Category Archives: ALP

Weakened as the week ends

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What a week for Morrison! After returning from Glasgow an international embarrassment and called out as a liar, the week began in full campaign mode to restore the marketing man’s rapidly devaluing brand. He set off on tour to “reconnect” with NSW and Victoria. Haven’t they suffered enough?

Daggy Dad was back pretending to be one of the people: “Kids are back at school, what a relief!” The costume wardrobe was raided again, with hard helmets, high vis, chef’s aprons and even a barber’s gown while the nation supervised his hair plugs get a trim. If that wasn’t enough to elicit a cheer from the infamous quiet Australians, there was more pantomime in store – Morrison playing at driving trucks and whatever electric vehicles he could get his clown gloves on. While Anthony Albanese was out celebrating the (vegetarian) Diwali festival with Hindu members of his community, Morrison posted a photo of himself pretending to make a meat curry.

And then there was the backflip on electric vehicles, which, according to Morrison, came as a result of significant unforseen changes to technology (in 2 years!). Similar to the as-yet-not-developed technology (not taxes) that will provide a miracle path to Net Zero by 2050?

Paul Keating’s address at the National Press Club on Wednesday reminded us of former PM’s who have led with intellect, passion and wit. Meanwhile … Scotty from Marketing gave us videos of people taking videos of him pretending to make gnocchi. Then yesterday we saw him hijacking a Remembrance Day service at the Doncaster RSL (Vic). Did he tell the pensioners he ‘served’ breakfast about the Indue card coming their way?

Of course the clincher was saved for the end of the week. Asked by 3AW radio host Neil Mitchell if he had ever told a lie in public life, Morrison replied: “I don’t believe I have, no.”

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/scott-morrison-says-he-doesn-t-believe-he-s-ever-lied-in-public-life/973ca5c1-90ec-4b5d-af7c-c7b8d4489af4

And this is just another example of carefully crafted responses that enable the PM to skirt around the truth. He couldn’t just answer yes or no … he adds enough extra words to give him wriggle room. Because we know for a fact that he has lied (Crikey has produced a dossier of 42 falsehoods! https://www.crikey.com.au/dossier-of-lies-and-falsehoods/). But his response means that we rely on fact, only what he states he believes to be true. Who can question that? He can believe whatever he wants (like the Rapture!) but that doesn’t make it true.

Scott Morrison will say anything to help him cling on to power. He will say whatever suits his purpose one day, then conveniently contradict it the next. Like Trump and his fake news, Morrison lives in a parallel universe where he’s always right. Today’s slogan and announcement is all that he cares about. And tomorrow he’ll just ‘move on’ to a new reality that only he believes. But the quiet Australians are starting to pay attention. We’ve seen the fake and the spin and the cosplay too many times. He needs to stop pretending to be popular and start leading the country.

Morrison lied when he said “Bill Shorten wants to end the weekend”. And Morrison has ended this week weakened.

 

Nicola Wilson, Noosa branch

Part of the Wide Bay campaign

Copping an international beating

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cop26

It’s becoming more and more obvious why Morrison didn’t want to go to Glasgow, as footage of our clumsy ‘leader’ emerges from Europe. Even the Australian media is starting to criticise him, as we cop an international beating in the build-up to COP26. Things have been tense with France ever since Morrison pulled the plug on the submarines deal due to the lack of communication. In today’s headlines we saw Macron calling Morrison a liar (“I don’t think, I know”) and maybe, finally, the emperor has been exposed in all his naked glory.

Of course we all know Morrison is not to be trusted, and that his announcement of a net zero target for 2050 is as empty as his other promises. He’s never believed in climate change, and while beholden to the Nats he’s never going to take action. The glossy pamphlet is typical of Morrison’s slogans and spin, but hasn’t fooled climate scientists, who described it as “flaky” and “hollow” (see CNN article).   https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/25/australia/australia-climate-net-zero-intl/index.html

Let’s not forget that when former PM Malcom Turnbull tried to legislate climate action, the Liberals turned on him in a leadership spill, with Morrison announcing “He’s my leader, I’m ambitious for him!” before knifing him and becoming PM. So we know the PM has form when it comes to lying, and in avoiding action on climate change.

