Absolutely stunning high-definition video of Antarctic Minke Whales taken with a new camera system that can record continuous underwater footage for weeks at a time! These are the same whales Japanese whalers hunt under their New Scientific Research Program in the Antarctic Ocean pic.twitter.com/oXUS7Zxwmp— Quad Finn (@Quad_Finn) March 31, 2018
Saturday, 7 April 2018
Tweet of the Week
Quote of the Week
“Homelessness is
one of the most potent examples of disadvantage in the community, and one of
the most important markers of social exclusion (Department of Human Services,
2002).” [Australian Bureau of Statistics, 29 March 2018]
Labels:
Australian society,
homelessness
Friday, 6 April 2018
Monash Family versus Monash Forum
Members
of the Monash Forum include Craig Kelly, Eric Abetz, Tony Abbott, Barnaby Joyce
and Kevin Andrews. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen [The
Sydney Morning Herald, 5 April 2018]
The allegedly
more than 20 member strong Monash Forum circulated a letter in
late March 2018 emphasising the importance of coal-fired power to the
Australian economy and setting out principles
such as the withdrawal of subsidies for renewable energy and the advantage of
new generation of “low-emission” coal-fired power stations.
It is hard to see this group as anything but a collection of far-right politically notorious, climate change denying, xenophobic, chauvinistic, historical
revisionist ‘warriors’ on a mission to bring down Malcolm Bligh Turnbull and hasten Australia's decline into the worst aspects of its old 20th Century self.
Apparently a
group of descendants of former army general Sir John
Monash, GCMG, KCB, VD (1865-1931), as well as the Australian
Returned Services League, thought along much those same lines.
Are Facebook and those unethical data miners already manipulating voters in Australian elections?
Is the 'American disease' already making Australian democracy ill?
On 27 March 2018 the blog Queen Victoria observed:
During the recent South
Australian election, take a guess how many Labor policy announcements made the
front page of The Advertiser, the State’s only major newspaper? If you guessed
zero, you would almost be right. In fact, there were only two – a promise by
Labor to invest in TAFE, and even then it was half a tiny corner article, worth
36 words, with the other half given to a Liberal election pledge, and Labor’s
loans for solar panels and batteries, again a handful of words, and sitting
beside a Liberal promise. You’ll need a magnifying glass to spot the articles
on the front pages below..
Looking at those front pages it was easy to see what Victoria Rollison meant.
But was it more than just News Corp playing Murdoch's favourite game of Labor bashing?
Earlier, on
17 March 2018 the day of the South
Australian state election (which the Liberals subsequently won)
journalist Mark Kenny wrote in the Weekend
Australian that:
Like
Turnbull in 2016, Marshall and his team have been criticised for not being
sufficiently aggressive about Labor’s failings. But they have run short, sharp
and effective negative TV commercials (the sort that bewilderingly never came
in the federal campaign) around the theme of “I’ve had enough, Jay” which
neatly captures the mood for a corrective change. This is a good example of how
paid advertising can deliver tough messages if politicians are reluctant.
Yet
a sense of coasting has worried many Liberal supporters and observers. When I
told a group of Adelaide Liberals last month that Marshall and his team seemed
insufficiently combative towards Labor and Xenophon, a frontbencher pulled me
aside afterwards and showed me his phone. He argued I misunderstood their
methods, that public assertions and media debates were not the main game. He
showed me his i360 app, a new campaigning tool that has
revolutionised the Liberals’ marginal seats campaigning.
Through i360 the
SA Liberals believe they have progressed to a new level of targeted
campaigning, leaping far ahead of what has been used before by either major
party in Australia. If they perform well, we can expect a technological and
tactical quantum leap forward at the next federal campaign.
In
his quick demonstration, the MP called up a marginal seat, much like finding a
suburb on Google Maps, then zoomed in to a street where pins identified
addresses deemed to house swinging voters. Deeper dives on households contained
genders, ages, voting intentions or lack thereof as well as policy interests.
