Prime Minister Scott Morrison appears to view the very real danger that Australia is heading towards political violence from extremist mobs as all just part of the game to keep him in power

IMAGES: ABC NEWS & Herald Sun

The Monthly, 18 November 2021:

 Scott Morrison is, if nothing else, painfully predictable. As many (including myself) anticipated on Tuesday, the prime minister’s belated condemnation of the threatening mob outside the Victorian Parliament was always going to come with a “but” – a dog whistle to the protesters, an endorsement of their cause, a swipe at overbearing state governments. Today, following the disturbing news that a right-wing extremist had been charged over threats to kill the Victorian premier, and reports that neo-Nazis, seeking to radicalise other protesters, had infiltrated rallies against the state’s pandemic bill (not to mention anti-vaxxers’ rape and death threats forcing the shutdown of the WA premier’s office), Morrison did exactly as expected.

Asked this morning for his response to the violence being incited against politicians, the PM said that threats and intimidation had no place in Australia. But after a few cursory sentences about “civil society” and “respect” (just enough for many media outlets to report it as a rebuke), Morrison pivoted to justification and understanding. “There are many people who are feeling frustrated,” he said, arguing that it was time for governments to stop “telling Australians what to do”. “Australians have done an amazing job when it comes to leading us through this pandemic, but now it’s time for governments to step back. And for Australians to take their lives back,” he added ominously.

Morrison’s sympathy for the “frustrated” protesters has more than a minor whiff of Donald Trump’s “very fine people” comments after the deadly Charlottesville riots, not to mention the “I know how you feel” video during the also-deadly January 6 Capitol insurrection. While some media outlets declared that Morrison had “hit out” at the protesters, there’s little doubt that, as with Trump’s comments, the dog whistle was louder than the denunciation.

Eighty per cent of the PM’s answer, in fact, was focused on the protestors’ justified frustrations and state government overreach, with an added pushback against mandates and restrictions for the unvaccinated (policies to which, as Niki Savva notes, he owes the impressive vaccination rates he loves to crow about). People should be able to get a coffee in Brisbane, added Morrison, regardless of whether they’re vaccinated – a swipe at the Queensland government’s newly announced restrictions. (The state government has since labelled Morrison’s comments a “reckless” undermining of its vaccination efforts.) There’s little doubt that Morrison is trying to appease some of his own senators, who are still vowing to withhold their votes unless he pushes back against mandates. But he’s also indulging the “frustrated” protesters, with little concern for the dangerous levels of misinformation flying about......

Guy knows that the Victorian government needs some sort of bill to be able to manage the pandemic – which is very much ongoing – beyond December, and as supporting crossbencher MP Fiona Patten noted on RN Breakfast, the alternative (state of emergency legislation) “is far more draconian than the legislation we were trying to put through”. But once again, the facts don’t really matter to the PM – all that matters is that the very “frustrated” people know he’s in their corner, even if it means encouraging extremists and continuing to confuse those they are seeking to influence.

This is all getting very real and very dangerous, and many fear that we are on a dark path to the kinds of political violence increasingly being seen in the US and the UK. But to Scott Morrison, it is just another game.

Read the full article here.

IMAGE: news.com.au

 

You obviously support this, otherwise you'd be calling on the police to arrest her. pic.twitter.com/oJYOTw1kBy

— Guildford (yes him) 😕🙁😐 (@Guildford) November 16, 2021

Not just Vic Premier being threatened - seems members of his government are possibly being targeted too pic.twitter.com/PJbet14Q9e

— no_filter_Yamba (@no_filter_Yamba) November 17, 2021

 

7 News, 17 November 2021:

WA Premier Mark McGowan’s electoral office has been closed due to ongoing security risks.

In a doorstop interview on Wednesday, McGowan revealed that his Rockingham office had been the target of death threats and bomb threats ever since the state government announced mandatory vaccination for much of the state’s workforce.

A week after an armoured tank rolled up outside his electoral office, McGowan has confirmed that his staffers had even been subjected to rape threats.

