Scott Morrison hits the campaign trail - complete with bus

On Saturday 3 November 2018 interim Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook (NSW) Scott Morrison announced he would be in Queensland this week.

On Sunday 4 November he announced the first of the election campaign promises for that state - $200 million towards Townsville water supply.

The bus accompanying Morrison in Queensland is allegedly being paid for out of LNP coffers. 

However it is principally a visual prop for Morrison as he rolls out his 'ocker' social media videos and announces his financial sweeteners because for most of the trip in will be empty except for its driver.

As consenting authority he has apparently signed off on the use of a Royal Australian Air Force VIP jet for most of his travel and that of his staff, so it will be Australian taxpayers paying the considerable airtravel costs as well as the hotel bills.

In 2013 the hourly operational cost of such a special purpose aircraft was in the vicinity of $50,000 plus fixed costs. How much will Defence be billing the public purse for four days of VIP air travel over Queensland to kickstart this LNP federal election campaign in 2018?

Side view of Morrison's bus complete with 'borrowed'* nickname as signature.

Note:
* There are a number of men (including businessmen and athletes) from the United States and beyond with the nickname "ScoMo" who have long established   Facebook accounts - one ScoMo going back as far as 2006.

Morrison's Taxpayer-Funded Electioneering Junket:

Day One

Morrison’s team film him standing on the sand at Broadbeach wearing a Rip Curl American-style ‘trucker’s hat’ made somewhere in Asia which was sent to him by an ‘admirer’, promising to wear more of the same in the coming week and talking up support for 'Australian' businesses like Rip Curl.

Also promising backpackers (with a billion dollars in their pockets) will have a great time working on farms bringing in crops, at the same time as introducing a workforce test so Australians are given the first chance to get that casual farm work - with no explanation about how he will manage to produce this rural nirvana except by extending backpacker and working holiday visas by three months and raising the age limit for these visas from thirty to thirty-five.

Morrison additionally pledged $112 million towards the tram extension between Broadbeach and Burleigh.

Day Two

Morrison turned up to a Maroochydore pie factory for a photo op (left), slipped in a quick doorstop, pressed the flest at thr CWA, then down to Caloundra to press the flesh again at the Sunshine Coast Turf Club where he was careful to be photographed with a Queensland beer in his hand. 

Before boarding his VIP jet to fly into Rockhampton ahead of the campaign bus.  

He could have stayed in Sydney to eat a pie, do a doorstop, have a beer at the races and fail to pick the Melbourne Cup winner without the taxpayer having to pick up such a hefty tab. 

Day Three

Still in Rockhampton, still in that silly cap and just a bit late in announcing $800 million for a local ring road project - the Queensland Labor Government announced the jointly-funded ring road in February 2018. 

Then onto Gladstone and then that VIP jet again heading to Townsville where he was scheduled to appear on a special edition of Paul Murray Live to answer voters’ questions in a forum broadcast on Sky News and WIN from 8pm AEST.

This is Morrison's third visit to Townsville in 2018 and his second as interim prime minister. Is he buying an investment property there?

Wonder how many dollars he'll have left in his election campaign Santa sack by the time the actual writs are issued?

Day Four

And the day is yet to unfold......

Yet another minister compromises the Morrison Coalition Government

On becoming Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, employing the Trump doctrine of appointing foxes to guard hen houses, retained Northern Territory Nationals Senator Nigel Scullion as Minister for Indigenous Affairs.

A politician with a long history of voting for the oppressive Intervention in the Northern Territory and the introduction of cashless welfare cards into Aboriginal communities, as well as unsuccessfully voting to weaken protections in the Racial Discrimination Act and voting against changing the date of Australia Day.

As far back as 2006 he voted for the the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment Bill which was seen as making significant changes to the existing land rights legislation which has the potential to compromise the rights and interests of Indigenous people living inthe Northern Territory.

This is the result.....

The Guardian, 2 November 2018:

The Indigenous affairs minister, Nigel Scullion, has used money earmarked for alleviating Indigenous disadvantage to fund a fishing industry lobby group he used to chair.

He approved a grant of $150,000 to the Northern Territory Seafood Council so it could argue how it would be negatively affected by land claims – claims he opposed during his time in the role.

Under the NT Land Rights Act, those who consider a land claim would have a negative impact on their business or personal interests can argue a “detriment” case about how their future access to income, land or water would suffer if the claim were approved.

A group of six land claims in the NT have been held up – some by almost 30 years – by unresolved detriment issues.

Scullion chaired the NTSC from 1994 to 2001, and gave statements or appeared in person to argue detriment in at least two of the claims.

As minister he approved grants of $150,000 to the NTSC, $170,000 to the NT Amateur Fishermen’s Association, and $165,000 to the NT Cattlemen’s Association for “legal fees, effectively … to put forward a case of detriment to the land commissioner”, as he told a Senate hearing last week.