The plan in a pamphlet is a marketing ploy to pretend that there is action, but there are no targets, it relies on technology that hasn’t even been invented yet, and it won’t be legislated. It doesn’t even have modelling behind it. The fact that a government needs a page of bullet points to announce that it will “be accountable” on climate after 8 years of inactivity really says it all. The plan is based on Abbot’s 2015 submission, with no new targets or action. It’s a plan to do nothing while pretending to have a plan to do something, in order to placate voters who want to see action on climate change. Apparently that’s the Australia way.

Meanwhile, Labor is being criticised for not releasing a plan and modelling, despite not being in government! At a press conference last week, Anthony Albanese described Morrison’s plan as a scam, and stated:

“We will announce our policies after Glasgow. I’ve been consistent about that the whole way through. And in the meantime, we’ve announced Rewiring the Nation, we’ve announced New Energy Apprenticeships, community batteries, we’ve announced our cheaper electric vehicle policy. Comprehensive policies that will make a difference. We will continue to announce a series of policies that are signed off by us as a Labor Opposition. But we will finalise a number of matters after Glasgow. And it will be well-known before the election.”

You can see the full press conference here

https://anthonyalbanese.com.au/media-centre/parliament-house-press-conference-bowen-climate-modelling-net-zero

In Wide Bay, we have the added blow of having a Nationals MP. Usually notable by his silence (and absence in parliament of late), Llew O’Brien was reported as one of six National MPs who “spoke out strongly against the [net-zero] target”.

It’s time for a government who cares about people, climate, jobs and doing the right thing at a local and global level.

 

Nicola Wilson, Noosa branch

Part of the Wide Bay campaign

Let’s start the conversation!

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It’s Time

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Many of us believed it was time for a change in federal government in 2019 (still shocked!) but now, in 2021, it’s becoming clearer for all that Morrison’s government has got to go. In a year that’s seen one scandal or corruption after another, and mounting examples of incompetence, the ‘quiet Australians’ are starting to sit up and take notice. From rape cover ups, rorts and ‘blind trusts’ to the vaccination stroll out, failure to build quarantine facilities and now being dragged into the smallest of steps on climate change (embarrassing us at a national level), Morrison and his corrupt ministers have shown every step of the way that they do not care about the people they supposedly represent. Just themselves, clinging on to power while failing to do the jobs we taxpayers pay them to do. So many announcements, so little action. And if you’re not a big business, or a big donor, they don’t want to know.

But would the ordinary person know this from the media? No… because Murdoch doesn’t want us to know.

People are angry. People are struggling. 1 in 6 people in Australia live below the poverty line. It’s a political choice, it doesn’t need to be like this.

In March this year, women (and men) across the country marched for justice – in support for Brittany Higgins and in protest at the way women are treated by the federal government. We’ve absolutely had enough. With thousands of women raising their voices, they still wouldn’t listen.

In parliament just this week, the government showed its contempt for democracy, voting against the Speaker’s recommendation to refer Christian Porter’s $1 million trust fund for legal fees to the Privileges committee. And the reason the government was able to defeat the vote to send the Porter matter to the Privileges Committee was because the government will not allow independent crossbenchers to vote remotely. Elected MP’s were literally stopped from voting. One thing is for sure, the only time you will ever hear the word ‘trust’ in relation to this government, it’s when it’s being used to cover up the truth! You definitely can’t trust them to do the right thing.

Every week we think things couldn’t get worse, and then they do.

So in the build-up to a federal election, how do we make sure voters get a more balanced view?

Over the next few months, we’ll be writing out what’s making us angry, why it’s time for change, and what Labor will do differently. There’s a lot been happening this year, but you need to know where to look, away from the spin and the cover ups.

If you have a topic you’d like us to cover, please let us know!

 

Nicola Wilson, Noosa branch

WideBay election campaign

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