Wednesday 31 December 2014

Bring on the New Year - The AIM Network

Bring on the New Year - The AIM Network



Bring on the New Year














We are soon to close the doors on 2014. Am I right in presuming that we’ll all be glad to see the back of it?


It hasn’t been too memorable, on the political front at least.


It has been a year where ordinary Australians have been kicked from
pillar to post by an ideology-driven government whose vision clearly
focuses on feathering the nests of the not-so-ordinary Australians.



It has been a year where all social, economic, technological and
ecological issues have been ignored by a government too inept to
confront them. And perhaps too blind to notice.



Sitting at the head of the table of this atrocious government is
possibly the most inept national leader in the Western world. You have
to wonder how such an incompetent, out of depth, out of touch individual
manages to keep his job. He has been lucky, in my opinion, to last as
long as he has.



Yes, it has been some year.


My friends at The Political Sword have summed it up much better than I could, so it is my pleasure to borrow their summary:


It was a year in which we saw Abbott and his cronies
trying to destroy the country and make us a paradise for the
neo-liberals, the neo-cons and the economists that support them — and,
of course, big business. We saw the worst budget in living memory and
have, so far, only been saved from its full ramifications by the senate.
We saw Clive Palmer appear with Al Gore to talk about the importance of
climate change but, at the same time, cave in to support the repeal of
the carbon price. We have seen Abbott, more through luck than design,
deflect the budget issue and ‘bask’ in the glory of the world stage,
taking on the Russian bear and alienating our closest Asian neighbour.
He has ‘stopped the boats’ but also stopped government transparency in
the process. He is undertaking more privatisation of government services
and encouraging the states to do the same. Without openly saying so, he
is pursuing a neo-liberal and economic rationalist agenda backed to the
hilt by the IPA (and, as others have noted, he is, to a significant
extent, following its ‘hit list’).

That says it all!


As does this photo, which tells us a lot about our prime minister even though he’s missing from it.


He had just delivered a speech at the United Nations. I don’t
remember what it was about – it wasn’t important enough to bother
remembering. If it had have been important then I’m sure he would have
delivered his speech to a larger audience than the six people who
actually sat through it.



Image from twitter.com
Image from twitter.com

After delivering his talk that nobody wanted to listen to, jumping to
her feet from the sidelines was a deliriously excited Peta Credlin
giving Tony the thumbs up.



This reminded me of my mother after I sang two lines in a school
concert when I was eight. Nobody, surely, heard me except my mother. But
her rapturous encouragement filled me with the feeling that my
performance was outstanding – that I had a voice like Elvis Presley (my
mother liked Elvis Presley).



Truth is, nobody else in the audience cared whether I was performing or not. The other truth is – I can’t sing.


Our prime minister can’t ‘prime minister’. But he gets the thumbs up.
He needs all the encouragement he can get, even childish encouragement.



*       *       *

Independent and social media sites who have been prepared to question
and challenge the Abbott Government have, ironically, benefited from
its ineptitude. That there is a growing number of Australians expressing
disgust at the direction the government is taking us, and a growing
discontent in the government and its leader (as reflected in the opinion
polls) has seen numbers turning to independent media as a credible
alternative.



The AIMN certainly has been rewarded. Last year – our first year –
saw us welcome 1.96 million readers. This year (at the time of writing),
4.15 million people have read The AIMN. That’s over double what we
achieved last year. What can we achieve in 2015?



We can only achieve the stellar readership of 4.15 million in a year
if we have the subject matter our readers are after and a group of
outstanding writers with the skills to deliver it. We demonstrably have
both. And of course, without thousands of loyal readers helping to
spread our message we could not have grown as we have.



So all the ingredients are there for us to have a bumper 2015. Bring it on!


I hope every one of you – the writers, the admin team, those who
comment on our articles and to those who simply visit us to read them –
have a fabulous 2015. And I thank you for your efforts in 2014.




