Where the Trump Regime goes the far-right in Australia's Turnbull Government are sure to follow

Emboldened by the Heartland Institute's capture of the US Trump Government, I suspect that Australia will see a renewed push by one of the compatriots of this American lobby group  - the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) - to further wind back federal and state environmental protections.

The IPA already has an uncomfortably close relationship with the Turnbull Government as a number of its members are within its ranks.

This is the current state of play in the United States.

DeSmog Blog, 29 May 2018:

A lawsuit filed in March by the Southern Environmental Law Center and Environmental Defense Fund has revealed new levels of coordination between Scott Pruitt's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the climate science-denying think tank the Heartland Institute.

The EPA had repeatedly failed to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests by the two groups, which resulted in the lawsuit and subsequent release of the email communications.

However, both the EPA and the Heartland Institute have strongly defended their actions revealed by the newly released emails. EPA spokesperson Lincoln Ferguson told the Associated Press that communications with the Heartland Institute helped “to ensure the public is informed” and that this relationship “… demonstrates the agency’s dedication to advancing President Trump’s agenda of environmental stewardship and regulatory certainty.”

The current head of the Heartland Institute is former Congressman Tim Huelskamp who also was quick to defend the relationship.

“Of course The Heartland Institute has been working with EPA on policy and personnel decisions,” Tim Huelskamp said in a statement to AP. “They recognized us as the pre-eminent organization opposing the radical climate alarmism agenda and instead promoting sound science and policy.”

In March Huelskamp wrote a piece in The Hill titled “Scott Pruitt is leading the EPA toward greatness,” in which he made it quite clear that the reason for this greatness was that “Trump and Pruitt share an understanding that climate change is not a significant threat to the prosperity and health of Americans.”

While in Congress, Huelskamp’s top donor was Koch Industries, the massive petrochemical empire owned by the conservative billionaire Koch brothers, Charles and David.

However, this latest revelation is unlikely to derail Pruitt’s career at the EPA. Pruitt is currently the subject of at least ten investigations. At a scathing hearing in April, he was told by one Congressman that “you are unfit to hold public office and undeserving of the public trust.”

Still, Pruitt remains the embattled chief of the nation's top environmental agency under Trump, and, perhaps not surprisingly, President Donald Trump has been supportive of Pruitt……

Like his boss, Pruitt is quick to blame the media for his problems.

“Much of what has been targeted towards me and my team, has been half-truths, or at best stories that have been so twisted they do not resemble reality,” Pruitt said in his opening remarks to Congress during the April hearing. “I'm here and I welcome the chance to be here to set the record straight in these areas. But let's have no illusions about what's really going on here.”….

Supported by funding from the Koch network, Heartland has been actively spreading disinformation about climate science for years.

What the latest EPA emails reveal is the extent which these Koch-funded climate deniers are now in direct communication with the EPA and helping influence policy. 

One email from John Konkus, EPA’s deputy associate administrator for public affairs, assures Heartland's then-president Joseph Bast that “If you send a list, we will make sure an invitation is sent.”

The list refers to Heartland’s recommendations for economists and scientists that the EPA would invite to a public hearing on science standards. Under Trump and Pruitt, climate science deniers are now hand-picking who advises the EPA on climate change science….

Read the full blog post here.

BACKGROUND

 DeSmog Blog, undated:

May 16 - 18, 2010

The Institute of Public Affairs was a cosponsor (PDF) of the Heartland Institute's Fourth International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC4). [28]

DeSmogBlog concluded 19 of the 65 sponsors (including Heartland itself) had received a total of over $40 million in funding since 1985 from ExxonMobil (who funded 13 of the organizations), and/or Koch Industries family foundations (funded 10 organizations) and/or the Scaife family foundations (funded 10 organizations). [29]

October 1, 2010

Together, the Heartland Institute, Americans for Tax Reform, the Property Rights Alliance, and the Institute of Public Affairs sponsored the Heartland Institute's Fifth International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC5) in Sydney, Australia. [30]

The Conversation, 6 June 2016:

A group of prominent Melbourne businessmen founded the IPA in 1943 in the wake of the United Australia Party-Country Party coalition’s devastating election loss.