COVIDIOT Liberal Members of NSW & Vic state parliaments openly supporting their threatening, aggressive QAnon and anti-vax "friends".

The Saturday Paper, Post, 17 November 2021, excerpt:

In Victoria:

• Up to 500 protesters occupying the steps of Parliament forcibly ejected a journalist and issued violent threats, including one speaker who said of Premier Daniel Andrews, “I look forward to the day I get to see you dance on the end of a rope” (The Age);

• Video of the protesters shows them gathered around a wooden gallows on Monday chanting “Freedom”, “Traitor”, and “Hang Dan Andrews” while attempting to place the head of an inflatable doll of the premier through the noose;

• Four state Liberal MPs mingled with the protesters on Tuesday, including Bernie Finn, who last week shared a doctored picture of Andrews dressed as Adolf Hitler;

• Finn posted a selfie with the mob, which he described as “a couple of thousand of my closest friends”;

• The protests are against a bill that gives the premier and health minister the power to declare a pandemic and make public health orders, with debate extending late last night (7News);

• It is all but guaranteed to pass after the government made amendments to secure the support of three crossbench MPs, including that parliament will be given immediate ability to scrutinise any order (The Guardian).

In NSW:

• Premier Dominic Perrottet dumped a bill seeking to expand the state’s Covid-19 emergency powers until 2023 (The Australian);

• It had been approved by cabinet but faced opposition from Liberal backbenchers in a bitter partyroom backlash;

• Health Minister Brad Hazzard had been pushing to retain the powers to require quarantine or self-isolation for people exposed to Covid-19 (7News);

• Perrottet said he’d defer the decision on extending the powers until 2022.

Cartoons of the Week

Peter Broelman

David Rowe

Cathy Wilcox

 

January 2021 was the month that Australia discovered hard-right members of the Morrison Government were flirting with Donald Trump's MAGA mob

When 6 January 2021 saw a Trump-incited violent mob storm the U.S. Capitol in an effort to stop formal verification of the Electoral College vote in the 2020 presidential election, Australia also discovered that some in Prime Minister Scott Morrison's circle of friends and colleagues had personal accounts on social media platforms - such as the now deplatformed Parler - where pro-Trump supporters, QAnon followers and white supremacists discussed insurrection, political assassination and the so-called 'stolen elections'. 

People such as long-time family friend and QAnon enthusiast Tim Stewart and colleagues Senator for Queensland Matt Canavan and MP for Dawson George Christensen participated.

To make matters worse, federal Liberal MP Craig Kelly spouts dangerously incorrect information concerning medical treatment of COVID-19 infection via the House of Represetnatives' Hansard, Facebook and Twitter, which was "echoed" on Parler.

The Guardian, 11 January 2021:

…..The treasurer and deputy Liberal leader, Josh Frydenberg, told reporters on Monday he was “pretty uncomfortable” with decisions to ban Trump because freedom of speech is “fundamental”.

Government MPs including National George Christensen and Liberal Craig Kelly have criticised social media for censoring Trump’s posts describing the mob who stormed the US Capitol as “very nice people”, arguing he’d also told them to go home “in peace”.

On Sunday, Christensen proposed laws to “stop social media platforms from censoring any and all lawful content created by their users”, an apparent reversal of his current policy on Facebook that “publishers have the right to remove content that goes against the rules or ethos of their publication”……

Kelly and Christensen have both argued that antifa members may have been present in the Capitol mob. Morrison has so far defended his MPs’ right to freedom of speech even in relation to false claims about the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s election.

Albanese told 2SM Radio that the “extremely dangerous” Capitol siege was prompted by “mistruths” and “encouraged by Donald Trump”.

He welcomed the moves by social media companies against Trump, saying: “It’s about time that people weren’t given a platform to spread hatred, to spread lies, which has had consequences for people.”

Albanese also argued Kelly had spread “conspiracy theories” about the treatment of Covid-19, over earlier misleading claims about the effectiveness of hyrdoxychloroquine.

