The hypocrite of the year award is heating up with a tight race between billionaires Bruce Gordon and Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, and the entire Chinese and Russian governments.
Let’s take a look at the nominees.
Bruce Gordon
Last week we learned expat media mogul Bruce Gordon, normally based in Bermuda, had been given an exemption by the Australian Tax Office (ATO) to live in Australia during the pandemic without incurring an additional tax bill.
That’s right. A 91-year-old billionaire who has lived in a tax haven since 1985 wanted to stay in Australia because, sources close to him revealed, he felt “safer” here.
That’s because most of those grubby little tax “havens” are actually upmarket swamps that don’t have the superior healthcare we have in this country thanks to, you know, those common little people who actually pay tax.
We also learned he spent most of the year holed up in his luxury Circular Quay apartment. It’s the longest he has been in Australia since quitting our shores last century. That would be because the ATO has a strict rule that you must spend 183 days offshore to qualify as a non-resident to avoid paying pesky personal income tax.
Twiggy Forrest
Billionaire Twiggy Forrest took the opposite approach: he left his home state of WA some months ago for Croatia, to pursue business opportunities.
Unfortunately, that meant Twiggy wasn’t here to massage his media profile as more unflattering stories crept into the local papers. This included reports Fortescue Mining was trying to destroy WA sacred sites.
At the inquiry into the destruction of the Juukan Gorge by fellow miner Rio Tinto, Fortescue was accused of “bullying” legal attempts to destroy the Eastern Guruma sacred sites.
That did not sit well with Twiggy’s carefully crafted image as a champion of Aboriginal rights, so it was rather timely that a story appeared in The Australian this weekend under the helpful headline “Andrew Forrest hailed as the voice for the Indigenous”.
But on careful reading of the short strange story, the man “hailing” Twiggy as “the influential voice to parliament on Indigenous issues” was one Ngaanyatjarraku shire president Damian McLean. McLean is not Indigenous and he also seemed to be speaking sarcastically. Irony or spin?
Gladys Berejiklian
The Queen of Spin, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, might need more than soft interviews and the upcoming Vogue fashion shoot to offset her avalanche of bad publicity.
“Poor Gladys” is now “Exhausted Gladys”, according to her media minders in the weekend papers. They noted how hard she has worked during the pandemic and said that sheer tiredness has led to recent mistakes.
Tell that to Dan Andrews. Or Julia Gillard. And let’s not mention her pre-pandemic misjudgments. The woman who fails to protect greyhounds and koalas never fails to fight for property developers and Nats leader John “Pork” Barilaro.
The premier’s minders seem to be spinning that her recent problems are nothing a good quick holiday can’t fix.
China
Then there was China with its latest ludicrous ban on Australian goods: this time it claimed we are dumping cheap wine. (They’ve already ripped off all the top-end ones.)
This from the nation that signed a free trade agreement with Australia, which is obviously not worth the paper on which it is written. So too their signing up to the World Trade Organization where they blithely ignore the countless dumping actions against them…
Russia
But then this morning came the ultimate hypocrisy from Russia with news their foreign ministry has attacked Australia’s credibility on the world stage after the Brereton report into unlawful killings by the SAS.
The same Russia that is truly “shocked” by our conduct is the nation that shot down MH17, killing 298 passengers including nearly 40 Australians. Not to mention invading Crimea, supporting the Assad regime in Syria and poisoning political opponents in Britain.
Oh and, for good measure, China joined in the pile-on claiming the report revealed the “hypocrisy of the human rights and freedom these Western countries are always chanting about”.
So strap in. With nominees like these, it’s going to be a very close race.
As Donald Horne said “Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people’s ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise.”
That’s why I rarely vote, no point in encouraging them.
It matters not for whom one votes, government always wins.
It voting could change anything it would be illegal.
The Benighted States will soon go back to the future of forever wars – whatever else one might say of Trump,he did NOT start a single new conflict, never mind war.
True, Republicans are basically stupid but the Democrats are conniving thinkers, they are more dangerous.
Go for Twiggy as he has been chosen for ABC Boyer Lecturer, tries to hide his self interests. Like Bad Cashless welfare card policy for profits and power, and more! He tries to buy a philanthropic cover!