The information is collated from the party’s existing Feedback system, updates
from doorknocking and calls, responses to surveys conducted via email, online
or phone calls plus census data and the harvesting of social media data. This
is Big Brother meets grassroots campaigning. Neither the data nor the
technology is much use without quality information fed in and strong analysis
leading to the right strategies, along with diligent personalised attention in
follow-up visits and communications.
This
is leading-edge campaigning, as i360’s website explains. “Data is the
difference,” it proclaims, describing its “extensive political identification”
through information collected from “in-person, phone and online surveys, as
well as through partner relationships in addition to lifestyle and consumer
data” purchased from “top-tier” providers. “Our data is further enhanced by our
suite of predictive models, filling in gaps and helping us build the most
complete profile for every individual possible,” it says.
Billionaire
US Republican sponsors Charles and David Koch are major investors in the firm,
which openly canvasses only for “free-market” candidates. The SA Liberals
purchased a product licence and have worked with i360 to modify
systems for compulsory and preferential voting. Motivated by the frustration of
2014 where, despite a huge popular vote win, just a few hundred votes in the
right seats would have made all the difference, Marshall has driven this
innovative approach. He and novice Liberal state director Sascha Meldrum
visited the US in August 2016 to assess the system before other campaign
strategists joined the training and implementation.
If the Liberals surprise on
the upside today, SA’s expertise will be immediately sought after for the
looming Victoria, NSW and federal campaigns.
Long
lead times help and the SA Liberals have had more than a year to build up data
and, crucially, follow up on targeted voters more than once. This is where
grassroots organisation, numbers on the ground and diligence are essential,
lest intelligence is wasted for lack of personal politicking, but the potential
for efficiency, personalised material and two-way feedback to shape policies
and messages is huge. Even in an age when you can get an app for everything, no
app can win you an election. And I still think public policy differentiation
and aggression are crucial.But if the Liberals form a majority even after the
unprecedented Xenophon disruption, expect to hear a lot more about i360 and
data-driven campaigning.
So what
exactly is i360?
This is what
it said of itself at www.i-360.com on 31 March
2018:
At i360® we believe
THE DATA IS THE DIFFERENCE. But what does that mean? Simply put, it means
integrating data in everything we do to produce the most effective outcomes for
every one of our clients.
At the core of the
i360 operation is a comprehensive database of all 18+ American consumers
and voters containing thousands of pieces of individual and aggregated
information that give us the full picture of who they are, where they live,
what they do and what is happening around them. Leveraging this and our
capabilities in data science, analytics, technology development and
advertising, we help clients take their efforts to the next level by embracing
the concept of truly borderless data.
i360 boast of these statistics:
i360 boast of these statistics:
Snapshot of section of i360 home page, 31 March 2018
i360 has a multiple presences on Facebook eg. i360online and i360Gov.com. [IP addresses are deliberately not supplied in this post and caution is urged if readers decide to vist these pages]
i360 aslo boasts of playing a "crucial" part in the South Australian election on its
"Newsroom" page.
This
is what is said of this company elsewhere………
The
Real News, 29
March 2018:
Kochs
have a far more sophisticated operation called i360. And they track, as you
heard in the little clip from my film, 1800 pieces of data on you dynamically
and on a continuous basis. They basically know your credit card purchases, they
know your cable viewing habits. This is a lot deeper into your guts and soul
and privacy than even your Facebook profile from Cambridge Analytica. And also
you have a very similar operation used by Karl Rove. That's the guy that was
known as Bush's brain, though Bush calls him Turd Blossom. This is the, Karl
Rove was the engineer of some of the creepiest and possibly illegal activities
behind the Bush campaigns. He's still out there with his own database operation
called Data Trust, whose main client is the Republican National Committee.