Saturday 27 December 2014

Why One Term Tony doesn't care

Why One Term Tony doesn't care



17



Tony Abbott speaking at the IPA 75th anniversary dinner (Image screenshot YouTube)


Tony Abbott's opinion polls go from bad to dismal, but Sydney bureau chief Ross Jones reckons he couldn't care less if he doesn't get re-elected — he is a man on a mission.



Well might we gloat, because nothing will save the Prime Minister.



Frustratingly, it’s an empty gloat, because Abbott has no aspiration
for PM longevity. He doesn’t want to be saved. Doesn’t care if he loses
his first election. Never did.




Abbott and his close associates always knew their bald-faced lies
when in opposition would translate into mass hatred when the curtain was
pulled back. Abbott wears ‘One Term Tony’ as a badge of pride.




OTT is going to be very happy riding off into the Murdoch Sunset in
2016, job done, Australia handed over to global jihadi capitalism. Gratis.
Our souls to spread on the winds of free trade, forced to import
everything we don’t dig up; no jobs, no welfare, no education, no
health. Third-world shitsville. Bikini Atoll without the bikini.




Abbott will probably move back home in 2016, perhaps to a nice little
estate in Cheshire, corresponding only occasionally with those left
behind in the impoverished colonies.




Gough Whitlam and Lance Barnard also unleashed a first-term whirlwind of reform, their achievements eloquently noted by Noel Pearson. Gough and Lance turned their shoulders to making Australia a country for all Australians.



Their current-day equivalents, Credlin and Abbott (although Lance was
elected), have instituted the antithesis — a whirlwind of crash and
burn destruction in a scant 15 months. Peta and Tony have turned their
shoulders to making a country for Gina and Rupert and the conga line of
IPA/multinational bullies. They will be well-rewarded for their efforts.




Gough and Lance didn’t get everything right, but Credlin and Abbott are enjoying a much higher strike-rate in their endeavours.





As the pair work their way through their paymaster’s itinerary,
published in manifesto form as the IPA’s itemised agenda, it’s tick
after tick after tick.




1. Repeal the carbon tax.




Tick. Even though it wasn’t actually a tax. You want real tax? Try this. GST 15%. No, bugger it, 20%.



2. Abolish Department of Climate Change.




Tick.



3. Abolish Clean Energy Fund.




Tick.



It goes on. And on. 75 wishes in total.



Ironically, the IPA manifesto is entitled:



‘Be like Gough: 75 radical ideas to transform Australia’




Many, like #43 abolish the mining tax, have been achieved, but there is still a frighteningly long list as yet un-ticked.





A few samples:



26 Remove anti-dumping laws ....



27 Eliminate media ownership restrictions ....



38 Repeal plain packaging for cigarettes and rule it out for all other products, including alcohol and fast food ....



50 Break up the ABC and put out to tender each individual function ....



53 Repeal the Fair Work Act.




This deliberate traducing of Australia for the benefit of a few was a
well-planned exercise, fomented in darkness then splashed across the
front pages of the Daily Telegraph. Which would you rather: Tea Party or
ISIS?




Abbott and his backers know they have a scant 21 months left to
complete the full introduction of the Wish List and they are going to do
everything in their power to make sure it happens before bye-byes.
Rules are made to be broken.




We find ourselves hanging on to what is left of Australia by a
gossamer thread. At one end of the thread, suspended over an abyss,
swing 23 million Australians.




At the other, clutching with varying degrees of pressure, are The Brick with Eyes; the package-loving Jacqui Lambie; Dio Wang, or Wong, or whatever his name is; Brmm Brmm Muir; Family Man (maybe) Bob Day; Shoot First David Leyonhjelm; Bob Santamaria fan John Madigan and, of course, Ratbag Greens sympathizer Nick Xenophon.



And maybe the Greens.



That’s it.



The Labor Party under Shorten is an ineffectual and timid rabble,
able to strike a blow but not understanding its opponent does not mind
being hit.




All Abbot has to do is stay in power until the election; stay on his feet until the bell. Rope-a-Dope.



The chance of a Labor left-hook penetrating Abbott’s defence and laying him on the canvas are nil.