And I am afraid mostly succeeds!
If the Covid19 pandemic was a war, Twiggy and his friends who bought up all the wholesale PPE, and shipped it to Wuhan would have been shot as traitors.
He tries to buy his “Australian cover” but in reality, he is a good Chinese patriot and should be recognized as such.
There was a photo of him wrapped in two big Australian flags on the front of an iron ore train.
“A scoundrel is the only one who wraps himself in the flag” said my long dead, WW11 vintage mother. I concur.
I lived in Onslow for a couple of years, and met the Forrest family (lovely people!) and well do we remember that he was the first white person to bring a court case under the indigenous land rights legislation. Not to help indigenous people, who in Onslow are mostly living in the most abject poverty, but to stop prospectors looking for minerals on ‘his’ land.
It’s a tough choice Eva, but I’ve made mine. Twiggy is right up there though, his extended court cases against indigenous land owners have been reprehensible.
Really sloppy.
You are just repeating imperial propaganda points from the people who promised there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
The Russians made the point that Australia is a state sponsor of terrorism, which, given our history as a military colony first of the British Empire and then of the US Empire, is actually quite reasonable.
Nicely put, Griselda.
Perrett the Parrot would do well to visit the reports on the trial currently going on at The Hague – like I’ve done, just this morning – again.
If you ‘enjoy’ high farce, it’s well worth the time. It’s clear from the reading the objective of these proceedings is to disappear the whole show down the memory hole. There is not a hope in Hades families and friends of the victims will get any sort of closure.
And, did you know there is a Ukraine-Australian dual citizen – ‘journalist’ the ‘authorities’ are desperate to keep away from the court proceedings?
Spent a time acting for the SBU (Ukraine ‘intelligence’), and provided Ukraine/Australia JV authorities with ‘evidence’, in exchange for payment, which those authorities are now none too keen to have presented in court.
Something about ‘concerns about being challenged cross examination’, apparently.
Which has left said Ukrainian-Australian journalist somewhat miffed with his previous ‘handlers’.
I thought we’d have Julie Bishop flying over to console the bereaved Afghan families and act to have their grievances ironed out by an Australian Court, or maybe the Hague!!
Janine, you’ve overlooked some strong contenders right in your own backyard. Surely those worthy gents who justifiably criticise Israel for its atrocious treatment of Palestinian Muslims and then turn a blind eye to the CCPs genocide of Muslims in Xinjiang would have to be front runners.
And who is it regales us with tales of Uighur genocide? Isn’t it the same people who told us there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? I make no pretense to authority on the life of the people in Xinjiang but it seems to me that those who retail the tales of proven liars are either tools or fools.
It really is that simple.
And yet, the vast majority accept the B/S though all we get from our rulers is ”rinse & repeat”.
What is “closure” exactly?
I would nominate Janine Perrett for the Hypocrisy Award for promulgating the ‘Australian’, Murdoch Press accusations about what Russia is supposed to have done. Only the far right-wing press actually believes that the Russians poisoned some people in Britain – there is simply no evidence, and absolutely no proof of this, just accusations. The downing of the passenger plane as it flew over a combat zone in the Ukraine has only been ‘proven’, once again, by the far right warmongering press. To then indulge in hypocritical finger-pointing about Russian action in the Crimea, and, worst of all, to attempt to damn Russia for allowing Assad to defend his country against US state sponsored terrorism, takes the frigging cake. Janine makes Greg Sheridan sound like a reasonable political commentator.
Sort of agree except for the Sheridan part, he should be a permanent contender for this award.
Yep, agree entirely: that’s how bad Perrett’s piece is!
I saw mention of what Mighty Maria Zakharova had to say, at New Daily this morning.
Apart from her rather ‘dry’ references to the ‘rules based order’ (she gets that from Lavrov e.g. ‘HIGHLY LIKELY!’), here are the 2 references that caught my eye;
“The Australian government has so far not responded to the Russian Foreign Ministry’s remarks”.
And, preceding that;
“Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings called the latest comments from the Russian Government the “height of hypocrisy”.