The money was taken from the $4.9bn Indigenous advancement strategy, which is supposed to “improve the way the government does business with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, to ensure funding actually achieves outcomes” – according to the government’s website.

Parties who wish to lodge detriment claims are able to seek financial support from the Attorney General’s Department.......

This latest revelation follows close on the heels of this disastrous vote in the Senate.

NT News, 22 October 2018:

CALLS for Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion to resign have been graffitied on his Darwin office.

It comes after the Territory Senator voted for a widely-condemned One Nation motion last week declaring “It’s OK to be white”.

The motion, brought forward by Pauline Hanson, also claimed “anti-white” racism was on the rise in Australia.

The phrases have been used by far-right groups to stoke racial division.

Science never was the exclusive property of Western civilisations

News Corps goes to battle in the seemingly neverending culture wars, 2  November 2018

The Guardian, 2 November 2018:

I have recently been involved in working on a project that aims to provide teachers with some insights and elaborations on how to teach the mandated science outcomes in the Australian National Curriculum by using historic and contemporary examples from Indigenous people and communities.

The work combined various Indigenous and non-Indigenous scientists, science educators, curriculum experts, teachers, academics and editors. It looked at examples of traditional land management practices, understandings of chemical reactions and processes, astronomy, medicines and any number of fascinating topics of how Indigenous peoples have worked scientifically for millennia in Australia, and still do. It was a great project to be a part of.

I was quietly hoping this important project would fly under the radar of the ongoing culture wars that exist within Australia, but it seems that was wishful thinking.

It began with a piece on the Daily Telegraph website titled “Fire starting and spear throwing make national science curriculum”. Not quite unfortunately, it would be great if they were though.

I can see how it makes for a better headline though. “Fire starting and spear thrower are two examples of 95 different optional elaborations that teachers can use to help them meet the mandatory outcomes of the National Science Curriculum if they want to” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.

"I can’t fathom the hubris required to think that after 60,000 years or so of being in Australia, Indigenous people wouldn’t have picked up a thing or two that the rest of the world could learn from."

If you want to understand the science of how a lever works, about stored energy and kinetic energy, or about mass, acceleration, inertia, and lots of other cool stuff that is mandatory in the curriculum, then a spear thrower is a great way to teach it.

And did you know that before the match was invented in 1826, most people around the world had to light fires the old fashion way? And by “old fashioned way”, I either mean by a fire saw, fire drill, fire plough, or by using flint. All of these examples can be found traditionally in Australia and you can use these methods to teach about combustion, friction, heat energy, kinetic energy, density, and any other number of cool sciencey things.

The article goes on with the standard emotive phrases we see in the culture wars: “racial politics”, “dumbing down”, “slammed by critics” – literally all just in the first sentence.

The front page of the Daily Telegraph carried the story on its front page on Friday with the headline “School Kooriculum: outrage over Indigenous school scheme”. Sure, “Kooriculum” is awesome and I am definitely stealing that in future, but there is no “scheme” and very little outrage.

There is Kevin Donnelly decrying this work as “political correctness” and claiming it is “dumbing down the school curriculum” even though, again, these resources are entirely optional, and have been created in response to requests from teachers.

Donnelly argues that “western scientific thought, based as it is on rationality, reason and empiricism, is not culturally determined”. He quotes Professor Igor Bray as saying that “science knows nothing about the nationality or ethnicity of its participants, and this is its great unifying strength”.

He talks about how Western science is “preeminent” in its value to the world, and can be traced back “through the Industrial Revolution, the Enlightenment to the early Roman and Greek scientists, mathematicians and philosophers”. So it seems that while science knows nothing of nationality or ethnicity, Kevin Donnelly does know that it traces back to the Greeks and Romans, and clearly thinks that what he calls “western science” is superior to all others.

Thousands of years before western science was even dreamed of, Indigenous Australians were developing a detailed and intricate understanding of, and relationship with, the world around them.

It allowed people to intimately understand the relationships of the moon and the tides, measure the equinoxes and solstices, develop a deep wealth of knowledge of plants, animals, seasons, the stars and countless other amazing feats of intellect and ingenuity that have long been denied in the ongoing narrative western civilisation has created about Indigenous peoples.

The ways in which this knowledge was interwoven with a holistic view of the world and the place of humans within it, the ways in which it was encoded and handed down through the ages is fascinating as well. Instead, Indigenous people have long been framed as primitive, backwards, deviant, having nothing of value to offer apart from free land and free labour, in constant need of saving, and deserving of countless punitive measures.

Western science can indeed trace much of its origins back to Greek and Roman societies and in exploring its rich history over the centuries, it’s not a bad idea to look at all the unscientific beliefs that were once science fact.

Read the full article by Luke Pearson here.

Fight, fight!

