Tony Abbott finally forced to show proof he renounced his British citizenship

Sacked former Australian prime minister and current Liberal MP for Warringah Tony Abbott has finally offered proof that he renounced his British citizenship on Tuesday 12 October 1993.

Why did it take him so long to offer this proof that he had done so?

Perhaps because the timeline below shows that he appears to have done so solely in order to gain Liberal Party preselection in an upcoming by-election in the federal seat of Warringah.

In this Abbott followed an established pattern of behaviour – only having applied for Australian citizenship some twenty years after arriving in Australia in order to facilitate his application for a Rhodes Scholarship in 1981.

And the reason Abbott has chosen to release renouncement proof at this particular time?

For the real reason look no further than the rumour that he has lost control of the numbers and will inevitably face a preselection challenge ahead of next year’s federal election. Therefore the reigniting of the dual citizenship debate and questions concerning his own eligibility to sit in parliament left him politically vulnerable within his own party branch.

TIMELINE

13 March 1993

Federal general election held. Tony Abbott rumoured to have failed to find Liberal Party support to stand at this election.

19 October 1993

https://twitter.com/TonyAbbottMHR/status/885752007520157696

29 January 1994

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

:

IT has been a special week for Tony Abbott. The man trying to sell the monarchy — he is executive director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy has had his product in town. But Abbott has other things on his mind as well. He is planning to run for preselection for the safe Liberal federal seat of Warringah, being vacated by Michael MacKellar.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/126925620?searchTerm=%22tony%20abbott%22%20preselection&searchLimits=sortby=dateAsc

1 February 1994

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES HANSARD

Mr SPEAKER —I inform the House that on 14 January 1994 I received a letter from the Hon. James Joseph Carlton resigning his seat as the member for the electoral division of Mackellar. I am also aware that the Hon. Michael MacKellar, honourable member for Warringah, has indicated his intention to resign from parliament on Friday, 18 February 1994. Consideration is being given to possible dates for the by-elections, and I am consulting with party leaders on this matter. I will inform the House in due course of the dates which I have fixed for the by-elections.

http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2F1994-02-01%2F0003%22

1 February 1994

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES HANSARD

Mr SPEAKER —……I have considered all the comments made. I now inform the House that, subject to the receipt of Mr MacKellar's resignation on 18 February, it is my intention to issue writs for the by-elections in Mackellar and Warringah on that day. Dates in connection with the by-elections will be as follows: issue of writs, Friday, 18 February 1994; close of rolls, Friday, 25 February 1994; nominations, Tuesday, 1 March 1994; polling, Saturday, 26 March 1994; and return of writs, on or before Friday, 27 May 1994.

http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2F1994-02-03%2F0079%22

20 February 1994

Tony Abbott wins preselection for the federal seat of Warringah. At this point he has been eligible to stand for election to the federal parliament for just under nineteen weeks.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/134303462

1 March 1994

Date of nominations for Warringah by-election.

http://www.aph.gov.au/binaries/house/info/votes/37/rvpf054.pdf

26 March 1994

Warringah by-election held. Tony Abbott elected.

http://www.aec.gov.au/Elections/supplementary_by_elections/warringah.htm

Political Videos of the Month

"Вот эти тебя обижали?": Путин и Трамп обсудили на встрече журналистов pic.twitter.com/cWZQA8HjSC

— Дмитрий Смирнов (@dimsmirnov175) July 7, 2017

Russian President and autocrat credited with ordering the murder of journalists Vladimir Putin joking with US President Donald Trump about the journalists Trump hates.

PUTIN: Did these people hurt [offend] you?

TRUMP: Yes [indecipherable]

[Dimitri Smirnov, Special Corps of Komsomolskaya Pravda. Journalist in Kremlin pool]

What did we learn about @realDonaldTrump at this #G20? @CUhlmann explains. #Insiders pic.twitter.com/TGOXdiFWhB

— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) July 8, 2017

[ABC political editor Chris Uhlmann]

* Click pic.twitter.com links to view videos.

Meme of the Week

via @DRUNKEN_ELVIS

Top 100 fossil fuel companies produce nearly 1 trillion tonnes of global greenhouse gas emissions

The Carbon Majors Database: CDP Carbon Majors Report 2017 - 100 fossil fuel producers and nearly 1 trillion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions [pdf]

All 100 fossil fuel companies in this study collectively accounted for “72% of global industrial GHG emissions”.

Coincidentally the fossil fuel and mining sectors are some of the most heavily government-subsidised sectors globally - as well as featuring prominantly in lists of multinational corporations paying little or no tax in the countries in which they operate.