Not that long ago, Tony Magrathea gave Labor all the material it needed to have a swing when his many FOIs and other enquires failed to uncover Abbotts’s renunciation of British citizenship. If Abbott is still British and he refuses to provide evidence he is not, that would see him awarded the Parliamentary Order of the DCM — Don’t Come Monday. The towel would enter the ring.



But what did Labor do? Nothing. Not even a polite question. Just sat
there and goaded Bronwyn Bishop. Fun, but hardly productive.




Were the shoe on the other foot, the Libs would be getting their
wealthy supporters to hire the best lawyers and investigators to look
behind the Thomson and Slipper matters and see a raft of criminal and
civil charges descend on the opposing benches.




But this is Parliamentary Labor 2014. A shell-shocked nest of traitors and hangers-on. Leaners, if you will.



In fact, one of the many scary things is the thought of what this
bunch of ne’er-do-wells will do after they inherit an eviscerated
economy and its multitude of browbeaten underclass.




Anyway, Happy New Year.



My tip for 2015? If you know any Preppers in your street, make sure you smile and say hello.

Thursday 25 December 2014

The Political Capital Of Fear: How It Helps Governments And Why | newmatilda.com

The Political Capital Of Fear: How It Helps Governments And Why | newmatilda.com

The Political Capital Of Fear: How It Helps Governments And Why



By Lissa Johnson





A
truthful response by our elected leaders to the siege in Martin Place
is crucial to good societal health. Dr Lissa Johnson explains why we got
something else.




On
Thursday last week, two days after the harrowing hostage crisis in
Martin Place came to an end, Criminologist Mark Lauchs from Queensland's
University of Technology explained the difference between that ordeal
and an act of terrorism.



In an interview on ABC radio
he said, “This is not the same as a terrorist operation… The first
thing [terrorists] do is prove they’re bona fide by taking some form of
violent action such as showing they will kill someone. This didn’t
happen… So we’re not dealing with a classic terrorist situation.”



Despite presumably being familiar with the definition of terrorism,
the Prime Minister, on the other hand, called the incident “a brush with
terrorism”, echoing headlines in the mainstream press, including the Financial Review.



Lauchs went on to explain, “Terrorism per se is to cause fear in
order to extort a political outcome. It is a significant thing from the
point of view of what we class as terrorism. He [Man Haron Monis] was
after a personal outcome, not a political outcome… He actually has an
ego-driven rather than a politically driven agenda.”



Abbott, in contrast, described the event as “politically motivated violence”.


Which was predictable. And understandable.


There is considerable political capital to be gained by exploiting the tragic events of Martin Place in pursuit of fear.


Eighteen months after 9/11, for instance, survivors in New York City
were asked whether they had grown “more liberal, more conservative or
stayed the same” following the terrorist attacks. Thirty-eight per cent
reported becoming more conservative.



In fact, fear has consistently been found to increase conservatism
and support for conservative leaders and policies, including but not
limited to counter-terrorism measures. Simply evoking images of death,
such as a hearse or a chalk outline of a human body, leads people of all
political persuasions to more strongly endorse conservative positions
on issues as varied as taxation, same sex marriage and stem cell
research.



That imagery has this effect is noteworthy. Simply using a word or
phrase that evokes death related imagery - such as the word ‘terrorism’ -
is enough.



There are a number of reasons that fear holds such utility for governments, particularly of the conservative persuasion.


It is often said that fear is a great motivator. But it is also a great immobiliser.


When human beings fear for their life or safety, primal or
“mammalian” parts of the brain take over. These brain areas operate
automatically, are responsible for keeping us safe and alive, and drive
the mental and physiological correlates of fear.



At the same time our frontal lobes, the seat of “executive function”,
or the ability to reason, plan, resist impulses and make decisions, are
dulled.



There is probably no better way to achieve a societal dumbing-down.


In a state of mortal alarm, people become hypervigilant to threat and
narrowly focussed on threat-related information. They are also driven
to operate in one of three modes; fight, flight or freeze. As these
mechanisms are designed to keep us alive, they operate powerfully and
can be difficult to override.