“It’s got to be called out. I can’t understand how someone like Craig Kelly can be allowed to promote these theories, along with George Christensen and others, and remain a part of mainstream society.”

Albanese noted that Kelly, although a backbencher, is also chair of the parliamentary joint committee on law enforcement.

Earlier, Frydenberg said MPs were accountable to their electorates, and regardless of what they said or tweeted “they are democratically elected”.

Canberra Times, 15 January 2021

The argument over free speech has now extended into the farcical.

On Wednesday US time, during the discussion of failed US President Donald Trump's impeachment, Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican congresswoman and QAnon supporter, wore a mask with the word "censored" emblazoned across it.

She wore the mask while speaking in Congress - because apparently using the microphone to speak was not enough free speech for the conspiracy-loving politician.

Our own politicians are also promoting all brands of nonsense, humiliating Australians on the world stage.

Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack  compared the powerful Black Lives matter movement to a band of violent fools storming the US Capitol last week, and was backed up by LNP senator Matt Canavan. Unloved backbencher Craig Kelly, the federal member for Hughes, continues to promote untested remedies for COVID-19 without a word of reprimand from his political masters. George Christensen, the member for Manila , promoted the falsehood that the invasion of the Capitol was a bunch of antifascists (Antifa) in disguise. Help me, God.....

Now Dave Sharma, the federal member for Wentworth, bangs on about free speech.

I don't think I can help either McCormack, Christensen or Kelly, who must be beholden to mystery interests - otherwise why would they behave so strangely? But Dave Sharma, former diplomat, should be another matter, right? Seems like a well-educated guy. Sharma said the deplatforming of Trump from Twitter and elsewhere was "chilling". And, more or less, be careful what you wish for.

The UN General Assembly adopted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1966. Basically, it says yeah, we all have the right to have an opinion, and to express ourselves freely. But - and this is quite a big but - when we exercise our freedoms, we also have to exercise our responsibilities. For example, that freedom may be "subject to certain restrictions", such as respect for the rights or reputations of others and "the protection of national security or of public order, or of public health or morals"…...

Read the full article here.

BACKGROUND

Some of the "very nice people" approved of by members of the Morrison Government......

Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Columbia, media release excerpts:

15.01.21 - A retired Pennsylvania firefighter was charged yesterday and arrested today in Pennsylvania in connection with the riots at the U.S. Capitol last week.

Robert Sanford, 55, of Boothwyn, PA, was charged by criminal complaint with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, disorderly or disruptive conduct on capitol grounds, civil disorder, and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers while engaged in the performance of official duties.

It is alleged that during the events at the U.S. Capitol, Sanford struck three U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) officers with a fire extinguisher. A video, recorded by an individual who was present in the crowd, captures when a man throws what appears to be a fire extinguisher at a group of USCP officers protecting the lower west terrace of the Capitol.

The fire extinguisher struck one officer, who was wearing a helmet, in the head; then, the fire extinguisher ricochets striking a second officer, who was not wearing a helmet, in the head; and ricochets a third time and strikes a third officer, wearing a helmet, in the head. After throwing the fire extinguisher at USCP, Sanford leaves the area in the opposite direction. Federal authorities were able to identify Sanford, after receiving a tip on January 12.

This case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Counterterrorism Section of the DOJ’s National Security Division, with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The cases are being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office and the United States Capitol Police.

The information contained in the charging documents are merely allegations. The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty......

In a recorded interview that also occurred on January 12, 2021, the complainant told FBI Special Agents that SANFORD had told the complainant that SANFORD had travelled to Washington, D.C. on a bus with a group of people. The group had gone to the White House and listened to President Donald J. Trump’s speech and then had followed the President’s instructions and gone to the Capitol.

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

13.01.21 - Two off-duty Rocky Mount, Virginia police officers were charged yesterday in federal court in the District of Columbia in connection with the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021.

