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Cathy Wilcox  |
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| Pat Hudson |
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| David Rowe |
Donald Trump’s policy agenda could precipitate a global financial crisis and fuel inflation, one of the world’s leading analysts has warned, with fears Australians will suffer higher interest rates and a $36 billion hit to the domestic economy @theage pic.twitter.com/0VFn0oz7YY
— MattGolding Cartoons (@GoldingCartoons) November 7, 2024
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| First Dog On The Moon |
A brief look at some items of note during the last ten days.
I was in #Gaza in March+testified to @CIJ_ICJ as part of gen0side case against #Israel
— Ben Thomson 🇵🇸 (@BenNephrology) August 14, 2024
Today, #EyeWitnessGaza starts with video testimonies of horrors we saw. Campaign demands pinned2 @BenNephrology
This is my first testimony. More health workers2post soon@HA4Palestine@CIJ_ICJ pic.twitter.com/1WGSZjy925
“The entire unjust world does not care about this. That’s all I can say.” Heartbreaking testimony in the wake of the killing of newborn twins and their mother in Gaza -- leaving behind a father whose world is shattered. Correspondent @JDiamond1 reports. pic.twitter.com/CKUwLt23sn
— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) August 14, 2024
⚠️ GRAPHIC ⚠️
— Amer Amayreh (@a_amayreh) August 14, 2024
Sorry for bothering you, but things are worst on ground.
Thanks for your tax money. 🥸
⚠️ GRAPHIC ⚠️ pic.twitter.com/mIjYPnSFX5
On 14 August 2024 the State of Israel's War on Gaza entered its 313th day and, the Palestinian population has suffered more war deaths than the Australian people did during the approx. 2,107 days of the last world war.
A sad comparison
In World War Two 34,000 Australian service personnel were killed along /w 700-1,000 civilians [ABS 1998, Parramatta History and Heritage 2020, Statistica 2024]. These numbers are estimated to be 5% of Australia's total population as of 30 June 1939.
In the War on Gaza from 7 Oct 2023 up to 14 Aug 2024 a total of 39,965 Palestinians are recorded as killed [UN OCHR August 2024] with est. 11,000 of those killed being children.
NOTE: These UN numbers do not include the thousands missing presumed dead or the as yet unidentified dead stored within the Gaza Strip.
However, the numbers do represent an estimated 2.0% of the Palestinian population residing in the Gaza Strip on 1 September 2023.
As of 20 August 2024 there is no negotiated ceasefire or any timetable for a declaration that the War on Gaza has ended.
Jewish Council Australia, media release, 14 August 2024:
Jewish Council condemns Peter Dutton and Dave Sharma for stoking racism in comments on Palestinians fleeing genocide
August 14, 2024
Today, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton told Sky News that no Palestinians from Gaza should be entering Australia and that a visa scheme for Palestinians fleeing Gaza would put Australia’s national security at risk.
These comments were made days after Liberal Party Senator Dave Sharma criticised the government, suggesting that Palestinians entering Australia “might endanger” Australian citizens and “our own democracy.”
These comments cannot be taken in isolation. Only two weeks ago, neo-Nazis held a Trump inspired anti-immigration rally outside Federation Square in Melbourne calling for the mass deportation of immigrants. Rather than clearly distancing themselves from dangerous anti-immigrant sentiment, Peter Dutton and Dave Sharma are only fuelling division.
The Jewish Council rejects any assertion that Palestinians fleeing violence are a threat to the safety of Australians.
Palestinians in Gaza face extreme levels of violence. On Saturday morning, an Israeli attack at the Al-Tabeen School in Gaza City killed at least 100 people, making it one of the deadliest attacks in Israel’s 10 month assault on Gaza. The intensity of the bombing was such that many victims were dismembered beyond recognition. Doctors resorted to collecting body parts in plastic bags, giving families 70 kilos of remains when their loved ones could not be individually identified.
The horrific reality of violence faced by Palestinians in Gaza underlines the need for Australians to do all we can to support and welcome Gazans seeking to enter Australia.
Dr Max Kaiser, historian and Executive Officer
“The rhetoric directed against Palestinian refugees is reminiscent of the same rhetoric used to vilify Jewish refugees in the 1940s and 1950s who were frequently labeled ‘security risks’. This rhetoric is also part of a long history of racism and exclusion in Australia, from the White Australia Policy to panics about ‘boat people’.”
