alternative energy in most of its forms and the number of people who have installed solar systems on their roof-tops is very large in terms of the total population, and apart from the fact that electricity storage systems are not yet widely available and still rather expensive, the current alternative is wind generators which do not require solar energy for generation during hours of darkness.

At a time in Australia when many manufacturing organisations are closing down and employment opportunities are shrinking, jobs in the alternative energy sector were increasing and the technologies are becoming more known about.

The prime minister, who knows very little about manufacturing and cares less about employment opportunities is doing his best to destroy job opportunities and industry growth by declaring war on solar energy and destroying a new industry in its earliest stages.

One has to hope that somewhere along the road to the next election in about 18 months' time, someone, somewhere in Australia will be able to develop the power base to defeat the flat earthers and introduce some progressive elements into our political system which stimulate minds, industry, education and Australia's position in the world of the 21st century.

The following item was the editorial in The Age on 14 July 2015:

Abbott's wonky meddling in CEFC

Date

July 14, 2015

You might think a government that espouses free-market ideals, innovation and modernisation would embrace the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and its efforts to identify commercially viable, sustainable energy technologies. But when it comes to the Abbott government, you would be very wrong.

It is led by a prime minister who hails coal as "good for humanity" and "essential for the prosperity of the world", and who blithely suggests wind turbines are "visually awful", noisy and somehow unhealthy – though there is not a scintilla of evidence to support it.

And there, backing up Abbott, is a menagerie of ministers and a barrow-load of backbenchers who are too miserably timid to contradict the voodoo nonsense their leader espouses. What would it take for one of them to speak the truth, to cite the comprehensive science that shows carbon emissions are having a dramatic and potentially dire effect on our climate?

Mr Abbott whines that his government does not get sufficient credit for its efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Well, no wonder. It could have done so much more, yet it did so much damage. It has repealed the carbon tax that would have penalised heavy polluters; it has wound back Australia's target for the amount of energy that must be derived from renewable sources; it has approved huge new coal mines; and it has sharply curtailed the work of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

While the corporation's task is to provide funding for renewable forms of energy, the Abbott government views it as little more than a lumpen addendum to the carbon tax legislation, a tainted orphan of Labor's green years. Unable to legislate the CEFC out of existence when it repealed the carbon tax last year, the government has deliberately reset the rules to make the agency's work almost impractical. It has gone about this in two ways.

First, it changed the corporation's investment mandate so that it must now achieve a rate of return (before expenses) of at least 400 to 500 basis points above the five-year government bond rate (currently 2.17 per cent). The previous mandate required performance in line with the bond rate (after expenses).
CEFC directors told the government this new goal implied a shift away from the corporation's normally conservative and commercially oriented risk profile, and "all evidence suggests" it would be "highly challenging" to achieve the higher return without taking on riskier investments. In any case, "achieving these increased returns would require CEFC to consistently outperform the market by a large margin".

The second rule change, which has been reported by Fairfax Media but not yet publicly released, specifically bars the corporation from investing in wind farms of all sizes and small-scale solar and directs it away from "mature and established" clean energy technologies.

This is high-handed and irrational ideological interference by the government. Combined with the demand for CEFC to hit a higher return on investments, it represents a deliberate effort to curb the agency's activities.

Mr Abbott says his government does not really want CEFC to exist at all, "but while it's there it really should do what the private sector won't do and invest in new and emerging technologies". We suggest he has badly misread the politics on this. Australians do not understand why he harbours such irrational abhorrence of wind farms, for example.


The CEFC should be freed of this government's unscientific meddling. Its investment strategy should be agnostic. The success or otherwise of clean energy technologies should be determined not by politicians' bizarre and emotive diatribes but by reference to their energy efficiency, low rate of emissions, renewable capacity and by their commerciality – as the legislation dictates.