Jacob Fracker and Thomas Robertson were charged by complaint with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. Both defendants were arrested on January 13, 2021, in Virginia. It is alleged that during the events at the U.S. Capitol, Fracker and Robertson were photographed in the Capitol building making an obscene gesture in front of the John Stark statue.

On social media, Robertson is quoted as saying, “CNN and the Left are just mad because we actually attacked the government who is the problem and not some random small business ... The right IN ONE DAY took the f***** U.S. Capitol. Keep poking us.” He also stated that he was “proud” of the photo on an Instagram post that was shared to Facebook, because he was “willing to put skin in the game.” On Facebook, Fracker posted a comment that read, “Lol to anyone who’s possibly concerned about the picture of me going around... Sorry I hate freedom? …Not like I did anything illegal…y’all do what you feel you need to.” The post has since been deleted.

These cases are being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Counterterrorism Section of the DOJ’s National Security Division, with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia. The cases are being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office and the United States Capitol Police.

The information contained in the charging documents are merely allegations. The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty......

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

13.01.21 - Defendant, Richard Barnett, who was arrested on Jan. 8, 2021, was charged in an amended complaint yesterday with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without law authority; one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on capitol grounds; and one count of theft of public money, property, or records.

Additional complaints have been submitted in federal court and investigations are ongoing. As previously reported, approximately 40 individuals were arrested and charged in Superior Court with offenses including, but not limited to, unlawful entry, curfew violations, and firearms-related crimes.

The cases are being prosecuted by the U.S Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Counterterrorism Section of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division. The cases are being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the U.S. Capitol Police Department, and the Metropolitan Police Department. Valuable assistance was provided by: the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York; the FBI’s New York Field Office; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Wisconsin; the FBI’s Milwaukee Field Office; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida; the FBI’s Tampa Field Office; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Idaho; the FBI’s Salt Lake City Field Office; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia; the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office; the U.S. Attorney's Office for Maryland; and the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office......

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

10.01.21 - Two men were charged today in federal court in the District of Columbia in connection with the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021.

Larry Rendell Brock, of Texas, was charged with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. Brock was arrested today in Texas.

It is alleged that Brock was identified as one of the individuals who unlawfully entered the U.S. Capitol wearing a green helmet, green tactical vest with patches, black and camo jacket, and beige pants holding a white flex cuff, which is used by law enforcement to restrain and/or detain subjects.

Eric Gavelek Munchel, of Tennessee, was charged with one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. Munchel was arrested today in Tennessee.

It is alleged that Munchel was inside of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Photos depicting his presence show a person who appears to be Munchel carrying plastic restraints, an item in a holster on his right hip, and a cell phone mounted on his chest with the camera facing outward, ostensibly to record events that day.

These cases are being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Counterterrorism Section of the DOJ’s National Security Division, with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee. The cases are being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the FBI’s Dallas Field Office, the FBI’s Memphis Field Office and the United States Capitol Police.

The information contained in the charging documents are merely allegations. The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty......

On January 8, 2021, another witness contacted the FBI to report that he recognized BROCK in a picture taken inside the Capitol building on January 6, 2021. The witness sent the FBI an email with a picture of BROCK that had been taken inside the Capitol building on January 6, 2021. About the picture, the witness wrote, "It looks like him and he has pilot wings on his chest in this picture. He was an A-lO pilot. Worked at L3, and he still has contacts that work with L3 that knew he was flying to Washington DC." The picture depicts BROCK in a military-style helmet, tactical vest, and holding flex-cuffs in his right hand.

Law enforcement interviewed MUNCHEL and identified that he was carrying a black and yellow “Taser Pulse” taser that emits electrical shock. MUNCHEL stated that he possessed the taser for self-protection as he had participated at the pro-Trump rally.

Kevin Rudd: "Donald Trump may have lit the match that caused his country’s turmoil, but it was Rupert Murdoch who crammed the joint full of explosives"

Crikey, 12 January 2021:

SCOTT MORRISON AND DONALD TRUMP (IMAGE: AAP/MICK TSIKAS)

Donald Trump may have lit the match that caused his country’s turmoil, but it was Rupert Murdoch who crammed the joint full of explosives. 