Sarah Schwartz, human rights lawyer and Executive Officer
“Peter Dutton and Dave Sharma should be ashamed of themselves for using anti-immigrant rhetoric to stoke fear and division. It is only weeks since anti-immigrant riots took place in the UK, and neo-Nazis held an anti-immigration rally in Melbourne’s CBD. Politicians should be distancing themselves from all forms of racism and xenophobia not fuelling division.
“The Australian Government should not be influenced by the Israel lobby’s false and racist depictions of Palestinians. Many Jewish people have family histories of fleeing persecution and understand the importance of Australia meeting its obligations under International Law to protect the human rights of refugees.”
Historical background
Rhetoric directed against Palestinian refugees is reminiscent of the same rhetoric used to vilify Jewish refugees in the 1940s and 1950s who were frequently labeled ‘security risks’. T.H. White, Australia’s delegate to the 1938 Evian Conference famously said with reference to German and Austrian Jewish refugees, Australia has "no real racial problem [and is] not desirous of importing one". This rhetoric is also part of a long history of racism and exclusion in Australia, from the White Australia Policy to the War on Terror’s exclusion of people from the Middle East.
Statements by Leader of the Opposition & LNP MP for Dickson, Peter Dutton:
The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 August 2024:
....Dutton on Wednesday decided to push beyond the Coalition’s previous demands for tougher scrutiny of Palestinian refugees, saying: “I don’t think people should be coming in from that war zone at all at the moment. It’s not prudent to do so and I think it puts our national security at risk.”
9 News, 15 August 2024:
"So (the government) said that they will bring people into Australia who are sympathisers with a listed terrorist organisation," Dutton said.
"Could you imagine if we were proposing to bring people in who were sympathetic to another listed terrorist organisation, like al-Qaeda or ISIL or ISIS? It's completely unacceptable.
"You bring 3000 people in, let's say 99 per cent are good.
"If one per cent, 30 people, are questionable or sympathisers with a listed terrorist organisation, how on earth is that in our country's best interests?"
ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess has previously said that "rhetorical" sympathy for Hamas would not be considered an automatic bar to entry.
Note: Using statistics drawn out of thin air to create hypothetical risk scenarios produces nothing but 'word salad' - especially as the number of Palestinian refugees who have entered Australia since October 2023 is far less than the 3,000 mentioned. A wider lens is required. As an example, between 2014 & 2020, a total of 3,360,650 people entered Australia on migrant visas [ABS, 2021]. If the total number of individuals actually charged with terrorism related offenses within this period had been in that 6 year migrant intake, it would still only have represented an estimated percentage point of 0.003273176320057132% of this statistical cohort.
A cartoonist's perspective
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Matt Golding |
An exchange in the Australian Parliament
House of Representatives, Hansard, 15 August 2024, excerpt:
Ms STEGGALL (Warringah) (09:16): It's extremely concerning to see the opposition turn up today with this suspension of standing orders and the words and the rhetoric that we're hearing here. It goes directly against the advice of ASIO and the concern around the polarisation in our communities—that whipping up of a sense of fear and that inference that, for example, our services and systems are not working. What I'd like to share is the human story, the real story, about some of the people we're talking about and the lives we're talking about.
Mr Conaghan interjecting—
Ms STEGGALL: And I would ask you to be silent! I have the floor!
The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Cowper will cease interjecting. The member for Warringah will be heard, just as other members were heard, in silence.
Ms STEGGALL: In 2020, I met a man called Mohammed at the North Steyne Surf Life Saving Club. He had come to Australia under a visa approved by the Morrison government under the same systems. He came to participate in a surf lifesaving skills program. He wanted to give the children of Gaza an opportunity to learn water safety, to not drown, to have something positive on weekends. They loved that program. They attended.
Unfortunately, after the horrendous events of October, that program, of course, ended. The bombing started. Many people that participated in that program have died. Many of the children have died. These are normal families. These are families that you are seeking to paint as all being terrorists, who should all be mistrusted and who are not worthy of humanitarian aid.
Mr Dutton: Complete rubbish! Stop repeating the governments lines.
The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will cease interjecting.
Ms STEGGALL: We heard you in silence; you can hear me in silence. Stop being racist.
The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition is seeking the call.
Mr Dutton: That was an offensive and unparliamentary remark and it should be withdrawn.
The SPEAKER: Order! There is far too much noise. As I previously asked for the chamber to be silent, I'm just going to ask the member for Warringah, if she made an unparliamentary remark, to withdraw it to assist the House.
Ms STEGGALL: Could I have a clarification: is a description of language as being racist an unparliamentary remark?