First shots fired in another legacy war? #InsidersExtra #Insiders @barriecassidy #auspol pic.twitter.com/juKW5uqCVE

— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) November 1, 2018

Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Bligh Turnbull will be appearing as the only guest on the ABC program at 8pm on Thursday, 8 November 2018.

The portfolio trainwrecks Barnaby Joyce caused when he was in the ministry continue

It became obvious even before he lost leadership of the National Party of Australia, stood down as deputy prime minster and went to the government backbenches, that Barnaby Joyce oversaw a corrupt administration of national water resources.

Later it was revealed how he had blocked reform of the live animal export trade.

Now we find his porkbarrelling of the electorate he still holds has led to this.......

ABC News, 31 October 2018:

Australia's pesticides assessor is three months late delivering its report that reconsiders a chemical banned in other countries and linked to brain damage in children.

The report is the culmination of a 22-year process reviewing the health impacts of chlorpyrifos, a popular insecticide used in fruit and vegetable farming.

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) had planned to deliver the report as part of its reconsideration process in September 2017.

However it revised its work plan and amended the deadline to August 2018.

The organisation is now saying the report will be released in early 2019.

An APVMA spokesperson blamed the delay on "the complexity of interpreting scientific information, particularly the epidemiological data", that is, the extent of health impacts caused by the chemical.

Within the organisation, just 15 per cent of chemical reconsiderations were finalised on schedule during 2017-18. The stated goal is 100 per cent.

APVMA has suffered staffing losses due to the 2016 decision by former agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce to move the organisation from Canberra to Armidale, inside Mr Joyce's electorate.

The organisation declined to address whether this had contributed to the delay.

Like Donald Trump Scott Morrison is a politician who should keep his tweets to a bare minimum

This is a classic example of a badly through through tweet.

Scott Morrison apparently thinks gender is recorded on drivers licences and, having failed to check his own NSW Drivers Licence, he tweeted this belief to the world.

[1/2] A Liberal National Government will never remove gender from birth certificates, licenses and passports – who are Labor kidding? Get real. https://t.co/CLk70qL3rI

— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) October 31, 2018

This was a typical response on Twitter.

So, memo gallery journalists: when the politicians fume about removing gender from driver’s licences, maybe one of you might quietly point out that it isn’t there now.

— Jonathan Green (@GreenJ) October 31, 2018

Yes, that’s right. The states not federal government issue drivers licences and as can clearly be seen on this NSW mockup – although the current licence application form asks for full name, residential address, date of birth and gender – only the first three appear on the actual drivers licence issued.

Image from Nambucca Guardian

Yes, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison gets more Trump-like with each passing day.

Calling all Newtown, Erkinville, Redfern, Stanmore girls wherever you may now live - it's time to make history!

New South Wales goes to the polls on 23 March 2019 to elect a state government. It's everyone's chance to make a difference.

You may not know me, but people call me Aunty Norma. I'm a proud Wiradjuri woman and I've lived in the electorate of Newtown almost all my life. I grew up in Redfern. Things were very different back then. Growing up was tough but we got by. My mother looked after us and because I was the baby, she took me everywhere with her. I went to my local public school in Erskineville and Stanmore. As the only Indigenous kid in my class I remember sitting up the back and hoping no-one would notice me because I was so shy, but I knew all the answers and I always loved school. My passion for education came from my mother. She taught me that education opens doors and that education is powerful. After school, my love of education took me to Teacher's College and it was activists like Charles Perkins and Gary Foley who inspired me to make the journey to Harvard. As the very first Aboriginal person to go to Harvard, I could not fail. I had to achieve. With support from the Black Womens Action Group I got into Harvard. There were no scholarships back then. I did everything I could to survive and in 1985 I made history and graduated from Harvard with a Masters of Education. This to me was such a proud achievement. These experiences made me the community activist I am today. I fought to open the National Aboriginal College and started the Lions Club in Redfern. I also started Murawina, the first fully run Aboriginal full day care early childcare program in Redfern. I feel like I've come so far from the little girl who sat at the back of the classroom, but every day things get harder for people like me. Rent goes up, bills get more expensive, Uni and TAFE get more out of reach and our income stays the same. That's why I'm asking for your help to make history. I need your help to become the first Indigenous member for Newtown. I really can't do this alone and I need everyone's support. If you can donate a couple of dollars, get involved in my campaign or tell your friends and family about my story, it all makes a huge impact. Looking back, the shy kid at the back of the classroom would never have dreamed about running for Parliament. This is our chance to make history. Chip in today! Aunty Norma Labor Candidate for Newtown P.S. If you would like to contribute, click here! Keep up to date with NSW Labor on Twitter and Facebook. To make a donation to NSW Labor, click here.  This email was authorised by Kaila Murnain level 9, 377 Sussex Street, Sydney.