The letters below which followed the above editorial all criticised the government for what it has done about renewable energy:

The protected industry: the dinosaur of coal

Illustration: Ron Tandberg

In the same week that the government approves a foreign-owned coal mine on prime agricultural land, it withdraws funding for renewable energy projects (The Age, 13/7).  This, in the same year that the budget offered a $5billion loan scheme to coal companies to fund expansion in the Galilee Basin.

The government is funding the technology dinosaur of coal – and risking our health, and our economic and environmental future – through its refusal to act on climate change. The appalling policy direction ill equips us as we head towards a legally binding, universal agreement on climate change at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. An election, anyone?
Pauline Hopkins, Beaconsfield

Listen to the people, Prime Minister

Recently I drove 150kilometres from Munich to Deggendorf. I was staggered by the profusion of solar panels: on the roofs of houses and even on barns in the middle of nowhere, and frequently arranged densely in fields. There were also many wind farms, their blades gracefully turning. I felt ashamed to be an Australian. I am 67 and I cannot remember a previous prime minister so out of step with the  thinking of the majority of Australians on so vital an issue.
Graeme Brazenor, Richmond

An issue that transcends political alliance

Tony Abbott, while you hold the title of prime minister, you are obliged to make decisions in the nation's interests, based on scientific, economic, etc research. You are not entitled to govern to suit your personal predilections or vested interests. Your attitudes to renewable and clean energy have left you on the wrong side of history. These issues transcend political alliance. The health of our children, and the environment they will inherit, overrides all other considerations. If you are unable to govern in our nation's interests,  please resign.
Lloyd Shield, Moonee Ponds

We could be a leader in renewable energy

While the rest of the world embraces alternative energy, Australia, with its abundance of sun and wind, goes down the old path of coal. Additionally, the decision of approving another coal mine on prime agricultural land is baffling. Either the parties involved are getting some political kickback or they are stupid. Australia could be a leader in renewable and alternative energy, yet we dig up our resources and sell them at rapidly reducing prices. I am not sure the ALP can offer an alternative to the current government. Maybe a Labor/Greens coalition?
Dean Virgin, Strathmore

Abbott's decision defies comprehension

I understand that living in a democracy will mean a swath of conflicting views, and whilst I despair of our government I accept that it was elected. But an attack on wind farms? The world is calling with rare consensus for the development of clean energy. And our prime minister wants to block such development? Utterly incomprehensible.
Les Littleford, Clifton Springs

The royal commission that we really need

Most developed countries are embracing clean energy sources as vital approaches to reducing carbon emissions. Coal is viewed as a sunset industry, However, big coal puts a lot of effort into lobbying governments.  A royal commission can be an expensive way to discredit political opponents but voters deserve an investigation of the links, financial and others, between big coal and the government
Rod Anderson, Sandringham

TONY ABBOTT THE LAUGHING STOCK OF AUSTRALIA AND THE WORLD!

It is unfortunate that one's vote has so little value on its own, and very little value with a few in the community whose views are similar to one's own.

When it comes to the current prime minister of Australia who makes a fool of himself every time he opens his mouth, the possibility of more and more people reaching consensus on the overall picture confronting us with the worst prime minister in living history seems to be growing by the minute.

Thank goodness yet again for people like Michael Leuning whose cartoons continue to reach to the essence of those around us as this cartoon from a few years ago illustrates so tellingly:

How much longer we are going to have to put up with the inanities pouring out of Canberra - well, nobody knows, but we have to live in hope that our collective agonies will end at the latest by the next election, due in September 2016.

TELL TONY ABBOTT TO STAND UP FOR EVERYBODY AND REJECT THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP

Wow! Over 50,000 of us have taken action calling on Tony Abbott to stand up for our democracy and reject the TPP -- a secret, global pact that would allow corporations to sue the Australian government.
But now, Abbott's government has confirmed they're getting ready to crack down on internet freedom to comply with the TPP -- including a "three strikes" provision that forces ISPs to monitor and police our activity online.
Can you tell Tony Abbott to stand up for ordinary Australians and reject the TPP?
Thanks for all you do,
Paul, Martin, Hannah and the rest of us.