The fight mode involves being on a hair-trigger to attack anything
that a watchful brain perceives as dangerous. Individually this can
manifest in pugnaciousness and aggression, for instance harassment and
violence towards social groups deemed a threat.



At a societal level it manifests as increased support for
institutionalised violence, particularly the military. For example,
support for military spending increased among survey respondents
following the attacks of 9/11 and has been found to correlate with
general physiological sensitivity to threat, including reactivity to
images of spiders.



The flight mode involves avoiding activities perceived as dangerous,
such as opening our borders to anyone who might remind us of those
depicted as terrorists. After the Madrid terrorist attacks of 2004, for
example, survey respondents not only endorsed more conservative values
but also scored higher on measures of prejudice.



The freeze mode involves immobility; becoming passive and inert in
the hopes of escaping harm. Societally this is likely to breed
submissiveness and surrender, for instance to curtailment of freedoms
and rights in the interests of protection.




The current conversation around failures of Australia’s intelligence
system are a case in point. Tony Abbott has said that he wants to
ascertain why Monis was not on a counter terrorism watch list. He has
expressed the view that intelligence and security was inadequate in this
case, adding weight to his government’s emphasis on security in its
delicate balance with liberty.



Lauchs, however, says, “This is much closer to a mental health issue
than a terrorism issue. And none of the mechanisms that we have or will
ever have in the future, in order to profile people who are in the
terrorist community, they will not have prioritised this person. The
mechanisms that we use to look for terrorist operations will not pick
this person up. He was a threat to the community but it’s a mental
health threat.”



It is stating the obvious to point out that Monis is not the first
person for whom psychiatric issues have become chaotically intermingled
with fragmented religious notions.



As Lauchs says, “Just because he made protestations of connections to
IS doesn’t mean that he had any connections with them or even
understood what they were about.



“We really should have been looking at the mental health processes
that he slipped through rather than the military and other intelligence
processes.”



The conversation about stronger counter-terrorism measures, then,
misses the point. The more pertinent conversation is how to manage
mental health difficulties and associated risk factors more effectively.



Which would double as a recovery conversation for the nation. In the
wake of trauma, an important task is to gain realistic and balanced
perceptions of what happened and why, and of ongoing danger and threat.



It is natural after a traumatic ordeal to over-estimate risk. The
brain is prone to false alarms. Evolutionarily speaking, it is better to
jump at the sight of a twig than to ignore a snake.



However, chronic hypervigilance and elevated threat perceptions are a
pathway to posttraumatic stress. And that carries a political benefit
of its own. Chronic symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder following
9/11 correlated with political conservatism and conservative shift.



Linking the Martin Place hostage crisis with terrorism, casting a
shroud of vulnerability across the nation, will inevitably inflame
debilitating anxiety conditions in susceptible individuals, providing a
political benefit at enormous individual and social cost.



What is needed instead is an unfailing commitment to the truth of
what happened, what it means about and for our society, and an effort to
learn from it in an honest way. 



To prevent Australians from becoming scarred in the aftermath, we
require leadership in making genuine and constructive sense of this
awful event.



So far, a criminologist from Queensland University of Technology is leading the way. 


Wednesday 24 December 2014

NDIS: Morrison says welfare clampdown needed to fund disability scheme

NDIS: Morrison says welfare clampdown needed to fund disability scheme


NDIS: Morrison says welfare clampdown needed to fund disability scheme






Labor says national disability insurance scheme being used as a cover
for cuts while disability group says minister is deliberately
conflating state and federal spending on welfare












wheelchair



Scott Morrison has been accused of deliberately conflating two separate
welfare funding structures. Photograph: Denis Closon / Rex
Features/Denis Closon / Rex Features


Scott Morrison
has been criticised by disability advocates after indicating that
welfare spending would have to be wound back to fund the national
disability insurance scheme.



Morrison, the new social services minister, said the government was fully committed to the NDIS, but people “taking a lend” of the welfare system would be targeted to make the disability initiative sustainable.