These
operations do more than grab some of your private information or just your
Facebook profiles. Some of their activities have actually unquestionably bent
elections not just by convincing you do things, you know, their idea is to try
to zombify, you know, know everything about you and manipulate you. But
sometimes they go way, way beyond that in their operations to win elections….
They're
targeting you because they know very personal things about you. They literally
know, as Mark Sweetland says, we're not making that up as an example, it's
really true. For example, i360 knows if you downloaded porn and then order
Chinese food before you voted. They can use that information to manipulate how
you vote. And by the way, deviously, whether you vote at all. They can convince
you not to vote. That's a real powerful tool that they have. That's part of the
game, is convincing you not to vote. So that's one of things that they do…..
…they
can convince you. For example, a lot of the, lot of the targeting about Hillary
Clinton was not to get you to vote for Trump but to get voters who, for
example, voted for Bernie Sanders or others, to convince them not to vote at
all. And that was very, very effective, for example, in Wisconsin, where
according to a University of Wisconsin study, about 50000 people, mostly
students in Madison County and Milwaukee, didn't vote because they were
convinced that, that Hillary was evil enough that it just didn't matter. They
may be crying now, but the but the-…..
Encourage
apathy and saying that your vote doesn't matter. And that's one of the things
that they're very good at. But the other is very, some of it's not too subtle,
OK. For example, in Wisconsin the Koch brothers, a spinoff from i360, one of
the operators there working with Kochs sent out e-mails, and sent out social ,
sent out e-mails to people on their databases who own guns, who live in rural
areas and normally vote by mail-in ballot. And they sent them messages saying,
protect your guns. And these are also all Democrats. Protect your guns and
vote. Make sure you send your absentee ballot to this address on this date. The
address was wrong, and the date was too late to get your vote counted. So that
was one way that Scott Walker, for example, won his against his recall in the
recall referendum. Then they rolled it out. The same trick. Wrong date, wrong
address for your absentee ballots to minority and Democratic voters in North
Carolina. And then throughout the South.
So
some of this is really fraudulently stealing your vote away. And that's just,
that was the i360 spinoff. Then you have Data Trust, which is Karl Rove's
operation. they used an operation which I uncovered working with the Guardian
and BBC called caging. And what caging is is you send letters, Karl Rove used
his databases to target, for example, students, black students in black
colleges who were away from their school on summer vacation. They are
registered, these were students registered, for example, in the swing state of
Florida. And they knew that they weren't at their at their voting addresses
even though they are legal voters because they were home for the vacations.
They sent letters. When the letters marked Do Not Forward came back to the
Republican National Committee, those voters were challenge as not existing, and
they lost their vote. They sent these letters as well to black soldiers and
airmen at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station. They sent letters to men at
homeless shelters you don't always get their mail. And as a result they used,
they used this information to challenge the right of those voters' ballots to
be counted. If they mailed them in their ballots would be junked. If they try
to show up to vote they were blocked from voting. That's the ugly, ugly and
truly actually illegal use of these databases, and that's just some examples
we've uncovered.
Well,
I think that Cambridge Analytica, which is like I say, the least sophisticated,
and they try to use brain massaging. By the way, they also use other tactics.
One of the services that they offer, I just you know, is to is to say that
they'll set up your opponent, political opponent, with hookers and tape them.
So it's not just, they've got that database and then they would, of course, use
their social networking thing to blow it all up. But it will have a huge impact
on the 2018 election. A bigger impact on 2020.
And
this includes other operations that these database guys are working on. One of
them you mentioned, a guy Kris Kobach, secretary of state of Kansas. He is
Trump's what I call Vote Thief in Chief. He was officially appointed to run
Trump's so-called vote fraud commission. One of the databases he uses is a roll
crosscheck, where he gives lists of voters he says are registered or actually
vote in two states in a single election, which is illegal. He has claimed with
Donald Trump that three million people voted twice, mostly voters of color. And
I'm the only journalist to actually have, I have a copy of the of of his list
of double voters. The three million double voters. And it's people with names
like Jose Garcia, and David Lee, and John Black. These are just common names of
voters of color, but not, you know, obviously not common for Republicans.