PS - Tell your friends about the campaign on Facebook.

Tony Abbott's Trade Minister is jetting off to Singapore to secretly negotiate the world's biggest corporate power grab, the TPP. They could be about to hand power to secret courts to overturn Australian laws that big business thinks are unfair. Can you tell Tony Abbott and his minister to stand up for Australian democracy and to reject the TPP?

---

Tony Abbott's trade minister is about to sign a secret, global pact to allow corporations to sue the Australian government for billions -- just for passing laws to protect our health or the environment.
The secret meeting in Singapore is happening next week. Tony Abbott wants us to believe the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is all about getting a better deal for ordinary Australians. But the truth is that it could end up being one of the biggest corporate power grabs in a generation.
Abbott and his cronies are refusing to make the deal public (although corporate lobbyists seem to be getting the inside track) -- making it hard to know just what's in the TPP. But leaks so far indicate this is bad news. That’s why Tony Abbott wants it to stay confidential -- he’d prefer to quietly sign away our rights without a big fuss.
This deal is too important to leave to the politicians: it could affect the lives of Australians for generations to come.
Can you tell Tony Abbott not to sign away our democratic rights and reject the TPP?
The TPP is being negotiated by 12 countries from around the Pacific. They’re discussing everything from restricting internet freedoms to weakening environmental protections. But that’s not the worst of it. One of the key bits of the deal is a system that will allow the world’s biggest companies to overturn our democratically decided laws.
Tony Abbott hasn’t exactly shown himself to be a pro at foreign affairs. We’ve seen him time and time again make mistakes on the international stage. Can we be sure to trust Tony Abbott to negotiate the best deal for the Australian people, especially while he refuses to be open about what he’s actually doing?
Together we decided that working on stopping unfair global trade deals as one of our top priorities for 2014. So we’ve been busy working on a plan that stretches right around the globe and we’re going to need lots of help. Already, SumOfUs members have been active in the USA calling on Congress to refuse Obama the right to negotiate without consent. We’re also busy building opposition in Canada and in New Zealand too. Now it’s our turn to send a clear message to our government -- “say no to the TPP”.
Tony Abbott -- reject the corporate power grab and say no to the TPP.

Thanks for all you do,
Paul, Martin, Hannah and the rest of us.


More Information:
Mixed feelings on promise of trade deal, The Australian, 05 February 2014
'Toothless' environment protections in secretive global trade pact TPP leaked all over the web, The Register, 15 January 2014
WikiLeaks publishes secret draft chapter of Trans-Pacific Partnership, The Guardian, November 2013.
SumOfUs is a worldwide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy.

ASYLUM SEEKERS - I CAN DO ANYTHING BETTER THAN YOU - WITH SINCERE APOLOGIES TO IRVING BERLIN!

With sincere apologies to Irving Berlin, who could have written this specially for Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott:

CLICK ON THE LINK TO HEAR BETTY HUTTON AND HOWARD KEEL:

Anything You Can Do.....

ANNIE GILLARD, FRANK ABBOTT:
Anything you can do,
I can do better.
I can do anything
Better than you.

No, you can't.
Yes, I can. No, you can't.
Yes, I can. No, you can't.
Yes, I can,
Yes, I can!

Anything you can be
I can be greater.
Sooner or later,
I'm greater than you.

No, you're not. Yes, I am.
No, you're not. Yes, I am.
No, you're NOT!. Yes, I am.
Yes, I am!

I can shoot a partridge
With a single cartridge.
I can get a sparrow
With a bow and arrow.
I can live on bread and cheese.
And only on that?
Yes.
So can a rat!
Any note you can reach
I can go higher.
I can sing anything
Higher than you.
No, you can't. (High)
Yes, I can. (Higher) No, you can't. (Higher)
Yes, I can. (Higher) No, you can't. (Higher)
Yes, I can. (Higher) No, you can't. (Higher)
Yes, I can. (Higher) No, you can't. (Higher)
Yes, I CAN! (Highest)

Anything you can buy
I can buy cheaper.
I can buy anything
Cheaper than you.