“Everyone supports the NDIS, but making it work is the hard part. It will cost $10bn a year,” Morrison told the Australian.


Advertisement
“The
NDIS can’t just fall from the sky. You have to embed it at the heart of
the system. To achieve sustainability of the safety net – of which the
NDIS is the holy grail – you need sustainability in other parts of the
system.



“To relieve the burden on the system it is about getting people off
welfare and into work, and to work as much as they are able. This is the
goal we are working towards. I would hope it is a goal the opposition
shares. They support the NDIS, but are they going to support what needs
to be done to fund it?”



Mary Mallett, the chief executive of the Disability Advocacy Network Australia, said Morrison was “deliberately confusing people” over how welfare spending related to the NDIS.


“They are conflating two issues where there is no connection between
them,” she told Guardian Australia. “The NDIS replaces the care and
support provided by the states and territories, money that is already
being spent. The majority of people who have a significant disability
will be on the disability support pension [DSP], but that’s the only
relationship to welfare.



“I don’t understand why the government would deliberately blend the
two. It feels like the NDIS is being used as an emotional blackmail tool
so the government can say: ‘We will have to cut everything to make the
NDIS happen’.



“That puts us in a very difficult position because we want the NDIS
to happen but we don’t want people kicked off the DSP and onto Newstart,
when it offers so little money.”



Advertisement
Mallett’s
organisation has been stripped of $165,000 in federal funding in a
government move to shrink the number of disability peak groups it
supports from 13 to seven.



Morrison compared the implementation of the NDIS to measures he
brought in in his previous role as immigration minister to prevent
asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat.



He said: “The NDIS has bipartisan support. People wanted to see
people stopped drowning at sea, it’s a goal everybody agrees with, but
it’s of no value to anyone if it doesn’t turn up.”



Morrison said he was concerned about effective outcomes for the
welfare system, rather than getting praise from the “latte set” that
would criticise any crackdown on payments.



The NDIS, a national insurance safety net for disabled people, is at
the trial stage in each state and territory apart from Queensland. It
will not be fully implemented nationally until 2017-18 at the earliest.



Mallett said: “There are a lot of games being played around the NDIS.
I don’t think it is at risk, but I think the government wants to play
this game so they can take a large number of people off the DSP.



“The proportion of people in disability support is the same in
Australia as other western countries. We don’t have a significantly
worse situation of people abusing the system but the government is
desperate to convince people that’s the case,” she said.



Labor said the NDIS was “fully funded” by a 0.5% increase in the Medicare levy, which it said would raise about $20bn by 2019.


“Any claim by Mr Morrison that the NDIS isn’t fully funded is just
plain wrong,” said Jenny Macklin, Labor’s disability reform spokeswoman.



“This is a disgusting and cynical attempt by Scott Morrison to use
the NDIS as a cover for the Abbott government’s next round of savage
cuts to vulnerable Australians.



“Mr Morrison should think twice before trying to use the NDIS to advance his own political interest.”




Monday 22 December 2014

Travelling backwards... Abbott's year of "achievement" - The AIM Network

Travelling backwards... Abbott's year of "achievement" - The AIM Network



Travelling backwards… Abbott’s year of “achievement”














It’s been a punishingly busy year for the coalition. With so many pressing items on their to do list, like:


Dismantling medicare, cutting foreign aid, reducing real wages,
slashing funding to the ABC and SBS, destroying the NBN, raising the
retirement age, gutting the CSIRO, cutting child care staff subsidies,
axing secular social workers in public schools in favor of chaplains,
trashing the renewable energy sector, spending billions breaching
international law with our treatment of refugees, stripping away our
right to privacy, granting immunity from prosecution to ASIO officers,
unwinding the same sex marriage laws in the ACT, ushering in ISDR clauses
in the South Korean, Chinese and Japanese free trade agreements,
blowing holes in the budget with the repeal of the carbon and mining
taxes, investing in a shiny new war and handing an unsolicited
multi-billion dollar gift to the reserve bank… it’s just been go go go
for the Abbott government.