But
you'll see names in this, for example, Maria Cristina Hernandez is supposed to
be the same voter as Maria Inez Hernandez. That person is supposed to be the
same voter who voted one in Virginia and one in Georgia. That's their claim.
And those voters named Garcia and Hernandez lose their vote. On that list, two
million of those accused voters, people accused of voting twice, don't have the
same middle name. Two million people accused don't have the same middle name,
and they are removing, this is important, they're actually removing hundreds of
thousands of people from the voter rolls as we speak. In fact without, without
this game, this database game called Crosscheck, which is Trump and Kobach's
database, Trump would not have won in 2016…..
It's
serious stuff. Because if it were simply a matter of targeted advertising,
convince you to vote for their candidate, that's all right.
But
Cambridge Analytica has been, their, their chiefs were caught on tape by
Channel 4, one of the outlets I work with, by Channel 4 investigators in
Britain, saying that they will create fake news about your opponent and use
their social networking abilities and use their particular targeting of
individuals, their social networking habits, to spread fake news about your
opponent. And they said we can do it in a way that no one will know that we've
been involved. They said they successfully did this already in other countries.
We don't even know how many countries because they make a point of keeping
their involvement hidden. This is very, very scary stuff. They are deliberately
creating, Donald Trump's screaming about fake news, but he employed the fake
news generator. That's the big problem. That's one of the very big problems of
Cambridge Analytica, and I know that we have that same problem with Data Trust,
i360, and some of the others.
Thursday, 5 April 2018
When is the National Party going to stop attempting to turn the NSW North Coast into a barren rubbish dump?
Almost every crackpot idea - from turning coastal rivers inland, building pulp mills, establishing wall to wall gasfields, clearing forest remaining on private land through to monetising national parks and turning over biodiverse crown land to property developers - has initially been supported by some or many members of the NSW National Party.
So I would bet
my last dollar that NSW Nationals MP for Clarence, Chris Gulaptis, thinks sending the North Coast nuclear is a great idea.
Both he and fellow National, the Minister for Regional NSW and NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro, would be easy prey for persistent foreign and domestic lobbyists from the nuclear energy industry.
The story so far......
Both he and fellow National, the Minister for Regional NSW and NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro, would be easy prey for persistent foreign and domestic lobbyists from the nuclear energy industry.
The story so far......
THE debate on a nuclear
power industry in NSW has once again reared its head.
NSW Labor Opposition has
called on the Premier to intervene and put an end to the investigation by her
Deputy, National Party Leader John Barilaro, into the potential establishment
of a nuclear power industry in NSW.
In his speech to the
Small Modular Reactor Summit in Atalanta this week Mr Barilaro said: "We
need to have the discussion (about nuclear energy) and we need to have it
now."
He added the discussion
will take place over a "5-10 year period", before any nuclear energy
options could even be introduced in Australia.
A spokesperson for Mr
Barilaro said he met with some companies in the US including NuScale and
U-Battery, who are developing Gen IV reactors which will possibly be available
mid 2020's, as well as the US Department of Energy to get an insight in
relation to the Governments approach to new nuclear technology.
They said "the
meetings were an opportunity to learn and gain knowledge about the
sector".
The Nuclear for Climate Australia website identifies 18
possible sites for nuclear power plants in NSW - including a 250km stretch of
coast from Port Macquarie to north of Grafton.
The plan envisages the
18 reactors being constructed in NSW by 2040.
Last year NSW Labor
leader Luke Foley accepted Mr Barilaro's invitation to debate nuclear power and
suggested Lismore host the forum.
In a letter addressed to
the Premier dated June 1 2017, Mr Foley described nuclear power as "both
risky and irresponsible" and said: "I accept your call for a debate
and propose that we hold a public debate in Lismore to discuss the issues at
stake.