Fifty cents?
Forty cents! Thirty cents?
Twenty cents! No, you can't!
Yes, I can,
Yes, I can!
Anything you can say
I can say softer.
I can say anything
Softer than you.
No, you can't. (Softly)
Yes, I can. (Softer) No, you can't. (Softer)
Yes, I can. (Softer) No, you can't. (Softer)
Yes, I can. (Softer)
YES, I CAN! (Full volume)
I can drink my liquor
Faster than a flicker.
I can drink it quicker
And get even sicker!
I can open any safe.
Without bein' caught?
Sure.
That's what I thought--
you crook!
Any note you can hold
I can hold longer.
I can hold any note
Longer than you.

No, you can't.
Yes, I can No, you can't.
Yes, I can No, you can't.
Yes, I can
Yes, I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I No, you C-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-N'T--
CA-A-A-A-N! (Cough, cough!)
Yes, you ca-a-a-an!

Anything you can wear
I can wear better.
In what you wear
I'd look better than you.
In my coat?
In your vest! In my shoes?
In your hat! No, you can't!
Yes, I can
Yes, I CAN!
Anything you can say
I can say faster.
I can say anything
Faster than you.
No, you can't. (Fast)
Yes, I can. (Faster) No, you can't. (Faster)
Yes, I can. (Faster) Noyoucan't. (Faster)
YesIcan! (Fastest)
I can jump a hurdle.
I can wear a girdle.
I can knit a sweater.
I can fill it better!
I can do most anything!
Can you bake a pie? No.
Neither can I.
Anything you can sing
I can sing sweeter.
I can sing anything
Sweeter than you.
No, you can't. (Sweetly)
Yes, I can. (Sweeter) No, you can't. (Sweeter)
Yes, I can. (Sweeter) No, you can't. (Sweeter)
Yes, I can. (Sweeter) No, you can't, can't, can't (sweeter)
Yes, I can, can, can (Sugary)

Yes, I can! No, you can't!

WORKPLACE BULLYING - THE ENDLESS THOMSON "AFFAIR" SAGA AND THE MEDIA

These letters were in The Age newspaper on 26 May 2012:

Trial by one-liners

IT IS time for the relentless pursuit of Craig Thomson in his workplace to be understood as workplace bullying. The media is complicit in the bullying. Radio commentators have justified their continued probing of Mr Thomson by telling us "it's interesting and salacious".

It calls to mind the salacious information that passed for journalism in England in recent years, when a murdered girl's telephone messages were hacked by the News of the World. The resultant inquiry into the media exposed the levels to which some human beings will sink. Innocent or guilty, Craig Thomson is a human being. Let the man be subject to the law, not trial by one-liners.

Madonna Grehan, Thornbury

Whatever it takes

RON Tandberg's cartoon on page 4 (The Age, 25/5)

sums up the direction of political debate under Tony Abbott and his drive for power. My Jesuit teachers would be appalled at Mr Abbott's abrogation of basic analytical and Catholic principles. His ability to ignore the police inquiry into Senator Bill Heffernan's alleged assault and the conviction of Senator Mary Jo Fisher on shoplifting charges contrasts with John Howard's loss of 11 ministers due to a breach of standards.

It is also clear that Christopher Pyne has fallen under Mr Abbott's spell; he daily displays offensive and unprofessional behaviour.

While society aims for a healthy, productive workplace, Mr Abbott, smelling blood, is reinventing the aggressive, whatever-it-takes attitude of the 1980s. By contrast, the Liberals' real leader, Malcolm Turnbull, continues to display what it takes to live in the 21st century.

Jim Kennedy, South Yarra

Test of sincerity

TONY Abbott has asserted that the Prime Minister should ''allow'' Craig Thomson to quit Parliament for his own safety. If Mr Thomson's wellbeing is in danger, a fair course of action is the granting of a ''pair''.