Inaugural chairman G.J. Coles (founder of the Coles supermarket chain) outlined the IPA’s approach. He said it:

… did not wish to be directly involved in politics, but it wanted to help create a modern political faith, which would be constructive and progressive and which would receive a large measure of public support.

Concerned the Labor Party was leading Australia down a path of central planning and socialism, the IPA set out to develop and promote an alternative vision. To that end it published a 70-page pamphlet titled Looking Forward: “a post-war policy for Australian industry”.

One person paying close attention was Robert Menzies, who in 1944 described the pamphlet as:

… the finest statement of basic political and economic problems made in Australia for many years.

Many of the policies outlined in Looking Forward were incorporated into the platform of the Liberal Party, founded the following year.

Though the IPA and the Liberal Party were characterised in their early decades by a mildly Keynesian, interventionist approach to the economy, since the 1980s both have switched to a more hardline neoliberal philosophy – embracing free markets, lower taxes and trickle-down economics.

Shared personnel

David and Rod Kemp, sons of the IPA’s founder and driving force C.D. “Ref” Kemp, became key figures in both the IPA and the Liberal Party.

David wrote his honours thesis on the founding of the IPA, then combined an academic career with stints advising Malcolm Fraser before entering parliament in 1990. Rod took over and revitalised the IPA in 1982 before he was elected to the Senate, also in 1990. Both were ministers in the Howard government.

Former Liberal MP and leading economic “dry” John Hyde ran the IPA from 1991 to 1995, before being replaced by Mike Nahan, who is now treasurer in the Western Australian Liberal government....

When Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt was found to have breached Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act in 2011, the IPA was outraged and immediately launched a campaign to repeal the offending section.

A full-page advertisement was taken out in The Australian. It included the names of senior Liberals such as Jamie Briggs, Michaelia Cash, Mathias Cormann, Mitch Fifield, Nick Minchin and Andrew Robb.

How the media sees denizens of Parliament Drive, Canberra

One Nation’s lifetime president summed up in ten sentences

The Saturday Paper Editorial excerpt, 2 June 2018:

Despite what she says, Hanson is a politician. She’s just not a very good one. Burston’s defection is the end of her balance of power in this senate. The relief at this is great.

To see One Nation break apart again is to be reminded of the brokenness of racism. Hers is a dried-out vision of Australia, mean and unimaginative. It is a pleasure to see it fail. It is like watching a dirt clod give in to rain.

Hers is a country of racist privilege, of conspiracy theories and clapped-out ideology. It is a godsend to see it founder.

Hanson arrived in this parliament with a party of Brits and car thieves. Scandal has claimed member after member. Those who are left, she cannot hold together. And it is good.

Barnaby Joyce’s death is announced

The Australian via outline.com, 1 June 2018:

The implosion of Barnaby Joyce — personally and professionally — in and of itself risks bringing down the Turnbull government. In fact, it puts the political potency of the Coalition at risk well beyond the Turnbull era.

The man once described by former prime minister Tony Abbott as Australia’s best retail politician has become a dead weight around the necks of his Liberal and Nationals colleagues.

The way Joyce has conducted himself generally, the contradictions in his calls for privacy versus selling his story to the highest bidder and some of the specifics (for example, blaming his partner for taking the cash or earlier suggesting the child might not even be his) have put Joyce’s retail days behind him. We’re not supposed to talk about this now that he’s on personal leave but not dwelling on it is perhaps the more realistic refrain.

There is no coming back politically from the way Joyce’s soap opera has played out in public. Anyone in the Nationals hoping for a return of the man who helped the party retain all its seats at the 2016 election, even picking one up from the Liberals, and saving the Turnbull government in the process are kidding themselves. Not now, not ever.

If the best interests of the Nationals are the only thing to consider, Joyce will quietly announce his intention not to contest the next election. He may yet do that. Let’s hope it doesn’t involve another paid interview.

