Top StoriesMay’s sharp fall in jobless numbers added to the greenness of the ‘recovery’ (or less bad) thesis; overnight June’s unemployment figures were so awful that they could have stunted at least, the wavering shoots.
No asylum from the Opposition’s xenophobia
|
The Opposition has taken an altogether unpleasant turn toward xenophobia this week. Malcolm Turnbull yesterday asked the Prime Minister about whether he was considering an “infrastructure bank” — later a “Labor Government bank” — based on the premise that the Government’s deposit guarantee was preventing State Governments from borrowing money. There was nothing new in Turnbull’s question. The idea has been kicking around for several weeks. What had happened since then was that State Labor Treasurers (what’s the collective noun for a group of State Labor Treasurers? Send your suggestions to boss@crikey.com.au — ed.) had discussed the idea. Once teased out — as the Sydney Morning Herald did, it was obvious the idea had nothing to do with any “bank”, but related to State Governments wanting to take advantage of the Commonwealth’s stronger credit rating. What was different was that the Opposition — using unnamed sources — then sought to link it to an otherwise unrelated possible investment delegation to the Middle East next year. Malcolm Farr reported:
You can just imagine the roars of laughter in the Opposition Leader’s suite as they hit upon “Kevlani”. As opposed to Farr, who kept it flat, at The Australian, they were happy to play along with the Opposition. “’Kevlani’ bankroll plan for state infrastructure” was the headline:
It’s not the first and certainly won’t be the last time an Opposition has got a cheap headline linking otherwise unrelated actions. But there’s unpleasantly xenophobic edge to it. It’s not just the Whitlam comparison, it’s the whole idea that Australia might — heavens above — seek investment from the Middle East. Everyone knows “petrodollars” — earned from exploiting hapless western motorists through the petrol bowser — aren’t REAL dollars. “They have all the fiscal discipline in Treasury of Jim Cairns,” Warren Truss said yesterday. “And next thing we will have the Prime Minister going over to the Middle East to try and borrow some money from Khemlani to fund his new bank.” You wouldn’t catch the Coalition ever seeking investment from the Middle East. Well, that’s perhaps not quite true. Peter Costello went to meetings in Dubai in 2003 and en route met with the Palestinian Authority — yes, the Palestinian Authority — to discuss trade and investment opportunities. In 2005, Vaile of Arabia, a man with quite some interest in that part of the world, announced negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement covering trade and investment with the United Arab Emirates. And in late 2006, the FTA discussions with the UAE were replaced with negotiations for an FTA with the Gulf Cooperation Council — that’s Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. “I am committed to securing new trade and investment opportunities for Australian companies as a result of these negotiations,” declared the then-Trade Minister. Who happened to be Warren Truss. Guess it’s okay for Coalition Governments to seek investment from Middle Eastern countries, but when a Labor Government does it, it’s Whitlamesque mendicancy to swarthy Arabs types. All this follows a clear attempt — with Malcolm Turnbull’s full support — to revive fear-mongering over refugees. This time, the unrelated event that was dragged in and spuriously connected was the “stand down” of some naval vessels over the summer break. Bob Debus explained yesterday that exactly the same number of aircraft and naval vessel patrols would be occurring during that period. Sharman Stone earlier this week in Question Time had suggested the entire Navy was having a holiday over the break and that people smugglers would use the opportunity to send through an even-greater “surge” of illegal immigrants. Mike Steketee in The Australian today did a comprehensive demolition job on the Coalition. Petro Georgiou and Alan Eggleston, who this week spoke about expediting the processing asylum application for detainees, are among the few Coalition MPs to stand apart from this grubby effort. Asylum seekers have been in the news around Parliament House. The Aminov family have been seeking permanent visas for a number of years and their son, Marat Aminov, has taken to disrupting Parliament. This week he jumped onto the floor during Question Time while a supporter tried to distract attendants by yelling from the opposite gallery. Yesterday Aminov doused himself in petrol outside the front of Parliament House and threatened to set himself alight. As we all learnt subsequently, the Member for Dawson, Labor’s James Bidgood, took a picture and tried to sell it. Quite what he was thinking is anyone’s guess. He was called around to the Prime Minister’s Office for a deserved b-llocking. The Opposition was outraged. In the House of Representatives, Joe Hockey piously rose and asked the Speaker to “investigate immediately all the circumstances surrounding the capture of the photo by the member for Dawson.” Because, as we know, the Coalition would never seek to exploit the plight of asylum seekers. |
|
|
16 Comments
Hasn’t Mark Vaile got a job as advisor to some company in Dubai? Paid for by all those lovely petro dollars.