Given the cracking pace of their legislative achievements it’s quite amazing they have had the time to (among other things):


Axe the Climate Commission, cull the sharks, fast track the
destruction of the Great Barrier Reef, open up the Galilee Basin, scrap
the Australian Animals Welfare Advisory Committee, scrap the
Commonwealth Firearms Advisory Council, scrap the International Legal
Services Advisory Council, scrap the High Speed Rail Advisory Group,
scrap the Maritime Workforce Development Forum, scrap the Advisory Panel
on Positive Ageing, scrap the Insurance Reform Advisory Group, scrap
the National Housing Supply Council, and as a special last minute
present for Christmas, scrap the funding to homeless and housing groups!






Admittedly the government will need a bit more time to “sell” the
obvious merits of some of their policies to the ignorant cross-benchers
and whiny leaners in the broader electorate, but never fear, with a few
more tax payer funded “public education” campaigns we will all no doubt
be clamoring for Hobbitt (yes, that is a Hockey Abbott couple contraction)
to dish out their lavish Paid Parental Leave to high earning mums to
be, ensure our universities are properly reserved for those with a
fiscal pedigree, and to finally pull the trigger on those pesky
unemployed youth who are currently cowering in their cross-hairs.



But it hasn’t all gone Abbott’s way! And while we may lament that some of the government’s noblest ambitions, (such as their push to de-list Tasmania’s world heritage forests or secure our right to engage in hate speech),
have been thwarted by forces beyond their control, at least the
coalition government have had the guts to stand up to those lefty green
nutters and try!



None the less I think we can feel relieved that the government hasn’t made any significant move to stem corporate tax evasion, (in fact they have pro-actively stood in the way of international co-operation on that issue)
Nor has Abbot been swayed by all that hysterical feminist white noise,
managing to keep the number of women in cabinet down below 10% in his
Christmas reshuffle. (Golly gee, if I had known it would be this fabulous under the Coalition I would have voted for them!)



comedy tragedy


As the first full year of the Abbott government draws to a close,
comedy and tragedy stroll hand in hand through our political landscape
into 2015, a future as yet unknown. If all goes according to the play
book Abbott and his team have two more years to weave their special
magic over the nation, but who knows? Maybe we can look forward to some
PLEASANT surprises in the New Year!



Happy Holidays :-)






Like this:

Monday 15 December 2014

Australia’s bigot problem - The AIM Network

Australia’s bigot problem - The AIM Network



Australia’s bigot problem














My first thought on hearing the news of the hostage situation in
Sydney’s Martin Place this morning was ‘those poor, terrified people and
their anxious families. What a horrible thing to happen!’ and then
slightly irrationally (because fear can be irrational), I thought ‘and
just before Christmas too’ as if this made the horribleness of the
situation more horrible. The next thought I had was condolence to the
Islamic population of Sydney and Australia who will, no doubt, be
frightened by this situation not just because of the randomness of such
an event happening in our peaceful country, but because they know, like
they found out after September 11, that their communities will be
blamed, hated, abused, discriminated against and generally shunned by
large sections of the non-Islamic Australian community through no fault
of their own. Perhaps they’re not just scared. If I were them, I would
be furious.



I was a teenager when the Port Arthur massacre happened, and I don’t
recall there being a backlash at the time against white people with
blonde hair. I’m a white person with blonde hair, and no one has ever
heaped me into the ‘possibly a mass murderer’ bucket along with Martin
Bryant. Or more recently, Norwegian Anders Breivik, who apparently
killed 69 young political activists because he didn’t like their party’s
immigration stance which he saw as too open to Islamic immigrants. In
fact, in neither case do I recall the word ‘terrorist’ even being used
to describe the mass murders of innocent people.