His systematic manipulation and radicalisation of the American right-wing polity at large, and the Republican Party in particular, should ring alarm bells throughout our nation, including in the office of the prime minister. 

Over the past 25 years, Murdoch has used his Fox News network to unite American conservatives under his banner and shift them from the centre right to the far right with an intoxicating diet of grievance-driven, race-fuelled identity politics. 

By the time Trump announced his presidential campaign, these voters had been indoctrinated into a universe of “fake news”, “alternative facts” and elaborate conspiracy theories. The operational definition of fake news, in the eyes of the Trump presidency, became anything other than Fox News. 

After some initial disagreements, Murdoch backed Trump all the way to the White House. And they kept in lockstep throughout the Trump presidency. 

Trump would often repeat publicly the talking points he’d picked up from Fox. Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker, recommended booking interviews on Trump’s favourite shows as among the most effective ways of communicating directly with the Oval Office. And nothing delighted Murdoch’s swaggering ego, hard-right ideology and business tax interests more. 

Fox covered up for Trump’s mistakes, trying desperately to keep track with his shifting claims about the mildness or severity of the coronavirus. 

When Fox’s news reporters found nothing newsworthy in documents relating to Joe Biden’s son Hunter, Murdoch’s New York Post (under the watchful eye of his leading Australian henchman Col Allan) swooped in by pressuring junior reporters to put their names to its dubious front page story.

Like Trump, Murdoch’s news outlets also gave succour to the dangerous QAnon cult, with the devastating consequences witnessed in Washington last week. 

It is now beyond time for Scott Morrison to stand up and denounce QAnon before it can fully take root here in Australia. Even if it strains the prime minister’s personal friendships with members of the far right, he should send the sort of crystal-clear signal that Trump proved himself unable to before it was too late.....

Read the full article here. 

Personally, I believe it is too late to save Scott Morrison from himself. He lacks the ability for genuine self-examination.

Morrison was always attracted to Donald Trump, as one flimflam man often admires another more successful confidence trickster.

SNAPSHOT: Peter van Onselen

Scotty from Marketing has clearly drunk the QAnon-Trump Kool Aid, wrapped himself in his personal closet racism, his foreign Legion of Merit medal and those evangelical & pentecostal contacts he appears to prize above the interests of the Australian nation, so that he is now willingly protecting those members of his own government who are just the sort of greedy, self-interested, ignorant crazies who have driven American society into the ground.

 

A satirical comment on Australian politics and society in 2020

 

‘QAnon Anonymous’: a support group for people addicted to insane conspiracy theories, including … wait for it … #WarOn2020 pic.twitter.com/OE5Hlz8tlH

— The Shovel (@TheShovel) December 17, 2020

Conga line of #COVIDIOTS strikes again?

 

It is hard to believe that “Doris” and the conspiracy theory littered website Our Greater Destiny exists.

However sadly, it is not quite as hard to believe that a serving NSW police officer from Grafton would be silly enough to send a reportedly 1 am 7-page email, peppered with QAnon inspired nonsense about globalist agendas and dictatorships, which seeks to blame police violence on COVID-19 public health orders rather than the inherently aggressive nature of police culture.

The emailed letter the police officer signed appeared to have been an open letter written for him by by someone at Advocate Me.

Post from "Doris" website dated 5 November 2020:

AUSTRALIAN POLICE EXPOSE COVID19 FR@UD

Extract from NSW Police Senior Constable Alex Cooney’s letter to Commissioner Mick Fuller.

Many of us believe that we are removing our own rights and freedoms by enforcing these rules upon the community, including our family and friends. And the community are confounded by the intensified police enforcement around peaceful freedom protests and how inconsistent this was when compared with the Black Lives Matter protests.

This contradiction is further destroying public confidence.

