‘BRITAIN’S TRUMP’
Boris Johnson will be sworn in as the UK’s next prime minister tomorrow, after defeating rival Jeremy Hunt to succeed Theresa May in the Conservative Party leadership vote.
The controversial former foreign secretary and London mayor (or as Donald Trump calls him, “Britain’s Trump”) was elected party leader with 92,153 votes to Hunt’s 46,656, following a postal ballot of 160,000 party members. Johnson said it was an “extraordinary honour and privilege” to be chosen, promising to bring peace to his warring Conservatives and defeat Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn.
The EU has greeted the hardline-Brexiteer’s victory by rejecting his Brexit plans, The Guardian reports, with newly appointed European commission president Ursula von der Leyen saying both sides had a duty to deliver a deal. Rebel Conservatives are also warning Johnson he will not survive long unless he drops his no-deal agenda.
ILLEGAL POLICE SEARCHES
Australian police have conducted illegal metadata searches and obtained invalid warrants targeting journalists, The Guardian reports.
A Commonwealth Ombudsman report for the period of July 2016 to June 2017 revealed two instances where WA police applied for a journalist information warrant from a person not authorised to provide it, while the ACT police had accessed data without proper authorisation 116 times. 2015’s metadata retention laws, which are currently under review, allow law enforcement agencies to access telecommunications data when investigating certain offences.
Labor has questioned why the report, dated November 2018, was only now being tabled.
NO START
A major recommendation to raise Newstart was “erased” from a parliamentary report at the direction of the government just before the federal election, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age report.
Former social services minister Paul Fletcher reportedly intervened to erase a recommendation to lift the Newstart allowance contained in the report, following an inquiry looking into the causes of long-term welfare. The draft report was agreed to by MPs from the Coalition, Labor and the crossbench, but sources say Fletcher demanded to review the recommendations before they were publicly released. He subsequently told committee chair Russell Broadbent that the final report could not contain the specific Newstart recommendation.
[free_worm]
THEY REALLY SAID THAT?
You might try and get some easy press on this, but the reality is we have a growing number of international students, of tourists coming to our country and that is a great thing.
Linda Reynolds
The Defence Minister, who represents Peter Dutton in the Senate, claims the large blowout in bridging visas and airplane arrivals is a byproduct of international students and tourists.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Super shake-up: Liberal MP Craig Kelly wants family home included in pension asset test
Plagarism complaint Liberal senator James Paterson’s IPA report breached integrity standards
Disability sector: Bill Shorten joins call for Coalition to stand down two royal commissioners
NBN Completion close as network build passes 10m premises mark
Essential poll: Morrison and Albanese’s approval ratings climb
BHP boss announces $US400m plan to combat ‘indisputable’ climate crisis
Cuba: Brain scans of US embassy staff may show abnormalities
MasterChef judges could sign massive deal with Netflix or Amazon Prime ($)
NSW Nationals carry the water can for share plan fail ($)
Our Chinese MP Gladys Liu wants ASIO help ($)
Russian-Chinese joint air patrol debuts in North Asia, irking neighbours
Liberal MP angry over cabinet reshuffle looks to defect to WA Nationals
‘You loser, I’m winning!’: Sun lashes Scott after Brit joins protest
First Victorian euthanasia patient granted access to lethal dose
Angus Taylor pursued by Labor over rising emissions and grassland meetings
ASIC wants LIC loophole reviewed
‘Sluggish and precarious’: IMF cuts global growth forecast
Hunt’s new plan to tackle health insurance premiums
Non-lawyers should be barred from AAT, former High Court judge says
CRIKEY QUICKIE: THE BEST OF YESTERDAY
Migrant workers are overworked, intimidated and even killed on Australian farms
“Far from the bounty of the overflowing fruit barrels and images of smiling farmers adorning supermarket walls, the pressure to keep prices low has made its way down to the suppliers, the fruit and veg producers and farmers who compete, mainly on price, for contracts with the duopoly. And because the cost of hired labour is consistently the largest cash component for fruit and vegetable growers, it’s that process in the food chain that incentivises producers to grind down their cost of labour. The result? Far too many arrangements that see labourers held in slave-like conditions, paid a paltry wage and at risk of serious injury or death.”
The end of the Sydney supremacy
“Regardless of where you draw the line — the ABS also excludes Geelong from the Greater Melbourne Area — Melbourne has been on track to overtake Sydney since the early 2000s, and an exponential growth rate over the past decade has meant it arguably got there 10 years early. Professor of Demography at Macquarie University Nick Parr argues that Sydney would still be considered larger with or without the Central Coast but, with a growth rate of 1.8% compared to Melbourne’s 2.5%, has suffered from an exodus of retirees and families. Melbourne, on the other hand, saw a net internal gain of 5971 from 2017 to 2018, while experiencing Australia’s largest international migration gain (77,624) and the second highest natural increase (35,826).”
What would it take to see hospitality wage thieves held to account?
“It’s worth noting that the majority of wage theft affecting migrant workers goes unreported — the most comprehensive study shows nearly half of migrant workers (excluding 457 visas) earned less than $15 an hour. Laws regarding migrant workers more or less guarantees this will continue. Employers can leverage visa conditions to guarantee a worker’s silence; whether by threatening to withhold sponsorship, firing an employee who complains, or having them engage in work that breaches their conditions (say, having an international student work for more than 40 hours).”
THE COMMENTARIAT
There’s a strange logic to Josh Frydenberg’s stand on Newstart – Ross Gittins (The Age/Sydney Morning Herald): “So why the refusal? For the reasons we’ve discussed but also because, having given up tax revenue of $300 billion over 10 years, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg now insists he can’t afford a dole increase costing a whopping $39 billion over 10 years. Too much threat to his promised return to budget surplus. Strange logic. Should the economy’s slowdown not be reversed, unemployment – and the budgetary cost of the dole – will go a lot higher, and hopes of budget surpluses will evaporate, replaced by angry people accusing the government of economic incompetence.”