Top 50 fossil fuel companies accounting for half of total global industrial GHG Emissions in 2015

Saudi Arabian Oil (Aramco)

Gazprom

National Iranian Oil

Coal India

Shenhua Group

Rosneft OAO

China National Petroleum Corp CNPC

ADNOC

ExxonMobil Corp

Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex)

Royal Dutch Shell PLC

Sonatrach SPA

Kuwait Petroleum Corp

BP PLC

Qatar Petroleum Corp

Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA)

Peabody Energy Corp

Iraq National Oil Co

Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras)

Chevron Corp

Datong Coal Mine

Lukoil OAO

China National Coal

Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas)

Nigerian National Petroleum Corp

Shanxi Coking Coal Group Co Ltd

BHP Billiton Ltd

Shandong Energy

Total SA

Glencore PLC

Shaanxi Coal Chemical Industry Group Co Ltd

Poland Coal

Yankuang

Statoil ASA

Arch Coal Inc

Eni SPA

ConocoPhillips

SUEK

Kazakhstan Coal

TurkmenGaz Sasol Ltd

Anglo American

Henan Coal Chem.

Jizhong Energy

Surgutneftegas OAO

Shanxi Jincheng

Sinopec

Kailuan

Bumi

CNOOC

Shanxi Lu’an

Here are 15 of the remaining 50 highest polluting fossil fuel companies

Russia (Coal)

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co

Rio Tinto

Alpha Natural Resources Inc

PT Pertamina

National Oil Corporation of Libya

Consol Energy Inc

Ukraine Coal

RWE AG

Oil & Natural Gas Corp Ltd

Repsol SA

Anadarko Petroleum Corp

Egyptian General Petroleum Corp

Petroleum Development Oman LLC

Czech Republic Coal

Tendered exhibits about child sexual abuse in Catholic institutions investigated by Catholic Church Insurance (CCI) and the Society of St Gerard Majella published by Royal Commission

Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, media release:

Exhibits published about child sexual abuse in Catholic Church institutions

10 July, 2017

The Royal Commission has published documents relating to Catholic Church Insurance (CCI) and the Society of St Gerard Majella that were tendered during the public hearing into Catholic Church authorities in Australia (Case Study 50).

The public hearing was held in Sydney in February 2017.

The CCI documents relate to investigations conducted by CCI into child sexual abuse claims to establish whether an insured Catholic Church authority had prior knowledge of an alleged perpetrator’s propensity to abuse.

The Royal Commission has published CCI documents relating to 22 alleged perpetrators.

The Society of St Gerard Majella was a Catholic religious institute founded in the 1960s. It was suppressed by the Vatican at the request of the Bishop of Parramatta in 1996, which had the effect of closing down the Society.

Please note that the documents in both exhibits (Exhibit 50-0012 and Exhibit 50-0013) contain redactions of names and identifying information that are subject to directions not to publish.

Visit Case Study 50 and go to exhibits to find the documents.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Royal Commission Analysis of claims of child sexual abuse made with respect to Catholic Church institutions in Australia, June 2017.

Pictures that tell 1,000 words - Part Three

US President Donald Trump at the Group of Twenty (G20) Hamburg Summit in Germany, 7-8 July 2017

Alone again, naturally.

And Australian federal politicians wonder why they are held in such low esteem

The majority of those Teflon-coated, masters of entitlement sitting in the Senate and House of Representative in Canberra wouldn’t even make the gesture……

The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 July 2017:

Fewer than a quarter of federal politicians have agreed to commit to new ethical standards devised by legendary corruption fighter Tony Fitzgerald - and there is not a single Turnbull government MP among them.

The former judge teamed up with the left-leaning Australia Institute think tank to survey every federal politician on their values as part of a plan to clean up Canberra and build momentum for a federal anti-corruption body.

The Queensland QC – who presided over the Fitzgerald Inquiry that ultimately led to the resignation of former state premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen – developed the questionnaire to test MPs about their attitudes towards accountability, integrity, nepotism, deception and the spending of public money.

But the response from MPs was underwhelming, with just 53 of the 226 signing up to the so-called "Fitzgerald Principles". Thirty-six refused to commit and 137 did not reply to repeated requests to participate.

"The refusal of a majority of politicians to commit publicly to normal standards of behaviour puts the need for an effective anti-corruption commission beyond doubt," Mr Fitzgerald said. 

"The major parties surely realise that the public wants politicians to behave honourably and that the scandals which are causing Australians to lose faith in democracy involve their members."

Thirty-eight members of the ALP agreed to the principles, including Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus. Seven members of the Australian Greens signed up, as did all four members of the Nick Xenophon Team, two independents and One Nation's Pauline Hanson.

No Coalition MPs - who are often instructed not to take part in surveys - signed up.

The Australia Institute, 28 January 2015:

The Fitzgerald Principles are:

1. Govern for the peace, welfare and good government of the State;

2. Make all decisions and take all actions, including public appointments, in the public interest without regard to personal, party political or other immaterial considerations;

3.  Treat all people equally without permitting any person or corporation special access or influence; and

4.  Promptly and accurately inform the public of its reasons for all significant or potentially controversial decisions and actions.

The Australian Government has a Statement Of Ministerial Standards which all federal government ministers are obliged to uphold. However, currently there is no general code of conduct for all members of parliament and, it appears that most of those we elected in 2016 like the freedom to do as they please which this allows and are loathe to alter the status quo.