We are reaching out to all our fellow police officers across the country, to write a similar letter to their respective police commissioners, or sign our form here to show your support for this stance, which we have called Cops for Covid Truth.

With trust in our police force now seriously eroded, we ask you to consider now challenging the necessity of the ongoing restrictions to restore community trust, by being an integral part of returning our State and Country back to normality.

Regards

Alexander Cooney

Continue at https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/11/cops-for-covid-truth.html

‘COVID truth’ letter to NSW Police Commissioner sparks internal investigation

The six-page letter, which claimed many members of the force were “fed up with the approach to enforce oppressive rules placed upon the population in the name of COVID-19 and the looming mandatory vaccinations”, was attributed to a police officer in the Coffs-Clarence Police District.

It questioned the severity of COVID-19, the testing regime, and the move towards ensuring the Australians were vaccinated against the coronavirus once a vaccine was available.

NSW Police confirmed they were aware of the matter, which was now the subject of an internal investigation. Continue at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-04/nsw-police-officer-under-investigation-over-covid-truth-letter/12843756.

Aussie Cops For Covid Truth by Michael Smith

QAnon conspiracy theories end up in the Federal Court of Australia

The Guardian, 29 August 2020:

In May, Anne Webster, a first-term Nationals MP from Mildura in regional Victoria, quietly launched a defamation action in the federal court over a series of posts and videos about her on social media site Facebook. 

According to a statement of claim seen by Guardian Australia, posts made about the federal MP in April claimed, without any factual basis, that she was “a member of a secretive pedophile network” who had been “parachuted into parliament to protect a past generation of pedophiles”. 

Within weeks of the case being filed, Justice Michael Wheelahan made urgent orders for the defendant to remove the posts, labelling them “vile” and describing the legal action as “one of those exceptional cases” where the court could order the removal of the allegedly defamatory material before a trial. 

“Given the potency of the allegations [in the] online posts, the scandal created may well reach quarters that cannot be known … this is one of those rare cases where damages may not be an adequate remedy,” Wheelahan said. 

Webster’s case was filed against a woman named Karen Brewer, an Australian who the court believes may now live in New Zealand. Though she is basically unknown outside of the online communities in which she spends much of her time, Brewer – which may not be her real name – is one of Australia’s leading conspiracy agitators. 

Brewer’s personal Facebook page, which has thousands of followers, is a petri dish of beguiling theories and vicious abuse. In the steady stream of live videos and posts she feeds to her thousands of followers each day, Brewer rails against vaccinations, fluoride, and the cabal of Freemasons she believes controls Australia’s parliament, judiciary, media and bureaucracy as part of an extensive paedophile protection racket....

Though Australia’s conspiracy landscape is complex, increasingly the thread that unites these groups is a messy Antipodean adaption of QAnon, a sprawling and baseless internet conspiracy theory born in the online messaging board 4chan in 2017. 

Wide-ranging and preternaturally bewildering, QAnon adherents are loosely tied to the belief that, as the Guardian put it this week, “a cabal of Satan-worshipping Democrats, Hollywood celebrities and billionaires run the world while engaging in pedophilia, human trafficking and the harvesting of a supposedly life-extending chemical from the blood of abused children”. 

Evangelical in its zeal, adherents believe a multitude of spin-off theories, including that Bill Gates is using Covid-19 to implant microchips in people and that the ongoing lockdown in Victoria is a cover for the premier, Daniel Andrews, to install 5G technology throughout the state. 

Though Brewer is not outwardly affiliated with QAnon, many of her beliefs line up with the conspiracy. Webster’s defamation claim, which also includes her husband and a not-for-profit women’s organisation called Zoe Support Australia that they founded together in Mildura, alleges the posts falsely accused the couple of founding the women’s organisation to “access young children on behalf of a secretive pedophilia network”.

To date, social media companies have had little success controlling the growth of QAnon on their platforms.

Last week, Facebook announced it had taken down or restricted 790 groups, 1,500 ads and 100 pages tied to QAnon, and blocked more than 300 hashtags used by its followers on Facebook and Instagram. It followed Twitter’s announcement of a broad crackdown on about 150,000 accounts linked to the conspiracy in July.