This procedure has routinely been adopted so that the decision of voters continues to be reflected in the Parliament despite the temporary absence of a parliamentarian due to illness or other causes.

If Mr Abbott fails to suggest this option, then his assertions of concern must be insincere or hypocritical, or both. Pure humbug.

Robert Corcoran, Edithvale

NOW FOR THE MEDIA'S ROLE IN THIS DISGRACEFUL BEAT-UP SAGA:

I am not in a position to comment on various media in this country because they are so abysmally poor that one wouldn't want to touch them with a barge pole or any other sort of pole, unless it was a pole-cat!!

However, I have unfortunately seen some of the media which has shown how low journalism has sunk in Australia - The Age newspaper and the ABC television news and current affairs programmes, and some of those who should be held accountable are Michelle Grattan, Kate McClymont, Tony Wright and others, and on the other site, Chris Uhlman as examples of how not to be investigative journalists.

How is it that so much of the saga that is reportable and shows the other side of the story is never reported? It is not hidden - others have access to these items - why not the mainstream?

Is it because they side with Tony Abbott, the workplace bully, determined to bring down the government and install himself as head honcho?

If this were to occur, there would be no further reporting of the misdemeanours of his government, there would be blackouts and censorship, bad as it already is, would descend even deeper into the mire of dictatorship.

Woe betide us all when that eventuates!

THOMSON, FEDERAL OPPOSITION, MEDIA - WHERE DOES IT START AND WHERE WILL IT END?

Tony Abbott is desperate to become prime minister of Australia. He is prepared to stoop to whatever depths he is able to in order to achieve his life's ambition.

Should this ever occur, "CRY THE BELOVED COUNTRY", and never forget that George Pell is Abbott's mentor!

Let's start with the media. Here is a situation of one of the worst beat-ups this country has ever seen, and the people responsible are the Murdoch media, Fairfax media, ABC television and many smaller parts of the media that still survive in Australia.

We are censored so that we only get what the media want us to get, and the rest we have to get from independent and overseas media outlets.

What have we in Parliament? Where to start?

Heffernan the perennial homophobe who learns nothing from the past, Pyne, well, methinks he doth protest too much!! - others in the Coalition who support what Abbott is doing, in both houses of parliament, who will regret too one day in the future if Abbott succeeds and also when many hidden issue are exposed, the governing party which could also expose more but seem unwilling to do so!

The disgraceful behaviour in the parliament where one man's reputation is being dragged through the gutter because another is so desperate for power, and his own supporters whose ongoing conduct shows they care nothing for the well-being of the people of this country who watch this soap-opera unfold on a daily basis and wonder what it is all about. The man who would be prime minister is never, ever, seen as someone who could lead this country - he has no vision, he negates everything, he has no policies, he makes himself be seen in the most ridiculous places, doing the most ridiculous things to show he is a "man of the people" - well, if ever there was a load of crap and bullshit, this is it!! - and people are ready to vote for him???

All because Gillard won government when Abbott had decided he was going to win and he is now desperate and beside himself.

MICHELLE GRATTAN DAMAGES GILLARD YET AGAIN!

Michell Grattan is a journalist of long standing, but, as with so many other people of uncertain age, they reach a situation where their politics take a turn to the right with disastrous consequences, particularly if they are journalists and/or politicians.

Julia Gillard is not my favourite politican, and the Australia Labor Party (sic) is not my favourite political party, but to her credit Gillard has stood firm against the non-stop negativity of the attacks by Abbott and his gang and Grattan and her gang, and to date she has actually had a few political breakthroughs.

It may not occur to Grattan, or perhaps she hopes her attacks on Gillard will bring it about, but does she realise that with each of her assaults she brings Tony Abbott closer to becoming the next Australian prime minister.

It is to be hoped that the Coalition will wake up to the fact that Abbott is actually one of their biggest liabilities and that without him they may actually achieve much better electoral results., but one has to hope that this is just a nightmare scenario from which we will all wake up one day and we achieve a more democratic parliament thatn the one we currently have.