We saw how terribly children were treated in prisons and promised ‘never again’. Now there is just bitter disappointment – Sophie Trevitt (The Guardian): “The royal commission was clear about what was required to turn the Northern Territory’s trauma-exacerbating youth justice system into something that could offer rehabilitation and hope to young people. The prison blocks had to go, highly specialised staff were essential, culturally and linguistically appropriate programs should be implemented, the age of criminal responsibility had to be raised, and deliberate steps had to be taken to keep children out of the criminal justice system. The Northern Territory government is yet to come good on these promises, and overwhelmingly it is children from Alice Springs and its surrounds who are paying the price.”
Morrison is no Donald Trump or Boris Johnson ($) – Paul Kelly (The Australian): “In its cover story on the crisis of conservatism The Economist excoriated right-wing leaders — with Donald Trump as demon-in-chief — and cast Scott Morrison as one of those reactionaries who exploit grievance and betray the true essence of conservative values… Those familiar with the periodic bizarre views of The Economist about Australia may be unsurprised. What is missing in this report is the distinctive politics of each nation. The irony of Morrison’s inclusion as a wrecker of true conservatism is that far from being Trump’s political blood-brother, Morrison is the opposite.”
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE
WHAT’S ON TODAY
Canberra
-
AMA president Tony Bartone will speaks at National Press Club, ripping into the government over the need for long-term health policy.
Darwin
-
The Northern Territory Library, Parliament House will host the 2019 Northern Territory Literary Awards, acknowledging works of outstanding literary merit and reward the achievements of Northern Territory writers.
Melbourne
-
The Committee for Economic Development of Australia will hold a breakfast meeting to mark the release of a report examining the effects of temporary migration on population growth, our labour market and the national economy.
-
The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System holds public hearings focusing on the issue of prioritisation and funding of mental health services.
Hobart
-
RACT Insurance CEO Trent Sayers will release winter fire related insurance claims data, urging Tasmanians to be safe while heating their homes.
Syndey
-
NSW Police will join the Australian Hotels Association to launch the “Ask for Angela” venue safety campaign in Kings Cross, with women worried about their safety encouraged to head to the bar and ask for “Angela” to receive discreet assistance.
-
NRL boss Todd Greenberg, Mark Hughes, Paul Harragon and Anne Callaway will launch the NRL’s Beanie for Brain Cancer round.
-
Four patients will reunite with the ambulance officers who cared for them and helped save their lives as part of Thank a Paramedic Day.
Adelaide
-
SA Deputy Coroner Anthony Schapel will hand down his findings into the death of Juanita Lee McNamar-Cutler who was found hanged in the Adelaide women’s prison in 2014.
Sunshine Coast
-
Bindi Irwin will celebrate her 21st birthday at Australia Zoo, with the Irwins to perform a croc feeding demonstration following the cake cutting.
National
-
The Department of Employment releases the Internet Vacancy Index for June, showing the fifth consecutive monthly decline.
The world had the axis of evil with Bush, Blair and Howard, and now it has a trifecta of trash with Trump, Morrison and Johnson.
”WA police applied for a journalist information warrant from a person not authorised to provide it, while the ACT police had accessed data without proper authorisation 116 times. ”
Welcome to our version of pre war Germany under Hitler.
The ex IPA scribbler and scrawler of lies and bullshit now a Liberal senator James Paterson breached integrity standards?
Have a chat to Timmy Wilson ex IPA head of the scribbling and scrawling department that oversaw the lies of climate change denial guff.
The IPA undeclared Liberal Party Associated entity set up by the Murdochs decades ago is a cancer eating away at what was once a healthy fair and just society in Australia; with the likes of Wilson and Paterson now buried deep into the putrid carcass of conservative party politics in the nation.
Parallels with pre war Germany just keep coming under the Howard, Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison cacophony.
“Mark Dreyfus said the report amounted to “Ian Callinan calling time on the Attorney-General and his colleagues treating the AAT like a Liberal Party employment agency”.
“The fact that Ian Callinan felt the need to recommend that all further appointments to the AAT should be made on the basis of merit speaks volumes about the current government,” Mr Dreyfus said.
“It highlights the damage done by the government putting mates before merit, and stacking the tribunal with at least 57 Liberal mates since it came to power.”
And instead of Goebbels we have Murdoch.
We do not appreciate that Australia’s ruling class has already enacted sufficient laws for a police state; our ruling class, like those of fellow warmongering Western nations, is now working to manufacture consent for the mass repression that laws already permit.
Despite having passed more oppression laws than any other country post-2001, a political (Labor class traitor / ilLiberal Party) and oppression apparatus that constantly needs its ego stroked, demands ever more – measures even Pinochet or Lee Kuan Yew or Batista or Suharto would have thought extreme.
Observe the contempt for the Rule of Law shown by those who claim to value it. Protesters are arrested for being active about our most existential threat, while police and police state organisations breach already extremely intrusive laws with impunity. Plenty of Aborigines are in jail, but not one bank executive from thieving from clients rather than from their own bank. Burglars may be imprisoned without parole, while celebrity chef George Calombaris can steal $7.8 million from his employees, then indulge without criticism in the customary corporate positioning “We apologise to all our affected team members”!
In 2018, the UN working group on arbitrary detention – the world’s most senior and competent assessor – first condemned Australia’s indefinite incarceration of refugees and asylum seekers as arbitrary and illegal. Nor do our decision-makers ever say that “rules-based international order” should be either consistent or just. Certainly they never practice any such thing.
Excellent post, as always. Thankyou.