Mr Katter interjecting—
The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Kennedy will resume his seat. Just to assist the House so the debate can keep going, as has been previously ruled, I will just ask the member to withdraw and continue. [my yellow highlighting]
The War on Gaza continues
ABC News, 16 August 2024:
The death toll in Gaza from Israel's offensive has surpassed 40,000 people, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
It says a total of 40,005 people have been killed and 92,401 injured since October 7, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel....
The Leader of the Opposition & LNP MP for Dickson continues
The Daily Telegraph, 17 August 2024:
The Nazis tried to conceal their crime of murdering six million Jews. Hamas felt no guilt when they carried out their terrorist attack on October 7. They invaded Israel with body cams and phones to film their butchery of 1200 people – the greatest loss of Jewish life on a single day since the Holocaust.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 August 2024:
“The advice that I have is that, out of the last 33 people who have been charged with terrorist-related offences in this country, 22 are from second- and third-generation Lebanese Muslim backgrounds,” he said in November 2016.
The comments were widely condemned at the time and last year, in an episode of the ABC’s Kitchen Cabinet, journalist Annabel Crabb put to Dutton that they were racist.
“They’re comments that I shouldn’t have made,” he replied. “I have apologised for that.”
But five leaders of Australia’s Lebanese Muslim community now say they have no recollection of Dutton ever making that apology.
The opposition leader’s office did not respond to multiple enquiries from this masthead about when, how and to whom he said sorry.
[my yellow highlighting]
The pushback by members of the Jewish community in Australia continues
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| IMAGE: The Guardian 11.06.24 Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP |
The 'when I am prime minister' comments and promises have increased recently.
To add context and keep track of what Dutton has been promising since becoming opposition leader, here is a list of promises made so far. Not all of which have stood the test of time.
Dutton’s super promise
The Mercury, 2 March 2023:
The Opposition Leader said the Coalition would not support the changes given Labor had declared it would not tinker with superannuation during the election campaign. “We’re dead against it, and we will repeal it. We’re not going to stand by and watch Australians attacked,” Mr Dutton said. Treasurer Jim Chalmers defended the changes on Wednesday morning, arguing while there would be some “political cost” to the move, overall it was a “modest” reform.
Dutton promises improved facilities for female sports participants during shire visit
St. George and Sutherland Shire Leader, 18 August 2023:
Mr Dutton, accompanied by the MP for Hughes and shadow sports minister, made an early election promise that a Coalition government would help sporting clubs improve facilities to help increase female participation.
He said $250 million would be provided over four years for community sporting infrastructure across the country.
Dutton promises another vote if Indigenous Voice fails
Brisbane Times, 2 September 2023:
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has promised to hold a referendum on constitutional recognition for Indigenous Australians if the Voice is defeated at the ballot box next month, and he wins power at the next election.
Setting out some of his alternatives to a Voice that is written into the Constitution, the opposition leader said he supported “regional voices” and the recognition of First Australians.
Cook returns fire over Dutton defund pledge
The Australian, 31 January 2024:
The federal Opposition Leader on Tuesday used an address to the WA Chamber of Minerals and Energy to promise to withdraw financial support for the EDO [Environmental Defenders Office]...
Dutton railroads PM in byelection: Campaign on Track
Sydney Morning Herald, 02 Feb 2024:
Dutton will travel to Melbourne's bayside today to pledge $900 million towards extending Melbourne's rail network to the booming suburbs south of the electorate.
The electrification of the Frankston-Baxter line, along which a diesel V/line service runs, would include new stations at Langwarrin and Frankston East, both of which sit within Dunkley.
Dutton promises more tax cuts under Coalition
The Sydney Morning Herald, 07 February 2024:
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton emerged from a Coalition party room meeting yesterday to admit he could not block the Labor tax cuts and would not roll them back if he won power, but he vowed to add to them with further measures announced before the election.
Dutton: 'I'll wind back regulation'
The Australian Financial Review, 3 April 2024:
Peter Dutton will promise business leaders cheaper energy prices and less government interference under the Coalition, pledging to stay out of the way of employment and profit growth through a simplified industrial relations system...
Invoking the vision of Liberal Party founder Robert Menzies in an address to the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, Mr Dutton will pledge to better represent workers and business operators if the Coalition wins the next election, delivering a "back-to-basics economic agenda"....
A year out from the next election, Mr Dutton will to call for sustainable wage growth delivered through productivity enhancements....
He will tell attendees the Coalition is developing plans for a dramatic ramp-up in domestic gas production and will present policies for deployment of nuclear power technologies.