Michaelia the Screecher in a nut shell

The Canberra Times, 1 June 2018:

The Liberal Party's loudest voice speaking up in defence of all the wrong things, while taking zero responsibility for what happens in her office. Who could possibly forget the way she dragged the Leader of the Opposition's female staffers through the sleaze earlier this year? Now she's been subpoenaed to appear before the Federal Court, which is examining last year's raids on the Australian Workers' Union. She's been moaning that it's all a union plot while appearing to forget the Federal Court doesn't get bullied into doing anything.

Liberal MP for almost 17 years and Federal Minister for over 4 years, Greg Hunt, reveals skills acquired as former Captain of Australian Universities Debating Team

Brisbane Times, 31 May 2018:

“He relocated his chair, pointing towards me and said 'you need to f***ing get over it, you need to f***ing make Senator Scullion your best friend'," Alderman Miller told ABC TV.

Peter Chapman's stint as editor of The Queensland Times is catching up with him

Peter Chapman first swam into public view as a Channel 10 sports editor, commentator and presenter in the late 1980s.

He left after ten years to work for Canberra Raiders NRL Club and the New Zealand Breakers basketball team.

He re-entered journalism in 2006 and stayed with APN News and Media for ten and a half years as editor first of The Daily Examiner, then the Fraser Coast Chronicle and finally The Queensland Times.

He quietly slipped out of journalism again in November 2016 when he went to work for Leda Holdings, a property development and investment company, as its Marketing and Media Manager. Presumably the new owner of APN's regional newspapers, News Corp, or Peter himself thought they would not be a good match.

Unfortunately for Peter his abrasive style as an editor meant that his journalistic 'sins' rarely go unnoticed and, on 28 May 2018 ABC TV "Media Watch" program finally featured his time covering Ipswich politics in Queensland. With the program's presenter discussing the latest revelations of corruption in Queensland, and how a huge local story mysteriously went missing in the media.

As the Clarence Valley, home to The Daily Examiner, was never enamoured with his divisive, sometimes biased reporting, locals were quick to point out that "Media Watch" was doing a third segment on Peter.

Who could forget the first two, Peter as the the leaker in 1999 or as the sporting chauvanist in 2009? 

These are some of the program snapshots that were sent to me with the comment - "It was classic Chapman"!

How a journalist working with him at the time assesed the situation.

On Wednesday 2 May 2018 the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) charged Ipswich Mayor Antoniolli, former mayor Paul Pisasale, two council CEOs and eight other council staff with sixty-six charges of corruption.

Peter Chapman is probably still wiping the egg off his face.

Meet the professional alt-right agitator who wants to disrupt Australian society

Twitter image

Lauren Cherie Southern is coming to Australia this month on a 'speaking' tour.

Given this basic profile I suspect that the general public is about to see a rise in the incidence of hate speech during her time in this country.

Wikipedia:  Lauren Cherie Southern (born 16 June 1995) is a Canadian far-right political activist, Internet personality, and journalist associated with the alt-right. 

Vice News, 11 March 2017: Lauren Southern has denied rape culture exists, faked transitioning genders and denounced Black Lives Matter’s “fascistic tendencies.” She’s more popular than ever.

The Abbotsford News, 17 May 2017: A former Langley Libertarian candidate was detained by the Italian Coast Guard for trying to block a ship that rescues stranded refugees. Right wing activist Lauren Southern, who ran as a Libertarian candidate in Langley in the 2015 federal election, was detained on May 12.

The Independent UK, 13 March 2018: Canadian far-right activist Lauren Southern has been detained in Calais and banned from entering the UK….A Home Office spokesperson told The Independent: “Border Force has the power to refuse entry to an individual if it is considered that his or her presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good.”

News.com.au, 28 May 2018: A CONTROVERSIAL political commentator heading for Australia says her ideas “will shock people”.

Canadian Lauren Southern will tour Australia and New Zealand starting next month on a speaking tour that stops at Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Auckland. 

Southern, who previously worked for Rebel Media — the same media organisation former Labor leader Mark Latham aligned himself with — calls herself an “independent journalist”.

She is known as one of the torchbearers for the alt-right movement in her country and will be touring with countryman Stefan Molyneux.