And I seem to remember a photo or two used by Reith to demonise people.
great stuff
Well said Bernard!
Well done Bernard.
It’s time someone smacked the smelly cretins in the face with a solid worthy bunch of 5’s.
What these intellectual misfits think is meant by ‘ideology worthy of an alternative political party’ is ‘any opportunity to induce a sniggering ugly belly laugh in the boys at the back of the bar’ at any expense even wrecking complex efforts by hard working government to successfully rescue Australia from the world’s financial crisis for which the rest of us are hoping and praying.
Breaking their teeth may turn on their brain.
Psychology, psychology, psychology is everything and racism only hides but never really goes away. It’s a fundamental part of the human condition, a concept not understood by the world of psychologist and psychiatrist who foolishly believe it to be a cultural, personality, nurturing versus nature thing. It’s a nature thing and when we stop fighting nature we will really get on top of it.
Mind you it may be nice to be so dumb that you don’t know what a ‘world’s financial crisis’ is. If it doesn’t bite you and your beer on the bum at the back of the bar you can believe everyone else is deluded.
I was 3 months old when the Whitlam Government was sacked, but I have read several books about that phase of Australian history. The ‘loans affair’ is probably the most highly scrutinised political event in the post-war period. It is still used by the Libs as evidence of Whitlam’s (and indeed Labor’s) apparent economic ineptitude. What appears to have been long forgotten is that (but for Liberal paranoia and biased media) it was a total storm in a teacup. Yes, the Government investigated borrowing money from sources other than European banks, which had until then provided almost all Government loans. But how much money was actually borrowed from Khemlani or any of his mates? Does anyone remember? I’m pretty sure I’m correct in stating not a single cent was ever borrowed. How you can have a ‘loans affair’ without any loans is beyond me.
How long before the spectre of ‘blocking supply’ is raised ? This country is not well served by the FFF ( Family First Fielding ) and the ambition of Turnbull has echoes of a 70’s Fraser - smug, self serving and born-to-rule. Malcolm by name, Malcolm by nature …
Tim you can rest assurred Turnbull hasnt got the balls to block supply, he is too far behind in the polls both himself and his party he would get trounced and bye bye PM Turnbull forever. No its all about spine, something seriously lacking in the Opposition.
The DVD of The Dismissal is very educational on this period of politics. Whoever made it took alot of trouble to portray all the main players. Well worth watching again.
You’re right Bernard - you would never catch the Coalition seeking investment from the Middle East for infrastructure projects the country badly needs. However I think they’ve got fairly established policies and practices in donating to totalitarian regimes in the Middle East who they also declared war on.
This is A Post That Will Be Continued As Their Is Not Enough Space In The Topic So Follow The Thread As Its In Sections Becuase You Are Only Allowed So Many Words On The Site This Is a Urgent Post For All Victims All FORGOTTEN AUSTRALIANS By Huffnpuff
Hi To All The Forgotten Australians Out Their Who Were In Orpthanages, Girls Homes, Boys homes Remand Centres State Ward Homes church State Run homes foster Homes Out Of Home Care
And Hello To Our Fellow Members Here On O.L.O, Those Of Us Whome Are Forgotten Australians And To Those Who are Not
If Our Country Is To Be A County The Way It Should Be
This Would Mean That The State Goverment Of New South Wales Should Stand Up For Us Victims,That were Raped And Abused In These State Institutions, that Were Under The Control Of The Goverment Of New South Wales And That Of Other States Of Australia ,
The New South Wales Sate Goverment Still To This Day Cover Up The Rapes And Rapes We Victims Sufferd While We Were Been made Their Slaves While Under State care
We Are The Real Victims The Goverment does Not Want The Public And The Communities To Know About Becuase it The Truth Is Too daming For The Goverment To addmitt The Truth Of What We Victims Suffered , By Those Very People That They Employed At These Institutions
I Know This From Experince i Had been Fighting For Justice For Over Ten Years in The New South Wales Court System Brown V State of New South Wales
