Get down with AAT (yeah, you know me) We’ve been following the stackathon on the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a very long time, and yesterday gave us a new batch. The appointment of former Howard adviser, former family and community services minister in the Berejiklian government and NSW Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly for more than a decade Pru Goward was particularly brazen and hit the the sweet spot of “transparently partisan” and “has a long record of bonkers statements” thanks to her columns in The Australian Financial Review.
Apart from her description of Grace Tame as “an angry young woman”, there was her notorious piece concerned with “harnessing” the poor, citing non-specific “social workers” who “despair” at the working class’s “appalling housework, neglect of their children and, notably, their sharp and unrepentant manner when told to lift their game”.
One fellow member who might not have understood the fuss is Bridget Cullen, a member since 2017 who had her appointment extended in this latest round. In early 2021, Cullen quit her position on a governing body that runs four elite Christian schools after “wildly inappropriate” Facebook posts were reported in The Courier-Mail. Cullen had created a “tongue-in-cheek” page for her stolen BMW which followed the adventures of a fictional meth-addict/dealer being raised by a sex worker in government housing who (Jesus Christ … ) gave him “freebies” by letting him watch her “working” when he and his brother “Tyson” were small.
The spirit of things In case you missed it, Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate has hired a ratepayer-funded “spiritual adviser”, an adherent of the Christian fundamentalist Seven Mountain Mandate, which seeks to achieve Christian control of the major institutions of society.
Si Gladman of the Rationalist Society sent us a 2019 video in which Pastor Sue Baynes describes taking Tate on as an adherent in 2012:
And I said to him, ‘You know what, Tom?’ I said, ‘If that is true — if that is your heart as a Christian to come into this position as mayor — I want to talk to you about something.’ And for the next hour I outlined for him, on a piece of A4 paper, the Seven Mountain Mandate … And I said, ‘This can be a template for how we can see our city transformed by the power of God to look like the Kingdom of God.’ His chin dropped — it hit the desk — and he said, ‘I want this. I want you to help me to do this.’
We’re Kelly’s heroes We have said many things about Craig Kelly over the years, but one thing we can never accuse him of from this point on is being ungracious. In the past two days, he has shared two Crikey pieces to his Twitter following, including David Hardaker’s excellent work on Stuart Robert.
We appreciate the support, Craig — we’d love to text you to say thanks, but the number we have doesn’t seem to work any more.
Department of dysfunction Yet more scandal at the Department of Home Affairs, with The Australian reporting that DPG Advisory Solutions — a private quarantine company run by former Liberal Party candidate/ministerial adviser David Gazard, and former deputy director of the Liberal Party Scott Briggs, both close friends of Scott Morrison — were engaged on an “urgent advisory” basis regarding the repatriation of 30,000 Australians stranded overseas.
It raises serious questions of probity and, as the Oz says, why the Department of Home Affairs had taken organising the initiative at all after all that hoo-ha from the prime minister about how quarantine facilities were an issue for the states. We’ll chuck this on the pile with the series of damning Australian National Audit Office reports concerning such matters as paying 1000% more than it should have for the land owned by a Coalition donor.
How big a trough does it take before “Piggy” Tate can’t touch bottom?
“seeks to achieve Christian control of the major institutions of society”
how can this be legal? – an organisation who’s stated purpose is to overthrow our constitution and turn us into a theocracy, is allowed to function openly and be welcomed by politicians who have sworn to protect our constitution?!
How can it be legal to open Federal parliament with the Christian prayers or hold an annual Prayer Meeting Breakfast? But they do it and because we’re still taught to revere people of faith the infiltration and corruption of Australian Democracy by the Christian far right not only continues, it accelerates.
Agree, disregards the secular separation of church and state that marks pluralist liberal democracy and while not an Australian obsession i.e. religious or Christian practice, it was imported from the US GOP and informed by their own linkage with Evangelicals and/or conservative Christians.
Why any normal MP has anything to do with this imported construct that contradicts Oz society defies logic, unless they are acting out as ‘preachers’ whose authority is to be respected; don’t we hear a lot about Christian Kochian ‘freedom & liberty’ nowadays?
I find it hard to understand why people vote for someone who openly believes in miracles bestowed upon him by sky fairies.
But they let the prayer room to be used by all and sundry!
Let’s see if my understanding is correct: God badly wanted Morrison to be PM having already decided the Gold Coast was to be the new Heaven? It’s a lot to process…
Fair dinkum. I knew Tom Tate is a nut job mayor of a cesspit of glitz and self interest, but this latest turn is one for the ages.
Time to kick organised religion where it hurts. There was a time when primative people with limited science available to them decided that there were gods who put it all together to explain how it all started. Various slime bags were quick to spot the political uses of this new religion thing and exploit it for their own ends. Despite everything that has happened since organised relgion is still employed by the status quo sleazebags to groom entire populations for exploitation.
And foolish populations let it happen. We let them have their income tax free, which encourages more of them, and we give them a free run in the courts when they take their grooming a bit too far.