Quote of the Week

US President Donald Trump's businesses lost $100 million over the past year

In 2005 Donald J. Trump unsuccessfully sued an author who stated that he was not as rich as he claimed to be.

The author had written that Trump was only worth between $150-$250 million.

Over a decade later and his 2016 claim of a fortune in excess of $10 billion is looking a lot like delusional thinking.

The latest assessment is that Trump's net worth is around $2.8 billion, down from $2.9 billion in 2017.

If he continues to lose money at this rate he will probaly leave office a lot poorer than when he came in.

The New York Post, 31 May 2018:

President Donald Trump’s businesses lost $100 million over the past year, with revenues sinking at Trump Tower and his golf courses — though he’s still a billionaire with a net worth of roughly $2.8 billion.

The drop, his second in two years, was based on figures compiled by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index from lenders, property records, annual reports, market data and a May 16 financial disclosure, the news service reported.

During the same period, his once-hugely marketable brand has also taken a hit as assorted scandals and controversies prompted the owners of buildings from Manhattan to Toronto and Panama stripped his name from their buildings.

The most recent estimate, down from $2.9 billion last June, is the lowest since Bloomberg began tracking Trump’s wealth in 2015.

The biggest declines, totaling $220 million, came from adjacent buildings in midtown Manhattan — 6 E. 57th St., which had housed a Niketown store, and Trump Tower, where lower occupancy resulted in less income.

The Trump Organization’s 16 golf and resort properties also dropped in value, by $70 million, as revenue fell at some courses and gained at others.

Losers included Trump’s Doral, Palm Beach and Mar-a-Lago clubs in Florida, while his courses in Scotland and Ireland posted revenue gains. Annual reports for those overseas properties, which have historically lost money, are expected later this year and will show whether they were profitable.

Overall, the clubs are now worth about $650 million, based on lower valuations across the industry……

This barbaric whale slaughter must end!

Antartic minke whale in Science, Space and Robots blog, 23 April 2014

News.com.au, 30 May 2018:

The Courier-Mail can reveal that 95 per cent of the female whales slaughtered by the Japanese were carrying calves.

Federal Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg has slammed the Japanese whale hunt.

“The Australian Government is deeply disappointed that Japan continues to undertake so-called ‘scientific’ whaling,” he said.

“The Government has made representations at the highest levels to Japan – and will continue to do so…..

Japanese whalers killed 333 minke whales – plus 122 unborn calves – in the Southern Ocean last summer.

“Apparent pregnancy rate of sampled animals was high’’, the Japanese whalers stated in a new report to International Whaling Commission’s scientific committee meeting in Slovenia this month.

“One or two minke whales were sampled randomly from each … school using harpoons with a 30g penthrite grenade.’’

The whalers killed one in every three of the protected marine mammals they spotted.

Eleven whales managed to avoid the harpoons by hiding in water with high-density ice.

Over three months, two Japanese ships equipped with cannons hunted the whales for 12 hours a day – harpooning some whales 10m long.

Commercial whaling was banned more than 30 years ago but Japan continues to hunt by using a loophole to kill whales for “scientific research’’.

The Humane Society International (HSI) blasted the harpooning of pregnant whales as a “truly gruesome and unnecessary’’.

HSI senior program manager Alexia Wellbelove said the “scientific whaling’’ was a front for the meat trade, as the whales were taken back to Japan for human and pet food.

“The killing of 122 pregnant whales is a shocking statistic and sad indictment on the cruelty of Japan’s whale hunt,’’ she said yesterday.

Ms Wellbelove called on State Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to use her trade visit to Japan this week to lobby its government to stop whaling.

“They claim it’s necessary to understand whale biology but that information can be obtained through a biopsy,’’ Ms Wellbelove said.

“The whales often get used for pet food.’’

The IWC report, written by employees of the Institution of Cetacean Research in Tokyo, the Kyodo Senpaku fishing company and Tokyo University, says the whales were killed to obtain data on the “age, sexual maturity and body length of the whales’’.

The Japanese analysed the stomach content to “estimate prey consumption’’ and measured blubber thickness to “study the nutritional condition’’ of the dead whales.

Minke whale surfaces through Antartic ice, vms.edu photo set