This Case Was Lost In favour Of The State Of New South Wales Even When They Stipulated In The Court Room In Front Of The Judges That The record Log Books had Been destroyed Or Misplacsed Or Lost Excusion Books And misconduct Records The Stae Still Got away With This In The Court House So How are we Victims To get Justice Even When they say These documents have been destroyed Or Lost , and The Victim had never Ever been aware That these documents could Never Be Found , Yet The Courts Still Protected The State Crown Lawyers in This Court case And left The Victim been raped All Over Again
I Can Only Hope That The State Of New South Wales Will Give Justice To Us Victims Of This State New South Wales, And When They Do , Give Justice To Us Victims And That The State take note Of Us Victims Who have Taken Our cases To The Courts For Justice But Were denide justice Have Us On The Top Of Their List To say sorry To And Give justice To Us as Of All The Victims
The Courts Of New South Wales Have Been Covering Up For The State Of New South Wales For Far To Long And Need To Be Held Accountable For Us Victims Who they have Thrown out The Court cases In Favour of The State
My Hope Of A High Court Appeal Are Over As No lawyer had The Guts To Take On This New South Wales Goverment, And I Stand By What Happend To Me At daruk Boys Home By The Said 2 Pedophiles Of That Institution Who Worked For The State Boys Home Daruk
I My Self Have Not The Abilty To Formulate The Documents For A High Court Case Of Which The Judge Would Proberly Still Cover Up For The State Anyway So For Ten Years Fighting For Justice The Right Way by The Law And Still Get Raped And Abused All Over Again, And The state lawyers Just Laugh In Your Face
,Because You Are A No One Today The 4th Of December 2008 Was The Last day To Lodge the Appeal To The High Court so because Of My Interlectual Ability I had no Hope Of having Any Documents drawn Up Fot An Appeal Verbally Yes i would And Could Put My case Forward But They Do Not Allow That
Im Sorry For All The Other Victims Out Their As I Know My case Was A Win Case But The Courts Have Coverd Up For The Stae Of New South Wales, Once Again And They Will Continue To Do This As Their Is a Lot Of cases Pending In The Sydney Supreme Court For The Same Claims I Took Before The Courts, If Those going before The Courts And Win i Congradulate You As For Me Im Down a Home A Car And Just Surving My Faimly And Children And Grand Children Are My Suport And Freinds ,
And The Shames Thing Is The attorney General Waqs Asked personally By Me via mailAnd Email And Phone To Help Take This case To The High Court yet has Done Nothing That I Am Aware Of as They have Not Even Been Incontact With Me About Asking For assistants From The attorney General
Even kevin Rudd Our Prime Minister Is wiping His Hands of Us Victims He can If He Had The Guts To Stand Up For Us Victims As He has Been Asked many many Time But Yet Has Not Once Mentioned Us So Much Guts From The Man Thats Running Our Country , He Can Not Even Stand UP To The State Goverments Of Australia To address This Issue
It Must And Has To Be True That new South wales is The Most Corupt State In australia , Thats Why Peter Hollingworth Got Kicked Out Of The Governer Genrals Job And Why Bob Car Changed The Laws , And Why The premiers have left Their Jobs
Nathan Rees Are You Going To continue What The Other Past leaders Of The State Of New South Wales have Done
To Us victims And Continue The Cover UP Like The Past Premiers Have Done
Anyone That Can Help And draw Up The Documents For A High Court Fight get In Contact With Me at , michealjbrown@hotmail.com Im Real And A real Victim The Goverment defintly Does Not Want To
Anyone That Can Help And draw Up The Documents For A High Court Fight get In Contact With Me at , michealjbrown@hotmail.com Im Real And A real Victim The Goverment defintly Does Not Want To Give Justice To
You Imagine Sydney Harbour Bridge Been Blocked By All Us Victims And The Main City , The State Would Be In Melt Down For The Loss Of Income From Every Body They can Not lock Us All Up as They Do Not have The Facilities For 500,000 Thousand Victims Of Which They Would Abuse Us Again Anyway Kind Regrds Huffnpuff 4/12/2008
im asking if someone could please place my post i have placed here today into the blogs section of kevin rudd as it is not letting me my post are in this article help is needed thank you
The 1975 Loans affair unseated the Whitlam government. American researchers generally credit the CIA with changing the Australian government in 1975.
Is this Middle East Loans affair another example of American agencies destabilising our government?
The only way the libs can get back the blue collar voters is by pulling the race card.
The economic arguments for lib support are no longer crediable to those voters who saw
just how rooted they could become under work choices.
Theres a lot more race politics to come.