"Lismore would be
an appropriate location for such a debate as it is one of the most
environmentally conscious communities in NSW."
But when asked if Mr
Barilaro was considering the offer his spokesperson said Mr Foley was
"playing politics with the issue and is completely ignorant to the issues
and clueless about the technology".
"Mr Barilaro has
always welcomed and encouraged discussion on the opportunity for NSW to
consider the prospects, the technological advancements and associated benefits
of nuclear energy.
"But any discussion
should be done experts in the field...Mr Foley thinks of nuclear reactors as
those seen in a Simpsons episode.
"New Gen IV
technology is promising reactors that no longer are water cooled, nor need to
be located anywhere near the coast," they said.
More recently, Shadow
Minister for Industry, Resources and Energy, Adam Searle MLC and Shadow
Minister for Primary Industries, Mick Veitch MLC, made a two day visit to the
North Coast to meet with primary producers and explore potential solutions to
the energy crisis.
Mr Searle said nuclear
reactors would tarnish NSW's clean and green image, and threaten the reputation
and emerging markets of many north coast primary industries.
"Mr Barilaro's
nuclear thought bubbles were a distraction from real long term energy solutions
that provide the cheapest and most sustainable forms of electricity for the
community and business - which is renewable energy," he said.
"The Premier has
let this debate run for too long and now needs to rule out herself any proposal
to build nuclear power plants here in NSW."
He also called for the
Deputy Premier to "come up to the North Coast and explain why the National
Party believes nuclear reactors are the best option".
Mr Veitch said:
"North Coast primary producers pride themselves on the quality of their
goods and their clean and green reputation."…. [my yellow highlighting]
From Port
Macquarie to north of Grafton in the coastal zone?
According to Nuclear For Climate Australia when siting a nuclear reactor:
Some of the issues that will influence the selection of a region of interest would be:
According to Nuclear For Climate Australia when siting a nuclear reactor:
Some of the issues that will influence the selection of a region of interest would be:
*
being near to the coast or inland bodies of water for cooling,
*
having reasonable access to the grid,
*
having low local population densities.
*
presenting the potential to replace exiting coal or gas burning generators
*
containing good regional geology for foundations.
*
reasonable access to road, rail or ports for transport.
Let me see…..
Much of the NSW coastal land close to water sources between Port Macquarie and north of Grafton is between 1m and 17m above sea level. Further inland in the 100km coastal zone elevations are higher but the terrain is often unsuitable or has no road-rail infrastructure nearby.
Much of the NSW coastal land close to water sources between Port Macquarie and north of Grafton is between 1m and 17m above sea level. Further inland in the 100km coastal zone elevations are higher but the terrain is often unsuitable or has no road-rail infrastructure nearby.
Then there’s the
Hastings River, Nambucca River, Bellinger River, Kalang River, Macleay River, Orara
River, Nymboida River, Mann River, Clarence River, Wilsons River, Richmond River
to name but a few in that area which regularly flood.
There are also at least four significant flood plains within the coastal range indicated by Nuclear For Climate Australia - one of which contains Grafton and northern lands beyond and another which is the largest coastal flood plain in NSW covering est.1,000 sq kms.
There are also at least four significant flood plains within the coastal range indicated by Nuclear For Climate Australia - one of which contains Grafton and northern lands beyond and another which is the largest coastal flood plain in NSW covering est.1,000 sq kms.
Mapping by Australian Bureau of Meteorology
Where on
earth do these NSW National Party ideologues think they can site a nuclear reactor on the mid-North Coast, or in
the aptly named Many Rivers (Northern Rivers) region, where this will not happen?
ABC News
ABC News
ABC News
Images range in no particular order from the Hastings River in the Port Macquarie district up to the Clarence River system and the Richmond & Wilsons Rivers in the Lismore and Ballina regions, NSW.