Campbell: Dutton’s migration promises a year too late to seize political initiative
The Daily Telegraph (Online),19 May 2024:
On Thursday night, in his budget-in-reply, speech Peter Dutton finally grabbed the political opportunity this represents by promising to cut permanent migration for two years from 185,000 to 140,000 – or by 25 per cent – and to work with universities to set a cap on foreign students.
He will also ban foreign investors and temporary residents from buying existing homes in Australia.
I’ll kick out any foreigner who commits serious crime: Dutton
The Australian, 7 June 2024:
Peter Dutton says no non-citizen who commits a dangerous crime in Australia should be allowed to stay in the country as a matter of principle, arguing they should be deported “immediately”
Dutton vows to ‘make Victoria great again’
Herald Sun, 8 June 2024:
Peter Dutton wants Victoria to return to its “manufacturing powerhouse” glory days — and he says with his strong economic leadership skills, he can get us there.
Dutton to pull Australia out of Paris Agreement if elected
The Sydney Morning Herald, 8 June 2024:
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has signalled he will scrap the nation’s legally binding 2030 climate target and risk Australia’s membership of the Paris Agreement on climate change, following his vow to deploy nuclear energy to reach net zero by 2050.
Dutton declared on Saturday that a Coalition government would not pursue Australia’s legally binding climate target to cut emissions by 43 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030.
To be continued.....
Bushfire survivors call out Peter Dutton’s abandonment of communities on the frontline of climate change
________________________________
Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action
________________________________
June 8, 2024
BUSHFIRE SURVIVORS FOR CLIMATE ACTION (BSCA) has spoken out in response to Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s statements in The Australian today that the Federal Liberal Party would dump Australia’s interim emissions reduction targets. The organisation, founded and led by bushfire survivors, has labelled the move reckless and devastating.
“Here we are watching communities face climate-fueled disasters roll around again and again, with insurance costs rising and homes in some regions becoming uninsurable, yet the Opposition Leader is prepared to delay climate action until the 2040s. To say our members are distraught is an understatement,” said Serena Joyner, Chief Executive Officer of Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action.
“What’s particularly hard to understand is how the Coalition can justify the ever growing expense of worsening climate disasters. The bushfires of 2019-2020 and the 2022 Northern Rivers floods each cost insurers more than $4 billion, and the cost to farmers of the Black Summer fires was $5 billion. Nearly 60% of all local government areas were disaster-declared in 2022 and councils everywhere have been unable to keep up with repairs to local infrastructure.
“And insurance costs are just beginning when accounting for the personal financial and emotional costs to people and communities across the country from more frequent and destructive fires and floods. There’s only so much we can take. Does Peter Dutton expect our regions to just give up and move to the city?
“Scientists tell us if we delay urgent climate action we guarantee that global temperatures will keep rising. That would condemn Australia to face summers like Black Summer on a regular basis, if not worse. It is beyond belief that the Opposition Leader thinks that is an acceptable future for this country.”
About Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action:
BushfireSurvivors for Climate Action (BSCA) is a non-partisan, community organisation made up of bushfire survivors, firefighters and their families working together to call on our leaders to take action on climate change. BSCA formed shortly after the Tathra and District fire in March 2018, and its founding members were all impacted by bushfires, including the Black Summer bushfires in 2019-20, Blue Mountains in 2013, Black Saturday in 2009 and Canberra in 2003.
BSCA has been at the cutting edge of legal reform to reduce climate emissions and hold governments, agencies and companies to account. In 2023 the NSW Environment Protection Agency was the first such agency in the country to introduce a climate policy, which it was required to do as a result of landmark court action taken by BSCA.
Peter Dutton proposes decades of delay on climate
Federal Liberals still with no climate plan
_________________________________
Solutions for Climate Australia
_________________________________
8 June 8 2024
National climate group Solutions for Climate Australia expressed extreme disappointment and concern at the Opposition Leader Peter Dutton proposing further decades of delay in tackling climate change, despite increasing climate disasters.
This follows a statement by Peter Dutton today, in an interview with The Australian, that the Federal Liberal Party wants to reject current targets and plans to reduce Australia’s climate pollution this decade.
“It is a tragedy that the Federal Liberal Party has no plan to stop the increasing climate disasters which are directly killing Australians, and damaging communities, agriculture and businesses across the country, and globally,” said Dr Barry Traill, Director of Solutions for Climate Australia.
“We need decisive action on climate pollution this decade to protect farmers, our food supply, businesses and trade. From uninsurable houses, to declining crop yields, to direct threats to life and property, we are all now being hurt by climate disasters.