“This is the Russia that was responsible for the shootdown of MH17 over Ukraine, the invasion of Crimea, support to [President Bashar al-] Assad in Syria in murderous ways,” he said…..”
Gee, look………….!
Notice Jennings was quite mute about our SAS, a nice try at deflection that didn’t come off.
Oh, but they’ve been out and about this arvo, Tony, over the Chinamen’s ‘meme’.
Morrison ‘fully outraged’, so the ABC ask Pete’s ASPI for some ‘expert analysis’, and Pete stumps up the ‘Asian woman’.
Said woman settled on a ‘career’ with Pete’s ASPI, after she crashed and burned at her aspiration to become a comedienne – I kid you not.
What has not been mentioned at all, amid this outrage, is covered by these 4 points I moments ago sent to the cohort.
“Not a question, not a mention, of the Chinamen’s basis for the ‘meme.
1. Did Brereton find the khaki killers had killed kids? Yep.
2. Did Brereton find the khaki killers had slit throats? Yep.
3. The Chinamen included mention of a kid with a sheep? Did McBride describe how the ‘Shepherd Boy’ had been picked off from a hill top, on a whim, reports of the incident being doctored, and Nelson & the killer cartel all celebrating this courageous khaki killer mission? Absolutely freakin’ yep!
4. Did Brereton prevent the publication of the most heinous acts committed by the khaki killers, obviously more heinous than killing kids, slitting throats and killing shepherd boys from hilltops, on whims. See No 3 above.”
The report likely has atrocities against women which powerpuff* Aussies couldn’t handle if informed.
Did you mean”…look..” at the author’s stenography -“The same Russia that is truly “shocked” by our conduct is the nation that shot down MH17, killing 298 passengers including nearly 40 Australians. Not to mention invading Crimea, supporting the Assad regime in Syria and poisoning political opponents in Britain.”
How wicked can one nation be, supporting a government with majority support (across sectarian lines – unique in the M/E) from Saudia/Qatar financed insurgents.
For shame!
Speaking of ‘shame’, I, it should also be heaped on the medya, here, for failing to report the ongoing aerial bombings, by the Israelis, on the oldest continuously occupied city on the planet, Damascus.
Apol’s, I, neglected to respond to your query.
Yes, precisely.
ASPI arms sales and promotions international?
Just checked Perrett’s background: Sky News, The Australian. I am starting to question why I subscribe to Crikey.
Her career is far more extensive that you portray it. Be fair.
Me too.
“supporting the Assad regime in Syria.”
Agreed.
Any damage done by Assad in Syria would be marginal compared to the damage done by the US and their proxy ISIS.
Stop reading the morning broad-sheets.
ISIS was nothing to do with the west except, that we created a generation who expected to rule in Iraq and we refused them any legitimacy thus the extremist Sunni movement was formed.
Great points. And to think Assad and Syria is the only secular nation in the entire Muddle* East.
Last time I tried to rebut Janine I was blocked so here goes. Does Janine know that Malaysia, the country of origin of the downed plane and the country who lost the most citizens because of that loss has refused to accept the ‘findings’ of the court in the Hague. They consider it a setup. Really, Crikey, this is appalling, badly researched crap.
It’s increasingly rare to come across well informed folks, RW, so kudos.
I come here to read the comments. They often give me much better background than the article itself.
Almost always. David Thompson in particular has much more time to read than I, so his synopses are worth hours of research for me.
I second the nomination.
Less a shallow pool of intellect than a puddle.
On a hot road.
I don’t believe that anyone in their right mind could fail to understand the sophistication of the investigations involved in tracking down the source of the Polonium used to poison the tea of a ex-Russian operative who died slowly and very publicly.
The source of the Novachok nerve gas was similarly tracked back. That coupled with the CCTV proved damning.
As for Assad being assisted in protecting his country, this butcher is now up there in the Stalin league for the number of civilians killed. Assad is a qualified doctor, which upon reflection is nauseating.
Assad was a highly regarded ophthalmic surgeon who lived contentedly in Britain with his british born Arab wife, loathing the politics of his despot father & crazy brother (who died driving too fast)for most of his life.
Surely recently born again greenie, publicly funded jet setter and keen job seeker Matty Cormann should have been lunging for the gold in this event?