Liberals continue to behave badly in 2018 - Part Three
This time it was not Liberal politicians in federal government but Victorian Liberals on the state opposition benches who were behaving badly.......
The Age, 30 March 2018:
The Victorian opposition
has broken a promise and reneged on long-standing parliamentary custom by
breaking its ‘‘pairing’’ to vote down the Andrews government's controversial
fire service reorganisation bill.
Government and
crossbenchers in Parliament’s Upper House were in uproar after two Liberal
members who had told Labor they could not vote or be present because of their
religious beliefs suddenly arrived to vote on Good Friday morning.
‘This is ball tampering
of the highest order,’’ said crossbencher Fiona Patten from the Reason Party.
She said the Coalition’s
conduct would make it very difficult for her and others in minority parties to
have a working relationship with the Opposition.
The controversy erupted
after a marathon sitting over the government’s bid to restructure the fire
services.
This is the first time
the upper house has ever sat on Good Friday.
Around midnight, Ms
Patten said that Liberal MP Bernie Finn had told the house he could not work on
Good Friday. At the same time, Craig Ondarchie also indicated he was not going
to be in Parliament House for similar reasons. One Labor MP said Mr Ondarchie
had been acting like he was ‘‘holding a prayer vigil’’.
Mr Finn on Thursday
night had told Parliament, in a debate about Labor pressing on with its
legislation despite it being Easter: ‘‘I have long believed in: you do not work
on Good Friday — any other day of the year. That is the rule. Even when my
birthday falls on Good Friday, I do not celebrate it on Good Friday.’’
In a similar vein, and
at about the same time, Mr Ondarchie said: "Today is the day that Jesus
died. It is a very important day. Today I want to be with my church family. I
want to take up your offer, as do some of my colleagues, about accepting the
pair that you have offered."
A ‘‘pairing’’ is an
unofficial agreement from both sides of politics that, when an MP is unable to
attend a vote, allows an MP from the opposing side to also miss the vote, so
numbers remain matched.
The government granted
the pairs requested by the opposition and Labor ministers Philip Dalidakis and
Jaala Pulford, the deputy leader in the upper house, excused themselves from
the vote and went home.
Mr Dalidakis, assuming
he had a pair, travelled to Sydney on Friday morning.
But when the vote
occurred just after 11am, Mr Ondarchie and Mr Finn returned to the chamber.
After Mr Finn and Mr
Ondarchie’s return to Parliament, Labor’s bill was defeated 19-18.
Labor Upper House MP
Cesar Melham said the pair were dishonourable and ‘‘should hang their head in
shame’’.
Ms Patten said that when
the Mr Ondarchie and Mr Finn came back into the chamber they could not look
anyone in the eye.
Labor's upper house
leader, Gavin Jennings, said the government ‘‘had generously offered those
pairs because we had members praying in the parliament last night to be with
their families and be with their church communities on the most holy day on the
Christian calendar’’.
‘‘And those people who
prayed in front of us and begged us to let them go, returned after we had given
them a pair – right at the death knell, was when they returned, to betray
parliamentary convention.’’……
The hypocritical antics of Messrs. Craig Philip Ondarchie and Bernard Thomas C. Finn as set out in the Parliament of Victoria Legislative Council Daily Hansard:
09:55am Thursday 29 April 2018
Mr ONDARCHIE (Northern
Metropolitan) (09:55) — As John 3:16 teaches us:
For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Today is Maundy
Thursday, tomorrow is Good Friday and it is the most solemn day of the
Christian year. It is the day our saviour died for us. It is the day we were
redeemed from our sins by the voluntary death of God himself at the hands of
man. On Good Friday, according to the gospels, Jesus was taken before Pilate in
the morning, sent to Herod, returned to Pilate, was mocked and beaten, saw
Barabbas released in his stead, was crowned with thorns, was condemned to
death, carried the crushing burden of the cross, told the weeping women what
would happen in his future, was crucified between two thieves and forgave those
who crucified him. As Luke 23:34 tells us, ‘Father, forgive them; for they know
not what they do’, and he cried out and died. It is the most solemn day of the
Christian calendar.