“Australians voted decisively for action on climate in the 2022 election. Mr Dutton’s weak, do-nothing approach on climate is out of step with the electorate. The community showed it expects all political parties to adopt strong, science-based targets to reduce pollution.”
“The federal Coalition has not heeded the message of the nation on climate. They must do better.”
ENDS
"In the growing heat of debate over Coalition nuclear energy policy, Mr Dutton described the CSIRO’s GenCost report on the cost of electricity generation as “discredited” and “not a genuine piece of work” and suggested it was “well documented” that the CSIRO cannot be relied on." [InnovationAUS, 15 March 2024]
15 MARCH 2024
NEWS RELEASE
Science is crucial to providing the data and models that allow society to tackle profound challenges; challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic, transition to net zero, keeping Australian industry productive and sustainable, and protecting our unique biodiversity.
For science to be useful and for challenges to be overcome it requires the trust of the community. Maintaining trust requires scientists to act with integrity. Maintaining trust also requires our political leaders to resist the temptation to disparage science.
As Chief Executive of CSIRO, I will staunchly defend our scientists and our organisation against unfounded criticism.
The GenCost report is updated each year and provides the very best estimates for the cost of future new-build electricity generation in Australia. The report is carefully produced, its methodology is clearly articulated, our scientists are open and responsive to feedback, and as is the case for all creditable science, the report is updated regularly as new data comes to hand.
The GenCost report can be trusted by all our elected representatives, irrespective of whether they are advocating for electricity generation by renewables, coal, gas or nuclear energy.
No matter the challenge we are tackling, CSIRO’s scientists and engineers can be relied on by the community to work creatively, assiduously and with integrity.
Dr Douglas Hilton
Chief Executive, CSIRO
Some of the mainstream media headlines generated by Dutton's attempt to deny the considerable downside of introducing nuclear power stations into Australia's energy grid........
The Guardian
CSIRO chief warns against ‘disparaging science’ after Peter Dutton criticises nuclear energy costings
Douglas Hilton says he will 'staunchly defend' scientists as opposition leader repeats incorrect claim that CSIRO report does not accurately...
15.03.24
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Nation's science agency CSIRO hits back at Dutton claim that nuclear power costings were 'discredited'
The CSIRO has rebuked politicians seeking to undermine its research showing nuclear energy would be much more expensive than solar or wind...
15.03.24
The Sydney Morning Herald
‘Don’t disparage the science’: CSIRO hits back at Dutton on nuclear energy
Australia's top science agency has made a rare political intervention as CSIRO chief executive Doug Hilton defended his agency's findings on...
15.03.24
News.com.au
Nuclear question Dutton won’t answer
Peter Dutton has failed to answer a key question in a fiery clash with Bill Shorten over nuclear energy.
15.03.24
The New Daily
CSIRO hits back at Dutton's 'unfounded' criticism
Australia's national science agency has taken aim at Liberal leader Peter Dutton in a highly unusual public intervention.
15.03.24
The Canberra Times
CSIRO Chief defends GenCost report from political attack
Dr. Doug Hilton stands by CSIRO's GenCost report findings amidst political criticism from Coalition leader Peter Dutton.
15.03.24
The Age
CSIRO hits back at Dutton attack on its nuclear energy reports
Australia's top science agency has made a rare political intervention, with CSIRO chief executive Douglas Hilton defending his agency's...
15.03.24
Hunter Valley News
CSIRO boss defends scientists after Dutton attack
CSIRO chief executive officer Douglas Hilton has issued a rare public statement to urge politicians to "resist the...
15.03.24
The Wimmera Mail-Times
CSIRO boss defends scientists after Dutton attack
CSIRO chief executive officer Douglas Hilton has issued a rare public statement to urge politicians to "resist the...
15.03.24
Then on the same day the Centre for Independent Studies, a conservative seemingly pro-nuclear 'think tank' which also supported the No position in the 2023 national referendum and whose executive director just happened in 2008 to have been a senior adviser to former federal Liberal Party Leader Brendan Nelson and in 2009 was himself he a candidate to replace Nelson in his northern Sydney electoral seat of Bradfield, attempted to ride to Peter Dutton's rescue on social media with a whitewash of the Opposition Leader's comments and an interesting interpretation of the contents of CSIRO news release.
Centre for Independent Studies @CISOZ
CIS responds to @CSIRO's open letter.
"Not all criticisms are unfounded. If the CEO wants to defend the methods and conclusions of a particular report from criticism, he should do just that, rather than simply asserting that the report can be trusted when serious flaws still exist."
15.03.24