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But those steps have had little effect. On Twitter, QAnon followers successfully hijacked a save the children hashtag after the purge and in Australia the Guardian noticed little if any impact on local QAnon groups after Facebook’s crackdown.

In fact, a recent report by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found QAnon’s following was growing considerably in Australia.

“We found that the US was consistently the largest QAnon content-producing country, followed by the UK, Canada and Australia,” the report stated.

Though most of QAnon’s lore is specifically catered to a US audience (QAnon’s followers believe the US president, Donald Trump, is secretly working to thwart the network of paedophiles and their “deep state” collaborators), its inherent adaptability means it’s capable of hoovering up pre-existing conspiracy theories into its swirling illogic.....

Coalition shields firebrand MP Craig Kelly from censure for spreading Covid misinformation

Read moreIn Australia, its adherents have had no trouble retrofitting the theory to suit our politics.....

Karen Brewer
Snapshot taken from a YouTube video
30 August 2020

On 19 May 2020 there was a hearing in the matter of Webster v Brewer (No 2) [2020] FCA 727.

There was no appearance at that hearing by counsel for 52 year-old Ms. Brewer.

The Court accepted that Ms. Brewer had been properly notified of the hearing date, court details and had received the statement of claim & revised statement of claim.

On 19 May the Court reaffirmed Orders of 8 May - the following is an excerpt from those Orders.

THE COURT ORDERS THAT: 

PENAL NOTICE TO: 

KAREN BREWER IF YOU (BEING THE PERSON BOUND BY THIS ORDER): (A) REFUSE OR NEGLECT TO DO ANY ACT WITHIN THE TIME SPECIFIED IN THIS ORDER FOR THE DOING OF THE ACT; OR 
(B) DISOBEY THE ORDER BY DOING AN ACT WHICH THE ORDER REQUIRES YOU NOT TO DO, YOU WILL BE LIABLE TO IMPRISONMENT, SEQUESTRATION OF PROPERTY OR OTHER PUNISHMENT. 

ANY OTHER PERSON WHO KNOWS OF THIS ORDER AND DOES ANYTHING WHICH HELPS OR PERMITS YOU TO BREACH THE TERMS OF THIS ORDER MAY BE SIMILARLY PUNISHED. 

 IN THESE ORDERS: 

 a) the respondent’s Facebook account is accessible at the URL address ‘https://www.facebook.com/karen.spiers.336’. 
b) the “First Post” is the post uploaded to the respondent’s Facebook account on or about 26 April 2020 at 6.21am. 
c) the “First Video” is the video post uploaded to the respondent’s Facebook account on or about 26 April 2020 at 2.01pm. 
d) the “Second Post” is the post uploaded to the respondent’s Facebook account on or about 27 April 2020 at 5.14am. 
e) the “Second Video” is the video uploaded to the respondent’s Facebook account on or about 30 April 2020 at 6.13pm. 
f) the “Third Post” is the post uploaded to the respondent’s Facebook account on or about 8 May 2020 at 5.42am. 
g) the “Third Video” is the video uploaded to the respondent’s Facebook account on or about 8 May 2020 at 6.00am. 
h) the “Fourth Video” is the video uploaded to the respondent’s Facebook account on or about 8 May 2020 at 7.44am.

THE COURT ORDERS THAT: 

Upon the applicants giving the usual undertaking as to damages (see Practice Note GPN-UNDR), until further order, the respondent by herself or by her servants or agents, or howsoever, be restrained from publishing or causing to be published in any form, or maintaining online for downloading, or uploading so as to make available for publication online: 
a)the First Post; 
b) the First Video; 
c) the Second Post; 
d) the Second Video; 
e) the Third Post; 
f) the Third Video; 
g) the Fourth Video; and any other matter to the same purport or effect as any of the above matters to the extent that such other matters identify the applicants, whether expressly or by implication.