As soon as I saw the images of the white Islamic text on a black flag
in the window of the Lindt Café on the news this morning, I knew
Australian bigots would be singing with the cries of ‘I told you so!’
and I was right. According to The Guardian’s commentary
of today’s events, King Bigot, Ralph Cerminara, leader of the
anti-Muslim organisation Australian Defence League, hurried down to
Martin Place to rant about Muslims and was moved on by police. Charming
stuff. But of course Ralph is not alone. I noticed Greens MP Adam Bandt
received a series of bigoted responses to this tweet:



AdamBandtTweet


Here are 5 of the first 6 responses on the twitter feed:


AdamBandtReplies1


AdamBandtReplies2


It’s important to note, not that Murdoch’s Daily Telegraph cares to
be accurate, that the flag photographed in the window of the café is not
an Islamic State flag. We don’t know anything at all about the hostage
takers yet, they may be Islamic State supporters, they may not. But
Murdoch’s newspapers, and the bigots who take this news as truth won’t
let unconfirmed facts get in the way of a good excuse for some
old-fashioned fear mongering and racist bigotry.



This
‘how-much-profit-can-we-drag-out-of-this-tragedy-that-we-know-barely-anything-about’
afternoon edition Daily Telegraph front cover makes the very dubious
statement of ‘THE INSTANT WE CHANGED FOREVER’. But have we changed?



The only thing that I can see as having changed in this situation is
the level of comfort bigots feel about being openly racist towards
people of Islamic faith. And that’s the very real, very scary, very
confronting part of this tragedy. Not just that this shocking, violent
siege can happen to innocent people on a quiet Monday morning a week
before Christmas. The tweets to Adam Bandt show a side of Australia that
we all know is there, but we prefer not to think about. These bigots
are the reason asylum seeker policy is such a political hot potato in
this country, and why Tony Abbott is able to be elected promising to
‘stop the boats’. These nasty racist people aren’t a rarity. And they
vote. Welcome to Australia. We haven’t changed a bit.



Like this:

Thursday 11 December 2014

 
The national mood
First Dog on the Moon

IT'S TIME TO VOTE OUT THESE MORONS AND MAKE SURE THE LNP NEVER EVER EVER RETURN.
 

Morrison now seeks sole authority over citizenship decisions - The AIM Network

Morrison now seeks sole authority over citizenship decisions - The AIM Network



Morrison now seeks sole authority over citizenship decisions














The Department of Immigration and Border Protection, under the authority of Minister Scott Morrison, is in the process of seeking amendments
to the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 that will give the minister
draconian powers over not only asylum seekers, but anyone who has become
or wishes to become an Australian citizen.



The Australian Citizenship and Other Legislation
Amendment Bill 2014, will give Morrison the power to set aside
decisions made by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on the character
and identity of those applying for citizenship or who have already
received it, in a public interest test determined solely by the
Minister.



The DIBA submission to a Senate committee argues that an elected
member of parliament and minister of the Crown has gained a particular
insight into the community’s standards and values. This particular
insight therefore qualifies Morrison to overrule AAT decisions. It is
the bill’s intention to grant a minister, in this case Morrison, the
power to determine an individual’s “good character” or otherwise,
regardless of any ruling made by the AAT. Morrison’s decision will be
unchallengeable.



The bill also aims to give Morrison the right to determine “fraud” or
“misrepresentation” in applications for citizenship. In such instances
Morrison can revoke papers regardless of whether or not the individual
concerned has been convicted of either offence.



That is, Morrison or the minister concerned has the power to
determine “guilt” outside of any criminal proceedings, denying
individuals the presumption of innocence.



The notion that anyone has particular insight or is entitled to
absolute power because he or she is an MP and minister of the Crown is
extremely dangerous. It is confusing the office with the human being who
holds it. High office does not automatically endow its holder with
integrity or insight. We are all too familiar with “killers in high
places who say their prayers out loud” as Leonard Cohen puts it.



Morrison’s ongoing lunges for absolute power must be challenged. This
is a liberal democracy. We do not have ministers who overrule the
expert opinions of experienced tribunals. We do not have ministers who
are above the rule of law and entitled to deprive any human being of the
presumption of innocence. We do not have ministers who are answerable
to nobody, whose decisions are unchallengeable, and who are allowed to
carry out their department’s business in absolute secrecy.



First published on Jennifer’s blog No Place for Sheep