I close my contribution
in prayer:
Jesus,
Today we pause to remember your sacrificial love
That
shone light into the darkness
That
bore life from such emptiness
That
revealed hope out of devastation
That
spoke truth through incrimination
That
released freedom in spite of imprisonment
And
brought us forgiveness instead of punishment.
Thank
you that we can now walk in the light of your life, Hope, truth, freedom and
forgiveness, This day and everyday. Amen.
Approx.
23:12pm Thursday 29 April 2018
Mr ONDARCHIE — Members,
the blackness that hangs over my head tonight is associated with the passing of
my Lord and Saviour on this evening. At this very time on the first Good Friday
Jesus had been arrested and taken before the high priests Annas and Caiaphas
and it was during this time that Peter denied him. I think this place is not
about being tactical for me, Mr Jennings; it is about respect. It is about
respect for —
00:15am
Friday 30 March 2018
Mr ONDARCHIE — I move:
That the committee now report progress. In doing so I alert the house to the
fact that we are now officially in Good Friday. I have made my point very
clear. I do look to get some confirmation from the minister at the table,
Minister Jennings, and the other minister who made an offer to members of the
house that anybody who wants a pair can have a pair. This is a very religious
day for me. You heard me talk about that –
00:20am
Friday 30 March 2018
Mr FINN — I very
strongly support the motion moved by Mr Ondarchie, and I have to say to you I
have been sitting here since midnight and I feel quite ill, physically ill, to
be sitting here on Good Friday when I know that I should not work on Good
Friday, that this is a day of extreme solemnity; it is a very sacred day. I
know there are some members on the government side who do not understand those
of us of faith, but the fact of the matter is that it is beyond the realms of
decency to force people to work, to breach their religious rights, as we have
seen. I know there are members of the government who do not actually believe in
freedom of religion — and they are showing that just at the minute. I heard Mr
Jennings say that every one of us who asked for a pair would get one. Now, I
want a pair because merely being here, as I say, is making me feel ill when I
know I should be elsewhere. I want a pair; Mr Ondarchie has said he wants a
pair. I would be very, very keen for Mr Jennings to get to his feet and clarify
if the offer still stands for each and every member, as he said, who wants a
pair to be given a pair. That is something that I think he has got to do,
because he said it. I mean, we didn’t ask for it; he offered it, and it is only
reasonable that he now clarify the situation, given that there is some
significant confusion as to whether that offer was genuine. He is either fair
dinkum or he is not fair dinkum. If he is fair dinkum, then we can get on with
it. If he is not fair dinkum, we know that he can’t be trusted and we move on
from that in my members statement today. You heard me talk about it when we
broached this subject an hour or a bit more ago. This is the day that my Lord
was crucified. I do not want to be here. I want to be with my family and I want
to be with my church family. I find it highly disrespectful that on this very
important day in my faith’s calendar we are still here. I think it appropriate,
Minister, that with respect, selfishly, to me and to others who understand the
importance of this day today we stop this now. We can come back to this. It is
not time critical. I note that in your motion this morning on the rising of the
house that we are going to reconvene early in May. We can come back and do this
then. Today is the day that Jesus died. It is a very important day. Today I
want to be with my church family. I want to take up your offer, as do some of
my colleagues, about accepting the pair that you have offered. This is not acceptable.
Those with long memories will recall that Coalition MPs and senators have a history of attempting to distort parliamentary processes. The Night of the Long Prawns during a federal parliamentary sitting in 1974, the refusal of NSW Premier Tom Lewis in 1975 and Qld Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen also in 1975 to follow parliamentary convention and accept a nominee put forward by a political party to fill a casual vacancy in a seat which to that point in time had been held by that same party, are just three examples.
Wednesday, 4 April 2018
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